Posted: Saturday, October 1, 2005 10:00 pm
Farm vehicles and road safety
In response to making farm vehicles safer, I agree, there are some things that can be done to make farm vehicles even safer than they already are, but I want to preface that comment by saying that it is a two-way street, and most farmers and equipment operators are already going above and beyond what is required of them to maintain a safe roadway.
I believe that most farmers and equipment operators are doing a good job because when an operator, teenage or not, is moving equipment down a road or highway, they are in fact very aware of the width of their combine or tractor, and the implement behind them. It is wide, heavy, and requires a great deal of attention to operate safely.
The average citizen on the highway in his motor vehicle tends to be the one who misses this obvious fact.
Motor vehicle operators need a valid driver's license to operate their cars; farm equipment operators, on the other hand, teenage or not, need the same license, and to have passed a valid tractor safety class, and oftentimes need to be certified by the safety committee of their employer.
Tractors and combines have flashing lights, headlights, slow-moving vehicle emblems, and often pilot vehicles in front of or behind them with more flashing lights, beacons and headlights.
Farm equipment operators have a view of the road far superior to the average passenger vehicle, and many operators are aware of what is coming long before it gets to them, and will take actions to ensure vehicle operators can pass safely from both directions.
Unfortunately, the average motor vehicle operator never looks up at the cab to see the farm equipment operator cautioning them to wait, or motioning them around at the safest possible opportunity.
Motor vehicle operators in fact are seen with phones in their ears, coffee in their hands, radios blaring, children, food and many other things distracting them.
Heck, farm equipment even has turn signals. I have driven a variety of wide, heavy, swaying equipment on many roads in our valley, and in many different conditions. I have also been a motorist who has been frustrated that I could not get where I needed to go in the timeline I had allotted myself.
I ask that both motor vehicle operators and farm equipment operators slow down, relax, and take notice of what is happening on the road around them. We can coexist safely and happily.
Matt Staton
Albany
About that 'monster'...
I wish to comment on the new theory of the spaghetti monster (Sunday, Sept. 25).
If this monster created the world, and all in it, and if the monster is made of spaghetti, where did the spaghetti come from?
Before the world began, how did the monster come to have legs of spaghetti?
And I think that if we sifted to the bottom of this lie, and the lie of evolution, we will find that the reason for them is cowardice.
Those who believe one or the other of the two false theories are afraid.
Afraid to admit and believe that there is a God, that there will be a final judgment that everyone will stand before the one, true God. A lie is cowardly. In the end, lies will be unmasked and will stand in their true light. To my fellow Christians, "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain."
Corinne Neuschwander
Lebanon
Poverty: Check the record
In his column "America tries hard to assist the poor" (D-H, Sept. 19) Bill O'Reilly maliciously misuses statistics to deceive his readers.
He cites poverty statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to support a claim that poverty has declined under the current Bush presidency relative to the Clinton presidency. After all, the poverty rate in the fourth year of the Clinton administration (1996) was 13.7 percent, while in the fourth year of the Bush administration (2004) the poverty rate was 12.7 percent.
So, there you have it. The poverty rate was reduced by a full 1 percent, proving that Bush has been good for the poor in America.
But wait a minute. What O'Reilly didn't mention is that the poverty rate declined every year under Clinton, from 15.1 percent in 1993 to 11.3 percent in 2000. Under Bush, the poverty rate has increased steadily every year: 11.7 percent in 2001, 12.1 percent in 2002, 12.5 percent in 2003, and 12.7 percent in 2004.
Bill O'Reilly should be ashamed of the deceitful and disrespectful manner in which he treats his readers.
Robert Waterhouse
Scio
How about a memorial?
I have read with interest the information about the Peacock House and property.
I also was sad when I read about the two brothers who died in the cave-in in a well on the property.
I am happy North Albany will have stores and not have to fight the traffic to the south.
Is it possible to have some kind of memorial to those boys and family by naming the complex they will build there a name like the Peacock Complex or Mall?
Patricia Kirk
Brownsville
Earth needs a smaller population
In Hasso Hering's Viewpoint of Sept. 25, he realizes that humans have an obligation not to wipe out wildlife on planet Earth, and we can be thankful that he is not urging people to do so. And he realizes that an Earth populated with 20 or 30 billion people could be a hellhole in which all wildlife and their natural habitat is gone.
However, he left out the obvious punch line - population control through birth control. Was he afraid of offending some religious leaders who don't believe in birth control? Or afraid of offending some government leaders who don't believe in birth control because they feel a need to espouse it to stay in power, and who feel a need to provide a continuing supply of volunteers for the army?
Six billion is already far too great a world population, as it does not permit sustainability of Earth's resources. Hering would do well to write editorials that go to the heart of an issue, and speak out the truth of inescapable logic.
Jim Deardorff
Corvallis
President should admit Iraq mistakes
Last weekend, Americans numbering between 100,000 and 500,000 took to the streets in Washington, D.C., lending their voices to the growing anti-war sentiment in our country.
President Bush's addresses on Iraq continue as before, mostly swaggering and flag-waving.
With Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Bush has managed to admit a small amount of responsibility for the failures of his administration. With this new attitude in mind, I wonder what might happen if our president got down on his knees, asked God for advice, and really listened to the answer.
Let's try to imagine a truthful, sincere public address, written by Mr. Bush and with the utmost concern for the future of our country as its central message.
Given his love of three-word slogans - "Bring it on!" and "Stay the course" come to mind - I can imagine that it might go something like this:
"God, forgive me. America, forgive me. I was wrong. I am sorry. America was hurting. Saddam was bad. We fixed facts. We rushed war. Saddam is gone. Iraq is gone. War is hell! Soldiers are dead. Civilians are dead. Iraqis are suffering. Americans are suffering. Americans are paying. Weddings get bombed. London gets bombed. No good reasons. It's a mess! We made mistakes. Torture is wrong. We sent liberators. They see occupiers. It's getting worse! We worsen it. No permanent bases. We're getting out. God, help them. God, forgive me."
Do I expect our President to give any such speech? Not expecting, just hoping.
Diane Broad
Corvallis
Hand-wringing about Bush
All the hand-wringing being done by the Bush bashers would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. The media is also to blame for not telling the truth about hurricanes as well. There was a hurricane in 1900 in Galveston, Texas, that killed approximately 8,000 people.
In 1898 there was one called the Okifanoki that killed over 2,000 people and one in 1938 that killed over 2,000 people.
The media and Bush bashers are saying that hurricane Katrina is the worst disaster in history. What a bunch of Bull Durham.
How about the heat wave in Chicago in 1995 when 750 people died in the heat from power failures. Bill Clinton was president at the time and was interviewed on a golf course about this terrible disaster. I don't remember anyone blaming Clinton for that disaster, and by the way, where was FEMA for that disaster?
We must have had a terrible global warming problem from 1898 till now? Too much heat from horse-drawn carriages.
Which also brings me to my next statement. In the 1970s, Newsweek had a bunch of graphs and charts that said we have global cooling. They went so far at to think we should drop ash on the polar ice caps. I guess to melt them.
I think it's time to wake up and not let these ultra-left wing lunatics turn the greatest nation in the world into a Third World country.
Pat Burrell
Alsea
Who would take someone's cane?
On Sept. 21, after shopping at Fred Meyer, I left my cane in the grocery cart. It had my name and number on it and I surely thought it would be returned to me.
I am 76 years old with a low income and its hard to believe someone would take it. That is called stealing. If someone did that to your mom, you would be upset. I would hope.
Please return it to the Fred Meyer lost department. There won't be any questions asked and I would appreciate it also.
Jeanette Fisher
Halsey
Catholic Church wrong on gays
Due to recent articles and news reports on the Catholic Church's plan to bar homosexuals from being priests, I feel I must respond.
I respond less for the defense of gay men, but rather for the safety of children. The Catholic Church is making the same mistake that the Boy Scouts make in believing that banning gay men will decrease or eliminate instances of child molestation.
First, if it were actually true that child molesters are gay, implementing a policy keeping gay men out of your organization will only mean gay men will not tell the truth about their sexuality. This gives the organization a false sense of security and makes no child safer.
Second, and most important, research shows there is absolutely no connection between being gay and being a child molester. We do not blame heterosexuals for being rapists and we cannot blame homosexuals for child molesters. The fact is most child molesters are heterosexual. Some may be gay, but this fact does little to help our children.
I am appalled at this simplistic and irresponsible response to the problem the Catholic Church has. It is one of the reasons I am disgusted that this church wants the last pope to be made a saint. A true saint would not point at a population that has been routinely discriminated against when the real problem stares back at him in the mirror.
This will become a major story and I urge this paper and other news agencies to do more than regurgitate information coming from the church. Look at the research, do investigative reporting, inform your constituents. Our children will not be safe until we stop fighting homosexuals and start fighting child molesters
Tom Johnston
Corvallis
The levees of New Orleans
The condition of levees in the area surrounding New Orleans has been a hot topic for a long time. Subsidence of the land they sit on has kept them on the verge of failure for years. It was generally supposed that a category 3 or 4 storm would surely cause sections to fail.
Even more interesting is the fact that more than a year before this hurricane, a computer study on the New Orleans area by FEMA, and I believe one or more universities, studied possible failure mode scenarios based on data and future storm predictions. It correctly predicted the levee failures.
Not only that, but it even predicted the order of the failures and told why. As predicted, the Lake Pontchartrain levee went first due to a storm surge of over 30 feet.
This buildup was not only predicted, it was witnessed by people in the area. That water undermined the river levee, causing it to fail, again as predicted.
Naturally neither the mayor nor the governor knew anything about the study.
I also find it interesting that even though this study was shown and explained on TV, the liberal press has not reported a word about it. All the flood prediction diagrams were shown at this airing.
Also of note, almost half a billion dollars was spent on the river levee in the preceding year. This was the section that failed.
It is sad to listen to the biased press and the uniformed public rant on about President Bush. Whether you like him or not, he is our duly elected president and should be shown the respect his office demands.
M. Paul Lindsey
Lebanon