Letters to the Editor - 6/3/20

To the Editor:

As a member of and volunteer with the Sisters Rodeo for 14 years, my most special memory is this:

A few years ago I was acting as an usher during an afternoon performance and just after our entertainer, John Payne the One Armed Bandit, finished his act and left the arena a woman came running up to me and with the most urgency said she had to speak to him. As we were near the main entrance into the arena I tried to explain that there was no public access but she continued to implore me for help. She looked down to the little boy at her side and my eyes followed hers. There was this sweet boy, maybe 5 or 6 years old, who also happened to have only one arm.

Change of plans. I excused myself to the other ushers and led these two to another gate close to where Mr. Payne’s trailer was parked. She was explaining to me that her son was just finishing his first year of school. It had been so rough because of the way the kids were treating him that he said he never wanted to go back to school.

John was in his tack room still catching his breath, but without hesitation, he came out, introduced himself with a big, warm smile that I will never forget, and sat down on the step of the trailer so he could talk to the boy face to face. As John was explaining what he had been through, there was such empathy and compassion that the boy’s mother and I were in tears. She was squeezing my arm (and for days there was a slight bruise — which I didn’t mind at all).

This little guy went from sad and defeated, sharing his stories of all the bullying, to smiling and hopeful…

When they were done John pulled out an eight-by-10-inch color photo, autographed it with a lovely personal note of encouragement, and as he wrote a phone number on it he said, “this is my cell number which very few people in the world have, and it is for you to call anytime day or night if you want to talk.”

I was so impressed. There were no cameras, no audience, just a world-class man making a young boy’s day, and quite possibly changing his future. Still gives me goose bumps.

Diane Prescott

To the Editor:

I’ve been reading the letters every week for months now and watching the news every day where I feel I will get most of the truth.

I’m a 76-year-old male with over 50 years built-in immunity to flu viruses, colds, pneumonia. I take no shots for this.

My wife and I have retirement money to live on so we have been OK! There are many people for and against opening business. I think remarks to Jim Cornelius and Councilor (Richard Esterman) were a bit strong for their stance.

I think the rise of suicides, bankruptcies, depression medicines, stress deaths have to all be weighed out with common sense. I will wear a mask when required and I feel needed.

I also will have compassion for those that are going through great loss, physical, mental, business loss.

I will try to help any way I can.

Chet Davis

To the Editor:

I want to express praise and gratitude to two people who expressed thoughts that ring true for me and that I hope more people will take to heart. In this week’s Nugget, May 27, T. Lee Brown, in her “In the Pines” column, shared some real insight in her response to the action of the construction worker who threw the long plank too close to her little child and her. Although I don’t always respond as she did — too often I react rather than respond, due to fear or anger — I truly hope that I would have the grace to carry in me those “Aggro Passes” she speaks of.

Also, I so appreciate Wendie Vermillion’s very thoughtful and well-said Letter to the Editor that expresses, among other things, concerns I, too, have about those times I need to shop for necessities and be among “the public.” I think we need to take this COVID-19 pandemic seriously and, much as it’s a bother and can feel like an infringement on our personal rights in this free country, adhere to the precautions and mandates we’ve been given.

I’m a senior and, so, am in the high-risk category and I greatly appreciate it when I see other people wearing masks. I don’t necessarily know where they have been and to which virus they might have recently been exposed that they could be exhaling, sneezing, or coughing onto me and others.

I was shocked to see how many people from distant locales drove into central Oregon for Memorial Day Weekend! What happened to “Stay Home-Stay Safe?” How many of those people shared their coronavirus germs with this region over that weekend? I guess we’ll see what happens to the tally of cases over the next week or two and get some indication that way.

People, please do wear a mask when you go into a public place!

Kathryn Johnson

To the Editor:

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s almost-daily admonition to his New York citizens is: “Wear a mask. It’s the smart and right thing to do.” With the tragic worldwide pandemic virus ever present among us, this admonition clearly applies to the citizens of the Sisters community.

This responsibility is all the more needed while patronizing our local stores which have the good fortune of remaining open for business during this crisis. However, during numerous visits to some of our local merchants these past days, it has been distressful and agonizing to observe the cavalier attitude of some of these merchants and their helpers failing to wear any kind of face covering.

I am disdainful of confrontation and have restrained from a polite comment asking them to be responsible and wear a mask. These merchants should realize the mask is for their protection and for the protection their customers. Further, we have a sizable senior citizen population whose vulnerability is exacerbated by this thoughtless type of conduct. To our much needed and hard working merchants of Sisters: Don those masks!

Wayne Carter

To the Editor:

I am putting in a plea to the Chamber of Commerce to quickly organize some kind of July 4th parade through downtown Sisters with all the trappings of a Rodeo parade and more.

We need some kind of celebration during this period of time. Everything of any fun has been canceled.

Let’s not give up on fun for young and old alike. We need the stimulation and the merchants need business.

This will just be for us Sisters folks not for the tourists.

Diana Raske Lovgren