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Wednesday, June 17, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Honoring the
Class of 2020…
N
For what it’s worth
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
School staff and City Public
Works crews installed banners
produced by Citizens4Community
honoring each individual student
of the Outlaws Class of 2020.
The project was supported by
generous donations from the
Sisters community.
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer¾s 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 Unpublished items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:
I9m a <Pandemic= 2020 Graduate of Sisters
High.
More than a week ago I drove up to my
house and not only did I smile at the grad sign
that someone mysteriously put in my yard a
while back, BUT there was also a card now
taped to that sign.
I hopped out of my car and excitedly
opened the card: <From a Neighbor= and a $25
gift card to a book store! How thoughtful was
that?
In addition, another 2020 graduate that
lives about three miles from me in a different
neighborhood asked my own mom yesterday
if she put a card on her sister9s sign. Nope.
<From a Neighbor= struck their house, too!
I9m not sure who this kind and generous
neighbor is so this is the only way I know to
properly thank them. While I9m at it 4 aren9t
we all neighbors in the end?
Love your neighbor. I know I do!
Thank you, neighbor!
Josie Aylor
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Police reform, parental reform or both?
God gave us both emotions and a brain to
reason. Like road rage, emotions come before
reasoning. Ideas about raising children have
changed a lot! If I refused to obey my parents
my father would remove his belt and strike me
on my backside.
What did I learn from this? Well, it taught
me about authority and what the word no
meant.
When it comes to authority such as the
police, I would never think of running or
using violence against them. So many people
today seem to think <Stop!= and <No!= are
See LETTERS on page 7
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The Nugget Newspaper, LLC
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Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius
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The unlaid ghosts of
Vietnam have risen in recent
weeks, asserting their undy-
ing influence over a cultural
moment that lies 45 years
beyond the fall of Saigon.
Over the past weeks, we
have seen scenes unfold
on our streets that hearken
back to Days of Rage in
1968.
The ghosts are stirring.
The Vietnam War era
broke open cultural fis-
sures that have never really
closed. As history podcaster
Dan Carlin points out, if
you were to take a snap-
shot of America in 1963
and a snapshot of America
in 1973 4 at the end of
the decade of America9s
intense direct involvement
in Vietnam 4 you would
see two very different
countries. We can9t reach
back to pre-963 America;
it9s not there anymore, and
no amount of yearning for
a more united, stable, and
wholesome America can
conjure it back out of the
mists of time.
The 1950s, of course,
weren9t anywhere near as
stable and content as nostal-
gia would have us believe.
The fault lines of American
culture were already drawn
taut, tectonic plates of ten-
sion and conflict grinding
beneath the placid surface.
The Civil Rights Movement
that would gain unstop-
pable momentum in the
early 1960s was already
aborning, and the frustra-
tions that would explode in
the Free Speech movement
in 1964 were stirring long
before they burst forth on
the Berkeley campus and
spread across the nation.
Still, many Americans
4 white, middle class
Americans, at any rate 4
really did lead quietly sat-
isfying lives in safe, whole-
some communities, with
real reason to believe in the
American Dream. Then the
Vietnam War really got roll-
ing and cultural and social
ferment swiftly built to a
boiling pitch, overflowing
onto the streets and into
American living rooms,
forever transforming the
nation9s perception of itself
and the way we relate to
one another.
Yo u n g , r e b e l l i o u s
protesters challenged
every norm and article of
faith of American soci-
ety, from the legitimacy
and righteousness of the
nation9s Cold War against
Communism to race rela-
tions and traditional sexual
mores. They called out
lies and hypocrisy that had
long gone unrecognized
and unchallenged, and
demanded near-absolute
personal freedom in the
pursuit of happiness. They
were right about many
things. They were also too
often arrogant, self-righ-
teous and destructive.
Traditional Americans
looked upon this iconoclasm
with horror and disgust, see-
ing in rebellion an attack on
a way of life that was rich
and good and true. And
they were right about many
things. They were also too
often heedless, angry and
reflexively authoritarian.
The culture war that
launched in the 1960s was
a profound clash of differ-
ent understandings of lib-
erty and honor and duty,
and what it means to be an
American. It was, in part,
generational, but only in
part 4 which is why the
conflict continues, a couple
of generations on.
We see it in different vis-
ceral reactions to protests
that exploded nationwide
after the killing of George
Floyd by a Minneapolis
police officer. Some focus
on peaceful mass action and
see a spontaneous upsurge
in support of long-overdue
change; some focus on vio-
lence and looting and see a
tragedy being manipulated
to attack police, indulge in
opportunistic crime, and
destroy the social order.
Some look at defense of
property and police as tacit
acceptance of a racist order;
some see any form of pro-
test, no matter how peaceful
and orderly, as an affront or
a threat (which creates sur-
real scenes like a driver on
Cascade Avenue giving an
angry thumbs-down reac-
tion to a sign that read sim-
ply <Love One Another=).
The fissures that the era
opened still exist, indeed
have widened 4 wedged
further and further apart by
individuals, businesses and
organizations whose agen-
das and livelihoods are built
on division.
If our cultural chasms are
ever to be bridged, it will
require a real understanding
of how and why they came
to be, an honest assessment
of what they mean 4 and
a wary eye cast upon those
who profit from them.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.