Letters to the editor: Aug. 14, 2026

Affordable housing

If McMinnville would like to stand out and create a self-sustainable model, it wouldn’t settle for apartment complexes owned by out-of-town corporations.

Population growth has stagnated, so this town already has enough rentable property. What it needs are homes that aren’t under HOA control.

I propose we:

1) Use affordable housing funds to build standard single-family homes on small plots with competitive bidding for building contracts to ensure fair prices.

2) Restrict ownership to families seeking a primary residence, not a second home or flip for rental — at least until the mortgage is paid off.

After the first homes become occupied, the city would begin to receive mortgage and property tax payments. This could become a sustainable model, and perhaps allow apartment rents to drop enough to become realistic for low-income families and elderly or disabled tenants. That might allow lower-middle-class residents to become first-home buyers here in town.

Sean Devereaux

McMinnville

Peace, not war

As a former Special Forces medic in Vietnam, I’m a member of Veterans for Peace, a global organization of military veterans working to build a culture of peace. We inform the public of the true costs of war.

Earlier this week, I saw comrades without legs at the VA Hospital in Portland. During a trip to Vietnam, I saw the continuing damage stemming from Agent Orange defoliant spraying from Air Force planes.

I still suffer from neuropathy damage in my feet due to exposure to defoliants in 1965 and 1966. I also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, surviving today only thanks to an intensive, 18-month treatment program at the Fort Miley VA Hospital in San Francisco.

My wife and I provide money for education for a Vietnamese family horribly impacted by defoliants. Our organization pursues an obligation to heal the wounds of war through 140 chapters worldwide.

Air shows promote militarism and the culture of war. In a word, killing. They celebrate death through technology.

They cause environmental damage and waste jet fuel. They contribute to climate change and heating.

Air shows generate noise pollution that damages hearing and frightens wild and domestic animals. They celebrate militarism with public funds while the United States is conducting an illegal, undeclared war in the Middle East. And they trigger PTSD in veterans like me.

Veterans for Peace affirms our responsibility to the cause of world peace.

We strive to increase public awareness of the causes and costs of war. We try to restrain our government from intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. We promote a sustainable and peaceful world and hope to abolish war as an instrument of national policy.

Please do not support air shows.

John Sheridan

McMinnville

Shameful ploy

Both The Washington Post and The New York Times have reported perpetration of a ruse to evacuate President Trump from Turkey during the NATO summit, following credible threats from Iran.

They report the president appeared to board the older Air Force One, but was smuggled back out in a catering container, taken to a C-32A, a military version of a 757, and secretly flown to England. Once there, he was smuggled back into the 747 so he could seem to emerge from that plane.

David Copperfield, meet Jason Bourne.

Do I feel disrespected because I, along with the rest of the world, was duped?

Of course not. The president’s safety far outweighs my need to know the details of his travel.

What does concern me is the administration’s disregard for the other passengers - the reporters and crew on board the original aircraft.

They knew nothing of the switch. They hadn’t signed up to be decoys, so shouldn’t have been exposed to the perceived danger.

What would the administration have said if the plane had been brought down and all aboard had perished? Surely, the Secret Service could have devised an alternate plan that protected everyone, not just the president.

Stephen Long

McMinnville

Truest power

It’s amazing how attitudes of the heart guide our beliefs, a form of self-protection after someone has hurt us.

Adults are always having to deal with the attitudes of the heart — their own and those of others. The dire need to forgive and be forgiven in order to rebuild trust is the hurdle we encounter everywhere.

This teacher’s humbled position provided heartfelt understanding and respect for each person’s plight.

When we own our attitudes, the need to blame others diminishes, as self-empathy brings hope for well-being in a more meaningful direction. Changed attitudes on the inside, through the choice of new behaviors, shine through on the outside without having to be forced.

That’s the truest power of all for escaping the mental prisons we often find ourselves in.

Beverly Montgomery

Newberg

Coup in works

Another element of the pending Billionaire Coup is coming into focus, thanks to the Hon. J. Michael Luttig, a staunch conservative, constitutional scholar and retired federal appellate judge.

He warns that if the midterms don’t go Trump’s way, House Speaker Mike Johnson and his slim majority of Republicans could refuse to seat newly elected members to preserve their majority by, using Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution as a pretext.

Johnson has already tested that gambit, delaying Adelita Grijalva’s swearing-in for seven weeks to prevent her from voting to release the withholding of the Epstein files. Is there any doubt he would do it again on a larger scale to seal the deal on a Trump dictatorship?

Trump has lost 21 straight cases so far in his effort to obtain state voter rolls, and he will likely lose the next 10. So he needs a Plan B.

Plans C, D, E and so on are certain to follow, if we can believe Steve Bannon. To get their dictatorship in place, they will throw everything they have against the wall to see what sticks. If he can get away with it, Johnson will use that chaos as cover to deny another election.

The Billionaire Dream is to take us back to a perceived Golden Age when the rich got richer and the rest of us lived in poverty and disease.

They don’t need any actual citizens, especially ones who assert their rights. They just need enablers who will act as tools in their effort to steal this country while the showman works his scams to enrich himself and his family right in front of our eyes.

It’s time to make this an issue while we still can. Everyone should hear about it, especially our elected representatives.

Speak out.

Bill Johnson

McMinnville