Letters to the Editor: July 25, 2025

Better with less

Regarding the article from July 18 about the county parks situation, which raises some questions and need for comment.

First, ask us if we want more parks and are willing to pay for them. A park in every neighborhood is an extravagance we don’t have money for.

More parks mean money is spread more thinly, leaving less money for upkeep on existing parks. Let’s have less and better. Let’s make what we have the best it can be.

Why did we stop partnership with Community Justice for upkeep? The article stops short in telling us why that ended.

Let’s go back to that — more cost effective — and help the incarcerated to pay back to the community. Maybe they could learn some skills along the way.

Comparing us to other cities and counties doesn’t always work. There are extenuating circumstances that will always make us different. We don’t need to be like others.

Lastly, I think we could get more income out of the county fairgrounds. Trying to read the small reader board announcing events while driving past is not enough promotion, and the website is hard to navigate.

Let’s have a calendar in the local paper so people readily know what’s going on and can participate. Let’s promote that community asset to draw more people and funds.

Loretta Johnson

McMinnville

Unsung hero

The Yamhill Soil & Water Conservation District recently sent a newsletter to everyone in the district. It featured articles about the annual work plan and other interesting conservation subjects.

It also included an article about the history of the district’s native tree sale, the first in Oregon. It was a significant achievement that set a high bar for other districts.

The father of this Larry Ojua, was a visionary who saw the benefits and developed a plan to make it happen. He worked tirelessly recruiting volunteers, searching for trees, and conducting the sale under tarps during wet, cold sometimes snowy conditions.

Larry is an unsung hero. He would not want to be recognized, but should be.

Thanks, Larry, for making the native tree and plant sale what it is today.

Sam Sweeney

Dayton

War of starvation

Through its actions, Israel, with full support from the U.S., joined the ranks of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia.

The Israelis are intentionally starving people to death. They are intentionally shooting and killing men, women, and children trying only to get food to feed themselves.

Gaza is Israel’s Dachau and Auschwitz. The present Israeli government has, through this action, lost its right to exist on this planet.

I am ashamed of my country for participating. The U.S. should actively be supporting regime change in Israel.

Steven Rupp

McMinnville

Party of God?

On July 7, the IRS revealed it would no longer enforce a rule prohibiting “religious institutions from endorsing and raising money for particular political parties or candidates.”

For several years, a few passionately partisan political pastors have lobbied the IRS for this change and now it has come about. But for several reasons, I believe this is a bad idea.

First, even with all our diversity as human beings, we are still all in this life together. The role of religion is to remind us of that. It is to bind us together as neighbors of one another and all things living.

This IRS ruling will pit one religious approach against another in partisan competition rather than bring our various religions together to collaborate for the common good.

Second, this ruling will allow rich, powerful people to make large donations to political candidates and parties, claiming they are merely making contributions to a religious institution. This will allow them to evade laws governing campaign finance.

Third, it will allow rich, powerful people to buy a faith and manipulate it so their agenda for running the country and controlling the people becomes not just their agenda, but actually the word of God. If the agenda of those in power becomes the word of God, it paves the way for the persecution of anyone who does not bow down.

One of the big reasons people from Europe came to this continent was to escape religious persecution and, amid their diversity, live in freedom. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This new IRS ruling helps the rich and powerful establish a national religion crafted to serve their own ends.

Rev. Bryan Jessup

Retired Unitarian Universalist

Amity

Going to the dogs

Dogs reign! Our many furry friends on McMinnville’s famous Third Street now have their own restaurant, with a tailor-made charcuterie board and other specialty treats reserved solely for them.

Ann Helm

Lafayette

Editor’s note: Buchanan Cellers feed store is offering a “Dog Bar” pop-up on Third Street during Mac Fresco.