Wednesday, June 10, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
LETTERS
Continued from page 2
the Elementary School. It was a young man in Levis
and a T-shirt with a sign: <Stop Racism.=
I went back there this evening and found there
were now three, sitting under a popup awning. Two
are Sisters High School students, the other a Sisters
graduate working at U of O on a masters. Out of
respect, I did not ask their names. Out of admiration,
I gave them an American flag.
All across America, in satellite cities around the
world, people are saying out loud <Enough. We
must change.=
During the Vietnam War a reporter driving down
the New York Thruway saw Pete Seeger standing on
the side of the road in the rain with a sign: <Peace.=
The reporter stopped, went back, and asked him why
he was doing this. <It9s just something I had to do.=
That gut feeling perhaps inspired the civil dis-
obedience of Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King
4 <something I felt I had to do.=
Today the situation is different. Did George
Floyd9s behavior warrant such brutal aggression?
Did the peaceful protest in Lafayette Park warrant
gas, horses, rubber bullets, and helicopters?
The protesters today are not exercising civil
disobedience, rather they are calling for a rule of
law that treats and protects everyone as a valuable
human being, and they are protesting on behalf of
the First Amendment.
&Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, free-
dom of the press, the right to assemble, and the right
to petition the government.
We have lost our way. We must change.
At George Floyd9s funeral service Thursday, the
Reverend Al Sharpton quoted from Ecclesiastes 3,
Time for Everything. <There is a time to be silent
and a time to speak.=
It seems that Sisters students have spoken loudly:
<This is something I had to do.= They say they will
continue to be protesting there daily from 12 to 6
p.m. I have invited my friends to go join them if
they choose.
Robert Collins
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To the Editor:
Years ago when I published a small town weekly
newspaper, on occasion we covered controversial
issues. There were differences of opinion, and some-
times bitterness. Letters to the Editor were occasion-
ally <difficult.=
We strove to publish every letter, though at times
we had to give writers a second chance to moderate
their language. On very rare occasions, we fulfilled
our responsibility to the community and refused to
spread pure bile. Importantly, when doing so we
acted mindful of responsibilities conferred by the
First Amendment to the Constitution. Of course, not
everyone agreed with our interpretation.
But there was one rule that was not bent, let alone
broken: Opinions had to be signed. Our philosophy
was that if one wanted to speak up, one had to own
their speech.
I personally believe that guideline would greatly
benefit social media, and in fact, American politics.
Each post on Facebook and Twitter and every other
platform should be linked to its author, which must
be a verified individual. Every political contribution
should be linked to its contributor. If the Supreme
Court wants to grant <personhood= to corporations
(a decision I disagree with, by the way) then that
corporate <person= should be identified when enter-
ing into the political area with vast sums of money.
No more hiding behind PACs or other loopholes.
Free markets, to the extent they exist, depend
on transparency. The <marketplace of ideas,= in the
words of Jefferson, is no different.
Eliminating anonymity in the American conver-
sation would go a long way toward improving our
dialogue.
Erik Dolson
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To the Editor:
One of my memories of the Sisters Rodeo was
a Sunday after the Rodeo, when the cowboys and
locals were gathered at the B Bar B. A group of bik-
ers arrived and entered the bar. Soon, a brawl began
that spilled out into Cascade Avenue, punches being
thrown, noses broken, blood being shed.
I was watching from across the street, back when
there was a hotel and gas station. At the time I was
12 or 13, a third generation Sisters local. The police
arrived and couldn9t break up the fight, themselves
being punched and kicked. The Sisters Volunteer
Fire Department showed up with a fire truck and
started hosing people off the streets, breaking up the
fight and protecting our community establishment.
I would hope that if violent protests and riots
showed up to our town, we would follow in the foot-
steps of the Sisters Volunteer Fire Department and
band together to protect our local businesses.
Jack W. Hammack
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To the Editor:
I would like to thank The Nugget Newspaper, the
Sisters community, and our Rodeo sponsors. This
would have been the week of the 80th Anniversary
for the Sisters Rodeo. The town would have been
full of rodeo fans, the bands would be getting ready,
the beer would have been stocked in the coolers, and
the cowboy boots and hats would be coming out of
the closets.
But this year, we had to deal with something that
none of us had ever expected or experienced. With
social distancing and Stay Home/Stay Safe, we had
to cancel our event. The Board of Directors, volun-
teers, and members of the Rodeo Association know
how hard this hit our entire community.
The good news is that The Biggest Little Show
in the World cannot be stopped and will return in 12
months on June 9-14, 2021. We will again have the
80th Annual Rodeo. We want to thank all those who
participated in the many Rodeo pages in The Nugget
this week with a big thank you to The Nugget staff
for all their work.
Let9s look forward to next year and remain the
strong community that we are.
Curt Kallerg
President Sisters Rodeo Association
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To the Editor,
What can we do to help each other during this
time of crisis? Let me tell you a story that I heard
recently:
There was a young woman at high school who
thought she was invisible, unimportant, forgettable.
