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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels August 12, 2004 Politics at SOU event a mistake On June 12, I attended the graduation ceremony for my daughter from Southern Oregon University. It was a wonderful achievement because she is the first person in my family to earn a master's degree. However, Geraldine Ferraro ruined the joy of the moment when she gave a speech blasting our current president. My family did not attend this graduation to hear a false political speech, but to hear speeches to inspire and uplift our graduating daughter. To use the memory of Ronald Reagan, whom Ms. Ferraro ran against in 1984, believing that he was not doing a good job, and now to speak of him as though he was the best thing to happen to America, but to use him to bash President Bush, was out of context, hypocritical and inappropriate. My family hopes that you think before ever doing something like this again. Please make your comments apropos to the occasion. Don Ruhl Klamath Falls Politics like a bad TV sitcom We are, after all, electing a TV show in November. It will be on for four years, or eight, if we like it. Remember the Clinton Show? Al Gore smashing the ashtray on Letterman. The Cabinet? It looked like the Fellowship of the Ring, or the characters from the Wizard of Oz. And then Monicagate. A though act to follow. It cost millions, but I did the math, and it cost each of us less than thirty cents for a whole year of preposterous entertainment. Neither Bush nor Kerry could ever top the Clinton Show. It's all fear drama on TV now. Do you like the show we've been watching for the last three and a half years? Or would you like to change channels, change directions, and get back to the real world? William Grizzle Ashland Be wary of Measure 37 A so-called "takings" compensation initiative, Measure 37 on your ballot, is being reintroduced for the fall election. Although the ballot title sounds good, paying taxpayer money to some people because they can't do anything they want with their land, the measure is once again special interest groups demanding a ransom from us all. If passed, this measure would open the floodgates to land-use lawsuits and degrade the livability of towns and neighborhoods. With government funding unable to add more costs, residential neighborhoods could see such things as pawnshops, car lots, auto body shops, bars, cell phone towers, or even a pig farm. Imagine what these kinds of uses would do to property values. Avoidance of these uses would require taxes to be raised, the amount of government red tape and intrusion in our lives endless. Without new taxes, state and local agencies will be forced to make severe cuts to cover the costs of Measure 37, cuts to education, parks, emergency services, and police and fire protection of our quality of life. No matter how it's sliced measure 37 is a turkey sponsored by "Oregonians" in action, a couple of timber corporations, and one or two development corporations. So, added to it all, we citizens have to endure corporate meddling in our lives, benefiting a few at a huge cost in money and loss of quality of life for the rest of us. I urge all to vote against Measure 37, it's simply a bad idea. Steve Williams Williams Cheney visit lacks purpose I am a registered Independent, so my comments are not partisan, although they are political. I was deeply disturbed by the recent visit of Vice President Dick Cheney, not because he came to town but because of the way the visit was orchestrated. The local Republican Party, which has been captured by the extreme right wing of the party, was in charge of deciding who was allowed to see and hear Mr. Cheney. Only Republicans got to. Why is that? There used to be a time when Americans of all political persuasions (and some with no opinions at all) were encouraged and allowed to actually listen to politicians speak publicly while visiting the Rogue Valley. To allow only Republicans to enter an arena where a Republican vice president is scheduled to give a campaign speech seems inherently unfair and un-American to me. I hope that when John Kerry comes to town that the local Democratic Party leadership is more tolerant and open minded and will allow all of us to go hear him if we choose. I also agree wholeheartedly agree with your recent editorial regarding the "Free Speech Zone." If America stays on its current path, that zone may one day end up being in the basements of those few Americans who can still think for themselves, instead of buying the schlock they are fed by media analysts, party hacks and our so-called political "leaders." John Enders Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams