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April 8, 2010 Opinions |
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—Editorial—
This We Think.....
BEA Grievance
We understand how hard it is to miss a few days wages, and can sympathize with the teachers who have filed a grievance with the 5J School District. However, in this economy almost everyone is having to make/take cuts. We think having the entire staff and teachers take five days off without pay is a much better alternative to cutting positions or laying people off. That would result in an extreme loss of pay for a few compared to the Board’s decision to spread the pay cut over all the employees resulting in much smaller individual losses.
As far as paying back the teachers now that the contingency fund has stabilized, it doesn’t make sense. For one thing, the teachers didn’t work during those days, and if the District pays the teachers, to be fair, they would have to pay the rest of the classified employees, administration and staff who took five days off without pay also. Either everyone should get paid for the five days or no one should get paid. And this would, of course, deplete the contingency fund again, and force the Board to once again find a way to cut costs in the upcoming school year.
—Letters To The Editor—
We Cannot Continue To Spend More Than We Earn Forever
To The Record-Courier
Some people seem to think the worst is over, and I hope they are right. But I’m very skeptical. There appear to be very few people in government who have any concept of what caused our problems. As a result most government actions have had very little benefit to the overall problems. In fact, many groups are working hard on projects that will hurry the breakdown of what’s left of our economy.
To get down to basics, we cannot continue to spend more than we earn forever. Printing money won’t solve the problems. It only postpones them. Someday there will be a day of reckoning.
We need jobs and money. What happened to them? We used to have the most prosperous country in the world when we had the freedom to work. In our zeal to protect the environment and protect us from ourselves we got so carried away that we regulated ourselves out of business. To survive economic breakdown, we must recognize where money comes from. It comes from the ground. There is no other source. New wealth is created when we harvest the produce and resources of the earth. This wealth is increased when they are processed and manufactured into products more useful and valuable to man. The new jobs and wealth go to the retail markets, service industries and essential services like medical, education, protection and government, thus all jobs are supported by the products of the earth.
People don’t realize it, but access and use of the land is the most vital issue facing our country today. It is a noble thing to save a few special places for prosperity, but we should know that no life can survive on this planet unless we use the earth. We must harvest its produce and resources.
If we want to turn the economy around and preserve a free and independent nation, the government must rescind about 3/4 of the regulations that are preventing independent Americans from producing the necessary resources that will allow our industries to go back to work.
Our president wants us to increase our exports. He doesn’t seem to know that to make any single thing you have to have a basic resource. We cannot buy the raw materials overseas and compete with foreign labor that works all day for less than we need per hour.
It’s time for government to quit trying to control all aspects of our lives and allow us the freedom to go back to work or the country is not going to recover from our economic breakdown.
Kenneth Anderson
Bake City
Letter To Congressman Walden
To The Editor:
This is the open letter sent to Congressman Greg Walden from Roy H Barnes, retired Oregon State Police. The Record-Courier ran an introduction to it in a previous issue.
U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section, states that:
This guide provides an overview of Federal civil rights laws that ensure equal opportunity for people with disabilities. To be protected by the ADA, one must have a disability or have a relationship or association with an individual with a disability. The ADA is under the authority of the “14th amendment,” “The United States Constitution,” and “The Civil Rights Act.”
In the ADA subchapter IV, Sec. 12201, (B) relationship to other laws: “Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to invalidate or limit the remedies, rights, and procedures of any Federal law or law of any State or political subdivision of any State or jurisdiction that provides greater or equal protection for the rights of individuals with disabilities than are afforded by this chapter.”
Prohibited: by The Civil Rights Act and The ADA; “Outright intentional exclusion, overprotective rules and policies, failure to make modifications to existing facilities, exclusionary qualification standards and criteria, relegation to lesser services, opportunities, full participation, equal opportunity.”
Purpose: “clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities,” Federal Government plays a central role in enforcing the standards established on behalf of individuals with disabilities, and to invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to enforce the fourteenth amendment and to regulate commerce. The definition of disability shall be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals, in order to address the major areas of discrimination faced day-to-day by people with disabilities, to the maximum extent permitted. Acquisition or modification of equipment or devices, and other similar services and actions.
Oregon State Statutes clearly regulates the motor vehicle code, road authority, fish and game, agriculture (mining), water rights, solid minerals, right of way (access to real estate), recreation, RS 2477. All of these involve roads, ingress and egress. The State Law is equal or greater in granting more protection to the disabled. As stated in the ADA Subchapter IV, Sec. 12201.
In a publication put out by the USFS it states: “unless signed otherwise, all county roads are closed to OHV’s.” County Roads are not in the purview of the USDA and USFS, and they are not the road authority.
We are not addressing OHV’s as they define every motor vehicle ever manufactured. The only safe motorized vehicle they permit is snowmobiles, they do permit bicycles. There are safe wheelchairs, with dual controls, power steering, automatic shifting, high clearance, less then 50” wide. This would be a perfect match, a safe wheelchair on safe unmaintained roads (over 1600 miles in Baker County) all in place now, at no added cost.
The battery powered wheelchair "Suitable for indoor pedestrian use" means useable inside a home, mall, courthouse, etc., this unsafe wheelchair has very low clearance (3” or less), small tires, narrow, short, requires charging time of 6 to 8 hrs., there would need to be electrical wiring for charging stations throughout the forest. If the disabled operator is overcome with illness, the disabled persons escort would not be able to put two people on one of these wheelchairs and get them help, they would either carry them out, or leave them to go get help, which could take hours and end up causing more serious injury or costing a life needlessly. Cell phone coverage is nearly non-existent.
The roads in Baker County, Oregon are a buffer to four wilderness areas and the only access to these wilderness areas from Baker County. Of the 1600 miles of roads most have been burmed (tank trapped) in violation of the Rehabilitation act of 1973. The ADA mandates inclusion not exclusion. The definition of a wheelchair that the USFS uses is outright intentional exclusion, and discrimination of the mobility impaired. Please check the disable’s safety record on these roads.
The disabled, including the mobility impaired are not the 4 or 8 main threats to the forest as published by the USDA and USFS.
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