Steve Swisher has been pushed out of his job in Crook County.
As is the norm in such cases, specifics are hard to come by; the people involved will keep mum publicly and say only that it was "time for a change."
But it's a safe bet that what ran Swisher's tenure onto the rocks in Crook County is the same stuff that caused problems in Sisters during his tenure.
A person intimately involved in the workings of the school district told me yesterday that Swisher is a " better to ask forgiveness than ask permission kind of guy." That seems spot on.
That can be a dynamic leadership style. A person who is willing to push the envelope gets things done. And Swisher got things done. We have a thriving Sisters Schools Foundation largely because of him. Swisher navigated the school district through a potentially disastrous budget crisis. Sisters School District hasn't had a strong sense of leadership in the superintendent's office since he left.
But character is fate and Swisher's style eventually brought grief. Swisher's relationship with his school board soured when several board members put him under heavier scrutiny than he liked during the process of building Sisters High School. He bristled at what he considered micromanagement — at what was really board oversight that was long overdue.
Oversight does not appeal to a " better to ask forgiveness than ask permission kind of guy."
The classic example of the pitfalls of Swisher's style is the debacle that ensued from the Sonrise Christian School "homeschool" program. Sisters is paying a $1.2 million debt to the state for that disallowed program.
Swisher has never taken any real accountability for this mess. Turns out he asked neither permission nor forgiveness.
Swisher must have known he'd worn out his welcome when he left Sisters and when the board could have asked his to come back, they didn't. Too much baggage.
He moved on, eventually winding up in Crook County. He took some of Sisters' best administrators with him: Jim Golden, Lora Nordquist...
Apparently, it wasn't a happy tenure. A lot got done, but the " better to ask forgiveness than ask permission kind of guy" eventually ran out of rope.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
We’re broke and things are falling apart
Two discouraging items of news today. They’re related and point to an aching need to refocus our priorities.
Item 1 (from CNN): “It would cost at least $140 billion to repair all the nation’s bridges if work began immediately, a nationwide safety organization said in a comprehensive report Monday.”
Item 2 (from CNN): “The White House on Monday predicted a record deficit of $490 billion for the 2009 budget year.” (That’s off the $128 billion surplus inherited by the Bush administration).
So, our transportation net needs of fixing — and we’re broke.
Now, the bridge situation isn’t quite as dire as the above statement makes it sound. We don’t have to fix all of the nation’s bridges right now. Just about one in four of them.
My personal manifesto is that to live up to our cherished self-image as the greatest nation on earth, we have to have the best educated populace, the best health care system and the best transportation system.
We don’t.
“Nearly one in four bridges needs repairs, and the average age of America’s bridges is 43 years — seven years shy of the maximum age for which most are designed, according to the report, titled ‘Bridging the Gap.’”
“One in five U.S. bridges is more than 50 years old, the report says. ‘Almost one in four bridges, while safe to travel, is either structurally deficient, in need of repair, or … too narrow for today’s traffic volumes.’ the report from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said.”
We really need to refocus our priorities. We cannot afford trillions of dollars spent on foreign adventures. We cannot afford any more porkbarrel legislation (we should never build, let alone have to repair a “bridge to nowhere”).
The bridge report cites “’a frustrating contradiction’ — better engineering, materials and construction techniques are available, but ‘without a national commitment to bridge investment,’ states cannot afford the improvements.”
That says it, right there. A national commitment. Calling all patriots — make America truly the greatest nation: with the finest schools, the best helath care, top quality roads. Let’s make that national commitment now.
Just as soon as we figure out how to pay that debt...
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Item 1 (from CNN): “It would cost at least $140 billion to repair all the nation’s bridges if work began immediately, a nationwide safety organization said in a comprehensive report Monday.”
Item 2 (from CNN): “The White House on Monday predicted a record deficit of $490 billion for the 2009 budget year.” (That’s off the $128 billion surplus inherited by the Bush administration).
So, our transportation net needs of fixing — and we’re broke.
Now, the bridge situation isn’t quite as dire as the above statement makes it sound. We don’t have to fix all of the nation’s bridges right now. Just about one in four of them.
My personal manifesto is that to live up to our cherished self-image as the greatest nation on earth, we have to have the best educated populace, the best health care system and the best transportation system.
We don’t.
“Nearly one in four bridges needs repairs, and the average age of America’s bridges is 43 years — seven years shy of the maximum age for which most are designed, according to the report, titled ‘Bridging the Gap.’”
