Letters to the Editor: March 6, 2026

Simply wrong

As an octogenarian, I’ve had a lifetime to learn the difference between right and wrong and live by that understanding. I don’t claim to have lived a perfect life, but I have always believed that the ability to distinguish right from wrong was a shared human trait.

Lately, I’m not so sure. It seems that what’s “right” or “wrong” now depends on which political party you belong to.

If my party does something, it’s excused. If your party does the same, it’s condemned.

When did we lose the ability to judge an act simply on its merits?

How can anyone watch the assassination of Pretti and say he endangered the agents who took him down? How can anyone see the video of Good leaving the scene and claim she deserved to be shot in the face? How can anyone watch a 5-year-old torn from his parents and think it’s acceptable?

At times, I feel as though I’ve been transported to a parallel universe.

This isn’t just a Republican problem. Democrats, too, are guilty of excusing wrongdoing when it comes from their own side. It’s just that, at the moment, Republicans hold power and seem more willing to hide behind party loyalty.

It’s time we take a stand based on what we actually see, not what we wish to see. It’s time we call things by their true names and stand up for right versus wrong.

If that seems difficult, imagine these events happening to someone you love.

Party affiliation won’t matter when tragedy strikes close to home.

Pretti and Good paid the ultimate price. And they were human beings before they were political symbols.

Let’s find the courage to call out wrongdoing for what it is — simply wrong.

John Rickert

McMinnville

Fixation

Once again, Democrats demonstrated their contempt for the American people with their despicable display at Trump’s State of the Union Address. On numerous occasions they chose to shun common decency when given the chance to honor guests.

There were plenty of examples: Refusing to stand or clap for medals of honor awarded to Army Chief Slover or to 100-year-old Navy Capt. Royce Williams. Refusing to stand or clap when Trump introduced Erika Kirk or the mother of North Carolina murder victim Iryna Zarutska.

The most appalling example came when Trump asked “everyone to stand if Americans should be first,” before illegal immigrants, and Democrats just sat there. As Trump pointed out, “Have you no shame?”

Democrats are the scourge of America. They hate America.

Their sole purpose is to get Trump. They could care less how their fixation on Trump is destroying America.

Robert Long

McMinnville

Nuclear next?

Investigation into the Epstein files recently discovered notes from three of four FBI interviews with an alleged victim were missing.

The victim claimed that when she was 13 or 14, in the 1980s, both Epstein and Trump sexually assaulted her. She came forward in 2019.

A New York Times review of page numbers suggests that more than 50 pages of interview transcripts were missing.

As this was coming to light, negotiations with Iran in an effort to avoid war were taking place, and seemed to be going well. At the close of negotiations on Feb. 16, Iranian foreign minister Badr Al Busaidi reported on X that significant progress had been made.

Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, reported two days later in a special Saturday edition of Democracy Now, Amy Goodman’s 30-year-old current affairs broadcast, “Inside the negotiations, the Iranians moved significantly and offered concessions that made the deal on the table dramatically better than the deal Obama made in 2015.”

A little more than 24 hours later, without consultation with Congress, President Trump joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to initiate a major bombing campaign against Iran. As a result, the news now is now totally obsessed with Iran.

Trump is referenced more than one million times in the Epstein files. He appears on Epstein’s flight logs at least eight times between 1993 and 1996.

What greater distraction could have been conceived? A war of choice — illegal, unconstitutional and totally unnecessary — conveniently erupts.

I believe the Epstein problem will eventually topple the Trump administration. I just hope it occurs before he is pushed to use the nuclear option as his next big distraction.

Les Howsden

Amity

Fox in henhouse?

Is this corrupt or just sleazy?

Yamhill County Commissioner Kit Johnston, spearheading the county’s drive to permanently do away with the publicly owned Yamhelas Westsider Trail corridor, has issued findings drafted by Wendie Kellington’s law firm.

Ms. Kellington is the lawyer for several landowners who are close friends of Johnston and stand to be the sole beneficiaries of the sale of pieces of the corridor. Selling pieces would destroy the transportation value of the corridor and require repayment of almost $2 million in transportation grants.

It is standard legal practice that the winner draft the findings. But Commissioner Johnston paying his friends’ lawyers with public funds is not standard practice.
It is sleazy, if not corrupt. And it is plain bad governance on the part of the current board.

Todd Sadlo

Portland

No justification

Do your own research. Don’t just take my word for it.

Use Google, the Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.org/), the National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov), your local library or your favorite source of legitimate medical information. Investigate the definitions and diagnoses of “narcissist” and “paranoid.”

I expect you will find that President Trump is increasingly meeting the classic definition and diagnosis of a “paranoid narcissist,” also known as a “malignant narcissist.”

Now investigate one more question: “Who were the world’s most famous paranoid narcissists?” You will find the most common answers to that question are “Hitler” and “Stalin.”

Two more thoughts for your consideration:

How will future history books describe those among us who supported and encouraged a 21st century version of Hitler and Stalin? How could we justify that to our grandchildren?

David Pfendler, M.D.

McMinnville

Unfounded stops

There’s a problem going on in American communities, and it’s going to get worse as time goes by.

Currently ICE and the Border Patrol are detaining and arresting people they suspect of being in the country illegally. In lieu of probable cause, they are using a person’s appearance to determine whether they will be stopped.

The Supreme Court has already ruled on this. It has given them the OK to continue.

The problem I’m talking about is just one of many, but this one in particular affects legal U.S. citizens.

As these raids continue, there will be fewer and fewer people walking the streets who came here illegally. The pressure to reach daily quotas will continue, thus guaranteeing that more and more American citizens will be scooped up to spend more and more time in jail.

If this program is going to continue for any length of time, the people running it need to provide some type of ID that will allow a U.S. citizen to avoid spending time behind bars simply for having Hispanic heritage.

Fred Fawcett

Lafayette

The world peace guy?

I’m confused. How can a president who has created a Board of Peace start a war by ordering the unprovoked bombing of another country?

Gary Langenwalter

McMinnville