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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2019)
2 Wednesday, April 10, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N TURNing toward localism By 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: As I just finished reading the commentary <Goodnight Molly= by Tom Donahue (The Nugget, April 3, page 8), I knew I had to write this little note. It touched me so, because I knew Molly slightly as Tom and Molly are my neighbors. You never saw one without the other (except for a few times Molly decided to come over and visit me, or the time Tom was relaxing on his lawn chair by the creek, and I saw Molly decide she would go and check things out, I hollered to Tom, <Molly9s taking a hike.= Tom had fallen asleep. She didn9t get very far). Having been a vet tech in California, I could see Molly having more and more trouble going on their morning walks, then one day Tom was walking alone. He came by and said yes, Molly had left him. I had tears reading Tom9s tribute to Molly, having had a wonderful Sheltie dog named Boy that took care of 200 head of sheep on our ranch in California and losing him to a drunk driver, I can fully understand how Tom feels on losing not only a pet but a friend. I9ll miss seeing Molly and Tom going for their walk every morning. God bless you, pretty Molly, for all the joy you brought to Tom; and to you, Tom, for all the love and care you gave your girl. I9ll miss seeing you together. Sylvia Cara s s s To the Editor: This letter is in response to the April 3 edition of The Nugget article titled, <Cold Weather Shelter organizers address concerns.= See LETTERS on page 20 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Cloudy AM Showers Partly Cloudy Cloudy Cloudy AM Snow Showers 49/38 49/35 53/33 55/36 46/33 47/35 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. I have become mildly obsessed with the AMC show <TURN: Washington9s Spies.= I got sucked into this Revolutionary War espio- nage drama on Netflix and have now made it nearly through its four seasons, sneaking in an episode almost every day in the early evenings. The show is histori- cally challenged in many respects, but 4 taken on its own terms and merits 4 it is compelling. It represents 18th-century America quite well in several ways. <TURN= visually cap- tures just how rural Colonial America was. Long Island wasn9t a suburb; it was the boondocks. And, while New York and New England c. 1776 were no longer a wil- derness, the landscape was, in many places, still heav- ily wooded and semi-wild. Distances were great; roads were mostly poor and com- munications slow. And the human popula- tion was small and local- ized. This point is critical to understanding the evolution of the republican principles that imbued the founding of the United States. (Hat-tip to historian and author Dr. Brion McClanahan for artic- ulating this nicely in a pod- cast on TURN 4 link in the online version of this story at www.nuggetnews.com). The largest city in the American Colonies in 1776 was Philadelphia, with 40,000 residents. Bustling New York City was home to 25,000 souls; Boston, the hotbed of the rebellion, boasted a population of 15,000 people. As of 2017, the popula- tion of Bend, Oregon was 94,520. Sisters, Oregon, had a 2017 population of 2,701 4 but counting its outlying residential areas, it has a population roughly the size of Colonial Boston or maybe Newport, Rhode Island (11,000). The aphorism that <all politics is local= was genu- inely true in Colonial and Revolutionary America. The republican form of govern- ment designed by the found- ers operates optimally when it is operating at a manage- able scale. The structure has actually been remarkably adaptable to massive growth and change, but it was never designed to be a centralized bureaucracy responsible for managing 320 million peo- ple9s lives on a continental and transcontinental scale. It was, in short, supposed to remain a Republic, not an Empire. Politics was never meant to be a full-time obligation or occupation 4 it was sup- posed to be a matter of pub- lic service to deal with the public business, with long and frequent retreats back into the private sector. We should not wax romantic about localism 4 local politics can be mean and petty (as anyone who has been involved in a neighborhood beef or local land-use tussle can attest). But, allowing for the nec- essary evil, political action should rightly be as <local= as it can be made. This is the principle of subsidiarity: Matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. Political decisions should be taken at a local level if possible, rather than by a central authority. This means that, instead of seeking political saviors to sit in an imperial Oval Office, we should be wor- rying a lot more about who is running for school board or city council or planning commission or county com- mission. And we should be taking advantage of the politics of scale to wield our individual influence at that level, where our voices might actually be heard and heeded. The local group In d iv isib le S iste rs is hosting a gathering on Thursday, April 11, from 6 to 8 p.m. focusing on <Local Government in Our Daily Lives.= Those attending can explore the role of Sisters City Council with City Councilor Andrea Blum and City Manager Cory Misley. Learn how to run for elec- tion (there will be three openings next year). The group will gather at the Sisters Public Library conference room, with a half-hour social kicking off at 6 p.m. For more informa- tion call 541-760-5320. This might be a nice opportunity to make a TURN toward localism. The founders would approve. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by The Nugget Newspaper.