Letters to the Editor 04/25/2007

To the Editor:

Activists out of control?

Last week I read in The Nugget that four conservation organizations filed two separate appeals seeking the withdrawal of the Black Crater timber sale project by the Forest

Service.

There was 9,000 acres that were covered by the fire. This plan applies to only 190 acres. A very small portion of the fire. It would help restore the forest land by re-planting and allow us to harvest the fire-killed timber so it does not go to waste. After a catastrophic fire, clean up and re-planting the forest makes sense. It helps to insulate damaged forests from future fires, speeds the recovery of trees and other plants, improves watersheds and wildlife habitat.

Time is always on the side of these organizations by tying up projects like this in court, as the harvest value continues to deteriorate. I for one would like to see the what now looks like a graveyard of dead trees and baron land return back to its natural beauty in a reasonable time. Our hands-off approach does not make much sense. There should be a better balance. If we don't voice our opinion our officials will believe that this small minority is the opinion of the majority.

Dan Rosauer

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To the Editor:

I thought it was great when I heard that Mike Morgan was running for a seat (Position 2) on the school board.

He obviously has strong convictions about how the board should function and has attended many of its meetings. I also believe that every organization needs to have the "boat rocked" from time to time to make sure they stay headed in the right direction.

There is no question that being on the inside would afford Mr. Morgan the opportunity to advance some of the changes he feels so passionate about.

Then I read in last week's Nugget that he is suing the very school board that he wants to be a part of. Huh? And he wants attorney fees and "costs" returned to him. Huh? So, Mr. Morgan wants the courts to force his changes, and he wants the school district (with taxpayer money) to pay his attorneys to get it done. Sure glad we got that out in the open before the election.

And running for re-election to the school board (Position 4), Jeff Smith had an interesting comment in the Bend Bulletin (April 20/07) about the recent teacher firing. Mr. Smith stated that "the school board and the superintendent were very thorough in their evaluation...we performed well."

Wow. Did he somehow miss the huge public outcry over the shortcutting of due process and the inexplicable rush to terminate a talented teacher?

If that sad performance was Mr. Smith's idea of "performing well" then it is time for us to raise the bar as to what we expect from our school board. We can start by thanking Mr. Smith for his contributions and electing Mark Yinger in his place.

Carey Tosello

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To the Editor:

The Nugget has once again done a great job reporting on issues affecting our schools. Tia Duerrmeyer reports:

"Based on the advice of its attorneys and the Oregon School Boards Association, the Sisters School Board has not kept records of its executive sessions."

Why would attorneys that are paid with public money give such advice? The answer is simple: It is better to be beat up for a lack of record keeping than to create an irrefutable record of more serious wrongdoing. Is this how you want your tax dollars spent and your elected officials to perform?

Mike Morgan

Candidate for school board

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To the Editor:

I have spent much time and research in understanding our present immigration dilemma. In my opinion, Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush 1 and Ronald Regan, along with the previous Republican majority have completely failed the citizens of the United States.

Our political system in Washington has deteriorated to polarized bodies lobbing insults across the aisle and precious little getting done. It is obvious these politicians have no more than their own personal power agendas and pandering for votes as the primary purpose for their existence.

We are embarking insanely early on another election cycle where no one discusses immigration issues seriously, preferring to obsess about disputed global warming disasters, terminated federal attorneys, etc. These issues pale in comparison to the complication caused by our open borders policy of

immigration.

Go to: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5871651411393887069&pr=

goog-slcd.

Watch this video carefully and see what uncontrolled immigration will do to this

country we all profess to love so dearly. It illustrates this problem that is still being given no real national priority.

I see Republicans and Democrats both as having sold out our country for votes, pure and simple. For extensive information about the issue and what it has done to California, spend some time with the writings of Victor Davis Hansen, a fifth generation Californian who coined the term "Mexifornia."

Lack of a rational immigration policy is increasingly creating chaos in this country and at the present rate will become a crisis of major proportion within 10 years. Within 20 years we will be faced with military annexation as our only out.

I am 62 years old and our country has become a shadow of what it once was, due primarily to the will of elected officials to govern honestly and effectively. I regret to say that my children will have to live with the problems that have been created by the incompetence and corruption in Washington, but hopefully they will be able to accomplish what our generation has failed to do.

Terry Burke

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To the Editor:

All of the discussion regarding the recent firing of Kris Helpinstine reminded me of a story I heard about Albert Einstein.

According to the story, Einstein was instructing a university level physics class when the students initiated a debate regarding the existence of God. The consensus among the students is that there is no logical or scientific evidence supporting the existence of God. The students then asked Einstein what his position was regarding the existence

of God.

Einstein responded by asking the students to consider all the information there is to be known about the entire universe and then estimate how much of that knowledge mankind actually knows. After a lengthy discussion, the students estimated that mankind knows about two percent of everything there is to be known. Einstein then suggested the students consider the possibility that God exists in the 98 percent they do not know about.

