LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Bush should meet with Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan is a mother who lost her precious child, 24-year-old Casey, in Iraq. She is driven to ask President Bush why her boy died.

Sounds fair enough, but Bush has been unresponsive to her pleas, which I interpret as insensitivity to a mother's grief. Sheehan has been camped near Bush's Texas ranch, but he refuses to speak with her and answer some hard but fair questions.

Bush periodically meets with the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and met briefly with Sheehan at one time. According to her account, Bush did not know Casey's name, nor did he make eye contact, and he continually referred to her as "Mom."

I really find that disrespectful and insensitive. When the family tried to tell Bush how they missed Casey, he changed the subject and acted as if they were at a party.

I will tell you why I believe this to be true. I carry an image of Bush, on national television, pulling back the corners of a rug and saying "no weapons of mass destruction here," making a joke and a game of it, while soldiers were dying in their effort to find President Bush's weapons of mass destruction.

Bush should meet with Sheehan, reporters and all. He claims to be a Christian and a man of compassion, so let him prove it.

Cindy Sheehan wants to look into Bush's eyes; I think all she will find is an abyss, devoid of empathy.

PATRICIA KORTT

Eugene

In whose 'God' do we trust?

Ralph Bates' July 20 letter asserted that since the name of "God" is inserted into a few minor oaths of office, it automatically means that America was meant to be a Christian nation. To this logic of faulty comparison I can only say: "Horsefeathers!"

Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli begins with: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." This treaty was signed in the last year of the last term of President George Washington.

Besides, just because God is used in an oath, I would say it is the height of hubris to insist that it is your God that is being referred to. After all, which God is being referred to on our legal tender?

Isn't it amazing what you can dig up if you take the time to actually read history books instead of banning or burning them?

RICHARD B. MARTIN

Veneta

Prison abuse more like hazing

I wonder if the writer of the Aug. 8 "Motives for murder" editorial remembers the beheading of people by the so-called Muslim insurgents during this "Bush war," as the editorial calls it.

I think the beheadings are a lot more serious than the few supposed immoral acts some of our troops did to the Muslim men prisoners. Some of those "disgusting, immoral acts of torture and abuse at the hands of their American captors" are little more than can be found when being inducted into a fraternity house. Let's get real with what is really going on and put the blame where it belongs - back on the ones really using abusive tactics instead of on high school or college pranks.

It is my belief that if the Iraqi and Afghan people were so incensed by the U.S. military being in their country, they would join the fight against the insurgents and take back their own country so we could come home. We sure don't like being there, but somehow all the news doesn't get out and all we hear is how wrong we are in helping them. With as many guns as are in everyone's hands in those Iraqi cities, it shouldn't take too long. The trouble as I see it is those people don't recognize the insurgents any better than we do.

Three cheers for the United States servicemen and -women for having the courage to stand up against a brutal tyrant even though he was in another country. He had terrorized his own people for 30 years.

RICHARD THOMAS 

Creswell

4J School Board acted wisely

The Register-Guard's Aug. 7 editorial supporting "drastic" outcomes from the alternative schools review process seems intended to throw oil on a fire that was dying down.

The Eugene School Board was correct to clarify that a fair approach to the first-ever review of alternative schools would be for the district to take steps to improve schools. All alternative schools have been operating under district policies and supervision for years; there is no reasonable scenario under which closure, merger or relocation - all of which end the independent, viable life of a school community - are appropriate first outcomes.

Alternative schools are part of the solution to equity and diversity issues in Eugene. This past spring, the school board wisely established new tools to increase diversity at alternative schools by changing the lottery and improving outreach to educate families in the district about school choice options. These steps deserve a chance to work.

In the meantime, efforts to undermine nontraditional education at alternative schools, from these pages and elsewhere, should cease.

MARGIE KELLY

Eugene

Editorial comes close to treason

To my way of thinking, the Aug. 8 editorial "Motives for murder" comes as close to inciting treason as anything I have ever heard or read.

How in the world can the Democrats wonder, even for one moment, why they lost the last election when people such as whoever wrote that editorial are running around loose?

Of course our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq have ratcheted up the terrorist activities. This only underlines the crying need for our intervention. Simply put, we believe in inalienable human rights and in protecting those rights. Much of the Muslim world does not agree with us and therefore hates us for harboring such "blasphemy" and hates us even more for acting upon our beliefs. Make no mistake, these anti-American feelings were there long before we took action.

We are doing the right thing. The author of that editorial strikes me as further left than liberal - in fact, as outright un-American.

PAUL LARSON 

Florence

Talk to kids about gun safety

My 9-year-old daughter was shot recently with an air gun. I phoned the police.

While waiting, I found out that at least two other children, ages 8 and 14, had been shot by the same 10-year-old. The 8-year-old was shot in the neck but was afraid to let his parents know. He was not supposed to be near the other boy.

My frustration is that there is nothing that will happen to the shooter until someone is seriously harmed. The father yelled at me the last time that I complained about the child. Mind you, this "child" can swear at adults and can do just about anything that he wants to do. At one time, the father told me, "Kids will be kids, I just let them work it out."

I tend to be a private person and keep to myself. But when children - mine or someone else's - are in harm's way, I tend to take action. I would rather err on the side of caution than on the side of a coffin.

If this had hit the one child in the ear, or another in the eye, I shudder at the thought. Air guns are not supposed to be fired in city limits, but they are. Parents, please talk to your children about gun safety. In a few years, will we be saying, "Where was the help early on for this poor boy?"

CARYLE TYLERKAYS

Springfield

Arlie site won't fit a hospital

Does reporter Edward Russo believe in fact checking? This is the second time in three months I have been forced to correct a story written by Russo.

In his Aug. 9 article about Triad Hospital's search for a site, Russo states that Arlie & Company has approached Triad offering the Crescent Village site as a possible hospital site. This is absolutely untrue and is nothing more than hearsay.

We have not had any discussions with Triad or McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center regarding a hospital site since Councilor Bonny Bettman redirected their search from North Eugene to south of the river 14 months ago.

Had Russo taken the time to check his facts with Arlie & Company, he would have understood we are committed to the mixed-use development currently being built on the Crescent site.

Even though the Crescent site is zoned for a hospital, there is no room left to accommodate a hospital because the planning process is completed with the city for a mixed-use development and construction has already started.

In the future, when writing about the actions of our company, reporters should contact us directly to check their facts. We are in the phone book.

SCOTT M. DIEHL

Chief operating officer 

Arlie & Company

Eugene

Oil companies reap windfall

Talk about a return on investment! The oil and gas industries contribute a few paltry millions (about $182 million since 1990) to our elected officials, and the Republican-controlled Congress and the oil men in the White House pass a so-called "energy bill" with billions of dollars in tax breaks to these same industries.

And are these companies on the verge of bankruptcy? Not quite. With record energy prices, they're raking in record profits while we, the people, rake up record deficits and high gas prices.

Thank you, Mr. President, and all our elected officials who kneel at the trough of special interest money. What part of "public" in public servant don't you understand?

JAMES JOHNSON

Eugene