Letters to the Editor 04/12/2006

To the Editor:

Underage drinking scores again…

I was disappointed to learn that the Sisters High Baseball team has lost the privilege of competing for the rest of this year. Once again, underage drinking has damaged the reputation of the school and some of its students.

Our society is so infatuated with using alcohol that many children are rushed into using this substance without the emotional maturity to consider the consequences. Some parents rationalize this by saying, “They are going to do it anyway and I would rather have them drinking at home.”

In my opinion, this type of rationalization encourages behavior that many young people handle poorly. I realize there are two schools of thought operating in society today. One of permissiveness and one of abstinence until one is capable of dealing with the consequences.

We see the results of permissive thinking in the news every day. A girl, in a drunken state, disappears in Aruba; the entire lacrosse season at Duke is canceled due to the drunken antics of some team members and a couple of strippers. Maybe parents are trying to be popular with the kids as opposed to using responsible adult discretion, or parents with their own alcohol issues pass this on to their children.

The bottom line is this: Alcohol is a drug and a very dangerous one in the wrong hands. For every hundred people who use alcohol, 10 to 15 percent will develop personal and social problems that can take years to overcome.

We are presently having a series of public meetings in the Sisters area in an attempt to deal with underage drinking in our community. (Editor’s note: TAPS meeting, Wednesday, April 12, 6 p.m., Sisters High School).

Extreme binge drinking is becoming a common occurrence, as kids take drinking to a new level.

We must emphasize that drinking alcohol is a choice, not a requirement, of adulthood. My hope is that parents in this community will give serious consideration to the problem of underage drinking.

Terry Burke

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To the Editor:

I would like to thank all the teachers in the Sisters School District who do their job. You know who you are. You are the ones who teach the subjects with the knowledge you are paid to have. You are the ones who do not have to look over your shoulder to make sure that no one is looking.

You are the teachers who can actually have a parent-teacher conference and if necessary, tell the parents/guardians that their child may be in trouble. You do not waste conference time by giving a parent a snow job on how enjoyable their child is, so that you do not have to be confrontational. You know that a parent can use the information on what is happening during school hours.

You are the teachers who are OK with parents going to work to support their families (parents who pay taxes, without yearly fall/winter/summer/spring breaks). You do not whine about how your teaching job is so unreasonably difficult.

You are the ones that save “psycho babble” for the professionally trained psychiatrists/psychologists. You are the teachers who respect a parent’s right to know something that could affect a student for the rest of their life when you are given pertinent (and basic) information first hand.

I know I am doing my job as a parent with no paycheck or healthcare benefits or retirement plan, or labor union. I, too, have job outside of the home that I get paid for.

Geneieve MacKenzie

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To the Editor:

I must agree with last week’s letter writer David Culver in that we have been promised for several years now that a bridge is to built off Cascade Avenue to Highway 126 and so far we see nothing of that effort but more and more houses are being built in the neighborhood of Rolling Horse Meadows.

And when are the Sisters City Councilors going to get their backbones straightened and come right out and get something in writing from Central Electric Cooperative as to when enough houses is enough in order not to have rolling blackouts in the cold winters?

Either they are for us or they are against us and it seems to me at this point they’re trying to play both ends against the middle and not take a positive stand. Central Electric seems to say “they are committed to furnishing us power” as long as there is some but if there isn’t any then we have no power in the cold weather. Does this make sense?

I think it’s time for the city fathers to make it clear to everybody concerned, especially the developers, when it’s time to put a moratorium on building more and more houses.

Diana Raske Lovgren

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To the Editor:

If you have a yen to spend a wonderful time with hard-working people on the first Wednesday of the month in the Sisters Library, assembling shelving and sorting books for the Friends Book Sale read on…

Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL – not FOSSIL — I’m the only one on the Board old enough to qualify for that title…) are currently accepting applications for five positions on the Board that will become available later this month.

The only requirements are a love of the library, willingness to work, and the ability to attend board meetings at 9 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month.

The purpose of the FOSL is to acquire money and use it to the benefit of our library. These funds support programs that are beyond the constraints of the library’s budget, or those that fall outside the scope of that which is allowed with public funds. A good example is the money FOSL donated to purchase new furniture and fixtures for our brand-spanking-new-library.

The Friends is responsible for countless events and small projects throughout the year, such as the annual book sale — which will soon be ongoing — Bookmark, the free new book publication you can pick up at the library every two months. The art show at the library is also a FOSL program.

Our new library has become a vital link for communication, education, and social meetings for everyone in the Sisters area. You can help to make it work even better and smoother by joining FOSL and donating your time and talents. You will also have the opportunity to work alongside some of the best Librarians in the State of Oregon. (Me biased? No…)

Please feel free to contact me at 388-1659, Norma Funai 549-2104 or Sue Edgerton, 549-1678 if you would like to apply to be a member of our Friends board.

Jim Anderson

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To the Editor:

Several seniors have been meeting the first Tuesday of the month at 11 a.m. at the Senior Meal Site at Sisters Community Church.

