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Wednesday, March 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Editorial…
Prepared citizens save lives
Sisters is blessed with top-notch first
responders who can roll out on a variety of
emergencies quickly, with the right tools for
the job and a high level of professional skill.
But they’ll be the first to tell you that when
an emergency strikes, they are at best minutes
away.
Last month, a Sisters resident saved the life
of another Sisters man in cardiac arrest through
the quick application of citizen or bystander
CPR. He knew what had to be done and he
knew how to do it — though he’d never done it
before. And he acted.
In recent years, there has been a tendency to
outsource the maintenance of our safety to pro-
fessionals — police, fire and paramedics, pub-
lic works. In some jurisdictions, civilians are
actively discouraged from acting in an emer-
gency, other than calling 911, and personal
preparation for disasters is regarded in some
circles as a sign of paranoia.
Fortunately, the pendulum is swinging back
again. We could do worse than to all of us
adopt the old Boy Scout Ethic: “Be Prepared.”
“Normalcy bias” leads us to think that
things will always bump along as they usually
do. But sometimes they don’t and it pays to be
ready. The intricate web of utilities and services
upon which we depend is far more fragile than
we like to think it is. A natural disaster — even
on the order of the winter of 2016-17 — can
leave people vulnerable. When the power goes
out and the trucks that supply the grocery store
can’t get through, it pays to have emergency
supplies and a plan.
Be Prepared.
When a friend or a loved one collapses in
cardiac arrest, know what to do to save their
life.
Be Prepared.
Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District is
offering classes in CPR and First Aid. There’s
a CPR class set for March 17 and a First Aid
class on March 18. A few hours of our time
learning from professionals could save a life,
someone dear to us. Maybe we should all get
some training, gear up for emergencies and
make a plan. Sisters will be a better place for it,
and we will be better, more resilient ourselves.
Be Prepared.
Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief
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:
Regarding Mr. Rullman’s column “Our
predator problem,” published in the February
28, issue of The Nugget (page 7):
While I agree with most of what Mr.
Rullman says, I would argue the weapons are
also part of the problem. These weapons are
prevalent in our culture as an accepted form
of entertainment to be used by or under the
supervision of a responsible adult. That limi-
tation works just about like the legal age limit
for drinking and smoking as well as the total
prohibition of recreational drugs. In other
words some children will see the possession
of a semi-automatic pistol or rifle as a right of
passage to adulthood and they will get their
hands on them. Add to that the media training
ground and a psychosis brought on by abuse
or mental illness and we know the rest.
Semi-automatic weapons are readily avail-
able, convenient and effective mass killing
devices. Semi-automatic weapons are not the
best choice in a home defense scenario. They
are not necessary for hunting, nor are they
very sporting. What they are is fun to shoot.
They are a toy. So are we really going to insist
that it is more important to keep playing with
See LETTERS on page 15
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Robert C.
Koehler
There’s a bigger prob-
lem embedded in the social
order than our lack of effec-
tive gun laws, and I hope
the movement that emerges
out of the Parkland massa-
cre makes the leap beyond
anger and single-issue poli-
tics. The nation’s weak gun
laws — the easy availabil-
ity of AR-15 assault rifles
— are, in fact, a symptom
of the general cheapening
of human life in American
society, which is reflected in
the nation’s ever-expanding
obsession with war and a
military budget the size of
Godzilla. War always has a
way of coming home.
Planning for war —
celebrating war, glorify-
ing war — has a long-term
psychological impact on a
large segment of society.
To prepare for war begins
with belief in an enemy and,
eventually, the will to kill
that enemy.
But as David Grossman,
a psychologist and for-
mer military man, pointed
out some years ago in his
book “On Killing: The
Psychological Cost of
Learning to Kill in War and
Society,” most people have
a natural aversion to kill-
ing other human beings,
which is a problem for those
in charge of waging war.
Grossman points out that
researchers in World War II
discovered, based on a large
number of interviews with
soldiers who had been in
combat, that no more than
15 percent or 20 percent of
them would actually point
their guns at the enemy and
fire.
This led to changes in
the training process meant
to “disengage” recruits
from their troublesome
aversion to killing, such as
replacing bull’s-eye targets
with human figures dur-
ing marksmanship training.
The process of “disengage-
ment” became a standard
part of basic training, and
its success was seen dur-
ing the Vietnam War, when
soldiers’ willingness to fire
at the enemy soared to over
90 percent, according to
Grossman.
As I wrote in my 2006
column, “Blowback from a
Bad War,” “The romantici-
zation of war and militarism
within the general culture—
the proliferation of ‘point-
and-shoot’ video games, for
instance, along with formula
revenge-motivated movie
and TV violence — expand
the ‘disengagement training’
to non-vets, contributing,
along with plentiful hand-
gun availability, to a state
of domestic insecurity far
more serious than the threat
of outside terror that Bush
has turned into his political
meal ticket.”
In that column, I also
happened to quote the
words of a certain lieutenant
general who was gaining a
reputation for his homicidal
candor. Addressing soldiers
during a panel discussion,
he said: “It’s fun to shoot
some people... You go into
Afghanistan, you got guys
who slap women around
for five years because they
didn’t wear a veil. You
know, guys like that ain’t
got no manhood left any-
way. So it’s a hell of a lot of
fun to shoot them.”
The guy’s name was Mad
Dog Mattis. He’s now, of
course, America’s secretary
of defense.
Once again, I go back
to the gargantuan military
budget, and the preparations
underway for eternal invest-
ment in the culture of death.
On the domestic front,
conservatives like Rush
Limbaugh shill for gun
manufacturers by calling for
arming America’s school-
teachers rather than control-
ling the sale of firearms.
Another well-known
M attis u tter an ce—“B e
polite, be professional, but
have a plan to kill every-
body you meet”—“even
made it into a popular
video game,” according to
Politico. When I read that, I
felt the connection between
militarism and popular cul-
ture settle eerily into place.
“Killing is sometimes nec-
essary” morphs into “killing
is fun.”
And a disturbed 19-year-
old who has just been
expelled from his high
school can purchase an
assault rifle and ammo with-
out a problem.
I have a dark fear that it’s
all connected.
© 2018 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.
