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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:

Roger Stones, a.k.a. Mat Man, came to reside in Sisters in the mid-1980s, moving from Vancouver, Washington. He built a log cabin home in Indian Ford, where he lived until a massive heart attack suddenly took his life on February 16.

Both Roger's life and home reflected his love of God, family, country and cowboys. An American flag always flew outside his home, while another large oil painting of the flag hung on a wall inside.

He built up his own business of providing linens and rubber-backed mats to local merchants and named the business Mat Man. Soon his territory covered the areas of Sisters, Black Butte Ranch, Redmond, Prineville, Bend, Sunriver and more.

While living in Sisters, Roger attended the Sisters Rodeo for many years with family and friends.

Every year at the Saturday afternoon rodeo, one could hear his whoops and hollers coming from the gold section as the bulls, horses and calves shot out of the chutes!

But only in the past three years did Roger take his love of Sisters and the rodeo one step further. He entered his two cars, a white 1951 Ford coupe and a red 1985 Porsche 911 Targa, in the Sisters Rodeo Parade. The 10 or 12 friends who came to attend the parade and rodeo never quite got used to being awakened at 6 a.m. with the ringing of the dinner bell on the deck and the loud beckoning voice of Roger calling, "Let's rodeo!" until they were all up and at it.

How proud Roger was to be apart of this exciting and patriotic event every June!

The Sisters Parade and Rodeo will continue to take place over the coming years.

Perhaps if we listen carefully, we will hear amid all the cheering of the crowd that one voice filtering down from heaven calling, "Let's rodeo!" as the Wild Horse Race once again kicks off the Sisters Rodeo.

We miss you, Roger, and give a giant Cowboy Salute!

Mary Lou Parker

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To the Editor:

I haven't found one citizen who thinks that the couplet is a good idea. I did find one citizen who was kicked off the planning commission for proposing the Brooks-Scanlon bypass 30 years ago.

The $17 million price for the bypass seems to be based on $3 million for construction and $14 million for land acquisition. A Forest Service easement would probably not cost anything. This would make the bypass half again as expensive as the couplet instead of six-and-a-half times as expensive.

The bypass would greatly increase the speed of people trying to get through Sisters while making Sisters a much better place to live or shop.

Bruce Berryhill

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To the Editor:

This letter concerns the extremely offensive message I read this morning on the large reader board on Highway 20 (outside Mtn. Shadow RV Park): "A Lynch Party Is Not Group Therapy."

There is nothing funny in this stupid, offensive and racist statement that insults people as they leave Sisters. This sign and its racist message must not be tolerated in this or any other community.

Sincerely,

Byron H. Dudley

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To the Editor:

The "detainee/prisoner" abuse situations would not have mushroomed as they have, were it not for the arbitrary and secret environment they are cast into. In contrast, consider our criminal system where "suspects/prisoners" are given a Miranda warning; allowed a phone call; get legal representation; and can have visitors.

Here our Rule of Law system works because a humane system of transparency, respect, openness discourages dark/secret environments.

The United States can regain our moral high ground by: prosecuting all the aiders and abettors of detainee abuse; adapt our Rule of Law system for all detainees; reaffiliate with the International Criminal Court treaty; and more truly interact with other nations.

John Bauer