Letters to the editor: June 19, 2024 (print version)

Published 4:00 am Wednesday, June 19, 2024

The promised “multi-use walkway” that was mentioned in the April 20, 2023, memo “re North 1st Place from Ridgeway to Elm St/207” has not been finished.

Whatever is impeding the completion needs to be resolved, and this vital corridor North to South needs to be completed. Too many are forced to use the roadway and it is only a matter of time before someone is injured or killed in the Hermiston Industrial Park.

I urge my new mayor, the city council and the Union Pacific to get back to the project, now over a year old. Lives are in the balance.

Clarity Carlton-Martin

Hermiston

The new question surrounding us is whether artificial intelligence can be good for us or a complete failure. New technology on our iPhones will let individuals diagnose their health concern before they enter a hospital for care. Putting the answer before the question prior to the hospital visit with the doctor. Putting the hospital in your living room. You can place an iPhone on your chest and a health app will gather the information and you will get an immediate opinion, maybe even better than from the physicians.

This is a truly unique time-saver and also a money saver. This is a future all could benefit from.

Or new technology in AI could be a detriment to society. Will AI be more intelligent than the human brain, more accurate and always on, without human help (humans need to rest and rehabilitate themselves occasionally)? President John F. Kennedy once said, “Technology has no conscience of its own.” But in recent years that has been put to rest, and new laws in AI are now being put into law that before had been ruled out and prohibited.

The world is becoming more receptive to AI and what it will bring to make our lives easier and less costly. It is only a matter of time until it is commanding our lives. It should be a step-by-step process and not all at once, which experts in the field of artificial intelligence are promoting and already being implemented if we realize it or not.

Mike Brink

Enterprise

It seems Gov. Tina Kotek learned nothing from the political downfall of former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber by providing political power to his fiancee, thereby improving her financial income.

If some of the staff of Kotek had not resigned in protest of her efforts to provide direct political power to her wife, the public would never have been made aware there was a problem of delegating political power to an unelected relative of hers.

Kotek has been a power player in Oregon politics for many years, and as speaker of the House this type of action is normal for her.

I view most politicians as masters of spin, deflection, misdirection, word parsing and other less than fully ethical actions to work their personal will and advance their personal desires in most government actions they participate in.

I may be overly cynical; however, I voted in every election since 1960, and I consider myself very well informed. I dig deeply into the public documents that show what happens with public money that never gets discussed in front of the public.

I consider many political decisions at all levels of government are motivated by doing favors for friends, family or other politically influential people out of public view, and contrary to what I consider ethical, based on my values.

I object to political actions by elected representatives that favor specific people, and are not available to anyone else who is not politically connected.

Scott Widdicombe

Warrenton