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Letters to the editer: She could use a little help from us Dear Oregon residents: I am a fifth grade student at St. Joseph School in Auburn, Calif. I am writing a report on Oregon. I need to gather information and interesting facts about your home state and I would appreciate your help. Please send me information or postcards expressing things you like and/or dislike about your state. My report is due in four weeks, so your timely response would be appreciated. Please mail your correspondence to: Emili Lewis 11610 Atwood Road Auburn, Calif. 95603 Sincerely, Emili Lewis, Auburn, Calif. Who controls our freedoms? Who really knows what this war is about? If the war being waged against Saddam Hussein is justified, then why does the majority of the world's population vehemently oppose it? We need to believe less (or none) of what President Bush and the popular media tell us and instead listen to other opinions to gain some perspective. Patriotism should be seen as exercising the freedom to gain information from many sources and only then determining what course of action is best for one's country. Given the United States does not rank highest among developed countries in overall quality of life, it continually amazes me to witness the subtle yet ever-present attitude of supremacy displayed by Americans towards other countries. We do not have the right to enforce our values on anyone, especially now. These values led to the election of an administration that is destroying decades of domestic progress in every area imaginable and simultaneously cultivating hatred towards America all over the world. These values are also the root cause of the total failure of our education system. (Sadly, since the education system is a product of our values and vice-versa, we may never break out of this vicious circle.) As it stands, our beloved freedom is being increasingly controlled by the wealthiest and most powerful individuals. Freedom is becoming less of a reality and more of an illusion, and we are losing the ability to see the difference. Daniel Zajic, Ashland Election letters: Kuenzel will help make our public schools better I am writing this letter to let the community know why they should support Bob Kuenzel for Position 5, Board of Directors, on the Ashland School Board. I served with Bob on the Ashland School Foundation (ASF) board while Bob was chair during the critical 2002 SOS Foundation campaign. During that campaign ASF raised over $400,000 for our Ashland schools. Bob put hundreds of his own personal hours into organizing and canvassing for the SOS fund raiser. As chair Bob used his highly organized management skills to juggle numerous demands and keep the ASF board on track. Bob assured that the ASF enrichment programs were maintained even though many would think they should have gone by the wayside to support other programs. Bob Kuenzel will continue to work hard to help mitigate the budget impacts we are currently experiencing with our schools. Bob Kuenzel will do his best to balance all of the needs of Ashland's children. Because of Bob our schools are better off today and will be better off in the future with his election to the Ashland School Board. Steve Armitage, Ashland Continue the activities levy We are proud to live in a community which has always supported the education of our children. Please join us in continuing that support by voting for the Youth Activities Levy. Tony and Lois DeBruno, Ashland Guest Forum: Swallowing it hook, line & sinker By Isaac Walker Ashland Those Americans still waving their flags and cheering on Dubya's immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional assault on Iraq will soon find the cheers dying in their throats and their flags gone limp. Even the patriotically spellbound will eventually awaken to the fact that their government has lied to them, again and again, and that Bush's war is not only against innocent Iraqi civilians but also against his own countrymen. In our dumbed-down society, where most of our "news" comes from the corporate-controlled mass media and is little more than Republican propaganda, the flag-addled superpatriots found it possible to swallow - hook, line, and sinker - a whole string of Dubya's lies designed to instill fear and revenge in the thoughtless: that Iraq was a major threat to the U.S., that it was bristling with weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam was involved in 9/11. When these lies were exposed, the flag-wavers eagerly swallowed the next lie: that we had to invade this oil-rich country - not to "liberate" its oil, as the whole world knew to be the case - but to overthrow its evil dictator and bring "democracy" to the Iraqi people. As the rest of the world also knew, Saddam was only one of many dictators we keep in power around the world to suppress democracy, not support it. When the truth finally dawns on the superpatriots that this senseless war was indeed about oil, and about conquest, and about pouring unimaginable riches into the bottomless pockets of the already-fabulously-rich corporate pals of this unelected president, they just might snap out of their jingoist stupor and begin to connect some dots. When they do, they'll discover that under cover of the flag, there's a war going on right here at home, a class war by the rich against the poor and middle classes. Dubya's tax cuts for the very rich are designed not just to pay back his Republican campaign contributors but to empty the U.S. treasury, making it impossible to fund many programs that benefit the poor or the middle classes. Millions of jobs are being lost or are at risk, and wages are stagnant. Social Security is being watered down and phased out, Medicare and Medicaid are being gutted, medical insurance for many millions is now only a dream. Our children, in their impoverished schools, have been left behind. In addition, our civil liberties, in the name of a war for liberty, are being stripped from us. And the environment, the basis of our health and of our very lives, is being ravaged - tomorrow and the next generation be damned. Some 70 percent of Americans, we are told, support this president in his extravagant military adventure. When their eyes are finally opened to the facts, when their heads are finally cleared; when they see the last dots connecting issues and events and the cheering finally stops and the flags are furled and put away, how will they respond to the desolation to come? Will they be frightened again into supporting other imperial wars? Will they go back to mindless amusements and the pursuit of apathy and obesity? Or will they enlist in a deadly serious campaign to restore their liberties and take back their country from the party that hijacked it in November 2000? 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 -