“One in five U.S. bridges is more than 50 years old, the report says. ‘Almost one in four bridges, while safe to travel, is either structurally deficient, in need of repair, or … too narrow for today’s traffic volumes.’ the report from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said.”
We really need to refocus our priorities. We cannot afford trillions of dollars spent on foreign adventures. We cannot afford any more porkbarrel legislation (we should never build, let alone have to repair a “bridge to nowhere”).
The bridge report cites “’a frustrating contradiction’ — better engineering, materials and construction techniques are available, but ‘without a national commitment to bridge investment,’ states cannot afford the improvements.”
That says it, right there. A national commitment. Calling all patriots — make America truly the greatest nation: with the finest schools, the best helath care, top quality roads. Let’s make that national commitment now.
Just as soon as we figure out how to pay that debt...
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
A River Runs Through It
One of the benefits of parenthood is the opportunity to see the world through fresh eyes, to rediscover the magic in things you’ve explored before.
My nine-year-old daughter Ceili recently discovered that she loves fishing. She loves everything about it, from organizing her tackle to making a cast to hooking a rainbow trout. She even likes to gut and clean a fish.
Given her new enthusiasm, I thought she might like to watch a movie that centers around fishing. We went to Sunbuster Video and rented “A River Runs Through It.”
Wow. I hadn’t seen the movie in about a decade. I remembered liking it a lot, but I was astounded at how wonderful a film it really is. Certainly Redford’s best, without the clanking failures in tone of his more recent work.
The movie was a star-making turn for Brad Pitt and it’s easy to see why. He was born to play the luminous but doomed Paul Maclean. He truly lived up to the Maclean patriarch’s assessment that Paul was “more than just a fine fisherman. He was beautiful.”
The Montana setting is magnificently portrayed in it’s rugged beauty, its isolation, its raw, elemental power. The juxtaposition of the vestigial raw frontier (whores and poker games at the hot springs) with the bedrock Scots Presbyterianism of the Maclean home and church, the mixture of tough, rough logging communities with modern Roaring 20s “flapperism” is charming in a way that is hard to describe.
I love that era — love the clothes, the cars, the sense of possibility — so maybe seeing it so lovingly portrayed hit me harder than it might strike another. But there was a charm and magnificence to that way of life in that place and time that is all but lost to us now.
We here in Sisters are lucky to have much of the beauty of that world — without some of the uglier aspects like racial prejudice and thoughtless resource exploitation.
A River Runs Through It here, too, and a magnificent river it is.
Last weekend I took Ceili to Camp Sherman’s fly fishing fair. (After seeing the fly fishing in the movie, she said “I want to do that!”). She tied a wooly booger, took a casting lesson and learned all about bugs from Laurie Adams.
I was almost overcome with gratitude that I am able to offer such opportunities to a lively, inquisitive child. A child who has never pushed a button on a video game, who thinks “old-fashioned” cars are the coolest, who likes Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift — and Frank Sinatra.
A child who, like Norman Maclean, will be haunted by waters.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
My nine-year-old daughter Ceili recently discovered that she loves fishing. She loves everything about it, from organizing her tackle to making a cast to hooking a rainbow trout. She even likes to gut and clean a fish.
Given her new enthusiasm, I thought she might like to watch a movie that centers around fishing. We went to Sunbuster Video and rented “A River Runs Through It.”
Wow. I hadn’t seen the movie in about a decade. I remembered liking it a lot, but I was astounded at how wonderful a film it really is. Certainly Redford’s best, without the clanking failures in tone of his more recent work.
The movie was a star-making turn for Brad Pitt and it’s easy to see why. He was born to play the luminous but doomed Paul Maclean. He truly lived up to the Maclean patriarch’s assessment that Paul was “more than just a fine fisherman. He was beautiful.”
The Montana setting is magnificently portrayed in it’s rugged beauty, its isolation, its raw, elemental power. The juxtaposition of the vestigial raw frontier (whores and poker games at the hot springs) with the bedrock Scots Presbyterianism of the Maclean home and church, the mixture of tough, rough logging communities with modern Roaring 20s “flapperism” is charming in a way that is hard to describe.
I love that era — love the clothes, the cars, the sense of possibility — so maybe seeing it so lovingly portrayed hit me harder than it might strike another. But there was a charm and magnificence to that way of life in that place and time that is all but lost to us now.
We here in Sisters are lucky to have much of the beauty of that world — without some of the uglier aspects like racial prejudice and thoughtless resource exploitation.
A River Runs Through It here, too, and a magnificent river it is.
