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Wednesday, June 15, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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P
I
N I
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John
Kass
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
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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:
There has been a dramatic increase in air-
craft noise in Sisters Country over the past few
months. It sounds like plane after plane is fly-
ing over Sisters, creating a dawn-to-dusk drone
of noise.
Originally only on weekends, the annoy-
ing drone is now happening on weekdays as
well. This is not due to random private planes
transiting the area. Instead it is due to the new
skydiver operation at Eagle Airport. The sky-
diver plane makes numerous flights a day,
endlessly circling over the area as they fight
to gain altitude at full throttle. While the noise
is not uncomfortably loud, it is nearly ever-
present on days weather conditions allow
operations. You can hear it from Crossroads to
Squaw Creek Estates, Aspen Lakes to Tollgate.
Sitting on your patio or at an outdoor restau-
rant in town, the drone is there, like a neighbor
endlessly using a leaf blower. You realize how
annoying it is when silence finally returns after
the skydivers drop and the plane lands.
For the neighborhoods northeast of the
airport, the many-fold increase in takeoffs is
dramatic, as the skydiver plane is particularly
loud. The airport expects the skydiver business
to expand, and one could expect more planes
and flights in the future as the operation gets
established. The entire Sisters area is impacted
by noise pollution just so a few folks can sky-
dive for a few minutes. Talk about a negative
cost-benefit ratio. What a price we all have to
pay for one small business.
This is only the first tiny step in the airport’s
grand expansion plan, with 40-60 additional
hangers, condos with hangers underneath
and more. One should be ready for sightsee-
ing choppers flying overhead and other com-
mercial operations. The sky, so to speak, is the
limit. The headgear of residents will need to
change from cowboy hats to protective ear-
muffs, as Sisters becomes known as “The
Nosiest Little Town in Oregon.”
Lets all encourage the good folks who own
the airport to be good neighbors, limit the sky-
diving, and undertake a more modest, Sisters-
friendly expansion plan. Contact the City
Council as well.
BTW, I was a skydiver in years past,
See LeTTeRS on page 23
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Chance Showers
Chance Showers
Chance Showers
Mostly Sunny
Mostly Sunny
Sunny
58/36
56/36
59/35
67/39
75/42
78/Na
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The dead were still
being collected at the Pulse
nightclub in Orlando — the
scene of the worst mass
shooting in our nation’s his-
tory — when I thought I
heard something.
On Twitter and the TV
news, the facts were slow
to arrive but the sweeping
conclusions came instantly.
Donald Trump, President
Barack Obama and other
members of the righteous
right and left were pushing
their agendas.
I recognized the sound of
the politics. It was like the
barking of dogs.
I walked out to my veg-
etable garden, where I could
pray for the souls of the
dead and put my hands to
work in the dirt and try to
think things out in a quiet
place.
I mean no disrespect to
the dead or their families.
Nor do I mean to trivialize
the weight of this tragedy.
But working the dirt seemed
better to me than listening
to the barking on cable TV.
So I started digging
while saying prayers for the
dead, the trowel working
in my hand as I spoke the
words for them. Out there
alone, on my knees, cutting
the earth with that trowel,
I sang an Orthodox hymn
asking that their memories
be eternal. And I thought of
their families.
T h e s h o o t e r, O m a r
Mateen, reportedly called
911, pledged his allegiance
to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-
Baghdadi, and then shouted
“Allahu Akbar” as began
pulling the trigger.
Donald Trump, who
has whipped the left into a
frenzy by calling for a ban
on Muslim immigration,
bragged Sunday on Twitter
that he was right about radi-
cal Islam after all.
Trump is putting himself
at the front of the movement
to do something — anything
— about Muslim terrorists,
but he isn’t advocating an
all-out war with Islam. In
fact, he’s a bit too non-inter-
ventionist for many of the
establishment Republicans
who dominated foreign pol-
icy in the Bush years. Some
of them are already jump-
ing to the Democratic war
hawk, Hillary Clinton. Even
among those who stay with
the GOP there’s an impulse
to target Islam, which could
further demonize American
Muslims and our allies like
Jordan in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Obama
infuriates Trump and many
others by refusing to men-
tion “Islam” and “terror”
in the same sentence. And
the president refused again
Sunday.
Obama’s presidential
address to the nation began
with the proper reveren-
tial tone. But then he fell
back on political tricks. He
used his speech to make a
push for gun control. And
he avoided all mention of
Islam.
I don’t want a war with
Islam, and I understand that
many on the right would
march us down that path or
at least isolate the U.S. from
the Muslim world.
But the president appears
ridiculous here.
The 2009 terrorist attack
at Ford Hood, Texas, by
U.S. Army Major Nidal
Hassan — killing 13 people
and wounding more than
30 — was deemed mere
“workplace violence” by
the military under Obama’s
command. Hassan referred
to himself as a soldier of
Allah.
By refusing to say the
words “Islam” and “ter-
ror” in the same sentence,
Obama stays his course and
looks stubborn and foolish,
as if he sees no pattern in
the Boston Marathon bomb-
ing, the San Bernardino
rampage and the Orlando
massacre.
Truly, it would be wrong
to target peaceful Muslims,
but can’t there be some
rational middle ground for
discussion on this point?
Self-radicalized terror-
ists with Islamic ties, born
or raised in the U.S., are
the new threat. We need
a real debate on what to
do. Because there will be
more attacks like the one in
Orlando.
© 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.