From our weekly issue dated July 16, 2008

(Editor's Note: Views and commentary, including statements made as fact, are strictly those of the letter-writers.)

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Wild Blackberry Pickin’= fun ‘staycation’
From Mark Russo,festival chairman
Cave Junction

The Illinois Valley Wild Blackberry Arts & Crafts Festival is less than a month away, and already I’m getting excited. The theme is Wild Blackberry Pickin’, and this year’s two-day event will feature great Bluegrass and Country music played by local talent from Southern Oregon and Northern California. These bands will play both downtown and during our free concert in Jubilee Park.

There will be arts, crafts, and food booths on both sides of the main street of Cave Junction, plus the city park will be teaming with family friendly activities and exhibits, thanks to the I.V. Family Coalition, which has graciously agreed to oversee these activities.

The gasoline situation is putting a strain on us financially as it is for everyone, and I know everyone is asking for money these days. But I would like to point out that the local activities here, your activities: The Bluegrass Festival, I.V. Chamber Concerts in the Park, the I.V. Lions Labor Day Festival and the Wild Blackberry Festival, are all run by hard-working volunteers who need your support in order to bring these activities to Illinois Valley.

We are only half way to the $2,500 we need to provide a quality event that supports our merchants, artists, crafts persons and local cottage industries. If you feel that the festival is an asset to the community, especially if you are a merchant, contribute anything you can. If you can only spare one dollar, that will bring us a dollar closer to our goal.

I propose that we make this the summer of the “Stay-cation.” We should do our part as a community to promote Illinois Valley as only a short drive away from our neighbors in Southern Oregon and Northern California. We can’t solve the gas problem, but as they say, when life hands you lemons, than make lemonade.

We still have spaces available, so if you want to participate or need more information, we can be reached at 592-6509 or email us at info@wildblackberry.org.

Teen drinking hazardous
From Hazel Reagan
O’Brien

I’m responding to the Police Blotter in Illinois Valley News on July 1: A father was tired of unknown subjects giving his 13-year-old daughter alcohol.

What is the motivation of anyone contributing alcohol? It is clearly not the minor’s welfare.

When I worked at Head Start in Corvallis, a parent gave her daughter’s 13-year-old friend alcohol. The parent went to jail and lost custody of her children. But aside from the legality, it is dangerous to the child. The 13-year-old girl died of alcohol poisoning.

I plead for these adults who are contributing to consider the consequences:

*Developing bodies do not metabolize alcohol as adult bodies do.

*One out of five teen-age drinkers black out.

*They are more likely to engage in risky behavior like unprotected sex.

*There is an increase and severity of accidents.

*There is increased violence (including sexual).

*Increased suicide (alcohol is a depressant).

*It arrests emotional development.

*It causes permanent brain damage.

*Drinking before age 15, they are five times more likely to become alcoholic.

Commissioners doing job?
From Joel Perkins Jr.
Cave Junction

The Josephine County commissioners serve as the Executive Branch and perform legislative and quasi-judicial functions of the county.

Commissioners are responsible for the planning, formation and implementation of the annual budget. Commissioners also formulate and set county policy, as well as set the number and type of job positions within county government.

Additionally, commissioners serve on other federal, state and local mandated governmental panels, boards and commissions with fiscal duties and authority over public monies. Commissioners also serve the ceremonial functions of the county in representations to the public for the public good and betterment of Josephine County.

This is the first material you see when you open the Josephine County commissioners Web page. But is this what we see going on in our county? Are the activities of our current commissioners demonstrating proper procedures for the forthcoming generation to set their standards by? I think not.

Also, the fact remains that even when we get someone who’s not an incumbent, they must modify their voice at the risk of alienating themselves from their fellow board members. All that they have done for us during the past couple of years is help us realize that we need to better regulate the people we choose to be our voice.

How can anything they’ve done (?) be considered “For the good and betterment of Josephine County.” This recent bunch of elected officials has thoroughly ruined my belief in our county government, and the fact that despite the passionate outcry by the people for the resignation of an unnamed commissioner, he still resides in that place of governing power.

