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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2017)
Wednesday, August 30, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 2 O P I N I O N Jonah Goldberg 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: In your August 27 article regarding school bond projects (“Work continues on school bond projects,” page 1) you mentioned the consideration of a “turf” field at Reed Stadium. I am unclear as to your meaning as “turf” refers to grass. And Reed Stadium has the best grass “turf” football field in the tri-counties. Did you mean to say that the board is consid- ering installing an artificial turf football field?. Please clarify the intent of the Sisters School Board. Thanks. Rob Phelps Editor’s reply: The district has consid- ered installation of an artificial turf playing surface, using additional funds that became available in the bond process. Discussions on that issue have been tabled. s s s To the Editor: With the new school year upon us, parents turn their attention to school clothes, school supplies, and school food. Yes, school food! More than 31 million children rely on school meals for their daily nutrition, which too often consists of highly processed food laden with saturated fat. Not surprisingly, one- third of our children have become overweight or obese. Their early dietary flaws become lifelong addictions, raising their risk of diabe- tes, heart disease, and stroke. To compound the problem, the Trump administration has loosened Obama’s 2010 school lunch rules calling for whole grains, fat-free milk, and reduced salt content. The rules had an 86 percent approval rating. Fortunately, many U.S. school districts now offer vegetarian options. More than 120 schools, including the entire school dis- tricts of Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia, and San Diego have imple- mented Meatless Monday. As parents, we need to involve our own children and school cafeteria managers in pro- moting healthy, plant-based foods in our local schools. Entering “vegan options in schools” in a search engine provides lots of useful resources. Skyler Nash Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Areas of Smoke Patchy Smoke Areas of Smoke Patchy Smoke Areas of Smoke Areas of Smoke 86/46 86/49 92/54 93/57 93/56 92/48 a 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 Easterling 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. You hear it constantly these days: “This can’t go on.” “Something’s got to give.” The hope that impeachment is around the corner is an unspoken assumption in much media coverage. “Trump Is Just Six Senate Votes Away From Impeachment” blared a recent Newsweek headline. (News flash: He’s not.) The Los Angeles Times ran a forceful — and largely persuasive — editorial titled “Enough is Enough.” It began, “These are not normal times,” and then followed with a blister- ing indictment of elected Republicans who refuse to stand up and speak out about the damage the president is doing to the country and his own party. But maybe the new abnormal is the new normal, as the last line of the piece suggests: “This is the sev- enth in a series.” Part of the problem is that President Trump, in terms of both his personality and his behavior, is like a magnet next to a compass, making it very difficult to get accurate bearings. Just as his can- didacy was a symptom of larger forces — the triumph of entertainment culture, the breakdown in confidence in elites and their institu- tions, etc. — his presidency may likewise be masking more permanent changes to politics. We won’t know if things will return to “normal” until we separate the magnet and the compass. Until then, all of the proposed remedies for the problem of political chaos only promise more chaos. Consider the departure of Stephen Bannon from the White House. Contrary to a lot of punditry, it is unlikely that the White House will become less gonzo with his absence. But it is almost surely true that the climate outside of the White House will get more absurd with Bannon back at Breitbart. com. Bannon has boasted that he is a “Leninist.” Like so much of what Bannon says, that’s hyperbole, but he does share with the Soviet revolu- tionary a worldview of “the worse, the better.” Bannon believes that racial anxiety, populist fervor and wide- spread resentment help his cause. It may indeed be the right thing for Republicans to stand up to Trump more. But that won’t restore order either. It will infuriate the president and his biggest supporters and further split the Republican Party. Likewise the widespread call for Republican legisla- tors to stop voting with the president even when they agree with him. This is insane advice on the merits. Voting against Trump out of spite would be political malpractice. It would also be a gift to the Bannons and Sean Hannitys who are des- perate to craft a “stabbed in the back” explanation for the president’s failures. Republicans are stuck in a Trump-22 for as far as the eye can see. They cannot afford to alienate the core Trump base by being too critical of the president, and they cannot afford to alien- ate the Trump-critical ele- ments in the party by being too supportive. There’s a similar prob- lem with the calls for mass resignations from the White House. There are still good people there. If they quit, they’ll all be replaced with members of the “let Trump be Trump” school. Meanwhile the Democrats, who have their own populist challenges, see GOP dysfunction as an excuse not to remedy their own shortcomings — many of which made Trump’s vic- tory possible. Then there’s impeach- ment. If Democrats win the House — a big “if” right now — they will probably get to work on impeachment hearings. If they succeeded, they’d still need roughly half of the Republicans to vote to remove him. How reserved and sober-minded would you expect the president — or his supporters — to be during that process? How about after the Senate fails to remove him? Face it: It’s gonna be weird for a very long time. © 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.
