Gas Pumps and Pot
1. I would like to start a movement that gas pumps are not parking spots. Please be kind and thoughtful of others and once you have filled your tank, move to a parking spot to get food, restroom etc., so the next person can fill and go. Just because no one is around doesn't mean that five other people might just be coming into the service station and have to wait 10 minutes for an empty pump. Let's make the world a better place, one good act at a time.
2. Pot. It would benefit pot users to know that pot stays in your system for five days after your last usage and you can get a DUI within the five days, due to a recent friend got arrested for a DUI on pot. And on the news and radio they said that using any form of pot increases your chances by 42% to have heart issues. People used to think cigarettes were safe too. Be wise and educated and be safe everyone. Live a healthy life.
—Elaine Rank
MAGA Parenting
Election-loser Trump continues to mutate USA society into the society that George Orwell warned about in his 1949 science fiction novel, "1984." Truth is whatever Big Brother says it is. Empirical facts—such as repeatedly verified election results and how hydrocarbon mismanagement is causing catastrophic global warming—are annoying hoaxes in Trump's egocentric, alternate reality. Trump's edicts, the culture war, and warm guns are the MAGA silver dollars, half dollars, and quarters while reality, civility, and environmental sustainability are its dimes, nickels and pennies.
Do MAGA parents tell their children to be truthful, play fair, and always remember the Golden Rule even though their idolized Big Brother believes that anyone who behaves or even thinks in these terms is a sucker and a loser?
Or to avoid being hypocritical, do MAGA parents encourage their kids to lie and cheat in order to ALWAYS "win" because that is Trump's overriding concern in life? Do they tell their kids that cooperation, friendship, and romance are tools to be used only for acquiring wealth and social status? Does a viciously competitive, paranoid, and tribalistic MAGA culture inspire them to buy their teenage children AK-47's so they can help to defend their grossly persecuted, Jesus-like leader from the radical left vermin who continually try to force reality, fair elections, and the rule of law upon him? Do they tell their kids that Trump's enemies are their enemies, and that the democracy that their ancestors sacrificed and sometimes even died for for must now be dismantled because it hinders their blindingly glorious Big Brother's lust for unlimited power?
I am curious, because it must be difficult being MAGA parents who are forced into choosing between blatant hypocrisy and fanatical cultism as they attempt to guide their children's sensibilities and behavior in 2024 / 1984.
— Eddie Kinnamon
Autopsy Released for Nex Benedict
Police in Owasso, OK are investigating the death of Nex Benedict. If that is all they do, they are overlooking a serious crime: three girls who were educated in the Oklahoma school system were capable of gang brutality in response to getting wet.
That's pretty violent.
How did they get that violent? Is that being investigated?
These girls were deeply harmed as a result of their conditioning. They will forever live with the knowledge that they attacked three on one. That they caused their victim to black out. How does one go on to maintain a confidence in their basic goodness? Who put this violence into them? Who should we investigate?
Teachers, parents, school policy makers — who else, really, was responsible and instrumental in shaping these girls from infants to a gang? An autopsy had to be performed to answer the question of whether the head trauma they caused in Nex Benedict was the cause of death...how could three Owasso girls be suspected of killing another student in a bathroom brawl? It should never have been a question! They should never have required an autopsy to exonerate them.
"These girls would never attack one person like that, they would turn, leave the bathroom, and show their soaking wet selves to school authorities and trust them to handle the minor insult." This should have been the girls' defense. But instead, it was an autopsy. Sadly, the facts in the investigation were confirmed: they did create a substantiated threat of future harm to Nex Benedict if they continued to attend the school as a transgender student, and Nex Benedict did commit suicide the next day rather than live with that threat.
Let us do our duty by these three young victims who have had their innocence destroyed, and their futures forever marred by an egregious lack of healthy socialization.
And another scary thought: are you sure this could not happen here?
—Kelli Wainscoat
RE: Sun Time. Column, 3/28
My sincere compliments to Ellen Waterston for her "Sun Time" article in her column, "The Third Act." This article was exceptionally well-researched, very informative and refreshingly thoughtful in her presentation. She's an outstanding journalist with excellent insight — and a real asset to Bend Source. Many thanks for all that she contributes to our community.
—Bob Reese
Letter of the Week:
Bob: We agree, and plenty of other people must think so too — read the story on her recent award in this week's Culture. And come on by for your gift card to Palate!
—Nicole Vulcan
