'Free'? Issue is brain injuries

I read your editorial about helmets and the "sense of being free." It has been my experience that brain injuries are anything but free. If you sustain a brain injury the medical bills are astronomical and when a family can no longer afford care it's anyone's guess who pays. Brain injuries can cost families a lifetime of care and medical expenses. Imagine the family's trauma of having a family member that will never be the same.

Your skull will do a great job of protecting your brain, as long as you are only going as fast as your body can take you, like walking or running. Your skull is only as thick as a dinner plate. That's all you have to protect your brain! When going faster than your body can take you, you need a helmet. We now wear helmets for things like skiing, snowboarding, horseback riding, etc., because we know that a helmet will protect our brain.

The Albany Fire Department offers a program that is intended to help you avoid a brain injury. Go to Fire Administration in City Hall, 333 Broadalbin, second floor; we will fit you with a helmet and it will be given to you free, courtesy of the Albany Fire Fighters Community Assistance Program.

On Aug. 5, 6 and 7 Albany Fire Department and Albany Police Department will be looking for you wearing your helmet. McDonald's has donated coupons for a free dessert that will be given to you when we catch you.

Use your brain - protect your head and wear a helmet!

Wanda Omdahl, Albany Fire Department

The benefits of helmets

In regards to today's editorial and letter regarding bicycle helmets (July 31): It appears that the very same arguments being used today to fight this proposed law are the same ones that were used regarding motorcycle helmets when they became mandatory. Those arguments didn't work then, and I doubt that they will work today. And yes, I too have learned the benefits of wearing helmets, both on a motorcycle and a bicycle.

Gary Harkins, Albany

Why stop with bike riders?

An open letter to State Sen. Floyd Prozanski:

Thank God for you looking out for us stupid people! It's about time that there are requirements that each and every bicycle rider be mandated to wear a helmet! But why stop there? Why not an elbow and knee pad law? We all know darned well that if one were to fall from a bicycle, one would likely skin an elbow or knee! Continuing on, why not license bicycle riders, and the bicycles themselves?

In your headlong rush to turn Oregon into a nanny state, let's do it right!

Actually, once while walking, I tripped and skinned my elbow. Why not a knee pad and elbow pad law for pedestrians? Think of the revenue stream for violations!

Come on, Senator, do it right, or not at all!

Jack Cahill, Jefferson

Senator Prozanski has dropped his proposal for a bike helmet law to cover all riders including adults.

Remember, this is flammable

"Triple Report Rocket... flammable rocket... place in wooden trough or iron pipe at 75 feet away from people or flammable material. Light fuse and get..." (away, I assume; can't read part that's blown apart) ... "travels at high speed and can travel long distances. Misuse may result in injury or fire."

I quote the above from the remains of a rocket that went over my two-story house on the Fourth of July or thereabouts and landed on my back patio! No need for me to go on about these rockets being against the law, and fireworks in neighborhoods are supposed to rise no more than 6 inches off the ground, as the Albany police made it known in the newspaper before July 4 that we were not to bother the police about illegal fireworks being set off.

So, next Fourth of July if my house burns down, I can sue the city and the police. It would be hard to prove who set off the fireworks, so suing the city and the police department will suffice.

Mary Brock, Albany

Moved here, smoke and all

Here we go again.

I am not an Oregonian either, but when I settled here I knew it rained a lot and they burned their fields. I chose to stay! I could have kept going to an area where they did not burn their fields, but it only lasted for a couple of weeks.

I am sorry for the people with breathing problems. I meet a lot of people that came here from Southern California (smog so thick you can't see across the street), and they complain about a couple of days of smoke. Let them go back to LA or close their windows.

Dave Doherty, Lebanon

Cart hunters should read this

The definitive book remains to be written on our local carts, but I recommend this book for our cart enforcement patrols, and as a gift for whoever first promoted this law and ordinance:

"The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification," paperback, by Julian Montague.

Perhaps the West Coast edition could focus more on the history, manufacture and recycling and green aspects of shopping carts, the merits of metal vs. plastic, and efforts to stuff them into empty train cars bound for elsewhere.

Mike Ransom, Albany

Great time at Linn Fair

My wife, grandson and I recently attended the Linn County Fair. We just wanted to say how well organized it was. We had a great time. The staff was great, and all facilities were working well.

Neil C. Riley, Sweet Home

How to hang quilts? Aha!

Hats off to the Quilt Loft and the Albany Downtown Association for the excellent quilt show.

Give Karen Robert a big thanks for the innovative idea of suction cups and safety pins to display the quilts so nicely in the windows; also all the merchants that participated.

Maybe the Linn County Fair textile division should use that idea to hang the quilts. They are now hanging so high that you cannot see them, let along judge them.

Maridee Nye, Albany

Ancient wisdom for leaders

"Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the laws than those who make the law." - Sophocles.

Our leaders need to embrace this statement now more than ever.

Evelyn Madison, Lebanon