News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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A few years after I left the Lincoln County DA’s office I went to work for the American Bar Association’s Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI), now called ABA ROLI (Rule of Law Initiative). I lived and worked in Moscow for a few years. The program had expanded well beyond central Europe and Eurasia and was involved in democracy and institution-building programs around the world. In 2006 I was the country director for Russia. That year, all CEELI countries submitted candidates for our annual HumanRights Adv... Full story
...you don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. - Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues 1965 I am deeply concerned about our planet as I watch our steady environmental regression. So many hide their heads in the sand about the issue. I read with interest one of Craig Rullman's recent columns entitled "Red-teaming the climate question" and I realized it may be a long time, if ever, before sufficient consensus is reached and, more importantly, we begin taking action before we arrive at the tipping point... Full story
"Never forget whence you came." - Tip O'Neill, All Politics is Local and Other Rules of the Game. I have been thinking of Tip O'Neill's book and his famous saying that all politics is local. The point has been driven home by watching the anger and outrage present at U.S. Representative Greg Walden's town hall meetings. He just began his 10th term and I bet he never imagined experiencing meetings such as these. Maybe he has lost his way. I served three four-year terms as a district attorney, a non-partisan position. My first e... Full story
Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you will need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below. - President Harry Truman in a letter to critic Paul Hume 1950 President Harry Truman was very proud of his daughter and had encouraged her singing for many years. In December of 1950 she had a performance in Washington, DC, and the arts critic for the Washington Post, Hume, was in attendance. On December 6, Harry woke up to read a scathing review of his daughter's performance and, while an... Full story
We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government. - George Washington, letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Feb. 7, 1788 Way back before the dawn of time, in the last century, I was working in the valley for the Children's Services Division (CSD). That agency is now called DHS. It was the 1970s and I was working as a protective service social worker. One difficult duty I had was to assess reports of child abuse, conduct investigations... Full story
A lie told often enough becomes the truth. - Vladimir Lenin The fall of the Soviet Union took just four days, and left huge vacuums in the affected countries. Russia and Central and Eastern Europe simultaneously found themselves between a rock and a hard place in countless ways. Determining what laws applied to which situations and which ones took precedence was an incredibly difficult situation, and major institutions had many challenges. How to deal with the rule of law was a daunting task as these countries rapidly had to... Full story
We treat people as gentlemen not because they are, but because we are. - Steve Glode My late father used the above expression often. I don't think he invented it but I heard it a lot as a kid. We used to have spirited political discussions around the dinner table, but his bottom line was always we were to be gentlemen in all our dealings - regardless of how different our views were from others and regardless of how they conducted themselves. This mantra has come into play with me countless times as my career evolved from inne... Full story
Take criticism seriously, but not personally. If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it, otherwise let it roll right off you. - Hillary Clinton Early this summer, before the political conventions, a friend's daughter came to visit. We have known her for many years. She is now in her early 30s. She and I have a history of heated political discussions. We both love to argue politics and we did so into the wee hours. This has been an excellent year for those so inclined. We got on the subject of Hillary... Full story
Political correctness has become a straightjacket. - Gary Oldman Sometimes before I begin a column I just know it is going to get someone angry. This seems like one of those times. For a guy like me, sometimes the present day seems like a verbal minefield. Hey, I'm a lawyer, so in the way of a disclaimer/apology let me explain a bit of my background. I was born and raised on the East Coast: New Haven, Connecticut to be exact. We are New York Yankee fans from where I come, so you can forget the Sox and the green wall. I went... Full story
Service to others is the payment you make for your space here on earth. - Muhammad Ali Some friends were visiting us in Sisters recently and we took them up to McKenzie Pass and walked up the observatory there. We have been there several times, and I was again impressed with how that observatory was built during the Great Depression. Teenagers, young adults and others worked for a small wage and built a thing of beauty. Our country has several such examples of that era. Go to any National Park or Monument in existence during... Full story
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on a foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. - G.K. Chesterton My wife and I are truly blessed. Since we retired we have had an opportunity to pursue our favorite hobby - travel. Our last trip, in May and early June, took us to Ireland for three weeks. If you have heard good things about Ireland double them, it is fabulous. We leased a car and drove extensively throughout the country. In three weeks you can cover a lot of territory in a coun... Full story
