A trio of Oregon Department of Transportation snowplows clear the westbound lanes of Interstate 84.

I am thankful the Deschutes County Commission voted to have health care benefits for its employees that cover abortion services. We are all entitled to our personal beliefs and I encourage anyone to be true to one’s self. But imposing personal beliefs on others is wrong. Abortion is health care.

— Barbara Smiley, Bend

In the Oct. 19 Bulletin we read that ODOT will be reducing winter services, including snow plowing, because of a $90 million reduction in their 2023-2025 budget. Perhaps we can restore ODOT’s previous service levels by levying taxes/fees on electric vehicles (EVs), which do not pay a per-gallon fuel tax. These new taxes could take one or more of several forms: a fee at time of purchase — $1,000 seems reasonable; a fee when registration is renewed — $500 seems reasonable; or even a per kilowatt hour fee — how about $1 per kwh at EV charging stations.

Personally, I favor rather stiff fees on EVs because, if you can afford the EV you surely can afford the fees — you know, soak the rich, every government’s favorite form of taxation. Further, I would favor a fairly stiff tax on studded winter tires — $200 per tire per year seems reasonable — as the studs are well known to cause increased road damage.

And lastly, we should consider schemes to increase fees/taxes on heavy trucks, which are also well known to be hard on roads. By implementing all of the above we ought to be able to restore the lost $90 million to ODOT’s budget forthwith. Legislative action would be required for the above, something of which I am not sanguine as the Legislature seems more interested in “progressive” schemes such as having state government take over health care, building new bridges across the Willamette River in Portland, and requiring the availability of female sanitary products in boys’ bathrooms in the schools. Such is life in Oregon these days.

— Mike Koonce, Bend

As one with limited biblical knowledge, I was unsure of who qualified as a semite. Apparently, a semite is someone whose modern language evolved from a common early Middle Eastern language, which incidentally includes both Hebrew and Arabic. Today, however, antisemitic means “prejudice or hostility toward Jews as a religious, cultural, or racial group.”

My first exposure to an antisemite was in the 1960s, when George Lincoln Rockwell gave a talk at the University of Hawaii. He was the leader of a fringe American Nazi Party and was a certified loon.

A more recent antisemite is Al Sharpton, a noted CNN anchor. He was involved in the 1995 Harlem riots, during which seven workers died when a Jewish clothing store was set alight.

While tragic, these events don’t reach the level of antisemitism the Palestinian question evokes.

Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on defenseless Jewish civilians last week was a reignition of the long running war against Israel based on antisemitism. The Hamas leadership could see a rapprochement forming between the Arab states and Israel and knew it had to be stopped. Their method was the slaughter of innocents.

At first the world was shocked at Hamas’ depravity, but within days a public relations campaign began with campus protests being broadcast claiming various Israel Defense Force violations. Then came Tuesday’s claim of a tragic Gaza hospital blast. Could a group that kills over 1,300 Jewish citizens during the Simchat Torah holiday blow up their own hospital? Yes. I stand with Israel.

— Jared Black, Bend

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor.