Westerners must defend themselves

Thomas Jefferson envisioned America as a land of yeoman farmers with the federal government confined to military installations, ports, harbors and federal facilities. Subsequent policy makers believe they can manage the land better than the states and private sector.

In reality our national resources are threatened with management guided by radical environmentalists and judicial decree. As resources suffer those leading the charge are emboldened, creating a litigation frenzy. Any individual, group, corporation or industry that challenges them receives special attention.

The recent Ruby pipeline settlement in Nevada is a prime example. In compensation for not going ahead with a lawsuit the radicals received millions. The word settlement has become a politically correct reference to racketeering. Al Capone, that master of the latter, was a piker compared to modern practitioners.

The 13 million acres rumored as candidates for "wild lands" designation is the latest round of land grabs. This could be the Obama administration's legacy to an already endangered American West.

Is there a solution? I believe there is. A West-wide initiative sponsored at the county level representing stakeholders, endorsed and supported by congressional delegations. I believe nothing short of this will save our Western resource-based economies.

Michael F. Hanley IV

Jordan Valley, Ore.

Wyden works for entire state

The Dec. 31 editorial in the Capital Press makes the point that rural Oregonians hear the same promise every election year about how statewide candidates will represent the entire state only to have the promise forgotten as soon as the election is over.

Not so fast. Sen. Ron Wyden made that promise when he first ran for the U.S. Senate. Fifteen years and 565 town halls later he is still at it, fulfilling the promise to hold town halls in every county every year. The very first town hall was held in Fossil on Feb. 17, 1996, and he has returned to that same Wheeler County community every year, often more than once. He even selected Fossil as the site of his 500th town hall on that same date in 2009.

Sen. Wyden hasn't stopped there. He has delivered time and again for rural Oregon with things such as overcoming objections from the military to clear the way for construction of the Shepherd's Flat Wind Farm that created hundreds of family-wage jobs, securing county payments that have helped rural counties maintain essential services, fighting for eastside forest policies that will put people back to work and create healthier forests, and working with the Veterans Administration to establish health and mental health services to veterans throughout Eastern Oregon.

Sen. Wyden also recognized the importance of rural Oregon by being the first Oregon senator to open offices in Eastern, Central and Southern Oregon and not just in the Willamette Valley. Today, there are staffed offices in La Grande, Bend and Medford.

While the promise of representing the entire state may ring hollow to some, you can't tar all statewide elected officials with the same brush. This month, Senator Wyden will begin his 16th year of town hall meetings and he will continue to hold them every year after that as long as he has the privilege of representing all of Oregon.

Lisa Rockower

State Director

Office of Sen. Ron Wyden

Portland