The main entrance of St. Charles Bend campus.

Recently, I collapsed while playing pickleball at Widgi Creek. This got me a ride in the ambulance and an overnight stay in the hospital. What I learned from this, or what this reaffirmed for me (something that I had taken a bit for granted), is that the people of Bend and Central Oregon are good, caring, and kind.

A retired doctor and nurse immediately administered care to me at Widgi, the Bend Fire medics were on the scene quickly and worked professionally, and the emergency room and hospital staff at St. Charles were outstanding in their care and communication.

Along my 36-hour journey, I met one of my former students (now a Bend EMT, good to see you again), I talked Bend history with one of my primary nurses — something I love. With some of the other staff, we shared stories of pickleball and traveling Europe. Thank you to all; you were wonderful! And to all of my friends who checked in with me, that was very heartfelt. And Linda, you were terrific! The people of Bend and Central Oregon are good people!

— Kevin B. English, Bend

Well, here we go again. As the quote sometimes attributed to Einstein states, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Two years ago I wrote in this space that Jamie McLeod-Skinner offered Central Oregon a real chance of adding a Republican seat to Congress. And here we are. The reasons I offer today to reject her fourth attempt at public office remain the same: a thin resume, a vague platform and an anemic campaign.

There are other Democrats currently seeking the nomination for the OR-5 congressional seat. I don’t know if any of them can win, but I definitely know of one who has proven that she can lose.

— Robert Hedeen, Bend

Yancy Lind’s July 25 guest column takes Congressman Bentz to task for conducting a congressional hearing on the Endangered Species Act. Congressman Bentz’s hearing was to clarify whether the ESA’s listings could negatively impact citizens. Mr. Lind’s worry is that the hearings are a “misrepresentation of what is going on.” He believes the hearing fails to address the bigger issue, the heating planet and its effect on water supplies. He urges Congressman Bentz to address planet heating because “the tipping point is fast approaching.”

Mr. Lind is deeply concerned about climate change, but he doesn’t say where he found the data that predicts an impending tipping point crisis. Satellite data, published by the University of Alabama-Huntsville since 1978, shows a very gradual increase in global temperature of 0.13 degree Celsius per decade. At that rate, the earth’s temperature will be just 1 degree Celsius warmer at the beginning of the 22nd century.

Mr. Lind could assuage his climate concern if he read the document Happer and Lindzen submitted to the Security and Exchange Commission. They prepared the document to aid the SEC in setting rules for climate disclosures for investors. It is posted on the CO2 Coalition website as Happer-Lindzen-SEC-6-17-22.pdf. Mr. Lind would benefit from reading it, as would others.

— Jared Black, Bend

Your opinion doesn’t matter. At least, that’s the result we experience in our presidential elections if our ballot is not cast for the majority winner of our state. Due to the winner-takes-all approach, which is not part of the U.S. Constitution, ballots cast for a minority contender are essentially discarded, not gaining any voting representation.

Given that ours is a representative democracy, this approach should be discarded. Instead, Oregon should adopt the proportional presidential voting result that Equal Voice Voting offers.

Our eight electoral votes should be proportionally divided among the top candidate contenders.

If we, as a voting citizenry, can bring ourselves to accept the legitimacy of other voting voices in our state, Oregon can stand as a grand example to the rest of the nation to do likewise.

We need not be so politically polarized at the ballot box (our mailboxes). Such proportional voting results will enable all of us to be heard, and encouraged to vote, enabling a voting environment wherein all votes matter in our state.

— Jerry Spriggs, West Linn