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Wednesday, October 18, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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We are not enemies
By Tiffany Lee Brown, a.k.a. “T”
Guest Columnist
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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:
After breathing months of smoke due to
wildfires we now apparently have to breathe
another month or two of prescribed fire smoke.
Well, I am saying enough is enough. I do
not have a lung condition as do many peo-
ple living in Sisters; however this being said
almost five months of fire-related smoke
has made me use an inhaler numerous times
throughout the summer. Now I must endure
prescribed burn smoke! Why?
Haven’t we endured enough smoke? I
should think there would be enough common
sense not to inflict more damage to citizens’
lungs.
So I say enough is enough! Stop making
unnecessary smoke. I know there is money
involved for those who are doing the pre-
scribed burns, but again enough is enough!
Deborah Lewis
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Partly Sunny
Rain Likely
Chance Rain
Rain Likely
Chance Rain
Mostly Sunny
66/38
55/35
46/30
50/36
55/36
58/39
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mind? Why assume they
wouldn’t be helpful neigh-
bors in time of need?
Hysterical television
commentators and Twitter
addicts want us to believe
that having different opin-
ions about abortion or immi-
gration reform makes us
enemies. For most people,
it’s not true.
Ask my progressive
friend who drove around in
his truck helping people and
their animals evacuate dur-
ing recent fires — he wasn’t
quizzing anyone on whether
they’d voted for Trump,
Hillary, or Bernie. Ask the
conservative Christian who
took in my family during
Milli. Ask the hundreds of
guys and gals who went
down to Houston with their
boats during the flood (and
let’s not assume every hunter
and fisherman in camo is
conservative, either! I know
a lot of moderates and liber-
als who hunt, fish, dress the
part, and would come rescue
anyone who needed it, in
seconds flat).
I’m not sure who ben-
efits from the story that we
all hate each other and have
nothing in common. Some
politicians, probably, and a
bunch of extremist bloggers
and actual-fake-news sites.
I’m not buying that story. I
don’t believe my neighbors
would leave me to die in a
forest fire because I’ve got
piercings, tattoos, goofy
haircolor, and an “In Our
America...” sign.
I sure wouldn’t leave
them.
Jennifer Hills is welcome
to come have a cup of cof-
fee with me. After that, if
she wants to call me vacu-
ous and unvirtuous, then
OK, let’s hear about it. If the
coffee goes really bad, we
can both buy guns and chal-
lenge each other to a duel.
Anything would be better
than the blanket assumption
that everyone with a sign is
a virtue-free, bad neighbor
who wouldn’t have your
back in an emergency.
In the October 11 edition
of The Nugget, Jennifer Hills
describes wanting to buy a
gun because she no longer
believes she can count on
neighbors to look out for
each other in an emergency.
Why not? Because she has
seen people putting up signs
that say, “In our America...”.
The Nugget needs to
print what the signs actu-
ally say, if these letters are
going to make any sense.
The signs are in the shape of
the American flag, and they
read: “In our America—
all people are equal. Love
wins. Black lives matter.
Immigrants & refugees
are welcome. Disabilities
are respected. Women are
in charge of their bodies.
People & planet are val-
ued over profit. Diversity is
celebrated.”
Our family camped all
summer this year. Our sign
came with us from Cold
Springs campground on
Highway 242 to the slopes
of Mt. St. Helens, from
McKay Crossing Falls on
Paulina Creek over to the
Oregon Coast. All sorts of
people stopped by to chat
about it. Some were curi-
ous. Some agreed with
every word. One, a longtime
Sisters resident, liked many
of the sentiments but didn’t
think women should be in
charge of their pregnan-
cies. It was good to have a
chance to talk about these
things — not through Fox
News or NPR, but just talk-
ing amiably in real life. We
disagree about some stuff?
Well, so it goes. One time,
I thought this big-booted,
enormous dude was com-
ing over to kick our liberal
asses; instead he thanked us
for the sign, and he cried,
talking about his disabled
relatives and how hard their
lives have been.
Ms. Hills calls these put-
ting out these signs “vacu-
ous virtue-signaling” with-
out offering
any expla-
nation for
the insult.
Has she
spoken to
folks who
put those
signs up,
and found
them to
be lacking
in virtue,
PHOTO COURTESY RICK OBST (CREATIVE COMMONS)
vacuous in
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