Last weekend I took Ceili to Camp Sherman’s fly fishing fair. (After seeing the fly fishing in the movie, she said “I want to do that!”). She tied a wooly booger, took a casting lesson and learned all about bugs from Laurie Adams.
I was almost overcome with gratitude that I am able to offer such opportunities to a lively, inquisitive child. A child who has never pushed a button on a video game, who thinks “old-fashioned” cars are the coolest, who likes Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift — and Frank Sinatra.
A child who, like Norman Maclean, will be haunted by waters.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Friday, July 18, 2008
Dance with the one who brought you
The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show has grown over more than two decades into an international event, one that has put Sisters on the map. The event provides a massive shot in the arm to Sisters’ economy every summer.
For many merchants, it is the single most lucrative day of the year. It’s no stretch to say that the show and the week leading up to it keep many businesses afloat in Sisters’ seasonal economy.
Trouble is, it’s been going on for so long with such success that many people who should know better take it for granted.
Visitors comment on buildings that are bare of quilts and wonder whether there are fewer quilts this year, if perhaps the show is diminishing. In fact, the only reason a building is bare during quilt show is because the building owner or a business proprietor doesn’t want quilts on the building.
Why would anyone not want quilts on their building? Maybe the show doesn’t directly boost their particular business. Maybe they want quilt show visitors to see their window displays.
Such thinking is shortsighted and selfish. Everybody in Sisters benefits from the quilt show (and other Sisters events) because they make Sisters’ name and reputation — the reputation that brings visitors year-round and provides the lifeblood of what remains and will probably always remain a tourist-based economy.
Some merchants make money by hosting vendors. But if those vendors detract from the show, they are ultimately harming the entity that gives them the opportunity to make their year in a day. Again, selfish and shortsighted.
Some quilters don’t like the rules of the show and set up on their own in unsanctioned displays. Big deal, right? Well, yeah, it is.
The quilt show works hard to maintain the character and quality of the display, which is uniquely based on celebration rather than commerce. The commercial benefits are incidental and accrue mostly to the established merchants of downtown Sisters.
Drafting on the commercial benefits the show brings to Sisters without giving back is freeloading. It’s rude and unseemly behavior. Merchants and quilters alike should dance with the one that brought them. Heck, they’re the ones who put on the dance.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
For many merchants, it is the single most lucrative day of the year. It’s no stretch to say that the show and the week leading up to it keep many businesses afloat in Sisters’ seasonal economy.
Trouble is, it’s been going on for so long with such success that many people who should know better take it for granted.
Visitors comment on buildings that are bare of quilts and wonder whether there are fewer quilts this year, if perhaps the show is diminishing. In fact, the only reason a building is bare during quilt show is because the building owner or a business proprietor doesn’t want quilts on the building.
Why would anyone not want quilts on their building? Maybe the show doesn’t directly boost their particular business. Maybe they want quilt show visitors to see their window displays.
Such thinking is shortsighted and selfish. Everybody in Sisters benefits from the quilt show (and other Sisters events) because they make Sisters’ name and reputation — the reputation that brings visitors year-round and provides the lifeblood of what remains and will probably always remain a tourist-based economy.
Some merchants make money by hosting vendors. But if those vendors detract from the show, they are ultimately harming the entity that gives them the opportunity to make their year in a day. Again, selfish and shortsighted.
Some quilters don’t like the rules of the show and set up on their own in unsanctioned displays. Big deal, right? Well, yeah, it is.
The quilt show works hard to maintain the character and quality of the display, which is uniquely based on celebration rather than commerce. The commercial benefits are incidental and accrue mostly to the established merchants of downtown Sisters.
Drafting on the commercial benefits the show brings to Sisters without giving back is freeloading. It’s rude and unseemly behavior. Merchants and quilters alike should dance with the one that brought them. Heck, they’re the ones who put on the dance.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Thursday, July 10, 2008
School district should take a firm line with developer
The partnership that is developing the Lundgren Mill property at the northwestern end of Sisters wants more time to make the final $700,000 payment on its $3.3 million purchase from the Sisters School District.
These aren't the best of times for anybody trying to sell real estate, residential or commercial, and it's perfectly understandable that the developer should want to come to some kind of accommodation. But the school district needs to hold firm. They have a contract with this developer that sets out clear penalties if the developer fails to meet his obligations.
Being a good neighbor is great; being a nice guy is nice. But the school board represents the taxpayers of the school district and it is in their interest the board must act.
