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2 Wednesday, April 4, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Editorial… Rising to the level of middle schoolers When my daughter was in middle school, she would take umbrage when I said that poli- ticians or others engaged in public discourse were “acting like middle schoolers.” “Dad,” she would say, “we don’t act like that.” Fair enough. So, let’s just say that a whole lot of actors on the public stage lack the matu- rity of middle schoolers. Last week, Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham was forced to make a public apology after sponsors started fleeing her show because she thought it was appropriate to publically mock 17-year-old David Hogg because he didn’t make it into several of the universities to which he had applied. Hogg is one of the more vocal activists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, whose fellow students were murdered in a mass shooting in February. Now, Hogg is not off-limits. His opinions should not be held sacrosanct and treated as unchallengeable simply because he and his fel- low students went through a traumatic event. He has entered the public arena and he should be ready for pushback. But pushback should come in the form of challenging his opinions and his policy prescriptions, not in the form of public mockery at the hands of a cable a TV commentator over his college admissions travails. That is just shameful. Closer to home, a friend was recently accused of employing “subtle racism” in an essay on Oregon Initiative Petition 43 and for- mer Justice John Paul Stevens’ call to repeal the Second Amendment. Challenged to sub- stantiate this inflammatory accusation, the accuser simply made things up that were not to be found anywhere in the text. The “racism” was so “subtle” that it wasn’t even there. The accuser essentially boiled his assertion down to the logically and ethically bankrupt notion that, since progressives oppose racism, if you oppose their agenda in whole or in part, you must be a racist. In 2018, an accusation of racism is not merely means of shutting down debate, but an active attempt to do harm. It’s hanging a scar- let letter on the accused. Shameful. We can point a finger at a lot of contribu- tors to this corrosive trend: the freedom from accountability people feel on social media; the embarrassing example of a president who delights in calling people names (and whose opponents often indulge in the same pastime in return); a general breakdown in manners at all levels. Perhaps we could all use a little of the intolerance represented by former Texas Ranger Woodrow Call in Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove”: “I hate rude behavior in a man. I won’t tolerate it.” Or, in this tamer, more ill-mannered era, we might at least try to reach the maturity level of middle schoolers. Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief 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: Your editorial, “Nobody is coming for your guns?” misses the mark and endorses the false premise that the real agenda for common- sense gun reform is to “disarm law-abiding Americans”. Oregon Initiative Petition 43 is an attempt to manage the burgeoning private ownership of weapons of war, firearms specifically designed to kill the maximum number of vic- tims quickly and efficiently. Guns used for hunting and individual self-protection are not addressed in OIP 43. There is no hidden agenda here to remove such firearms from See LETTERS on page 19 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Chance Rain Rain Chance Rain Rain Likely Chance Showers Mostly Cloudy 57/35 56/39 59/41 54/32 49/30 55/39 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC 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. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Patti Jo Beal & Vicki Curlett Accounting: Erin Bordonaro Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen 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. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. 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. Robert C. Koehler The cries of loss and anguish become public, at last. A million young people seize the truth: “Half of my seventh-grade class was affected by gun violence. My own brother was shot in the head. I am tired of being asked to calm down and be quiet.” I was one of the thou- sands of people who endured a bitter cold morn- ing in Chicago to be part of this emerging movement, this burst of anger, hope and healing. The Chicago march was one of more than 800 marches throughout the U.S. and all across the world. In Washington, D.C., Emma Gonzalez — a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — read out the names of the 17 people shot and killed at her school last month, then stood in coura- geous silence for six min- utes and 20 seconds: the length of time the gunman’s killing spree lasted. The cry of anguish across this planet, for all the lives that have been needlessly cut short, will reverberate for as long as necessary: until this country’s politics catches up to the will and the awareness and the suf- fering of its people. The focus of the moment is tougher gun-control regu- lations, such as banning the sale of assault weapons. And three days after the marches, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (not a young per- son) published an op-ed in the New York Times, call- ing, my God, for the repeal of the Second Amendment, which he called “a relic of the 18th century.” The marches, he wrote, “reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.” I would add that they also reveal much more than that: public support, public demand, for a society that values life. This is not a simplistic demand. It is furi- ously complex, and pushes public policy well beyond the current status-quo think- ing that’s perfectly OK with a near-trillion dollar military budget, endlessly expanding wars across the planet and, uh, nuclear weapons. This emerging move- ment must address the whole spectrum of violence. As Rev. John Dear put it: “That means ending gun violence — but also rac- ism and mass incarceration but also executions, drone attacks and trillions spent for war, and so also, the ongoing U.S. bombing raids and wars and the develop- ment and threat of nuclear weapons, and our mortally sinful corporate greed and of course, the destruction of the environment and all the creatures.” The word that ties it all together is: dehumanization. The ability to dehu- manize certain people — because of their race, their nationality, their gender, their politics, their place of work or learning — has no end. When a mass murderer does it, it’s called mental ill- ness. When a soldier or cop or the president does it, it’s called national security. “How,” asked Stephanie Van Hook, executive direc- tor of the Metta Center for Nonviolence, “could one forget the humanity of another and what does it tell us about who we really are? “For insight into these questions, we might first explore the basic dynamic of conflict escalation. . . . Conflict escalates — that is, moves increasingly toward violence — according to the degree of dehuman- ization in the situation,” she writes, summarizing a point made by Michael Nagler in his book “The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action.” “Violence, in other words, doesn’t occur without dehumanization.” I believe this insight is at the core of what March for Our Lives is about. Gun regulations, even repeal of the Second Amendment, are bandages over the wound. The uncontained force behind the national murder rate is dehumanization, and as this movement grows, it must — it will — look insti- tutional dehumanization straight in the eye. © 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.
