Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2019)
2 Wednesday, November 13, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Sign of the times 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Is it possible that the whistleblower is not one person but multiple people such as a co-op? Why is the media, both sides, man- dating non-disclosure of the whistleblower9s name? Why does Congress, again both sides, refuse to put out his name? Is the anonymity of the op-ed writer also known, but again non- disclosure mandated? Is the op-ed writer also the whistleblower? We as Americans don9t know the answer to any of these questions, but Congress and the media do. But I9ll bet if we did know, we9d unite in wanting to know what is going on. I hate it when they say <The Americans need to know= and then we get this BS. Congress needs to lead this country by example; right now their example is child- ish and divisive. Americans need to know the truth, we9ll get that when the partisan bicker- ing stops and is replaced with compromise and common sense. We as Americans need to <be what happens= rather than waiting to see what happens! Let your representatives know what you expect from them. Terry Coultas s s s To the Editor: The Halloween Parade for the kiddos and parents in Sisters is an annual event that has grown from 10 elementary-age kids in 1982 to 275-300 today. This does not include the 100- plus parents, many of whom dress up to walk with their children. Each family brings canned goods that Rotary collects and then transports to the Kiwanis Food Bank. The Sisters Library, under the leadership of Peg Bermel, initiated this event in 1982 and Rotary Club of Sisters took over management and sponsorship in 2008 requiring some 20 volunteers to organize and supervise. The most recent event was held on a spec- tacular Indian Summer afternoon. More than 60 retailers, most in costume, took part hand- ing out a cornucopia of fresh and packaged treats to the eager children. It was disappointing that The Nugget pro- vided such little coverage of this important community event. The colorful festivities showcased one of the many joys and benefits of living in Sisters Country. We hope that next year9s Parade will be more prominently mentioned. Steve Auerbach President Rotary Club of Sisters Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday AM Clouds/PM Sun Partly Cloudy 43/23 48/27 Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Partly Cloudy AM Showers Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy 56/35 46/31 55/40 54/30 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 & Lisa May Community Marketing Partners: Vicki Curlett & Patti Jo Beal Classifieds & Circulation: Kema Clark 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. An ad campaign designed to get locals thinking about east-west connectivity in Bend and encourage participation in a transportation survey has run afoul of cancel culture. The billboard that loomed over the intersection of 9th and Wilson depicted a covered wagon trekking across the high desert, with the tagline: <Traveling East to West still tough?= and a link to the survey. Because some folks complained the billboard was culturally and histori- cally insensitive, the City of Bend scrambled to replace it. Sign of the times. Central Oregon Daily News reported that, <City Manager Eric King acknowledged Tuesday night (alluding) to the west- ern expansion and coloniza- tion was a misstep. <8There were (sic) dis- placement of native peoples and that is real; and that is a mistake on our part to sort of acknowledge that,9 King said. 8So, we are taking that image down.9= That9s a lot of cultural freight for one covered wagon to haul. The ever-tightening purity spirals that come with this kind of perfor- mative <wokeness= make it difficult to push back. One cannot plead benign intent 4 intent is irrele- vant. If I am offended, you have clearly given offense and the only remedy is to reverse the offending act. Questioning the validity of my interpretation or the suggestion there might be other valid interpretations is itself offensive. Your inabil- ity to grasp that a statement is insensitive is prima facie evidence of your insensitiv- ity. Resistance is futile. When the offended are aroused, there is no oppor- tunity for dialogue; it9s acquiesce or face the wrath of the mob. And sometimes even the most lugubrious apology or craven climb- down won9t save you. We have stepped through a looking glass, tumbled down a rabbit hole and landed in a wonderland where the Queen of Hearts constantly shrieks, <Off with their heads!= Former President Barack Obama recently offered some wise words regarding performative wokeness: <I do get a sense some- times now among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, that the way of me making change is to be as judgmen- tal as possible about other people and that9s enough. <Like if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn9t do something right, or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because: 8Man, did you see how woke I was? I called you out.9= He9s right, of course, but he9s speaking in his pat- ented calm, measured tones in the midst of a howling hurricane. At the risk of a dangerous insensitivity, one might question whether those who engage in these paroxysms of performative wokeness and feed a vora- cious cancel culture are really interested in change at all. One of the citizens who took issue at the billboard told the Bend City Council: <History matters ... When we tell a history that is incomplete, we are lying to ourselves and we are asking others to believe our lies. And it9s not City Council, it9s not our City Manager, it9s not one indi- vidual, it9s all of us.= We9ll set aside the ques- tion as to how it might be possible to tell a complete history on a billboard and acknowledge that, yes, his- tory matters. It would be wonderful if our society actually wanted to explore our history in all its glori- ous complexity and con- tradiction. The history of America9s westward expan- sion 4 like frontier his- tory across the globe 4 is a tale of epic heroism and fortitude AND a tale of duplicity, displacement and tragedy. This silly incident in Bend moves no one any closer to engaging with that fraught history. Quite the opposite: The fallout from this sort of episode makes people and institutions shy away from even alluding to historical themes for fear of inadvertently giving offense and finding one9s head on the Queen of Hearts9 chop- ping block. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.