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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2015)
2 Wednesday, October 7, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N An acceptable level of mayhem? By Jim Cornelius News Editor Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not neces- sarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: It’s ridiculous that The Nugget continues to print letters about Andrew Gorayeb’s position as the Outlaw’s lacrosse coach. Parents complained and he resigned. What more do you want? I’m sure plenty of former players could write positive and/or negative letters about Andrew or any other coach for that matter. How about thanking him for the wonderful job he’s doing for the City of Sisters? Cindy Standen Editor’s note: Ms. Staden raises a valid point. The lacrosse coaching issue was resolved in the manner the parents requested. Because of Andrew Gorayeb’s position as a public offi- cial, it became a matter of public interest. The community has had ample opportunity to weigh in, both favorably and unfavorably. Barring further developments, the matter is closed. Jim Cornelius, Editor s s s To the Editor: Last week I wrote to Craig Eisenbeis with my perspective on his hiking stories that give explicit directions for how to get to some of our most beautiful natural places. He has mis- interpreted that as my not wanting to share. I certainly recognize that the national for- ests are there for everyone to enjoy. My con- cern is that, in 2015, “everyone” means a stag- gering amount of people. Outdoor recreation has become a major business in Central Oregon. For example, bik- ing, fishing, rafting and kayaking companies are relentlessly advertising this area. I can understand the desire for businesses to make money. But we also need to ask how this kind of use is going to affect the quality of our experiences. Would you rather hike into Canyon Creek See LETTERS on page 26 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Slt. chance showers Partly sunny Partly sunny Mostly cloudy Mostly cloudy Partly sunny 73/39 80/41 71/43 66/39 68/na 75/40 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Publisher - Editor: Kiki Dolson News Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Williver Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Advertising: Lisa Buckley Graphic Design: Jess Draper Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Accounting: Erin Bordonaro The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2014 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. “How did this become the way a person expresses him- self?” a colleague said as the news broke of the mass shoot- ing at Umpqua Community College. How could such acts of rage from angry, lonely, mis- fit young men become a com- monplace act? Thurston High School, Columbine, New- town, Aurora, Roseburg… “Stuff happens, there’s always a crisis,” says Jeb Bush, candidate for President. “And the impulse is always to do something and it’s not nec- essarily the right thing to do.” I don’t seem to recall Jeb’s younger brother on Septem- ber 12, 2001, shrugging and saying, “stuff happens.” Americans are killing other Americans with guns at a rate of about 11,000 people a year. If Islamic terrorists were kill- ing Americans with guns at that rate, you can damn well bet we’d be doing something about it. But apparently for some this is an acceptable level of mayhem in the U.S. c. 2015. Speaking as one avid fire- arms enthusiast — this is not acceptable. It is a national tragedy — and it stains the honor of millions of respon- sible gun-owners. We can no longer behave as though this is not our problem. We gun-owners seem to have forgotten that our right comes with a very serious responsibility — and that includes participating in the crafting of EFFECTIVE regu- lations that keep weapons out of the hands of people who are liable to use them to ter- rible purpose. No, we will not eliminate gun violence — but it is spe- cious and irresponsible to pretend that we cannot take active steps that will reduce it significantly, while retaining a legitimate and Constitution- ally protected right. Mandated licensing and training would be beneficial in many respects, not least in providing the opportunity to flag maladjusted nut-jobs who should not have fire- arms. If we wish our right to keep and bear arms to not be infringed, we must also accept the responsibility to be that well-regulated militia called for in the first clause of the Second Amendment to which we cleave. Mass shootings garner the headlines and raise the level of anguish, but it is the day- to-day grind of individual incidents — domestic beefs that end up with someone dead, parties that end in gun- fire, gang violence — that account for so much of the level of killing that is unparal- leled in the developed world. Singer-songwriter Jona- than Byrd, who has performed numerous times at the Sisters Folk Festival, has written thoughtfully on the subject. He grew up with guns — but not with a culture of common- place school shootings and daily incidents of mayhem. “When millions of peo- ple live close to the bone in a country that doesn’t seem to care about them, and the most effective weapons in the world are widely available, it doesn’t take a lot of imagina- tion to paint the resulting pic- ture,” he notes. I t ’s n o t l i k e t h i s everywhere. People own guns in “The Netherlands, Germany, Den- mark and Switzerland,” Byrd notes. “Canada is notably similar in that there are a lot of guns, but not much gun violence compared to the U.S. Almost every grown man in Switzerland has an assault rifle issued by the military. They have gun festivals with shooting competitions for the kids. All these countries also take care of their citizens. You can go to school, see a doctor, or take a year off work and have a baby without worry- ing about losing your home or other financial catastrophes.” A less anxiety-ridden, fear- driven and alienated society might produce fewer murder- ously maladjusted people and might do a better job of iden- tifying and neutralizing them in advance. It’s not “just guns” or “just mental health” or just an increasingly alienated society where people crave notoriety at any cost. It’s all of those things. And we need to work on this problem holistically. We can balance rights with responsibilities, liberty with security — we’ve done it over and over again throughout American history. We don’t need more partisan bickering or polarizing rhetoric — we need people of good will and serious purpose to sit down and start coming up with real solutions. The American character is to fix things when they’re broken, to take on hard chal- lenges and find ways to over- come them. I hate to think that we’ve become a country that watches as Americans kill Americans, shrugs and says, “Stuff happens.”