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Wednesday, November 8, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
LETTERS
Continued from page 2
If you care to examine the “rule of oligarchy,”
look no further than our own country. We elected
Trump, a billionaire oligarch with authoritarian
tendencies, who has appointed other billionaire
oligarchs to his cabinet and other high government
positions, such as Treasury Secretary Mnuchin,
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, chief economic
advisor Gary Cohn, etc. etc. Also, look at the results
of the Supreme Court decision in Citizen United,
that has allowed oligarchs, such as the Koch
Brothers, the Mercers and other billionaire oli-
garchs to flood unregulated campaign contributions
to those politicians who will do their bidding.
Are all these elite oligarchs working hard to
repair/replace our crumbling infrastructure or to
develop a smart and efficient universal healthcare
system or to improve our public education system
or any other projects to help our people? Hardly.
What is the most compelling project for our elite
oligarchs? Massive, beautiful, best-ever tax cuts by
Christmas for corporations and the .01 percent, a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Will Lacey
s
s
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To the Editor:
Re: “Rider lays down motorcycle on Hwy. 20,”
(The Nugget, November 1, page 1).
As a currently active motorcyclist, I was disap-
pointed by the wording of your report of a crash
headlined as above and reported in the Wednesday,
November 1 issue. Having taken the Team Oregon
safety course as my first exposure to motorcycling
in 2008, I am of the mind that deliberately “laying
down the bike” to “avoid a rear-end collision” is a
very bad idea.
Certainly, in this case, no rear-end collision was
avoided and the crash was probably made signifi-
cantly more serious by the rider’s actions.
It goes without saying that he was traveling too
fast and/or too close to the vehicle in front of him
and paying insufficient attention to the traffic and
road situation. As a normally loaded motorcycle has
a much shorter stopping distance than a car or truck,
even a lapse in attention would be best accommo-
dated by rapid braking and, if unavoidable, a low-
speed straight collision would have been the safer
thing to do. Above all, it should be emphasized that,
however it could have gone, fire or not, laying down
the bike is a “crash” and doesn’t avoid anything.
Mostly, though, such an event should remind us
all to pay attention when we are behind the wheel or
the handlebars.
Jim Hammond
s
s
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To the Editor:
A more apt title for Rullman’s columns should
be the “The Bunkum Chronicle.” His latest effort is
a rambling essay attempting to minimize the signifi-
cance of the indictment of the one-time campaign
manager of the Trump campaign (Manafort) along
with the deputy campaign chair (Gates). He labels it
“remarkably uninteresting, uninspiring, and weak”
and “laughable on any evidence at all of collusion
with Russians….”
He guesses that the indicted campaign manager
knows little about the campaign’s collusion with
Russian officials while ignoring Manafort’s long
history of surreptitiously representing the interests
of Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych, Putin’s Ukraine
puppet and the fact that Manafort was seriously in
debt to Russian oligarchs. He apparently is blasé
about international money-laundering, illegally
working for a foreign government and tax fraud and
thinks Manafort would only get some months in the
“Martha Stewart Federal Penitentiary.”
Nowhere in his column does he note that the
Mueller team, at the time of these arrests, released
the plea agreement from George Papadopoulos, a
foreign policy team member in the Trump cam-
paign that directly ties the campaign to its attempts
to get Russian help in the election. This suggests
that Papadopoulos has been cooperating with the
Mueller team for months.
Mr. Rullman’s practiced pose of cynicism is
wearing thin.
This is the beginning of Mueller Time, not the end.
Michael Wells
s
s
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To the Editor:
Recent and on-going challenging experiences are
pushing my husband and me away from the Sisters
community. We will likely be forced to take our
wisdom, skills, and dollars away from Sisters, too.
Coincidentally, I have been the founder of Senior
Alliance and I don’t even know what to do in an
emergency. Everyone in Sisters needs to know.
Bill develops blood clots that travel to his lungs.
He has needed a knee replacement for years, expe-
riencing significant pain as he continued to keep
healthy and strong walking the streets of the town
he loves. The doctors were exceedingly careful pre-
paring the consistency of his blood for the major
surgery which he received at St. Charles Hospital on
October 26. It was a very successful surgery and he
was already walking and bending his knee almost
immediately. After two days in the hospital he came
home.
Within two days with careful care at home by
me, including shots of blood thinner and other med-
ication and visits from a physical therapist and an
occupational therapist, his leg swelled excessively
and he was in level 7-9 pain. A nurse came and in
crisis mode the fire department was called, and he
was taken by stretcher to the emergency room at St.
Charles where he has been since November 2.
This comes around to the findings of the newly
organized Senior Alliance. Everyone in Sisters
needs more concise, available information about
how to receive help when they need it. In the throes
of crisis, I was panicked. I did not know what to
do, and the competent nurse with me did not either!
We did not think he was critical, did not know that
the swelling was the result of a huge blood clot and
hesitated to call 911. Who else do you call when
your doctors are in Bend and not readily available
for consultation? Bill was writhing and yelling,
“Call the fire department!” We did and they came
immediately. There was no other way a bed-ridden
person can be transported to Bend. Within the day
Bill had an MRI at the emergency room and was
admitted, where he has received more blood thinner
and drainage of the enormous blood clot.
He will soon be in a facility for rehabilitation
for how long to get his new replacement to allow
him to walk? Meanwhile we have ice and snow and
no transportation that allows us to be together. He
will have a long rehabilitation period and should not
be walking on the icy streets of Sisters. We have
our names on the waiting list at Stone Lodge near
Transitions facility in Bend. This is at the desper-
ate urging of our two children. We will be paying
around $4,000 a month to live in resident care with
the additional cost of any in-home nursing care.
Sisters will not profit from this huge outlay.
Joan Power
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