I got a call from a local man last week who was beside himself with anger over the litter he’s been finding in the forests around Sisters.
I can relate. There’s something about finding trash strewn around our woods that sparks a visceral rage in me. It feels like a desecration. It is a desecration. We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. What kind of person willfully trashes it up?
Last week I pulled into Tollgate on my way to feed our horse. There in the turnout just off Highway 20 was a pile of cups and McDonald’s wrappers. Somebody had clearly sat in their car, ate their lunch, then dumped their trash out the window.
My anger was out of all proportion to the crime, fueled by disgust at a mentality so self-absorbed. Then I saw all the figurative fingers pointing back at me. I don’t throw my trash out the car window, but I’m not exactly simon-pure.
Littering is only the most visually evident form of trashing the planet. We all do it. Most everybody buys water in plastic bottles that either end up in landfills or take energy and effort to recycle. Almost every American consumes at a huge rate — and I am no different. It’s embarrassing to think how much trash my family of three generates.
It makes me mad to see litter in our woods. Always will. But I am resolved to stop shaking my finger at everybody else and stop making so much trash myself. It’s hard to climb down off the high horse and set aside the self-righteous anger, but I can’t stand to be the pot that calls the kettle black.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
"We need more programs, not more memorial stones"
A good friend of mine — a Special Forces soldier and combat veteran — said something powerful to me about the flag controversy in Sisters.
He's recently gone back to school with an eye to a second career helping veterans. His campus veterans group suggested proposing a memorial. He suggested that the group, the school and the veterans would be better served by creating a "transitions" class for young veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq who are returning to a school environment.
The idea took root and a 1.5 hour-per-week course has been set up with help from VA transition counselors, career counselors and a range of other professionals and guest speakers who will help the veterans make a smooth transition back into civilian life.
My friend has dedicted a memorial or two in his time, but he believes that right now there are more substantive and important ways to show support of veterans, better ways to expend energy than challenging other peoples' patriotism.
"We need more programs," he told me, "not more memorial stones."
Maybe we should think of ways to turn the energy devoted to this argument over a flagpole toward helping veterans in the Central Oregon area. Just a thought.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
He's recently gone back to school with an eye to a second career helping veterans. His campus veterans group suggested proposing a memorial. He suggested that the group, the school and the veterans would be better served by creating a "transitions" class for young veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq who are returning to a school environment.
The idea took root and a 1.5 hour-per-week course has been set up with help from VA transition counselors, career counselors and a range of other professionals and guest speakers who will help the veterans make a smooth transition back into civilian life.
My friend has dedicted a memorial or two in his time, but he believes that right now there are more substantive and important ways to show support of veterans, better ways to expend energy than challenging other peoples' patriotism.
"We need more programs," he told me, "not more memorial stones."
Maybe we should think of ways to turn the energy devoted to this argument over a flagpole toward helping veterans in the Central Oregon area. Just a thought.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Growth — can’t live with it, can’t live without it
Growth. It’s a big deal everywhere. If the economy stops growing, we’re in trouble — recession. We like it when our income grows. Everybody seems to be seeking personal growth.
Growth is good, right? Well, not to everybody, not all the time.
Folks in Sisters have an ambivalent attitude toward growth. Many people would like to see a stronger, more diverse economy here, with better-paying jobs. That means economic development. Growth.
We got a pretty strong dose of growth after the sewer was constructed in the late ’90s. Some folks don’t care for the denser more “urban” feel of some of the housing in town, but most people will admit that it’s pretty nice to have a laundromat, a movie theater, some new restaurants. We still haven’t seen a whole lot of economic development and diversification, but there has been some.
For the most part, growth has been pretty good to Sisters. So far.
But how much is enough? We received several angry letters to the editor this week from people didn’t like a story we ran about planning for an “eco-destination resort” in the Metolius Basin. They thought the story was way too kind to “development interests,” that the paper is “siding with unrestrained growth.”
Well, no. The story had a narrow focus on what developers plan to do with a specific development. It wasn’t about the controversy over such developments or their environmental implications.
But the response is indicative of something important. People are worried about what growth will do to the qualities that make Sisters Sisters — natural beauty; untrammeled access to acres and acres of woods, streams and mountains; a small-town sense of community.
Everybody is concerned about that — including most developers, who recognize the Sisters Country’s qualities as critical selling points for their projects.
Where and how to draw the line on growth — how to manage it while protecting individual property rights, how to mediate between competing goals and desires — is a maddeningly difficult chore. It’s easy to deal in absolutes — development good; development bad. But that’s not the real world. Development brings both benefits and costs and weighing those out is the trick.
I don’t have any silver bullets. How about you?
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Growth is good, right? Well, not to everybody, not all the time.
Folks in Sisters have an ambivalent attitude toward growth. Many people would like to see a stronger, more diverse economy here, with better-paying jobs. That means economic development. Growth.
We got a pretty strong dose of growth after the sewer was constructed in the late ’90s. Some folks don’t care for the denser more “urban” feel of some of the housing in town, but most people will admit that it’s pretty nice to have a laundromat, a movie theater, some new restaurants. We still haven’t seen a whole lot of economic development and diversification, but there has been some.
For the most part, growth has been pretty good to Sisters. So far.
