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Wednesday, June 1, 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.
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To the Editor:
Last week there was a glowing reference
to the Australian gun confiscation which was
portrayed as a buy-back. There was also the
ongoing attempt to attach the evil of the Sandy
Hook creature to millions of decent law-abid-
ing gun-owners. Governments have massacred
tens of millions of people and they have used
bullets that can penetrate walls, car doors and
human skulls. But Terry could have an ammu-
nition buy-back. If the serfs could be totally
disarmed, it would be such a wonderful thing
for the government party.
Larry Benson
• • •
To the Editor:
Thank you, Andrew Gorayeb.
I really appreciate what you did for the City
of Sisters during your three years as city man-
ager. We have lived here since 1961, part-time,
and you did more in three years for Sisters than
any other city manager in a similar period.
First of all, the city looks better than ever,
with flowers, new street work, the Fir Street
Park (on the site of the old City Hall) and a
City-sponsored program to subsidize the
upgrading and painting of all the businesses
on the main drag. That has translated into
civic pride, good retail business, and growth
in Sisters.
Secondly, the City finances have never been
in better shape, with your assistance. That is
especially true of the debt refinancing, where
you saved the City over $800,000 in interest
expense over time ... Well done!
Thirdly, on the matter of severance, you
received what your predecessor Elaine Stein
received, one year’s pay. While some com-
plain about that, the reality is every one of us
who has ever been fired or forced to resign,
or quietly retired, has tried to get the best deal
we can on our way out the door. So did you...
Finally, regarding the “Gorayeb Report,” I
am scratching my head after reading the arti-
cles in The Nugget and Bulletin (similar). The
investigator, Ashley Driscoll, said there was
“no cause” for termination, but that a “nega-
tive environment” was present at times. Given
your outstanding results it is too bad that all of
this could not have been resolved “at home,”
inside City Hall, rather than raised to the State
level. Looking back, that seems like a bad
decision and we all lost a good city manager
as a result.
Bruce Rognlien
See LETTERS on page 11
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PARIS — The leftists
who came of age in the
counterculture revolution-
ary movements of the ’60s
and ’70s are now in charge
in both Europe and the U.S.,
and facing a populist back-
lash. They failed to learn the
lessons of their own experi-
ences, and it’s time for them
to be dropkicked into the
waste bin of history.
In the wake of World War
II and the defeat of Nazi
Germany, there was a mas-
sive movement in Western
nations against anything that
smacked of authority. At
first it was more social than
political.
In the U.S, the hippie
movement promoted the
idea of “free love” in the
shadow of the Vietnam War
and the civil rights move-
ment. On the other side of
the Atlantic, in May 1968,
French communists and
socialists staged protests
that brought the country to a
standstill under the guise of
denouncing the traditional
social values exemplified by
President Charles de Gaulle,
who had led France through
World War II.
The killing of Che
Guevara by troops in
Bolivia added political jet
fuel to vague social unrest.
Intent on fomenting revolu-
tion across Latin America,
Che was faithful to a brand
of radicalism that espoused
the sort of guerrilla war-
fare promoted by China’s
Mao Zedong. This alarmed
even Marxists like Cuba’s
Fidel Castro and the Soviet
Union’s Nikita Khrushchev,
who considered themselves
reasonable by comparison.
Radical Western terror-
ist groups adopted Che and
Mao’s tactics. Germany’s
Baader-Meinhof Gang,
France’s Action Directe
and America’s Weather
Underground ran amok until
their members were cap-
tured or killed. Why is all of
this important now? Because
the same pattern is about to
repeat itself.
Today’s establishment
elite in Western democra-
cies consists of members of
the May 1968 generation.
Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton
cut her teeth on civil rights
activism, as did President
Barack Obama as a com-
munity organizer. French
President Francois Hollande
has said of that generation:
“Their utopia was that of a
fraternal society that would
respect humans and nature,
and refuses to make material
prosperity the measure of all
things.”
The May 1968 generation
created a climate of inse-
curity by replacing actual
authority with feel-good
emotional fluff. They were
so determined to erase any
trace of authority that they
allowed left-wing terrorist
groups to proliferate. In the
U.S., there was no authority
figure to control the class-
room until President Ronald
Reagan was elected in 1980.
In France, there was a crack-
down on terrorism follow-
ing the 1981 election of
Socialist President Francois
Mitterrand, but not before
the country was jolted by
114 terrorist attacks over a
two-month span in 1982.
The “free love” genera-
tion still believes in pursu-
ing its failed utopia of weird
values and leftist social
engineering, conveniently
forgetting the terrorist hor-
rors they unleashed through
their own unrest. They’re
still convinced that social
integration just magically
happens despite their insis-
tence on radical diversity.
Barely a week goes by now
in France when there isn’t
a major protest involving
police cars being burned and
violence against authorities.
That’s the social move-
ment part of the equation.
Now, here comes the terror-
ism — except this time it’s
not domestic radicals who
are serving as the military
handmaidens of the leftists,
but rather jihadists.
Lax immigration policies
perpetrated by leftist politi-
cians have led to an influx
of migrants from terror-rid-
den countries, even while
authorities struggle to keep
up with homegrown terror-
ists, who have perpetrated
recent major attacks.
The May 1968 genera-
tion is on the verge of being
shoved through history’s
exit door, and not a moment
too soon. The only question
is whether the power-wield-
ing members of the “free
love” generation have rigged
the system in ways that will
further delay their peaceful,
democratic removal.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.