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August 30. 2015 12:01AM Letters to the Editor, Aug. 30 Thanks to food donors The Phoenix Food Project and Community Pantry is so grateful to the generous Phoenix donors who supplied our pantry with our second-best Green Bag Day ever: 4,201 pounds! Kudos to our Neighborhood Coordinators, who remind, follow up, pickup, deliver, sort, shelve, schlepp all these much-needed goods into place. Phoenix Pantry would not exist without their generosity! A note to those of you who must leave the Green Bag project in your city: Please return your green bag to your local pantry and let your Neighborhood Coordinator know that you need to leave the project. We hope you'll be back! Bags cost little, but with a couple hundred bags outstanding, the cost adds up for each little (and big!) city. Tank you, all! Karen Jones Phoenix district coordinator Will libraries charge fees? I see where the Medford School Board has raised the rates for the use of their facilities in Tuesday's Mail Tribune. Will the Library District board do the same so that at least some of the expense of running a library is placed on the users? By users, I mean not only library card holders but also those groups who use the facilities for meetings/seminars/get-togethers, etc. In reply to a letter to the editor dated Feb. 1 in which the writer stated she was retiring from the library and was “happy to continue paying taxes for any services …” Well, how about paying some of  my  increased tax since she is so happy to pay taxes? Oh, by the way — I am still waiting for someone, anyone, to tell me that they moved into Jackson County due to the wonderful library system we have! Is it time to place a measure on the ballot to separate Ashland from Jackson County? Tom Winter Central Point Try again Our local public radio station, KSOR in Ashland, regularly extolls their “fact-based news.” Since public radio displays notable liberal bias both in its content as well as its choice of news stories, may I suggest they try (and practice) another slogan, “fair and balanced?” Hubert Smith Jacksonville Taking it back Republican presidential candidates bluster about "taking our country back." Back to what? The Great Recession (2007)? Or the Great Depression (1929)? Both occurred on Republicans' watch. Rather than accept responsibility for the harm their laissez faire policies have caused this country, Republicans feign amnesia. Alternatively, they blame President Obama for their colossal failures. Perhaps these stark reminders of their last administration's malfeasance will help snap Republicans out of their collective amnesia: Squandered the $236 billion surplus the Clinton administration bequeathed. Legislated a $1.35 trillion tax cut — to the greater benefit of the wealthiest — while increasing spending and enlarging the deficit. Added a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare but denied Medicare the right to negotiate lower drug prices, increasing the program's unfunded liability by $8 trillion. Invaded Iraq based on manipulated intelligence, costing over $1 trillion and thousands of lives. Pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase a higher number of subprime loans from unregulated mortgage brokers. Republican candidates tied to the economic philosophy of unrestrained capitalism — guaranteed to produce inequality of wealth and income, as well as a financial crisis — should revise their campaign slogan to truthfully say, "Taking our country back to disaster." Marie Arvette Medford http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20150830/OPINION/150839985 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->