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Opinion Letters Letters and comments for September 16, 2008
Letters and comments for September 16, 2008
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Cahill, Baker, Boe
The La Grande School bond measure deserves your attention on election day in November. This bond is not merely a vote to raise money for needed repairs and modifications to the buildings in the district; it’s also a referendum on the values of this community, specifically the value of volunteerism. So much of what is good that happens locally is made possible only by the persistent and enthusiastic efforts of volunteers. These volunteers, be they school board members, committee members, parents and service groups show up all over the place at sundry hours of the day or days of the week to attend meetings, to organize projects, to sponsor activities for kids, to perform works of charity, or simply to register their input. They don’t get paid for their time and effort and they’re motivated by a sincere desire to help the community. No community can lay claim to being a community if it isn’t animated by this spirit of volunteerism. That spirit must be prized by its members; it must be recognized and cultivated by its members. The surest way to kill a community is to allow its spirit of volunteerism to wither on the vine through neglect and apathy. This November you’ll have the chance to honor or ignore the difficult and often times thankless work done by your neighbors. Anyone who views the La Grande school bond measure as nothing more or less than a tax issue is, I think, failing to recognize the precious volunteer effort that went into its creation, drafting and presentation. Anyone tempted to vote no on the school bond should first ask themselves this: How do you expect the volunteers in this community to continue to work so hard to represent community interests, to collect community input and to aspire to make this community a better place if that community does not appreciate or support their efforts? Kevin Cahill La Grande School bond (pro) 1 of 12 I have several questions for our community that I would like to share as well as what I believe to be the answers to those questions. If the bond passes, which students will be moved out to Island City to fill the eight classrooms? I believe the answer to be the Willow-area students. They have been misplaced once, why not again? Next, why does the school board want to lease out Willow? From my understanding, once Willow is used for something other than a school, it is no longer grandfathered in to certain requirements therefore making it impossible to ever reopen the school? Lastly, if we are growing so much, where is the money for that growth going and how can eight new classrooms replace the eight modular classrooms as well as make the extra room for growth? My answer is, it doesn’t add up. Jamie Baker La Grande School bond (con) letter 1 of 12 I support Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin for president and vice president, respectively. They are the best candidates to bring the needed reform of our domestic and foreign policies. The comments by Amy Morgan suggest that she either is selectively reading, or using the mainstream media as her information source (I just repeated myself). I listened to the entire speech by Gov. Palin. It was critical of liberal policies, but not hateful, divisive or false. Gov. Palin was not criticizing all community organizers, and certainly not Habitat for Humanity or similar groups. She criticized Sen. Obama for claiming his experience as a critical element that makes him presidential timber, which is ridiculous. Sen. Obama would certainly like you to believe the short story of his community organizing: giving back, foregoing a big salary, etc. But the real story is far different. In his review of a recent New Republic article, Richard Fernandez at Pajamas Media describes what influenced Sen. Obama to leave community organizing (low pay; frustration; history-makers were politicians, not community organizers). Steve Malanga, in a City Journal (New York) article, describes the evolution of community organizations in big cities during the 1980s. They were light-years different than Habitat for Humanity. As Malanga describes them, grass-roots neighborhood organizations once largely funded by charitable organizations were transformed in the 1960s by the War on Poverty into far-left political machines, funded initially by federal government grants and later by state and local taxes. Do some reading about the candidates — don’t rely on the mainstream media to give you all you need to make an informed decision of such consequence. Reading The Observer won’t do it either. Most, if not all of their national reporting comes directly from, you guessed it, mainstream media like the Associated Press. Steve Boe La Grande McCain letter 2 of 12 |
