Letters to the Editor for April 29, 2011

Which includes Baker City Police, Baker County Sheriff, school buses, trolley, semis and other vehicles.
The street is fairly open and non-residential from Campbell to Pocahontas. Everybody that travels this street speeds between these two streets. I sincerely suggest raising the limit to 35 mph, to help everyone obey the law, including our own law enforcement. Cedar Street, on the other side of town, goes through a residential area with a 30 mph limit.
Frank Cook
Baker City

Ag producers don’t seek handouts
To the editor:
In response to Max Vollmer’s letter of Wednesday, April 20:
It is obvious to me you have no idea of what it entails to be a rancher or farmer in Baker County. Your letter and remarks remind me of only what I avoid stepping on in my corrals.
Agriculture is the largest revenue producer of Baker County.
Ranchers and farmers pay a lot of taxes. I believe probably much more than you do.
Ranchers and farmers work about seven days a week, again probably much more than you do.
Believe me most don’t receive any government handouts.
As busy as they are they still find time to donate beef to feed the school kids, volunteer their time, to help inform kids about agriculture ... and guess what, some are even Democrats.
Ken Tew
Sutton Creek Cattle Co.

City turns blind eye to blight
To the editor:
Too bad the Berns’ property doesn’t have a loud 4-inch exhaust, illegal taillights and a missing front license plate, speeds all over Baker City and doesn’t stop for pedestrians or STOP signs.
Too bad the Berns’ property isn’t a 40 horsepower Harley-Davidson with obnoxious LOOK AT ME off road straight pipes.
Too bad the Berns’ property doesn’t pick up garbage or sweep the streets in residential at 5 a.m.
Because the city would turn a blind eye and ear to the Berns.
I appreciate what the city is doing with code enforcement of Baker City properties. I understand the stress city employees are feeling from a vocal minority of “property” rights advocates. But I see a lot of “low hanging fruit” of livability issues in this community not being addressed.
Blight is blight.
Baker City, “The Premier Rural Living Experience in the Northwest.” Either remove it from the city website or work to make it a true statement.
Darby Dunkak
Baker City

Medicare reform
plan is cruel
To the editor:
I can’t open the paper these days without reading some words of praise for the Paul Ryan deficit reduction plan that the GOP proposes to implement. The steady drum-beat and chorus of voices of right-wing media try to convince us that we seniors must be prepared to sacrifice the guaranteed, comprehensive health coverage of Medicare for the good of the nation and in a new privatized system, accept vouchers worth whatever the government says they are worth, and certainly insufficient to pay for the unlimited care we receive now.
All the while we watch as our premiums climb into the stratosphere and the money we paid in over a lifetime of work is channeled off to high overhead, for-profit insurance companies, you know, the ones who love to deny your claims, cut you off, bounce you if you are sick too much and generally stall, delay and aggravate you, assuming they will even write you an affordable policy if you have a pre-existing condition. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities within five years too many sick retirees now receiving the median Social Security benefit of around $11,000 per annum would be spending half or more of their sole income source on premiums and getting much inferior health care for it.
Talk about your Death Panels!
Against the backdrop of Ryan’s cruel plan, simply look at the long shameful list of major corporations paying no taxes at all. The country is not broke, nor is there a dearth of high-income corporations and individuals to tax, as some assert. The top 25 hedge fund managers made over $22 billion last year, had they been taxed under the same rules as nurses, teachers or firemen, these 25 people alone would have reduced the deficit by over $5 billion, and that’s not even counting the $700 billion of Bush’s tax cuts for the ultra rich. I am sorry, but we seniors see the hypocrisy of asking sacrifice involving life and death health issues of the sick and elderly, while under Ryan’s plan the have-mores of this society get a pass.
John Harmer
Baker City

‘Day of silence’ supports agenda
To the editor:
Once again, Baker High School has observed a “day of silence” in support of homosexuality (April 15). Once again, I voice my opinion that supporting the “day of silence” lends support to the “gay” political agenda of silencing all logical objections to the idea that homosexuality is “normal”.
Last year, the editors pooh-poohed the notion of a “gay” agenda. But there is an agenda, and it is not aimed at “tolerance.” This agenda seeks to suppress any opinion which goes against its own.
Political action is taken to make speaking out against homosexuality a “hate crime,” but denouncing and ridiculing Christians and their beliefs is par for the course, with no repercussions.
There is clear evidence of a double standard here! Documented examples of supporters of the “gay” agenda verbally and even physically abusing peaceful demonstrators urging support of traditional marriage are easily accessible on the internet (for example, see www.tfpstudentaction.org).
Ample empirical evidence supports the statement that homosexuality is neither normal nor healthy. I am appalled that young people today are actually encouraged in expressing homosexuality, rather than helped to understand the disordered nature of homosexual behavior.
There is no “gay” gene causing homosexuality! Physiological factors may contribute to same-sex attraction, but this is by no means common, nor is it an insurmountable barrier to normal sexual identification and function. See www.peoplecanchange.com
For those who say, “I’m gay, and God loves me just the way I am,” I respond, “Yes; and He loves you too much to leave you that way.”
For those prepared to berate me for my “intolerance,” please note that I have not expressed animosity toward homosexual persons. I am against the promotion of the “gay” lifestyle, which is destroying them, body and soul. And I object to the censorship of reasonable, moral, and scientific voices that point to the destructive nature of this lifestyle.