Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 1909 - 1933 of 2581
To The Eagle: I am a smelt lover. I can feel someone out there thinking, “Good, you can have my share.” OK! For me, once the Christmas tree goes out the door on January 6, I look forward to a “mess (meal) of smelt”. Unfortunately, for several years only the seals and gulls have been able to enjoy them. Finally, we get our turn. I believe that food sources provided by nature, in a given area, are the foods we need to eat. Smelt are organic, a great source of protein, rich in Omega 3 and a whole lot tastier than fish oil pills. If you haven’t...
To The Eagle: PUD Commissioner Robert Jungers should be commended for his insightful proposal to bring high-speed, fiber optic service to Wahkiakum residents and businesses. Throughout much of northern Europe and Asian countries like South Korea and Japan, fiber optic Internet service provides jobs and distance learning that leads to jobs. We’ve lost business start-ups and young families because jobs and educational opportunities exist elsewhere. We lack secure, high-speed websites that attract customers and employment. We need fiber optic s...
To the Eagle: This year marks the ninth anniversary of the infamous Kelo decision, wherein the liberal wing of the Supreme Court supported the actions of a predatory Economic Development Committee in New London, Connecticut, resulting in the seizure and destruction of dozens of nice old Victorian homes and several small businesses by eminent domain, historically used to allow government takings for the "public good" meaning roads or public buildings. In this case, the land was given to private developers to build income producing faciliti...
To The Eagle: With snow in the Grays River Valley this morning, it’s a lovely sight to wake up to 50 or so elk bedded down just across the road from my house. I watched them while drinking my coffee and marveled at the good life they have in this valley with easy grazing, a safe environment, and water nearby in the river. It was painful, though, as they got up, to see at least three cows and one young bull limping from the hoof disease that weakens them day by day till they can barely move at all. I applaud Commissioner Cothren’s work to hel...
To the Eagle: The recent front page article, “Net pens planned for aid gillnetters,” republished from the Columbia Basin Bulletin, contends that moving non-tribal commercial gillnets off the mainstem will “reduce the impact of commercial fishing on wild salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act….” This statement omits the fact that the wild fish that might have been caught and killed incidental to harvest in the commercial fishery, known as impacts, will not be going to spawning escapements for conservation or recover...
To The Eagle: February is National Teen Dating Violence Prevention and Awareness Month and it is critical that we all take this time to remember that domestic violence is not just a problem for adults. One in three adolescents in the U.S. will be a victim of physical, emotional or sexual abuse from a dating partner. Nearly 80% of girls who have been physically abused in their dating relationships continue to date their abuser. And two-thirds of teens who are in an abusive relationship never tell anyone about the abuse. It’s time to shine a l...
To The Eagle: Our President has set the precedent for a new world wide immigration policy. If an Adobe Photoshop forged birth certificate is good enough for the leader of the free world who is concurrently the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, it should also be good enough for any resident of any country in the world. All anyone should need is to reside in any given country and have a few bucks for someone skilled in Adobe Photoshop and you, too, can prove you are a native born citizen of whatever country you choose. You can do it a...
School levies seem to be a part of life. Despite appropriations from the state for the costs of basic education, school districts still need to ask voters to tax themselves to cover expenses that state funds don't cover. And this Tuesday is election day for the Wahkiakum School District's request for a special levy. School personnel have taken to calling it a replacement levy, for the levy would replace a similar levy which voters approved four years ago at a similar tax rate. As The Eagle reported in November, the levy pays for technology...
To The Eagle: Is there someone special you would like to honor this Valentine’s Day? Reading is Fundamental (RIF) of Cowlitz/Wahkiakum Counties has valentines perfect for sending to family, friends and teachers. For a donation to RIF, you receive a valentine to send with the message, “In celebration of reading, a gift in your honor has been given to Reading is Fundamental of Cowlitz/Wahkiakum Counties.” RIF is the reading motivation and family literacy program that distributes books to over 6,000 children in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum count...
To The Eagle: Friday was a very educational day for me. After breakfast, we were going out to fix some fence along Covered Bridge Road that was grown over with weeds and brush. Since it was nice and dry, I thought it would be a good time to burn to make the fence-fixing easier. My thoughts went in the wrong direction since we have had a lot of dry weather for January. I didn’t realize what I was getting into. The fire got into the dry tall grass and really took off. It wasn’t too long before I knew my thinking was wrong. My day was saved whe...
Ah, healthcare! We all want to enjoy it, don't we? I have been enjoying mine. I'm back in the office this week after having hip replacement surgery on December 26. All has gone well, the arthritis and its discomfort are gone. I'm getting used to the new hip and working to get it in shape. I consider myself fortunate to have health care, but I pay. With my age and pre-existing conditions, it's our biggest expense. I hope that someday my health issues will be under control and I can go to the health insurance exchanges created under the federal...
To The Eagle: We do not have multiple assisted living centers or skilled nursing facilities to choose from in Wahkiakum County. In fact, we have none. Aging in place in Wahkiakum County means staying at home and getting help. The first line of help is family and it is critical that we restore and maintain funding for home and community-based services so that our families have the tools and resources necessary to do the job. For the past three years I have represented Wahkiakum County on the Advisory Council for the Area Agency on Aging of...
To The Eagle: I would like to remind everyone in Wahkiakum County to visit the Grays River Valley Center located just across from the Rosburg Store. While there, check out the new location of the library and computer center. Inquire about the variety of classes offered. And when planning your weekend, remember that each Friday at 7 p.m., a free movie will show. On January 31, I believe a Finnish kung fu move will be featured. If you like Finns or martial arts, this might be a movie for you. PJ Katims, Grays River...
To The Eagle: Kay Chamberlain’s letter to The Eagle on the subject about us having little faith in leaving the “experts” to handle the deer refuge hit it right on the nail! Even our commissioners a while back commented that the F&W has done nothing good for us. I remembered, like Kay said, the farmers and landowners maintained the land in good shape, cattle and wildlife thrived. When the government bought out the farmers to make way for the Columbian White-tailed Deer Refuge, it started out good; there were no fences, just a few barbed wire fen...
To The Eagle: I’ve been a registered Democrat since Harry Truman. I thought Jimmy Carter was bad for the country, but he had high moral standards. But one thing Carter did: he did not lie or cheat the country. Now we’ve got a president who lies, cheats, and uses back door politics to gain his aims and/or agenda. Now on to another subject: the sewer lagoon. Let’s put the shoreline back like old. The city or marina doesn’t need more land. Olaf Thomason, Sr., Puget Island...
To The Eagle: It is my opinion that only those who have lived here for about 40 or 50 years, can really understand why we have so little faith in the "experts" that we are told to let handle things, like our white-tailed deer. Years ago, you would have been able to drive around a large amount of well kept farm land with over 200 white-tailed deer on it. The land owners kept the land in perfect shape so that their cattle and other critters thrived, which in turn, kept the deer population high. This land brought in tax money to our county. The...
To The Eagle: The net result of the 2013 deer relocation was to reduce a viable population at the JBH refuge to a non-viable population at the Ridgefield refuge. It would appear that the newly proposed relocation is an attempt to rectify that mistake. Deer were successfully relocated from Douglas County, Oregon to the JBH refuge in 2010, and it is not clear to me why this is not being considered as an alternative to relocating deer from Puget Island. Perhaps the potential uproar in that area precludes the possibility from being considered?...
To The Eagle: From my perspective, WDFW did not put deer on Puget Island. Deer have been on Puget Island all along and way before lots of the current residents. Some of the deer are there because they swam there. If WDFW now wants to keep deer on the JBH Reserve (physically move them back to where they were in imminent danger because of a failing dike), they will have to stop making it a bird refuge/swamp and make it once again habitable for the deer as it was when the deer thrived. The deer thrived when there were farms and cows where the JBH...
To The Eagle: Someone said this, and it is so clearly true, "When the power of love replaces the love of power, then we might have a world of peace and intelligent behavior." Intolerance of the ideas and opinions of others to the extent that one would abolish these people to a particular hell would not bring about that state of love and compassion for all life. It would create the world we have now, which certainly could, to put it mildly, be improved upon. Alex Docker, Ph.D., Cathlamet...
To The Eagle: Quoting Chaucer, “There is an end to everything, to good things as well.” So holds true with my position as the executive director of Wahkiakum Community Network. I have had the pleasure of serving this fabulous organization for the last eleven years, but it is time to free up some me-time, finally work a regular work week (at my other job at the PUD) and perhaps find a hobby or two! Effective this month, I have resigned from the Network. I am writing to introduce Ginger Hake as my replacement as the new coordinator for Wah...
To The Eagle: Just some additional information to further clarify the article that appeared in last week’s paper. The Wahkiakum Food Bank is not the Wahkiakum County Food Bank. Our donations were good for November (Thanksgiving Baskets) and December (Christmas Baskets). Now it is January which is usually a low month, as well as February and March. So please, do not think we do not need your support as well as your prayers. We anticipate a larger turnout now that the state is cutting food stamps, etc. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas a...
To The Eagle, I would like to respond to your recent article “Tarot: A guide to the past and healing here and now.” I noticed you had given this woman of the article some very generous exposure to her craft of “fortune-telling,” which is what tarot card reading is about. Maybe you will allow me the same gracious space to express what I think about fortune-telling. When someone tells you your future by reading the tarot cards I wonder are they able to do this by a special gift that most of us don’t have, or are they aided by some unseen fo...
To The Eagle: In regard to the deer being moved from Puget Island, I would like to comment. My wife and I have lived on Puget Island for the past 10 years. I am struck by the way nonresidents of the Island are so quick to volunteer my home for a deer refuge. If these people had a yard and if they had eight or more deer in their yard most every evening, I think they would sing a different tune. The deer damage trees with their antlers, eat the bark, leaves, and blossoms and they eat many plants off at the ground. I know a seven foot fence is...
To The Eagle, What do cigarettes and Federal Reserve notes have in common? Some folks call cigarettes coffin nails for smokers. Federal Reserve notes should be called coffin nails for the economy. Medical professionals say smokers’ lungs start getting better the first day after they stop smoking. The U.S. economy will start improving the very first day after we stop the Federal Reserve from creating our money as debt, that is to say, issuing Federal Reserve notes. The federal government could then create money that would not be owed to a...
To The Eagle: To my Secret Santa, The card says who or why is not important. Learn something new every day. Let this be your guide. Pay it forward. Find joy in what you do. My lesson learned is humility! Although I have a lot of curiosity, you are right. The who and why are not important. The road of life led me to Cathlamet in early 2011. It has been easy to become part of this community and I have been welcomed with open arms and made many great friends through my time with Tsuga Gallery, the library, Wags and Vibes and my neighbors. I thank...
