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Wednesday, January 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
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Rachel
Marsden
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
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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
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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.