Elections
The elections are over, thankfully! The vitriol seems to get worse and the lies are exponential. For example, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade did not mean the end of abortion availability. Trump won! We can save the planet by eliminating fossil fuels. How many votes were purchased with the promise of cancellation of student loan debt? Was the Hunter Biden laptop a product of Russian disinformation? President Biden said the southern borders are secure and there is no energy crisis. Are we helping Ukraine all we can? On and on it goes.
It is really disheartening to see how racism, gender, equity and equality are being used to manipulate and marginalize many Americans. This comes from the zealots on both the extreme left and right, and from news media and internet platforms. Yes, our country has some horrible history (as do most all countries) but we dwell on the negative too much. Unfortunately, many young people hear that they have little chance in the "system." Some become belligerent or ill-tempered toward others (eg the police or those of different values). Sadly, some do not aspire to improve their condition or fulfill their dreams. Socrates stated that good comes from knowledge and evil comes from ignorance. Our education system is not in the top 20 in overall quality comparison, although we were once number one. It starts there and requires perseverance.
— Quentin Jauquet
RE: A Complicated Tree Natural World, 12/15
People must remember that many of us live in one of the most significant old growth juniper forests on Earth. Junipers are notoriously thirsty, but are also the only tree able to simultaneously survive months without water, and then barely any at all during our bitterly cold winters. Many of us live between those rocky ridges, often in sandy soils that locally never supported much grass or anything else at all besides spring flowers, shrubs and ancient junipers. My mom's family came to Cline Falls in 1913 and, like all the locals then, would heat their home with old growth juniper, 10 cords a winter. That's a lot of trees. Besides clearing juniper for fields, it was also milled into lumber. I still have 2x4's from that period, incredibly fine-grained, dense juniper, from trees hundreds of years old. Stumps cover miles and miles of BLM land surrounding Redmond, Eagle Crest, Plainview, Powell Butte, and Alfalfa, hinting to the magnificence of this woodland before our use of it. Juniper are essential for wildlife cover, moderating summer heat, and protecting many orbs that rely on their shade and addition of organic matter. Junipers taking over productive grasslands due to lack of fire is one thing. But locally, junipers were often more prolific before Europeans than now. Junipers in irrigated areas are definitely water hogs, but they can't be drinking water that isn't there. Our aquifer comes from the mountains.
—Travis Lundy via bendsource.com
They are native to our region, have been for millennia. Debate is over pre and post settlement distribution. As usual our settlement actually increased its range through over grazing and fire suppression.
— Paul Claeyssens via bendsource.com
Make our community better and get more people out of homelessness
This Letter is made to plant an idea seed in the City of Bend.
The idea is to make our community better and get more people out of homelessness, I propose the city of Bend to make several 100-unit mobile home parks. The average number of mobile homes on 10 acres is 100 units.
The idea is: The City of Bend would design, develop and sell these parks after completion. Instead of managing these parks they would invest into the next mobile home park project.
The State of Oregon has used funds to finance mobile home parks for communities that have been impacted because of fires. Many people from communities in Oregon and California have moved here because of the fires and this has impacted our community. Let's use these funds from the state for our impacted community.
It seems like a huge impact, for the low end of the housing sale, and helps our community create more affordable housing. This would hopefully be a net neutral endeavor. The people's capital to make this a reality would be a worthwhile investment for our community.
The management and guiding hand of getting the permit and funds from the state to make mobile home parks available for housing would only be possible with help from the city. That, along with the design and infrastructure of these communities, will make our community better and get more people out of homelessness. I hope this idea grows.
—Mark Bernahl
Letter of the Week:
Mark: Lots of great ideas floating around. Perhaps you can take a city councilor out for coffee with your Letter of the Week gift card and see how this idea might fly. (Come on by our office to grab your gift card to Palate!) In any case, this week's Opinion piece offers some other ideas — namely, that each of us could do a little more to tackle this immense issue. Happy holidays!
—Nicole Vulcan
