Letters to the Editor 04/05/2017

To the Editor:

Perhaps all of us who live in and love this community could pause for a few moments and consider leaving national politics to the national press. Isn't it a lot nicer to read letters and stories about what is going on in the community when we read this wonderful local paper?

TV and larger papers are filled with the national debate, why bring it here? I'm sure we are missing hearing about local good deeds and positive happenings because people are instead focused on national politics. When is the last time you changed anyone's mind about a political position?

When I was a kid, which was soon after a terrible World War II, people kept politics out of conversations because they didn't want to hurt feelings and make others mad. Wouldn't it be nice to bring that back to our beautiful town?

Jean Nave

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To the Editor:

I want to thank Skydive Awesome for having the courage to start a business in our small community. It takes guts to believe there are enough adventurous people here to keep something as thrilling as a skydiving operation afloat. It saddens me that some members of the community continue to be hostile toward this venture and its owners. I thought surely the visceral letters of last summer would wane and people would be kind again. Yet here we are: a new year, a new season, and the same old angry letters. So, the time is ripe for someone to say something nice.

I've lived in Sisters nearly my entire life. As is custom after high school, I moved away, travelled the world, finished college, and lived in other states. I moved home on a wing and a prayer at the beginning of last summer and was told I could jump out of an airplane 10,000 feet above the mountains I've always loved. I saved up all summer long for the big day. My German brother and two old buddies jumped with me. Our families stood in the field below and watched. It was one of the most profound experiences of our lives. Happy tears pinned to my cheeks as I sailed over the tops of the mountains; from that vantage point, I fell in love with Sisters all over again.

Thank you, Skydive Awesome, for giving Sisters citizens young and old a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I really hope you stick around.

Jordan Richerson

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To the Editor,

Oregon is one of the states that has made great strides in helping citizens meet their medical needs by the innovative use of federal Medicaid funds. Had the repeal and replace effort succeeded, many in Oregon, the most vulnerable, probably would have lost their coverage unless the state could have come up with some other plan.  

Our representative in Congress heads the committee that came up with the plan that was ultimately defeated. Our President was in full support of the proposal despite the fact that it would have hurt the people who supported him the most. The poorest among us would have lost, and the richest would have won, that is according to the analysis from the Office of Budget Management. Their analysis can be found online. The important thing to remember here is that it is our representative's committee that came up with this plan which would have hurt our fellow Oregonians.  

The second thing to remember is that out of Oregon's five congressional Representatives in the House, only ours voted to keep the Internet privacy rule from going into effect. This is good for Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and other providers that, as The (Washington) Post's Brian Fung noted, "will be able to monitor their customers' behavior online and, without their permission, use their personal and financial information to sell highly targeted ads." Not exactly empowering to the ordinary American and what the proposed rule would have protected us from.

Since we are "ordinary Americans" as far as I know, who is watching out for us if our representative isn't?  

There have been several suggestions to protect ourselves: one is to find a Virtual Private Network, two, explore using TOR, and three to add HTTPS+ to your browser, for example Chrome.

Phyllis Lewis