24 Wednesday, August 7, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon LETTERS Continued from page 2 and Senator C. Bentz. There were somewhere between 50 to 70 citizens in attendance. Senator Bentz started the Town Hall by letting us know how hard he has tried to learn about and to do something about climate change the past 9 years to create the best bill of any state so Oregon would lead the way. Please note, the House and Senate Ways and Means committees, which Sen. Bents and Rep. Bonham each served on, in their separate legislative branches, democratically voted to recommend the bill be passed (Sen. Bentz and Rep. Bonham were both in the minority with nays). Also, note HB2020 had been in the making for over 10 years. After the bill was brought to a vote and passed in the House, Senator Bentz felt it was not a perfect bill (because his recommended changes to it were ignored), so he and the other Republicans left to assure there was not a quorum to allow a vote. He said it was democratic to do so, but then later said he would never do it again. This had been his sec- ond time in walking out rather than voting on a bill. It is a fallacy to seek perfection and ignore progress in the right direction. Then he proceeded to lecture us on how he did not need to hear that he did not do his job and that he did not need us lecturing him. This before any in attendance spoke. So THAT went well. We each thanked them for the opportunity to speak and be heard, we thanked them for com- ing to Sisters, and with about 8 Bentz supporting opinions, the rest of us wanted him to at least vote next time, and a yea vote is preferred when the bill comes back in the next legislative session. The overall concern voiced was that the climate crisis needed attention now. One woman intelligently asked before we were to leave, now that they had heard what we had to say what was their takeaway. Representative Bonham fielded the question with a rambling answer that could be summed up as,