There is a conspiracy we need to combat.

It is being sown in the deep state of Idaho. They want all of Oregon east of the Cascades. For our taxes, of course, since by our taxes we support the soft citizens of Portland and the Willamette Valley and the exuberant lifestyle of Southern Oregon. They may be ungrateful, but they are ours.

There is also the suspicion Idahoans want our road apples and organic pasture frisbees to fertilize their spud gardens.

To combat all this, we need to petition our Legislature and governor to use our taxes to build a wall the length of Oregon’s border with Idaho. Hands off Eastern Oregon! Make the wall as tall as the highest sagebrush and top it with ripe thistles. Use rusty barbed wire and infected jackrabbits if all else fails.

Come on, Eastern Oregonians, we have our marching orders.

Don Reese

Echo

The current state and massive escalation of the war in Ukraine/Russia is looking more like the early stages of World War 3. Introducing North Korea onto the battlefield could escalate into who knows what level of conflict. Darth Putrid and the dwarf in North Korea are pretty much crossing a big red line. It could all go very sideways soon. Guess South Korea should send forces to Ukraine as well.

Bill Laffen

Umatilla

The road to socialism: Tax the rich that have so much and need too little and give to the poor who have so little and need too much, and continue until equality is achieved. At that point all shall be equally poor. Of course with the exception of a few elite, who still rule.

This for me seems to be very true today. It seems to me the rich are the goose that lays the golden egg. Don’t kill the goose.

God help the late, great USA.

Ed Ater

La Grande

I often get asked, “Why do you have faith?” By that, they mean faith in God.

I reply: “Do you have any faith in love?” “Yes.” “What do you consider the supreme good from which others are derived?” Often they say, “I’ve never thought about that. An excellent question.”

“How about love?” “Yes; I’d agree.” “Love of self?” “No, love of others. Love of self is selfish.”

“Who, more than anyone, exemplifies love?” “I know loving people, but I can’t think of one person.” “How about God, who wills the good from and for all of us, with love?” “OK.” “Would you agree that the highest good, therefore, is God alone?” “Yeah.” “It sure wouldn’t be us, would it?” “No way!” “We’re talking absolute truth?” “Yes.” “Doesn’t it make sense that if we wanted to be in communion with the highest good, the love of God, we ought to have faith in God?” “Good point.”

“Do you now understand why faith is important?” “I do.” “You’re aware that our nation was founded on the faith that we are all ‘endowed by our Creator (God) with inalienable rights’ such as ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’?” “Yes.” “Do you realize that the notion of ‘separation of church and state’ isn’t in our founding documents — the Declaration of Independence, Constitution or Bill of Rights?” “Really?” “Yep. Jefferson alluded to it in a letter to a church; that’s it. Do you see anything wrong with our nation being guided by the highest good?”

Keith Gallagher

Gooseberry

Editor’s note: The Puritan minister Roger Williams in 1644 was the first public official to call for “a wall or hedge of separation” between “the wilderness of the world” and “the garden of the church.” The Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment’s religious establishment clause as creating the separation of church and state.

I read David Felley’s letter about the need to abolish the Electoral College (in the Nov. 6 edition of the East Oregonian) with sadness. He states that “we are one country and not a collection of little independent states.” We are not one federal republic, but a nation of 50 united states, each with its own needs, values and issues.

One of the greatest issues of our time is the dependence we are placing on the federal government to “cure all of our problems” when mostly all they do is create bigger ones. Oregon could use an electoral college due to our differences in the urban west side and the rural east, and the separation on different issues that each has, but unfortunately we don’t, so we have to suffer through the problems that our state government creates trying to solve issues we don’t even have.

Felley states that the Electoral College causes candidates to focus all their energy on a few swing states. Without an Electoral College, they would be focusing on the top five most populated states and forgetting the needs of the rest of the nation! So that the folks in Wyoming get any kind of representation at all, I think their vote should be many times more valuable than a vote in California.

Our forefathers did an amazing job in setting up our government. We need to be very careful when we talk about changing it.

Joel Hasse

La Grande