Vote Randy Miller for Circuit Court judge

I’ve known and worked alongside Randy Miller for years in support of a local nonprofit. In addition to his thorough understanding of the law and deep respect for the judicial system, Miller shows great compassion for people, a strong work ethic and leadership.

When not representing clients in courtrooms throughout Oregon, Miller is also a committed husband, father and citizen. You might find Miller watching his daughters’ basketball games or speaking with a kindergarten Camp Fire group about what it means to be a veteran, in terms they can understand and appreciate.

He is known for burning hot dogs on the backyard barbecue and spends Sunday at church and with his family before pursuing his other passion, fly fishing. When a startled horse bucked a rider at the start of a Tough Mudder event at the Wilson Ranch in Fossil, Miller immediately stepped in to secure and calm the horse so others could attend to the injured rider. Miller also called the Wilson family a week later, just to see how the rider was doing.

Why do I mention these things? I want to know that our elected officials are “good” people when they are out of the spotlight, with character, integrity and judgment worthy of their position. Miller has those qualities.

He served his country with honor as a police officer and Marine combat veteran. Please give him the opportunity to serve the citizens of Deschutes County by electing him as our newest Circuit Court judge.

Nick Shein

Bend

Student shows deserve praise and coverage

Recently I attended an incredible performance of “Footloose” at Redmond High School. As always, after attending a play at a high school of the 21st century, I am amazed to see such professional performances come from students who are between 14 and 18 years of age.

I think back to our high school plays of the ’60s, and even though we all had a wonderful time and were certainly proud of our performance, we didn’t hold a candle to the acting, singing and dancing I have observed in the last few years. I also attended the last night of “Bye Bye Birdie” earlier at Ridgeview High School, and again, I was amazed at the talent on that stage.

I am writing this to give the students and staff of both schools the praise they so deserve but also as a suggestion for your staff in the future. I know you do put the notice of the performances in the activities section for several days, but what a boost it would be for those students to actually have a review of sorts — maybe in GO! Magazine in place of (dare I say it) one of the breweries!

I like that your paper supports local businesses, but I would love to see that same support for local schools. I suspect area schools will not be offering any more performances for the season, but it might be worth a sticky note on someone’s desk before the 2014/2015 school year begins in September.

Peggy Waggoner

Terrebonne

Beware politicians

I hope the voters in any district, state-county-city-national, will join me in not voting for any incumbent — Democrat, Republican or independent.

Whoever runs against existing elected officials will get my vote. By getting rid of existing politicians who raise our taxes, don’t pay attention to the constitution, refuse to uphold voters wishes (Kitzhaber/death penalty, etc.), and shut down national government, maybe then we’ll get back a government that we thought we voted for.

Democrats and Republicans act like deadly enemies at war, rather than working together towards a goal that they promised while running for office. They need to work together for what’s best for the nation. For those of you who do not vote (there’s a lot of you), do not complain when things don’t go your way.

In the next presidential election, vote for the most qualified candidate, not the candidate with the most campaign money. The office of the president of the United States shouldn’t be for sale.

Elected officials and government agencies spend more money than what is collected. Stop the pork spending.

Please join me and others in voting all incumbents out. If unopposed, leave blank so they can’t count your vote as support.

Paul Stoutenburg

Redmond