But how much is enough? We received several angry letters to the editor this week from people didn’t like a story we ran about planning for an “eco-destination resort” in the Metolius Basin. They thought the story was way too kind to “development interests,” that the paper is “siding with unrestrained growth.”
Well, no. The story had a narrow focus on what developers plan to do with a specific development. It wasn’t about the controversy over such developments or their environmental implications.
But the response is indicative of something important. People are worried about what growth will do to the qualities that make Sisters Sisters — natural beauty; untrammeled access to acres and acres of woods, streams and mountains; a small-town sense of community.
Everybody is concerned about that — including most developers, who recognize the Sisters Country’s qualities as critical selling points for their projects.
Where and how to draw the line on growth — how to manage it while protecting individual property rights, how to mediate between competing goals and desires — is a maddeningly difficult chore. It’s easy to deal in absolutes — development good; development bad. But that’s not the real world. Development brings both benefits and costs and weighing those out is the trick.
I don’t have any silver bullets. How about you?
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Friday, March 21, 2008
Remember the "public" in public meetings
Sisters schools superintendent Elaine Drakulich said something very strange at a press conference on Tuesday, March 18.
The press conference was called to announce that Dusty Macauley has been named the Sisters Outlaws’ head football coach. Bob Macauley’s departure from that post has been the focus of ongoing controversy and drew a significant crowd to the last school board meeting, where several community members demanded answers on a range of questions from the school board.
Drakulich apparently took exception to this action and let her feelings be known at the press conference.
“I am extremely disappointed that as a community we continue to use board meetings for that kind of a forum,” she said. “That just divides our community, and we’re a really, really good school system that wants to be the best, but if we continue to do at board meetings things like that where we go back over prior mistakes, prior issues and beat them again and again and again that’s not what’s out there about Sisters School District.
“What’s out there are these negatives; it’s not that we’re a very, very good school system, and we want to be the best, so I’m disappointed in that meeting... I hope we don’t have board meetings like that again.”
Huh?
Where is the public supposed to go to petition for redress of grievances — or simply to tell the school board what they think? Of course the dialogue should be kept civil and respectful and The Nugget has been the first to call foul when we think people are hitting below the belt.
But vigorous, passionate public participation is a good thing, not something to be avoided. If the superintendent thinks vigorous public debate divides a community, what does she think the impact is of shutting off the public’s voice, of basically telling them to shut up and go away?
That’s not the way America works and it sure isn’t the way Sisters works.
I hope we have a lot more meetings like that last one.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
The press conference was called to announce that Dusty Macauley has been named the Sisters Outlaws’ head football coach. Bob Macauley’s departure from that post has been the focus of ongoing controversy and drew a significant crowd to the last school board meeting, where several community members demanded answers on a range of questions from the school board.
Drakulich apparently took exception to this action and let her feelings be known at the press conference.
“I am extremely disappointed that as a community we continue to use board meetings for that kind of a forum,” she said. “That just divides our community, and we’re a really, really good school system that wants to be the best, but if we continue to do at board meetings things like that where we go back over prior mistakes, prior issues and beat them again and again and again that’s not what’s out there about Sisters School District.
“What’s out there are these negatives; it’s not that we’re a very, very good school system, and we want to be the best, so I’m disappointed in that meeting... I hope we don’t have board meetings like that again.”
Huh?
Where is the public supposed to go to petition for redress of grievances — or simply to tell the school board what they think? Of course the dialogue should be kept civil and respectful and The Nugget has been the first to call foul when we think people are hitting below the belt.
But vigorous, passionate public participation is a good thing, not something to be avoided. If the superintendent thinks vigorous public debate divides a community, what does she think the impact is of shutting off the public’s voice, of basically telling them to shut up and go away?
That’s not the way America works and it sure isn’t the way Sisters works.
I hope we have a lot more meetings like that last one.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Welcome and comment policy
Thanks for visiting The Nugget's new blog, where we will tackle issues of the day — news, views, quirky happenings. Stuff that makes the paper and stuff that doesn't.
We encourage you to weigh in — this is a place where you can express your opinion, vent your feelings and tell us what you really think. All opinions are welcome, but please keep it clean and above the belt.
Please take a moment to read our content policy below:
Jim Cornelius, editor
The Nugget Comment Policy: The Nugget encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You may not post any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law. Please note that The Nugget makes reasonable efforts to review all comments and The Nugget may edit comments for clarity or to keep out questionable or off-topic material. All comments should be relevant to the post and remain respectful of other authors and commenters. By submitting your comment, you hereby give The Nugget the right, but not the obligation, to post, edit, exhibit, re-use, publish, distribute or otherwise use your comment(s) and accompanying personal identifying information via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity.
We encourage you to weigh in — this is a place where you can express your opinion, vent your feelings and tell us what you really think. All opinions are welcome, but please keep it clean and above the belt.
Please take a moment to read our content policy below:
Jim Cornelius, editor
The Nugget Comment Policy: The Nugget encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You may not post any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law. Please note that The Nugget makes reasonable efforts to review all comments and The Nugget may edit comments for clarity or to keep out questionable or off-topic material. All comments should be relevant to the post and remain respectful of other authors and commenters. By submitting your comment, you hereby give The Nugget the right, but not the obligation, to post, edit, exhibit, re-use, publish, distribute or otherwise use your comment(s) and accompanying personal identifying information via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity.
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