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June 21, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels April 21, 2004 Open letter to city council: It's about values Dear Council, Data and legal definitions continue to reign over values. Three people spoke eloquently and with passion about values, to no avail. I left the meeting before the discussion. If I had stayed, I would have asked the DeBoers and their supporters to say what they thought and felt about what was said by the people who spoke about values, that I would like to hear their side. This is a role I suggest the council take on, or perhaps make mediation a required step before a decision by the council. Clearly, the issues facing survival on the planet and in the town of Ashland, now involve value judgements and not simply data, measurements and laws on the books. This is a progressive move, not a radical one for the situation we now find ourselves in, due to lack of vision and values other than material gain. Ashland, for example, is experiencing massive growth. People are coming here from the southwest where communities are running out of water. Won't happen in Ashland? Ashland is in a desert climate, add global warming (Bush is about the only one left who says it's not so), then add the two new golf courses the council has approved, wealthy people putting in swimming pools, degradation of the surrounding forests and watershed and what does this add up to, if you want to use data and projections based on reality not denial? May my letter be read as an open door to a new and different process for communication and decision making at the council level. After all, why not be the leaders of change? Thank you for the hard work you do. Kathleen Meagher Ashland Interfaith effort builds respect Ashland Interfaith Ministries' "World Religions Forum" enjoyed hearing from more than 20 local speakers during our Sunday afternoon sessions in March. They embodied and gave new life to the old saying "Unity in diversity." Enthusiastic listeners from all over the Rogue Valley participated by contributing their ideas in small discussion groups and asking questions of the panelists on a great variety of topics. Did we solve the world's problems? Not likely, but most people took with them a renewed awareness of our local treasure of dedicated, articulate persons from very diverse points of view. They were all sincerely devoted to dialogue about the paradoxes of life on planet Earth and they created a wonderful non-competitive atmosphere of compassion and cooperation. We already are looking forward to our fall series of World Religions Forums culminating in our 21st Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service at Wesley Hall. Special appreciation goes to the energetic RVTV crews, Southern Oregon University and Omega House Ministries, and of course all the panelists and participants. Carol Gray Ashland Interfaith Ministries Twain still has much to say Recently reading again Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, I came upon the paragraph below and it struck me how appropriate something written in 1889 is to our country today. For "king, Church and noble" we need only to substitute president, (Church I leave alone), and the very wealthy. "� the rest were slaves in fact, but without the name; they imagined themselves men and freemen, and called themselves so. The truth was, the nation as a body was in the world for one object, and one only: to grovel before king and Church and noble; to slave for them, sweat blood for them, starve that they might be fed, work that they might play, drink misery to the dregs that they might be happy, � pay taxes that they might be spared from paying them, � (so) that they might walk in pride and think themselves the gods of this world. And for all this, the thanks they got were cuffs and contempt." Dick Trout 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