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Letters, Dec.15 By Mail Tribune readers Dec 15, 2022 12:00 AM A A Leonard Pitts’ retirement I was very disappointed to read in his column entitled “Goodnight” (Dec. 14) that Leonard Pitts is retiring as a columnist. His column is the main reason I subscribe to the Mail Tribune. Pitts was a brilliant writer and, most important, an intelligent and compassionate one. Fortunately he intends to write books in his retirement — something to look forward to. Linda Barnett Ashland Support the Cultural Trust Only Oregonians have the unique opportunity to direct a portion of their state taxes to fund arts, heritage and humanities through the Cultural Tax Credit. Most Oregonians who are eligible, however, are not aware. The Oregon Cultural Trust administers the Cultural Tax Credit, created by the Legislature in 2001 to address decreased government funding for arts and culture. Participating in the tax credit is easy. First, make a donation to a cultural nonprofit you care about — your local library, a performing arts organization, a museum or any of the more than 1,500 organizations qualified by the Cultural Trust. Then make a matching contribution to the Cultural Trust to qualify for the tax credit. The credit is equal to your donation to the trust, and may not exceed $500 for an individual, $1,000 for joint filers or $2,500 for Class-C corporations. In fiscal year 2022, Oregonians gave a record $5.7 million to the Cultural Trust. Of that total, 60% went straight into creative makers’ hands. The remaining 40% grows a permanent fund for Oregon arts, heritage and humanities. For more information on the Oregon Cultural Trust, and all the ways you can get involved, visit https://culturaltrust.org. Sean Andries, Cultural Trust board member Chehalem Hunter’s laptop and the GOP For those of you following the current dustup over Elon Musk’s release of Twitter execs’ communications and the alleged complaints by GOP leaders that this is evidence of “collusion between big tech, big government and big media,” I would refer you to the cited but overlooked letter released by national security officials in October 2020. This letter does indeed raise concerns over Russian interference in U.S. elections. However those concerns are directed toward the content of the emails and the release of the information as being Russian influence to help Trump. In other words the entire Hunter Binden laptop issue “... is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.” Chris Adams Ashland