Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Test leaders' honesty

Just since the 1960s, we've had a president who has organized and sponsored a professional burglary ring, a president who arranged to sell and did sell American weapons to an American enemy (Iran) and a presidential liar having kinky sex in the Oval Office. And now our current president has, according to recently revealed records, practiced corporate behavior of the kind that has caused our stock market disaster and the loss of life savings by thousands of hard working Americans, and a vice president caught taking what amount to financial bribes in the White House Blue Room.

Meanwhile, social scientists have developed extremely sophisticated and effective compulsory personality testing for would-be psychiatrists, law enforcement personnel and many other professionals as a prerequisite for entering their professions.

After all the malfeasance and dishonesty of our presidents and other political and corporate leaders, why do we continue to permit them to take office without the reassurance of their honesty and ability to govern?

JERRY COPELAND Florence

Invoke one, invoke all

If the U.S. Congress allows a society of Roman Catholic men to inject its concept of divinity into the Pledge of Allegiance, our solons should grant the same opportunity to all Americans. Monotheists wishing to indicate that they believe the nation is subservient to a single supreme being should be able to invoke the name of any deity they choose. Polytheists should have the ability to make multiple choices from among the countless gods and goddesses conjured up over the history of humankind. Agnostics and secular humanists desirous of saluting the flag should not be prevented from expressing their ambivalence or disbelief about the existence of supernatural entities.

The Declaration of Independence declares all men to be created equal. From this one might conclude that any group recital of the Pledge of Allegiance should provide for the utterances of sundry invocations such as under God, under Allah, under Odin and Frigga, under the Vishnu-Bramah-Siva triad, under a creator whose reality is impossible to affirm or deny, or under no god at all. Of course, this sort of all-inclusive communal rendition would be somewhat discordant and unwieldy.

However, there is no need for collective insanity. Francis Bellamy intended his pledge to be an affirmation of patriotism, not a catechism in religious dogma adopted by lawmakers under pressure from the Knights of Columbus and other McCarthyites. Accordingly, we should heed the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and simply return to the pre-1954 method of honoring our Stars and Stripes.

RON BLACK Junction City 

Low birth rate harmful

Typically, American couples around the mid-1960s saw having a family as their highest ideal; the average family size was near three children. Then feminists campaigned that these values were oppressive - while environmental scare-mongers frightened many into believing that childbirth led to environmental destruction. So what has adopting much of this rhetoric given us?

1) On July 19, The Register-Guard reported that researchers have found that increased breast cancer rates are associated (speaking in general terms) with women having fewer children. This isn't new knowledge; I remember in college hearing that nuns and lesbians have much higher rates of this disease.

2) "60 Minutes" recently featured a story on 30-something career women now discovering what they'd been taught about pursuing their career first and then maybe having babies later in life doesn't always fit with biology. Many financially successful women are disappointed to find their ability to have children may have passed them by and maybe they should have started families in their twenties.

3) The Register-Guard reported July 28 that rural America is dying out. In the past, rural attitudes ensured birth rates high enough to maintain populations and regional infrastructures even when many youth moved to cities. Unfortunately, low birth rate norms now extend nationwide.

Alan Greenspan recently advocated more immigration to offset labor shortages developing due to too-low birth rates. It's pretty sad when a country adopts attitudes on family that force it to rely on other countries to have babies to survive.

MICHAEL CROSS Eugene

Incivility often mutual

I am responding to Isabel J. Price (letters, July 29) regarding her qualms about today's youth and their unsavory attitudes, particularly those with skateboards.

Only five or six years ago, I was considered one of those "rude" individuals, complete with my trusty skateboard. My parents had taught me the rights and wrongs of etiquette, but I still found myself followed by store clerks who assumed I was engaged in thievery while adults often edged me out of lines and told me that my skateboard belonged only in my driveway. When I was 15, I wrote a letter to the editor expressing my qualms about the unsavory attitudes of adults, for my parents also taught me to stand up for myself.

I'm willing to bet a lot of money that even if Price is the most altruistic person ever, those skaters had been treated uncivilly in the past and were reacting with instinct. I'm not condoning their behavior, but only wish to point out that young people generally emulate what they are exposed to (that's why people like to harp on Eminem, right?).

