Editorial
Slow down for kids
Just as the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano each year, the region's
youngsters return to their respective schools in the fall.
Alas, summer must draw to a close for another year.
It's a time of great excitement and uncertainty, of new clothes, backpacks and
possibilities.
But it's also a time when area motorists need to take a little extra time to be cautious -
not just in School Zones, but throughout their respective towns.
Children heading back to their schools, and the jumble of wide-eyed little boys and girls
is quite an impressive sight to see.
Unfortunately, where you see them is next to roads, highways and streets, and often
keeping out of the way of moving cars is one of the last things on their collective minds,
especially when excited at the thought of seeing friends again.
That's where area motorists need to take the lead and remember there is no place so
important to get to that sacrificing safety for speed is worth it.
We urge all of you who drive to be especially careful over the next few weeks as these
young ones begin another school year. Each year you read and hear stories about little
children being killed or injured after being struck by a car on their way to or from
school.
It's our hope that we can avoid those kinds of situation in our own area. We hope all
motorists will exercise caution and carefulness as the school season opens at various
times around the area.
We also urge parents who will be sending children to school to talk to them about safety,
about where to walk and where not to walk, about where to cross the street and where not
to cross the street.
A friendly, loving reminder now may save a lot of heartache and pain later. Communicate
with your kids, even if they act like they don't want to hear it.
Chances are they'll remember more than they let on.
Here's hoping the return to school will be safe and enjoyable for all. |
Letters
to the editor
Generous support made
2000 concert series possible
Eleven years and running - the Slice of Summer concert series completed its run
Aug. 13 with beautiful weather and great entertainment.
It was hard to follow the 10th anniversary year of "best of the best"
performers, but this year ended up just great, too.
As always, many, many thanks are due to the fantastic sponsors who financially support the
event and make it possible.
Canby Telephone Association was our major sponsor for the 11th season. And, as always,
their staff was there to assist, too.
Canby Car Wash & Auto Lube were also repeat major sponsors. Both of these
organizations and families have such a long history of support to local events and
activities.
I certainly appreciate their donations on behalf of Slice of Summer, but also for the many
other ways they each contribute to our community.
In addition, we were fortunate to have the following supporting sponsors with Portland
General Electric, Clackamas County Tourism, Fred Meyer, OBC Northwest, The Canby Herald,
and Jarboe's Grill.
It takes so much to put on a concert series such as Slice of Summer, so we're pleased to
have the above organizations care enough to fill in the voids to make it happen.
The city of Canby parks crew, especially Jeff Snyder, have been wonderful to work with and
so cooperative. Jeff makes the preparation of the site an easy task with his "can
do" attitude.
Others I couldn't do without are Linda Martin and her ongoing support of the event and her
terrific T-shirt sales each night; Delbert and Kyle Kaufman for the heavy job of putting
up the staging; OCTS for taping each concert for all to enjoy on Channel 5 during the
winter months; Canby Disposal Service for providing a dumpster to handle our trash each
week, Canby Area Chamber of Commerce for information and T-shirt sales, our
concessionaires, Harry Lee Kwai for sharing his MC talent, and all those who came to enjoy
the music and fun.
At the first concert someone described the Slice of Summer scene as "very Norman
Rockwell-ish." I agree. It's so wonderful to look out into the crowd each night and
see all ages there. Families with young children enjoying the music and dancing to the
beat are such a delight - don't we all wish we were that "free" again?
Work on next year's series begins almost immediately (with a short breather!). As always,
I'll be looking for different kinds of music and experiences for our community. I received
many suggestions for bands for next year. All will be seriously considered.
Slice of Summer has always set a goal to explore different bands and styles of music, so
if you don't see your favorite band return often enough for your taste, please understand.
I, too, have personal favorites, but our area is a wealth of talent begging to be tapped,
so let's take advantage.
Thanks once again to all who participated in making the series a success. All the pieces
put together make it whole for the community to enjoy.
I hope to see all of you next year, with your blankets, your lawn chairs, your picnic
baskets, and your toes tapping! It'll be here before we know it, won't it?
Carol Meeuwsen
Canby Community School Coordinator
Local travel agent
went to bat for us
For years my wife had wanted to visit her relatives in Virginia. She purchased two
round-trip airline tickets through a daughter-in-law who had Internet access, and my wife
and daughter departed during the early part of July.
Once in Virginia, her relatives persuaded her to extend her stay beyond the return date of
their tickets. My wife then dealt with the airline directly and had their tickets modified
accordingly. But when the visit didn't go as planned, my wife and daughter found
themselves effectively stranded on the East coast.
Not having enough money in the bank to purchase new tickets to bring them home, and not
knowing what else to do, I explained the situation to Nancy Wilmes of G & R Travel
Inc. in Canby. She immediately went to bat for us with the airline, even though she had no
obligation to do so.
