Letters to the Editor 7/19/23

Remembering a contributor

The first time I met Dave Moyer, he was fighting to save a man’s life.

It was the first City Council meeting I covered for The Nugget as a freelance reporter — February 1994, if memory serves. The tiny council chamber was packed; the agenda featured a proposed ordinance to allow snowmobiles to ride on the streets of Sisters. As sometimes happens in Sisters, the issue had stirred some passions.

Dave Moyer was presiding as mayor. Suddenly, a man who was sitting behind me pitched out of his seat and hit the floor face-first. Dave was off the dais like a shot, and immediately began to administer CPR to the man, who had obviously suffered a massive heart attack.

The man did not survive, but Dave’s intense efforts to save him before paramedics arrived made quite an impression.

Dave Moyer was a man who stepped up — a significant contributor to the community that he called home. Read his obituary on page 14, and you’ll see that those contributions were in a variety of areas — the Forest Service, the fire service, city government, the schools.

His contributions to the community played an important role in making Sisters the place it has become — a place where visitors flock, a place where people seek to live and raise their families. Dave’s passing is a sad moment for his family and his colleagues in the Forest Service and the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District. But we can all simply look around to see the legacy that he left — making Sisters Sisters.

Jim Cornelius

Cleanup

To the Editor:

Crossroads’ quarterly Highway 242 cleanup was held Monday, July 10. Only five bags of trash this time was collected and there were no needles, which was amazing.

Thank you to Sean Smith, Amber, and Joanne Anttila for braving the heat and helping make our little piece of the world a better place.

Bill Anttila

Activities Committee, Crossroads HOA

Shout-out

To the Editor:

A big shout-out to Cody Rheault for his outstanding photos of Quilt Show! 48 years of photographing the Show and he brought a wonderful new perspective (literally). Loved the front-page photo of the firefighters hanging quilts at Stitchin’ Post and the kid with the quilt reflected in sunglasses. Creative and representative of the event. Well done! Thanks!

Karly Drake Lusby

The Vietnam War

To the Editor:

A response to the column in the July 12 issue of The Nugget titled “The era that shaped us,” which speaks to The Vietnam War:

Absolutely, one of the greatest tragedies of the past 100 years played out in Southeast Asia during the catastrophic disaster known as the Vietnam War, and that event still heavily influences our society today.

Vietnam War scholars worldwide have, for the past 20 years, lauded William Duiker’s book “Ho Chi Minh: A Life,” as the definitive book about the causes of the war. I’m not aware that Vietnam War scholars are also praising Max Hastings’ more recent book on it but perhaps they are.

No argument should be made whatsoever to paint Ho Chi Minh in any sort of a positive light. However, not acknowledging certain facts only serves to depict the post-World War II U.S. government in a somewhat lesser shade of darkness than it deserves. That would be incorrect.

I would urge a person to read both books, rather than one. If that isn’t enough, consider watching what might be the most gut-wrenching, searing, and poignant documentary series ever made, Ken Burns’ “The Vietnam War.”

Chris Morin

People problems

To the Editor:

Over the past couple years in the Bend/Sisters area there have been a number of reported incidents on public trails involving unleashed pet dogs harassing hikers, runners, cyclists, or horse riders.

In one of the latest incidents in our neighborhood a pit bull attacked a longtime Sisters resident as she rode her horse on the National Forest. The horse panicked, the rider was tossed, and the riderless horse ran into the forest with the dog in hot pursuit. Luckily neither the rider nor the horse sustained serious injury but the outcome could easily have been much worse.

On Friday, July 7, at 11:45 a.m., I was riding my bike south toward Sisters on the Tie Trail. I saw a woman ahead of me walking the same direction I was riding. She was accompanied by two dogs, one in front of her and one behind her. I was about 20 yards behind her when I called out “Hello,” as it was obvious she was not aware of my presence. The woman and both dogs moved off the trail and I began to ride past them. Suddenly the trailing dog whirled and charged me. The dog was advancing and barking, its hackles up.

Luckily, at 73 years old and with 60-plus years of riding experience under my belt, I had a plan. I stopped my bike, lowered my head as far as I could toward the dog, and let loose with my loudest and most menacing shout. The dog stopped but did not retreat. The woman commenced yelling at the top of her lungs, “No P_ _ _ ! No! Come P _ _ _! Come!”

She kept yelling while holding her other dog. Finally the offending mutt slunk over to her. I saddled up and rode past her, saying, “Not cool!” She did not meet my eye nor did she speak to me.

These types of situations are not dog problems. They are dog owner problems. If your dog is not thoroughly trained and socialized you have not earned the right to allow your pooch to “live its best life” by running free on public trails. The trails in our community are first and foremost for the people of our community to use for safe, peaceful, and relaxing recreation.

If you want to bring your dog along, great. But please, make sure you have taken care of your responsibilities as a dog owner. It really sucks to be on the trail, confronted by a barking and possibly aggressive dog, and hear the dog’s owner yell from somewhere down the trail, “It’s OK… He’s friendly…”

Kevin Statham