>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Due to our lack of attentiveness, many of our less affluent fellow citizens have been totally abandoned by this administration, for the sole sake of profit.

The problems have been further amplified by the greedy habit of those who have not been willing to pay their fair share of anything even remotely related to the welfare of others, or for the common good of our nation and the cost of maintaining it.

Even the rumor or a possibility of taxes sends Tsunami-size waves of terror that threatens the lives and total destruction of all who live where Wall and Greed streets come together.

Even if we accept this prevailing and current example of so-called conservative compassion, have we really sunk so low in social and moral values that we would even consider the newly certified government practice of allowing the torture of another human being? Or of any other living creature, for that

matter?

This can't be the America where so many past and present true heroes have sacrificed their lives, limbs, families, friends and futures, without a thought of profit or their very personal losses of either precious todays or tomorrows.

Only someone with multiple deferments against his duty of military service to his country could possibly advocate such a shamefully inhumane symbol of what we as a nation stand for today, or what we as responsible, caring people are willing to stand for as human beings, anytime.

If torture is an example of the

"compassion that conservative families value," then this country is no longer worth fighting, dying and sacrificing for.

Bill Dougherty

Enterprise

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The vandalized statue of Jesus destroyed in the cemetery wasn't an idol but a reminder of the difference between love and hate. Hate destroys. Love and forgiveness heals — so let's opt for healing and forgive the vandals.

Killing between Muslims and Jews, Sunnis and Shiites, and genocide in Darfur just seems to promote retaliation and not a solution. There is a growth of white supremacists, name calling (immigrants as aliens) and incivility in politics. My immigrant forebears sure didn't think of themselves as "aliens," and good candidates may decline to run for office.

Hate just grows and grows. Maybe it's spreading to our little corner of the world.

Since members of our own immediate family may differ with us on some things, it's reasonable that our neighbors may have a different point of view on many things. But we can respect others, try to empathize, forgive and be at least civil. Who knows? It might spread.

Elinor Riley

Cove

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At the Little League parade a week ago — which we enjoyed watching, especially our two great-grandsons — there was something missing. There was no American flag leading the way.

It seems odd. That was our future of La Grande marching down the street.

We were told all the flags were at the ball park, but surely there was just one left that could have been in the parade.

Bob and Grace Butler

La Grande

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I see in The Observer on May 9 that Elgin has put a cover over their

grandstand. That's progress.

Here in La Grande we tear them

off!

Dick McClellan

La Grande

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Dr. Betts is a talented biologist — but here he cannot see the forest for the trees. My point in telling a painful history of actions our mayor participated in was to show a damaging, costly pattern of workplace secrecy — and to hope that such practices might end, not be repeated. As upheld in the Sixth Amendment of our U.S. Constitution, I believe all people have a right to face their accuser and to know of what they are accused. The city manager returned from a trip to find an executive session scheduled to "talk about" him; but no one had previously talked to him regarding performance. You cannot simply vote someone out of the workplace as if it were Survivor Island.

To make the issue about me is a "red herring." I am guilty of naivet, not seeing that to accept a deanship as a change agent where there was an inside candidate — named Burr Betts — was to walk into resentment and prejudgment. When I disagreed with Betts or explained why, that was "blowing him off." His tone speaks volumes.

This group engaging in secret meetings outside of normal university personnel review process has to defend its action. A typical strategy is to claim victim status and then blame the real victims. First they claimed the meetings were not secret and that Colleen Johnson was not an organizer. Now they've admitted that both of those were the case. But they still have to turn a 61 percent approval rating into disapproval: their various statements say "highly unsatisfactory," "a majority" and (my favorite) "unanimous." Someone even suggested that Johnson, instead of the victims, is being "mobbed." Good sources can be found at http://www.workplacemobbing.com/page/page/3850785.htm.

Let's admit what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. La Grande can be a paragon of workplace fairness if our leaders will be responsive, not defensive.

Sandra Ellston

Seal Rock

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While the Oregon University System is encouraged by the co-chairs' revised budget, more must be done to reinvest in our higher education system before the close of the 2007 Legislative session. The governor's recommended budget is the minimum the State Board of Higher Education feels is necessary to begin a multi-biennial reinvestment in its students and universities and meet workforce and state economic needs.

Several biennia of disinvestment have had an impact on Oregon students and families, particularly in the state's rural areas, in college access and affordability; academic and support services for students; students' ability to graduate in a reasonable period of time due to course, class and program cuts; the condition of classrooms and labs not meeting students learning and work-readiness needs; the ability to keep Oregon's top achieving students in the state; and our ability to attract and retain enough high-quality faculty to both enrich student learning and bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year through grants and other academic funding.

While Oregon cannot make up for decades of disinvestment in a single biennium, the Higher Education Board has developed a 10-year investment plan that will pay big dividends for Oregonians. We urge the Legislature to keep working to make the first of several investments needed to fully leverage the strengths of Oregon's higher education system and to begin rebuilding areas weakened during the years of recession and low state revenues.

Such investments would signal a positive step forward for Oregon and a positive message of hope and opportunity for a quality higher education for all Oregonians.

George Pernsteiner

Chancellor

Oregon University System