LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Don't ignore massive vote fraud

I want to applaud The Register-Guard's courageous reporting of unpopular photos and articles.

The masthead states clearly the newspaper's intention to promote factual information, whatever the result. It is with this in mind I shudder and question the inadequate reporting of widespread election-day fraud.

Overwhelming evidence pours in daily from a wide range of sources, such as S.F. Freeman, the University of Pennsylvania, the California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ESENIEX Security Symposium, the National Bureau of Standards, Rep. John Conyers, The London Independent, The London Guardian, DemocracyNow!, board of elections vote counts and CBS News - as well as local papers where discrepancies were most obvious such as the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Michigan City News-Dispatch, the Columbus Free Press and the Palm Beach Post.

Indisputable, extremely respectable reports document miscounts and "smoking gun" vote-count irregularities, yet The Register-Guard pooh-poohs these reports as insignificant work of fringe element kooks.

I assure you, these reports are anything but fringe element kooky. Mainstream studies are daily uncovering an undeniable mountain of evidence that this election was stolen.

Please respect your readers by offering factual and unbiased reporting regarding this issue.

NEIL FRIEDMAN

Westfir

Gays, Christians need healing

I am writing this as a response to Heath Wilkinson's letter on Nov. 18.

First of all, I would like to apologize for the actions of the Measure 36 protesters. I wasn't involved, but I feel Wilkinson is right.

If I had been confronted with that, I would have most likely voted yes on Measure 36. I know I do not represent the whole queer community, and Wilkinson does not represent the whole Christian community. In reality, I am nothing but a friend whose condition is hanging tightly to the end of that quaint acronym GLBT - Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender.

Damage, hurt and hate have been dealt to both sides, and in this, none of us are innocent. I fear if no one takes the step for harmony, or at least truce, that children of both sides will grow up with their parents' hateful prejudices or just the opposite, a hate from the other side.

I'm not arguing morals, I'm arguing humanity. I respect Christians, and I respect homosexuals, but if things like what Wilkinson said happened keep happening, I'm not sure I would want to be part of either side. I feel I belong to both, however, and I hope that when I ask for peace, that my request is heeded.

I also agree with Wilkinson's closing statement: May God bless America. I pray that we'll be saved from ourselves and the hates that have unwittingly been unleashed into this society.

ESMAEL A. SPENCER

Walterville

Marine was just doing his job

I was shocked to see we are holding a Marine in question because he shot an enemy.

We will never win this war, or any war, until we understand our enemies and the way they fight and sacrifice. These people will commit suicide by blowing themselves up in any situation; they will booby-trap their own bodies. To make matters worse, these people use their own mosques to hide and fire at our troops.

It would be a disgrace at the very least to punish this brave Marine for doing his job. He was wounded just the day before, and yet he was dedicated enough to come back and fight, only to be scorned and put under suspicion.

We can't expect our young men and women to fight with their hands tied behind their backs. Please stop this disgraceful investigation. I would like to see people write their repre- sentatives.

JERRY NORCIA

Creswell

Marine shooting wasn't a crime

As someone who never favored sending troops to Iraq, I can understand how some might be horrified by the recent videotaped shooting of a wounded Iraqi by a Marine in a mosque. Nevertheless, suggestions that this was improper, perhaps even a war crime, are way off base.

It shows a fundamental lack of understanding of combat, especially in an insurgency war. The militants in Iraq are fighting much as the Japanese did in World War II, except in Iraq, they aren't wearing uniforms.

In the Pacific war, our veterans - the "Greatest Generation," our loving grandparents - routinely tossed grenades into caves without first checking to see what was inside them. They shot wounded Japanese soldiers because the emperor's soldiers so often faked death in order to take a few Marines with them. The choice was: Take no chances, or take more casualties. Both sides chose the former.

It would be helpful for us to remember the difference between actual war crimes and the simple, but common, tragedies of combat. The NBC photographer's statement that the first words out of the Marine shooter's mouth were "I didn't know, sir" after his belated realization shows a lack of intent.

In truth, incidents like this are the fault of the insurgents themselves. If you use unorthodox tactics (such as playing dead to launch an attack), expect "play it safe" responses from the troops. The Geneva Conventions prohibit such unorthodox strategies because they lead to the predictable response we saw in that mosque.

DAN CARLIN 

Eugene

If all else fails, there's an option

As the deaths mount and the national treasury dwindles, our respect in the world fades even further.

When you begin to wonder how you will pay for your child's college education in the face of rising tuition and cuts in student loan programs, an education that represents the best hope for avoiding rising competition from cheap foreign labor; when the forests are falling and the fish can't be eaten; when you realize no child's future has been left unmortgaged; when health care costs continue to soar and Social Security diminishes; when you notice the government is unwilling to invest in retraining and other programs to help the unemployed; when you are finished fixing gays and cussing and you realize how many other important societal issues have been neglected; when the air you breathe and the water you drink are further fouled; when your freedoms are curtailed and government's eyes begin to intrude; when deep cuts in federal spending accelerate the erosion of the infrastructure so vital to our economy, as payments for classroom materials, fees to visit parks and so on increase; when state and local taxes rise to combat deficits made far worse by falling federal support; when big business comes to town putting your own small-business job at risk and you begin to wonder if you are truly better off overall - as you begin to realize how seriously you were misled on these and so many other issues, the Democratic Party will welcome you with open arms.

MARK THOMA

Eugene

Bring back the electric trolleys

I am writing a letter in response to the Nov. 18 letter by Elaine Rees, "Buses reduce oil consumption."

This brings back memories of my childhood when I used to take public transportation to and from Wiesbrook Grade School. Of course, this goes back many years for me, because I used to live out in the country where I grew up. I used to ride the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad, which has been out of service since 1957.

In the morning, my father would give me two nickels for the train fare to and from school. But sometimes I would walk home from school and save those nickels and splurge on Friday by taking the train out to Warrenville to have a nickel ice cream cone and wait at the train station for the return trip home.

Rees mentioned she saw some motorists traveling on Coburg Road with only the driver and no passengers. Now if we want to change this, we should bring back all the trolleys to all of the people who live outside of the public transportation system. Where I currently live there is no public transportation, so you drive yourself from home to wherever you desire to go to and back.

There is another thing - trolleys run on electricity generated by electrical generating plants at the river dams. No pollution!

PHILIP D. GARROD

Drain

Iraqis want to have normal lives

I have no doubts whatsoever that there are people in Iraq just like myself. People who get up every day wishing and hoping that all they had to worry about was seeing their children grow up healthy and happy. People who just want to be with their wives or husbands until they grow old so they can watch their children's children come visit them and grow up.

I have no doubt that there are decent, loving, giving, hopeful human beings in Iraq who are appalled at the beheadings and senseless death that accompanies war.

I also have no doubt that there are sad, pathetic, ignorant people who think and feel that it is OK to kill innocent people in Iraq. I would like to ask Christy Taylor (letters, Nov. 22) to take the extra step beyond being a red-blooded American and take a step toward humanity.

PAM MAMULA

Eugene

Devaluing life leads to genocide

Christy Taylor's Nov. 22 letter is nothing more than the same thinly veiled straw man argument that rightist America has been holding over the head of anyone to the left of Sen. John McCain for 10 years.

By implying that liberals and progressives did not grieve for the deaths of Nick Berg, Kenneth Bigley, Kim Sung-il, Margaret Hassan and all the rest, Taylor does herself and those taken in by this ruse a great dis- service.

But it is far more damning, in my humble opinion, to state openly that the life of an Iraqi is less valuable than the life of an American. That is how genocide begins.

TUCKER SELKO

Corvallis