Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2017)
2 Wednesday, November 1, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O “Fall Back” Saturday Night Daylight Savings Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5 Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writerʼs 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Diversity is defined by the Merriam- Webster dictionary as “the condition of hav- ing or being composed of differing elements: Especially the inclusion of different types of people,” I find it interesting that Jennifer Hills’ let- ter in the October 11 issue has come under such criticism (I think there may have even been an offer to duel). She mentioned want- ing to buy a gun to protect herself and her family rather than relying on someone else to do it — sounds like a reasonable thing to me, not to mention it is a Constitutional right. She also expressed some mistrust in her neigh- bors’ ability or willingness to take care of her in the event of an emergency — again, nothing unreasonable about that as we can see from historical examples that this can be true in the event of disastrous circumstances. There are numerous people who lend aid and care for their neighbors, but there are also those who take advantage of the opportunity to commit evil. I see nothing alarming about her desire to look out for herself and her family. Some people tend to get nasty when they face the incredible stress and pressure of a disaster. And of course this brings me to the nasty business itself and the real reason that people are upset… those darn signs that everyone is in such an uproar over. For those who don’t know, the “In Our America” signs were cre- ated by a group called “Nasty Women get [expletive] done.” Their mission, as quoted from their website, is to “actively resist the xenophobia, racism, misogyny, ableism, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Earth platform and policies of the new See LETTERS on page 21 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Mostly Sunny Chance Rain Rain Likely Chance Rain/Snow Chance Snow 56/32 48/33 43/25 41/24 42/19 Monday Partly Sunny 42/21 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. N Jonah Goldberg William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review (where I work), once con- fessed in private, “I wish to hell I could attack them with- out pleasing people I can’t stand to please.” By them he meant the members of the conspiracy- mongering, anti-Communist, anti-United Nations, anti- civil rights John Birch Soci- ety. The people Bill couldn’t stand to please, of course, were liberals. And yet Buckley did eventually go after the Birch- ers, at first trying as best he could to denounce their leader, Robert Welch, with- out alienating the rank and file. Eventually, this needle became impossible to thread, specifically when Welch began insisting that President Eisenhower was a dedicated, conscious agent of the Com- munist conspiracy. Buckley and Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, along with conservative intel- lectuals such as William Baroody of the American Enterprise Institute (where I am a fellow) and Rus- sell Kirk, convened a meet- ing at the Breakers Hotel in Florida to address the prob- lem. Buckley would lead the effort of anathematiz- ing Welch, beginning with a six-page editorial exco- riating him. Goldwater would follow up with a let- ter to National Review call- ing for Welch’s resignation. This approach was risky. Many Bircher members were not crackpots. Some were prominent business- men who had supported both Buckley’s magazine and the movement behind the Gold- water candidacy. In A Man and His Presi- dents: The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr., Alvin Felzenberg recounts one occasion when a major supporter of NR leaned on Buckley to stop criticizing Welch and form a common front against the left. When he reminded Buckley of the financial support he’d given the magazine, Buckley responded that the National Review was not for sale. Buckley denounced the Birchers in part because they were undermining the very cause they claimed to be fighting for. By making anti-Communism seem par- anoid and extremist rather than prudent and necessary, the Birchers were making it easy for liberals to demonize and dismiss conservatism wholesale. Similar patterns have been emerging on the right. In many ways, we’re witness- ing a perfect example of his- tory repeating itself as farce. Whereas during the Cold War, the claim was made that the East Coast Republi- can establishment was insuf- ficiently committed to the fight against Communism, the new hotness is that the GOP establishment is insuffi- ciently committed to fighting ... the GOP establishment. Republican Roy Moore is the new Welch (or at least one of several new Welches). He threatens to provide conser- vatisms critics with precisely the caricature they crave. He is a twice-disgraced former judge who believes 9/11 was divine retribution for our sins and an anti-Mus- lim bigot who can’t quite bring himself to rule out the death penalty for homosexu- als. But he won the Alabama Senate primary anyway, largely on the grounds that he was the most anti-estab- lishment candidate. If Moore is the new Welch, Buckley and Gold- water’s heirs have rejected the mantle of opposition, at least in this case. Last week, Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul endorsed Moore, citing his devotion to the Constitu- tion and (in Lee’s words) his reputation of integrity. As for conservatives out- side the Senate, reactions have varied. Some have been outspoken in denouncing Moore. Others have gone all in. Part of the problem is structural. Despite all of the paranoid screeds one hears daily, the establish- ment, however defined, is weaker than at any time in memory. The balkanized and democratized media land- scape of the Internet makes the kind of intellectual gatekeeping Buckley once mastered nearly impossible, particularly at a time when gatekeeping of any kind is viewed as rigging the system. Buckley’s reluctance to please people he couldn’t stand has gone from an understandable sentiment to an ideological command- ment for many on the right. Rather than learn from our successes, conservatives seem determined to make a virtue of our mistakes. © 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.
