Letters to the Editor: Jan. 25, 2019

Promotion of promiscuity

For some time, I have wondered about the value of sex education in the public schools. It appears without ethical consensus, so is designed to offend no particular group and therefore ends up being devoid of morality.

In presenting various alternatives as morally neutral, it encourages the young to make sexual decisions without the perspective of maturity, which could have shielded them from mistakes causing ruin to their lives and death to the innocent.

With 60 million abortions occurring since 1973, therefore at least 60 million unwanted pregnancies, “safe sex” before marriage has proven less safe than Russian roulette. The only safety occurs within the bonds of matrimony, where babies are a blessing.

Maybe someone could enlighten me as to the value of a course whose end result seems to be the promotion of promiscuity.

Susan Paz

Dayton

Shutdown blame misplaced

It seems a lot of people are blaming President Trump for the government shutdown.

If Trump wanted to shut down the government, why did he wait so long? He’s had two years to do it.
Instead, he’s spent two years trying to build America up.

Even before he took office, he was convincing companies to keep their plants and jobs in the U.S. To stimulate the economy, he initiated a policy that for every new regulation, two old ones must be eliminated. As a result, business and employment have grown steadily.

So why would he want to shut the government down?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, has spent the last two years fighting against every single thing the president has tried to do.

I’m sure Pelosi, a San Francisco resident, locks the doors at night for her personal security. But she considers it immoral for America to do the same.

After two years of frustrating prosperity under President Trump, she finally has a chance to stop him as he tries to make America more secure.

Pelosi was nominated again as speaker of the House on Nov. 28. The shutdown began less than a month later and continues to this day.

After two years of growth, the shutdown comes with Pelosi’s return to power. Who do you think is to blame?

Craig Pubols

McMinnville

Disposal station need

Last fall, I waited for two hours in a mile-long line of cars idling on Lafayette Avenue, thus spewing pollution, in order to dispose of a carton of hazardous household products. Despite extension of the original deadline, I and many others in the line failed to reach the overwhelmingly crowded disposal site in time.
The carton containing these unwanted materials is still in the trunk of my car. Shall I wait for another interminable line in another eight months, or instead look forward in the near future to a straightforward disposal station at the McMinnville site?

I am sure we could all readily appreciate the advantages of that.

Tony Roder

McMinnville

Moving to clean energy

There is a new season in the Pacific Northwest. It’s called “fire season.”

Are you wondering how many more forests will burn this summer? Are you wondering if there will be enough snowpack to cool our rivers and lakes?

As a person of faith, I believe I have responsibility to care for creation. Climate change isTHE issue of our time, already affecting life on earth in a negative way.
As there is no leadership at the federal level, we must act in Oregon to reduce carbon emissions. And the only way to make progress is to make sure the industries most responsible are held accountable.

This is exactly what the Clean Energy Jobs bill would do.

The largest polluters would be required to purchase allowances. That way, they would have a market incentive to pollute less and renew more. The revenue would be invested in clean energy, creating new jobs.

This bill may not be perfect, but the Legislature has had six years to make it as close to perfect as it can.

We cannot afford to wait any longer. Please urge your legislators to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Bill in this session.

This bill can help us transition to clean energy jobs and a clean energy future.

Lynn Crowell

McMinnville

Rooting out racism

This week began with both challenge and inspiration.

We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg.

The emcee, Bryce Coefield, set the tone with honesty. He came to be seen, because it’s too easy to make people invisible. He came because of pain and anger, because those are realities in so many lives. And he came for hope, because he knew it would be found there.

Dr. Miles Davis, president of Linfield College, gave the keynote. He paused to greet the gathering in multiple languages, then powerfully reminded us that it’s not enough to have a dream; that like Dr. King, we must also act to bring the dream into being.

Music and poetry, one-word descriptors of Newberg at its best, and a whole bunch of kindergartners marching in “peaceful protest” carried the spirit of both action and celebration.

The day before, a crowd at a Unitarian Universalist gathering in McMinnville was challenged by Kaki Marshall of San Francisco, previously with Portland’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. She shared a runthrough of U.S. history predating nationhood.

She related how laws were written to create white benefits and privileges, and how that continued over the years to forge a society benefiting those already holding power and wealth, at the expense of oppressed non-whites. Oregon was right in there, she noted, though most of us aren’t familiar with Oregon’s deep history of racism.

Kaki asked, “Are we OK that this is not in the history books?” No, because understanding that we live in a system that is racist — in that it continues to dispense benefits and advantages unjustly — presents us with a responsibility to learn, discover our role in creating justice, and act.

Kathy Beckwith

Dayton