It appears that given the current political and philosophical mindset of the Sisters School Board, Einstein would have been summarily fired had he made these same comments in a Sisters High School classroom having been guilty of imposing his "religious" beliefs upon the students. With that being the current reality, how is it that those loudly voicing the extreme aspects of secular thought are not equally condemned for imposing their intolerant and fanatical anti-faith beliefs in the public school setting?

The U.S. Constitution mandates freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. If this were not the case, why does the Declaration of Independence state, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of

Happiness."

Ralph Show

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To the Editor:

I am a student at Sisters High School, a student involved in Mr. Helphinstine's class.

Indeed, Mr. Helphinstine was a nice man and a favorite of some of my more Christian classmates. But the community of Sisters has failed to realize and probably will never get it through that this man indeed was teaching Intelligent Design in our schools.

The board was forced to make their decision on irrefutable evidence. In my case I wanted to learn about evolution and was shocked when some of this material was incorporated into the curriculum of a scientific biology class. I was trying to learn about evolution. This was very hard when I was being force-fed these articles and PowerPoint on Genesis, the holocaust and Planned Parenthood. What does that have anything to do with scientific theory? Nothing.

I believe that it is fine when people want to express their thoughts and opinions. But when it is so controversial and in such a bad setting as a school this kind of thing should be forespoken and separate.

Those people out there who believe it is right to force their religion on others by bringing it into my school and my class are very sadly mistaken. If they are all feeling sorry for themselves saying I can't choose to not learn about evolution then they are also sadly mistaken.

Biology class is for evolution. The class for Genesis and evolution is not biology. I have the right to learn what I want. These rights were violated the two weeks that Helphinstine taught. I was given material that I did not agree with and was forced to use it to answer questions that leaned toward an Intelligent Design ideal.

This board meeting opened my eyes and taught me that Sisters needs to learn to separate or discuss in a civil manner freedom of knowledge and of religion, church and of state and most importantly respect the liberties that we share in the United States.

Jake Thomas

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To the Editor:

It has been several weeks now since the firing of Kris Helphinstine. The board made it clear at the last meeting that it would not answer the questions of the public concerning this issue. Several comments to the editor have wondered why this issue has caused such a deep rift in this otherwise united community. I don't see that anyone has answered that question, so I thought I

might try.

Although the overwhelming majority of the public believes in some sort of "god," our elected representatives and policy-making judges removed God from our school system some time ago. In his place they substituted just about anything else that defied Christian ideals.

But this was a straw on the proverbial camel's back. These straws have been slowly building up on the born-again Christians in this community and the firing of a Christian teacher for dubious reasons has led to some understandable backlash; understandable if you are a Christian, but plain lunacy if you are an atheist. We are at opposite ends of the spectrum, you see. We push and they pull; there will never be peace where the public schools and government are concerned. This is why Christian and homeschooling

exist.

The graduates from these alternative forms of education routinely surpass their public school colleagues in standardized testing. Not all, but most of them refrain from partaking in illegal or immoral activities that have saturated Sisters High School.

So why not place all Christ-professing children into the Christian schools? It's expensive. Most families cannot afford the tuition. Christians have petitioned to be allowed to use the tax dollars we "donate" to the failing public school system to send our kids to better private schools but have been flatly refused, I suspect because the state recognizes that the resulting exodus of students that would take place from the public to the private schools would quickly cripple the state educational system.

It all boils down to the Golden Rule. So please don't ask us to compromise one more time; we've compromised too much, already.

Dr. Mark Francis

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To the Editor:

I am one of the "unfortunate" ones who does not attend church and believes that a woman has the right to choose what happens to her body. I do not believe that God ripped a rib out of Adam and created women; however, I do want my child to make the decision on what she believes for herself.

I think that all theories should be taught with an open mind and an open heart and that we as human beings should listen and learn. I don't believe that any one institution or person is responsible for teaching to our children. They learn every day, in all sorts

of ways.

As parents and teachers, if we put too much emphasis on any one source as the "truth," we are doing our children a great disservice. For there are many "truths' in the world, depending on where you live.

I live in a small town, where I am grateful for the sense of community and support that I know is so rare in the real world. My "city friends" joke that I live in a bubble here in Sisters. I have found, however, that real world issues are here too, and my "bubble has been burst."

The sense of community that I once felt seems weakened by adults taking sides and focusing on the negative things that have occurred. This controversy boils down to "real world stuff."

In the real world you cannot break the rules and escape the consequences. We don't always like those consequences, but they are real and mandatory in order to preserve the structure that all of us depend on, regardless of where we stand on how humans came to be. I say we support our school board for making real world decisions in the face of what they knew would be great controversy. I say that we support our children by teaching from example: show them that adults with very different views and perspectives can work together in a positive way!

Laurie Farley