News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
To the Editor:
We are long-time residents of Eastern and Central Oregon and we totally agree with the letter written last week by Ken Serkownek. We grieve that assault weapons are so readily available. When the ban on assault weapons was not renewed in 2004, we feared that the result would be bad. Had no idea how horrible it would be... and it just keeps getting worse!
It is time to immediately halt the sale of the ammunition for assault rifles, and to make ownership of these weapons of mass destruction illegal. We all ask what will it take? And 58 dead, 26 dead, 8 from one family, 21 dead including 15 or so children apparently is not enough, and that is not to mention so many other killings of lesser numbers!
It is frightening to hear nearby rapid-fire gunshots from our front porch most days of the week.
We need to keep pushing, and Ken has the right idea: it will take voting out any supporter of the NRA. This organization used to be a hunters' organization, offering gun training for youngsters, etc. Now they are protectors of the gun industry.
Sue and Paul Edgerton
To the Editor:
As I stood fourth in line last Friday at Ray's bottle/can return with our family's collection of bottles and cans, we all waited patiently for the staff at Rays to get the two intake machines back on line.
The team at Ray's does a fine job to keep these machines functioning given the increased amount of use they now receive as our returns value doubled to 10 cents each.
I had also just come from our wonderful recycle center, as I suspect many community members tie these two routine errands together.
Is it time to divert some dollars from our gas tax income and fund a bottle/can return area located at our recycle center? What a convenient one-stop-drop that would be! Maybe to minimize maintenance/staffing costs a service contract could be shared between the City and Ray's to keep both locations running well?
Just my 10 cents worth and a holiday wish!
Steve Janego
To the Editor:
President Trump is getting his pardon pen ready, as the Muller investigation starts indicting his associates. This Wednesday, he plans to practice on two very innocent Minnesota turkeys.
The other 244 million turkeys killed in the U.S. this year have not been so lucky. They were raised in crowded sheds filled with toxic fumes. Their beaks and toes were clipped to prevent stress-induced aggression. At 16 weeks of age, slaughterhouse workers cut their throats and dumped them in boiling water to remove their feathers.
Consumers pay a heavy price, too. Turkey flesh is laced with cholesterol and saturated fats that elevate risk of chronic killer diseases. Intense prolonged cooking is required to destroy deadly pathogens lurking inside.
Now, for the good news: Per capita consumption of turkeys is down by a whopping 34 percent from a 1996 high of 303 million, as one third of our population is actively reducing meat consumption; Our supermarkets carry a rich variety of convenient, delicious, healthful plant-based meat substitutes, including several oven-ready roasts.
This Thanksgiving holiday, as we give thanks for life and good fortune, let's also skip the gratuitous violence and grant our own pardon to an innocent animal.
Siegfried Neufhaus
To the Editor:
I cannot attend the December 6 bond oversight meeting nor the December 13 school board meeting, so I am writing you about my concerns about the proposed bus barn at Sisters High School.
The spending of $2 million for this project is not acceptable. It is a huge amount of taxpayer money, and it was not on the list of projects that taxpayers voted for in the bond measure.
I am also concerned about safety and aesthetics of such a bus barn being built in this location. I ride my bike to SPRD, along with walking in the area to get to hiking/biking paths. It will be an unsightly/terrible eyesore not only to me, as I go through this area, but also to travelers along Highway 242. We do not need more trees cut down in that vicinity, and we do not need pollution of the air where people go to SPRD, the skate park, and the new bike park to exercise/recreate! AND...what will become of the disc golf
park?
Please take my letter as a plea to reconsider this decision.
Vicki Bugbee-Reed
To the Editor:
I am pleased that Congressman Walden was able to receive a contribution from the National Rifle Association, an organization that has millions of members and supporters. Even though it was very much smaller than the very generous contribution made to Governor Kate Brown by the gun-ban guru, Michael Bloomberg, who has billions of dollars and a well-armed security team.
But more to the point, the actions of a handful of murderous creatures have given the government party and their supporters an opportunity to continue their ongoing fifty-year drive to disarm the serfs.
Larry Benson
Sisters
To the Editor:
Following the gun massacre in Las Vegas last month, I watched an interview on TV about strategies we can each do to increase our chance of survival in a mass shooting. They included identify exits, look for places that provide cover and don't panic.
Jonah Goldberg's main argument in what he calls the Great Gun Debate (The Nugget, November 15, page 2) is that basically there is nothing we can do about it and any attempt trying to find meaningful solutions is only going to further incite a culture war.
It is true that a majority of Americans don't want a ban on private gun-ownership. They want the right to own a gun to protect themselves and their families. But my argument isn't about the handguns used in 33,000 gun deaths each year in the U.S., but about the guns used in the almost daily mass shootings in the U.S., almost always by the use of some type of semi-automatic gun.
However you define a semi-automatic, a supermajority of Americans (72 percent) want a ban on assault-style weapons and 72 percent are also in favor of banning high-capacity ammunition magazines.
It's not unreasonable to ban assault weapons and ammunition magazines defined as high capacity. It's been done before in the Federal Assault Weapon Ban, defining the prohibition of certain semi-automatic firearms. And if machine guns can be banned, why not other weapons that can only be described as weapons of war?
In my America, we are not helpless victims. We don't need to accept an America where all we can do is run and hide. We shouldn't have to teach our 6-year-olds the drill for what happens when an "unsafe person" comes to the school. We can do something. It might not be much. It might mean, as in the Sandy Hook shooting when either his gun jammed or he had to stop and reload, that more children would be able to run and escape. We are the majority. It's our America, too.
Terry Weygandt
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