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December 8, 2011 Opinions |
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—LETTERS—
5J Board Needs To Follow State And Federal Laws On
Weapons Policy
To The Record-Courier:
It is obvious that the Baker 5J school district and board has sought to deceive the community by false statements and hypocritical reports. The Baker 5J newsletter stated, "Our original concern had nothing to do with guns." Then why did the Baker 5J and board Chair, propose an illegal policy by the Oregon School Board Association (OSBA) that prohibited Concealed Hand-weapons License's (CHL)?
They then approved the first out of three readings of the policy, not even knowing the law. The Baker 5J weapons work session came to the conclusion that "We did not know the Law." We agreed unanimously to go by State and Federal Law and they stated, "teachers would not be restricted." The Baker 5J and Chair behind closed doors then drafted an Administrative Rule (AR) with the district’s legal counsel, and gave the board the advice of not allowing staff with a CHL to carry. Then the Baker 5J and Chair told the board if we didn’t pass this policy now, we would be going against counsel and would be personally liable. The board voted to instruct the administration to create an (AR) stripping teacher’s and volunteer's rights to carry, along with a trespass policy that intimidates patrons with CHL permits.
During the November meeting a resident pointed out we are stepping out of bounds with the current weapons policy. I made a motion to remove the AR failing 2-3. The Baker 5J and Chair implied if we didn’t have a policy our students would be in danger zone assuming someone could bring a bomb on the property without this policy. ORS 166.370 states you cannot bring a dangerous weapon/device on school property and OSBA/PACE has never made request for a policy and OSBA legal counsel says "We don’t have to have a Policy." Out of 197 Oregon School Districts, 20 have a policy prohibiting staff, and 1 in 197 has a trespass policy. Let’s just go back to following State and Federal Law, and end this now.
“The Baker 5J School District weapons policy has done nothing to address the safety concerns of our schools, it has only deepened it.”
Kyle Knight
Board Member
Baker 5J School District
Baker City
Tea Party Has The Right Idea
To The Record-Courier:
In 2008, the United Auto Workers gave both money and manpower to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The next year, when General Motors and Chrysler faced financial meltdown, President Obama intervened. Instead of allowing those companies to go through the normal bankruptcy procedures, he gave large amounts of the firms’ stock to the auto workers union, and allowed them to keep their ‘Cadillac health care plans.’ However, the bondholders, which included many retirement plans, got the shaft.
Also in 2008, ArcherMidlandDaniels Corporation gave a substantial donation to the re-election campaign of an Iowa congressman. In 2009, as a part of the giant stimulus bill, that congressman steered a grant of $67,000,000 to his agribusiness giant benefactor for ethanol research. [Indeed, the majority of stimulus funds went to groups which had good political connections- Big Business, Big Labor and other special interest groups.]
Both of the actions mentioned above were legal, and this sort of thing happens so often that we give it little thought. But that ‘crony capitalism’ is as venal and harmful a form of corruption as anything found in the most flea-bitten third world country.
The Occupy protestors have it half right; there is something seriously wrong with things in this country. But they have misdiagnosed our national malady and offer the wrong solution- more government.
The thing is, as a government grows larger, it has more goodies to pass out to those groups which are favorably politically connected, and our Federal Government is already obese. Enlarging it further will only make things worse. Already its principal function seems to be income redistribution- taking money out of the pockets of the taxpayer and giving it to cozy insiders.
The Tea Party movement has the right idea- shrink the Federal Government and rein in the orgy of overspending that has been going on for the past couple of years. A smaller government will have fewer political plums to hand out to special interest groups; it will become less of a gold mine. For decades, it has been becoming ever larger; it is high time to put it on a diet.
Pete Sundin
Baker City OR
Occupy Protestors Broke A Carload Of Laws
To The Record-Courier:
Anyone see the mess and trash left in the Portland park by the protestors? This cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars in tax money to clean up the junk. They seem to think this is helping the public. This isn’t heaven and nothing is free except for them. The protestors hate the rich people even though they probably voted for the 267 millionaires in Congress and they love that Michael Moore, a millionaire who dresses like them and cheers them on. I don’t know who is the most confused. The protestors or the powers that be in government. I wonder how many people noticed that a carload of laws were broken.
And the governor, the D.E.Q., the E.P.A., the health dept., and the Oregon politicians never said a thing about this fiasco. Does this mean we can take our garbage down to the city park and dump it off and does this mean that rules made by any city, county or state in Oregon can be ignored? Ask the governor.
Grover Mann
Lincoln City, Ore.
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