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

Sen. David Nelson, along with Reps. Derrick Kitts and Wayne Scott, got a free trip to Hawaii a couple of years ago, paid for by the Oregon Beer and Wine Distributors Association.

They were supposed to report this gift but didn't, a violation of state law. Their excuse was that the lobbyists told them they didn't have to. Can you believe that? Didn't they ever hear that ignorance of the law is no excuse?

This is an egregious breach of ethics. They all should resign or be impeached. That won't happen. All they will face is a fine, which will probably be paid by those who took them to Hawaii. This will be forgotten by the next election, and they will continue to be bought and paid for while they are supposed to be representing our interests.

I am sure each would swear their votes were not influenced by lobbyists. And maybe consciously they weren't. But there is no denying the appearance. These lobbyists wouldn't be paying for trips if they didn't usually get what they wanted.

The bigger problem is that trips like this are even allowed. They are in trouble for not telling us about it. If they had reported it, then it would have been completely legal.

Why are trips like this even allowed? The purported reason for this trip to a golf resort was to "discuss issues that affect distributors." What was it lobbyists needed to tell them that couldn't have been said in Salem?

What we need are stricter rules.

I am so disgusted with politicians that I don't even know where to start to fix a system that is completely corrupt and broken. Will public financing of campaigns or term limits fix the problems? I doubt it but it can't hurt to try.

Tim Hoffnagle, La Grande

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School has resumed. The public perception being that students will learn automatically for the mere reason that they are in school. If they don't, it will be the fault of the teacher regardless of influences that are beyond the control of the classroom.

Teachers are often evaluated not for their own performance but by what someone wants the student performance to be, regardless of I.Q., motivation to learn, emotional problems, maturity, outside environment and many factors inhibiting learning that a teacher cannot control.

Ron Saxton is now campaigning for teacher evaluation to be based not upon teacher performance but upon student abilities, capacities or desire. It sounds good and is emotionally appealing but is highly impractical. What would the measurement standard be? Surely a standard for a special education teacher and a teacher of a regular or accelerated student could not be the same. Nor could there be the same standard for a physical education teacher and that of an academic teacher.

Saxton needs to explain his measurement yardstick. He cannot expect to "build the house and then invent the inch." He could only throw the educational establishments into chaotic turmoil attempting to comply with such a plan in a way that would be fair to both the teacher and the student. Without this tool, his political rhetoric is fooling the voters by appealing to what sounds good to them. It has no value other than that.

Saxton should also remember that he is evaluated based upon his own accomplishments and not those of his constituents. How would he feel if he was evaluated not by his performance but by that of others?

Gene Erwin, La Grande

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What is the moral equivalent of torture? Of secret prisons, detentions and murder? Of an openly declared campaign to dominate the world through violence? The war on terror is a criminal warrant on the lives of anyone who resists U.S. domination or simply gets in our way.

When the pictures of the men, women and children tortured at Abu Ghraib were made public, a collective shudder of fear shook the bodies of thousands of people in the Americas who'd been tortured by forces trained by the U.S. The School of the Americas continues this ugly legacy.

We're now legalizing torture, trashing the 800-year old right of habeas corpus and handing a switch of horror to pathological liars and psychotics.

Torture doesn't work in obtaining reliable intelligence. It does produce a volume of lies that is directly proportional to its brutality. But its real purpose is intimidation, and the US stance in the world is that no qualm of law or human decency will be allowed to stand in the way of U.S./military/corporate

/cultural domination.

Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Gonzalez continue to insist that torture will make us safe because they need the lie to face themselves without revulsion. Now we all need the lie. What else do we have to face the world's disgust?

Ariel Dorfman lived through the horror of U.S.-supported torture in Argentina and Chile. We are all dirtied by this, he says, "everyone who looked away and said they did not know, everyone who consented tacitly to that outrage so they could sleep a little safer at night, all the citizens who did not march in the streets by the millions to demand the resignation of whoever suggested, even whispered, that torture is inevitable in our day and age, that we must embrace its darkness."

The good news from Iraq is that Iraqis are fighting for their freedom. Are you fighting for yours?

Ron Brand, Elgin

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I made a wonderful discovery this summer. By driving slower on the highway or freeway, the gas mileage for my van improved dramatically. By driving 60 mph instead of 70 mph on the freeway, I was able to go 72 miles farther on a 12-gallon tank of gas. I liked that, so I decided to try it with my Honda commuting to Cove. My mileage went from 25 mpg to 30 mpg by driving 55 mph instead of my usual 60 mph, even though I was also driving errands around La Grande.

With the high cost of gasoline these days, driving more slowly has made a very noticeable impact on how often I have to fill up. It now takes me 1.5 minutes longer to get to Cove every day, but I've discovered I feel more relaxed driving more slowly, and I smile every time I notice how much slower the fuel gauge is heading toward empty.

Another thing that makes me feel better is knowing that my slower car is emitting hundreds of fewer pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the course of a year.

I think the extra time it takes to get somewhere is well worth it.

Louise Squire, La Grande

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I read with a strange disquiet Mrs. Schiller's letter, "Law is Immoral," in the Sept. 28 issue. Mrs. Schiller would have us believe that in spite of twice passing the Death with Dignity law, and not by a small margin, the voters of Oregon are not capable of taking a complex issue and figuring out what is best for them and pass a law.

Mrs. Schiller says, "It is a sweeping assumption to state that in 1994 and 1997 voters took the risks into account and chose to live with them." Why, because you disagree with it?

Instead, Mrs. Schiller would have us believe that Sen. Brownback, from Kansas, knows better what is in the best interest of Oregonians. Brownback chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, but apparently our civil rights conflict with his less secular view.

Mrs. Schiller also says, "How can you say that abuses have not materialized?" Does Mrs. Schiller know of any such instances? If so, she should share them with all of us.

Mrs. Schiller, I too see Mr. Brownback's efforts as an assault on the right of the people of Oregon to make their own choice in this matter. Let him and the people of Kansas live their lives as they see fit, and let us here in Oregon do the same.

My mother spent the last three months of her life bedridden, tubes going in and out, wearing diapers, on so much pain medication she didn't know whether we were there or not, as she slowly died from cancer. Prior to this time, she talked about being able to end her life with dignity, with her children present to say good-bye. She did not get that chance.

Robert Warren, La Grande