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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 2021)
2 Wednesday, December 22, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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. s Thank-you to Sisters community To the Editor: I would like to send a thank-you note to the community and friends for their support following Rick Judy9s passing away: Griffin, Chelsea Judy and I thank every- one who came to the ceremony of light held in his honor last Saturday, and for the condo- lences we received via emails, phone calls, or sympathy cards. All were unique to Rick and we would have liked to thank everyone personally. Please accept our most profound grati- tude for your presence; for donations to the Sisters Rotary Foundation for the Rick Judy Academic Scholarship for Sisters High School graduating seniors; and, most of all, for your friendship. Bernadette Labrie s s Mule deer decline To the Editor: I would like to expand on your comments about cougar predation on mule deer (<Mule deer in steep decline in Sisters Country,= The Nugget, December 15, page 1). It is estimated that there are in excess of 6,000 cougars in Oregon, far above ODFW9s management goal of 3,000. Adult cougars generally kill one deer a week, or about 50 deer per year. If one makes the conservative assumption that Deschutes County has only one percent of Oregon9s cougar population, that gives us 60 cougars. If they each kill 50 deer yearly See LETTERS on page 19 Sisters Weather Forecast Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Dec. 22 • Rain Dec. 23 • Snow Dec. 24 • Snow Dec. 25 • Snow Dec. 26 • Snow Dec. 27 • Snow Dec. 28 • Snow 46/31 35/30 37/27 33/23 30/23 32/24 31/19 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Creative Director: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partner: Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Beth Jacobsen Proofreader: Kit Tosello Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $70; six months (or less), $45. First-class postage: one year, $110; six months, $80. Published Weekly. ©2021 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is pro- hibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper9s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. Let there be dance... Sisters Dance Academy presented their annual holiday dance recital to a live audience at Sisters High School auditorium on Saturday, December 18. PHOTOS BY JERRY BALDOCK N Weathering the storm By Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief <It was a time of acute insecurity, when political, social, and legal norms were bent out of shape by warring protagonists for whom the system had long ceased to work and who sensed, in its weaknesses, an opportunity to remodel the world accord- ing to their desires. At times, the centre seemed unable to hold. Politicians urging unity and moderation watched aghast as factions tore at each other, all restraint set aside...= That passage comes from historian Thomas Penn in <The Brothers York,= describing England during the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century. If this description sounds like it fits other eras 4 say, perhaps, America c. 2021- 22, that9s a pretty good proof of the aphorism that history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. In the space of a couple of days last week, several friends expressed deep con- cern about the future of our country. No, <concern= is too mild a word; what they expressed was fear. These are people who lived through and participated in various ways in the turmoil of the Vietnam War era. The <acute insecurity= they experience now is an order of magni- tude greater than what they felt then. Even in the throes of that violent, tumultuous, unstable time, there was a sense of optimism that what ailed the soul of the nation could be fixed, that the sins and failings of the past and the failings of the present could be overcome, that the future would be brighter and better. My friends no longer carry that very American sense of optimism. They9re not alone. Many Americans are feeling more pessimis- tic than we used to, even if it cuts against the grain to admit it. A Pew Research study found that: <A narrow majority of U.S. adults (56 percent) say they are somewhat or very optimistic about what the country will be like in 2050, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. But optimism gives way to pes- simism when Americans are asked about some of the specific ways in which the United States might change. <Most Americans expect income inequality to worsen over the next three decades. Majorities say the economy will be weaker, the nation9s debt burden will be heavier, the environment will be in worse condition and health care will be less affordable than today. Most believe the U.S. will play a less important role in the world. About two-thirds predict that domestic political divi- sions will become more pro- nounced. Indeed, Democrats and Republicans have strik- ingly different priorities when it comes to the poli- cies they believe would help improve the quality of life for future generations.= The proximate cause of my friends9 creeping sense of doom was a Washington Post op-ed by three retired generals who raised the specter of a coup in America if the 2024 election is con- tested, with the military potentially fueling civil war. They cited <the potential for a total breakdown of the chain of command along partisan lines 4 from the top of the chain to squad level... should another insur- rection occur.= The picture the generals paint is, indeed, grim 4 and it9s not just fringe apoca- lyptic fearmongering from some street-corner prophet shouting that the end is nigh. My friends and I agree that it would be foolish and irresponsible to try to whis- tle past the graveyard, to pre- tend that everything will just 4 somehow 4 <work itself out.= We need to be paying attention to all the red warn- ing lights that are blinking in our face. Hard times are here to stay for the foreseeable future. No election or policy is going to provide a sud- den and profound change of course that is going to put our feet on the path to the uplands where the sun per- petually shines and the birds sing a chorus of <America the Beautiful.= But we cannot allow our- selves to be overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding and doom. As I told one of my friends, one of the things I am proudest of in my life is that I raised a daughter to be capable, resilient, and adapt- able. That9s what9s needed in hard times. There is a lot that we can do right here in our own community to create resilience and adaptability. We9re very lucky in that. Perhaps we can channel our fears for the future into a resolution that, right here where we stand, we will build our own strength, and that of our families and this community we call home, so that whatever storms may come, we can weather them together.