Letters to the Editor, Week of July 16, 2026

Being Seen

At Munch & Music the other night, a handsome man, early forties maybe, looked at me and said, “You are pretty.”
     Three words.
     At this season of my life, I never expected to hear those words again. But his tone, his eye contact, the plain sincerity of it, made me believe him. I walked on, surprised and light.
   “Do you know him?” my friend asked.
   “I don’t think so,” I said. It didn’t matter. What mattered was how long it had been since anyone bothered to say something so simple and true, and mean it.
   A few days later, a childhood friend sent me a video of her late husband’s commencement address. I wrote to her. What he’d said stayed with me: showing up in person, looking someone in the eye, telling them what you actually see in them. That man at the gathering had done exactly that, without knowing it.
   So I’ve started doing it back.
   Telling someone they are pretty. Saying, “I am so glad you are here.” Asking about a surgery and really waiting for the answer. With the Silver Sharks, I say it out loud when I see it: her grace in the water, his steady way with the group.

I don’t know his name. I probably never will. But he changed how I move through a room.

— Laurie Clark

If Circuses Have Evolved Why Can’t Rodeos?

Rodeos are experiencing a major surge in popularity across Oregon currently and are supported locally as a massive driver for local economies. It is deeply discouraging that an event built on violence toward animals continues to draw such enthusiastic crowds.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that the industry works very hard to make sure the audience don’t see the “bad side” and unfortunately the propaganda is working.

The misleading argument by rodeo sponsors that rodeo is merely a display of traditional ranching is a fallacy. Ranchers prioritize low-stress handling and calm environments to prevent livestock weight loss and injury. Long-term health of the animals is a priority for economic reasons. Whereas rodeos subject animals to periods of intense stress, fear and high injury risks for entertainment. In rodeo the goal is speed, spectacle and human domination over an animal.

Local news outlets and seemingly reputable businesses continue to lend their credibility to the spectacle, and most people simply don’t look deeply enough to what they’re witnessing. This isn’t unique to rodeo – we saw the same pattern with the circus, with SeaWorld, with every form of animal entertainment that has ever existed. Again, to hide the “bad side” these organizations shower the audience with glittering lights, acrobatic feats and lively music designed to distract audiences from the harsher, unseen realities of the industry.

These live circuses with animal acts have largely been replaced by extraordinary human performers – and somehow Cirque du Soleil is more breathtaking than anything an exploited elephant ever did. The magic didn’t disappear. It just evolved.

So why not rodeo? And in this age of extraordinary technology and creative innovation, we have to believe there are ingenious minds capable of designing a simulated rodeo experience that captures all the excitement without a single animal being terrorized, injured or killed.

—Jill Tinker

This article appears in the Source July 16, 2026.