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Wednesday, January 27, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Rachel
Marsden
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:
Recently I had a larger propane tank
installed, which required running a new gas
line. I decided to do it legally so I had it
inspected by the county. They charged me
$150 for a 10-minute inspection.
This defeats the whole purpose of inspec-
tions, because next time I will think twice
before I call for an inspection. We pay substan-
tial property taxes, and in my opinion it would
benefit the general public if such inspections
were done for no charge rather than revenue-
producing fees.
Drew Berding
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Say what you want about the knuckleheads
out by Burns, but they do have a point. If, for
example, the portion of forest around Sisters
Country would belong and be managed by a
more local entity, maybe it would employ a
few people AND some dollars would help fix
the schools (why they don’t budget for main-
tenance is a mystery to me).
But as it is, T2 (a logging company that
is currently doing a job south of town) only
gets to thin a little parcel here and there at the
pleasure of the Overlords from the Cirque du
Forest, if you would pardon my French.
And before you get yer knickers all in a
bunch, let us discuss the pros and cons of thin-
ning and responsible logging. We can do it,
and sequester some carbon, or Mother Nature
will “thin” it for us a la Pole Creek and release
more pollutants than a fleet of VWs.
Maybe you’re of the opinion that WE
messed up the natural cycle fires; read the
book about the Big Burn in 1910.
Or perhaps the school district can sell
some land it has on Locust/Cascade to ODOT
See letterS on page 27
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PARIS — Iran effec-
tively rejoined the inter-
national community a few
days ago, as longstanding
U.S. and European sanc-
tions were lifted and the
country was granted access
to $32 billion of its previ-
ously frozen assets. It’s the
razing of the Berlin Wall
all over again, as another
country is opened up to the
global market without any
shots being fired.
But why isn’t there
nearly as much celebration
over Iran’s economic libera-
tion as there was with the
fall of the Soviet Union?
Russia even kept its
nukes. In Iran’s case, there’s
been much hand-wringing
over the mere possibility it
will develop nuclear weap-
ons. Some argue that Russia
isn’t a rogue state but Iran
is. I agree that Russia isn’t
a rogue state, but it was cer-
tainly portrayed as one dur-
ing the Cold War era, which
was rife with drills involv-
ing children hiding under
their desks in the event of a
Soviet nuclear attack. Could
we consider the possibility
that perhaps the hyperven-
tilation and fear has been
overplayed in both cases?
The difference in
Western attitudes toward
the Soviet glasnost and per-
estroika (that is, economic
opening and restructuring)
and today’s Iran is that when
the Soviet Union broke
apart, there was a feeling
that the communists had lost
and the West had won. With
Iran, there’s a feeling that
the Iranians are the winners,
because apparently getting
Uncle Sam’s boot removed
from your neck means that
you’ve succeeded in screw-
ing him over.
Why are some people so
insecure as to always frame
things in a binary win-lose
paradigm? It’s quite pos-
sible for Iran and the West
to benefit equally from an
economic détente.
Iran just participated in
a prisoner exchange with
the U.S., and last month it
handed over its enriched ura-
nium to Russia under terms
of the nuclear deal with the
five permanent members of
the U.N. Security Council
plus Germany. The concept
of face-saving is particularly
important in Iranian culture.
How much more could be
asked of Iran right now?
U.S. presidential candi-
date and international busi-
nessman Donald Trump,
who’s made it clear that he
thinks the Iran deal is hor-
rible, has expressed discon-
tent that one of the first eco-
nomic overtures Iran made
after the lifting of sanctions
was to Europe’s aerospace
consortium, Airbus, for 114
new commercial aircraft.
The loser in that deal would
be American competitor
Boeing, which had lobbied
against the tightening of
sanctions on Iran.
Look, you can’t act
harshly toward a country
for years, then demand that
it do business with you —
particularly in a free market.
The whole idea of free trade
is that you get to choose
who you want to deal with.
Some people are already
complaining that lifting
sanctions and granting Iran
access to previously frozen
money will mean that it has
more to spend on weapons
and “exporting terrorism.”
But Iran doesn’t throw its
weight around anywhere
except in the Middle East,
which isn’t exactly full of
choirboys unequipped to
fend for themselves.
Besides, the “export-
ing terrorism” fear hasn’t
stopped the sale of bil-
lions of dollars in U.S. and
European military equip-
ment to Saudi Arabia, a
genuine exporter of terror-
ism. That country’s support
of the so-called “Syrian reb-
els” gave rise to the Islamic
State terrorists, who are now
being targeted most effec-
tively by Russia, with criti-
cal assistance from ... Iran.
Misconceptions and
double standards currently
abound in the Iran situa-
tion, with hot takes by pun-
dits and political candi-
dates distorting the truth.
I’ve even heard some say
that U.S. President Barack
Obama is “giving” the
Iranians money, or that Iran
will simply spend its new-
found windfall on bombs or
terrorists.
Maybe everyone should
just give it a rest for a while
and focus on trying to make
some money.
© 2016 Tribune Content
Agency, LLC.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.