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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2016)
2 Wednesday, June 29, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O Happy Independence Day! John Kass American Voices The Nugget will be open on Monday, July 4. Classified advertising deadline for the July 6 issue is noon on July 4. 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 live a short distance north of the north end of Runway 2 at Sisters Eagle Airport and am very aware of flight traffic generated by airport operations. I, like many, enjoy the soli- tude offered by our Sisters Country environ- ment. Particularly sitting on my deck watch- ing the occasional doe and fawn grazing in Indian Ford Meadow. I have read the many negative letters and opinion pieces about airport operations recently published in The Nugget. And, I have previously expressed my own concern for safe flight operations to Benny Benson. A few years ago when airport improve- ments were being contemplated I watched with considerable interest. I was impressed with the ambitious plans the Bensons had. The much-needed rebuilding of the runway was a good beginning. Sisters has long suffered from the lack of a robust economic base beyond tourism. We have witnessed the departure of a num- ber of businesses. The Bensons have brought a world-class global engineering business to Sisters by the name of ENERGYneering. Today ENERGYneering employs about 50 engineers and technicians in well-paying jobs at the airport. In addition to ENERGYneering, there are four other businesses located at the air- port. Further development, inspired by the See Letters on page 10 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday saturday sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Sunny 85/49 82/48 80/48 78/47 76/46 78/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. N 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. In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, the Democrats applied a law that serves them well: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” So they used the bodies of the dead as leverage for their politics and framed the national debate in terms of gun control rather than ter- rorism inspired by the radi- cal jihadists of Islamic State. It was all about pro- tecting their presumptive Democratic Party presi- dential nominee, Hillary Clinton. They had to protect her. So they shouted about the guns. All that emotion about gun control, much of it sincere and thoughtfully offered, was nevertheless used by party operatives to herd voters. It was about shaping the argument on their terms, about captur- ing the rage and fear out of Orlando and offering people a simple solution they could reach for. It doesn’t matter if that solution won’t work. What matters to political tacti- cians is defending vulnerable flanks by keeping the issue on safe ground. The crisis for all Americans involved the hor- ror of terrorism and the evil of Omar Mateen, the New York son of Afghan immi- grants who was inspired by Islamic State to slaughter 49 innocents at the gay night- club in Orlando, Florida. But the crisis for Democratic politicians was of a different sort. They didn’t want to discuss Islamic State or jihad. They offered gun control. And they had to imme- diately brand the tragedy to their advantage. So led by the president and aided by the American media that by and large prays on the altar of big government activ- ism and reviles the Second Amendment, it was done. Is it cynical to think so? No. It is cynical to insist oth- erwise. I don’t want to drag you away from your safe space, but that’s how politics works: Frame the debate so your political assumptions and buzzwords are incorpo- rated into the news narrative and the rest is all gravy. And so it was the guns. Gun control was the shield to protect Mrs. Clinton, to keep the dia- logue away from terrorism, from any mention of Islam, which would invariably lead to a discussion of her many policy failures in the Middle East. It was not what Mateen said clearly by his own hand on his social media accounts, where he said he slaughtered Americans for the glory of Islamic State. Republicans use similar Pavlovian dark magic. There is little difference between the party tacticians. They are experts in prompting their meat puppets. Instead of gun control, the Republicans often opt for patriotism and fear of all Islam. And while Democrats used 49 bodies from Orlando, Republicans used thousands of Americans killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They used them to wage war, first on Afghanistan, then in Iraq. Many Democrats were for that Iraq war, too, before they were against it. Out of a ruined Iraq, the Islamic State was born and so was the Syrian civil war. As the authors of this, Republicans have paid for it in the collapse of their party. It was the guns, not ter- rorism, not the Islamic State, until Obama’s own CIA director, John Brennan testi- fied before Congress. Obama and the Democrats have been stressing that Islamic State has been weak- ened and that Trump and some Republicans exhibit racism by demanding a stop in immigration from Muslim countries. But Brennan said the CIA believes efforts to degrade the Islamic State haven’t worked as well as we’d hoped, and that the Islamic State is planning to send fighters to infiltrate refugee groups and immigrate to attack the West in guerrilla- style strikes. He said the Islamic State “has a large cadre of Western fighters who could poten- tially serve as operatives for attacks in the West.” Reality isn’t a slogan to fit on Republican or Democratic bumper stickers. But it’s out there. © 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.