Letters to the Editor: Nov. 14, 2025

It’s on us

I want to thank each and every one of you for participating in marches against the man in the White House.

With the help of the Supreme Court, he created a hopeless atmosphere of despair for any positive help for our people. He doesn’t care if we eat; he doesn’t care if we have health care; he doesn’t care if we have a place to live.

What you did by expressing your dislike for his policies creates an awareness in the community that we must do something. And I’m sure what you did, as well as your counterparts in the rest of the country, made a tremendous contribution for the important elections in New Jersey, New York, California and Virginia.

It appears to me that we are the only ones left to save our democracy. Thank you so very much.

Ann Reid

McMinnville

Stay the course

The Yamhelas Westsider Trail, a 17-mile foot and bike trail over a long-shuttered Union Pacific rail line, would connect three small towns along Highway 47 from an eastern terminus near McMinnville. The right-of-way was purchased by Yamhill County in 2017.

The trail would eventually link up with the popular Banks-Vernonia State Trail and connect Gaston to Forest Grove, providing pedestrian access to Henry Hagg Lake. What vision our commissioners had back in 2017, when they voted to purchase this land and begin work on the trail!

This vision has also had opponents.

As work on the trail began, issues arose with the Land Use Board of Appeals. Rather than addressing them in good faith, Commissioners Berschauer and Starrett voted to scrap the project entirely, which meant losing a 1.7-million-dollar grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

But there is opportunity still available.

The Chehalem Cultural Center is a shining example of what can be done with local fundraising, federal and state grants, charitable foundation grants and local citizen volunteers, though it took 13 years to just complete the first phase. There are new grants from the state and federal government, as well as foundations.

This project is a legacy for future generations who want to enjoy hiking and biking the outdoors, off of our rural highways, and it’s not too late.

Recently, our County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 to remove the trail from the county transportation plan, which could lead to its eventual sale. The vote was taken without public notice, a sure indication commissioners knew there would be significant opposition,

In the spirit of future generations, we can’t allow two commissioners to shut this down.

I, along with many of our Yamhill County citizens, urge support of The Yamhelas Trail System. We can’t allow this opportunity for our community and generations to come for safe recreational access for hikers and bikers.

Mary Bonner

Amity

Fight we must

I agree that our democracy is chaotic and messy, Mr. Goecks. I disagree that our Constitution is functioning as designed.

Our Constitution is supposed to have three equal but separate branches. But Congress has abdicated its duty under pressure.

The executive branch seems to take laws and court decisions as suggestions. The judicial branch needs an enforceable code of ethics

Please recall there was a bipartisan immigration bill prior to the last presidential election that the president-elect suppressed. Now we are witnessing masked ICE agents without identification — and often without warrants — attacking and kidnapping human beings off our streets and outside our schools.

Agents are storming housing complexes in the middle of the night to zip tie adults and children and whisk them off. Human beings are being sent to a prison in El Salvador known for its torture and abuse, and taxpayers are paying for it.

Boats are being blown out of international waters without evidence of drugs. There is zero transparency from our government. Our superior military cannot seize these boats and arrest the occupants?

Redistricting is being used for voter suppression. Americans are being told mail-in ballots are rife with fraud, without evidence and contrary to fact.

Let’s look at Freedom Of Speech. Books are being banned and history is being erased. We are to believe that slavery wasn’t that bad?

Those in government service are losing jobs for disagreeing with this administration’s alternative reality. How much scientific and governmental experience and expertise have we lost already?

It feels as though America is witnessing a Nazi-inspired horror movie.

Mr. Goecks, I invite you and your “civics class” to read some of the protest signs. Our Democracy is not dead, but it is being trampled.

I never realized how fragile our democracy could be. Our love of the U.S.A. demands we fight for it.

Kathleen McGrath

McMinnville