We Need This
Music. Now, more than ever, we need it. Want to connect with your fellow citizens? Music. Want to escape the dreadful news happening in our country and the world? Music. The element of “fun” is something we all need in our daily lives. Music is just that… FUN! And here in Bend we are blessed with some of the most talented and friendly musicians you could imagine. It’s impossible for me to list them all, so go see and experience them for yourself. Get out and have some effing fun. Life is hard. Life is short. What are we waiting for? Grab your friends and go have some fun. I’m 66 and having a friggin blast every week checking out local bands that impress me with their talent and the pure joy they bring to their craft. They are having more fun than me! I’m heading out as soon as I hit “send”. Hope to see you out there!
— Mike Covey
Support for Ross Tomlin for Bend-La Pine School Board
I’m writing today to recommend Ross Tomlin in the upcoming May 20th election for Bend/LaPine School Board (Zone 6).
Ross and I both started at COCC in 2004: he as a dean, me as a faculty member. I remember him, to this day, being the first administrator to ever visit my class and be interested in not only the subject matter, but also the pedagogy I used. I never forgot those visits – especially because I haven’t had in-depth teaching conversations like that with any administrator since.
I got to hang with him again last year when he was substitute teaching a forestry class; his class visited our home in Bend (that class – FOR 260 – is the Sustainable Building Materials class, and they’ve visited our home for about two decades now, as our little piece of Oregon has a number of ecological/low-environmental-impact features that we built in). Seeing him, after all those years, sitting cross-legged with his class on our front lawn was pretty magical. And watching him interact with students, one-to-one, was a gift.
Ross has my vote, because his heart, like mine, is with students first. He’ll carry that compass to the School Board.
I encourage you to vote for him, as well. Thanks for reading.
— Sean Rule
Two Protests, One Reckoning
Saturday I stood in the crosscurrent of two protests. Both held in the heart of Bend, Oregon. Each flowing from a different wellspring of civic soul.
At noon, the Peace Corner was anything but quiet. Voices rang with conviction. So did horns. Hands gripped personal cardboard signs. Citizens stood at the corner not to shout into the void but to declare they were no longer asleep. This was militant free speech. Demands in its rawest form. Unfiltered, unpolished, and deeply American. These were citizens who carry the First Amendment like a shield, not just a slogan.
By 2:00 PM, a different assembly had gathered at Drake Park organized by a coalition of churches and others. Wrapped in the joy of brotherhood and unity to face our shared challenges. It was orderly, hopeful, and sincere. The sign bearers from the earlier protest arrived. Carrying cardboard signs expressing deep unrest. Yet the tone had shifted. Combined, the tent had grown larger. More inclusive and inviting unity of purpose.
But here’s what struck me:
The response must be proportional to the threat. Our streets are our ballot box of last resort. Each of all of us together voting their own self-evident truth. Expressing it in Freedom of Speech and Assembly. One but many united. Escalating and overcoming within the scope of our rights, rule of law and common shared value beliefs until we prevail. Or until we are outvoted. Not by fellow citizens but the concentrated power of Authoritarianism.
We are Citizens United. Not to be Outvoted by the power of a few but Voting Out what we don’t want. Voting in the restoration of Democracy in the true American way of our heritage.
For me there was no Joy in Mudville Saturday. Our team chosen by our Constitutional rule of law has sold us out in a fixed game. It is laying an imposed claim to winning self-serving rewards for themselves and a leader that chose them as the Art of the Raw Deal at our expense.
— Tim Lester
Percolation
When we raze Bend’s forests and build on that land, we are also damaging our water resources.
Rain falls then percolates deep through the layers of soil all around us. The soil, rich with minerals, fungi, bacteria—a living ecosystem invisible to our eyes—filters this water before it enters underground streams and reservoirs known as aquifers. These aquifers, in turn, feed into our Deschutes and other waterways. Aquifers provide our drinking water.
Forest soil spongey with layers of decomposing organic matter and with a rich ecosystem of microorganisms, absorbs large volumes of rainwater and is the best at percolating and filtering rainwater.
When we clear-cut forests to build, we lose percolation—Nature’s water filtering and purifying system. We gain runoff: fast-flowing rainwater on streets, sidewalks, driveways, roofs, parking lots, etc. that collects dirt, garbage, gasoline, and other pollutants along the way and dumps into our Deschutes and other waterways. Aquifers are not replenished.
While hiking at Shevlin recently, I admired the crystal-clear waters of Tumalo Creek. I recalled that when I first arrived in Bend in 2014, the Deschutes downtown was similarly clear. Today, it’s brown, cloudy, and full of algae downtown—signs of run-off, not enough percolation.
What to do? Replanting trees is not the same. It’s forest soil, developed over decades and centuries, that filters. Ideally, we save forests. Use pavers, gravel, and other permeable materials for sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, etc. to allow rainwater to sink and percolate, to stop runoff. Limit building along the river or stop it all together.
— Tomoko Harada Ferguson
Letter of
the Week:
Many of us fondly remember how the area once looked. Thanks for your letter. You can stop by our offices on NW Georgia and Bond for a gift card to Palate coffee.
—Nic Moye, Managing Editor
This article appears in Source Weekly April 24, 2025.
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