Letters to the Editor 07/17/2025

Time for tort reform

In response to Peter Maden’s article about Oregon ski resorts and how Oregon is close to becoming uninsurable (“Oregon Ski Resort Operations Hang in the Balance” 7/1), I have a suggestion that is way overdue: widespread and dramatic tort reform. I flatly reject trial lawyer Joe Piucci’s assertion that SB 1196 will “extinguish” the legal rights of Oregon citizens’, which is another way of saying it will cut off a nice pipeline of lucrative cases for law firms. Our costs to recreate keep jumping dramatically to cover legal fees and insurance, until the point that we can’t recreate anymore. Anyone care to guess how much lawsuits have increased the cost of lift tickets?

How about medicine? Automobiles? Construction? I’ve skied my entire life, and I can tell you there is no such thing as a “safe” ski jump. You can’t engineer a jump or a mountain bike trail to be inherently safe for all athletes. That is impossible. But what is possible is personal responsibility, and the ability of an adult or a guardian to understand that going skiing or mountain biking is not only optional for everyone, but also potentially dangerous, regardless of how well maintained the features are, and it is up to each of us individually to judge the environment and make sure we operate safely and within our abilities. Also, accidents do happen. In this country, however, it seems that there are no longer accidents, but rather assigned liability, and then someone pays someone else a lot of money. Is this really what we need? Billboards will glamorize “fighting for your rights” and the big bucks that can be won, but lawsuits are incredibly horrible to go through, expensive and time consuming, and after insurance companies and law firms take their cut, which they do, plaintiffs are left with significantly less money than they thought they were going to receive. Meanwhile, our privileges and freedoms will be lost. Paragliders, for example, can no longer fly off Mt. Bachelor as an immediate result of Bagley v. Mt. Bachelor. Other sports have been eliminated by lawsuits or will be soon. When will it be enough? How much do insurance companies and law firms need to make?

I will also submit that if a doctor commits malpractice, law firms are not the ones who should be solving the problem. Rather, licensing boards, which are there to protect the public, are much better equipped to evaluate malpractice and determine damages, as well as follow up with mandatory suspensions, training, etc…to ensure the practitioner is competent moving forward. I don’t see how law firms earning huge settlements and taking the lion’s share are a necessary part of the equation to protect the public.

It’s time we open our eyes to how expensive lawsuits are to us all, and how we are losing our freedoms, one lawsuit at a time.

— Mitch McDeer

RE: “Journalists at ‘The Bulletin’ Have Had Enough,” news 7/9

I’ve been here long enough to recall when the Bulletin was truly an exceptional newspaper.

Gene Barton… Bob Shotwell… the list goes on.

Sadly those days are long, long gone and over with.

Today the employees are scuttling their own ship advocating against an out of state owner who truly isn’t interested nor inclined to respond favorably. EO got out while the getting was good and cut its losses.

Bottom Line Up Front – the Product produced by the Bulletin (news) is below par with other and newer news/entertainment providers here locally. In today’s competitive marketplace this translates into dollars and cents. Can’t afford to pay? Can’t afford to play.

— George Walker via bendsource.com

RE: Letters to the Editor 7/3, 7/10

Thank you Gordon Cumming (“Display Of Assault At La Pine Rodeo”) and J Tinker (“The Pain Behind the Show”) for your thoughtful letters regarding the La Pine Rodeo and rodeos in general. I attended my first and last rodeo several years ago at the Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming. A calf that was injured was supposedly going to be checked by the in-house vet. With what looked like a broken leg, treatment seemed unlikely.

But that rodeo, as disturbing as it was to me, was not as cruel as what Cumming documents in his letter: The forced milking of cows. I had trouble reading that letter. And I have to wonder at the men (or were women involved too?) who would participate in such bizarre cruelty to an animal.

Though I’m not a vegetarian, I do my best to avoid factory-farmed meats. I wish that folks who love their pets and pamper them like children would take note of how our domesticated animals are treated. But it is even worse that animals in a rodeo ring are treated so harshly for the sake of entertainment.

Who can get involved to change what’s going on at the La Pine Rodeo? Certainly local TV coverage should show the whole story rather than promoting the local rodeos as wonderful family entertainment. I’m betting that those “cowboys” and reporters have dogs that they love and pamper. Someone needs to help participants and viewers alike realize at least one of their “sporting” events is nothing more than animal abuse.

— Linda Spaet

RE: “Delays on Reed Market/Bond Roundabout Spark Safety and Traffic Concerns,” NEWS, 6/24

Fix 3rd and Empire first. The 97 “upgrade” did no favors for the North side residents. Multiple engineering failures and wasted opportunities. There are some easy wins with little effort if they just take a closer look.

— Vincent Foley via bendsource.com

Letter of the Week:

Vincent, I think we can all relate to traffic frustrations. As letter or comment of the week, you can stop by our office at NW Georgia & Bond to pick up a gift card to Palate coffee.

— Nic Moye, Managing Editor

This article appears in Source Weekly July 17, 2025.