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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 ask who is running the city? The elected representives or Habitat for Humanity? We who live here or outside interests?

I for one who has lived here for 23 years object to changing the density of our neighborhood. I really do not want more than one place to a lot. And three are out of the question. Two places would be okay, but not three.

It lowers the value of my property and makes our whole neighborhood less desirable as a place to live. I talked to one of the recipients of the Deschutes River Ranch homes that Habitat moved into our neighborhood and even they do not want more than two places on the lot.

Habitat for Humanity needs to be a good neighbor. Coming in high-handed and stuffing their program down our throats is not being a good neighbor.

If Habitat wants to provide low cost homes for low income folks then maybe they need to start building apartments and selling condos, but not in my back yard.

Thank you,

David Culver

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To the Editor:

High density will help destroy the livability of our neighborhood. The ambiance and quaintness of our small town city will deteriorate. Developers, Realtors, and landlords see an opportunity! Rape and pillage, and move on.

Directly across from our house is a beautiful home site. But guess what? A Request for Partition Approval has been made. This means a request to have three homes on a lot in a neighborhood of single-family homes.

Beautiful old pine trees will have to be removed. This partition request, if approved, could result in six additional cars versus two for most families -- plus adding extra traffic, pollution, noise, children and pets, and a general loss of privacy.

No other lots in this area of Pine Street have multiple units. Who wins?

The whole city seems to be under attack. I understand that one Realtor tried to get a petition to have the setback on lots north of the elementary school to coincide with city commercial -- i.e. five-foot setbacks, thereby having more area to build on -- and thus pack more space with dwellings -- and change the livability and the neighborhood's feeling of space.

Planned growth of a community dictates maintaining the feel, ambiance, noise and traffic levels. The approval of more and more buildings to line the pockets of investors and landlords will destroy the tone, uniqueness, and peace of Sisters.

Many retirees, single parents, and young families do not have the political clout and/or strong voice to stop this pillaging. To take a stand, please come to the Thursday, December 12 city council meeting at City Hall -- 7 p.m. Elected officials need to see and hear you.

High density with multiple units in family neighborhoods is wrong. Too often renters exhibit less pride in their units than owners; lets not allow increasing this problem. Please encourage friends and neighbors to attend on Thursday.

Joe Emmons

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To the Editor:

To all the concerned citizens of Sisters, I would like to place this short note as an invitation to the next city council meeting on December 12 to discuss the density of all the city lots being cut into small building lots .

The meeting will be at City Hall and begins at 7 p.m.

Merlin C. Monroe

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To The Editor:

I enthusiastically applaud your editorial on the power of King George. I think the issues you raised are a bigger threat to our democracy than terrorism and find myself continually frustrated how little attention the media gives them.

This brings me to my only criticism of your editorial: In your list of our King's aristocracy, you failed to mention the powerful force that promotes the King, his aristocracy and their corrupt one dimensional economic agendas, the corporate mainstream media that is collectively owned and controlled by the aristocracy.

Freedom of the press may still be alive but its voice of diverse critical analysis grows faint and more homogenous than ever before. Even the media institutions which once stood for integrity in journalism ("60 Minutes," New York Times) have become banal in their subject matter.

Your editorial and programs like "NOW with Bill Moyers" give hope that speaking truth is still alive in the media even though the time and space it is given is greatly disproportionate to the huge threat power, money and corruption pose to our democracy.

Joe Leonardi

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To the Editor:

My favorite movie is "Conspiracy Theory," but I found your December 4, "opinion" on the editorial page to be faulted, and disrespectful. The President was elected by rule of law, sworn in and is the President of the United States of America. Perhaps you are convinced that there are thousands of ballot marked for "Al Gore" hidden deep within the darkness of Area 51, right next to the aliens.

You claim that the Administration is allied with the "morally bankrupt industrialists." Corporate lawbreakers should be in jail, but the "corporate aristocracy" you despise so much created the strongest economy in world and a way of life second to none. The fallacy that if you're rich, you must be immoral, just doesn't stand the light of logic and is class warfare at its pettiest.

We are faced with a new threat, which requires new laws and new powers. The term "terrorist" will not be "stretched," it will be defined by the courts, the Congress and by executive order. Our President has legal powers to enable him to defend the country as defined by the Constitution and Bills of Rights. Perhaps you would prefer that the War against Terror be lead by a committee or focus group.

