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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2016)
2 Wednesday, March 30, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: In response to Dave Marlow’s March 23 letter to the editor on a $15-per-hour minimum wage, I agree 100 percent. We’re seeing an unprecedented number of goodies that liberal Democrats are promising without a single thought given to unintended consequences. Liberals’ new “purchase votes initiatives” include $15 minimum wage, free college, free medical, and entitlement to what they determine as their fair share. My first job at 12 years old picking beans paid .025 per pound, and you made what you worked for. There was no splitting up the total at the end of the day to make sure everyone was entitled to “his or her fair share.” When I turned 16, I was able to land summer jobs at minimum wage of $1 per hour to $1.25 per hour. Of course that was 50-plus years ago. However, I NEVER imagined minimum wage was going to entitle me to a “living wage,” buy a house, raise a family, and live the American dream. America is the greatest country in the world when it comes to self-directed oppor- tunity. The stories are endless of those who made good choices, worked hard and “earned” their success. Oprah Winfrey is one example. How is it that I’m entitled to one cent of what she worked hard for in the name of fairness? Michael Jordan is also very rich, and he earned it by hard work and utilizing his God- given talent. So help me understand why I’m entitled to one cent of his fortune in the name of fairness? Bill Gates and his partner started Microsoft from nothing. Today it’s a multina- tional company providing thousands of high- paying jobs. Again, tell me why I would be entitled to one cent of their amazing accom- plishment in the name of fairness. Those aiming to turn our country upside down in the name of fairness and entitle- ment may have noble goals, but the results will be disastrous. What our country needs is competent leadership that will unleash the power of free enterprise by eliminating stifling See lEttErS on page 20 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Sunny Chance Showers Partly Sunny Partly Sunny 57/28 65/35 68/38 58/34 61/37 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. What do you get when you ignore a hotbed of jihad- ism located just a few miles from the base of European government? Tragedy. Belgian authorities have labeled as terrorism a series of attacks March 22 in Brussels that killed more than 30 people and injured dozens of others. Not long after two explosions ripped through the Brussels air- port, there was a rush-hour explosion at the Maalbeek metro station near the driv- er’s seat of Europe itself: the European Commission, where meetings were can- celed as soon as this political boomerang crashed through the window. It’s not a stretch to imag- ine that this latest wave of attacks had something to do with the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, 26, a suspect in last year’s coordinated Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130 people and injured hun- dreds more. Following the attacks, authorities report- edly believed that Abdeslam, whose brother detonated a suicide bomb at Le Comptoir Voltaire restaurant, had fled to Syria. Although I’d like to think the admission that a danger- ous terrorist had somehow dropped off the radar of authorities was just a ruse to make the suspect think they’d lost his scent, perhaps it’s not wise to attribute to wile what could be easily ascribed to incompetence. Abdeslam was arrested less than a half-mile from his mother’s house in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, a notorious jihadist nest that was tempo- rarily placed under martial law in the wake of the Paris attacks. Molenbeek has been tied to a number of terrorist attacks, including the 2004 Madrid train bombings and last year’s Thalys train attack that was thwarted by several passengers. The mayor of Molenbeek from 1993 to 2012 was Philippe Moureaux, a mem- ber of the Socialist Party known for his hands-off approach to the radical jihad- ism that was festering right under his nose. Socialist policies often seem designed to not make local minority populations feel uncomfort- able — which in itself is an inherently racist worldview toward law-abiding citizens who happen to be minorities. By not imposing the sort of safety standards that are common in other municipali- ties, Socialist leaders expose law-abiding minorities in the area to a greater threat. Why should they have to suffer the consequences of policies that pander to the criminal element? But it’s not just social- ist policies that have fed the jihadist threat in Molenbeek. European policies and the incompetence of the Belgian government are also to blame. (Belgian politics, much like Belgian society, is so fractured that the nation went 589 days without an official government in 2010- 2011 because opposing par- ties were unable to form a coalition following the fed- eral elections. Nothing says “hey, we’ve got this” quite like being unable to form a government.) After French President Francois Hollande indicated that some of the Paris attackers were from Belgium, Alain Chouet, the former head of France’s foreign intelligence service, was widely quoted as saying that the Belgians aren’t up to snuff in terms of security efforts. Belgium’s proposed solu- tion to terrorism is to just jack up the budget. Last year, shortly after the Paris attacks, the Belgian govern- ment announced a plan to reach into taxpayers’ wal- lets for 400 million euros to combat the threat. Instead, Belgian leaders might want to consider taking a stroll down the street to European Union headquarters and explaining that the nation’s security resources have been stretched to the breaking point by European EU poli- cies that effectively erase national borders and sover- eignty, and by the perpetual push to import even more newcomers from terror-rid- den countries. Brussels has become a point of convergence for jihadism, socialism and gov- ernment ineptitude — with tragic results. The city also now serves as a cautionary tale for other places sliding in the same direction. © 2016 by 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.
