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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 2017)
2 Wednesday, January 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Rachel Marsden American Voices Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not neces- sarily 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 would like to thank The Nugget for the beautiful cover on the December 21 issue. We are leaving Sisters soon and this cover leaves “a piece of Sisters” to take with us. It will remind us of the kind, supportive, and wonderful people Sisters is made of. Our 501(c)(3) charity for unwanted horses need- ing volunteer area youth, had always received great reception with our Giving Tree in Sisters Feed. Due to our impending move out of state, we were unable to set our tree up this year. But The Nugget’s cover brought to our hearts memory of how Faith, Hope & Charity rein high in Sisters. Thank you little town of Sisters, you’ll not be forgotten. Linda Leigh Daniel Paso by Paso Equine Rehabilitation and Educational program Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Snow Mostly sunny Sunny Chance snow Rain likely Rain/snow 14/4 16/0 20/6 32/20 25/26 36/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. Two clear themes emerged over the past year: nationalization (or de-glo- balization) and asymmetry. Brave individuals stared down an entire system and won with the support of the average citizen. The cultural identities of Western nations had been eroding for years, as leaders failed to enforce national bor- ders under the guise of toler- ance. Proof of this sometimes came in the form of violent reminders, as Europe in par- ticular was struck this year by an increase in the kind of ter- rorist incidents more closely associated with other parts of the world. We witnessed a gruesome epitome of Europe’s adoption of weakness and vulnerabil- ity as institutionalized politi- cal policy as 2016 drew to a close. Anis Amri, a Tunisian migrant, killed 12 people and injured dozens more with a truck at a Christmas market in Berlin before fleeing. He was finally shot and killed in Italy days later after firing on police. Following the attack in Berlin, Amri was able to bounce around Europe — from Germany to France to Italy — even as his photo was plastered all over the media, underscoring Europe’s effec- tively borderless nature and related security vulnerabili- ties resulting from a lack of political will to enforce nation-state boundaries. Citizens of Western nations have never voted for their own endangerment. The climate of violence can be attributed to elites from a monolithic system that either sidelines or spits out anyone who dares to sing a different tune. Voters have never had a credible alternative to the sta- tus quo — until 2016. Enter Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party. In 2010, the European Parliament fined Farage 3,000 euros after telling then- European Council President Herman Van Rompuy: “You have the charisma of a damp rag, and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk. “And the question that I want to ask,” Farage contin- ued, “is, who are you? I’d never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard of you. ... You seem to have a loathing for the very con- cept of the existence of nation-states.” While Farage’s colleagues laughed at his tirade, they likely weren’t laughing ear- lier this year, when Farage successfully led the Brexit campaign under the slogan “Take back control.” Then, in November, Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election — a solitary figure campaigning openly against every aspect of the establishment. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin — the man who arguably started the trend of favoring national interests over global gover- nance — stepped up to lead the draining of the Islamic State terrorist swamp in Syria, helping to ease the threat against the weakened and vulnerable borders of Europe. Also very influential these days is WikiLeaks, a small, tight-knit organization founded by Julian Assange. WikiLeaks’ publication of the private documents and discreet communications of the global elite has afforded citizens a rare glimpse into the manipulation to which they’ve been subjected. But if 2016 was the year of the rebel anti-globalist, then 2017 could well be the year that the empire strikes back in the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. In November, the European Parliament adopted a resolution “on EU strategic communication to counteract propaganda against it by third parties.” The German publication Der Spiegel reported that the country’s interior ministry is creating a “Center of Defense Against Disinformation” in advance of the 2017 elec- tions, in which Chancellor Angela Merkel will seek a fourth term after leading the globalist charge in Europe. Apparently, information or viewpoints running counter to the official government line will be susceptible to attack. The year 2016 may have seen the birth of a movement against globalism, led by some courageous voices, but only the support of informed and independent-minded citi- zens will sustain the momen- tum and keep this move- ment from being quashed by inevitable state-sponsored backlash. © 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.