Don’t gamble with habitat in Gorge

The final day for comments on the proposed Gorge casino is Sept. 7. Everyone’s opinion matters, and this is a national issue. At 60 acres of urban development, the proposed casino is enormous and well beyond the scale of any other structures in the Gorge. It is also surrounded by habitat for endangered salmon, spotted owls, bald eagles and many other species.

Tribal casino proponents like to talk about the community benefit funds resulted from casino revenues; however, any benefit funds would be terminated if the proposed casino in Wood Village or any other private casinos are approved in Oregon.

Unfortunately, we are all gambling here with the future of the Columbia Gorge. Learn more by Googling: “Gorge Casino” or on Facebook: “No Gorge Casino.”

If you want to make comments, you can e-mail them to ScottAikin@bia.gov. Also fax the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at 202-208-6956.

Peter Cornelison

Hood River, Ore.

Is Laird jealous of Limbaugh?

In response to John Laird’s Aug. 29 opinion column, “News flash! Universities are liberal!” the lack of a college degree does not stop high achievement in the United States.

Benjamin Franklin was totally self-taught. In 1753, Franklin was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society of London. In 1755, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, the first American so honored.

Other American achievers without degrees are as follows:

• George Washington: tutored at home for some years.

• Abraham Lincoln: 18 months of formal education.

• Andrew Carnegie: self-taught.

• Thomas Edison: three months of formal schooling; left school after being called “addled,” then home-schooled.

• Henry Ford: Left home at 16 to become an apprentice machinist.

• Bill Gates: Harvard dropout.

I do not list opinion writers Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity among such distinguished Americans. However, each man regularly reaches millions of listeners and readers. Opinion writer Laird reaches only thousands of readers via The Columbian. Might there be a tinge of envy here?

Paul Esch

Vancouver

Term limits would be productive end

Bruce Knutson’s letter in the Aug. 30 Columbian, “Put Republicans in power,” was a doublespeak. His criticism of President Obama sidesteps the fact that the 535 members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, are the lawmakers.

He comments that, hopefully, in November, Republicans will gain control of Congress and he hopes they will do a better job than before, which indicates displeasure of when the Republicans were in control of Congress.

Most of the American people are hopeful that whoever is in power, their concerns will be for the good of the country.

The incessant bickering and the tabloid politics are a deterrent to the nation and are counterproductive for the people.

This speaks loudly to the need of term limits.

Wilfred J. Hudson

Vancouver

Too early to leave Iraq

The president seems to be real proud of pulling out of Iraq. It’s just like taking your basketball team home in the middle of the second quarter. Apparently he has not seen or heard of Sen. Charlie Wilson’s war.

If any of you reading this have not heard of Charlie Wilson’s war, get the movie and watch it.

It is almost identical to the television documentary that was on before the movie was released.

I am sure the same thing that happened to Afghanistan with Charlie Wilson is going to happen now, and we as a country will be in worse danger.

Paul E. Nelson

Hazel Dell

Stay patient and positive with kids

Working with kindergartners is a humbling experience. One gives the same information over and over; finally the reward: a correct response. Rewarded, that is, until recess, when thoughts of chasing or swinging replaces everything that was lighting up their eyes a moment ago.

The next day, in review, you may well be met with a quizzical look that says, “I have never seen this information before.”

Long-term memory, that’s the goal. Moving information from the short-term memory to long-term memory is difficult. Long-term memory has almost an unlimited capacity, while short-term memory will hold only small bits of information at a time.

Moving information to long-term memory is akin to filling a bathtub with a thimble. Their brains take information by the thimbleful; no more. Filling a bathtub with a thimble takes awhile to accomplish, much less 18 bathtubs or more; it can’t be done in a day.

It takes parents, grandparents, teachers and volunteers working together to fill that tub. If the approach to filling the tub is continuous and positive, at home and at school, the child has the best opportunity to be successful.

Steve Wells

Battle Ground

GOP ploy in the works?

It just might be time to change the Pledge of Allegiance again. In 1957, they added “under God” after “one nation” when the threat of godless Communists understandably sent chills up and down every spine in the country. Changing it this time would be a little more subtle.

Something like “indivisible except along party lines,” which is how Congress has been working for so long.

Speaking of “so long,” the division along party lines could well be a ploy by Republicans. What with elections nearing, the more unhappy the country is with government, the more likely we are to vote out incumbents. The majority of those would be Democrats. “So long!”

A ploy, or not. Pretty smart, or not. You and I will decide.

Leonard Bauhs

Vancouver

Barrier has separated out some terror

In his Aug. 27 letter to the editor, “End Israeli occupation of Palestine,” Wilbur Woods claims that the separation barrier, a wall in only 5 percent of its length, serves no security purpose.

Prior to its being built, there were suicide bombs almost every week in major Israeli cities, deliberately targeting civilians: women and children in pizza parlors, young people on line at a discothèque, fathers and daughters at coffee shops, people riding to work on buses.

Arabs as well as Jews were murdered. The security barrier has helped to put an end to most of that terror.

There will be peace when Palestinians stop incitement against Jews and prepare their people to live in peace.

Ann Bardacke

Vancouver

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