Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Missing no more

Missing transitional forms in the fossil record were a problem in Darwin's day, but not any more.

See, for instance, this passage from "What Evolution Is" by Ernst Mayr: "Archaeopteryx, a 145-million-year-old fossil bird, documents almost perfectly the intermediacy between reptiles and birds. It still had teeth, a long tail, simple ribs and the separated ilia and ischia of a reptile, but also had the feathers, the wings, the eyes, and the brain of a bird."

DAMON KNIGHT Eugene

Power bills hurt

Lots of us are on Social Security and have limited funds. We get a once-a-month check, which was never enough to begin with, and now we must find money to pay electric bills that are twice as big as they used to be. How are we going to pay these bills?

I was told I might get help from the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, but then was informed that there was a waiting list and that the program couldn't help me now because there was no money left. Does that sound familiar?

The Eugene Water & Electric Board - or anyone else - can raise prices. All it needs are customers who can afford what is being sold.

OZZIE OSBORNE Springfield

Daschle's spin on reality

Washington's most powerful Democrat, Tom Daschle, with typical Democratic spin, recently said President Bush's tax cut produced "the most dramatic fiscal deterioration in our nation's history." It is a good thing he was not speaking under oath.

Taken either as percentage of the gross domestic product, federal budget or any other measurement since World War II, there have been seven times when there was a larger percentage of drop in revenue than this one. Consider that fiscal 2001 ended with a $127 billion surplus.

Daschle complains that the tax cut is for the rich. In the past five years we have given income subsidies and price supports to farmers, many of whom live in his state of South Dakota, to the tune of $79 billion. Two-thirds of the income went to 10 percent of the farmers who make more than $250,000 annually, mostly multimillion dollar corporations. He supported this.

Those who would say this is just partisan spin should understand what spin is. It is a politician's way of working around reality to change our perception of the facts. They believe that changing the perception changes the reality for their constituents. For most folks who are not critical thinkers, unfortunately, it does just that.

DAVID R. EARL Eugene

The finger of guilt

"The guilty flee where no man pursueth," the good book says. The accountants' destruction of Enron records, based on that wisdom, points a finger of possible guilt.

Thousands of Oregonians and others are severely damaged in their retirement funds because of the goings-on at Enron. There is some evidence that they were gulled into keeping and buying Enron stock for retirement fund purposes, holding up the price while the big boys at Enron sold out and ran.

I am not one of those retirees, but I do understand how bad it would be to be gulled and looted out of your just retirement.

So I request that Hardy Myers, Oregon's attorney general, enter the lists on behalf of those retirees, somewhat as he did against the tobacco companies. The retirees cannot count on the federal government to right the past wrong. That level of government speaks only about possibly changing the law in some way for the future, not correcting the past destruction of our citizens' retirement funds. Besides, I'm suggesting a legal process, not a political one.

Is there a breach of fiduciary faithfulness here? A violation of the Oregon statutes on unfair trade practices? Of our little RICO (anti-racketeering) Act? Or of the laws regulating corporate stock sales? Or even of Security and Exchange Commission rules about insider trading or other unfairness? Will the Employee Retirement Income Security Act play here? Why not?

Myers should determine and enforce the remedies.

EDWARD N. FADELEY 

Former member

Oregon Supreme Court Creswell

Measure 11 works

In a Jan. 15 letter, a Florence resident who advocates slashing the corrections budget made some astounding mis-statements about Oregon's prison population.

Measure 11 is actually supported by Democrats and Republicans alike, as evidenced by the 3-to-1 vote against abolishing the law in the last election.

E.G. Ragsdale claims that Measure 11 is locking up people for "nonviolent crimes." This is true only if you consider child molestation, armed robbery, rape and manslaughter nonviolent crimes. Measure 11 has nothing to do with car thieves, burglars or drug dealers; it addresses serious violent felonies or sexual offenses against children.

Ragsdale goes on to claim that most of these rapists and killers were "gainfully employed," as if having a good job should keep criminals out of prison if they commit sexual assault.

