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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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

Our main thoroughfare, Cascade Avenue, looked like a million dollars recently as a result of some hard work by a few patriotic citizens plus the endorsement of many others who bought American flags to adorn our street lamps.

In one broad brush stroke, the Sisters City Council, issued a proclamation that the flags should be displayed only on special occasions and had them removed.

I chose to put my son's name on one of those flags and like many others who wanted to express their patriotism, they did the same, for whatever reason.

My son, Commander Dixon R. Smith, USN, received his commission from the United States Naval Academy in 1983 and was awarded the Bronze Star for his leadership as the commanding officer of the guided missile destroyer USS The Sullivans, DDG 68 while on station in the Persian Gulf.

Am I proud? You bet I am!

During his command, he sent home several e-mailed photos of his ship's ensign flying from mast and he states that he gets a lump in his throat every time he sees an American flag flying.

Am I proud? You bet I am!

Now he is teaching at the Naval Academy and at the same time serving as the 4th Midshipmen Battalion Commander. Am I proud? You'd better believe it!

Our service personnel don't just protect our flag on important days, or salute our flag on special days; they do it every day of the year -year in and year out.

Somehow, our esteemed city council thinks it's only important to honor these men and women and our country on special days. They might want to suggest to the United States Congress that the Stars and Stripes fly over the Capital only on special days.

Our men and women are still in harm's way in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe, despite what our president says.

I, for one, want to be proud of the town of Sisters. I was that and more while all those flags were flying along the street. Now I'm embarrassed by our city council that they lack the patriotism and the pride to express our thanks and recognition to our country and our armed forces.

Jim Smith

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To the Editor:

In response to Mr. Doug Wood's letter to the editor (The Nugget, July 9, regarding the story "Growing up Indian not easy in Oregon, June 25):

While we could debate the supposed intent of the original article which spurred Mr. Wood's letter, I would like to focus on Mr. Wood's proposed "ethical solution."

Mr. Wood states, "That solution is to apply our principles of equal rights for all citizens with absolutely no allusions to separating this country into sovereign nations for reasons of ethnic preservation."

While Mr. Wood and I would stand together on the topic of equal rights for all, and I suspect that we would, in fact, agree on many issues surrounding the unequal treatment of "minorities" - even those policies designed to assist and protect said minorities.

However, every federally recognized Indian nation IS a sovereign nation by virtue of an agreement entered into with the federal government. More than once Mr. Wood indicates that we do a disservice when we refer to Indian nations as sovereign nations. Not only is it not a disservice, it's a statement of legal fact.

Federally recognized Indian tribes ARE sovereign nations. Mr. Wood concludes with, "Ask yourself, which are more credible as defining values, treaties and reservations? Or, human rights which are essentially equal rights?"

Unfortunately, it's about 140 years too late to be asking this question. In fact, there are additional values implied in the former part of Mr. Wood's question: integrity and credibility. It is no longer a question of whether or not we should create treaties and reservations - we have.

It's a matter of whether or not we will keep our word - we will.

Shawnele Shaw

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To the Editor:

As a past visitor to the beautiful Sisters area I was very pleased to learn from a friend, who happens to be a new resident of Sisters, of the effort to create a community trails system.

I mentioned to my friend that my husband and I visited Sisters a few years ago. We flew our small plane into the Sisters airport across from Conklin's Guesthouse. There were no rooms available that evening, but the owners generously allowed us to pitch a tent until one became available.

We later decided to bicycle out to Black Butte Ranch along Highway 20. It was a nice trip but would certainly have been more enjoyable without the noise and potential danger along the highway.

As a Washington State senator, my legislative district includes the Methow Valley in the upper Columbia Basin. That area has one of the country's most extensive community trail systems. Around my hometown in Wenatchee, there are also extensively planned trail systems along the Columbia River.

I have observed first hand, as a trail user and a legislator, the tremendous benefits a trails system offers. Trails are a source of community pride as well as a healthy transportation alternative. They are also a significant attraction for visitors and therefore produce substantial economic returns.

A recent study of the Methow Valley system, which has trails for bicycling, hiking, Nordic skiing and horseback riding, showed that trail users spent $1,950,000 in the 1997-98 summer-to-summer period. About 58 percent of the expenditures were for lodging and 18.8 percent for restaurants.

I applaud your efforts and look forward to trying out your new trails during another visit to Sisters.

Sincerely,

Linda Evans Parlette

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My name is John Devlin and am from Vancouver B.C. My wife and her friend wanted to come down to the Quilt Show in your city so we planned our vacation around it.

My point to this letter is to say thank you to the people of Oregon and especially Sisters. We have always barreled through Oregon towards California or Nevada and hardly gave your state a second look.

After leaving Sweet Home I checked my gas and thought "no problem, Sisters can't be too far."

Well for the first time in my 47 years there I was, 29 miles out of Sisters and away from a gas station on the side of the road and empty.

A very nice, elderly couple from Oregon in a motorhome stopped immediately and gave me two gallons of gas and wished me well to make it into town.

I thought, "no problems, I get 13 miles per gallon and with care I will make it."

Well, just short of town I was again on the side of the road holding my No Gas sign and timidly pointing to my gas cap as traffic buzzed passed.

Then a lady of about 35, coming the opposite way of town pulled over and ran across the highway holding a two gallon can.

Before I could pay she was saying it's on her and ran back to her car; then I saw her turn around and drive back toward town in her small red car.

Amazing. She saw us and went into town and brought us back some gas.

NEVER have I seen such kindness. We spent two days walking around your city, every car stopping immediately, young and old to let people cross the street.

I stopped at a yard sale and was welcomed, and treated very nice. I can go on and on about these two days in your town but words do not cover the warm feeling we left with.

I am going to forward this on to our 2010 Olympic Committee and suggest they go down to your town and learn how it's done.

John and Joane Devlin

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To the Editor:

I would like to thank my family and all my dear friends that came to spend the day with me turning, what I thought was a family reunion, into a surprise birthday party.

I was truly surprised and am so grateful. Family and friends are what it's all about.

Thanks to all.

Barb Marshall