She could have charged for her services, but she did not. She was able to persuade the
airline to honor the return portion of the original tickets with the result that my wife
and daughter are now back home.
The lesson we learned from this is that airline tickets should not be purchased over the
Internet unless one if fully aware of all the limits the airlines place on these tickets
as well as your rights as an airline customer.
From now on, we will deal exclusively with G & R Travel whenever we need to fly.
Our community is fortunate indeed to have a person like Nancy Wilmes working among us.
Louis E. Flynn II
Canby
Annexation measure
just makes sense
I favor the proposal annexing a portion of the city of Canby industrial area. I am a small
property owner in Phase II who has been present at close to 40 public meetings and
workshops regarding this matter.
After several meetings, the majority of the City Council persons (including incumbents for
the November elections) came to better understand the procedures necessary to help small
property owners regain lost home values and lessen the potential large beneficial tax
liens for occupants of an industrial area.
Two Council persons (the opposition) have continually voted against any action that could
help a small property owner. When the time comes to leave my home, it will help to already
be annexed so I can give a first quality buyer an immediate answer instead of having to
wait nine months to maybe be annexed.
This could cause me to eventually accept a lesser quality buyer that harms me as well as
the city of Canby, whose residents should vote in favor of the proposed annexation.
Please vote yes on 3-87. It just makes sense.
Leighton Perkins
Canby
Is it conspiracy,
or is it collusion?
As a citizen of this great nation, I feel slighted by the two big political parties and
the media for ignoring the issues of other lesser known parties, i.e., The Green and
Reform parties.
They are being excluded from the presidential debates for the purported reason that they
do not poll favorably at 15 percent.
That is unfair and a sham.Ralph Nader, the presidential candidate of the Green Party, is
polling favorably between 5 and 10 percent nationally. That means millions of voters are
being ignored by the press and the Debate Committee.
On Aug. 30, The Oregonian newspaper ran an article discussing contentious issues between
Bush and Gore over how the debates would be run. There was no mention of Ralph Nader or
Pat Buchanan who together have a significant portion of the electorate interested in their
positions.
Perhaps conspiracy is too strong a word in this case, but anybody can see collusion and
indifference. Governor Jessie Ventura of Minnesota was able to debate with an 8 percent
popularity rating and went on to win the election. Are we afraid of new ideas?
Millions of voting Americans want all the major candidates to participate in the
presidential debates. I think we deserve a fair debate about real issues.
Sidney Healey
Hubbard
Psychobabble is
no substitute for
a good education
Last week's Canby Herald reports that the high school will change from 45 minute to 80
minute classes, based in part upon studies that show benefits.
In truth, the practice, known as "block scheduling", is the latest in a series
of stupid fads that serve the undisclosed interests of the education bureaucracy, not
students. By any real measure of achievement, students will suffer from this program.
Students wind up knowing less, but having better "attitudes" and less
"stress." It seems that in Canby, psychobabble substitutes for educational
achievement, as in the school district's extensive efforts to improve the self-esteem of
students instead of teaching them and giving them a real basis for self-esteem.
It is distressing to see radical changes to longstanding educational practices being
adopted at the drop of a hat. A simple search on the Internet confirms that informed
parents all over the country oppose block scheduling. The site
http://www.oregoneducation.org/fads/case.htm forms a good starting point for anyone
interested in the truth of the matter.
This is bilingual education all over again - adopted thoughtlessly around the country, and
subsequently proved an educational disaster. The educational establishment, dedicated to
its own interests, does nothing, ultimately forcing citizens to resort to initiatives, as
in California.
A year after passage of the California initiative, educational achievement is up
dramatically. It's too bad that Canby's parents and their school board don't care enough
about their kids to prevent this disaster before it happens.
James Buchal
Hubbard
Pretty Baby Contest
was highlight of fair
The 2000 Clackamas County Fair has come and gone, and I am proud to say it was a huge
success.
The Pretty Baby Contest on Saturday, Aug. 19, took the stage by storm. I would have to say
it was one of the most successful events held at the fair this year.
I would like to extend my gratitude for your help in donating prizes for those
participants in the Pretty Baby Contest. A new addition to the fair this year, more than
200 babies were registered to participate.
There were two age divisions; the first age 0-10 months and the other age 11 to 20 months.
In each category contestants vied for such titles as prettiest smile, chubbiest toes,
cutest nose and lightest or darkest eyes.
Again, I would like to say thank you for all your support with the Pretty Baby Contest.
Without your help the event would not have been such a success. I hope we can continue
working together to make it an annual event at the Clackamas County Fair.
Liz Miles
Special Events Coordinator
Clackamas County Fair
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