To the Editor:

Regarding Sen. Merkleys meeting in Mt Vernon, he had a handout about five or six pages long that described issues he was working on none that I remember involved cutting back on government. If every member of Congress has a list this long we are in for big trouble!

I first became aware of our ever-growing government in the 1980s during President Reagans term. His administration proposed

classifying ketchup in school lunches as a vegetable. A great hue and cry arose. It didnt seem logical to me that 535 members of Congress, untold numbers of the administration and countless talking heads on TV should be occupied with the subject.

Today we are subjected to airport pat downs, our phone calls and Internet activity is monitored, and ever-growing EPA controls on among other things, carbon dioxide.

The senator blamed much of our forest problems on global warming, saying it brings about dry conditions and also causes an increase in pine beetles, which in turn leads to more dead and diseased trees. There was no mention that the Forest Service cannot conduct a timber sale or forest cleanup because of legal challenges, which they almost always lose. Then they have to pay the legal cost of those that brought the suit.

Why does the government lose? They are good at citing someone with an error on their firewood permit. They always win these in court, how come they cant seem to win the environmental challenges?

The senator mentioned that carbon dioxide levels are still increasing, implying more regulations are needed to control it. Could this

increase be due to our growing population? When my family moved to Oregon in 1946 our nations population was about 145 million. By the time my wife and I moved to John Day in 1999 the population was about 300 million. There are now 312 million us and there is talk of putting devices on our cars that will tell the gas pump how many miles we have driven, this so a mileage tax can be added to the fuel charges.

It is estimated that by the year 2050 our population will reach about 450 million. What new controls and regulations will our oversized government have dreamed up by then? We will probably see access to forests and other government land restricted with more road closures and higher fees.

I am sure that as our population increases, smart government officials will dream up more restrictions on individual freedom and a bigger government to enforce them. There will probably still be battles over whether or not ketchup is a vegetable. I am 80 years old but I have concern for my granddaughters who are 12 and 16 years old. What kind of society, what kind of country will they inherit?