We do live in dangerous times. The danger is obsession with the great Right Wing conspiracy that prevents action against the real threat. Millions of fundamentalists want us dead simply because we are immoral infidels. The leadership of our country must have the tools and power to defeat terrorism. Shrill rhetoric and conspiracy hysteria are not going to protect our way of life. Rule of Law as defined by the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and a powerful military led by the Commander in Chief will.

Gene Garton

© © ©

To the Editor:

Back during the infamous election battle between George Bush and Al Gore, Eric Dolson, editor and publisher of The Nugget said, in affect: "Vote for Al Gore, he'll do the least amount of damage compared to Bush in the next fours years."

How right he was (is)!

Eric's editorial in the last issue of The Nugget, comparing George Bush to King George, is frighteningly true. The Bush Empire of Greed, in the name of "Freedom" and "Homeland Security" is killing freedom in America.

Eric's editorial and this letter will undoubtedly be placed in the government's data bank of insurrection and rioting suspects, and will no doubt come back to haunt us. But I have a hunch that there are many thousands of Americans who see the so-called "Homeland Security" measures as frightening as I do.

Then I wonder over the fact that Iraq has the second largest oil reserve in the world as President Bush keeps telling us we've got to go to war, and what that means to our "freedom" and "safety."

Let's be very careful of who -- and what -- we vote for on the next election go-around. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had someone who wasn't "the lesser of two evils...?" or, "would do the least amount of damage...?"

Jim Anderson, Naturalist

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To the Editor:

Thank you for speaking out as a true patriot. It is time for us to stop our whispered, fearful, private conversations. It is time for those of us who truly love and understand our Constitution and Bill of Rights to say "Hold on!" "Not in my name!" "Not with my permission or acquiescence!"

Have we forgotten so soon, our disdain for those citizens of the former USSR who complained about the fall of their government? They no longer felt secure or safe without the tightly controlled society their communist government provided.

Americans recoiled in horror that an entire populace had willingly given up individual rights and personal freedoms in exchange for so called "security."

Freedom is not easy or risk free. Where is that horror now that our own government is bulldozing our rights of privacy, free speech and association? This same government which is promoting the lunacy of "first strike war" as being a means for peace!

True Americans have always stood up to corruption and abuses of power. Please, let our. voices be raised as patriotic Americans to safeguard our civil liberties, our Bill of Rights, our precious Constitution and, in the end, our inherent right to be Americans.

Barbara Secrest

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To the Editor:

Thank you for your fine editorial of December 4.

We will see much trouble in the future over the policies being promulgated by this Administration and the rather pathetic Congress.

Unfortunately, I do not think most Americans are aware of the policies being enacted, much less of those the Bill of Rights intended to offer the citizenry protection.

It is a shame that more local newspapers maintain a blind eye to all of this.

What we in this country seem to remain in the dark about is becoming more and more obvious to the rest of the world when one reads the foreign press.

Thanks again,

Megan Sweet

Camp Sherman

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To the Editor:

Eric Dolson, in his December 4 editorial, has provided the community with an urgent wake-up call and we need to take account of the dangerous conditions he describes.

There are real terrorist dangers in the world, but an administration that is more interested in increasing its power than in preserving the freedom and due-process guaranteed under the Constitution is also a great danger.

The Administration's Defense Planning Guidance for the 2004-2009 Fiscal Years was published this year by the Secretary of Defense. It is written by Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz and summarized in the October issue of Harper's:

The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage.

It calls for domination over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.

This plan, if permitted, will determine much of the future, for us and the rest of the world.

William Boyer

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To the Editor:

Thanks! I thought the free press had been driven underground. All you hear anymore are the double-speak lies fed to the media by the regime.

Of course now that we've had our rights stolen from us in the name of "Homeland Security" it won't be long before such talk will get you bunking with John Walker Lind.

Your words have stirred many in a positive way. I have finally heard others talking openly on the subject in public. Our Karmic debt is coming due as a nation just as every empire's before.

I don't care how much you give to starving children, act locally, protest, practice non-violence, or pray for world peace we all share equal responsibility.

