Letters to the Editor, Week of Aug. 6

Energize Bend’s Future with Your Expertise as a Bendite

If we are going to keep growing, we should all have a say. When I returned to Central Oregon after graduating from college, I could not believe how many new neighborhoods had popped up. It made me wonder where all the water, electricity, and energy to support that growth would come from. Bend is changing fast, and we have an opportunity to grow in a way that benefits everyone.

A sustainable Bend is about more than reducing emissions; it is about the joy that people find from life and the pride they take in community. It requires the stories and voices from residents who experience smoky air, shorter winters, and battle with electrical bill increases, and also experience the beauty of our parks, mountains, and river. All of these factors, plus more, impact our lives, and a sustainable Bend decreases the burdens and increases the stories of joy!

A sustainable Bend is preparing for wildfire smoke, extreme heat, and changing season lengths. Upgrading homes to be more energy efficient, making pedaling or walking around town with ease, and knowing how to maintain comfort in your living space. I have seen such incremental changes since coming home — new bike lanes, more climate resilience workshops, greater solar panels adorning rooftops, and more affordable housing that already prioritizes electric appliances. Progress can still be done!

As someone who hopes to continue building a life here, I find that Bend’s character and welcoming nature toward newcomers are important. Growth that protects both people and the place we call home will make it easier for everyone – not just those in brand-new homes – to benefit from clean energy and clean investment.

The Climate Pollution Fund, a mix of revenues from policies like the Climate Pollution Fee, will move us in that direction. This tool focuses on resident needs, and it is time to be part of the conversation. Community input will guide how these funds are used. So, share your experiences and values to help the City better respond to your needs.

If you care about Bend’s future, take a few minutes to complete the survey. As the city grows, it can reflect our values, today and for generations.

—Riley Ahmuty

What’s in the water?

Every year or two, headlines announce another lettuce recall, and consumers respond predictably: stop buying lettuce. Grocery stores are left with unsold romaine and iceberg while people avoid salads for a few weeks. Then the cycle repeats.

But lettuce does not produce E. coli, Salmonella, or Cyclospora. It merely carries them. The real source is often upstream: contaminated water used to irrigate or wash produce. In many outbreaks, that contamination originates with industrial animal agriculture.

A current Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce has sickened more than 1,600 people in five states. Although Cyclospora contamination comes from human sewage rather than livestock waste, the lesson is the same. The lettuce is not the source. Contaminated water is.

The pattern is even clearer with E. coli. In 2018, contaminated romaine lettuce sickened 210 people across 36 states and killed five. Federal investigators traced the outbreak not to a lettuce field but to an irrigation canal near a massive cattle feedlot in Yuma County, Arizona. The outbreak strain of E. coli was found in the canal water, creating a pathway from manure to lettuce.

Research published in 2024 in the Journal of Food Protection found similar patterns in leafy-green outbreaks since 2009. Feedlots and concentrated animal feeding operations were frequently located near irrigation canals serving produce fields.

An honest headline would not be “Lettuce Recalled.” It would be “Food-Growing Water Contaminated.” Vegetables are not inherently dangerous. They become risky when grown in polluted environments.

If we want fewer recalls and illnesses, we need to follow contamination upstream. Stop blaming the lettuce. Start asking what’s in the water.

—Debra Merskin, PhD

Make America Great Again by destroying it

Destruction includes shredding the Constitution, granting personhood and free speech to corporations, eliminating the separation of church and state, flipping the justice system to injustice, abolishing the rule of law, cancelling voting rights, transferring judicial and legislative powers to a president, trashing government agencies responsible for social services such as health care, social security, education, disabilities and poverty, fueling the power of the fossil fuel industry to exacerbate the climate crisis, instilling fear, hatred and deadly actions against immigrants and people of color, creating ICE, an illegal militarization of the police state and controlling the media.

Perpetual wars are the foundation of the financial system. The economy depends on the war machine. Deporting manufacturing, eliminating living wage jobs, sinking American workers into despair and poverty are essential parts of economic destruction. Increasing the astronomical national debt is inevitable but of no concern to the ruling class.

Destroying democracy with an authoritarian, theocratic, corrupt corporate capitalist system of control for the ultra-wealthy class establishes the roots of fascism.

Celebrating 250 years of the initial efforts to create a government based on freedom, equality and justice for WeThePeople, or at least some people, was commendable.

Now it feels like America has devolved into a country that behaves like a spoiled, privileged, petulant five-year-old.

—Sue Bastian

Letter of the Week:

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from you Sue! As letter of the week, you can stop by the Source to pick up a gift card to Palate coffee. A note to readers, please send me your letters! —Managing Editor Nic Moye

This article appears in the Source August 6, 2026.