We have been discussing senior issues in the Sisters area. We are now in the process of forming a senior council with a goal of building a senior center. We would like to have ideas and input from interested seniors 55 and older who live in the greater Sisters area. If interested please call 549-8083.

Howard Den Hartog

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To the Editor;

I would like thank you and the entire city of Sisters for your financial and moral support. Your generous contributions have helped make my family’s trial so much more bearable that it is difficult for me to express my gratitude in proportion to the kind feelings that dwell in your hearts.

You may wonder what has changed since my story in last December’s paper (“Medical costs pile up for young Sisters man and his family,” The Nugget, December 7) and because you have shown so much compassion, I will gladly announce what your favors have done for us.

My family and I have recently moved to Bend where we have acquired a comfortable apartment just across the street from The Cancer Treatment Center and St. Charles Hospital. I have begun radiation therapy to eradicate the menacing tumor and for the time being I still have more than enough energy to walk back and forth to my daily appointments.

At this point the only side-effects we can expect are fatigue and hair loss, and considering the alternative I believe that we are just fine with that. The only real disadvantage to this procedure is that I will be unable to work until a few weeks after the treatments are complete when my energy begins to return.

For this reason we are leaving the George Van Ry Donation Account with the US Bank open for any of those who wish to continue donating to our cause, also for those of you who wish to lend your support by other means we are continuing the “Hats for George Campaign” where donations of finances and crocheted or knitted hats will be accepted for the purpose of funding medical and related expenses.

Hats or yarn donations can still be sent to us at PO Box 1597 in Sisters. There will also be booths at both the Sisters Craft Festival and the Quilt Show on the first and second Saturdays in July to sell the hats. Again I thank you all for your help and wish you luck in all your future endeavors; you are truly good people.

With sincerest thanks,

George Raymond Van Ry

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To the Editor:

After the recent allegedly racially motivated beating in Bend and assault by the Duke lacrosse team, many will pressing for prosecution of the assailants under the Hate Crime Sentencing Enhancement Act, which imposes longer prison sentences if ‘it is proven that a crime against person or property was motivated by “race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.”

This Act should be abolished because it is arbitrary in its definition of Hate Crimes, it is racist by definition, it exacerbates racism and bias and it violates our Constitutional rights to freedom of speech. Disturbingly, most evidence for abolishing Hate Crimes statutes is in the FBI site established to track Hate Crimes: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm.

According to FBI documents, even if an assailant is mistaken in their belief about a victim’s race, sexual orientation, religion, etc., it is still classified a Hate Crime. Later in the same document a scenario depicting assailants shouting sexual-orientation epithets at a non-gay victim would “not be designated bias motivated.” What? The FBI official documents are full of these contradictions.

According to FBI Hate Crime statistics gathering criteria, Hispanics cannot commit Hate Crimes, they are only victims. When a Hispanic commits a Hate Crime, they are categorized as “White”; when victims they are “Hispanic.”

Our police force should investigate crime based on facts only, not hearsay, conjecture, or guess-work. Hate Crime statutes don’t punish based on facts, but on what our government thinks we might be thinking. Hate Crime statutes punish the act of speaking, and two persons of different skin color saying the same thing while committing similar crimes can receive vastly different sentences under Hate Crime sentencing statutes. This is racism at its worst.

The FBI guidebook states it best: “Because motivation is subjective, it is difficult to know with certainty whether a crime is a result of an offender’s bias.”

Current Hate Crime sentencing statutes should be abolished now.

Paul Dacus

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To the Editor,

The observations of intelligent design proponents or creationists are not unbiased, but interpreted through their own religious belief. It cannot be proven (or disproven) from lab tests that life came about through the intervention of a supernatural creator.

If your religious faith may be shaken when it is proven that life can arise from non-life, then you had best prepare yourself by expanding your vision of God and nature to include this inevitable occurrence.

Experiments are continuing to attempt to demonstrate that life may come from non-life but it has been demonstrated that life comes from very low levels of “intelligence.” Random mutation and natural selection are sufficient to explain all the behaviors listed as examples of “design” and “complex engineering.” Darwin’s conclusions are all the more amazing given the very basic knowledge of cells, genetics and other relevant science extant at the time.

Many intermediate forms, as required by the evolutionary model of origins, are found in the fossil record. That life comes from life (since its origin about 3.8 billion years ago) and usually reproduces its own kind is abundantly evident everywhere. That mutations and natural selection occur is also abundantly evident. Many of these grand experiments are observable or can be studied by everyone with an interest in the truth.

The Web site mentioned by Ms. Richardson in her April 5 letter to the editor has many counterparts presenting scientific arguments against intelligent design and creationism which can be found by the curious through online searches of “evolution” and “intelligent design.”

Explore the evidence on your own, and know that even if you are here by accident, your life has all the meaning and purpose you choose to give it. And that’s the truth!

Sincerely,

James A. Hammond