Letters, letters, letters

The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer's 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 noon Monday.

To the Editor:

I am very concerned by the situation in the local schools, where class sizes continue to balloon and the absence of adequate funding requires the use of outdated materials and equipment.

Does anyone really doubt that our kids need and deserve the teacher attention that smaller class sizes allow? Does anyone really doubt that in an era of astonishing and accelerating change, current materials and technology are essential to a relevant and comprehensive education? We do not currently have the funds to provide these crucial ingredients to our children, nor do we have the funds even to properly maintain our inadequate facilities.

The people who call Sisters home are known for their generosity of spirit. When we needed an addition at the elementary school, volunteers donated for it and built it. Current needs unfortunately are way beyond rescue by this sort of marvelous volunteerism.

In the gradual drift toward Bill Sizemore's perfect world where every pothole requires its own bake sale, local needs must increasingly be met by local funding. The simple volunteerism we need now from each and every Sisters voter is a solid vote yes twice, yes on both the bond authorization and the local option.

Passage of these two measures will provide the much needed basics of classrooms, teachers, and current materials and equipment. The kids are already here, and more are on the way. Please do the right thing for their future and the future of our community, and vote yes on these two measures.

John Rahm

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To the Editor:

Are we considering the entire community and outlying areas when we advocate building a new school at a cost of over $20 million?

It becomes obvious to me that the "push" is on to further encumber the Sisters area residents without regard to the dire consequences that continue to impact those struggling to to live and work in our community.

The waitress that serves you in the local restaurant, the person who pumps your gas, sacks your groceries, works as a retail clerk and many others are low end wage earners who cannot afford another new school and the certain-to-come expanded operating budget.

Many of our local residents are retirees and worked very hard to save money in order to be able to move to Sisters and retire.

We have not yet lived down and solved the multitude of problems created when the "new high school" was built, let alone pay for the design and construction fiasco. (Fiasco... spectacular failure.)

Kids learn by example and the lesson being taught by those promoting a new school is... go out and buy the newest, nicest things you want and worry about how or even if you can afford it later.

The kids with the greatest number and newest toys don't correlate to becoming our most promising future leaders. Many private schools and and home-schooled students do quite well in life without having had fancy physical facilities as a prerequisite for learning.

A truly responsible school board would be advocating living within your budget, making decisions that consider lower income community members, retirees on fixed incomes and the long-range consequences of their actions.

Although I have lived in this community 28 years, a $20 million-plus new school will cause me to seek a retirement refuge elsewhere and I know many others who will be forced to do the same so we can be responsible and live within our means.

Mike Mehring

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To the Editor:

Recently there have been many letters and articles written concerning the local option and construction bond. In the upcoming election we must make some choices.

The middle school was originally built in 1929; one portion in 1937; one portion in 1948. The latest remodel was over 16 years ago. The town of Sisters has changed much since the last remodel.

The middle school is over capacity and the high school is at capacity. Where will they go to school?

The middle school needs major repairs. The entire heating and electrical system needs to be replaced and updated. Our children deserve the same opportunity that our parents gave us when they agreed to construction bonds for new schools.

Our children, teachers and town need to step up and make this commitment to our future. Let's not stick our heads in the sand and ignore the problem and have another sewer system on our hands.

Terry and Melinda Taylor.

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To the Editor:

Why should a voter with no children in the Sisters School District vote for the bond for a new high school?

The middle school is currently at maximum capacity and the high school is projected to exceed capacity within a few years. Unfortunately there is no room on the existing site to expand the middle school.

We should therefore build one new school instead of two, by moving the middle school to the current high school. If we wait instead of building now, the middle school children will face severe overcrowding and the taxpayers will be paying much more later.

Why should a voter say yes to the local option tax? We think one of the best reasons is that academic performance is directly tied to class size, and local option would allow students to be in smaller classes. If you're reluctant to vote yes because your children are already grown, consider whether you would like the voters in your grandchildren's school district to vote to improve education.

We feel strongly that improving basic education is one of the best investments a community can make.

Please vote yes/yes for the children.

Kris Calvin

May Fan

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To the Editor:

This is a message for Andy, the Great Hunter! Yes, this is the season for deer hunting. However, on Sunday at about 6:30 p.m. I was watching the small Tollgate herd, a buck included, passing through our subdivision, over the Brooks Scanlon Logging Road to the forest road.

Your group pulled up and watched the herd move from the subdivision to the forest land. I watched you stalk and hit the buck that had no fear of a human being.

In my family, hunting is a sport and I don't think you showed much of a sportsmanship style for the youngster with you. My only hope is that you killed the animal and that you found it, as you searched late into the night as well as next morning.

