2
Wednesday, January 11, 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. 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:
With the unprecedented snowfall we have
recently received, I would like to send out
a reminder to support the merchants of our
beautiful town.
The businesses of Sisters rely heavily
on the Christmas/New Year holiday time to
generate revenue to help make it through the
slower months of January and February. This
year, with the early, repetitive, heavy snow-
fall, the commerce in Sisters has been greatly
affected. I have talked with numerous business
owners who are really struggling (and we’ve
yet to even enter the “slow” time of the year).
We are so blessed to have such a diverse
offering of high quality, eclectic, original, cus-
tomer-service-oriented businesses in Sisters. I
think most of us agree that these merchants
greatly improve the quality of our lives, and
we are thankful for them.
I would like to send out a reminder that
even though it’s cold, the snow berms are
high, and it might sound appealing to snuggle
in at home .... please support our local mer-
chants. Buy a book, a cup of coffee, recreation
equipment. Take a yoga class, pick up a nice
bottle of wine, a piece of art, see a movie.
Venture into a store you’ve never visited, buy
a pair of boots, sign up for a gym membership
... the options are endless.
Remember, without you and your support,
the merchants of Sisters aren’t able to exist.
Thank you and Happy New Year!
Jennifer McCrystal
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Wasn’t it just a year or so ago that we had
See LETTERS on page 19
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Snow
Mostly Sunny
Mostly Sunny
Chance Snow
Chance Rain
Chance Rain
18/-4
24/2
25/11
31/14
35/21
38/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. ©2017 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.
During Sunday’s Golden
Globes ceremony in posh
Beverly Hills, California,
celebrities preached diver-
sity and tolerance, some of
them subtly or not-so-subtly
denouncing U.S. President-
elect Donald Trump.
Hollywood has traditionally
been an important force for
America around the world, a
“soft power” export of U.S.
culture, influencing hearts,
minds and values. That
role has eroded over time.
What exactly happened to
Hollywood?
During the Cold War era,
films such as “Top Gun,”
“Flashdance” and “Rocky”
promoted the ideals of hard
work and triumph over adver-
sity. After seeing “Rocky” as
a child, I went to sleep with
extra motivation to get up
at 4 a.m. the next morning
for competitive swimming
practice. I wore legwarm-
ers to school like Jennifer
Beals’ ambitious character
in “Flashdance” as an inspi-
ration to stay focused on my
goals. After seeing the fighter
pilots of “Top Gun,” I was
inspired to pursue a scientific
education that would leave
open the door to perhaps
becoming a pilot myself one
day.
The fact that the inspira-
tional characters played by
actors such as Tom Cruise
and Sylvester Stallone
were men didn’t obstruct
the dreams that Hollywood
inspired in women during
that era. I didn’t get to the end
of a “Rocky” film and think,
“Wow, that’s inspiring. Too
bad Rocky is a man and I’m
a woman, so I guess none of
this applies to me.”
Hollywood appealed to
universal human values,
regardless of race, gender or
origin. That’s why it became
arguably the most successful
soft power export in the his-
tory of the world.
But then two unfortunate
things changed the nature of
Hollywood.
On the domestic front,
Hollywood became self-con-
scious of its role as an influ-
ential force and transformed
into a vehicle for the leftist
values that increasingly dom-
inated the American politi-
cal landscape. After the Cold
War, there was no opponent
left to fight, so Hollywood
drew battle lines within
Western culture itself.
Stars aligned themselves
with the Democratic Party.
We saw this in the recent pres-
idential election, as scores
of celebrities threw their
support behind Democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton.
Meryl Streep, who received
the Cecil B. DeMille Award
for lifetime achievement in
film at this year’s Golden
Globes, jetted from outgoing
President Barack Obama’s
final White House party to
the Globes ceremony, during
which she slammed Trump
and celebrated diversity in
her acceptance speech.
Internationally,
Hollywood went from being
a leader in shaping global
values to being a useful tool
of the very worst of what glo-
balization represents: the col-
lusion of establishment elites
at the expense of the average
citizen’s interests. Celebrities
have aligned against the inter-
ests of their audience, who
find it increasingly difficult
to accept all of the preaching.
And while many peo-
ple believe that globaliza-
tion has been a detriment to
their interests, Hollywood
has benefited from it, with
big studios striking co-pro-
duction and financing deals
with European, Chinese,
Persian Gulf and other state-
controlled interests, many of
which impose content and
location requirements. When
you watch a Hollywood
movie in the Western world
these days, there’s a good
chance it’s not geared toward
you, but rather toward an
overseas audience expected
to account for a majority of
the gross earnings.
Hollywood has the right
to seek out the best deals that
it can so it can continue to
pay its stars the multimillion-
dollar fees that they com-
mand. But the film honchos
shouldn’t be surprised when
they turn off the general pub-
lic by making movies that
prioritize a hidden agenda or
promote the globalist estab-
lishment’s superficial one-
world values, which have
been culturally and economi-
cally detrimental to large
swaths of the intended audi-
ence. Actors shouldn’t expect
widespread support when
they denounce the democrati-
cally chosen president-elect
as some kind of tyrant even
though he intends to fight for
the average citizen’s interests.
© 2017 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.