Downtown friendly

In response to “Hostile downtown” (Our Readers Write, June 10), the downtown business owners and employees had no say in the design/change of the ticket parking meters on Oak Street. Downtown is not “hostile”; it is an environment of friendly, professional businesses, working to stay open with this current economy and provide services for the Gorge area.

The consulting group hired by the city four years ago on the matter of meters says that nationally, the ticket meter is here to stay. It takes credit cards and brings in revenue! We suggest, Mr. Ben Joplin, you take your criticisms directly to the city management. We did years ago — even requesting “no meters.” Look where it got us.

Susan Hull
 and the girls at
Hood River Stationers

See the roses

When I was in The Dalles recently my daughter took me up to Sorosis Park to see the beautiful rose garden there. These roses were planted by The Dalles Garden Club many years ago. If you go to The Dalles take a ride up to Sorosis Park.

Mary Jones
Parkdale

History making

Shortly after World War II I worked at the General Motors plant in Oakland, Calf. We bought raw materials (many of them local), paid wages, paid taxes and took depreciation on our equipment. We made a pretty good car (Chevrolet was the world’s best-seller for many years). These cars were sold at a profit and we were able to pay the stockholders a dividend for the use of their money.

I wish we could preserve some of these factories as museums of the age when we made products in the United States. I would like to show my grandchildren what a factory was like. How long since you have seen a product with the label “Made in USA”?

Roy W. Mangum
Hood River

Health costs

I appreciate Paula Friedman’s response (May 27) to my May 13 letter outlining the need for health care reform that is able to control future costs. I am in agreement with her on the need for universal access to affordable health care and her belief that there are significant cost savings available from thoughtful reform.

At the same time, her letter reflects our nation’s blind spot with respect to the implications of health care costs that are growing at two to three times the rate of growth of our economy.

Each year the health care industry creates new drugs, treatments and diagnostic equipment. These medical breakthroughs improve the capabilities of our health care system, but also contribute to double-digit increases in health care costs that are hurting families and businesses and which threaten the future of Medicare.

While there are moral issues in failing to provide access to quality health care, there is also a moral hazard in siphoning larger and larger shares of our nation’s economy into a health care system that is unable to control costs. Each dollar that is shifted to health care is a dollar unavailable for other priorities — foreign aid, education, green energy, environmental protection and entitlement funding.

America already spends much more on health care than other developed nations and there is no reason why we cannot afford to provide quality health care to all Americans. What we cannot afford is a health care system that is unable to control the future growth in costs and which diverts scarce dollars away from other priorities.

Rick Davis
Mosier

Never allow torture

Perhaps the most difficult thing to remember about our constitutional democracy is that it wasn’t designed to be efficient. To better preserve our liberties, the Founding Fathers devised a system of government that at times could be maddeningly slow and indecisive; even wasteful. In spite of these flaws, our country has remained strong by valuing principle over expediency.

There is no better example of how this has gone awry than the current torture “debate.” The way the debate has been framed focuses on the effectiveness of torture –— does it give us valuable information or misleading information, does it save American lives or further endanger them?

Recent polls show that 50 percent of all Americans believe that torture is justified in certain circumstances. With the now unclassified CIA memos showing that we waterboarded two prisoners a total of 266 times, we’re now debating whether that was too much!

As Americans, we shouldn’t be debating torture at all. Torture is never permissible. The foundational principle of ethics is that the end never justifies the means; so that even to talk about whether torture “works” or is “expedient” betrays a disturbing lack of trust in our country.

Accordingly, I believe it both wise and just to prosecute those who allowed waterboarding and other torturous procedures. These procedures clearly fit the established definitions of “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes” as defined by the U.S-ratified Geneva Conventions and the Nuremburg Principles, laws by which German torturers and those who ordered torture were tried and punished after World War II. If then, why not now?

Or would it be “expedient” not to?

David C. Duncombe
White Salmon, Wash.

Print all letters

Regarding Florence Akiyama’s recent letter, “Don’t limit letters,” this is absolutely true and to do otherwise is to stifle ideas and thoughts and would show bias on the part of the newspaper.

There are two sides to every coin, and this is very true of issues. One must have reporters such as RaeLynn Ricarte who have the tenacity and instinctively realize there’s more to the news (story) than meets the eye and some politicians play a brilliant game of half-truths “spin and whirls” and play on our fears. They also override our laws and values for personal agendas.

So each letter should be published so it can be evaluated. Let us, as individuals, have the opportunity to weigh the subject matter and be given credit for coming to our own conclusion. Thanks.

Gyda Anne Haight
Cascade Locks

Meters work

I love the new parking meters on Oak and try to preferentially park there since I never have change and they accept plastic.

So it’s great that others are preferentially parking on the side streets. There’s room for everyone! But the new meters don’t take me as long to use since I don’t lock the car when I get my parking pass.

Jessie Sladek
Hood River

Cite sources

I’m not surprised that Paul Nevin would applaud Levi Roesler’s “essay” on the “Evils of the Prius” (Young Voices, June 3).  Perhaps we should hold eighth-graders to a different set of standards than adults, but no time like the present to learn two important lessons. 

First, if what you have written (and put your name on) is not your own opinion and research, you must cite your sources.  It is uncool to use other folks’ words and ideas without giving them credit; Chris Demorro, who wrote the original editorial “Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage,” might call not doing so plagiarism.

Moreover,  citing your  sources allows readers to find the source and judge for themselves.  Second, there is a risk in challenging your reader “Please check my facts!” Someone (e.g., your teacher) just might.  For example, reputable researchers have shown that the assumptions on which the Hummer vs. Prius comparison presented by Levi are based are faulty.  There is no the basis for assuming a Prius will only last 100,000 miles.

I’m no fan of mining, but mining is not the only source of acid rain; mined nickel is used in many many products, and Toyota is a minor consumer of the nickel at the Sudbury mine (http://www.thecarconnection.com/article/1010861_prius-versus-hummer-exploding-the-myth).

Sudbury hasn’t been a site for NASA tests since the early 1970s, long before Prius came on the scene, and is no longer a desolate wasteland, thanks to a major revitalization project.  And Prius, while perhaps the most popular hybrid, was not the original hybrid to hit the U.S. markets — the Honda Insight was. While I like the final message of his paper, I believe I’d give it a C, at best, unless the assignment was to write a one-sided essay using faulty resources and not to cite any of them.

Then again, I’m a Prius driver. (Apparently not for long, though, because I’ve got 92,000 miles on it.)

Katie Corson
Hood River