If this kill provided food for your table this winter, great. I would hope that you don't brag about this kill, or the unusual rack and that during rifle hunting you go deeper into the forest to hunt.

Alinda Dunn

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Dear Editor:

I just read the letter to The Nugget (September 20, 2000) from a different David Jensen. In that letter, Mr. Jensen argues against the candidacy of A1 Gore.

I am not writing to disparage either George W. Bush nor the other David Jensen. I am sure both are fine fellows. I am writing to hopefully dispel any confusion in the minds of my friends and clients caused by Mr. Jensen's letter. I am David Jensen the attorney who has been practicing in Sisters for the past 20 years. I support the Gore candidacy without reservation, and recommend his election to my friends and clients.

Very truly yours,

David Jensen

Editor's Note: The David F. Jensen who wrote the letter published in last week's paper is a subscriber from El Segundo, California. We should have included that information and regret the confusion.

E.D.

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To the Editor:

I'm astounded by David Jensen's accusation that Gore "and his cronies" are out to violate our constitutional rights.

Many of the138 people in Texas who were executed in Texas in the last four years would disagree with you-if they could.

With inept legal counsel and a Bush-appointed review board, it's very difficult to hear Bush say, "We've never executed an innocent person in Texas," especially when the facts in many of these heavily publicized cases prove otherwise.

Add to this atrocity the Republican slant toward forcing its moral imperatives on the rest of society by attempting to legislate individual rights and wanting to defy separation of church and state.

Add the history of non-support of environmental protection in industry.

Add his support of private industry gouging the public with the highest health insurance premiums in the world (with a 600 percent increase in profits in the '90s), with a lower patient satisfaction rate than is found in the next three most expensive healthcare nations.

One wonders, who is really focused on controlling my soul?

My right to choose, my right to expect protection of nature, water and air; and my right to a fair trial which could save my life are issues which seem of little interest to Bush and his cronies, whose souls are entrenched in the upper echelon of the private sector, who laughed at the idea of a "trickle down" economy in the '80s and who are still laughing now...while their pockets continue to stretch at our expense.

Bonnie Malone

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To the Editor:

Many people must be thanked for the success of the 10th annual High Mountains Jazz at Sisters festival this month

These include our more than 200 volunteers who staffed our venues and greeted festival visitors, our great sponsors who supported us financially including venue sponsors of the Rogue Valley Manor from Medford, Coyote Creek Caf, Hotel Sisters, and Mountain Shadow RV Park, Tom Anderson of Sisters Comfort Inn/Mountain Shadow RV Park who also provided us his conference room for our band hospitality room, Gary Frazee and his great City of Sisters Public Works Department crew for super service, Sisters Camp Sherman Fire Department for their professional assistance in fire and medical services, Sisters School District and the drivers for our shuttle buses, Ponderosa Properties and Black Butte Ranch for their help with band housing, and the wonderful food caterers.

Special thanks to Pat Page, the year-long "voice of the jazz festival" for telephone calls. Thanks also to Dorro Sokol for providing space for the 40 RVs to dry camp over the weekend.

We appreciated the opportunity to work with the Sisters Folk Festival to share costs at the Village Green. Craig Eisenbeis did a great series of articles for The Nugget Newspaper in reporting it last week.

Finally, our thanks to the residents of Sisters for allowing us to host this festival in their city. We hope you too enjoyed the festival and that any disruptions were minimal. If we have omitted anyone in our thanks, we apologize for the oversight.

Working together, we produced an outstanding musical event, contributed to the local economy and had a great time.

Jim Fisher, Chairman, Board of Directors Ray Buselli, Festival Director High Mountains Jazz at Sisters

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To the Editor:

The recent headline "Many families need state food" (August 30) inaccurately implies that more families are receiving such help from the state.

The statistic reported actually refers to the 11 percent increase in the number of people accessing food from the private, non-profit agencies of the Oregon Food Bank network, including those served by Central Oregon Community Action Agencies Network (COCAAN) in Redmond.

In the absence of living wage jobs, private non-profits desperately wish that more people were receiving nutrition and income assistance from the state. Oregon recently received the nation's worst rating for hunger.

Meanwhile, 40 percent of poor Oregonians who may be eligible for food stamps, a federal program administered by the state, are not receiving them.

While the percentage of Oregonians in poverty has remained constant, the number of people receiving food stamps has declined 20 percent since 1995. Instead, people increasingly use the already-strained, donation-dependent, volunteer-run food pantry system as a regular source of food.

The Hunger Relief Act, currently before Congress, would expand the federal Food Stamp Program and provide more emergency food to hunger-relief programs. Please call your representatives in Congress and urge them to say "no" to hunger.

Sincerely,

Kim Thomas

Public Policy Manager

Oregon Food Bank

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