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2 Wednesday, March 11, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Jonah Goldberg 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Re: the letter in the February 27 edition from Lane Jacobsen about customers buying from local, independently owned businesses: I agree with him wholeheartedly. I have been doing that for years with the simple belief, as I have long been telling people, <What would you rather support, a literally 8Mom and Pop9 family-owned-and-operated business or some soulless corporation?= As Mr. Jacobsen pointed out, local busi- nesses keep tax dollars in the community whereas corporations like Amazon, as was very recently pointed out in the news, pay zero. As a final point (to be clear, I have noth- ing to do with his store and live in the L.A. area), go to the store9s website, click on the <Community= link and read the <We Share A Community= part. Sums it all up quite nicely. Rodney Gregson s s s To the Editor: One of my favorite straight-talking comedians is the late Joan Rivers. Given that, <Can we talk?= What9s with the racist party- of-slavery extreme leap to Socialism 4 many ideologies similar to Communism? They and their co-merchants of hate in the FAKE news propaganda machine obviously detest Trump more than they care for America. Live news from Venezuela gives a clear picture of what their agenda offers: a historically proven failure. All the new Democratic candidates for president seem to be jumping on the extreme socialist bandwagon in one form or another. The new <boss= of the Democratic Party, AOC, even has the hate Trump FAKE journal- ist at CNN squeamish at her outrageous rheto- ric. In a way I feel sad for her; now the brunt of jokes on social media. I don9t think extreme is rare for the racist party of slavery. Racism has been their tool of choice in pushing their agenda as long as I can remember. It was only a couple days ago that Will Smith was targeted for not being See LETTERS on page 21 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Partly Cloudy Cloudy Mostly Sunny Cloudy Sunny Partly Cloudy 42/21 43/26 49/30 50/32 53/30 53/32 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. The Democratic Party is having a rough time con- demning anti-Semitism. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has, on several occasions, made classically anti-Semitic claims about American Jews, and the effort to formally denounce those statements in the House ruined a week in which the Democrats were supposed to talk about their agenda. The gist of Omar9s com- plaints is that the perfidi- ous, string-pulling Hebraic hordes control Congress with their shady shekels, Israel has hypnotized the world, and American Jews are guilty of dual loyalty. The controversies have been compounded by the fact that her apologies suggest she9s not actually apologetic. Omar has claimed that the anti-Semitism charge is an effort to silence her because she wants to talk about the Jewish scheme to <push for allegiance to a foreign coun- try.= In an earlier sorry-not- sorry episode, she apolo- gized for hurting anyone9s feelings, which is not quite the same thing as recanting. The whole issue of hurt feelings is a red herring 4 which is precisely why so many Democrats want to focus on feelings rather than on the relevant facts. Indeed, if Omar had better facts on her side, she wouldn9t be in this mess. For instance, Omar seems to think the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a political action commit- tee that funds candidates on behalf of Israel. Incon- veniently for Omar, AIPAC isn9t a PAC, doesn9t work for Israel and doesn9t donate to political campaigns. More interesting, how- ever, is the Democratic leadership9s fact problem 4 namely the fact Omar simply isn9t a fan of Jews, or at least Jews who support Israel. It9s fine to be a critic of Israel, by the way. But when you hate the country so much that you can9t explain criticism of Israel without resorting to bigotry, you have a problem. Or rather, the Democratic Party does. Because it9s not just Omar. If Omar had no sym- pathizers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would prob- ably have thrown her under the bus already. The younger, fresher and more radical fringe of the party led by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn9t think Omar should be singled out for criticism or censure. In fairness, the primary reason is not that they all share Omar9s hang- up with the Jews. Some are just anti-Israel. Others think it9s unfair that Omar should be criticized when Donald Trump or other Republicans have said bigoted things. Ocasio-Cortez called efforts to censure Omar <hurtful= because statements by other politicians, most obviously Trump, aren9t similarly condemned. She has something of a point. I certainly wish Republicans did more to condemn many of the things Trump has said. But she seems to have for- gotten that Republicans did condemn and punish Iowa Rep. Steve King recently for his on-brand racist blather. The effort to avoid sin- gling out Omar is putting Democrats in knots they will be hard-pressed to untie any- time soon. Pelosi has said Omar wasn9t <intentionally anti-Semitic.= South Carolina9s James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, offered a baf- fling defense of Omar by talking about4surprise! 4 her feelings. He says Omar9s experience as a refugee from Somalia who spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp has to be taken into account. Leave aside the fact that whatever happened to Omar in Kenya or Somalia, it has nothing to do with Israel or Jews. Are we going to have greater tolerance for big- otry based on a time-since- victimhood score? Slavery was even longer ago than the Holocaust. Does that make racist comments less outrageous than anti-Semitic comments? On Thursday, Pelosi announced that the House would vote on a resolution condemning all forms of <hate.= It might do the trick to turn the page. But it will almost surely be a tempo- rary respite, because Omar (and others) come to their anti-Semitism honestly, and they9re inclined to be hon- est about it. So we9ll be here again. © 2019 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.