Position on Olympic team for sale

For those of us contemplating buying our way into the Olympics, your reporting was a little short on details. We know it’s possible, we just want to know exactly how much it’s going to set us back:

Line one: Donate at least $175,000 to a needy Caribbean nation. Sorry, but this one is surely going to go up. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, are you listening?

Line two: Round-trip, first-class plane fare to fabulous Sochi, Russia — $19,663 on Delta.

Line three: Incidental expenses while in Sochi to rub elbows with the rich and famous — cost ?

Line four: Travel to Bend about a half a dozen times — cost ?

Line five: Hire a coach — cost?

Line six: Buy some equipment at Second Hand Sports — $400 (est.)

Pierre Kolisch

Redmond

Ethics complaint article was misleading

In the March 15 edition, Andrew Clevenger writes for The Bulletin, “Walden faces ethics complaints.” The article contains no recount of what U.S. Rep. Greg Walden may have done, only the suggestion of violation. Upon examining the web page used as an example of the violation, it was unmistakable that any donation made from that web page would be going to the RNC and that the purpose of the web page was opposition to the election of John Lewis in Montana. A clear bold statement appears before the actual button to push for donating stating that the donation will go to the RNC for the defeat of House Democrats.

Did Clevenger bother to check the website or is it the goal of The Bulletin to create suspicion toward Walden without laying out all the facts? Clevenger did report that no Oregon Democrats were targets of the RNC websites in question, but the suspicion was already created. Please be more thorough. Anyone who has a tarnished image of Walden because of this article should view the website: johnlewis4congress.com and click the donate button taking you to the actual donation page. This is clearly not a violation of the ethics rules.

John Hoffman

Redmond

We have met the enemy and he is us

Everyone should have the right to refuse service to another person if it bothers them to serve them. We should be able to hate at will. We could even build ghettos and move those people we don’t agree with into them so we didn’t have to deal with them anymore.

If we get too many people that we disagree with, we should be able to send them to camps and maybe we could build special showers to herd them into so we could be rid of the problem of people that have different opinions than us. The final solution, do you remember, and it can happen here and it is.

George Rondema

Redmond

Address Ukraine’s humanitarian needs

There are many issues worldwide that bother me, and I’m sure many others within our society. I want to address the matter of Ukraine and how the U.S. is involved. Granted, at least in my view, there is little we can do to affect the outcome of what ultimately happens, other than political support needed to ensure that those who choose democracy will be satisfied. What bothers me is the notion, as some would suggest, that we should provide significant financial support.

Apparently, we will provide a $1 billion loan guarantee and additional financial support through an International Monetary Fund proposal in which the EU will loan the Ukraine $11 billion in funds. I believe that we ought to focus our efforts, which we are, but to a larger degree with the humanitarian crisis that has exploded within Syria and Lebanon. There are thousands of families and children who have nothing, no health care, shelter, food, etc. It is a sad situation that the international community should address.

Terry A. Brown

Bend

Giddy man crush on Putin

I find amusing the recent giddy man crush the right-wing media in this country seems to have on Vladimir Putin of Russia. If President Obama acts without Congress on an issue, he’s a dictator! If he doesn’t care to start WWIII, he’s weak! First off, the U.S. looks pretty hypocritical telling someone else not to send troops to any area.

Secondly, the U.S., China and Russia are relatively free to do what they choose in the world, and outside of nuclear annihilation, nobody is going to do much about it. Are we supposed to send warships to the area demanding Russia pull out? This isn’t the Cuban missile crisis where the Soviets were putting missiles in our backyard. This is their turf and it’s going to have to be played out with the usual political posturing from other nations — sanctions, outrage, rhetoric, etc.

Robert Smith

La Pine