LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Global population crisis looms

It's clear that all is not well in the world today. The problems facing us are myriad: from fear-mongering politicians, mind-deadening media and low wages to soulless urban sprawl and endless traffic.

We seek solace in Prozac and television and try to ignore what seems impossible to control. The future is truly frightening for those who dare to consider our predicament.

There are more than 6 billion mouths to feed on the planet. To feed them, we use almost half of Earth's photosynthetic output, augmented with nonrenewable fossil fuel-based fertilizers, using farming methods that lose almost 1 percent of the world's topsoil annually. I think we know this can't last much longer.

Most of our current problems boil down to not enough resources for too many people. The sensible, humane solution is to immediately put programs in place that will start a downward population trend before nature starts her own cruel process. For example, tax policies and education credits that reward single-child families are in order. Education, public awareness and a public dialogue needs to begin and should be encouraged by politicians of all stripes.

It's likely the world will lose three-fourths of its population in the next century to famine, wars and disease. The human misery will make the recent tsunami seem like a picnic. Solutions start at home.

Educate yourself and your children, and envision a world with many fewer people. Then imagine how we can get there, and start a dialogue.

GARY RONDEAU 

Eugene

Iraq war hurts America's poor

I do confess that I am one of those liberals in whom the taint of a stolen election still lingered from 2000. Now, in 2004, I actually feel better that President Bush won in both the popular vote and the electoral college. Now, he is only as bad as our last worst president, Ronald Reagan.

I do worry about the cost of Bush's war on the health and well-being of this country, however. After all, Vietnam lost Lyndon Johnson his Great Society, his attempt to lift the poor from poverty, because of the spiraling costs of that war.

I wonder what this country will lose to the spiraling costs of Iraq, especially when Bush isn't trying to do a damn thing for the poor.

REBECCA WILSON 

Springfield

An LTD strike won't be forgotten

I don't know much about strikes. For 42 years I ran my own business and didn't have to deal with disgruntled workers, management and unions, thank God!

But I have lived 79 years and learned something about human nature. I have noted during these times that strikes are always settled eventually. Lane Transit District isn't going to sell off the buses and close down the stations. It becomes a case of greed and posturing, and the ones who suffer the most are the customers. LTD drivers: If there were no customers, there'd be no buses.

So I read a very touching ad in the paper this morning about the drivers and how they care about little Johnnie getting off the bus alone and Ms. Anne's knees hurting when the weather is bad. I wonder if these are the same drivers Al Ligner complained about (letters, Jan. 24) who leave the customers, even those with wheelchairs, in the cold at the downtown station until 30 seconds before the buses leave?

Will disgruntled patrons hurt the workers or LTD more? Think about it: If the strike is going to be settled eventually, at great inconvenience to the riders, why isn't it going to be settled before a strike?

I make a prediction: There must be one thinking person in the union and LTD who will avoid the strike. After worrying riders (I won't be able to go to the SMART program and read to my kids), I predict a settlement will come.

If not, I predict a bitter time with both LTD and the drivers losing out. We won't forget.

FERDINAND IYOOB

Eugene

Forced fluoridation is unethical

Portland dentist William Ten Pas stated that the "need to trim costly health programs for the poor should lead lawmakers to low-cost prevention measures, such as water fluoridation."

Does he realize that the cost of fluoridating water is huge, and most of it goes down the drain into the already polluted watersheds? Fluoride is a toxic waste - a by-product of the industrial production of phosphate fertilizers. And what about the salmon and all other forms of life in the rivers and the oceans?

Since fluoride is topically effective, it would be much more efficient to use fluoride toothpaste if you are prone to cavities - and not everybody is. After all, it is for your teeth, not your whole body.

In fact, fluoride it is detrimental to health, particularly children's bodies and brains. It accumulates in the bones, making them prone to fracturing, and also in the pineal gland, where a primary regulatory hormone melatonin is produced and is necessary for our sleep cycle.

The World Health Organization determined that tooth decay was decreasing just as fast in nonfluoridated countries as in fluoridated ones. The worst decay is in poor neighborhoods in the largest cities, many of which have fluoridation. When fluoridation was discontinued in several countries, tooth decay did not increase.

Lastly, it is unethical to force medication on a whole population without consent of the individual.

BETH ANDERSON

Eugene

We must fully fund our schools

Regarding Gov. Ted Kulongoski's proposed school budget which, according to Susan Castillo's Jan. 26 guest viewpoint, will fund our schools at 1991 levels, I would like to quote a bumper sticker a friend of mine has on her car:

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

I don't care how the Legislature and the rest of the politicians in Salem do it, or how long it takes, or how many special sessions they have to sit through - I want them to find stable funding for our schools that will ensure every child in every city or town in all of Oregon is guaranteed the best education our money can buy, because it is our money, not theirs.

And remember the bumper sticker.

SARAH LASZLO

Eugene

Where does Measure 37 stop?

If the government (taxpayers) must now compensate landowners when land use regulations devalue their property, why is not the reverse also fair?

For instance, landowners should compensate the government (taxpayers) when regulations increase the value of their properties by means of clean air, nice views, intelligent zoning, etc.

What happens when landowners receive permission to alter the use of their properties in a way that affects their neighbors? Does that have a domino effect onto the adjacent landowners, giving them the right to make a claim against the government because Measure 37 has now affected the value of their properties by allowing the once-restricted use of adjacent parcels to alter their quality of life?

Where does it stop?

PAUL DUSTRUD

Eugene

Bush thinks little of seniors

Between the twin perils of the high cost of pharmaceuticals and the impending curtailment of Social Security benefits, our esteemed president finally has learned something from, of all things, a book. Charles Dickens, to be precise, in the famous "Christmas Carol in Prose," as pronounced by Ebenezer Scrooge: "... and reduce the excess population!" He should have said "the older population." What a marvelous scheme to reduce the unproductive, greedy elders and their unpatriotic urge to grow even older.

Perhaps a fitting response, slightly modified, would be by another literary giant, William Shakespeare: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth to have a thankless president."

PETER F. HUMMEL 

Eugene

Private accounts will be better

The time has come to change the Social Security, government IOU, pay-as-you-go system into your own personal savings and investment program.

Currently, Social Security pays no interest on the money deducted as FICA on your payroll checks. If you die early or before you retire, the government keeps the money. Your beneficiaries receive nothing. Politicians borrow that money for their special projects and pork-barrel spending. They write an IOU to be met sometime in the future.

We think there is a better way. All new workers entering the workforce would have their FICA deductions deposited in their own 401K or Roth IRA or a similar pension fund. Everyone now in the system could be given the choice to opt out or stay. Everyone who chooses to stay in the government program would be guaranteed their retirement checks.

This is how Chile designed its program more than 20 years ago. Chile calculated it would take 25 years to move most people out of the government system. Because of compound interest, most retirees opted out and the transition took less than 10 years.

Another huge benefit in addition to owning your hard-earned money is that you would eliminate the growing deficit in Social Security. That money would be in the private sector providing much-needed capital for small businesses to grow and provide jobs. At the very least, ask for the same retirement program federal workers and congressmen have designed for themselves.

JERRY DYKSTERHUIS

DEANNA DYKSTERHUIS

Monroe

Little comfort in vigilante case

It is reassuring to know that the district attorney continues to honor the comforting tradition of absolving vigilante executions.

BERNARD NICKERSON

Eugene