That means taking a firm line. No nice guy deals.
So far, the board, or at least the majority of the board, gets it. They realize that they can't ask the voters to support local option taxes if they aren't meeting their fiduciary duties in exercising a contract with a developer.
The board should be fair, but they need to hold firm. A developer's problems are not the school district's problems. Funding programs, teachers, facilities are. We are the district's shareholders and stakeholders. The board owes us their best efforts.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
These aren't the best of times for anybody trying to sell real estate, residential or commercial, and it's perfectly understandable that the developer should want to come to some kind of accommodation. But the school district needs to hold firm. They have a contract with this developer that sets out clear penalties if the developer fails to meet his obligations.
Being a good neighbor is great; being a nice guy is nice. But the school board represents the taxpayers of the school district and it is in their interest the board must act.
That means taking a firm line. No nice guy deals.
So far, the board, or at least the majority of the board, gets it. They realize that they can't ask the voters to support local option taxes if they aren't meeting their fiduciary duties in exercising a contract with a developer.
The board should be fair, but they need to hold firm. A developer's problems are not the school district's problems. Funding programs, teachers, facilities are. We are the district's shareholders and stakeholders. The board owes us their best efforts.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Mighty ugly trash cans
The new trash cans in downtown Sisters are an improvement over the old ones in a couple of ways: they hold more trash and they're presumably easier to dump.
But they are UGLY. Squat, gray blobs of plastic dotting the sidewalks of Sisters.
Maybe it's not a big deal in the big scheme of things, but they detract from the aesthetic appeal of downtown Sisters. Details are important, especially when you are trying to create a pleasing atmosphere for visitors. Volunteers and city staff work hard to maintain beautiful public spaces. We shouldn't be detracting from their efforts.
Surely there are trash cans that function well, are durable and at least blend in unobtrusively. Let's find some and get rid of the gray plastic blobs.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
But they are UGLY. Squat, gray blobs of plastic dotting the sidewalks of Sisters.
Maybe it's not a big deal in the big scheme of things, but they detract from the aesthetic appeal of downtown Sisters. Details are important, especially when you are trying to create a pleasing atmosphere for visitors. Volunteers and city staff work hard to maintain beautiful public spaces. We shouldn't be detracting from their efforts.
Surely there are trash cans that function well, are durable and at least blend in unobtrusively. Let's find some and get rid of the gray plastic blobs.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Sunday, July 6, 2008
What's so great about being an American?
This weekend I got to enjoy a big, thick slice of Americana.
My band, The Anvil Blasters, was invited to open the Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival out in Fossil. It was a beautiful setting on the lawn of the venerable Wheeler County Courthouse (1901) and the small-town charm was palpable. We played our brand of Americana folk music (pretty well, if I do say so myself) and earned a warm ovation.
My dad wore his red-white-and-blue rodeo shirt and a red-white-and-blue ball cap and he grinned like a little kid as we drove through the corridor of flags in Redmond.
It was a day when it felt good to be an American.
Some of my leftward-leaning friends are uncomfortable with overt displays of patriotism. They feel bludgeoned by the flag, force-fed a diet of simplistic "my country, right or wrong" mentality. I can understand that. I don't take too well to "love it or leave it" patriotism that brooks no criticism or dissent.
But that's no reason to reject the symbol. It's all the greater reason to hoist the banner high.
It's our flag — all of us, right, left, center, whatever our color, whatever our creed. It is a beautiful symbol and it stands for genuinely magnificent principles of justice and liberty.
It stands for a nation that has contributed mightily to the betterment of mankind in every field of endeavor — medicine, jurisprudence, art, sport, science...
To get to Fossil, we drove through magnificent American countryside, so beautiful it made us gasp with wonder. We met some fine folks and enjoyed music that is America's gift to the world, grown out of seeds imported from the British Isles, grown into something vibrant and new in America.
Back in Sisters, folks were playing the blues, another American art form with roots stretching from Africa through a painful journey from the American South through Chicago and branching out into the world as one of our most powerful cultural exports. Volunteers were preparing to celebrate the American folk art tradition of quilting and folks were hunting for treasures at the Gem Show — treasures found in the American landscape.
We were celebrating all that is this magnificent, turbulent nation. America the Beautiful. you make me proud.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
My band, The Anvil Blasters, was invited to open the Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival out in Fossil. It was a beautiful setting on the lawn of the venerable Wheeler County Courthouse (1901) and the small-town charm was palpable. We played our brand of Americana folk music (pretty well, if I do say so myself) and earned a warm ovation.
