Time for lemonade

I suppose the majority of the Ashland restaurant owners think the Ashland voters gave them lemons by renewing the 5 percent meals tax which they vigorously opposed. Well, they can overcome this defeat by taking a lesson from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and using the restaurateurs' campaign organization in a new, positive way — i.e., to make "lemonade." As was reported on election morning, OSF had a record season for both attendance and revenue — in spite of the horrible economy. They did that by having an excellent product and creative marketing. The Ashland restaurants have an excellent product — now all they have to do is use their organization in creative ways to build an "Enjoy Ashland" campaign!

Besides OSF, Ashland offers Southern Oregon University with its excellent music and theater productions, the Varsity Theatre with its movie offerings that are unique to the Rogue Valley, art galleries, intriguing shops, the ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum, Lithia Park, other parks and trails and the Mt. Ashland ski area. Residents from the Rogue Valley can pretend they are tourists and enjoy the attractions that out-of-state tourists come here to enjoy. An example for a restaurant that serves breakfast might be displaying brochures with directions to Lithia Park. Lunch and dinner restaurants can promote Ashland music and theater offerings by guaranteeing meal service that coordinates with show times. Making certain that their restaurant is represented accurately in www.passport2ashland.com can help individual restaurants attract computer-savvy visitors.

By offering their patrons guidance to "a taste of Ashland" to supplement the wonderful meal, the restaurant owners will give true added value that exceeds the cost of the 5 percent tax.

Roy Sutton

Ashland

Ban public nudity

Yes! Finally some common sense — the fact that the council is considering a public nudity ban. What was that about no nudity so many yards from schools? I look around me and see children everywhere. It is just common decency and plain old morality to demand a public ban. Anyone who wants to be nude can just go join a nudist colony. Please, all Ashlanders, support a ban! Without it we will have all kinds of kooks strutting around nude and that would just be gross!

Jessy DeBoer Day Jordan

Ashland

Ideals of freedom

Eager Ashland has enthusiastic supporters for every concept except that of freedom as stated in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The merest hint of a social injustice of pollution sends dozens of would-be protectors into the fray. But the tree under which we all live, our Constitution, has few willing champions.

I guess that's because it's a lot easier to chain oneself to a tree than it is to understand and act on behalf of so revolutionary a concept as freedom of religion or rights of assembly.

And the ideals of freedom of the press and speech are so much more difficult to support than singing paeans extolling the virtues of equality.

The Republican and Democrat solution to everything continues to be to urge voters to elect more of their people to office. But considering how many years they've had to fix things, don't you think they'd have done it right by now? I ask, "What part of 'Swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States' do elected officials of either big party not understand?" For example, I've offered to make a financial donation to either party if their elected office holder could simply point out to my satisfaction what part of the Constitution allows them to send our tax money overseas in the form of foreign aid.

Through all the years I've made this offer, I've had no takers. As a result, there is only one party that I can support: www.constitutionpartyoregon.net.

Henry Stevens

Medford