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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2016)
2 Wednesday, September 14, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N John Kass 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 delighted in living in Sisters for the last 30 years after my husband retired and we made the decision to move closer to family. We looked for a place with a strong sense of community where we could establish new friendships and delight in the company of diverse opinions. But, equally, we looked for a place that was surrounded by great natu- ral beauty, and that evoked a strong sense of place that could inspire us all to take care of it as we looked to take care of one another. I was reflecting on all of this the other day as I sat in my garden and listened to the whine and pound of tools being used to renovate homes for growing families and retirees; the rumble of FedEx, DHL, UPS and U.S. Mail trucks along our roads as they conveniently deliver all the goods that we order online; the whirr of power tools being used to help us keep our homes and properties ready for wild- fires and winter; the traffic coming and going over the mountains and right through the cen- ter of town; and, yes, the 30-second burst of buzz of planes taking off from the airport. I find myself frequently starting to get irritated by all of this cumulative impact on ME! But then I remember the random acts of kindness of drivers in letting an old lady across Cascade Avenue; the friendly waves of people who don’t even really know me as I make my way into town; the hopeful new restaurants that have sprung up to pro- vide places for new and old friends to get together, and jobs for local young people and optimistic entrepreneurs ... and yes, the ultimate joy of jumping out of one of those planes and floating safely to the ground in the See letterS on page 15 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Mostly sunny Sunny 73/32 77/32 80/36 81/41 76/41 74/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. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that we were told that the presidential election was over? It was so over that Hillary Clinton’s staff eagerly antici- pated measuring the White House drapes in anticipation of the Clinton Restoration. And Donald Trump kept shooting his feet off with that stupid and vulgar mouth of his, until only the stumps remained. All Hillary had to do to win was protect her double- digit polling lead, and play prevent defense and avoid a formal news conference where she’d be asked tough questions. You can see it, can’t you, like a summer dream. But then summer did what sum- mers do, and Labor Day passed, and reality entered into things doing what real- ity does, with teeth. It bites. And now a new CNN poll shows the race tightening, at least nationally, with Trump holding a thin two-point lead. So it’s not over? This race has tightened? Are the Democrats look- ing for a parking spot in Panic City? Not necessar- ily. But Democrats and establishment Republicans who loathe Trump might be chewing off a few fingernails. Clinton’s campaign is doing a remarkably fine job taking Trump’s worst quotes and using them against him in devastating campaign spots in the battleground states. And she’s doing well in those states where the Electoral College counts most in presidential elec- tions. If the election were held today, Mrs. Clinton would most probably win. But elections are about momentum, and that momentum could be turning Trump’s way. We have an election with the establishment and Hillary on one side and Donald on the other, backed by the unemployed working class that once formed the backbone of the Democratic Party, before they were kicked to the margins in the new globalism and mocked as unlettered racists by the pundits. Is it possible not to like Trump, yet also to loathe Clinton and the history of the Clintons and their lies and their parsing language and their contempt for the law, and worry what they’ll do to the country? I think so. But the way this plays out in the media, any slight nod toward Trump sets you up to be branded, angrily and pub- licly, as a bigot. It is a for- mulation that drives clicks for the legion of pro-Hillary writers, and it serves the Democrats well, but it also smacks of something else: Of being herded by cow- boys with cattle prods at the stockyards. And pushed too far, there could be a backlash in the chutes. Clinton has many advan- tages. She’s got Wall Street, not only its millions but its leverage. She has the Republican establishment that fears a Trump elec- tion will push it away from the great federal table (or trough). A great advantage is that American media has openly waged war on her behalf. So what happened to Hillary? How could it be so close? Here’s what happened. Hillary happened to Hillary. Her problem is that she has always been Hillary Clinton, understood to be a liar, the Democratic Nixon in pantsuits. And Americans were reminded again of what the Clintons are really about, with the release before the Labor Day weekend of the FBI report about her emails when she was secretary of state: Americans were reminded of her wheedling, the lies, her inability to recall when asked by the FBI. The lost phones and iPads — some smashed by a hammer. And those hundreds of State Department workers who kept their mouths shut about what she did, like patronage hacks at some machine-run City Hall, and her staff’s deletion of thousands of emails under subpoena. That’s why the race has tightened. Americans were reminded about the true Hillary, and she can’t have that. And if you thought it was ugly before, just wait. © 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.
