Metro Council President David Bragdon and people like him have been brainwashed by society's perpetual use of symbols and biased account of history. If they ever bothered to do any research, they might discover that the Confederate Flag is NOT a symbol of racism, but rather a piece of American history that has unfortunately been co-opted and besmirched by hate groups who have no right to use it ["The Dixie Pix," WW, Oct. 4, 2006].

The Civil War was precipitated by a raise in Southern tariffs and Lincoln's favoritism to Northern states, who were paying one quarter what Southern states were. So Virginia decided to secede from the Union (which, under their state constitution, they had every legal right to do). Lincoln realized that Southern secession would disrupt commerce, directly affecting the local Northern economy, and responded by sending 18,000 troops into Virginia. Southerners found it unfathomable (and rightly so) that a president would send troops to attack other Americans.

Slavery was never the central issue of the Civil War, as our public schools would like us to believe (they generally fail to mention that the majority of Southerners didn't own slaves). The Stars and Bars are a symbol of the greatest American display of resistance against a corrupt government, not of racism.

Jess Nichols
Gresham

VISION QUESTThe Sept. 27 feature "Vision for Dollars" indeed showed a lack of vision. Evaluating the city's visionPDX project on a cost-per-survey basis is shortsighted and an inaccurate representation of the effort.

One goal of the project has been to ask people what they want Portland to look like. Hands On Portland received a city grant to collect responses, and we held 16 focus groups, surveyed 190 people, and distributed the survey link to thousands of volunteers through email and our web page at handsonportland.org. Given that the goal of the project has been to engage Portlanders in helping achieve their visions, Hands On Portland offers hundreds of service opportunities to help people get involved in their communities.

For all the small talk in the article about wise use of city dollars, it missed the big picture. Mayor Potter knows the city can't do it alone. The mayor needs Portlanders to step up and contribute their time and talents if any real change is to happen. Such civic involvement not only strengthens our community, but also relies less on city dollars. Truly, building community is priceless. That's called vision.

Karol Collymore, Kim Smith
Hands On Portland board of directors

THE VISION THING

What kind of democracy do we want in Portland? That's the real question underlying "Vision for Dollars" [WW, Sept. 27, 2006]—but unfortunately, Ian Demsky all but obscures it with his "shocking exposÉ" of the business costs of nonprofit organizations. It's actually rather refreshing to hear that the grant recipients averaged half the cost of the for-profit sector, according to the article's third-to-last paragraph.

But the real value is far more intangible than numbers of surveys received: it's an opportunity for the people of Portland to take charge of the future of the city.

VisionPDX opens the door by reaching out to communities and providing a catalyst for engaged conversation. From there, the choice is ours: Will we wait passively for a "leader who provides the vision," in Dave Lister's words, and restrict our civic engagement to simply voting for City Council candidates, then gripe about their leadership? I think not.

I think the people of this city are ready to take planning, decision-making, and above all, action into the hands of communities themselves. It's unusual, unfamiliar, and doubtless it'll take us a while to figure out how to use government most effectively as a facilitator for our own active transformation of the urban ecology.

But it's worth it. VisionPDX is one tool to help the people of Portland realize the power we hold, individually and collectively, to make Portland the city we envision it to be.

P.S.: For full disclosure, I am a volunteer on the Community Vision Council, but was not part of the grantmaking decision process.

Brenna Bell
Southwest Boones Ferry Road

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE—BUT NOT AS MUCH AS YOU THINK

Thank you for your annual "Hydro Hogs" article. Although most people don't think water is scarce here, urban water consumption in fact puts serious strain on our rivers.

Portland's diversion of Bull Run water—for purposes including the extravagant gardens, enormous green lawns and elaborate fountains mentioned in your article—is killing threatened salmon and steelhead in the Bull Run and Sandy rivers. (Portland is seeking federal approval of a plan that will allow what would otherwise violate the Endangered Species Act.) Suburbs getting water from the Clackamas River contribute to it lacking the flows government agencies say fish need in dry months.

State Fish and Wildlife officials recently told another group of cities and water districts that they can't take as much water as they want from the Willamette River in the future because of a law that requires them to "maintain" certain fish populations. Instead of finding a way to comply with this law, cities and water districts are having the League of Oregon Cities, which is run by a board including publicly "green" officials such as Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten and Corvallis Mayor Helen Berg, lobby to get rid of the fish-protection law in the next legislative session.

Thus, your annual "Hydro Hogs" article does more than satisfy curiosity about lifestyles of the rich and famous. It shows us the kind of excessive and unnecessary water use for which our cities and water districts are willing to sacrifice our state's fish populations.

Brian Posewitz
Board president
WaterWatch of Oregon