CHEERS for reporting things. Not writing articles, but actually reporting issues that bug you in your daily life. Like that car someone left parked in front of your house five weeks ago [Did they lose their keys?] or the green light on Van Buren that’s been burnt out for a week now [When do you go?]. Well, the City of Corvallis has a whole list of places to report these things. We hope it comes in useful. Mazel Tov!
CHEERS for our boys in DC – Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Representative Peter DeFazio – for working hard for Oregon. The senators announced funding to improve Oregon airports which will include $295,000 for the Corvallis Airport. Meanwhile, DeFazio is looking to protect our warm and cuddly gray wolves [Warning: Please do not try to cuddle with wild gray wolves as they will likely try to eat you.]
DOUBLEPLUS CHEERS for our local writing community which has put out a plethora of good books this year [and going into next year!]. From biographies of remarkable people to essays by remarkable people, through the lines of fiction and into books for kids, there have been words made into sentences covering pages leading the eye through the trials and successes of others. Books Rule! And we’ve got writers right here in Corvallis making them.
CHEERS for Benton County parents getting their kids out there and vaccinated against Covid. More than 40% of you parents are getting your names on the Nice List this year by caring about the community enough to do what we here at The Advocate think of as the right thing. This little ol’ county of ours has the highest number of vaccinated kids in the state! Thank you.
APPLAUSE APPLAUSE APPLAUSE for local nuclear energy giant Nuscale. From humble-ish beginnings right here in the Mid-Valley, Oregon State Prof Jose Reyes made a company that makes little nuclear reactors. And now… They are goin’ public! AND they’re expecting a valuation of… wait for it… nearly $2,000,000,000! [That’s $2 billion if you’re having trouble counting all those zeroes]
CHEERISH LIKE THINGS for finally finding out where the humbugs in the Newberg School Board came about their humbugginess. It all started with a white heart in a rainbow flag with the words “Be Known.” The flag was viciously hung by a special education assistant at Dundee Elementary School – you know, where the kids are generally too young to actually understand the rainbow implications of the flag [basically the Tiny Tims of the world]. Now the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon is suing the Board on behalf of that employee, and the schools in Newberg are not allowed to have any political, quasi-political, or controversial content on walls, t-shirts, doorways, yadda yadda Ho Ho Ho and moving on…
JEERS for pharmaceutical companies and their overpriced drugs. The most expensive drug in Oregon [not in the US – not in the world – in Oregon] costs the people in need of it $419,500 per infusion. There are 193 new drugs they’ve added to the too-expensive-to-afford list for 2021. When it’s cheaper to fly to Holland than to run to Rite Aid, something is seriously wrong with the system here.
PLEASE as you finish your grocery and gift shopping for the holidays, take a moment to consider how incredibly lucky you are to have food, a home, and the people in your life.
There are more people living on the streets than ever before. The coronavirus has taken millions of lives worldwide. More than 1,000 children in the US have died from this pandemic. But there is something you can do to make things better. You can give blood.
The nation’s blood supply is at historically low levels right now. People in need are having to put off surgery and delay essential blood and platelet transfusions. Imagine having your son or daughter, mother or father having to be in pain just because there’s not enough of this one fluid that all of our bodies make.
So this reporter is donating blood! Called the Red Cross at 1-800-733-2767 (aka 1-800-RED-CROSS). Uploaded their app which lets me track when I’ve donated and how much of my blood has gone out to save other lives. AND since my next donation is in January, I might win two seats to the next Super Bowl! Pretty nifty, huh? [Copy editor’s note: giving blood for a chance at Super Bowl tickets feels like heading over to the Squid Game March for Peace – but to each reporter their own, I suppose]
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com