2
Wednesday, April 15, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
Editorial…
Hats off to Sisters Rodeo
The Sisters Rodeo Board of Directors had
to make a wrenching decision last week to
cancel this year9s event, which would have
been the 80th Sisters Rodeo.
They made the hard, right call. Everyone
involved with Sisters9 many events is fully
cognizant of how important they are to the
culture and economy of our community.
When the Sisters Folk Festival made the deci-
sion to cancel the 2017 event due to the smoke
impacts of the Milli Fire, the board knew full
well the pain the decision would cause. It
hurts in a whole lot of ways, and pulling that
trigger is a horrible feeling.
Staging an event on the scale of the Sisters
Rodeo is an immense undertaking 4 and the
Rodeo does it all with volunteers. Those vol-
unteers can9t get the work done that needs
to get done right now, and there9s no way of
knowing whether mandated shutdowns will
be lifted in time for the event to go forward
in any case.
And the board had to weigh the respon-
sibility of bringing people from all over the
country to Sisters in the middle of a pan-
demic. Conversely, they had to weigh the
financial risk to the organization of laying out
expenses and putting up a big purse 4 and
then having minimal turnout due to fears of
virus transmission.
The Sisters Rodeo Board of Directors
cowboy9d up and did what they had to do.
Hats off to 9em. And let9s all make the com-
mitment to make the 2021 Sisters Rodeo the
best Biggest Little Show in the World yet.
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. Letters 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 Unpublished items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 10 a.m. Monday.
To the Editor:
My dad once told me, <You can9t wring
your hands and roll up your sleeves at the
same time.=
If the stress of these times has you on edge,
helping others is good for everyone.
Here9s a thought:
In the near future, stimulus checks should
be finding their way to you. What I propose is
this& If it is at all possible in your budget, use
a part of your stimulus check to purchase a gift
card from one of our fine Sisters merchants.
Even if a business isn9t currently open,
the majority of them are checking phones,
email, etc., and gift cards are almost always
available.
The Nugget puts out 7,700 copies. If 5,000
recipients of this paper purchase a $50 gift
card from a local merchant, that9s $250,000
pumped into our small businesses who so des-
perately need it!
Whether it9s a restaurant, art gallery, feed
store, sporting goods, grocery, boutique, hard-
ware, bookstore, etc. I9m certain you will
agree that our small businesses are in large
part what make our town so special. We9re all
facing hardship at this time, but if at all pos-
sible, please consider joining me in supporting
our hardworking small businesses in this way!
Jennifer McCrystal
THE NUGGET OFFICE IS CLOSED TO FOOT TRAFFIC, BUT WE
ARE ANSWERING PHONES AND EMAIL ... 541-549-9941
NEWS: Jim Cornelius, editor@nuggetnews.com, 541-390-6973
ADVERTISING: Vicki Curlett, vicki@nuggetnews.com, 541-699-7530
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Monday
Sunday
Partly Cloudy
Sunny
Mostly Sunny
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
Mostly Cloudy
58/35
57/32
69/39
66/38
65/41
60/40
The Nugget Newspaper, LLC
Website: www.nuggetnews.com
442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759
Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: 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
Creative Director: Jess Draper
Community Marketing
Partner: Vicki Curlett
Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May
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, $55; six months (or less), $30. First-class postage: one year, $95; six months, $65.
Published Weekly. ©2020 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is pro-
hibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget
Newspaper, LLC. 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 unconditionally 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.
N
Not a high water mark
for the Navy
By Jim Horsley
Guest Columnist
On April 2, Acting Navy
Secretary Thomas Modly
relieved Capt. Brett Crozier
of command of the nuclear
carrier USS Roosevelt for
sending his request for
assistance over non-secure
email to a <broad array of
people= rather than up the
chain of command. He
stated that Crozier <allowed
the complexity of the chal-
lenge of the COVID break-
out on the ship (which
started nine days earlier) to
overwhelm his ability to act
professionally.=
The crew cheered Capt.
Crozier when he departed
the ship in Guam. Modley
then flew to Guam after
the firing, and directly
addressed the ship9s crew,
categorizing Capt. Crozier
as <too naïve or too stu-
pid 4 or perhaps even
deliberately insubordi-
nate= 4 over his handling
of the ship9s coronavirus
outbreak.
I think Capt. Crozier,
in transmitting a per-
sonal message, did what
he needed to do to shake
things loose related to
what was occurring on his
ship, and I think the Navy
did what it had to do in its
<Chain of Command= rep-
rimand. I do feel the Navy
was tone deaf in how they
handled it. I felt Modley
should also be relieved.
(PostScript 4 Modley was
pressured to resign).
Prior to my Blue
Angel tour, and follow-
ing Vietnam combat and
instructor tours as a naval
aviator in the early 1970s,
I was an Admiral9s Aide to
Commander Carrier Group
3. We were based out of
Alameda Naval Air Station,
but spent most of our time
embarked on the USS
Midway, Enterprise, Coral
Sea, and Constellation dur-
ing my two-year tour.
It is likely that Capt.
Crozier would have been in
face to face contact with his
ComCarGroup 9 Admiral
(Baker) who likely would
have been deployed on
the carrier with his staff.
Operational status reports
would have been sent to the
Pacific Fleet Commander
in San Diego multiple
times per day depending
on the level of activity,
so certainly there would
have been no surprises that
COVID-19 was an immedi-
ate threat to the crew.
Where was the clear
guidance from those in
overall command when
all we were seeing on the
news since late January
were virus-infected cruise
ships? Every response to
potential Navy conflict at
sea is studied and planned;
why didn9t Crozier9s chain
of command provide con-
tingency orders in February
in case of an outbreak?
Concurrently, Crozier must
have felt enormous pres-
sure in trying to maintain
his operational mission
requirements while watch-
ing his crew get decimated
by the virus.
Another article stated,
<Hours after a leaked let-
ter from the Commanding
Officer of the embattled
carrier Theodore Roosevelt
pleading for more sup-
port from the Navy leaked
to the public, the head of
U.S. Pacific Fleet (North
Island) told reporters he is
working as fast as he can
to get a plan in place to
rotate sailors off the ship.=
Sure seems like he and his
staff, as well as his superi-
ors should have been doing
this weeks earlier.
Crozier9s letter, unau-
thorized as it was, cer-
tainly rang the alarm for
anyone that would listen.
After a highly successful
and decorated Navy career,
he certainly wasn9t pan-
icked or clueless as Modley
accused. The fact that it
was transmitted was coun-
ter to what RADM Baker of
ComCarGru 9 would have
done according to an arti-
cle in the public domain,
which is an absolute
no-no in terms of Chain
of Command. But at that
point, Capt. Crozier must
have kissed off his career
and sent it anyway.
Not a high water mark
for the Navy, which I still
hold in the highest regard.
I could not have had bet-
ter experiences with lead-
ers during my time in the
service. Maybe that was
before the politicizing of
the Navy took hold. The
crew cheered for Capt.
Crozier when he departed
and they cheered when
Modley got the boot. On
reflection maybe Captain
Crozier ought to become
the Acting Secretary of
the Navy during this
pandemic!
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.