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Wednesday, August 12, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Life in the new normal
By Carey Tosello
Guest Columnist
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 Unpublished items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:
Central Oregonians deserve leaders who
understand how to protect our communities
from wildfires 4 and who will take deci-
sive action. Commissioner Henderson is not
such a leader. In The Nugget9s August 5 story,
<Defending Sisters Against Wildfire,= he
blames inadequate wildfire preparedness on
one factor 4 too few days to implement pre-
scribed burns 4 and suggests that additional
funding will not make a difference.
In these statements, Henderson has missed
two other important ways that we can reduce
hazardous fuels near Sisters: thinning small
trees and mowing dense brush in the under-
story. In 2019, the Deschutes National Forest
reported that it has 141,000 acres of thin-
ning and mowing through environmental
review and ready to implement when fund-
ing becomes available. So when Henderson
says that burn days are the key bottleneck on
reducing fuels to make us safer, he ignores the
fact that thinning and mowing don9t depend
on available burn days.
Prescribed fire is an excellent final step
after thinning and mowing, but even on their
own, thinning and mowing are proven to be
helpful in containing the spread of wildfires.
Insufficient funding for thinning and mow-
ing is already making us less safe. For exam-
ple, this March the Forest Service reported to
the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project
Steering Committee that they have insuffi-
cient funds to offer a contract for a steward-
ship project (called Peso) west of Bend and
south of Sisters in 2020. Implementing those
thinning and mowing treatments in 2020
could mean the difference between being able
to contain a fire in that area next summer, or
that fire escaping and burning towards our
homes.
See LETTERS on page 18
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The slow strangulation
of American life as we knew
it continues, as the govern-
ment imposes lockdowns/
restrictions on businesses
they deem <non-essential.=
To a small business
owner, the business they
have poured their life into
is essential. To the people
they hire, and who depend
on that business to support
their family, that business is
also essential.
While our Governor has
managed to avoid the disas-
ter that Washington and
California have imposed
on their population (to her
credit), there are many other
states that are under the rule
of what is essentially mar-
tial law. One person (the
Governor) in these states
has complete control over
civilian life with no check
and balance on them.
To keep the population
from revolting against this
authoritarianism, the gov-
ernment floods the econ-
omy with cash. Stimulus
checks, forgivable loans to
businesses, and unemploy-
ment benefits that allow 2/3
of those receiving them to
earn more by NOT work-
ing. May have been a good
idea at the time, but now
we see the unintended
consequences.
Some examples of
Governors needlessly ruin-
ing the lives of Americans
include: California is forc-
ing schools to go online, but
told private schools (with
smaller enrollments and
easier to social distance)
they could receive a waiver.
Then the county denies the
waivers because of a lack of
testing. Minnesota allowed
restaurants to re-open at 25
percent capacity 4 regard-
less of social distancing
policies that were instituted.
New York allowed strip
clubs to reopen, but not
bowling alleys. Seriously.
Where is the <science= in
any of this, or just common
sense?
For those that say we are
in an existential crisis and
need to give government
complete authority over our
lives, I would remind you of
what FDR did to Japanese
Americans in World War II.
These citizens were stripped
of all their rights and prop-
erty and were forcibly relo-
cated to internment camps.
It was a crisis they said, and
the press ginned up enough
fear of the <yellow peril=
that good people remained
silent. Even our Supreme
Court, in their supreme wis-
dom, gave their approval.
Allowing our govern-
ment to pick winners and
losers is called central plan-
ning. It is what they do in
Cuba, Venezuela, and yes,
Russia. What if, instead
of central planning, the
government simply said
that you must do <these
things= to open your busi-
ness. <These things= might
include wearing masks,
social distancing, sanitiza-
tion procedures, etc.
Doesn9t matter if you
run a taco stand or breed
zebras, if you can comply
you can be open. Allowing
one person, a governor,
to have absolute authority
over which businesses can
remain open, and dictating
how they must run their
business, ends up destroy-
ing people9s livelihoods,
and jeopardizing the well-
being of their employees.
Each of us would be free
to decide whether we want
to patronize these busi-
nesses. If you have one
of the comorbidities that
94 percent of all COVID-
19 deaths have, you may
choose to stay home and
shelter until there is a vac-
cine. The rest of us could
return to work and school to
help support the economy,
as a strong economy will
be needed to continue to
aid and care for those who
are unable to work. But the
choice would be yours.
Pandemics like COVID-
19 sweep thru the world
population, always have and
always will. It took the 1918
pandemic about 18 months
to work its way through the
population and ended up
infecting 1/3 of the people
on the planet. Our health
care system is vastly supe-
rior today, and the survival
rate for those that contract
COVID-19 is close to 99
percent, which is far higher
than in 1918.
Remember that shelter-
ing at home was to <flatten
the curve= so that our medi-
cal system would be ready
to handle the pandemic. It
was never intended for us
to hide until the virus passes
by, or until we found a cure.
Our health system has had
plenty of time to be ready
to care for the influx of
patients.
We can re-open all parts
of our economy, if we pro-
vide clear safety rules that
apply equally to all, not just
to those with the biggest
political clout.
Time for Americans to
return to life in the new
normal.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.