Nelson wrong on guns

Shame on Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson for supporting gun-carrying people over the safety of all people — including schoolchildren. With Sheriff Nelson’s public opposition to initiative petition 43, our schoolchildren are significantly more vulnerable to those who choose to harm them. It’s concerning and tragic that the person elected to provide security for Deschutes County has chosen to do the opposite. Please spare us the dialog about supporting the Second Amendment, since most of us know that there were no assault weapons being made at the time it was written, and there were no mass shootings of schoolchildren. Obviously, carrying a handgun for protection of self and using a rifle to hunt food are different than a less-than-stable person or any person owning an assault weapon. An assault weapon has only one purpose: to be used in wars to kill as many people as possible in the shortest possible time.

Sheriff Nelson, please don’t wait for a mass shooting to occur. Please reconsider your decision and uphold the duties of being sheriff, otherwise resign. Voters will not support your decisions that endanger the lives of our schoolchildren and all people. As adults, it is our responsibility to protect our children.

Carla Gutman

Bend

Vote Neahring

I know there is support for Democratic candidates who can connect with rural voters, because I ran two strong races for state representative in north Central Oregon in 2002 and 2006. I am happy to see a Democratic doctor named Jenni Neahring from Bend with strong potential in this year’s Democratic congressional primary.

Neahring stopped by my farm near Culver recently, and we had a good visit. She is passionate about expanding health care access, quality and affordability. The Affordable Health Care Act might not be perfect, but it has helped families in Eastern Oregon as much as any part of our state. The number of Americans without health care was almost cut in half from 2010 to 2016 — 48 million to 28 million. States like Oregon that chose to expand Medicaid saw the percent of uninsured cut in half from 18 percent in 2013 to 9 percent in 2016.

Despite this, Greg Walden played a leading role gutting ACA and replacing it with “Trumpcare,” which will take away insurance from millions of Americans.

Neahring, on the other hand, wants to help improve the Affordable Care Act that has improved the financial and health of so many rural Oregonians. She has my vote in the Democratic primary!

Jim Gilbertson

Culver

Re-elect DeBone

When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to participate in the La Pine Park and Recreation District’s robotics class, encouraged by then-La Pine Park and Rec board member, Tony DeBone.

Through the years, I’ve continued to appreciate Tony’s commitment to education for Central Oregon youth so that they may stay here after they graduate and pursue family-wage careers while enjoying our wonderful lifestyle/environment. He is working hard to provide affordable housing alternatives so that families can afford to live and work here. The recent ground-breaking ceremony in La Pine is a good example of Tony’s involvement in low-cost housing projects.

Tony is an honest family man who cares deeply for our rural heritage and strives to ensure its economic growth while protecting its ecological importance. As a rural resident of Deschutes County, I urge you to vote YES for Tony DeBone, Deschutes County Commissioner, Position No. 1.

Joshua Henry

La Pine

Support Buehler

We have many freedoms in this country, the greatest being freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the right to vote as we choose. But many of us do not use that freedom. In the last presidential election, over 40 percent of Republicans did not vote. Why? Thank goodness Donald Trump still won.

In our upcoming election in Oregon we have a great person running for governor — Knute Buehler. He is very conservative and honest. We have it easy in this state — we always vote by mail. How easy is that? Fill in your ballot and mail it or take it to a drop-box. So please do your duty and vote. Let’s get a governor who will get things done and work on lowering taxes, constantly being increased by the liberals who have been running this state for over 30 years. This is America and let us use our freedom of voting to elect an honest man to be governor — Knute Buehler!

June Bonkosky

Bend