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Letters to the Editor: Call it what it is: Invasion of Iraq We all keep using the word WAR for what the Bush Machine is planning, when in fact, to be accurate, it is an INVASION. It is an ATTACK. If we use the language correctly, perhaps we will awaken to the horror of what is being planned in our name: a calculated, premeditated invasion of a country that has not attacked us. I have also lately seen arguments claiming that containment of Iraq (which has worked so far) would be appeasement, with a reference to Nazi Germany in 1939. A specious comparison, since Nazi Germany was the aggressor then and today the Bush administration is the aggressor. Let's not numb ourselves with the euphemism of war. Let's call it what it is: INVASION. Dot Fisher-Smith, Ashland Objections to arrogance in bust of Wes Brain Wes Brain was arrested at his job at SOU on Friday afternoon and booked into the Jackson County jail. Later released, he has a court appearance next Tuesday. The phony charges: "disorderly conduct" and "obstructing a cop on duty." Wes was videotaping the students' march on Wednesday and emphatically was not doing anything of the sort charged. It is a form of harassment and intimidation and we must support Wes and all others so terrorized by arrogant authority. See the Friday Daily Tidings editorial and commend them for it. Gerald Cavanaugh, Ashland Simple solution to funding our schools: Make them into prisons A simple solution would avert the budget disaster facing Oregon's schools. We should declare every public school to be a prison. Details need to be worked out, but we begin by giving every child a 13-year prison sentence age 5, with the possibility of a four-year extension. At the end of their incarceration each child would get a full pardon, and their record expunged. That way, the approximate $5,500 the state spends per student each year could immediately be raised to $17,000 - what the state spends on each inmate annually. Then criminally underfunded schools would qualify for the only category in Bush's proposed budget that's slated to get more money this year. Al Bodin, Ashland Guest Forum: First day of spring and the Great American Meatout March 20, the first day of spring, is also the day for the annual observance of the Great American Meatout. Last year, events were held in all 50 states and 20 other countries. There are many benefits to kicking the meat habit. Consider the following from the facts page at www.meatout. org: Ninety percent of children consume amounts of fat above the recommended level; 25 percent of children ages 5 to 10 have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or other early warning signs for heart disease. Cancers of the lung, breast, prostate, and the digestive tract have all been linked with a diet high in animal foods. Nearly 260,000 Americans die of these types of cancer each year. Conversely, plant foods contain fiber, which helps prevent cancer of the digestive tract by speeding food transit before formation of the carcinogens and reduces the risk of breast cancer, perhaps by lowering estrogen level. Plants also contain antioxidants and flavones that impede formation of cancer cells. A meat-based diet requires 10-20 times as much land as a plant-based diet. Nearly half of the world's grains and soybeans are fed to animals, resulting in a huge waste of food calories. The extent of waste is such that even a 10 percent drop in US meat consumption would make sufficient food available to feed the world's starving millions. Animals raised for food in the US produce 130 times the amount of waste that people do. This waste, containing pathogens and hormones, is stored in huge open cesspools, euphemistically called "lagoons." Eventually, this waste winds up in the nearest waterway, killing aquatic organisms directly or through formation of algal blooms. Waste from mid-Atlantic pig and poultry factory farms has destroyed fisheries along the Eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the waste leaks into the ground, poisoning vital groundwater supplies. Each year, 10 billion cows, pigs, sheep, and other innocent, sentient animals are caged, crowded, deprived, drugged, mutilated, and manhandled in US factory farms. They are then hauled to the slaughterhouse and slaughtered under atrocious conditions. Ten percent never make it to the slaughterhouse, dying from stress-induced diseases or injuries. In addition to the 10 billion animals killed by animal agriculture each year for human consumption, hundreds of thousands of prairie dogs, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, bears, bison, and other wild animals are shot, maimed, poisoned, and burned alive by farmers and government agents to keep them from interfering with agricultural operations. Tens of millions of starlings and blackbirds are poisoned each year to keep them from eating animal feed. The local Meatout activities coordinated by SOARS, the Southern Oregon Animal Rights Society, began with a booth providing information and food samples on the Ashland Plaza today (from noon to 4 p.m.) where we distributed a list of a dozen participating restaurants, including the following which are offering specials or discounts: The Great American Pizza Company, Todo Chata Restaurant, Morning Glory, Pangea Grill and Wraps, Panda Garden, La Casa del Pueblo, Pilaf, Gepetto's, and The Natural Caf�. (Also participating are Standing Stone Brewing Company, Greenleaf Restaurant, and Hummingbird & Raven's.) Next, there will be a free BBQ featuring veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs on Sunday, March 16 from noon to 3 in Talent, rain or shine. Call 941-9959 or email [email protected] for directions and to reserve your space for the BBQ or the event below. Lastly, we will be celebrating the one-year anniversary of Burger King's BK Veggie Burger, with a birthday party including cake, balloons, and free veggie meals for the first 10 people on Tuesday, March 18 from 11 to noon. (To reserve, see above.) By Ron Elterman, Ashland Bravo for lament of Jill Brazier Thank you for printing Jill Brazier's lament over the sale of the Lower Pines Trailer Park. Her voice in their defense of the residents being evicted may come as a surprise to those who doubt poverty fosters much friendship, let alone community. These dwellings are possibly the most perishable in cheapo modern construction, but they did offer these people some insulation from the obscene mortgage and rent increases occurring hereabouts. And though some might intimate the place is rather unsightly, it is safe to assume the motives for the sale and conversion are purely economic, not aesthetic. We may expect something shinier to emerge in its place. We can also expect, if it is like most of what has been popping up in recent years, that it will be yet another ill-fitting, expensive toadstool. As for the displaced now seeking an affordable alternative, they need a champion indeed; who darest bridle that behemoth Fair Market Value? (Not my landlord.) Jill also makes a broader connection and suggests Ashland slow land development. This will not cotton to those whose tendrils control the building fever. But they need not respond. Her admonition is but another insect collision on the windshield; minor gunk so easily wiped away it does not even evoke a conscious thought, let alone conscience. Yes, growth is a mighty addiction and those most able to arrest it are also the ones most enslaved by the monkey. Still, many of us do ask "Is this right to continue in this fashion? 'Til When? What then?" Yet how many even try to do anything about it? "Wait a minute!", they will snap. "This growth brings prosperity to many if not most in the town and region." (And "You cannot stop growth." Which is another way of saying, if I don't do it someone else will.) Perhaps, but the problem with this half-truth is that it does not consider the long term consequences of rampant, willy-nilly speculation. It fails to address the imperative for cities across the nation to make substantive strides toward sustainability. I ask, if wealthy, "enlightened" places like Ashland are incapable of showing some leadership, who will? The growing divide between a landed upper class and landless, servile underclass are just part of the visible cracks of a system out of kilter. Unless a broader vision is formulated that reflects some ecological literacy, and affords some basic safety net for people on the edge we are not as environmentally sensitive (read secure) or humane as some would have us believe. Until then, it would be better to largely spare the big back yards, the "empty" lots - and the trailer parks - from the current "progress" under way. By Leif Joslyn, Ashland 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. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -