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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 15, 2006 WEB LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (Web letters do not appear in the print version of the Tidings but are placed here as a courtesy to our readers and as an opportunity for greater and more frequent dialogue. Web letters follow the same rules of polite speech as letters appearing in our paper, but receive a lesser degree of editing. The Tidings editors reserve the right to remove or discontinue any thread in this forum that oversteps the boundaries of polite discourse.) King was an inspiration Last week, thousands of mourners waited for hours in freezing rain at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and the state capitol rotunda to pay their respects to the “first lady of the civil rights movement,” Coretta Scott King, who died on January 30. President Bush and former President Clinton led the list of dignitaries at memorial services. Coretta Scott King was much more than a devoted wife and partner of the celebrated civil rights leader. She traveled throughout the globe on behalf of peace and nonviolence, racial and economic justice, minority rights, religious freedom, the poor and homeless, educational opportunities, nuclear disarmament, and ecological sanity. She helped found, dozens of organizations advocating social justice, received honorary doctorates from over 60 colleges and universities, and authored three books and a nationally-syndicated column. Coretta Scott King was also a vegan, who eschewed all products of animal suffering, including meat, dairy, eggs, leather, and cosmetics containing animal ingredients or tested on animals. Her strong belief in peace and nonviolence extended to the violence perpetrated against billions of innocent, sentient animals in America’s factory farms and slaughterhouses. Her passion for justice extended to the most downtrodden living beings on the planet — the animals bred, abused, and killed for food, fur, research, and entertainment. Coretta Scott King truly practiced what she preached. And for that, I salute her. Ted Cantfield Ashland Drilling in Alaska pushes forward Shortly after the decision to drill in the Arctic National wildlife Refuge was removed from the budget, the Bush administration’s lust for drilling focussed its derricks in the direction of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, specifically 500,000 acres of pristine wilderness surrounding Teshekpuk Lake, just west of the Arctic Refuge, an area so rich in wildlife that the Reagan, Bush Elder and Clinton adminsitrations protected it. According to a Fairbanks newspaper, “staff at the Bureau of Land Management say the decision to clear the way for drilling was made at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney’s super-secretive energy task force, which never met an ecosystem it wouldn’t treat like a two-bit hooker.” This next decision to continue to dismantle our last pristine instact ecosystems will include the decimation of more than 90,000 birds resting in flat wetlands in the summer and up to 46,000 caribou who also use the areas for calving and migration paths. These figures are beyond belief. However, this is not the worst. As of this week, the administration, headed by Bush has submitted a budget that contains drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in it! I do not have the words to express what I feel about this. This decision was soundly defeated twice in Congress, the voice of the people and our representatives had spoken. The complete corruption of this administration is beyond anything we have ever known in this country. The lies, deception, manipulation, doing anything they need to, to get their way, has negated the integrity of this country at every turn. We must contact our representatives today and declare our outrage at this act of defiant neglect of the law of this country and the voice of the people. Please call your Senators and Representative today, and tell them that it’s time for Congress to stop wasting energy on President Bush’s plan to drill the Arctic Refuge and focus on real energy solutions for America’s future. Anne Stine Ashland Administration didn't follow through on veterans' benefits In the near future you will be asked to vote on an increase in the health care costs for retired career military veterans. As a retired career military veteran, I ask that you vote NO for any proposed increases. President Bush, during his campaign in 2000 and again in 2004, promised military retirees they would receive the health care they were promised. These promises have not been kept. In fact, we are now faced with increased costs for the care we do receive. We retirees do not have money like Abramhoff; all we have is our blood and a vote. We have given our blood (for more than 20 years) and gave the Republican Party our vote during the last election. Will the Republican Party receive the military vote next time? How I vote will depend heavily upon the Administration's position and how you vote on this matter. Ronald L Ross CW03 ret. Gold Hill Beggars, tourism and helping Ashland’s needy I consider myself a compassionate person, and I am trying to be that in this situation, but I don’t understand how anyone could be supportive of the scam artists posing as beggars in our town. These are people who are defrauding the public. In addition to the so-called “affluent beggars” I’ve been told about the young woman whose line was that she had cervical cancer, but who is now pregnant (read that – no cancer), and when confronted said it was her “karma.” Or what about the young panhandler on our streets who holds up his “need money” sign and then puts it down to take a call on his cell phone? It happens here. Aren’t they scamming too? And I’m sure they’re not alone. What’s the difference between them and the criminals you hear about who defraud senior citizens and get them to give up some, or all, of their life’s savings. They are making up stories that are not true to get you to give them money. The only difference is the scale. The fraud is the same. I‘d also like to address the beggars and panhandlers who are on our streets, and who “invade” this town in the summer. To me they do not add to the quality of life in Ashland. I didn’t come here because I thought Ashland would be a Mecca for the traveling homeless. It certainly wasn’t on my list of reasons to live here. Does anyone really enjoy walking past the Black Swan or the Plaza, or down Main Street, and being bombarded by people asking for money? A summer ago my wife and I were on Main Street just by Kat Wok. Walking in front of us were two 20-something white kids with dreadlocks and baggy jeans. Walking in front of them was a tourist family…husband, wife and two children somewhere around 8 to 10 years old. The two guys started asking the family for money, then they started cursing at them, then they started loudly yelling and cursing at them. Really filthy language. I’d call that harassment. Does anyone think that this family will ever come back to our town? Is that we want our town to be known for? Think about it, beggars and panhandlers may have no regular jobs, as you and I would define a job. But they do have a job … to take your money. That’s their goal and role in life. To have no responsibility and no accountability, and to separate you and me from as much of our hard earned money as they can. That’s their job. It is what supports their lifestyle. They are free to choose that as a lifestyle. Everyone else is free to choose to support, or not to support it. But when it intrudes on people’s quality of life as much as it does here, those who feel the same way as I do, can and should, rail and complain about it. And the government should discuss what to do about it. We live here. The beggars don’t. They don’t care about the quality of life or the economy of our town. They only want to take advantage of what we have to offer and to get free money. While I am totally supportive of free speech and the Constitution, there are some limits. I don’t believe you can yell “fire!” in a crowded auditorium when there isn’t a fire. So I guess there are some limits. Maybe we need to find a way to limit verbal harassment of our citizens and visitors by these beggars and panhandlers. Shouldn’t we be more supportive of Ashland’s true working homeless, those who actually work for a living but don’t make enough to support a household, than those who have chosen to sponge off of society? Shouldn’t we be giving money to those who are really trying, but have to live out of their cars, than to those who make no effort to do anything but take and live off other people’s money? We don’t hear much about the ways to help the working homeless these days, do we? And the biggest shame is that the scammers make it impossible to know who is really needy. Within the last year I was told by a woman who has been a concierge at one of our hotels in town that the hotel got an average of five response cards EVERY WEEK from tourists who stayed at the hotel saying that due to the beggars they wouldn’t be coming back to Ashland. She said that the cards were turned into the Chamber of Commerce. I have no reason to doubt her story. Tourism is the lifeblood of Ashland. It is the financial engine that makes this town prosper. It gives us our jobs, restaurants, art galleries, privately owned stores, healers and other things that enable Ashland to be cultural, spiritual, and special. If the OSF and tourism are jeopardized the town is jeopardized. I know there’s a lot of discussion about affordable housing, and I agree we need more of it to attract younger families. But I think there’s a bigger problem we face, and it directly affects affordable housing. It’s employment. There isn’t enough, and what there is doesn’t pay a living wage in many/most cases. If there were more decent-paying wage opportunities we wouldn’t be having as much of an affordable housing discussion or problem. And anything that jeopardizes the jobs that we have makes the housing situation even worse. Think about it. If the tourists go away our galleries, restaurants, and privately owned stores will go out of business. OSF will shrink. The people who supply services to tourists and residents, like acupuncturists, massage therapists, lawyers, doctors, healers, will move away because they’ll be no one left who can afford their services. Sure, we’ll have affordable housing, but there will be no jobs left and no one will be able to pay their mortgages or carrying charges. We must safeguard our local economy and our tourism any way we can. I have an idea, and I hope our City Councilors and the Mayor are reading this. Why don’t we put metal signs up on the Plaza, on Main Street, in front of OSF and the Chamber of Commerce, and in store windows that read as follows: If you really want to help….. Don’t give money to beggars and pan handlers. Support Ashland’s charities and organizations. We could put collection bins/cans in stores, at the OSF, Chamber, Varsity, etc. to collect money for the people who live in our town who need the money, and who should be helped and supported. And, it might help us to not lose any more tourists in the process, and thereby keep our economy at least as healthy as it is. Rick Bleiweiss Ashland Web letters are submissions that did not appear in the print edition. Web letters are edited only to ensure they do not contain personal attacks, inflammatory or obscene language. Web letters may be longer in length than the 250-word limit placed on letters appearing in the print version of the Tidings. However, we suggest a polite 600-word maximum limit on web letters. To submit letters for the print version please follow the guidelines below: The Tidings gives priority to letters on local and regional topics of current interest. It seeks to encourage thoughtful, well-reasoned letters and to discourage personal attacks, repetitive messages and personal disputes. Form letters are not published in the Tidings, nor are letters identified as having been published in other publications. Contributions to the Opinion page should be e-mailed in text-only format to [email protected]. Please include your address and a daytime phone number where you can be reached for confirmation. Letters are limited to 250 words. At Length submissions are limited to 400 words. Submissions may be edited for length, content and clarity. See www.dailytidings.com for our expanded letters and opinion section. 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