2
Wednesday, December 28, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
The Nugget will close at 3 p.m.
on Friday, December 30.
— Happy New Year! —
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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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’d like to thank several groups of people
whose efforts may have gone unnoticed during
the holiday season.
Thanks to Paul B. and the crews that cleared
the streets and sidewalks of snow, includ-
ing much-needed downtown parking spaces.
I hope I speak on behalf of many downtown
shopkeepers who really appreciated all of your
efforts, especially as several storms hit during
the holiday shopping season.
Thanks to ODOT and their crews who
helped clear the main roads into Sisters. I
commute on Highway 20 and this year it was
no concern at all driving after the storms.
Last but not least, a big round of applause
to all who staff the Sisters Post Office. I had to
send and receive many holiday packages and
was always greeted with a smile and a great
attitude. Despite only two windows at their
front counter and tons of mislabeled and mis-
addressed parcels they managed to once again
make it through the busy season. I’m sure
they’re still digging out from under the pack-
ages that were mailed late.
Steven Segal
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
35/19
38/21
34/14
31/18
32/17
24/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.
N
John
Kass
American Voices
Author Tevi Troy begins
his excellent book “Shall
We Wake the President?:
Two Centuries of Disaster
Management from the Oval
Office,” with something
innocent. A children’s
song.
It is much like other
rhymes that children sing,
or used to sing, the nursery
rhymes we sang as kids on
the South Side of Chicago,
near the stockyards, with-
out knowing what they
meant, like “Ring Around
the Rosie” or “London
Bridge is Falling Down.”
But this one involves a
tiny bird named Enza: I had
a little bird/ Its name was
Enza/ I opened the window/
And in-flu-enza.
And by the time it was
over, the Spanish influ-
enza epidemic of 1918 had
infected people worldwide
and killed more than 50
million. Some estimates
put the global death count
as high as 100 million. It
killed millions more than
World War I, which had
already brought unimagina-
ble horrors to Europe. The
pandemic was so severe
that in the U.S. alone, it
knocked 10 years off the
average American’s life
expectancy.
And one man was, in
great measure, respon-
sible for spreading the
terrible disease. Through
hubris and weakness and
indecision, he sentenced
his own soldiers to death
while allowing it to wash
across Europe: President
Woodrow Wilson.
“President Wilson was
sending U.S. troop trans-
ports to Europe to fight in
WWI, even as the war was
winding down,” Troy said.
“He was told by the Navy
that those troop transports
were spreading the disease
and that he should stop. But
the chief of staff of the mil-
itary objected. Wilson sided
with him and the troop
transports continued, even
though it was only a month
before hostilities in Europe
ended.”
Troy’s book is a hard-
eyed look at history, and
what presidents — and
citizens — may learn from
it and how to best deal
with what will certainly
come our way. So the rea-
son to read “Shall We
Wake the President?” isn’t
about reliving old horrors.
Instead, it should be read
to examine decisions and
indecision and bureaucratic
traps inadvertently set by
the most powerful being on
the planet, the president of
the United States.
Bad planning and hubris
can ripple out from the
White House and com-
pound disasters.
“You can’t know what
disasters you might face on
your watch, but you must
think about how you might
deal with them,” Troy said.
“And you can build a team
that is prepared to react to
them.”
In our talk, I mentioned
Wilson’s role in causing
the influenza epidemic to
spread, President Jimmy
Carter’s mishandling of the
New York power black-
out, and President George
W. Bush’s blunders — of
organization and public
relations — during the
Katrina disaster that devas-
tated New Orleans and his
presidency.
“In all the cases you
mentioned, the presidents
seemed unprepared and
kind of knocked off their
game by the disasters
that struck them, and the
American people can sense
it,” he said. “So in my book
I talk about communication
strategies to reassure the
American people, learning
about the different mecha-
nisms of government so
that you’re ready, and mak-
ing sure that your staff is
trained and drilled to deal
with these things.”
To illustrate his point,
Troy often uses a story of
bureaucrats at some disas-
ter site passing out business
cards to one another.
“Then you know you’ve
already failed,” Troy said.
“And the response will be
a failed response, because
it means they have not
prepared, that they don’t
know the other people who
are dealing with the disas-
ter, they don’t know their
capabilities or lines of
responsibility.
“So if you’re out there
handing out business cards
at the site of a disaster, it’s
going to be an even bigger
disaster.”
© 2016 Tribune Media
Services, Inc.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.