2
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
N
Editorial…
Saving the West
The 41-day occupation of the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge is over.
It’s going to take a while for Oregon to
heal up. Damage to the Refuge will need fix-
ing; damage to relationships in Burns and the
surrounding countryside may leave some per-
manent scars. From any perspective, the shoot-
ing death of Robert LaVoy Finicum is a tragic
episode that will leave an indelible mark on
his family, his friends — and the officers who
pulled the triggers.
And the quixotic, futile gesture of the
Bundy outfit has done lasting damage to the
effort to work through some very real issues
surrounding the use of public lands in the West.
The urban-rural divide in Oregon and across
the West is a real gulf (see related column,
page 15). Actions like those of the Bundys only
widen the chasm.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
There are plenty of folks who want both
to see the landscape that feeds our souls AND
the livelihoods of those who live on the land
protected and preserved. Those goals are —
despite our conflict-driven “discourse” — NOT
incompatible. There are many people who are
working toward a sustainable, natural approach
to land management that works to accomplish
a multiplicity of goals. It is they, not militant
agitators, who deserve recognition.
The Malpai Borderland Group, along the
New Mexico/Arizona and Mexico line is
worthy of admiration and emulation. Those
involved embody the right mind-set and —
more importantly — the right kind of action.
Here’s their mission statement:
“Our goal is to restore and maintain the nat-
ural processes that create and protect a healthy,
unfragmented landscape to support a diverse,
flourishing community of human, plant and
animal life in our borderlands region.
“Together, we will accomplish this by
working to encourage profitable ranching and
other traditional livelihoods, which will sustain
the open space nature of our land for genera-
tions to come.”
Right here at home, there is the fine exam-
ple of Doc and Connie Hatfield. Doc Hatfield
died at his home here in Sisters almost exactly
four years ago. On his death, High Country
News offered up a tribute:
“The Hatfields helped found Country
Natural Beef because they hated the fact that
cattle often beat up the land. They disliked the
conflict between ranchers, bureaucrats and
environmentalists. And as businesspeople, they
resented the negative way urban people looked
at public-land ranching.
“So the Hatfields tried something radi-
cal. They started talking to people outside of
the ranching world. The conversation began
in Sisters with 30 or so ranchers and environ-
mentalists and federal agency people sitting in
a circle and talking about ways to bring back
grasses, heal gullies, convince springs to flow
again, and manage cattle to coexist with wild-
life. Doc and Connie were the glue that held
the group together and the grease that helped
even quarrelsome individuals slide past each
other.”
Also here in Sisters, Dorro Sokol and Cris
Converse worked with local nonprofits and the
Forest Service to devise an equitable plan that
allowed restoration of Whychus Creek and
preserved and enhanced the access to irrigation
water for Pine Meadow Ranch.
Loud, futile — and fatal — stunts like
the Bundy occupation of Malheur will not
save the West. The actions of people like the
Hatfields and partnerships like those between
local NGOs and agencies and Pine Meadow
Ranch will. Tip your cowboy hat to these folks.
They’re the Western heroes of the 21st century.
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. 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.
See page 18 for letters to the editor
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Showers
Showers
Rain
Mostly sunny
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
55/32
47/32
49/29
50/27
50/29
50/na
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: Karen Kassy
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. ©2016 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.
Rachel
Marsden
American Voices
PARIS—Some of the
people running for the U.S.
presidency sound as if
they’ve been watching too
many tough-guy Hollywood
action and science-fiction
movies.
During the New Hamp-
shire Republican primary
debate, candidates were
asked about the satellite that
North Korea had launched
into orbit just hours earlier.
The launch has since been
widely dismissed by defense
and intelligence experts as a
useless public relations stunt.
But when you’re thrown a
pop quiz on foreign policy
and national security, you’re
probably going to resort
to your most closely held
principles—or maybe the
last thing you watched on
Netflix.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who
sounded like he’d swallowed
a Michael Crichton screen-
play, raised the possibility
of a nuclear satellite trigger-
ing an electromagnetic pulse,
taking down the electrical
grid on America’s Eastern
Seaboard and killing mil-
lions. His solution?
“We ought to put missile
defense interceptors in South
Korea,” Cruz said.
Why must every security
and defense issue involve
both a highly implausible
scenario and the U.S. run-
ning around the globe like it
was an on-call repair service?
Cruz also said of the
non-nuclear launch that it’s
an example of why “I’ve
pledged, on the very first day
in office, to rip to shreds this
Iranian nuclear deal so we’re
not sitting here in five years,
wondering what to do about
an Iranian missile launch
when they have nuclear
weapons.”
The newly minted nuclear
deal with Iran has already led
to a windfall of economic
deals for France’s Peugeot,
Airbus and others, as well
as an estimated $18.4 billion
in contracts for Italian com-
panies, thereby guaranteeing
shiny European “loafers on
the ground” in Iran. But that
doesn’t sound as hardcore as
“Rambo” Cruz springing into
action to pick a fight.
When asked what he
would do to bring home
an American college stu-
dent who was detained in
North Korea, former Florida
Gov. Jeb Bush mentioned
“weakness” several times
in his response, insisting
that America needs to stop
signaling it. Bush knows
something about signaling
strength: He has none other
than his mom, the formida-
ble former first lady Barbara
Bush, at his side on the cam-
paign trail and in television
interviews. No one’s going
to be bullying America when
she’s around. Maybe Bar-
bara Bush should be running
for the presidency—if only
because, even at 90 years
old, she doesn’t have to keep
telling everyone how tough
she is.
Why does the projection
of strength always have to
involve so much talking?
Talking about being strong
is actually pretty weak. Real
strength is demonstrated by
action and results.
Silence and surprise are
the wingmen of true strength.
Just ask any special forces
operator. Consider the cur-
rent Russian military action
against the Islamic State in
the Middle East — a method-
ical swamp-draining involv-
ing a lot of military hardware
and little in the way of talk.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the
pro-Putin head of Russia’s
Chechen Republic known for
leaking information on social
media (including photos of
dead Islamic terrorists), has
now blabbed to Russian TV
that Chechen special forces
have infiltrated the Islamic
State and are providing intel-
ligence for Russia. Unsur-
prisingly, the Kremlin has
declined to comment. But
if it’s really happening, it’s
further evidence of the effec-
tiveness of quiet profession-
alism — Kadyrov’s boasts
notwithstanding.
The most sensible
response to the foreign-pol-
icy pop quiz in the debate
came from Donald Trump.
“I deal with (China),”
Trump said. “They tell me
they have total, absolute
control, practically, of North
Korea. They are sucking tril-
lions of dollars out of our
country — they’re rebuild-
ing China with the money
they take out of our country. I
would get on with China, let
China solve that problem.”
Some of the presidential
candidates have great poten-
tial as Hollywood action
heroes or science-fiction
script advisors. Hopefully
the one who gets elected is
firmly grounded in reality.
© 2016 Tribune Content
Agency
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.