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Wednesday, December 22, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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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 Unpublished items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.
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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
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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.