I'm also willing to bet that if Price had not asked the skaters to leave (despite the fact that they were there first) and had, instead, asked them to demonstrate a trick or two, the profanity she experienced may have been replaced by smiles and eager attitudes.

LINDSAY BALLWEBER Eugene

Teenagers contribute

For the past five years, South Eugene High School students from the French immersion program have spent a week of their summer vacation to be counselors at a French camp for younger children here in Eugene. They spend many hours preparing for that camp.

We hear so much about bad teenagers, I thought the community should know about this group of young, responsible students being role models to many young children. Parents and this community can be proud of these teenagers.

CLAUDIE DANONVILLE Eugene

Israel defends itself

Regarding Brian Bogart's July 26 letter: No one likes watching innocent people die, especially children. Sadly, one fact has escaped the spotlight when people jump to condemn Israel for defending itself.

Before the second Intifada (Arabic for "Shake Off") started in September of 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat convened at Camp David in President Clinton's last effort to bring peace to the region. In a message of goodwill, Barak pulled Israeli forces out of Lebanon in the face of Hezbollah suicide bombings. Arafat saw this and let people like Salah Shehadah and Tariq Tawfir out of prison (the bomb makers who Israel has targeted), knowing they would murder and maim hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Israeli civilians. These men were already in jail! They were let out! Do I have to shout this?

Of course, in self-defense, Israel is blamed for the same type of cold blooded killings these bomb makers were carrying out daily in Israel. Israel wouldn't have been forced to kill them in the first place if Arafat hadn't let them out of prison to achieve his political goal of being "the builder of Palestine" (which is the translation of his name in Egypt, Abu Amar).

Barak paid his political price for his generosity to the Palestinians and the Arab League (when statehood was rejected by Arafat at Camp David) by being voted out by a margin of 2 to 1 in the next election. Ariel Sharon came to power, and life has been brutal for the Palestinians ever since.

Barak gave the Palestinians autonomous rule. He promised them a state. He gave their police forces American-made M-16s, and they were turned on Israeli children as thanks. Only when we uncover the motives of that murderer Arafat can we understand the motives of Israel's self-defense.

SETH KRIEG Roseburg

Road better for bikes

I must disagree with Lois Oleson's harsh criticism of the design of the newly completed improvement of Ayres Road (letters, July 27).

I ride my bicycle over it about five times a week and find it a very pleasant way to get home from the river trail. It certainly is attractive, and I fail to see what is unsafe about it for bicyclists.

Also, since the improvement to both Ayres Road and Delta Highway, I see more and more pedestrians enjoying the walk to the Delta Oaks shopping center. For motorists, there are 25 mph cautionary signs at both ends of Ayres Road - which is certainly fast enough for a residential area, particularly since it's so close to Gilham Elementary School.

My only suggestion for Ayres Road is to make the 25 mph a mandatory speed limit and prohibit through truck traffic. I ride my bicycle about 3,000 miles a year through many cities throughout our country, most recently from Baltimore, Md., to Buffalo, N.Y.

In talking to local bicyclists, state bicycle coordinators and clubs, I am happy to report that Eugene has a national reputation for having an outstanding bicycle program. Thanks, Eugene, and keep up the good work.

ANDREW G. BRTIS Eugene

Loose lips sink ships

Re The Register-Guard's July 29 article, "Novel strategy targets Iraqi weapons": Even considering the source of the story - The New York Times, traditionally ultra-liberal and no friend of the U.S. military - the article leaves one breathless at the ease with which we openly discuss what could be our future military objectives, tactics, strength, the specialties of armed forces to be deployed, etc.

There was a time when enemy agents risked their lives, and often lost them, just to obtain the sort of information that now amounts to casual reading in the local newspaper.

I shudder to think of the results that would have materialized during World War II if our enemies could merely purchase a daily newspaper and learn the date and tactics of our invasions at Utah and Omaha beaches, or the dates and targets of the decisive air raids against Japan that brought the war quickly to an end.

I have heard the phrase, "The public has a right to know." Does that include openly discussing military operations which, if successfully repelled, could result not just in a failed operation, but also in devastating loss of lives of our own and allied personnel?

ROGER N. PAGE 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. . Mail letters to Mailbag, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188 Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail]