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Wednesday, July 1, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Editorial…
Living up to what we put on paper
No words committed to paper have ever
had greater impact than those we celebrate
this Saturday, on Independence Day:
<We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.=
That radical clarion cry of the sovereign
rights of the individual sounded the death
knell for the rule of kings in the 19th Century
and stood in defiance of totalitarian tyranny
across the 20th Century.
The fact that those words were written by
a slaveholding Virginian, a man committed
to the expansion of an <Empire of Liberty=
across the continent (pushing aside, absorb-
ing or destroying the indigenous inhabitants
of that continent) reflects an ugly and brutal
paradox that continues to haunt America.
On April 3, 1968, just hours before his
murder, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke
to a congregation in Memphis, Tennessee, in
what has come to be called the <I9ve Been
To The Mountaintop Speech.= Amid his elo-
quent evocation of a vision of the Promised
Land, earned in a toilsome climb up a steep
and rugged slope, he made a simple plea:
<All we say to America is, 8Be true to what
you said on paper.9=
King was speaking specifically of the
guarantees of the First Amendment of the
Constitution of the United States of America
4 but his words cut fundamentally down to
the bedrock profession of the American faith:
that all men are created equal.
We must not forget that have come a long
way toward fulfilling the promise of those
words: A birthright that was, in 1776, con-
fined to white men of property (almost exclu-
sively Protestant Christian in creed) has been
expanded 4 imperfectly, in fits and starts 4
to include women as well as men, people of
all colors and creeds.
While cultural fissures and wounds are
deep and lasting, the United States is not
the same nation it was even 50 years ago.
Legally, culturally and economically we are
a far more just and equitable place than we
were on April 4, 1968, when King was slain.
We remain an imperfect work-in-progress.
We will probably always carry the burden of
the twin original sins into which our nation
was born; we cannot erase or elide a heri-
tage of slavery and conquest that clashes so
profoundly with our founding principles.
But neither can we abase ourselves in expia-
tion of those sins, not without destroying the
civic faith that has allowed the United States
of America 4 for all of its flaws 4 to be a
beacon of liberty and opportunity in an often
dark world for the past 244 years.
Our task is not to fundamentally transform
the United States of America. It is something
far simpler, more profound 4 and more chal-
lenging 4 than that:
It is to be true to what we put down on
paper.
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:
Maybe you have read in some of my previ-
ous Letters to the Editor and determined that
I have considerable dislike for our two party
system of government.
I carry this aversion after years of wit-
nessing the ineptness of our so called
Congressional representatives and their
inability to compromise on relevant issues.
Congress needs to understand that no one
side can possibly be 100 percent right on any
issue. This is why race relations, immigration,
gun control, police reform and so many other
issues remain unresolved.
See LETTERS on page 23
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The Nugget Newspaper, LLC
Website: www.nuggetnews.com
442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759
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The Nugget Newspaper,
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N
Facts matter
By Quay Richerson
Guest Columnist
Like many, my heart
is heavy as I watch our
beloved America undergo a
transition into a country with
which I am not familiar.
Simple pleasures such as
Facebook, going to church,
watching the news, weekly
g ra n d p a /g ran d d au g h ter
Sisters Bakery outings and
poker with friends have
become a thing of the past.
Directed by local and state
government orders, churches
closed, non-essential busi-
nesses shut down, schools
closed, sporting events can-
celed, grandparents sepa-
rated from grandchildren,
payments were made to
individuals and businesses,
$2,400-per-month incentives
for not working, facemasks
became a wardrobe acces-
sory and healthy families
self-quarantined. In addi-
tion, cities have allowed
rioting, burning, looting,
murder, defunding of police
departments and a complete
occupation of a downtown
area.
What happened? Did we
incur a nuclear attack, a for-
eign invasion, or did some
other threat occur that has
never occurred in American
history? No, it was a virus
and a horrific incident of
police brutality that led to
an assault on our freedoms,
liberties, and rights.
As society analyzes our
responses to the life-threat-
ening virus, I9d like to share
a personal account that has
shaped my worldview. In
1941, my father was a poor,
young, hillbilly from the
boondocks of Missouri, who
became the first in his fam-
ily to leave the farm for col-
lege. As an ambitious fresh-
man on December 7, his
future of hope and opportu-
nity was suddenly shattered
when the Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor and threatened
the freedoms and liberties
which defined his country.
He gathered his buddies
and headed for the nearest
recruitment center. Like mil-
lions of other young men
of his generation, my dad
believed protecting freedom
and liberty was worth the
sacrifice of their own ambi-
tions, and even their life.
Although the virus and
war are incomparable, the
threat to our freedom and
liberties is not, and it is dis-
heartening how easily we
have surrendered them.
During a recent con-
versation, my friend said
that <For every 8fact9 there
are 8facts9 to the contrary.=
That led me to quote Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, the late
Democratic senator from
New York, <Everyone is
entitled to their own opin-
ion, but not his own facts.=
Andrew McCarthy of the
National Review added,
<Real progress is only possi-
ble, and real cohesion is only
stable, if a society can agree
that there are objective facts,
and that they can be gotten
at through reason and com-
mon sense. Only with that
in place is it possible for us
to work out our differences,
or at least disagree in peace.
You don9t get to have your
own facts.=
So let9s review some
facts regarding issues of the
past four months.
COVID-19. USA has
128,000 deaths or .04 per-
cent of the population (43
percent were in nursing
homes, 94 percent had pre-
existing health conditions).
Oregon has 204 deaths or
.0049 percent of the popula-
tion. Deschutes County has
zero deaths. In comparison,
with less than half the cur-
rent population, the 1957-58
Asian flu had 116,000 deaths
and the 1968-69 Hong Kong
flu had 100,000 deaths in the
USA. No government man-
dated lockdowns or shut-
downs occurred.
Police targeting Black
men. According to the
Washington Post, in 2019
there were 10 unarmed
Black men killed by police.
In six of those incidents, the
officer was under physical
assault by the victim. Of the
1,004 people killed by offi-
cers, 236 were Black and
371 were white. In respect to
all homicides, 93 percent of
Black murders are commit-
ted by Black people and 84
percent of white murders are
committed by white people.
Statistical facts are void
of interpretation, ideology,
and prejudices, yet they
form the foundation from
which we base our decisions
and actions. My encourage-
ment is that we all delve into
the facts before we rush to
the protest line.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May
Owner: J. Louis Mullen
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