This, despite Oregon’s Constitution clearly stating that we at all times have the inherent right to: Alter, Reform, or Abolish the government in such a manner as we think proper. Isn’t calling for a resignation part of that? The people have spoken -- and once again been ignored.

So I ask, what will it take to be heard? What will it take to reinstate the proper handling of our city and county finances? This is a serious matter, and those who have lived here as long or longer than I can tell you of the days when times were good to our valley and county.

Some remember when the Blackberry Festival had blackberries and when the Illinois Valley Lions Club Labor Day Festival had go-cart races.

Our commissioners tell us that we’ve got no money coming into our economy, that we don’t have the budget for police protection; that it’s all our fault, because we didn’t vote in this levy or that tax hike; because we didn’t do this or that.

Not much has changed around here except for the people handling our affairs for us. Granted, things have changed in the world, but not enough to basically bring our small town straight back to the Old West. How is it that things could get so jumbled, and who is accountable?

I don’t know how it got this way, but I do know that we people of Illinois Valley and Josephine County are now the ones accountable. We have to fix this.

News Website ‘great’
From Janet Knodel, ‘Grandma in the Woods’
South edge of the valley

Your Website is great. We live on the California side of the border on Hwy. 199. I have been an I.V. News subscriber for many years.

We stopped getting the Del Norte Triplicate from Crescent City, Calif., as mail delivery was not timely. I go to its Website for local news and find the format disappointing and not necessarily current.

Tonight when I gave your site a try I was very impressed. As the young ones say, “Like wow, this is like, really out there!” The weather page is fantastic. Keep up the good work. I plan to be a frequent visitor.

She likes I.V. Noose
From Elaine Stein
Cave Junction

I think it’s been more than 20 years that I’ve had a subscription.

We always enjoy your paper; it keeps getting better and better. Thank you.

Declaration appreciated
From Marshall Sisk
Selma

Many of my friends and I appreciate greatly your running the Declaration of Independence in the issue of July 2, just in time for the Fourth of July.

I and many others, I’m sure, like and need to be reminded of how our country came to be. It seems that too often people forget where we came from, and why there was, and still is, a need for independence.

Tyranny must never be accepted. It must always be rejected. The people who sponsored the presentation of our Declaration of Independence with the newspaper are appreciated for their effort.

Extreme scream
From Commissioner Charles J. Hurliman
Tillamook County

Those on a fixed or limited income should take time to let environmental extremists know what they think about their role in stopping logging and new energy-production efforts.

For most of us, the costs of gas, food, housing, fuel, roads and law enforcement are getting out of hand -- and the environmental extremists are primarily responsible. We should take time to recognize these people and give them our special blessing because they have allowed us to give up so much on behalf of their extremist beliefs.

Environmental extremists have discounted the guiding principles of conservationist Gifford Pinchot, when he helped establish the U.S. Forest Service. Pinchot understood values of Nature and how to protect the forests with a balance of economics and management of our resources.

Integrated forest management strategies look at the health of the forest within an adaptive management context. Plans call for the development of a variety of stand structures across the landscape. This will, in turn, benefit local and regional economies while providing ample opportunities for forest recreation such as hunting, berry picking, wildlife viewing and hiking.

Healthy forest ecosystems with varied stand structures also have an added benefit as a deterrent against forest fires. Plans also have strategies for properly functioning aquatic and riparian habitats which will benefit the recreational and commercial fisheries.

Because environmental extremists have successfully blocked almost all federal timber sales through our legal system, we now have densely stocked, unhealthy forests resulting in catastrophic annual forest fires.

Don’t blame Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for not renewing legislation to obligate money for federal timber payments.

Activists have been pressuring and suing governments and agencies for decades. Activists are excluding science and proven safe practices to scare people into paying more for fuel that is not safer for the environment.

The result is a system of government bowing to special interests. It’s called tyranny by the minority -- and the rest of us are paying the price.