A land of no choice

It’s interesting to watch how some people like choice one way but not in other ways. Democrats who for the most part want a woman to have the choice to have an abortion any time, anywhere. Now for the most part people, I assume are Democrats, who make up Bend’s Environment and Climate Committee want to force people off gas for heat and cooking. That makes this committee who are for the most part Democrats a bunch of hypocrites.

They want to force us all into electric cars and not use natural gas. Seems dictators from 1984 have arrived about 40 years late.

The America I grew up in was a land of choice and not being dictated on how we are to live our lives.

— David Roth, Bend

Growth needs sensible limits

They’re at it again. Phil Chang’s guest column of Nov. 18 contains his narrow-minded opinion that “…we need tens of thousands of current households and businesses [in Deschutes County] to conserve and become more efficient in order to accommodate future growth.” He goes on and on about limits on new wells, not asking the farmers and ranchers to cut back, etc etc. Not once in his long winded letter does Phil ever consider limiting growth. State, county and city representatives are looking for ways to circumvent urban growth boundaries and water well permits in order to accommodate growth. And they’re going to ask all of us who already live here to pay for it – either financially or through surrendering the lifestyle most of us moved here to enjoy.

Growth is not a preordained, mandated attribute necessary for cities to survive and succeed. Elected representatives need to recognize and acknowledge that the available water resources, urban growth boundaries, city limits, building codes and long range traffic plans are all things that exist or were put into effect in order to protect and establish a sustainable balance between lifestyle and growth. At some point, leaders need to acknowledge we’ve grown as large as our resources allow and we can’t grow any larger. It’s hypocritical to rant and rave about climate change in one breath and in the next breath try to rationalize how it’s okay to suck our aquifers dry in order to accommodate growth.

— Doug Jeffries, Redmond

Enough growth

In his recent guest column Phil Chang wrote, “So we will need tens of thousands of current households and businesses to conserve and become more efficient to free up groundwater in order to accommodate future growth.” That’s a hard “no” for me, and I believe I speak for a strong majority of Deschutes County. I am not willing to make any sacrifices to accommodate more growth. Enough!

— David Jankowski, Bend

The value of Mary’s Place

As a board member of Saving Grace, I proudly support all the domestic violence services that we offer to the Central Oregon community — but I specifically wanted to highlight the value of Mary’s Place and ensure that community members know about this program.

Mary’s Place offers supervised parenting time and safe exchanges for families coping with issues of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, stalking and/or child sexual abuse.

We are fortunate to have this national best practice model program available in Central Oregon, the only one of its kind east of the Cascades, as most regions across the nation don’t have a similar resource. In communities without a Mary’s Place, survivors must conduct exchanges in parking lots, church lobbies, or even at their own front steps, bringing them into immediate contact with the person who has harmed them and their children. Exchanges at Mary’s Place protect the safety of survivors by ensuring zero contact between parents with policies including separate parking lots, entrances, staggered arrival and departure times.

All services at Mary’s Place are provided by professional facilitators with a deep understanding of domestic violence and the risks to adult survivors and children post-separation. Supervised visits are offered in a child-friendly environment and promote positive and healing relationships between children and their visiting parents. Last year alone, Mary’s Place facilitated 1,136 safe exchanges and supervised visits. Access to safe parenting time post-separation is a critical need that Mary’s Place provides for Central Oregon’s at-risk families. For more information, please visit the Saving Grace website at www.saving-grace.org.

Robin Meiners is a board member of Saving Grace.

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