LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

You call this management?

Recently I have been asking myself, "What is good management?" I know that thousands of dollars are spent for nationwide searches for managers. It seems that no local managers are able to handle local manager jobs as when a new manager is hired they usually come from out of the local area. Managing must be a tough job.

I always thought that good managers controlled and planned the successful operation of an enterprise. That planning includes, but is not limited to, the physical infrastructure of the enterprise, anticipated improvements and predictable financial shortfalls.

Why does it seem that our local governments are managed by crisis? Even though the Lane County commissioners (managers) knew that a financial shortfall was looming for at least 10 years, why did they not develop new funding mechanisms and implement them over that period of time?

EWEB just announced that rates must be raised to replace failing infrastructure. I guess it did not enter the minds of the highly paid managers that eventually the infrastructure would need to be replaced and a plan was needed to progressively upgrade the oldest infrastructure to avoid excessive rate increases. I guess because other Oregon cities are paying more for water, Eugene and Springfield should too. Good management? I think not.

It is time for highly paid managers to do their jobs so that a poor old retired cuss like me can enjoy going to a county park occasionally.

ARVID FREIBERG

Springfield

Library needs volunteers

The Leaburg Library building needs help!

The historic Leaburg School building, which has served as home for the free Leaburg Library since 1984, needs the help of members of the McKenzie Valley community. The picturesque building, built in 1923, was the local school until 1970. McKenzie Rural Fire District now owns the property and has allowed Leaburg Library volunteers to operate free of charge since 1984. During that time the McKenzie River Lions Club has paid for utilities and provided simple maintenance for the building. In the past five years the Walterville Preschool has met in the brightly decorated downstairs, bringing back a youthful presence reminiscent of the building's early life.

Amazingly, the old building has shown great resilience for its 84 years, but now the need for some minor and major repairs is evident. For starters, the trees and shrubs around the building need drastic, but careful, pruning. Gutters need cleaning, repairs and repositioning. Later in the year the various involved groups will embark on a fundraiser to help pay for the much-needed painting and plumbing upgrades.

The Leaburg Library hopes volunteers will sign up to help us with these projects. We need you!

DIANE ANDERSON

Springfield

Veteran's story hurts

"War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'! Say it again."

My son and I both cried this morning as we held each other, reading the article on Sgt. Will Glass (Register-Guard, May 27). We remember the above song, along with Pink's song and video "Dear Mister President." Many of us quibble with little things, whether it be a messy yard, a cold, a person's opinion of us. We should refocus, think of priorities, not be blind to the constant turmoil, pain, the worldly debt of war and scarred spirits.

Our boys, girls, men and women go into the pit of war, faced with innocent faces they don't know that are stricken with fear, tears, fighting to live, seeing the dying and dead. For surviving loved ones, can we fathom their uncertainty? What happened to empathy?

To Sgt. Glass I say, "Thank you for being you. I am proud of you for taking a stand for our country. I salute you. You have given so much of yourself for us. I'm sorry, it's not fair for what you have and are going through. You have given us the opportunity to see the scars of war." I close with the invitation from Pink's song, please come "take a walk with me."

CHRISTINE

HUTCHINSON

Springfield

Tax foes deserve better

I am getting incredibly sick and tired of reading letters in this paper from people who pretentiously declare everyone who voted down the income tax measure "selfish" or "ignorant." The constant refrain is that if you voted against the tax, you hate our county and want to see it dissolve into anarchy with rapists and drug zombies roaming the streets "Dawn of the Dead" style. Baloney.

The primary concern seems to be the 50 or so beds at the county jail that could be lost. If people are so worried about jail space, maybe we should consider eliminating these ridiculous drug laws that hold a college student caught smoking weed in the pen while releasing a car thief or wife-beater. That'd free up a hundred or so beds.

