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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2016)
2 Wednesday, September 21, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Editorial… County missed an opportunity The Deschutes County Commissioners should have gone ahead with their discus- sion of issues related to Sisters Eagle Airport, instead of canceling it after it had been announced (see story, page 1). While it’s true that the shape of a pro- posed state-recognized airport boundary remains undetermined — and thus any dis- cussion would have been speculative — the commissioners would have neverthe- less benefitted from a thorough briefing on issues that are of significant interest to their constituents in this part of Deschutes County. The County may ultimately have little or no jurisdiction over airport activities in the Sisters area — but the residents who are affected by those activities are still the con- stituents of the County commissioners. Those constituents need to know that their elected representatives are at least interested in the issues that affect them. A sense of disenfranchisement is rife in America right now. Across the political spec- trum, many people feel not only that their voice is not heeded, but that it’s not even heard. The belief that government is by and for the connected and the special-interests instead of by and for the people is spread- ing. The Deschutes County Commissioners had an opportunity to show a different face of government to their constituents — and they missed it. Jim Cornelius, News Editor 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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. Correction A typographical error was introduced into Bruce Mason’s letter to the editor regarding the Sisters Eagle Airport last week. A sec- ond zero was cut off along with the % sym- bol when the % symbol was replaced with the word “percent.” The sentence should have read: “It appears that Sisters Eagle Airport is seeking an increase in their airport zone footprint of approximately 400 percent.” s s s To the Editor: Kudos to Sisters City Council President Nancy Connelly and Council members Andrea Blum and Amy Burgstahler for voting to provide financial support for the proposed Housing Works affordable-housing rental project. Thanks also to interim city manager Rick Allen for helping identify funds for the project and to former mayor Chris Frye for bringing this opportunity to the Council for consideration. Meeting the acute need for lower-income housing in Sisters is vital to providing the workforce necessary to sustain our essen- tial service and tourist industries. Depending upon private-sector developers to provide higher density, multifamily homes just isn’t working. A recent case in point is the decision by Hayden Homes to withdraw its previously approved plan for building lower-cost housing units so they can con- tinue building higher-end, low-density hous- ing on Sisters’ dwindling available land inventory. The long-term effects of the City contrib- uting to affordable housing include provid- ing housing for families bringing children to town to help reverse the declining enrollment in Sisters schools and providing the high-den- sity development necessary to future efforts to expand the city’s urban growth boundary. Roger Detweiler s s s See letterS on page 19 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday Saturday Slt. chance showers Slt. chance showers Slt. chance showers Mostly sunny 61/33 60/33 64/38 73/40 Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny 77/40 79/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. Rachel Marsden American Voices Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently gave a non-interven- tionist foreign policy speech suggesting that he wants to make new allies of old foes and find common ground with them on shared national security challenges. He noted that 88 U.S. generals and admirals have endorsed him, and that “the current strategy of toppling regimes, with no plan for what to do the day after, only produces power vacuums that are filled by terrorists.” Trump should tell that to the 51 State Department offi- cials who called for ramping up U.S. military intervention in Syria in an internal memo that was reviewed by CNN in June prior to being classified. Hoping to force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad back to the negotiating table, these State Department offi- cials figured that in lieu of diplomacy, it would be a good idea to prolong a con- flict that has already driven millions of migrants — including Islamic State ter- rorists — into Europe and is demographically overwhelm- ing that part of the world. The State Department, which works closely with the CIA in providing official dip- lomatic cover to CIA officers abroad, has long been at odds with the Pentagon over Syria. It’s no wonder that Pentagon generals are backing Trump, while just a few weeks ago a handful of former CIA direc- tors publicly did the same for Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by signing a letter denouncing Trump. Documents sent to and from Hillary Clinton’s pri- vate email server while she was secretary of state suggest that she wanted to remove Assad despite the power vac- uum it would create. In March 2012, accord- ing to a document released by WikiLeaks, Clinton instructed special assistant Robert Russo to print an email sent to her titled, “An interesting proposal from (CIA veteran) Bruce Riedel re how Israel could help get Assad out of office.” Another email found on Clinton’s private email server, this one purport- edly from Clinton herself, reiterates: “The best way to help Israel deal with Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad.” This is precisely the kind of reckless interventionist mindset that has long infused the State Department. Meanwhile, a classified Defense Intelligence Agency report from August 2012 obtained by Judicial Watch actually predicted the rise of the Islamic State as a result of the U.S. aligning itself with various “rebels.” “ISI (Islamic State in Iraq) could also declare an Islamic State through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its terri- tory,” the report stated. This issue underscores the clash of worldviews between the Clinton and Trump campaigns. Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and key Trump defense and intelligence adviser, had long warned about Syria turning into a terrorist hotbed. Unlike Flynn, the Clinton- CIA-State Department axis either didn’t see the emerg- ing threat, or it didn’t mind it enough to nip it in the bud. Even if the Islamic State is ultimately defeated, there are still more State Department proxies waiting in the wings to fill the void and wreak more havoc. Consider the Uyghurs of East Asia, an Islamic group. The World Uyghur Congress, which appears on China’s list of domestic terrorist organiza- tions, has received more than $200,000 in annual fund- ing from Congress via the State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy. A Clinton administration, emboldened by intervention- ist enablers in the CIA and State Department seeking to play their next obvious proxy card in the Middle East, could end up landing America in a direct confron- tation with China. Just when you think American foreign policy couldn’t possibly get any worse, we might get to see what Hillary Clinton could do with unfettered executive power. © 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.