Election drama on licenses

Unlike Oregon, Massachusetts driver’s licenses for illegals was vetted properly, through the Legislature, and was defeated.

Massachusetts became the 11th state in 2014 to consider driver’s licenses for illegals, House Bill 3285, and shut it down.

Opponents argued it would make Massachusetts a magnet for illegal immigrants, reward illegal behavior and shield illegals from federal law enforcement.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson testified against it, asking the question, “… Do the laws really matter?”

New Mexico, having granted licenses to illegals since 2003, has actually seen the rate of uninsured motorists increase and now has “the second highest percentage of uninsured drivers.”

Oregon’s November ballot will ask some variant of the question regarding driver’s licenses for illegals, thanks to the heavy lifting of Oregonians For Immigration Reform.

Had Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber vetted this idea properly, this bit of election drama could very well have been avoided.

Wayne Mayo

Scappoose

Support Tony DeBone

I support Tony DeBone because he is down to earth and approachable. He is a small-business owner who is very involved in the community.

DeBone knows what it takes to lead Deschutes County into the future. I am confident that with DeBone’s leadership my business will continue to thrive.

DeBone is the right choice for Deschutes County commissioner and has my vote in November!

Mary Hill

Redmond

Strategy for collapse?

When Barack Obama spoke of “transforming America,” is it possible he intended to bring about the collapse of America by implementing a strategy developed in 1966?

American political activists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis. The crisis would disrupt local and state governments and deepen divisions within ethnic groups, growing poor and the middle class. Ultimately, it would overload the entire government bureaucracy with impossible demands, precipitating economic collapse.

Are we watching yet another segment in the implementation of this strategy with the crisis on our southern border? For skeptics, below are three (of many) recent headlines:

• “Key department officials say a recent influx of illegal immigrant children and families in the city is stressing almost every service from trash collection to healthcare.” — MyFoxBoston.com

• “Just since October, the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector has made more than 194,000 arrests, nearly triple that of any other sector. In the first week of June alone, agents in this area south of Mission arrested more than 2,800 people, most from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, making it the highest-volume arrest zone on the entire U.S. border.” — TriCities.com

• “During a recent visit to two detention centers that house undocumented migrant children, officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported that conditions there posed a high risk for infectious disease outbreaks.” — Texas Tribune

Saul Alinsky, were he alive, would be proud.

Gladys Biglor

Bend

Close door on discrimination

While I absolutely respect Marie Annette’s right to her opinion regarding gay marriage and religious freedom, I am curious as to what she would list as “the numerous negative risks and multifaceted consequences associated with homosexual lifestyles, and the ultimate impact of upsetting the social order by abandoning natural law.”

I have many gay friends: some married, some with children, some single, some in committed relationships — all well-adjusted, productive members of society. These are human beings who have the same feelings, dreams, hopes for the future as their heterosexual counterparts. Many of my gay friends attend church, embraced by clergy who understand and support basic human rights, who read from the same Bible. It is time to close the door on discrimination, forever.

Helen Dehner

Bend