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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2016)
2 Wednesday, March 9, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O G N I R SP rd a w r fo H 13 P I N I O Turn your clocks forward 1 hour Saturday night. Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 13 at 2 a.m. C R A M 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Here’s a shout-out to Nugget contribu- tors Sue Stafford and Diane Goble for begin- ning a frank discussion on truly affordable low-cost housing, in particular as it concerns elderly women living alone in Sisters and in the world. Many of my women friends know other women who also face this sobering future of not having enough income to pay for our residence, and being forced out to go “somewhere.” We have been in a silent sense of helplessness, so I am grateful for this open sharing. There needs to be something between working ourselves to death and an eventual poverty-based reliance on State and federal programs; something between working dur- ing retirement and outright destitution in a federally funded assisted-living facility, sub- sidized by our inadequate Social Security. Diane Goble speaks my language. I share all the same concerns. I find housing prices to be quality-of-life-threatening and potentially able to ruin an otherwise good life. I am older, retired, living on a very fixed income ($300 left over after I pay my rent). I am poor now, but I wasn’t always. I had over $100,000 in mutual funds in the ’90s and lost it. I never recovered. I inherited money, bought a home, and then lost everything else I had, trying to save my home during the 2008 mortgage crisis. Ethical, honest and trying to honor my debt, I lost my savings, my IRA, some pos- sessions, and was down to my last $1,000 — headed for the same fate as “The Lady in the Van” (current movie). I can still work, but I am very concerned about what happens when I can no longer do odd jobs, can’t pay my bills or my rent. But am not too sick or ready to die. “The Van” might be in my — or our — future unless truly affordable/low-cost housing becomes an option for us elderly women and men. Personally, I dream of a low-rent ($400/ space is not low-rent) mobile home park for us, each in our own little RV and space, where we can live in freedom and dignity, until it is time to go. It’s either something like that or someone’s driveway. Eileen Grellert See letterS on page 24 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Rain Rain likely Rain likely Chance rain Chance rain Chance rain 51/36 51/27 52/30 50/32 49/30 52/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. N John Kass American Voices The Republican presi- dential campaign — and that vulgar candidate debate in Detroit — bring us to the root of the thing. The Republican coali- tion is breaking apart. The GOP establishment’s hold on power and treasure is weakening. The Republican insiders are worried and angry, and they’ve seized on Donald Trump and his eco- nomic nationalism and wild, bragging ways. Yet the wise ones among them must certainly know that Trump isn’t the cause of the problem. He’s merely a symptom. Trump is the once-useful barbarian the Republican establishment cannot con- trol. Now some insiders are finagling a move to dump him at their convention in Cleveland. But that will involve shaming Trump’s middle- class and working-class sup- porters, who are drawn to his economic nationalism. With Trump or without him, the Republican coali- tion has been slowly break- ing apart for years. It’s like a solar system of odd planets, with free trad- ers and Main Street, evan- gelicals, corporatists, Wall Street and neoconservative intellectuals who’ve prod- ded the nation into wars. All these pieces were part of a Cold War coalition, a Ronald Reagan coalition. But the Cold War is over, Reagan is long gone, and without that lost density to hold them in orbit, the plan- ets are ready to spin out on their own into uncharted space. The evangelicals have nowhere to go if they wish to remain a force in politics. Pro-life Democrats are all but extinct in Congress. The free traders and Wall Street have made a killing over the past two decades as Democrats and Republicans encouraged and helped them move capital out of the country with NAFTA and other trade deals. But Main Street paid the price, and is dying. Capitalism is a liberating force, but unfettered it can be destructive. One look at the shuttered factories and vacant storefronts will tell you that. Politics isn’t buildings. Buildings don’t vote. And lectures about the price of labor in Indonesia won’t soothe parents with two or three part-time jobs and no time for their children. They don’t want a gov- ernment handout. And Trump appeals to them. But Wall Street has been sweetening the tongue of Democrat Hillary Clinton. The neoconservative war party intellectuals are aban- doning the Republicans and moving toward her as well. They can see Republican noninterventionism rising, first with Rand Paul and now with Trump, and Mrs. Clinton is the fiercest raptor in politics now. Without that coalition, the GOP establishment won’t be able to use gov- ernment to project power and graze and get fat and wealthy. That’s what terrifies them. So they’ll fight to keep it, and destroy whoever might be in the way. Republican establish- ment figures certainly must see the end of things, see it moving out there beyond their walls, some shadow on the horizon telling them it’s just about over. The change is inevitable. Political coalitions always rise, fall and are reformed into something new. But I sure don’t think Trump and his boorish vulgarity are the proper vessel for this change in the Republican Party. Paul would be riding the crest of the wave now if the neoconservatives didn’t hamstring him at the beginning. Ted Cruz is clearly more conservative, though unlike Trump, Cruz talks eagerly of military adventures. What Trump has touched on, perhaps unwittingly, is an American middle- and working-class anger so deep that journalists really couldn’t see it. It’s been looked at as some sort of mental condition, as evi- dence of illness or racism or some other pathology to be treated medically, or mocked by newspaper pundits and on social media. It’s out now, and it’s raging. © 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.
