Illinois Valley News welcomes letters to the editor.
Please e-mail them to dan@theivnews.com
POLICY ON LETTERS:
‘Illinois Valley News’ encourages letters to the editor provided they are legible and not libelous or scurrilous. All letters must be signed, including name, address and telephone number. The latter need not be published, but will be used to verify authenticity. The “News” reserves the right to edit letters. Letters are used at the discretion of the publisher.
(Editor’s Note: Views and commentary, including statements made as fact are strictly those of the letter writers.)
We should consider how we treat our dogs.
So here is my reasoning: sometimes people abuse their dogs as a form of amusement or “shock value” (common with youth) or because of unmanaged emotions resulting in aggressive behaviors like getting held by the neck and their tails–ouch!
Why are people doing this to the dogs?
It’s mostly because of anger and rage some take out on the animals, and there have been really bad cases where people grabbed a weapon and hit them, resulting in injury.
Why do dogs get abandoned?
Some people have to work more than spending time with their dogs. It’s sad that some people will leave them in the parking lots tied up and left there or in a forest.
Dogs do have feelings too. Please do not abuse your dogs or abandon them.
Angelina Koger
Cave Junction
Reader concerned about mental health
Did you know that it takes about 25 days before a person can see a psychiatrist.
And that when you get seeing 78% of depressed adults still have serious mental distress even after they have been treated.
So after they spent all this money on being treated, the treatment doesn’t always work.
I think that the price for mental health should decrease and we should open up more places for people who need the help.
About 35.3% of adults in Oregon deal with mental issues.
The oregon poverty rate is 12.1%.
That is why we need more places open up and the cost to seek help needs to go down
We need to work together to make the world better for everyone.
Stay strong and help each other.
Thank you
Alina Acosta
Cave Junction
How we, the students, feel about our own administrators and their decisions
on school problems:
We feel underrepresented as students. A lot of problems are affecting us, and nothing is being done about them. For instance, I did a survey of IVHS, and more than half of us wish they told the students more about current events. I know that the school lacks transparency badly and issues remain unseen in our school by officials and roumors run rampant in our school. I know that many of us would like a better lunch, to the point where we have other students writing letters or a section in the news like I am today. It’s because of this that me and my friends have low school pride and trust in our school. The school administration could also do a better job explaining things to teachers. When I ask a staff member a question like, “Why can’t we go outside?” They usually can’t give me an answer worth anything. There are a lot more problems, and we the students want to receive the change we have been asking for, and it doesn’t seem like we’re going to get that needed change anytime soon.
Martin McDowell
Kerby
We need to recycle more
It is very easy for most people to sit back and expect others to take responsibility when they themselves don’t want to. “Oh, someone else will do this and that.” If we all have this mind set, then who’s actually going to do something? One of the big benefits of recycling is conserving natural resources, like trees, water, and minerals. However, some people say that recycling takes a lot of energy. Which, yes it does take a lot of energy but so does getting new raw materials. For example, producing new aluminum from recycled aluminum only uses 5% of the energy it takes to produce aluminum from raw materials. Though statistics show that in the United States the recycling rate is around 32% in 2018 and Globally the recycling rate is around 9%. On a positive note, there are more efforts to improve and educate people about recycling and recycling rates have gone up over the years. Just remember, Recycling is a great way to make a difference in the world, just by taking and remembering extra steps. So make sure to tell your loved one to recycle!
Fariaz Heaven
Cave Junction
Ukraine is closer than you think
There are around 8 million people that have been displaced from Ukraine. They have to go and live in neighboring countries because they don’t have anywhere to go.
There have been times where people will sleep in their bathtubs. Metal bathtubs stop bullets that penetrate walls and windows, making it safer at night.Just think about sleeping in a tub and how uncomfortable that must be.
Around 9 million Ukrainians are having to live without power. Russia targeted Ukraine’s power grid, disabling most electricity in Ukraine. With winter coming up and not having power they have increased rates of frostbite, hypothermia, pneumonia.
The amount of deaths as of February 24, 2022, to September 19, 2023, is around 9,614. The number of injured people in that time is around 17,635. The number of casualties has only gone up since then. It will only increase if the war continues.
People think that since it is far away from us we don’t need to worry about what is happening in Ukraine. However they are people as well and what affects them will affect us over time.
Ian Pool
Cave Junction
Give Earth a Chance
$700,000 for 320 acres of forest for ever, well worth it where people can walk and children can play. A place to keep the quiet of the woods.
You say it’s worth more than the ransom you demand, extorsion: more money or we cut the trees.
Overdose destroying children may be a result of the practical agenda of clearing the forest and cementing it over. What’s to say they wont be next, perhaps they are, because the old way of money as the deciding factor is killing them and taking us all down the road to calamity.
We choose to be in Oregon with trees where the earthly is close, but it’s worth to you than celestial splendor – it’s worth money. You would cut down the forest, sell the trees to have mere cells to lock upset children.
You say you don’t clear cut anymore. We say we don’t believe you anymore.
It’s worth more than money you think will solve these problems. It’s what’s causing the hopelessness that you think money can solve.
The trees are gone. The money is gone and the young are killing themselves,
Keep The Forest
Shalom
Mrs. Peno
Cave Junction