Jails and prisons are the compliment of schools. So many less you have of the latter the more you have of the former. - Horace Mann Over the years I have read about the challenges the Sisters School District has had with their budget. They are endlessly trying to squeeze more out of a budget which keeps getting tighter and tighter. They seem to have risen to the challenge, but the challenge gets more difficult year by year. Last year, Oregon spent just under $10,000 per student on K-12 education. Our state ranks 32nd among al... Full story
There are two reasons I want to tell you about one of the most remarkable people I have ever met - Yuri Schmidt. One reason is his story needs to be told and remembered, and the other is I made a promise to him in 2006 and am keeping that promise. Yuri was a human rights lawyer in the Soviet Union and after the fall of the Soviet state. There are few places more challenging to be a human rights attorney than what was the Soviet Union and now Russia. Many of his colleagues were killed (and are being killed) speaking out as he... Full story
What is also true is that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives - you know, that, casts a long shadow. And that's still part of our DNA that is passed on. We're not cured of it. - Barack Obama I watched President Obama's last State of the Union speech with some regret, as it was his last. I also got angry looking at Paul Ryan's condescending expression throughout the entire speech - or perhaps it was more disdain on his face. It is a take on how far we have come over the... Full story
On my honor, I will never betray my profession, my integrity, character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the laws of my country, my community, and the agency I serve. - Law Enforcement Oath of Honor I was very disturbed to read that Seaside Police Sgt. Jason Gooding, age 39, was shot and killed recently. He was executing an arrest warrant on a felon, Phillip Ferry, who had a record of assaults on police officers. Jason Gooding had... Full story
"It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his country and beyond... I tell you what I think in terms of his leadership, he (Putin) is getting an 'A'." - Donald Trump ••• Let me get my bias out of the way early: I think Donald Trump is a narcissistic, belligerent, bellicose bigot and bully. I think he is extremely dangerous and has done a tremendous amount of harm to this country already. I could go on with negatives, but space does not permit. I have a laundry... Full story
Fear has never been a good advisor, neither in our personal lives nor in our society. -Angela Merkel Peter Salem was a Muslim who fought at Bunker Hill at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. He was killed in action. Muslim/Americans have fought in each and every major war of this nation including the Civil War, both world wars, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan. 3,500 have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan alone. Many Muslim gravesites are at Arlington. They proudly served and many have made the supreme sacrifice. So,... Full story
Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the cost becomes prohibitive. - William F. Buckley, Jr. The name Randy Guzek is likely familiar to everyone who lives in Deschutes County. He was found guilty of two counts of aggravated murder in 1988 for the 1987 murders of Rod and Lois Houser in Terrebonne and he was sentenced to death. The facts of the case are gruesome. A few weeks ago the Oregon Supreme Court upheld his last death sentence from 2010. He has had three retrials for the death sentence and been sentenced to... Full story
When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother...when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies... We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all...We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled nor enriched by hatred or revenge. - Robert F. Kennedy Terrorism has struck again and with a... Full story
"We lose eight children and teenagers to gun violence every day. If a mysterious virus suddenly started killing eight of our children every day, America would mobilize teams of doctors and public-health officials. We would move heaven and earth until we found a way to protect our children. But not with gun violence." - Elizabeth Warren, A Fighting Chance Gun violence has become a sad fact of American life. Even here in Sisters the pain intrudes in its own way, bringing a national crisis to this small town. Noah Jacob... Full story
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other. - Oscar Ameringer I love living in Sisters, it's bucolic nirvana. Once in a while the news seems to intrude, and nothing is more intrusive to me than this long campaign season for the presidency. It is so tempting to change the channel or ignore it, but my mind thinks of the consequences of ignoring this seemingly endless circus and what that means to all of us here. At times I wonder if this... Full story
"Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?" - Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Imagine for a moment you go to Sisters City Hall seeking a permit. Suppose, hypothetically, someone wants to build a small mosque in Sisters. Further assume it is to be located in a place zoned for a house of worship and there are no legal impediments or hurdles:... Full story
"For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inherit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are mortal." - President John Kennedy speaking at American University, 1963 I was walking along Whychus Creek the other day and as I viewed the bare mountains, free of most snow, this quote of President Kennedy came to mind. If what the weather prognosticators tell us is correct, it could be much worse next year. The President was, of course, talking about... Full story