If you work, buy, consume, and die you have helped destroy species, races, and cultures, as well as pollute the planet and space. Have you seen the "New" American flag? Instead of stars it has corporate logos.

Keep speaking, you share the sentiments of many. Even those with sons and daughters in the military don't wish them to become Veterans of Domestic War. As an American Patriot I would rather die standing as a freeman than live kneeling as a subject, and as a Freeman I shall kneel for no man, government, or God.

Steve Frandsen

Terrebonne

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To the Editor:

In response to your editorial of December 4: I won't bow down to King George!

Let's have a Tea Party and throw them all in the drink -- The Earls of Energy, Princes of Pollution, Dukes of Pharmeceuticals, Barons of Big Oil and the Lords of Insurance!

I guess we still have a free press, so you won't end up in jail yet. Thank you for telling it like it is.

Harold Jacobs

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To the Editor:

As I travel to the communities around Central Oregon that sponsor USA Wrestling tournaments, I am always asked the question, "Why does Sisters have such a good football program but not a wrestling program?"

I tell them that last year, after a lot of hard work and begging, Sisters High School started a wrestling program with seven students participating. I was asked to seek support from local businesses. Eleven businesses were asked; eight of them turned me down. One prominent businessman turned me down three times.

SOAR has sponsored a youth wrestling program and we were even allowed to practice in the garage of the local Bus Barn. But don't let the town know or we might have to move to a tent behind the high school.

I know it is not a popular or trendy sport like Taekwondo or snowboarding, but what we do have is a very hard working, dedicated coach, Gene O'Brien.

He has several kids in the program who are now undefeated in wrestling. I just hope that when these boys reach high school or the new mansion of a high school, they will have the support of the athletic department.

Casey Kendall

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To the Editor:

PERS (the Public Employee Retirement System) has some very bizarre features.

One is that you can make more after you retire from a government job than you made while you were working.

Another is that you can continue to do your job after you retire and collect both your salary and your pension.

Steve Swisher appears to be taking advantage of these bizarreties.

In this time of state budget problems, this doesn't seem like the right message to be sending to our children.

PERS is bankrupting our state. Call Rep. Ben Westlund at 383-4444 and tell him PERS needs to be fixed.

Bruce Berryhill

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To the Editor:

On Friday after Thanksgiving, many people gave up their shopping or lounging day to move an enormous set of playground equipment from Bend to Sisters for SOAR.

The job was much bigger than anyone expected, requiring most of the set to be dismantled so that it could be loaded on two 28-foot trucks and a flatbed trailer. The project took until 2:30 p.m. to complete.

In great appreciation, I'd like to note the volunteers who began the move in Bend at 8 a.m .: Kris Calvin, Bob Stringham, Shawn and Bob Jewel, Tim Davis and Andrew Douglass. Also, the all-day dedicated trio of Matt Macauley, Jerry Greco and our organizer, Laurie Greco.

The efforts of these people, in what appeared to be an overwhelming assignment, were Herculean.

At the Sisters end, thanks to Mike Bidasolo, Michael Wilder, Tate Metcalf, Rich Hummel, Chip Dickinson and Bill and Ryan Reed.

When the unit is reconstructed at the future SOAR Activity Center, we promise that these volunteers will be the first group that gets to play.

Bonnie Malone and Mo Bidasolo

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To the Editor:

Once again the people of our community have shown support for education by making the Sisters Elementary School wreath fund-raiser a tremendous success.

The money we raised will help all third grade classes to have a learning experience not available in the classroom. On behalf of all the classes, I wish to thank the sellers, buyers, and helpers for their generosity.

Sincerely,

Lori Small

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To the Editor:

The Sisters High School Swim Team would like to thank everyone who assisted in the cookie sale during intermission at The Magical Voices of Christmas.

First we appreciate the Rotary Club giving us the opportunity to have a fund-raiser at their concert and Lei Durdan in particular, for her work in organizing.

Also, a BIG thanks to the businesses who donated cookies.

The evening of the concert just happened to fall on the same day as our first swim meet of the season, so we had to count on parent volunteers to make it happen. They were great!

Another very important "Thank You" goes out to Black Butte Ranch for allowing us to use their pool for our practices.

Tessa Durdan-Shaw and Anna Evered

Swim Team Co-Captains