Source Weekly

W. (Wilderness) T. (Therapy) F. (Friend)! In reference to last week's WTF? article, “Hoods In The Woods,” I would like to inform our community on a few things. I am a past “wannabee drill sergeant” having worked for 2-plus years at a Wilderness Therapy Program. I take offense to being called this slanderous term. No, we are not crazy drill sergeants. We are real people who just so happen to care about our youth. We hope to lead students on the journey of self-discovery. We work to build stronger family units in a time when many are falling apart. My “wannabee drill sergeant” friends and I find Central Oregon to be an amazing place to help teens discover all these things.

With reference to right-winger Kenneth Swipies piece of Oct. 15, he apparently thinks his denigration of the “left-wing” shouldn't be challenged, but the left-wings denigration of the right-wing is verboten! A double standard? He doesn't accept the 1st Amendment to our Constitution by denying the separation of church and state. He makes a mockery of it even though it's supported by the U.S. Supreme Court. He's unaware that the separation of church and state was already well established at the time of the Constitutional Convention. Abortion has also been legalized by the Court. He makes an erroneous statement about God and the Bible in public schools. The teaching of evolution is there, God and the Bible are not! I'm not familiar with the left-wing attempt to get faith-based organizations to help promote “Universal Healthcare.” But anything's possible.

I'd like to address the people who are fond of putting out food for the in-town deer population. Please don't be surprised when you emerge some chilly morning and find one dead in your yard with a bloody trail leading into the street.

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama has caused consternation on both sides of the aisle and amongst our perennially uninspiring TV pundits. They ask, “How can a president who has only been in power for 9 months and who is prosecuting two wars, get the Nobel Prize… for Peace?” The hoards of the perpetually perplexed to whom we seem to spend half our lives patiently explaining the simple things of life … are, as expected, confused, nonplussed, indignant and angry. Here, again, Obama's detractors miss the point – they fail to grasp the meaning of this particular Nobel Prize, a prize that cannot be understood from the perspective of American politics.

President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize recently and your paper managed to run a couple (tidbits) on the event, including banter from a guy who didn't even know it happened and a piece in Upfront that was just an off-the-dome blurb. I'm not sure if that really counts as journalism. The Internet is rife with people spouting off uneducated opinions about various topics and you're killing trees to put more of it in print. To Mr. McMenaminuses (whoever that actually is) I would say, why don't you listen to the Nobel committee chair explain the decision before you feel the need to go on about it. There were specific reasons that they cited (“for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”) that make a lot of sense. And to those people who say that Obama hasn't “done” anything, I would say that you're completely not paying attention. In short, Obama has fundamentally changed the way the United States government operates.