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Letters, Oct. 27 By Gary Nelson By Mail Tribune readers Oct 27, 2022 12:00 AM A A Vote yes on Measure 111 Right now, too many Oregonians are struggling to get the health care they need. Many of us have witnessed our friends and family avoid going to the doctor or rationing medication because they cannot afford to pay for care. This is unfair and inequitable: We all deserve to go to the doctor whenever necessary. Health care should not be reserved for the wealthy. This November, all Oregonians will have an opportunity to change our Constitution, and ensure that everyone who lives here has a right to access affordable and necessary health care. Establishing health care as a fundamental right is a way for Oregonians to show that we value health care. It also shows our elected officials that we don’t have access to the care we need, pressuring them to take further action. Join me in voting yes on Measure 111! Sarah Spansail Medford Proclamation was dismaying As a woman in Jackson County, I am dismayed by how Rick Dyer is using his position as a county commissioner. When chairman of the commission, he signed a Proclamation on the Sanctity of Human Life that applies “from conception to natural death.” This carefully worded proclamation is especially unsettling now that the right to reproductive health care is no longer settled law. I will be voting for Denise Krause for county commissioner. When elected, Denise will focus her time and attention on what a county commissioner should be focused on: fire prevention, emergency preparedness, evacuation coordination, the water crises, homelessness and funding for county needs. Adrienne Simmons Ashland Support stable management One of the councilors at the Oct. 18 Ashland City Council meeting said that he wouldn’t have voted to put Measure 15-210 on the ballot if he had known what he knows now. Maybe it would have been better if he hadn’t supported rushing the measure to the ballot with minimal time for public input. At the same meeting, a resolution to try to accomplish by legislative fiat what voters are set to decide at the ballot box in November was presented. When Councilor Tonya Graham, rightly so, asked who put the resolution on the agenda, the city manager and the mayor had no answer. Is this who you want to manage Ashland’s world-class park system? An often highly dysfunctional city council vs. a single-focus-minded Parks Commission? It’s been that way since 1908 and it’s obviously working. Vote no on Ballot Measure 15-210. Mark Knox Ashland Franko for Ashland council We have two impressive candidates seeking Ashland City Council Seat 4, Jill Franko and Bob Kaplan. While they both share similarities, Jill Franko has several important qualities that set her apart. Beyond rhetoric, Jill is a proven leader and skilled negotiator with a strong record of success as an elected member of the Ashland School Board. Bob Kaplan is a relative newcomer from Washington, D.C., with no track record from holding elected office in Ashland. Jill has historical knowledge of Ashland from three generations of family here. A wife and mother, she understands the challenges facing young families in Ashland, and will work for an “intergenerational community” where all ages can thrive! Jill is a remarkably talented young woman with a strong overall grasp of the issues. She will reduce divisiveness on the council, and achieve viable solutions. See jillforcommunity.com and please join me in voting for Jill Franko. Suzanne Frey Ashland Voting for Krause I’m voting for Denise Krause for Jackson County commissioner because she’ll tackle the tough issues we face: fire risk, water and housing shortages, and switching to clean energy. She believes the county has a crucial role to play coordinating emergency plans, and preventing fires by cleaning up county land. Denise will review ordinances that limit how we address water efficiency. She believes we need to build more low- and moderate-income housing, find new ways to locate manufactured houses, and provide services that help the homeless get off the streets. She understands that climate change is global, yet local action plays a role. A county fund that provides incentives to improve energy efficiency and cut costs is one idea. The county also could make its own facilities more efficient. Denise will listen to all residents, rural and urban, at regular town hall meetings across the county. Find out more at krause4commissioner.org. Richard Spencer Ashland Elect Denise Krause When we elect Denise Krause for county commissioner, she will bring new leadership and decades of experience in public health management. In America, health care debt is the top cause of bankruptcy and can lead to homelessness. Let’s choose a commissioner who knows how to address mental health and addiction. Denise was born in Oregon with family roots going back generations and raised in a Kansas farm town. She worked years in Mississsippi yet her love for Southern Oregon landed her here a number of years ago where she lives on a small farm with her teenage son. Denise is a farmer who knows water shortages, smoke and wildfire problems first-hand. She commits to finding long-term solutions and to ensuring a rapid emergency alert system that reaches everyone. She is a mother and health professional who is dedicated to preserving our personal freedoms and saving our democracy. Brenda B. Gould Ashland Vote no on 111 Amy Goodman’s “Medicare for all” column blamed our ailing health care system on “the unmitigated greed” of insurance and drug companies. Unfortunately, her solution did not address how drug money also buys up government. Can such a compromised, corrupt government create a healthy health care system? Would doctors just become automatons of state corporate medicine? Would patients be prevented from choosing non-corporate medicine? With COVIDthere is a real question how much corporate protocols have prevailed over genuine medical science. Until this unholy collusion between corporations and government is corrected and medical freedom is brought to the forefront, please vote no on Measure 111! Tom Clunie, D.C. Ashland