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Before I had children, my mother died on Christmas and my step-dad died on epiphany. Christmas has become more difficult as my own children have grown. The best way that I can get through the holiday is to use day or overnight trips to get out of the house, put up my mom's decorations, and turn off the radio when "Blue Christmas" comes on. I enjoy the children's happiness at Christmas and try not to be a downer. I wish there was more support for people like me who have lost our families at Christmas. 

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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One of my parent's mother committed suicide before anti-depressants were available. Medical professionals knew she was suicidal. Her sister died from shock therapy intended to treat suicide.

I learned about these incidents when I was young, before I was 10. The images have haunted me and I have had to process these over time. Movies contain many suicides that are portrayed in a variety of ways--from comical to catastrophic.

The most important pieces are education, prevention, and early treatment with on-going follow-up. The best study I learned about from a doctor was about people attempting suicide by jumping into a river. All people who landed on ice floes regretted their suicide attempt and were happy to be alive.

Your program could go any number of ways. I ask you to be mindful of those of us who already live with graphic images of acts of suicide. I also ask you to give consideration to soldiers returning from the war at-risk of mental health concerns, including suicide. Our society needs to be prepared to take care of our soldiers.

posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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I would like to hear some discussion about whether rural drivers would be taxed at the same rate as urban drivers. Rural residents' tax dollars support the MAX, which reduces urban residents' dependence on vehicles. Bicycling lanes built in Portland also make it easier for people to commute via cycle than automobile.

Many conferences, events and meetings are held in Portland and Salem. Rural residents drive hundreds of miles to attend these events while locals drive 30-50 miles or simply hop on the MAX to attend. How would this be taken into consideration?

posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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As an educator and taxpayer, I believe that the questions you posted to discuss this issue are misdirected. That is because they miss the historical context of the discussion.

First, the United States of America is one of the few nations that attempts to educate all students. For example, the TIMMS gets a lot of attention as proof that our educators don't teach our kids science and math as well as teachers in other countries. The TIMMS report compares our students' scores with countries that do not educate special populations, including native speakers of other languages and students with disabilities is comparing apples to oranges. If you want to investigate this further, host Bill Daggett to discuss this reality.

Second, one might consider starting the discussion to 1990 instead of 2000. The context of this discussing goes back to Measure 5, which limited county property tax support for education. The responsibility for supporting education was shifted to the state. All of a sudden, education was viewed as a greedy competitor for state funds. But salaries cost a lot of money and there are many teachers throughout this state. If someone wants to compare how much money the education system costs, perhaps we should talk about the number of teachers funded through the state budget versus the number of employees of other, lesser-funded departments. For instance, the state police should never be compared to education as a proportion of the state budget.

NCLB requires us to compare performance from one class of students against another group of students that goes through a teachers' class the following year. Again, let's compare apples to apples instead of group one to group two.

Finally, please take into special consideration the speaker who started your conversation. Oregon Connections Academy is not an acceptable representative of Charter Schools nor of public schools. You might look at the legislature's response to Oregon Connections Academy's practices in the session following their opening.

Thank you for considering my input.

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
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