December 30, 2006

Honorable David B. Connell
Benton County Circuit Court
P.O. Box 1870
Corvallis, OR 97339-1870

Dear Judge Connell:

SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS OATHS

My name is Timothy Leslie. I am a longtime Corvallis resident, and I am currently serving a two-month term as a juror for Benton County Circuit Court.

On Dec. 19, 2006, I was called to serve in your courtroom for a one-day trial (TM0520709, State v John D. Smartt). Although I forfeited a day’s pay to serve on this jury, I was happy to fulfill my obligation as a citizen of Benton County. I was not happy, however, to find myself swearing an oath that appears to violate the Oregon Constitution’s provisions separating government and religion.

Emergency planners counting on the availability of Oregon's coastal airports to stage rescues and bring supplies following a major earthquake and tsunami nearby in the Pacific Ocean may want to think twice about such plans.

Now that a major U.S. airline has proposed standing-room-only sections on some of its flights, I don't feel quite so silly making the following suggestion regarding a possible future use for the old Van Buren Bridge in Corvallis. Sure, the old bridge would be perfect as a means of enhancing pedestrian and bicycle traffic near the riverfront, and I think it should be preserved — even if that's all it ever becomes. But what if it became a river-spanning platform for a couple of small shops and a cafe?

In my horrible dream, U.S. presidential adviser Karl Rove had heard the same news report. He was holding court in a White House meeting room, patiently explaining the situation to President George W. Bush and a bevy of administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Press Secretary Scott McClellan. As I tossed and turned, Rove laid out his evil plan. Here’s what I overheard:

The Whiteside Theater is owned by Regal Cinemas, the same folks who bring you the Ninth Street Cinemas. They closed the Whiteside a couple of years before Carmike dropped that 12-plex into north town. Wonder if they ever considered that keeping the Whiteside open might've made Carmike back off our fair hamlet - at least for a while. Every day when I walk past the closed doors of the Whiteside, I contemplate the circumstantial dominos that fell and led to her fall. People still wonder why I opened a theater across the street rather than putting my energy into the Corvallis icon. When folks ask directly, I usually cut them short by pointing out, "If you have a million-five you're not doing anything with, I'll be glad to take her on."

In a commentary in that same publication, an OSU scientist who pioneered the study of global amphibian decline said this is another key example of unanticipated and complex impacts from climate change. The Central and South American crisis is "an amphibian alarm call," he said, but also is a harbinger of much greater biological disruption.

The research was published Jan. 6 in Sciencexpress and will be featured later in the journal Science, by scientists from Oregon State University and the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hawaii. It provides some of the first actual data about forest regeneration in this vast, burned area.

In the first days and weeks after September 11, 2001, politicians throughout the land could be heard uttering some variation on the following theme: If we change our American way of life, the terrorists will have won.

These statements frequently were intended to prod U.S. citizens to continue traveling, shopping, and recreating as they had before the al-Qaida attacks. But the deeper message was clear: It was going to take more than 19 suicide-bent hijackers aboard four airliners to convince the proud inhabitants of the land of the free and the home of the brave to give up even one of their hard-fought freedoms.

But the good news is that today, without question, the movement of regressive politics in America (also known – wrongly – as conservatism) is crashing up against the shoals of its own inanity, and the American public is finally beginning to sober up after cutting loose on a quarter-century’s bender, fueled by the frightening fantasies of the right. Just the last two weeks alone feel like an attitudinal sea change in America.

For those who missed it, the Los Angeles Times reported in an article Nov. 30th that the Pentagon had secretly paid Iraqi journalists to publish stories written by U.S. soldiers. The report said the one-sided stories were falsely presented as unbiased accounts produced by independent journalists. The articles were allegedly translated into Arabic by the Lincoln Group, a U.S. defense contractor that also helped to place the articles in Baghdad newspapers.

The United States has greatly increased its physical security against foreign and domestic terrorism since 9-11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, but the country is ill-prepared psychologically to deal with mass trauma suffered by victims and their families, according to a leading expert on international social welfare.

A temperature analysis of more than 600 boreholes from throughout the Northern Hemisphere suggests that the Earth's climate may be warming at a higher rate than tree-ring analysis and other methods had led scientists to believe.

But something else has changed at Reser, too. The creation of special sections and private suites for high-rollers has given rise to a pampered elite class that was largely missing before the Raising Reser fund-raisers went dialing for dollars.

A number of recent publications claim that our society has already reached the “peak oil” stage (meaning we have already used half our original oil supply, and are starting to use the second half—just as India and China are coming on board as major oil consumers. That means it will go fast, fast, fast.)

Hey, didja hear? Your Republican-controlled federal government recently passed legislation that will replace your current driver's license with a computerized card they call Real ID. You might have missed this news because there was no debate in either the House or Senate. Your lawmakers tucked the new law into an $82 billion military spending bill. But what's to debate? I mean, who could object to a law that will require you to produce four types of documentation to renew your driver's license, and then wait while DMV employees verify your identity and store your documents and photo in a massive national database? Even your high-minded Republican president, who is extremely concerned about your security, likes the idea and has promised to sign the bill into law.