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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 2019)
2 Wednesday, September 4, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Truth or narratives? By Rian Schermerhorn Guest Columnist Welcome, musicians and music-lovers to the 2019 Sisters Folk Festival! ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/TAMILISA MINER Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer¾s 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: A dollar store in Sisters? Seriously? And to add insult to injury, right next door and com- peting with Bi-Mart, which is in every way a more useful place to shop. The fact that Sisters would welcome such development is enough to turn me cynical regarding the entire visioning process that our community engaged in. What next — Walmart? Factory Outlet Mall? What a sure- fire way to undermine our identity as a hub of art, music, recreation and natural beauty. I ask the Planning Commission to please, for the love of Sisters, put a stop to this degrading development. Susanna DeFazio ó ó ó To the Editor: My husband is working for the U.S. Census and currently verifying addresses in the Sisters and Central Oregon area in preparation for the 2020 census mailing. He carries a briefcase clearly marked U.S. Census and has a lanyard badge with his name and photo on it. If your address is on his list, he is required to come to your door and, if you are home, ask you two brief questions to verify your address. He9s not an axe-murderer and he9s not going to steal your stuff. At one house in a local neighborhood he was actually told by the woman living there that “he could get shot” for walking up to someone9s door. What kind of a world do we live in where people think like that? How about offering him a cookie instead — and thanking him for his efforts. Ann Richardson ó ó ó To the Editor: Following the mass shootings in El Paso on August 3 in which 22 innocent people were murdered and 24 were wounded and the mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio in which 10 innocent people were killed and 17 injured like many others I put my flag at half-staff in memory of See LETTERS on page 22 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Sunny PM Thunderstorms Mostly Sunny 88/59 85/57 83/56 Saturday Sunday PM Thunderstorms Partly Cloudy 76/50 69/45 Monday Partly Cloudy 70/44 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 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. I read a letter to the edi- tor last week from Laura West regarding racism in America, and more spe- cifically white supremacy, that contained some good points. Racism abso- lutely still exists. As does white supremacy, which is just one of the many types of racism that we see in the United States today. I don9t dispute this, but I do take issue with the false narratives she used to prove her point. Irresponsible actions like this add to the growing divisiveness that we9re seeing continue to spread throughout the coun- try. It also shows a blind faith in a media that has been proven to push these false narratives over and over in an attempt to sway a largely uneducated public opinion for purely political purposes. One example used by Ms. West about Trump9s controversial comments regarding Mexican immi- grants is a perfect illus- tration. Stating that the President referred to all Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers is completely false. He said that many who have come here illegally are rapists and drug dealers. This is true. The Texas Department of Public Safety shares crime statistics related to illegal aliens, and in fact, there have been over 10,000 arrests related to sex- related crimes, over 1,000 homicides, around 50,000 drug-related crimes, and about the same amount of assaults over the last eight years. This is just one state where illegal border cross- ings are at all-time highs. But what is often left out by people like Ms. West is that Trump also said that most are honest, hardwork- ing people just looking for a better life. This, of course, doesn9t fit the desired narrative, so it is left out. Ms. West also men- tioned the Twitter feud between President Trump and the “Squad” — Congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar and Pressley. All four of these elected officials have been highly critical of the President (as well as mem- bers of their own caucus) with a constant barrage of claims of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. Yet, the media turns a blind eye when anti-Semitic statements are made, as well as corroborated claims of multiple types of fraud and campaign finance crimes by these same four women. Their histories are ignored. When the President defends himself and calls attention to these issues, he9s a racist simply because they are women of color? This is the literal definition of racism and sexism. I am tired of the rhetoric that strays far from reality, as there are many examples of this available to anyone willing to do the research with an objective mind. It is entirely possible that Ms. West is an unfortu- nate victim of a media that purposely pushes the false narrative of racism every chance they get — often creating it where none exists. It is ultimately up to each of us to seek truth (even when we might not like it) or be content to be fed a narrative like blind sheep. And make no mistake — the mainstream media absolutely has an agenda. We have many alternative news sources today, and while most seem biased one way or another, the truth can often be found some- where in the middle. Our government is not perfect, and we9re finding more and more about the deep- rooted corruption that has existed within it for a long time, but it helps no one to simply spew rhetoric and false narratives for partisan purposes. My hope is that we in Sisters can rise above such nonsense, as it only leads to division and what we9re seeing in Portland with the lawless Antifa mobs. We owe it to our- selves to focus on truth whether it aligns with our ideologies or not. Anything less is just adding to the problem. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
