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Wednesday, September 9, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Keeping it safe local…
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It’s time to change
the paradigm
By Michael Richards
Guest Columnist
PHOTO BYJERRY BALDOCK
Sisters Farmers Market is coming to the end of its season. The Sunday event has managed pandemic
protocols successfully to offer local produce and artisan goods to the local community.
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
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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 Unpublished items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:
Over the last 3-1/2 tumultuous years I have
asked many of my friends who happen to sup-
port Trump, <What would it take for them to
abandon their support of him?=
Would it be his confrontational approach
with China, N. Korea and other countries
which demonstrate a very real threat to our
democracy? His seeming support of Russia
and President Putin? The weakening of our
relations with NATO countries? His discon-
nect in acknowledging the stark differences
between the protests related to the Black Lives
Matter movement and the far-right nationalist
movement? His degradation of women and
persons of color?
His use of presidential authority and
government institutions as a backdrop to
his political grandstanding? His inability to
appoint and retain top-level leadership in the
White House such that key positions are left
unstaffed?
Never mind the moral turpitude that seems
to run throughout his administration. (I recall
the outcry during the Clinton administration
that <character counts.= How is this outcry not
relevant today when there are so many exam-
ples surrounding this president9s character?)
The repeated and proven examples of his
outright lies and misrepresentations to the
American Public for his own political and
personal gain?
The basic question, despite these consider-
ations, is simply, <What would it take for you
to abandon your support of Donald Trump?=
In the past week it was reported that
Trump referred to deceased military personnel
as <losers and suckers= and has encouraged
voter fraud by urging North Carolina voters to
See LETTERS on page 24
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Problem: Reactionary
demonstrations in Portland
are negatively impacting
Democratic Presidential
campaign to elect Biden/
Harris in swing states as
Trump touts law and order
while consciously ignoring
critical, underlying issues
expressed in Portland and
several cities across the
U.S.
Suggestion: Mayor/
Governor/State/Federal
Oregon leadership to inter-
sect and dialog with <lead-
ership= of the Portland dem-
onstration. In the absence
of identifying leader, create
one (group) as representing
majority.
Purpose: To first estab-
lish 30-day moratorium on
demonstrations in Portland
to determine the specific list
of rational actions that can
be taken to address demon-
strators9 demands. Realizing
the nature and complexity
of the current association
of related but diverse issues
being debated on the streets,
seek group consensus of
The Problem 4 forming
consensus is not a simple
act but in avoiding building
one, nothing positive will
come of the sacrifices made
by so many to this point.
As a point of departure,
one needs only to refer to
the spread of <labor= issues
struck across the U.S. in
the 1930s. Left to its own,
the loosely associated
labor unions and workers
were quickly infiltrated by
active foreign influence
peddlers, drawing off local
and regional focus, by intro-
ducing draconian behav-
ior which had the effect of
militarizing the entire the-
ater and all those players
whether they be civil, state,
private, or national actors.
This process originated
in the late 1920s, flagged
forward for more than 10
years, interrupted by the
invasion of the Hawaiian
Navy Base on Oahu late
1941.
The current circum-
stances in Portland appear
to be progressing without
leaders on either <side= of
the underlying civil actions
and initiatives. Without
leadership, demonstrations
do not necessarily lead to
legislation. In the absence
of a progressive, ratio-
nal process, potential for
unregulated chaos logically
follows. Unregulated reac-
tive action opens the doors
not only for Trump to make
hay politically, it also opens
doors to federal intervention
on the streets in Portland
and other places in the U.S.,
blurring the line between
legal and unlawful as we
continue to do the same
thing for the past 90 days
expecting different results,
with little to show for the
massive effort by dem-
onstrators and local/state
authorities leaving little to
nothing resolved.
Need: Change the para-
digm. It is apparent the
Trump administration is
greatly benefiting from
these mostly lawful, mostly
non-violent acts in Portland.
We need to change the dis-
cussion 3 we need to change
the tactic 3 we need to dem-
onstrate that Oregon can
indeed <handle= our own
problems.
We get it. We now need
to do something that moves
the city and the State of
Oregon in a direction show-
ing that our State is capable
of solving this problem
before it grows beyond
our means to mitigate the
perceived or manufactured
damage that otherwise is
hand-in-hand linked to our
lawful right to peaceably
assemble 4 our consti-
tutional right and respon-
sibility encoded in U.S.
Constitution, Article 1, Bill
of Rights.
Recommendation:
Achieve and announce a
negotiated moratorium,
stating objectives, empha-
sizing not only the need to
reevaluate state and local
policing policies in particu-
lar, to also address underly-
ing issues that are extant in
Oregon and within the pur-
view and authority of the
State Governing Authority,
whether statewide, regional
or local.
Take, subsequent to
30-day moratorium, imme-
diate action as an act of
<good faith,= with prom-
ise and plan to continue
process as a measure to
establish institutionalized
state/local 8facility9 set-
ting regional presence as a
working prototype to dem-
onstrate Oregon capacity to
resolve Oregon problems
without need for external
intervention. We only need
a federal system when that
system is devoted to solving
problems we cannot or will
not solve on our own.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.