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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:

This month voters in the Sisters School District will make two important decisions as they choose from candidates in two contested school board races.

We should salute each of the gentlemen who have chosen to give of themselves to stand for election to what is often a pretty thankless position.

Please do your homework before casting your vote. Ask tough questions about their knowledge of the school district's affairs (there is a big difference between having an opinion and having done the diligence to understand).

Ask how often they attend school board meetings. Ask how many board meetings they have attended in the past year. Ask how often they invest their time in visiting the schools to talk with students, staff and parents.

With a new superintendent and a new $20-plus million facility going into service this fall, neither the community nor the school district can afford to have the board come to a standstill while new board members who haven't done their homework try to get up to speed.

Mike Gould

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To the Editor:

I'm pleased and honored to express my support for Jeff Smith as he prepares for the upcoming school board election.

I first met Jeff six years ago when he volunteered his time with the wrestling team. In his extra time Jeff chose to help the wrestling team in a number of different ways. Jeff was always persistent when helping me master my wrestling moves, but he was more interested in how I was doing with my studies in high school.

Jeff taught me to take ownership in my education and to pursue what was important to me.

Since graduating high school, every time I have seen Jeff in town he is continuously asking about my educational progress. He continues to give me support and advice on the educational career that I am pursuing.

I ran into Jeff at a boy's basketball game earlier this winter. He wanted to know how my graduate degree was going and was also excited to talk about the new high school. I saw how thrilled Jeff was about the future of Sisters schools.

I believe Jeff will do what is best for Sisters School District, because of his vast experience in education.

In short, I support Jeff Smith as he runs for the school board position and wish him the best of luck throughout the process.

Sincerely,

Gabe Pagano

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To the Editor:

A question for you smokers...

What is it with people who smoke cigarettes? On a recent walk around my neighborhood of Sage Meadow I counted 173 discarded cigarette butts in a distance of three miles.

I have lived in many states and communities and this seems to be a national problem. Every day you can witness smokers flipping their exhausted smokes out the windows of their cars onto streets and roads. You see them along sidewalks, on school property, in parks and public restrooms and numerous other places used by the public.

In addition to an apparent disregard for fire danger, is it that smokers don't think that their little cigarette butt will matter in the grand scheme of the environment?

Believe me, 173 of them in three miles does make an impact!

Could it be that along with the destruction of healthy body tissue, smoking also destroys one's sense of moral responsibility to the beautiful community and world in which we live?

Marjorie Tipton

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To the Editor:

Just a reminder...

The war may be over but our troops are still there and will be for some time.

We will continue to send "goodies" to our troops who are still in harm's way as long as caringforthetroops.com is sending packages.

Deliver Friday through Monday to: Welcoming You to Central Oregon, 121 E. Cascade Ave. (next to The Palace).

Pat Dunlop and Sherry Diaz