Idlewilde idyll

Our family would like to thank Bob Huskey and his crew for the wonderful job they are doing at the Idlewilde Cemetery.

We have seen numerous improvements since Bob has taken over as sexton. Everything looks so beautiful. It gives us such an uplifting feeling knowing the grounds are being so well cared for.

Thank you for giving us back such a beautiful place to go to remember our loved ones.

Terry and Linda Andresen
Parkdale

Mosier treasure

Betsy Harmon is amazing. Mosier Community School is so lucky to have such a gifted and talented drama teacher.

I had the pleasure of watching the school’s production, “Fabulous,“ this week and it was first-class. Mrs. Harmon writes and directs the school’s programs every year and they are always brilliant.

The shows are humorous and genuinely engaging for both children and adults. She is a master playwright.

Mrs. Harmon, I am so glad my daughter joined drama club. Your talent may go largely unheralded, but it’s hardly unappreciated. You rock.

Melissa Bickle
Hood River

A cruel act

This is an open letter to the idiot who dumped a mom cat and kittens on the freeway near Rowena Friday, May 29.

How would you like to be run over by something a thousand times your size and weight? If you can’t properly care for an animal, don’t have one! Proper care would include making an effort to re-home the animal if you could no longer care for it (them).

One of the local animal rescue groups heard about the cats from a traveler on the opposite side of the freeway, by the time she got turned around it was too late! There was no reason for those innocent animals to suffer like that — nearly 100 degrees outside, just dumped on the road to be left at mercy of drivers that did not have a chance to miss them.

If you can’t love and protect an animal from harm, don’t get one.

Betty Mercado
The Dalles

Hunting’s place

“Live, let live” (Our Readers Write, June 3): I agree with Barb Basco about “canned hunts”; to me it’s not sports hunting either. But that is where it stops.

If it were not for sport hunters we would be overrun with wild game and you would soon see them starved and diseased. (Diseased animals are not a pretty sight.)

While they call it sport hunting we also eat what we reap. It is a federal crime to “waste any game mammals or parts thereof.“ Even Jesus and his disciples used nets cast into the sea to catch fish (it’s in the Bible somewhere). Shame on them for not being fair.

By your last statements I might go so far as to think you are a vegan (do no harm to animals).

If so would you please turn off your electricity as the turbines kill thousands of smolts a year; or are you vegan/vegetarian by convenience? And yes I am a carnivore!

Jim Burdick
Parkdale

 ‘Hostile’ downtown

I suppose the new parking toll system on Oak Street is a great money-maker for the city.

Otherwise why would they take out the meters? Is it because the new device is so easy and fun to use? Such fun; locking your car, walking half a block to buy a piece of paper, walking back and unlocking car, open door and place paper where it might be seen by someone so you won’t get a ticket.

Isn’t it great now we don’t have to do it the old hard way, like lock car, coin in meter and go?

In my opinion the whole of Oak Street is now a “hostile environment” and if there is no parking on side streets I and others I’ve talked to don’t go downtown Hood River. I suppose the same genius who came up with the idea also fixed it so it is impossible to get the meters back.

Also it seems our “meter maid” has been replaced by a “meter man” doing the same job. I think I might have heard that term “hostile environment” mentioned before in this paper.

Ben Joplin
Hood River

Free speech

There is a disconcerting, yet growing movement occurring in the U.S. and Europe. It pertains to limits of free speech and control of media information. I believe the need for political correctness lies at the heart of this matter.

A conservative group known as ACT! for America has been trying to express concerns over Muslim terrorist extremists and their effect on the lives and safety of Americans. They intended to conduct a recent conference in Tennessee in order to disseminate information.

After paying the appropriate fees and setting up the event, they were later denied access to the venue because it was learned the guest speaker was Geertz Wilders. Mr. Wilders is a member of Dutch Parliament who also happens to have produced a 15-minute movie called “Fitna,“ about the atrocities being committed worldwide by Muslim extremist groups.

Mr. Wilders has been ostracized in Europe over this movie and is now being prevented from applying the First Amendment right to free speech in our own country because some may find his views offensive.

We must remember that our country prides itself on our Constitutional rights and we cannot permit these things from occurring. It is imperative that we permit information to travel among us so we can be educated about the world from something other than just one source.

I encourage everyone to support free speech in our great country and oppose censorship for political, religious or social reasons.

Steve Kaplan
Hood River

Yes, slow down

In response to Mary Pellegrini’s letter (June 6) I agree with people needing to slow down. I live on Woodworth and a lot of people go over 50 miles per hour on that road. It is marked 45 mph on both ends of Woodworth.

I have had people pass me on the bridge and my neighbor saw a car being passed on the little hill by our house. There are livestock, pets and families that live on Woodworth. Because of the reckless driver, I will not let my daughter ride her horse on Woodworth.

My daughter’s favorite cat was hit last week and found dead at the edge of our field next to the road. I am sure the person who hit him was speeding. We also own livestock and I would hate to see what a cow, horse or pig would do to a speeding car.

Mary, I am all for speed bumps.

Kristina Worsham
Parkdale