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Election Letters: Levy renewal deserves yes vote As a parent, former school board member and now a volunteer coach for a levy-supported sport, I urge all Ashland residents to vote for a renewal of the Ashland Activities Levy. In these days of having so many things to be against, it is a pleasure to have something one can unequivocally say "yes" to. Without this levy (and, I might add, the work of the Ashland Schools Foundation), we'd be right down there in the pit dug by Oregon's seriously-flawed fiscal system. Instead, thanks to community support and an amazingly still-motivated group of teachers, Ashland's students continue to excel. The levy renewal deserves your vote. Dan Thorndike, Ashland Lipski right for school board Sheryl Lipski's background speaks for itself: Longtime educator, administrator, community member and parent. Sheryl is an advocate for public education and it's value to society. She believes in the strong academic curriculum which exists within the Ashland school district, and is unwilling to settle for anything less. Sheryl is a person who would add balance to the school board, representing a large cross-section of the community: students, teachers, staff, parents and taxpayers. Sheryl is not afraid to make tough decisions, in spite of special interest groups. She subscribes to the "team management" concept and believes groups make better decisions than individuals. Sheryl operates well in organizations utilizing this team concept and brings to the table strong leadership and communication skills. It is without reservation, that I support Sheryl Lipski as the next candidate for the Ashland School Board. Carol Scoles, Ashland Vote in favor of activities levy I am writing to urge our Ashland community to support the Ashland Youth Activities Levy. A yes vote would continue the activities funded by the levy for an additional five years without increasing the current level of property tax. Given the current funding crisis in our schools, now more than ever we need to support our children and schools with a yes vote. Through state budget cuts, our schools have lost close to 20 percent of funding over the last two years. The levy funds athletics, music, drama, speech and debate, clubs and special events. Some of the levy money goes to Parks and Recreation and programs for seniors. Many of us moved to Ashland to be part of a community that solidly supports education. The reputation of our excellent schools and quality students are well known. Let us continue to support quality education and retain all the benefits that brings to our children and community. Our schools are vital to the future of our community. Ellie Thivierge, Ashland Editor's note: Ellie Thivierge is a candidate for the Ashland School Board. Healthy activities, healthy kids Thanks to the Ashland Youth Activity Levy, elementary school students are offered the opportunity to learn a stringed instrument. Students study violin, viola, cello or bass at their elementary school and most importantly, have the opportunity for cultural enrichment. I hope that you will join me in voting "Yes," so that we can continue to offer healthy activities for our students. Gerry Pare, Ashland Middle School and Ashland High School orchestra director Vote yes for our children My children, and all the children of Ashland, benefit from the Youth Activities Levy. From strings music classes at their elementary school to foreign language classes and team sports at AMS to academic and sports clubs at AHS, my children's lives have been enriched in ways that I could not have provided myself. The Ashland Youth Activities Levy provides healthy adult supervised activities of all kinds for our youth to participate in, helping to keep Ashland's children healthy and safe, and healthy children make for healthy communities. Our school budget has suffered enough. The AYAL helps Ashland Schools provide extra curricular classes and activities that could not happen without the funding of the levy. The voters of Ashland have built a tradition of supporting our community's children. Let's keep that tradition alive. Please join me in voting "yes" for our children. Kim Rooklyn, Ashland Thivierge has passion for job Ellie Thivierge's decision to run for election to the Ashland School Board is based on her passion for maintaining the high quality of our district's programs and teaching staffs. She recognizes the threats to the district that are posed by our state's severe funding crisis. As a former Ashland Middle School Site Council member, school closure committee member, and experienced health care services manager during periods of declining funding, Ellie is particularly well-suited for board membership at this critical time. For the tireless work ethic, leadership and compassion she will bring to the job, vote for Ellie Thivierge for Ashland School Board. Matthew McKinnon, Ashland Parker her pick for school board This letter is in support of Heidi Parker for Ashland School Board, Position #2. I have known Heidi for the past six years. We first met when our youngest children were in a multi-aged, parent participation class at Lincoln Elementary School. I have had many opportunities to work with Heidi over the years. I have always admired her thoughtful presence at parent meetings, site council sessions and school hoard meetings. Heidi is a dedicated supporter of public education. She knows that students learn in different ways and in order to support all of our children, there need to be a variety of educational opportunities within the public school system. In her own family, she has two AHS graduates, a child at Ashland Middle School and another at Willow Wind Community Learning Center. She is a dedicated parent volunteer at both schools. Heidi's list of school activities is impressive. In addition to 18 years as a classroom volunteer, Heidi has been on Lincoln School's Site Council, their playground remodel committee, the ASD's drug and alcohol policy revision committee and on the organizing committee for the Ashland Youth Activities Levy for its two previous campaigns. As an Ashland Schools Coalition member, Heidi has gone to Salem many times to lobby for adequate school funding. When elected, Heidi will be a tireless advocate for all of our children and their education. Please join me in supporting Heidi Parker for Ashland School Board, Position #2. Troll Henderson, Ashland We need to the youth levy now more than ever Because of the Ashland Youth Activity Levy, Ashland Middle School 6th graders have been able to attend Resident Outdoor School for the past three years. As most of you know, this program is the highlight of middle school for most kids. As a sixth grade teacher, I have been fortunate to be a part of this rich outdoor program for the past 16 years. It is a tradition that we all want to see carried on. Please vote yes on this levy so that all sixth graders in Ashland can enjoy learning in the incredible outdoors of Southern Oregon. I also have been coaching 7th and 8th grade track at Ashland Middle School for the past 16 years. We have a beautiful new track thanks to the hard work of Ashland volunteers. It has enabled us to host our home meets at AMS rather than AHS, and it has made our daily practices so much better. What a shame it would be to have this track sit idly because we don't have the funds to support the track program here. Please vote yes once again, fellow Ashlanders. If we ever needed the levy, we need it now! Bonnie McCracken, Teacher and coach, Ashland Election Letters: Stepping into a flaming debate over flag-burning By Dot Fisher-Smith Ashland My purpose in writing this commentary is to invite you to meet me "out in the field beyond right and wrong" in the hope that we may resolve the polarization in our community caused by recent flag-burnings and focus on our common concern to protect our First Amendment rights and to change the direction in which this country is headed. To accept that burning an American flag is an act of conscience may be difficult for people who are seeing such an action through the lens of political efficacy. But for the sake of my invitation, please accept the premise that those who feel the call to burn a flag are responding to a strong need to express their disenchantment, anger and frustration with the hypocrisy and double-speak of our government and this administration that wraps itself in the pledge of "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," when in fact its pledge is to multi-national corporations and power-driven politicians creating Empire with total disregard for justice or for anyone's liberty but their own. What a graphic, unequivocally clear statement: "This is a lie - the Emperor has no clothes. Burn that false deceitful flag!" An act of conscience - civil disobedience or burning a flag - is emotional rather than political. That person may not be concerned with political effectiveness. As a civil disobedient, I was often asked if I thought this was effective. My answer was, and still is: I don't know. No one really knows what is effective. I don't do this action to be effective. I do it because I can't live with myself if I don't. I remember being horrified when Vietnamese monks and nuns immolated themselves during that war. Were they effective? I do know that hearing a talk by someone refusing to be drafted in 1968 moved Dan Ellsberg to release the Pentagon Papers. That was pretty effective, but it was not the reason Randy Kehler refused to be drafted. His conscience would not allow him to participate in a system that sanctioned killing, for which he spent two years in prison. His action inspired and motivated many others, including me, but politically oriented people might say that we could have been more effective working within the electoral system. What I am attempting to illustrate is that acts of conscience (including flag-burning) are as different from political action as baseball is from football. The judgments and condemnations that I am hearing about flag-burning are all coming from the political arena, the football field, so to speak, whereas those who are supporting and accepting the legitimacy of flag-burning are in the baseball field. In the field of conscience, one bows to flag-burning. In the field of politics, flag-burning doesn't work. It offends people, it's violent, inflammatory, divisive, wins points for Bush and his cronies, in short, is not effective. I stepped into this inflammatory situation because I thought the arrests for "reckless endangerment" and "disorderly conduct" happened because of burning a flag, since I had on an earlier occasion seen paper effigies burned in the same manner with a police officer watching and no arrest was made. I am not alone in being gravely concerned about the erosion of our civil liberties by the Patriot Act and the threat of an extension of it, and that is a much more dangerous fire than burning a flag. My conscience tells me to have my fire extinguisher at hand and be prepared to use it to protect our freedom. 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 -