Letters to the Editor - 8/11/2021

Camp Sherman in Sisters Country

To the Editor:

Re: Bill Bartlett’s “News Nuggets”

If the definition of “Sisters Country” is indeed “up for debate” I would encourage you to include the Camp Sherman community and not limit it to the Sisters School District boundaries.

Our community, while small, is so important to our region both culturally and ecologically. We have a public K-8 school (Black Butte School) that is often overlooked in the reporting The Nugget does on “Sisters Country”

schools.

Camp Sherman kids eventually attend Sisters High School. All Camp Sherman residents frequent Sisters business for services. Many of us volunteer for organizations based in Sisters. Our beautiful basin attracts both tourists (which also use Sisters services) and Sisters locals alike. Please include us in your definition of “Sisters Country.” Our residents and beautiful wild and scenic river contribute to the community greatly.

Jennie Sharp

Questioning COVID measures

To the Editor:

If masks are supposed to protect you from the virus, why is there no supporting data? Most data shows that masks will not protect you from a virus. If masks are so important, why is it whenever a political mandate occurs it is a week from Tuesday? If masks really protected you wouldn’t it make sense to wear them right away instead of being warned a week in advance?

Why were there hardly any cases of the flu in 2020 and the beginning of 2021?

COVID-19 has been presented as a partisan issue, when in reality it is a nonpartisan issue. It affects all of us through our freedoms, our way of life, and our God-given rights.

Just think if we ignored the media, local health authorities, CDC, our politicians, and did our own research.

In a restaurant it was OK not to wear a mask at the table, but required to walk to your table. This alone should wake your brain up. Does the COVID only attack people when they are walking to their tables?

There is a big push for a vaccine that is obviously experimental. I say experimental because there is no history of accurate data. Doesn’t it seem a little strange that state governments are willing to pay you to take it? If that does not work the federal government is working on plans to force you to take it.

We need to wake up, realize we are one, and begin to question instead of accepting. “We are one Nation under God, with Liberty and Justice for all”.

There will be those who read what I have written and shake their heads realizing they are a marble short. Others who will write me hate letters without signing their names, and hopefully most just might wake up.

Richard Esterman

To the Editor:

If COVID-19 is so bad, so dangerous, and so deadly, why did Biden open the borders? Why has Biden let over one million illegal migrants into America since January that are untested for COVID-19? We’re on pace to let in two million illegal migrants just for 2021. How many of them are carrying and spreading COVID or other diseases? The government doesn’t know because they are releasing them into the U.S. without testing and then providing them free air and bus travel at taxpayer expense.

The La Joya, Texas Police Department said a patrol officer was waved down on July 26 by someone concerned about a group that appeared to be sick at a Whataburger restaurant. The officer found a family inside who were coughing and sneezing and not adhering to health guidelines, including the wearing of masks. A manager told the officer they wanted the people to leave because they were making everyone inside uneasy. When the officer questioned the group, they said the Border Patrol apprehended them several days prior but released them and all have tested positive for coronavirus.

McAllen, Texas, was forced to declare an emergency because the Biden administration dumped over 7,000 illegal migrants into the city who tested positive for COVID-19, including 1,500 over this past week. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted to reporters the Biden Administration is releasing thousands of COVID-positive illegal aliens into McAllen, Texas —but don’t worry because Psaki said the illegals are required to wear masks. Americans are forced into lockdowns, mandatory masks, and in NYC you must now present “your papers please” to enter all restaurants, fitness centers, and indoor entertainment venues.

Why?

JK Wells

Critical Race Theory

To the Editor:

Jody Prisi correctly pointed out that “Equity is not equality,” in the August 4 Nugget. But she goes on to explain what she thinks equity means and why it is undesirable: “…[E]quity means equal outcome regardless of merit. If you work hard to create a business or career should someone who has not be given your asset? That is equity.”

Elsewhere in the paper, Jeff Mackey offers a cartoonishly bad example of what he thinks critical race theory is: “What if little Johnny comes home from his first day as a third grader in Sisters and tells Mom and Dad he learned about being ashamed of his whiteness and must confess to being privileged so as not to be a racist?”

Both of these passages are great examples of the misinformation that has been propagated to confuse and distract us from the real issues that face us. “Equity” does not mean giving your hard-earned asset to someone else to ensure an “equal outcome.” Instead, it is all about ensuring a basic-level playing field so that everyone will have a chance to fairly compete. Likewise, CRT does not mean that white Sisters third-graders will be humiliated and denigrated in some sort of “reeducation” program.

I didn’t learn in school that over one million Black veterans were denied benefits under the G.I. Bill, which did so much to create the white middle class (www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits).

I wasn’t taught that domestic and agricultural workers (who comprised 65 percent of Black workers) were excluded from Social Security coverage when it was enacted in 1935.

My school made sure that I never heard of redlining, which limited or prevented African Americans from being able to obtain financing to purchase homes.

These things kept Black people from building up wealth, as they were denied educational, financial, and retirement benefits and services available to the rest of society.

I wasn’t taught about any of this when I was in school.

Instead, I learned that Black poverty was the result of African Americans’ supposed inferiority, ignorance, and laziness.

Isn’t it fair to acknowledge how Americans have been misled by these racist assumptions? Isn’t it necessary to teach facts and inspire critical thinking? Shouldn’t we try to rectify these manifest injustices? That, not Jody Prisi’s misconceived definition, would result in equity.

That, not Jeff Mackey’s silly but dangerously malign description of CRT, is what we should seek to accomplish in our schools.

Then we will truly have a country where, as Ms.

Prisi put it, “Anyone who puts the work into their goals should and will be able to succeed.”

Mary Chaffin