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Letters to the editor: Offering support for the Bondinell family I am writing in r egards to the article printed in the July 3 edition: "Daycare center shuttered amid sex abuse inquiry." I read your article and I am appalled and utterly disgusted the way that this story was written in such poor taste just to get a front page story. This paper owes this family a FRONT PAGE APOLOGY for all the damage you have caused. Our family loves the Bondinell's and they are such wonderful and caring people. Our 3 and a half year old daughter loves the quality time she spends there. How dare you crucify such a caring and loving family just for the gratification of getting a front page story. Our prayers go out to this wonderful family. We love you and God Bless. L. Moore, Ashland Tidings blew the coverage of mailtheft I just read your issue of July 18 and was surprised to read about a neighbor whose mail had been stolen by a Tidings paper carrier. The Tidings did a disservice to its readers by burying mention of the involvement of a Tidings employee in this crime in the middle of the paper. It also did a disservice to its readers by delaying publication of this story, which the Mail Tribune covered three weeks ago. As Ashland's "paper of record," the Tidings owes a duty to the public to report on crime in the area. It owes an even stronger duty to its home delivery customers to warn them of possible theft, so that they can check their financial records for possible fraud. So much for the separation of editorial and business interests � Robynne Whitaker, Ashland Time to say the 'Emperor has no clothes' When I went to school, they taught us about the "good Germans" who did nothing while their fascist government committed atrocities in their name. Our history teachers asked us to ponder "How could this be?" We were supposed to deduce that the difference between them and us was that the Americans would always speak up when the Emperor had no clothes, when blatant wrong was being manufactured to look right. Don't miss your chance, people. Now is the time, scary or not. This is exactly what your teachers were talking about. Sarah Withers, Ashland Guest forum: We are Ashland, not Aspen By Doug Munro Ashland Mr. Sid DeBoer's plan to build a 12,000 square foot house in Ashland's Historic District represents a serious threat to our town's culture and economy. Our Historic Districts are some of the Ashland community's "crown jewels." These three lovely, vintage neighborhoods with their well tended, modestly scaled homes and lovely gardens are what distinguish Ashland from the hodgepodge of strip malls, McMansions, and gated communities that sadly comprise so many soulless American towns today. When major publications like Sunset, Money, and Time Magazine rave about our town as they describe our lovely, tree-lined neighborhoods they are not referring to the Highway 66 Corridor and the Bi-Mart area; they are talking about our unique Historic Districts. The unique "look and feel" and sense of place that characterize these Historic Districts are what drive our economy by making Ashland attractive to tourists, retirees, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and plain folk. We should be very careful as we decide if it is OK to drop 12,000 square foot houses into small scale, historic neighborhoods. To get a sense of how big this is, consider that the Ashland Safeway on Siskiyou Boulevard has a total retail floor area of 16,000 square feet. To many, a house that is on average six times larger than neighboring houses is as out of place and ill conceived as would be placing a doublewide trailer or a 7-11 in these fragile neighborhoods. Ashland has been "on a roll" for a long time, but we should not be so smug as to forget that America is littered with has-been tourist towns - the Atlantic City(s) of yesteryear - that lost their historic neighborhoods or the unique features that made people want to live there in the first place. Lake Oswego, Ore.; Lake Forest, Ill.; Lexington, Mass.; and other intelligent communities across the nation that vigorously defend their Historic Districts with reasonable size guidelines are able to maintain their property values, their identity, and their strong appeal to visitors and residents alike. Ashland should do no less. Some folks feel that reasonable guidelines that match the size of the house to the size of the lot in the Historic Districts are an assault on individual rights. Not so. You may recall twenty years ago when society started to tell smokers that "Yes, you have a right to smoke, but not to pollute a room full of non-smokers." In that instance, community rights trumped individual rights. Nobody is saying Mr. DeBoer cannot build a house, just that he should be restrained from building one so big that it seriously impacts the character and scale of these historic neighborhoods. The rights of the community, being in some cases, senior to individual rights is nothing new - even the Romans had zoning laws. There are a lot of well-to-do, respectful folks that love our town who are building big homes. However, these people are building their large homes on appropriate sized lots and acreage, not trying to shoehorn them into the Historic District. I respectfully suggest Mr. DeBoer talk to folks who are building such homes out on Upper Tolman Creek, in the Emigrant Lake area, on Pompadour Road, and on Butler Creek Road to seek inspiration. This is simply not about one house. If Mr. DeBoer is given carte blanche to build this out-of-scale house, you can be sure that within a year there will be at least five or six other folks of the "huger is better" philosophy clamoring to build houses as big or bigger in these Historic Districts. If that sad day ever comes, then I fear that Ashland will have become Aspen. Stop the media Kucinich blackout By Jill Iles Talent With reference to a Sunday Opinion article of July 27 which claimed that Howard Dean's genius is that he was the only serious Democratic presidential candidate to hear the rage of the Democratic party, I disagree. Dennis Kucinich has been sincerely involved in listening to America's voice since his late teens. Unfortunately, Dennis Kucinich's name wasn't mentioned one time in this article. I do agree with one of the article's points; that Dean isn't the strongest candidate the Democrats could put forth in November and I believe that Bush supporters believe the same thing and are glad to see Dean being pushed to the front of the class. I have noticed as a Kucinich supporter wearing a T-shirt that says so, that Bush supporters are the ones most aware of who Dennis Kucinich is and express their fear of the man through subtle, and not so subtle, ways. In my opinion, the nomination of Dean as the Democratic challenger to Bush, would be an unfortunate choice for those of us who truly want change. It was overheard at a Dean meeting that "the peace platform just won't cut it." I think it is the only platform that can "cut it" when in competition with the "war platform." We need the strength of direct opposites to make this an election that will engage the people. We need a broom, not a Band-Aid. The article mentioned the MoveOn primary, calling MoveOn a left-leaning, antiwar online organization, and reported that Dean came in first. It didn't mention that Dennis Kucinich came in 2nd, far above any of the remaining candidates but, because the article didn't mention Dennis Kucinich's name ONCE, the people don't get that information. Also, Dean did NOT get 86 percent; he got under 50 percent. Why is there a media blackout on Dennis Kucinich? Why would you choose to reprint this article from the Washington Post when it's accuracy is faulty at best and downright manipulative at not so best? Will we ever get past the stage of labelling/namecalling? LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. 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