My dad wore his red-white-and-blue rodeo shirt and a red-white-and-blue ball cap and he grinned like a little kid as we drove through the corridor of flags in Redmond.
It was a day when it felt good to be an American.
Some of my leftward-leaning friends are uncomfortable with overt displays of patriotism. They feel bludgeoned by the flag, force-fed a diet of simplistic "my country, right or wrong" mentality. I can understand that. I don't take too well to "love it or leave it" patriotism that brooks no criticism or dissent.
But that's no reason to reject the symbol. It's all the greater reason to hoist the banner high.
It's our flag — all of us, right, left, center, whatever our color, whatever our creed. It is a beautiful symbol and it stands for genuinely magnificent principles of justice and liberty.
It stands for a nation that has contributed mightily to the betterment of mankind in every field of endeavor — medicine, jurisprudence, art, sport, science...
To get to Fossil, we drove through magnificent American countryside, so beautiful it made us gasp with wonder. We met some fine folks and enjoyed music that is America's gift to the world, grown out of seeds imported from the British Isles, grown into something vibrant and new in America.
Back in Sisters, folks were playing the blues, another American art form with roots stretching from Africa through a painful journey from the American South through Chicago and branching out into the world as one of our most powerful cultural exports. Volunteers were preparing to celebrate the American folk art tradition of quilting and folks were hunting for treasures at the Gem Show — treasures found in the American landscape.
We were celebrating all that is this magnificent, turbulent nation. America the Beautiful. you make me proud.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
A victory for individual rights
The Supreme Court’s decision last week striking down the District of Columbia’s comprehensive handgun ban is a major victory for individual rights.
The law prevented citizens from keeping a handgun in their own home for self-defense. That’s wrong. A law-abiding person ought to have the means of self-defense in the sanctuary of their home. Period.
Whether a handgun is the best means is open to debate. A shotgun loaded with #4 shot is a better bet — easier to use in a crisis, less penetration, etc. But law-abiding American citizens should be able to make the choice.
Striking down that draconian restriction is one victory. The other, broader one is that the Court finally made a judgment on the key question of the Second Amendment, arguing that the amendment acknowledges an individual — not a collective — right to keep and bear arms.
That’s a significant moment in the 40-year debate over gun control in this country and it’s a big win for firearms owners.
The decision does not, as alarmists have argued, mean all gun restrictions will go out the window. The Court was very explicit about this. Reasonable restrictions on who is able to purchase a gun are not open for challenge due to this ruling.
And those restrictions are important.
While it is absolutely right that citizens should have the right to arm themselves for self-defense, it is also absolutely right — and very tricky — for the government to regulate who gets their hands on a gun.
As I have argued before in this space, we need to figure out how to do a better job at preventing madmen and criminals from getting guns. Some ability to demonstrate basic competence and safety isn’t a bad idea, either.
Keeping a firearm for self-defense is an awesome responsibility — literally the power of life and death. It must be taken seriously. But the right to self-defense and the means to enforce it are fundamental rights of citizenship. And now those rights are more secure.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
The law prevented citizens from keeping a handgun in their own home for self-defense. That’s wrong. A law-abiding person ought to have the means of self-defense in the sanctuary of their home. Period.
Whether a handgun is the best means is open to debate. A shotgun loaded with #4 shot is a better bet — easier to use in a crisis, less penetration, etc. But law-abiding American citizens should be able to make the choice.
Striking down that draconian restriction is one victory. The other, broader one is that the Court finally made a judgment on the key question of the Second Amendment, arguing that the amendment acknowledges an individual — not a collective — right to keep and bear arms.
That’s a significant moment in the 40-year debate over gun control in this country and it’s a big win for firearms owners.
The decision does not, as alarmists have argued, mean all gun restrictions will go out the window. The Court was very explicit about this. Reasonable restrictions on who is able to purchase a gun are not open for challenge due to this ruling.
And those restrictions are important.
While it is absolutely right that citizens should have the right to arm themselves for self-defense, it is also absolutely right — and very tricky — for the government to regulate who gets their hands on a gun.
As I have argued before in this space, we need to figure out how to do a better job at preventing madmen and criminals from getting guns. Some ability to demonstrate basic competence and safety isn’t a bad idea, either.
Keeping a firearm for self-defense is an awesome responsibility — literally the power of life and death. It must be taken seriously. But the right to self-defense and the means to enforce it are fundamental rights of citizenship. And now those rights are more secure.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
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