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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2016)
2 Wednesday, April 13, 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: I have been following The Nugget’s articles about assisted-living settings in Sisters, most recently Sue Stafford’s in the March 30 issue. As she so aptly stated, “The saga of Pinnacle Alliance Group of Yakima versus McKenzie Meadow Village continues.” The barriers that Pinnacle Alliance Group has, and continues, to put forth against McKenzie Meadows are reminiscent of a 6-year-old bully in the community park sandbox who kicks and throws sand at anyone else who attempts to bring his/her bucket and shovel in. This sort of behavior is abhorrent to me. Does Pinnacle Alliance Group not know that there are over 70-million baby-boomers out there, many of whom are in their 60s tak- ing care of aging parents? Call me crazy, but I believe many of these individuals would gladly welcome assisted-living options here in Sisters, either for their parents or themselves as they continue to age. I’m certainly one of those individuals. Also, one need only look to the perpetual wait-lists that Absolute Serenity Senior Care has at their two adult foster homes in order to know that there is a huge need for retirement and assisted-living settings in Sisters. I have many older adult neighbors and friends who are aging in place in their homes and they would happily welcome the afore- mentioned options. The last thing they want to do is have to move to Bend or Redmond for care as they age. Their home is here. So come on Pinnacle, play nice in the sand- box and get going on your own construction and let McKenzie Meadows do the same. There is ample room for both facilities and the need for them is only going to continue to grow. Kay Payne s s s To the Editor: We are writing to express our support for the upcoming school bond that will be on the May ballot. See letteRS on page 30 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday Saturday Sunday monday Chance showers Rain Sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny 54/31 50/29 54/30 65/31 74/37 65/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. The largest data leak in history — 11.5 million docu- ments, coined the “Panama Papers” — is providing a glimpse into the one-per- centers’ world of offshore banking. So far, data obtained from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that specializes in setting up off- shore shell companies (more than 200,000 of them, alleg- edly), has been linked to heads of state, celebrities, business leaders and other wealthy individuals from all over the world — all hiding behind elaborate fronts. An anonymous source provided the data to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, which shared every- thing with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Offshore accounts have long been used for tax eva- sion, for stashing kickback and bribe money from gov- ernment contracts, and for making investments that can’t easily be traced back to the source. It’s not auto- matically illegal to store your cash in a secret account in a warm place known for its banking secrecy. As long as earnings are declared and taxes paid, it’s all good. But then why bother going to so much trouble? Well, for example, when you’re King Salman of Saudi Arabia (whose name appears in the leaks), taxing the oil industry in your country at 85 percent and living the high life on those tax rev- enues, you have good reason to use an offshore account. Back in 2001, a European Parliament report noted an interception by the U.S. National Security Agency of correspondence between the massive aerospace firm Airbus and the Saudi govern- ment in 1994, with Airbus offering bribes to Saudi officials in order to win a contract to upgrade Saudi Arabian Airlines’ fleet. After the bribe offer was discovered, the U.S. com- pany McDonnell-Douglas was awarded the contract. It would be naive to think that bribes are rare in billion- dollar dealings between huge corporations and govern- ments around the world. And it’s highly doubtful that any such government “enrich- ment” would be deposited at the local bank branch down the street. So why is offshore bank- ing such a serious problem? Because it drastically tilts the playing field, corrupting the free-market process. Players who think they have a fair chance at doing business are disqualified before they even walk in the door, sim- ply because some sleazier player paid a bribe to people confident they could hide the money. While running for the presidency of Ukraine in 2014, Petro Poroshenko vowed that if elected, he’d sell Roshen, his confection- ary empire. Instead, accord- ing to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Poroshenko’s busi- ness was transferred to an offshore holding company in the British Virgin Islands, providing a tax shelter during a time of great turmoil in his country. That’s what is so alarm- ing about the Panama Papers leak: It shows that many of the one-percenters using offshore bank accounts are either heads of state or peo- ple who have influence with heads of state, either through political donations or busi- ness dealings. While their fellow citizens are worrying about the state of their life savings in the local bank, these fat cats are using off- shore accounts to dodge taxes and hide their vast wealth. It’s little wonder that we’re seeing so much social unrest over inequality. When the guys in charge of gov- ernment and industry are sending jobs offshore, and now blatantly sending their money offshore, too, all while still seeking to squeeze even more money out of the plebeians, it doesn’t go over well. Then, special interest groups exploit this perceived injustice as a pretext to come up with all kinds of ridicu- lous leftist proposals that fur- ther corrupt the relationship between work and compen- sation. When global capital- ism is perverted by some of its foremost practitioners, it just gives those on the left more ammunition to further pervert it with their own agenda. And it’s the average folks who end up paying for it all. © 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.
