Letters to the Editor: April 7, 2017

No cuts to Meals

There will be no cuts to Meals on Wheels in Yamhill County as a result of proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration. Our program is managed by NorthWest Senior & Disability Services which does not rely on federal block grants to fund the program. Rather, our county program uses revenue from donations and other funding sources according to NWSDS Co-Executive Director Rodney Schroeder.

Mary Starrett

Yamhill County Commissioner

(Starrett is also a member of the board of NorthWest Senior & Disability Services.)

Doomed to failure

The Republican failure to repeal and replace Obamacare highlighted deep fissures within their party. It also showed that the GOP had not done their homework.
Even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, with flabbergasting honesty, admitted that the Republicans had been the Party of No for so long that they were unprepared to craft a bill that would pass. For the last seven years, they have passed bill after bill to repeal or hobble Obamacare, but never took the time to formulate an alternative. They couldn’t get to yes. All they know is destruction and opposition. Expecting the Congressional Republicans to construct a health care system is like having someone build a house with a bazooka.

Donald Trump, the Great Promiser, finally had a chance to produce the plan he called “terrific, just terrific” in the campaign. But he had nothing. It was a con, a sham, a lie. All ashes, no phoenix.

Now they say they have moved on to tax reform. But what hope have we that this band of amateurs will have more success with tax reform than they had with health care? The chances are not auspicious. The river of incompetence they float on is wide and deep.

Even if they do formulate a tax cut bill, its likely effect will be large tax cuts for the rich to be paid for by the middle and lower classes, and a spike in deficit spending. Oh, goodie.

Presiding over the fractured and factious Republicans is President Trump, who has no taste for governing, only limelight. Trump can’t hold them together, and on health care he failed as a closer and deal maker. Unless the GOP can start passing legislation that has popular support, in 2018 the voters in may send them back to being the Party of No.

Scott Gibson

McMinnville

Utter foolishness

I am glad I am not the only one who sees how ridiculous it was for the Freedom From Religion Foundation to be involved in any way in the McMinnville Senior Center taking a group of seniors to the Grotto

Seriously, what a waste of time and energy. This kind of thing is so foolish and frivolous, scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to complain about. There are too many serious things going on in our world for this kind of thing to be given any attention whatsoever.

Loretta Johnson

McMinnville

Disregard for history

Tom Henderson’s March 31 article “Food and Spirits” is complicity in a false and dangerous romanticization of Southern history.

I’m disappointed but hardly surprised by this blatant disregard for historical accuracy and the willingness to attempt to pacify centuries of violence for the sake of a light-hearted article.

To compare White’s mansion to a “stately antebellum plantation house” is to willfully ignore the generations of human suffering that these cruel structures represent. We cannot ignore truth and pain to assuage guilt. To do so is to participate in a legacy of white ignorance driven by a preference for comfort.

And to you, John Cushman, what exactly came to mind when you described this house as “a little piece of the South”? Did you eschew the memories of separated families, of sexual assault, of a region that profited on oppression, to justify your fantasy?

Hanna Brandt

Sheridan

Give us their health care

If there’s one thing our country is in desperate need of it’s a common cause that would be supported by all of us regardless of our political views.

There don’t seem to be many issues where polarization doesn’t prevent progress. Currently we all have our attention on health care. We all want access to good care at reasonable cost, but politics keep that from coming to pass.

One place we could probably agree is that it’s a scandal that our elected officials in Washington, D.C., have health care while we don’t. I’d like to see a national movement that would strip the House and the Senate of their taxpayer-funded health care until such time as they deliver affordable health care to all citizens.

We’ve got to be the biggest suckers on the planet, letting these people have health-care plans on our tax dollars while they fail to give us anything remotely as good. We should be contacting our representatives and insisting that they introduce legislation to accomplish this.

Fred Fawcett

Lafayette