She was so depressed that one day she had decided
to kill herself. That afternoon as she closed her
locker, she looked up and caught sight of a girl down
the hallway smiling at her. The smile said, <I see
you.= She stood there stunned. Quickly she looked
away, and glanced back to see the same sweet smile
beaming for her.
That night she did not take her own life but
wanted to see if that girl would smile at her again.
<Was that real?= she thought to herself, <Did this
really happen?= At the end of the next day, she
peered down the hallway and the girl smiled just for
her. Each day for an entire week this young woman
hoped and searched for that precious smile and it
was there as daily comfort and gentle reminder that
she was not invisible. She began to realize that she
was noticed, beautiful, maybe even important4
someone special.
I tell you this story because your smiles are
so important to others and to me. I was raised in
a place where strangers didn9t smile at you. But
here in Sisters, we smile and we chat sometimes.
It is our culture and our way of caring. I miss that
camaraderie.
So, I will wear a mask where it is requested for
all our safety; but when I step outside, I will doff my
mask and smile at anyone who meets my eye. I miss
<Sisters Smiles.= Blessings to you during this time
and many, many smiles too.
Paula Lovegren
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To the Editor:
I just want to take a minute to applaud the young
man who has been standing at the corner of Locust
and Highway 20 practicing his right to protest in
peace over the death of George Floyd and countless
other acts of police brutality.
I write this from a standpoint of supporting our
well-behaved police and standing with the peace-
ful protesters. We are all in this together. This is a
trying time and these are sensitive and extremely
polarizing subjects that we are currently addressing,
and seem to be continuously addressing in modern
American times. To see this young man standing
alone in a politically divided county such as ours
really made me proud.
23
As a local Central Oregonian who left in 1998,
spent my 20s and 30s in Portland, and just recently
relocated back to this gorgeous part of Oregon, it
can be extremely unsettling to see some of the mis-
guided bigotry around me in Deschutes County, and
the yelling I heard hurled at this kid today left me
sick to my stomach.
As I waited to turn off of Locust, a pickup truck
slowed in front of our solo protester and by the time
I got my window down to listen, what I believe I
heard him angrily yelling was <blacks are killing
white people every damn day= and <f--- that n-----<
before he sped off.
Our lone protester stood strong, nodded his
head and kept a chin up. I honked and gave him a
thumbs-up and wished I could be there with him. I
am hopeful that the number of honks for solidarity
and support greatly outnumbered the reactions like
I witnessed.
Here9s to you young sir, I commend you and I
tip my hat.
Adam Payne
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To the Editor:
I am a white, 60-something person married to
the same white, 60-something person for the past 39
years. We are in the top 10 percent of earners, retired,
and of opposite political parties. Compromise is part
of our daily experience.
What has been on the news, both Fox and
NPR, has disturbed my comfortable situation and
prompted this letter. What the world currently sees
in the United States is violence, prejudice, and par-
tisanship. What the world could see is:
" Equal treatment by those in authority of people,
regardless of any individual9s education, economic
status, living situation, or skin color.
" Laws and regulations that will preserve this
country for the next generation and beyond, in all
areas: economics, climate, environment, education,
and healthcare.
" An acceptance that this is a global economy,
that the ultimate goal is survival of the planet and
humanity, and that unity is what allows survival.
" Government that puts the needs of the 80 percent
above the needs of the upper and lower 10 percent.
How this can happen is for each elected official,
at every level, to act according to the following:
" Keep the needs of the center 80 percent of those
you represent at the forefront of all policy decisions.
" Accept that you will never, and should never,
get 100 percent of what you want because you
cannot know everything about every situation.
Compromise should be a given.
" Act as if others, especially those of opposite
political persuasion, have the same ultimate goals
for the city, county/parish, state, and country as you
do, unless you are aware of actual malfeasance or
corruption.
" Recognize there are multiple ways to get to the
ultimate goal.
" Know your job is done when the center 80 per-
cent of the people you represent get the best resolu-
tion possible.
This is a lot, but not too much, for the people of
the United States to expect of their government at
all levels. Please challenge your own partisanship,
analyze your level of commitment to bettering the
lives of those you represent, and examine how you
have been conducting the business of government in
light of the above bullet points. We won9t agree on
everything, but this is a start.
Victoria E. Tennant
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To the Editor:
What a nice tribute to Sisters Rodeo presented in
The Nugget. This was such a generous thing to do
for a tradition of Sisters Country, which established
the town9s Western theme.
There were actually three high school students
tapped for rodeo scholarships. The rodeo has been
extremely proud of our support of students since the
first graduating class, and have granted, as of this
year, over $150,000 in scholarships.
Thank you, Nugget staff, for thinking of such a
kind thing to do.
Bonnie Malone
Former Sisters Rodeo Board Member
Editor9s note: Bonnie Malone is correct 4 there
were a total of three students awarded the Sisters Rodeo
Scholarship for 2020. The recipients are Gracen
Sundstrom, Amanda Erlich, and Charmayne Owens.