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2 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » Obits Blogs TV Listings Movie Listings Oregon Outdoors Oregon Healthy Living Special Sections Business Services NEWS NOW LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the Editor, June 4 Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Jun. 4, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Jun. 4, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Build Vietnam wall replica April 30 marked the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War era and I recently had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Russ McBride, a Vietnam veteran and president of Southern Oregon Veterans Benefit. Russ highlighted SOVB’s good work supporting the education and employment of all veterans, but also their most recent effort to build a permanent replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Jackson County. In the news, we hear most often about recent veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, but Vietnam veterans are still the largest part of Oregon’s veteran community at 37 percent. Over 58,000 American service members lost their lives in Vietnam and returning Vietnam veterans did not receive a welcome home in their own time. This Memorial Day was a reminder that every day there is an opportunity for us to honor the memory of our fallen friends, family, and heroes. I encourage all Oregonians to support SOVB’s effort to remember and honor our Vietnam veterans. We are stronger for their service and will never forget their sacrifice. Cameron Smith, director Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs  Biden's death avoidable We all grieve with the vice-president over the death of his son, Beau, especially those of us who have lost our children. My grief is also tinged with rage, as Beau’s death was very likely avoidable. Evidence is rapidly accumulating to show that brain cancer is treatable or curable using medical marijuana, aka cannabis. But for our government’s insane war on drugs, which virtually forbade research on the positive benefits of marijuana, we would have known decades ago that Beau’s cancer was treatable. Add Beau’s name to the list of millions of victims of the Great Prohibition! We must end the great folly at once, and learn what our ancestors knew for the past 5,000 years, that cannabis is, indeed, a wonder drug. Louis Philippe Goldman Ashland Poverty war worked Marty Koval’s letter in Saturday’s paper repeats the mantra that the War on Poverty was a failure. It wasn’t. In 1964 the official poverty rate was 19 percent. In 2013 it was 14.5 percent, the modest reduction Mr. Koval acknowledges. But the official rate is pre-tax, so it doesn’t include the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, which benefit workers in low-paying jobs. Figure those in, and the rate drops to 11.5 percent. Then add the value of safety net programs like Food Stamps and Medicare and it drops to 8.5 percent, more than a 50 percent reduction of poverty since 1964. But Mr. Koval is correct that the programs don’t get to the root causes of poverty. If firms like Walmart paid a living wage, we taxpayers wouldn’t need to keep their workers above the poverty line. And if he had applied his same rule of thumb (don’t just throw money at the problem) to our huge military budget and how little it has helped us meet international challenges, I would heartily agree with him. Herbert Rothschild Phoenix Manage for clean water Like most Oregonians, I value public lands for more than just timber production. I was disturbed to read the recent guest editorial suggesting that Bureau of Land Management forests should be managed solely for logging. I am several hundred pages into the BLM's proposal for how to manage lands that belong to all of us. Every alternative that the BLM has developed calls for logging stream-side forests that are currently protected. This seems short-sighted to me. I believe that our forests should produce clean water, recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat in addition to timber. BLM land management will always be controversial as long as the timber industry and the BLM insist that all forest values other than timber production take a back seat. The clean drinking water and salmon habitat provided by intact stream-side forests outweighs the timber volume that could be produced from logging next to water bodies. Brodia Minter Ashland MailTribune.com Writer Posted Jun. 4, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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