And then there was the attached amendment to the tax calling for a cap on increases; it reminded me of the "low, low introductory rate" line that loan-sharking credit card companies try to suck me in with. No thanks. Now the county government will have to get serious about prioritizing its law enforcement policies and perhaps, horror of horrors, learn how to budget without hitting the big red TAX button.

STEVE McALLISTER 

Springfield

We've seen this all before

Immigration is one of the hot button issues in Congress and in the media and the debate seems to produce more heat than light. To me, all of this sounds similar to the discussions that took place in the United States in 1847 except the Mexicans were the Irish.

In 1847, Ireland was still under English control and, similar to today's Mexico, a small number of people owned most of the land and used their land to grow wheat for export while their serfs were given an acre of the land upon which to grow the food they needed. One of the most common uses of the land was to grow potatoes.

When this crop suddenly failed, Ireland's 8 million were faced with a Hobson's choice: they could either starve or emigrate. Over 1 million were allowed to starve while over 3 million emigrated to the United States. When these poor, starving people started arriving in large numbers in the United States, they were treated in the same way that Mexicans are arriving in the United States are today .

In 1999, former Gov. Kitzhaber signed into law Senate Bill 771, which called for the state Department of Education to prepare and Oregon schools to teach a unit of instruction to be known as the Irish Famine Curriculum. Ask your school district how to access it and read what those Irish immigrants had to face, how they were treated by the media of the day and their contributions to the United States they and their descendants have made to this country before you decide your position on today's immigration debate.

If we don't know our immigration history, we may be doomed to repeat it.

G. DENNIS SHINE

Springfield

Bush exploiting Sept. 11

Jonah Goldberg (Register-Guard, May 17) asserts that a majority of Democrats "are out of their gourds" because 39 percent of those polled believed that President Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attack. He neglects to point out that 18 percent of Republicans share in that belief. Since Goldberg defines 39 percent to be a majority, why not extend this arbitrary definition to include 18 percent so we may then assert that a "majority of Republicans are out of their gourds" as well?

Considering that none of the stated reasons for invading Iraq were valid, is it unreasonable to conclude that the real reason was oil? Prior to the invasion, lucrative oil drilling contracts were held by Russia, China, and France; the United States and Great Britain were out in the cold. Six months before the horror of 9/11, Vice President Cheney had his still-secret meetings with oil company representatives during which a map of Iraq was carved up parceling out the oil drilling rights.

The United States is now pressuring the Iraqi Parliament to establish a Federal Oil and Gas Council and members of this council will include CEOs of related petroleum companies. It is probable that United States and British oil companies wrote this piece of legislation.

I don't believe Bush knew about 9/11 beforehand but he has certainly exploited this national tragedy to bestow upon himself the mantle of a monarch and to reward his courtiers handsomely.

HENRY J. BIELEFELD

Springfield

Smokers should just quit

Karen L. Wills from Creswell (letters, May 19) wants to know about smokers' rights.

On May 22, the anniversary of the Lady of TV advertisement against secondhand smoke deaths was celebrated. What about her right to live? Who paid for her medical and funeral bills?

Oh sure, you never smoke around other nonsmokers? What about the smoke that clings to your clothing and contaminates the air of people around you. You will never smell it, never taste how good food is without heaping sugar on it.

What I really don't understand is how some educated person can put up with being controlled by a company a continent away that adds things to their cigarettes that control every movement they make, like when they would divorce a spouse in a blink of an eye if the spouse tried to control even a part of their every-day movements? I can assure Wills that life will go on quite well without smoke, in fact even better.

A smoker has the right to not smoke. A smoker has the right not to buy overpriced, overtaxed and health-hazardous chemical-enhanced cigarettes. The message is if you don't want to pay the price for them, don't buy them. If you cannot quit for the rest of your life, you need to quit more than ever! Please sign me "smoke-free in Springfield."

FRANK CRAMER

Springfield

Deception, cover-ups, scandals and countless immoral and unethical acts.

He is not representative of my values or most people's of our great country. He is both an embarrassment and a liability and it is time for him to go.

TIM THOREN

Springfield