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Wednesday, October 7, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or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
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“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.”