His most incredible claim is "Every Oregonian is a possible criminal under Measure 11." That's true only if you're planning on doing an armed carjacking or molesting the 8-year-old girl next door.

Measure 11 is part of a coherent correctional policy that, perhaps for the first time in modern state history, holds offenders accountable and provides community-based programs for people who want to rehabilitate themselves. The entire corrections budget is 7 percent of the state's general fund, and it is penny-wise and pound foolish to cut it at a time when it seems to be working.

JOSHUA MARQUIS

Clatsop County District Attorney Astoria

Heed Iran's concerns

The Register-Guard's Jan. 16 editorial titled "Iran's dangerous course" inadvertently exposed the danger of President Bush's simplistic "you're either with us or against us" policy.

Consider this: If a foreign power that had a history of meddling in the internal affairs of the U.S. government suddenly placed military units in Canada and gained extraordinary influence over the top levels of Canadian government (all with the approval of the international community, of course), the United States would immediately do whatever it could to support its own allies there, including providing refuge and arms for them, if that were necessary.

Iran is doing the same thing; it is acting to defend itself from a perceived threat in a neighboring country.

To immediately assign a motive of evil to Iran's actions is irresponsible and will ultimately only serve to further divide our countries. Instead of hardening our stance toward the people and government of Iran, we should broaden our dialogue with them. While there is no doubt that we have many strong disagreements with the government of Iran, particularly over its support of groups such as Hezbollah, the only way to prevent further instability in the region is by slowly building trust and understanding between our peoples.

Bombs will never achieve this. Dialogue is the only option.

CHRIS RANDALL Eugene

Animals need help

As a member of the Lane County Animal Control Task Force formed by Lane County Commissioner Bill Dwyer, I was again dismayed by the latest statistics revealed at the last meeting on Jan. 9 of the number of animals being killed at the Lane County Animal Regulation Authority.

From July through October of 2001, 634 dogs were brought in. Of those, 62 percent were adopted and 38 percent were killed. More than 1,200 cats were brought in, and of those 94 percent were killed. The public needs to know these figures.

When people take an animal to animal control, especially a cat, they are taking that animal to be killed. People may be telling themselves that they are taking the pet to be placed in a new home, but realistically, they are taking that animal to be killed.

The communities of Eugene and Springfield must offer more support for LCARA to help stop the destruction of innocent animals, as well the devastating emotional toll on the employees who have to kill them. The rate of killing for cats has got to be one of worst in the nation - even extremely poor areas in the country have a better adoption rate. Why is this the case?

First, there are not sufficient funds available for staff to take care of the number of animals being brought in by the public. Second, there is not enough space, particularly for cats. Third, there are not enough low-cost spay/neuter programs available in the county to decrease the number of unwanted animals.

We can change this situation by supporting the latest efforts by Dwyer and the task force to expand the services available at LCARA.

If we all work together and make this a priority in our community, we can improve the lives of pets in Lane County and thereby improve our own.

DEANNA KUHN Eugene

Morrison has integrity

I am amazed and impressed that a modern politician would care enough about her community to revisit a bad voting decision and publicly admit her mistake.

Lane County Commissioner Anna Morrison must be a strong woman with integrity. Why else would she put her reputation on the line?

Unlike others who criticize her reversal, I applaud Morrison for being strong enough to admit that she's not perfect. I hope she is strong enough to support our local economy - losing 200 family wage jobs would not be healthy for Lane County.

Also, I hope she understands that maintaining the infrastructure of Lane County takes strength - and we need her to be strong.

ALISON SMITH Eugene

CAPTION(S):

The Register-Guard welcomes letters on topics of general interest. Our length limit is 250 words; all letters are subject to condensation. Writers are limited to one letter per calendar month. Because of the volume of mail, not all letters can be printed. Letters must be signed with the writer's full name. An address and daytime telephone number are needed for verification purposes; this information will not be published or released. Mail letters to Mailbag, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188 Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail]