Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 2017)
2 Wednesday, October 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Robert C. Koehler 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: There is an application to commercially grow marijuana on Goodrich Road, just east of Sisters. (Deschutes County file #: 247-17-000216-LR/247-17-000217-AD). Marijuana, like gold, is very valuable in small quantities. Many marijuana producers also keep a lot of cash on hand, due to the fact that it’s difficult to get a bank account for a marijuana business. These two factors make marijuana facilities the target of violent crime. Robert Casillas, a marijuana businessman who was robbed, stated that, “We are a high value target,” in a KSNV interview. James Bowman, a legal marijuana grower in Oregon, was nearly killed after being tortured by rob- bers at his rural pot farm. Another grower in Mendocino was slain by several of his workers. Do we, as residents of Sisters Country, want to see an increase in the risk of violent crime in our exceptionally safe natural envi- ronment? Sisters is special. Let’s keep it that way. Our county should consider restricting marijuana cultivation to industrial areas that are located on regular police patrol beats. Please let your thoughts be known on this issue. Attend the county hearing for this appli- cation; it’s at 10 a.m. on Monday, October 16, at 1300 NW Wall St. in Bend. Please also visit www.keepgoodrichsafe.com for more information. Adam Jones s s s To the Editor: There is no doubt that Sisters, along with the other two “tri-cities” and outlying towns, will very quickly continue to grow in popu- lation in Central Oregon. We have water, lots of land, less traffic congestion (for now), good medical, good schools and few natural disasters (one has time to get away from a forest fire). Therefore, I would like to make a 15-year planning proposal of infrastructure work for our city and those nearby: 1. We plan with Bend and Redmond to eventually have an elevated high-speed rail set up between our three cities with separate walking, riding, bike paths and trials below. Huge project. Lots of vying players would be See LETTERS on page 18 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny 61/29 66/31 70/34 63/32 63/29 62/31 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. Kneel, touch the earth. “Oh say can you see ...” The anthem starts. I can feel the courage ... of Colin Kaepernick, the (then) San Francisco 49ers quarterback who refused to stand for the national war hymn, not when one of the wars was directed at Americans of color. Occupying the public spot- light that he did, Kaepernick risked — and received — widespread condemnation. Rabid fans burned replicas of his jersey. I’m sure as he knelt that first time, as his knee touched the earth, he had a sense of what he was setting off. This is patriotism. A year later, his action still resonates. The president got involved (of course), ranting and tweeting that kneeling NFL players should be fired, thus, as Adam Erickson points out, joining his list of scapegoats: “Donald Trump,” he writes at the Raven Foundation website, “attempts to push this mythical narrative on almost every minority: Muslims, Mexicans, African Americans, journalists, immigrants, the transgender community, and now we can include professional athletes in the long list of Trump’s scapegoats. The mythical narrative (i.e., the lie) he espouses is that these minor- ities pose a significant threat to American values.” Patriotism is not a spec- tator ritual. Patriotism means participating in what Erickson calls the “struggle for the soul of the United States.” The pseudo-patriotism that assumes the American soul is securely enshrined in law and ritual, that we pulled it from the clutches of Great Britain 240 years ago and now we just need to wall off the bad people beyond our borders — and that noth- ing much is asked of citi- zens except obedience and applause — is part of what I would call “democracy lite.” Fifteen years ago, when this country was on the brink of invading Iraq, I wrote: “Looks almost like the real thing, this pro- cessed governance product for the new millennium — ‘democracy lite,’ you might call it. Comes with elected representatives, a mass media, bunting, hoopla and the same soaring ideals as the Lincolnesque version. “Caution: Democracy lite has nothing to do with the nation’s actual decision- making process; that occurs separately.” Trump, you might say, is the logical consequence of a passive, spectator citizenry: a “leader” who tweets the unconscious impulses — the fears and hatreds — of his supporters and delivers one comforting scapegoat after another for the public to revile. Actual decision- making still occurs sepa- rately, but the president has mixed a dark unconscious- ness into the process. Before the arrival of President Trump, the United States was an aggressive, highly militarized global empire, in possession of nearly 7,000 nuclear weapons. Now it still is, but much of the comportment and pro- tocols of empire have been abandoned. And then came the most outrageous tweet yet: “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!” N o r t h K o r e a n f o r- eign minister Ri Yong-ho responded; “Given the fact that this came from some- one who holds the seat of the U.S. presidency, this is clearly a declaration of war.” The game unravels. What country is this? The soul of the nation is MIA. And U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “Fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings. The only solution for this is a political solution.” But we don’t sing anthems about “political solutions,” which are always flawed and imperfect. I fear that the shallow impulsive- ness of Donald Trump aligns too easily with militarism and empire: with armed arrogance. On a dangerously complex planet, force gives pseudo-patriots the illusion of simple solutions. Struggling for the soul of the country means unwrap- ping the flag from this illusion. © 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.
