Readers respond: Gomberg article proves Howland quote

Like most projects involving government processes and oversight, the road repaving in Rep. David Gomberg’s subdivision gets more complicated the further you get in the four page Oregonian/OregonLive article, (”

Oregon lawmaker pushed to fix his road with wildfire recovery money,

” July 13).

Bottom line for me as a taxpayer, and as a citizen observer of government agencies? Gomberg would have been wise to heed the advice of Jim Howland in his ”

Little Yellow Book,

” a take-off on

Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s Little Red Book

of aphorisms.

Howland was one of the founders of the engineering firm CH2M HILL

, which has since been absorbed into Jacobs Engineering Group. His very first piece of advice is this: “A good test to determine if a contemplated action is ethical is to ask, “Would I want to see it in the headlines tomorrow morning?”

This article seems to validate that little kernel of wisdom.

Lyn Larson, Corvallis