2
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
Editorial…
That time when nothing happened
A little over a week ago, the Internet lost its
collective mind over a pseudo-event.
The scene was the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington, DC. A kid smirked; a First
Nations man beat a drum; Black Hebrew
Israelites threw out some taunts. That9s it. Not
exactly Days of Rage, but social media kicked
into high gear, followed by hours of cable TV
news analysis and exclusive interviews. And
then came death threats and the ritual menac-
ing with lawsuits.
America 2019. We9ve been hacked, and
we9re being played, by the data-gathering and
data-selling giants to whom we9re selling our
souls.
Historian and philosopher Yuval Noah
Harari notes that, <So far, many of these giants
seem to have adopted the business model of
8attention merchants.9 They capture our atten-
tion by providing us with free information, ser-
vices, and entertainment, and they then resell
our attention to advertisers. Yet the data giants
probably aim far higher than any previous
attention merchant. Their true business isn9t
to sell advertisements at all. Rather, by captur-
ing our attention they manage to accumulate
immense amounts of data about us, which is
worth more than any advertising revenue. We
aren9t their customers 4 we are their product.=
And with the Great Smirking Kid Caper, the
Data Leviathan captured the attention of mil-
lions upon millions of people with a pseudo-
event onto which we projected all manner of
social, political and cultural hostilities and
anxieties. Outraged, roiled, played like Nathan
Phillips9 drum 4 and for what?
As Joshua Rothman notes in The New
Yorker: <When the dramaturgical or rhetori-
cal interest of a debate exceeds the interest
of the real events that inspired it, that debate
becomes a fantasy 4 an occasion for dra-
matizing our values, rather than testing them
against the real world. This, in turn, makes our
values feel hollow.=
It would be bad enough if this phenomenon
was confined to our online <lives,= but it leaks
out into our real life, too. We are conditioning
ourselves to make judgments on the thinnest
slices of information; we judge our neighbor
before we even glance to see if he9s wearing
moccasins or not, much less venturing to walk
a mile in them.
We9re all susceptible to this insidious
phenomenon. Disconnecting is probably the
right thing to do 4 but that doesn9t guarantee
escape, and anyway, it9s not a realistic option
for most of us. But we can discipline ourselves
to take a moment and decide what we want to
give our commodified attention to and how
much drama we want to get sucked into 4 be
it online or in our hometown. Or online in our
hometown.
We9re lucky here in Sisters; we have lots of
options. Sometimes 4 maybe always 4 the
best thing to do is to just go for a hike.
Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s 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:
Kudos to Craig Rullman, who always
speaks his mind, and expressed so well the
divisive hyperbole going around these days!
Our First Amendment free speech rights are
in danger as are other freedoms we hold dear.
Carefully weigh and investigate what
comes across the media. There is a lot of hype
and hysteria out there.
Jeanne Brooks
See LETTERS on page 19
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Friday
Thursday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Sunny
Mostly Sunny
Rain
PM Showers
PM Snow Showers
Partly Cloudy
51/32
54/36
46/33
47/33
42/26
36/25
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
Graphic Design: Jess Draper
Community Marketing Partners:
Vicki Curlett & Patti Jo Beal
Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May
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. ©2019 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 Newspaper9s 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
Why I am upset by
idling vehicles
By Steve Nugent
Guest Columnist
Idling a vehicle unnec-
essarily adds CO 2 to the
atmosphere, increasing
global warming.
Even though I don9t
travel much and don9t
live where hurricanes,
floods and tornadoes are
a threat, the impacts of
global warming on me are
still significant. I breathed
toxic smoke from the
California fires last year
for two months, not to
mention smoke from other
local Oregon fires. Scuba
trips to dive on reefs are
disappointing because 50
percent of the reef is dead.
Salmon and steelhead fish-
ing in Oregon is getting
harder because of declin-
ing stocks of wild fish. The
cost of wild salmon in the
market continues to rise.
Some fruits, vegetables
and nuts from California
are getting more expensive
and scarce.
I have to continually
fireproof my house to pro-
tect from more frequent,
increasingly intense wild-
fires. My fire insurance
is increasing because of
all the western wildfire
claims. We are all paying
more taxes to support $300
billion in Federal disaster
relief in 2017 and even
more in 2018.
What a waste of my tax
dollars.
When I ask why a per-
son is idling when parked,
they generally give me one
of six answers:
1. <It saves money
because I9m only going to
be in the post office, bank
or store for a minute.= It9s
a myth that this saves any
money. Idling your vehicle
for more than five seconds
uses more fuel than stop-
ping and restarting.
2. <My diesel needs to
idle to save the starter and
keep the oil pressure and
temperature up.= Myths.
Diesels need to be under
load to be at optimum tem-
perature to minimize wear.
Unburned fuel causes pol-
lution and dilutes the oil,
causing excessive wear.
Starter wear is not a con-
cern. Hybrid car starters
start hundreds of times dur-
ing each trip. UPS trucks
re-start at every stop.
3. <I need to let my
engine warm up before
driving.= Gas cars should
be immediately driven
after starting to prevent
excessive wear and short-
ening of life. Diesels
should be driven after a
30-second warm-up of
the oil to prevent exces-
sive wear and unnecessary
pollution. Diesel manu-
facturers recommend no
more than three minutes of
warm up.
4. <I need to let the
diesel turbocharger cool
down.= Another myth.
Totally unnecessary and
ineffective. Just turn it off
and save some money.
5. <Diesel exhaust
does not hurt anybody.=
Human studies show an
increase in lung cancer
and cell damage due to
diesel fume inhalation. It9s
carcinogenic.
6. <It9s my God-given
right to pollute if I want
to.= This is not like leav-
ing the lights on in your
house. This impacts every
living thing on the planet,
including your neighbors,
friends, and relatives. It9s a
global impact.
I often talk to people
that are avid hunters, fish-
erman, birders and out-
doors hikers. These people
should be the most con-
cerned about the global
warming impacts on their
quality of life. They should
be the people conserving,
minimizing car trips and
definitely not idling when
parked. Most people can-
not believe that what they
do as an individual makes
any difference.
Well it does, particu-
larly when millions are
doing the same thing.
Oregon actually has
laws against idling an
unoccupied car, maximum
fine $250. Diesel trucks
over 10KGVW must
turn engines off after five
minutes in any one-hour
period.
There is no reason to
idle a vehicle once it is
parked, unless it is for
survival in sub-zero con-
ditions. Do the smart,
responsible thing and just
turn it off. If it9s cold out-
side, go inside and look at
your cell phone.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.