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Letters to the Editor, Oct. 21 Friday Oct 21, 2016 at 12:01 AM Skateboarders a hazard This is an open message to parents who live in the area of Phoenix High School. I live in senior and disabled housing at the end of Cheryl Lane, and we have had a problem this summer with kids on skateboards going through our complex at very high speeds. The kids have been spoken to and yelled at many times over the course of the summer, but they just don't get it. We do have a lot of sidewalks and a bridge that goes over Coleman Creek, and they seem to be a temptation that the kids can't resist. But these are not public sidewalks! They are private property and put there for use by wheelchairs and walkers, and there are no-trespassing signs up at all entrances! If you live in this area, please tell your kids to leave us alone, because some day soon the inevitable is going to happen and someone is going to get hurt. I can't speak for my neighbors, but I can promise you, if I'm the one to get hurt, there will definitely be a lawsuit! Noni McCrillis Phoenix Dumbed down For several years, unlike days of yore, the vast majority of class valedictorians (highest academic rank) listed by the Medford Mail Tribune have been girls, not boys. Though a longtime fan of all levels of football, I am compelled to question whether present-day standards and safeguards (if any) now being utilized in our high schools and colleges are lacking in the recognition and assessment of severe head trauma (concussions) incurred during both football practices and regular-season games. Only after several autopsies confirmed the presence of tell-tale lesions indicative of repeated blows to the head has the NFL ($10 billion revenue in 2015) reluctantly and belatedly admitted a connection between the untimely deaths of retired NFL players (at last count 31 known suicides) because of concussion-related injury. Though the recent dominance of females as class valedictorians may be an anomaly, it might also be interpreted as an early warning. The unavoidable question is whether or not our nationwide worship of a violent sport in which the participants grow larger and run faster every year can be justified in light of the jeopardy our young men are exposed to on a football field. Bob Warren Medford  Make voting mandatory Here is a proposal that may help save our democracy: make voting mandatory. It is mandatory in 30 countries, like Australia. Make each adult upon reaching the age of 18 years automatically register to vote like registering for the draft for male citizens and allow registration over the internet, then allow voting by mail as in Oregon, then enforce the fine as soon as the ballots are counted for those not voting. Some excuses might be allowed, like lying in a coma in a hospital, but few others. Frank Hieber Phoenix Outraged I am so outraged by the story from Oct. 15 about an owner of a retirement community in Forest Grove getting two days in jail for sexually abusing 12 women and many more charges being dropped. Where is the justice in that? I have never written a letter to a newspaper before, but this I had to respond to. Elli Rosenberg Jacksonville