About the Author

When my oldest son, a Marine, left for war and crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq in March 2003 I started writing my conscience. After two tours that young combat veteran, my first born son, is now permanently disabled suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and his mother is now an ardent peace activist. Today I am active with Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and on the board of Rural Organizing Project Also, I am CEO of Rogue River Wind, Ltd and the inventor of a low profile wind turbine incorporating a high bandwidth relativistic generator

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There Are 6 Responses So Far. »

1. 

   Comment by PotentialMalcontent on 23 July 2008:

   I know it’s been awhile since I’ve been here…but there are a few things I’d like to say.

   First and foremost…I think that Reaves retire­ment or what­ever he calls it, is the best thing to hap­pen to Coquille since Joe Wolff took another job. Of course, the legacy he left our fair city in Reaves will last forever…

   Good­bye Mr. Reaves…don’t let the door hit you in the tush..and good riddance.

   My hope for our new police Chief is Pat Smith. He knows the town. He’s human. He’s real­is­tic. He has com­pas­sion, and he’s tried and true in my book. I’d much rather have some­one who’s been here, than another “relo­ca­tor” who pos­si­bly has a his­tory that is not fit­ting. Now that Reaves has left, maybe we can find out exactly what he did to be put on admin leave when we hired him!

   Watch O’Connor…he’s a weasel. Not to be trusted.

   As for the inves­ti­ga­tion into Leah’s disappearance…the female offi­cer that was assigned to the case…you know, the one with absolutely NO experience?…Well…when you are “one” with the Chief…you get spe­cial treat­ment, if you get my drift.

   All in all…now that Reaves is gone…I’m quite con­tent with the depart­ment we have. There are per­haps a cou­ple of offi­cers who will miss Taco Night at the Broiler with the chief…but maybe with­out his “influ­ence” they will become the offi­cers they have the poten­tial to be.

   sorry to be so long-winded…but …well…there it is
2. 

   Comment by magix on 24 July 2008:

   Hey PM, nice to hear from you again! My fear with Smith given that he was hand picked by Reaves and indoc­tri­nated into the Reaves cul­ture, man­age­ment style and poli­cies, even per­spec­tive of the local cit­i­zens is that lit­tle or no change will occur if he is the chief.

   I agree, O’Connor is pretty slip­pery and he clearly has more than a lit­tle dis­dain for the aver­age cit­i­zen who pays his salary. City man­agers are sup­posed to move on after five years or so and a new face in that chair would be a good thing.

   If we have a ‘fresh’ city coun­cil as well, then an errant relo­ca­tor wouldn’t last. Right now we have too many com­pla­cent fos­sils on the coun­cil. Eco­nomic changes, envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns and the local trade imbal­ance are seri­ous prob­lems to be solved that are beyond the scope of the cur­rent lead­er­ship, in my hon­est opinion.

   I am excited about a new face at the PD and hope we have some­one who will offer some train­ing and insight to the offi­cers they haven’t expe­ri­enced before. The other impor­tant thing is we need some­one strong enough to stand up to O’Connor when there is a dif­fer­ence of opinion.
3. 

   Comment by PotentialMalcontent on 24 July 2008:

   magix…I still sup­port Smith. He has proven to me…in a pro­fes­sional capacity…that he has what it takes to be a Chief in our com­mu­nity. I’ve never felt that Smith fell under Reaves influence..in fact…I know they had some real set to’s…

   All I know is that I’m gonna be real pissed if we hire some yahoo like Reaves with a per­sonal his­tory under suspicion.

   I also sup­port Brit­ton. I think he’s doing the best job he can with the resources (coun­cil mem­bers) he has.

   I would just like to see our com­mu­nity trust the PD and feel secure with the lead­er­ship therein.
4. 

   Comment by magix on 24 July 2008:

   I agree that Smith would be an improve­ment over Reaves. I also agree that Brit­ton is doing the best he can with the coun­cil he has and like you I would love to be able to trust the PD, or at least the leadership.

   One of the inter­vie­wees talked about how their city coun­cil had changed and they had gone through 4 city man­agers in 5 or 6 years.… one extreme to the other. Here we have the same vol­un­teers doing the same thing over and over. We need to work toward a bal­ance in the com­mu­nity and find some way to get peo­ple excited about attend­ing city coun­cil meetings.

   You are right, too, that too many of the coun­cil view their fel­low cit­i­zens as less than bril­liant… on the flip side of that, too few of the pub­lic attend coun­cil meet­ings. It is a tough row to hoe, par­tic­u­larly in an elec­tion year.
5. 

   Comment by PotentialMalcontent on 28 July 2008:

   I have often thought there should be a term limit for coun­cil mem­bers. Some of them have been there so long they view them­selves as royalty.

   Change can be good. Pos­i­tive influ­ence can be good.

   I think Brit­ton is doing a great job. I admire him even more for stick­ing with it, in spite of the “old-timers” out­dated con­cepts and negativity.

   And now, our City Man­ager is break­ing policy…

   go fig­ure.
6. 

   Comment by magix on 28 July 2008:

   We really need to find qual­i­fied and con­cerned peo­ple to run for the coun­cil posi­tions. Give it some thought.… we need intel­li­gent, thought­ful and slightly angry peo­ple to step up and run.

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