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Wednesday, August 24, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I N I O
N
You really do have
to choose wisely
By Andreas Pedersen
Guest Columnist
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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 Bonnie Malone’s letter in
The Nugget, August 17, pages 18-19: She
brought vague, unwarranted criticism of the
nation’s law enforcement for crimes against
minorities, yet did not point to a specific
example or provide any evidence to support
her claims. She cited cell-phone videos as the
supreme authority on an officer’s use of force
being justified. However, these cell-phone
videos are often incomplete, and only repre-
sent one piece of evidence.
She still did not refer to any specific video
and I am sure that readers would love to hear
which cases she was referring to when she
accused officers of murder.
Are police no longer allowed to defend
themselves against criminals? Are we now
referring to these criminals, as she says,
“productive and good people?” She claimed,
“Black Lives Matter is a just cause.” I ask,
what is just about burning down the businesses
of one’s fellow minority citizens, assaulting
police officers, and stealing, all because one
feels there is some ghostly, racial prejudice out
there haunting them?
Is the rule of law so far eroded in this coun-
try that we have lost all faith in our justice
system, leaving rioting and looting as the only
way to redress supposed injustices?
Please show us one example where a police
officer targeted a minority individual solely
based on the color of their skin. Please show
us one case where a police officer murdered a
minority individual and went unpunished for
the crime.
If there is racism and injustice, let us fight
it together. However, yelling “racism” and
making vague claims, unsubstantiated by
factual evidence, is destroying law and order
in our nation. The next time she proceeds to
exalt herself as judge and jury, I hope she will
at least have the respect to provide some evi-
dence to her claims.
Jensen Newton
s
s
s
See LeTTerS on page 16
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As a Dane who was an
exchange student in Sisters
at SHS last year, living
with the Bachtold family, I
read with great interest the
letter to the editor written
by Bruce Carpenter in The
Nugget and would like to
correct some of the inac-
curacies in that letter about
my country.
No
country
in
Scandinavia has a 70 per-
cent tax rate. The highest
tax rate is 59 percent and it
only applies under special
circumstances. If someone
makes the local equivalent
of $200,000, they would
have to pay 45.7 percent
in Sweden, 45.6 percent in
Denmark and 45 percent in
Norway. And that gets them
free education through col-
lege and trade school, free
healthcare, paid family
leave, retirement, and aging
care for all our seniors.
In addition, everyone
can afford basic necessities,
regardless of income. Our
crime and suicide rates are
much lower than those in
the United States. The aver-
age full-time employee in
Denmark works 38.3 hours
a week, 39.7 in Sweden, and
38.8 in Norway. Not quite
the 28-hour work week Mr.
Carpenter is describing. I
consider us a hard-working
people.
I think it is interesting
that healthcare is mentioned
in the letter. In Denmark
we spend 10.6 percent of
our GDP on healthcare; the
U.S. spends 17.1 percent,
a larger percentage than
any Western industrialized
country (and this started
way before Obamacare). In
Denmark, all citizens get
free healthcare yet in the
U.S., medical debt is the
largest cause of personal
bankruptcy. How fair or just
is that?
There is no free hous-
ing for college students, at
least not in Denmark. Mr.
Carpenter is right how-
ever that college is free.
Scandinavia has a lot of
social mobility. So even if
your parents are not rich,
you can still get a college
degree.
He is also right that stu-
dents don’t have a lot of
money. Do they have more
in America? Where does he
get his facts? I would say
that Danish people don’t
necessarily have to save as
much as Americans because
we have a robust social net-
work that cares for people’s
needs in all stages of life.
And, with all people spend-
ing money, it feeds the
economy and helps provide
jobs for everyone. Lastly, at
age 18 I have a very sound
savings account and I will
not have massive student
debt like many students in
America. Americans also
complain that the youth
are not saving enough and
are spending too much
money. This is not unique
to Northern Europe.
The Danish government
has invested billions of dol-
lars toward energy indepen-
dence, and is on track to
becoming fossil-fuel-free
by 2050. By 2020 nearly
half of Danish electricity
will be provided by wind
power alone. This expan-
sion of renewable energy
is financed by fees-in tar-
iffs paid by consumers of
electricity. So, interestingly,
the transition is relatively
cheap, and business com-
petitiveness not harmed.
And, the less you consume
the less you pay, encourag-
ing all citizens and busi-
nesses to become more
energy efficient. We think
it is a social and moral duty
to do this for the world with
climate change, and we
want to lead the way.
There are different social
and economic systems
throughout the world and
many of them are good and
highly functional. There is
not one “right way” to go
about running a country
or managing an economy.
Our system is not perfect
and neither is yours in the
United States. Different
systems work for different
countries and values. I don’t
know why our Northern
European countries had to
be criticized in this newspa-
per for our society’s strong
attempt to care deeply about
the economic, social, politi-
cal, and health rights we
feel belong to all of our
citizens.
I do agree with Mr.
Carpenter about one impor-
tant thing: you really do
have to choose wisely.
Andreas Pedersen is
writing from Slagelse,
Denmark
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.