Letters to the editor: A red sweater; Trump and the ballot; Putin puppet
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 26, 2023
- Downtown Bend in December.
A red sweater
I was visiting relatives in Bend recently, went Christmas shopping and lunch at the Pine Tree Tavern
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What I found interesting, and it got to be funny as we kept looking, for a Christmas sweater. We stopped into as many local shops as possible, to keep the downtown thriving. Bend has a good bit of cowboy clothing, that’s fun. But my choices that I started to see was the same colors of browns and tans in most of the stores. I would have bought a white sweater if it had some glitter.
Maybe I’m old fashioned and red is an old color that no one wears. Bend has wonderful shopping and easy parking. Maybe next year I’ll find a sweater.
— Cathy Lynch, Kent, Washington
Trump and the ballot
The Colorado Supreme Court got it right. In spite of columnist Jim Geraghty’s protestations a person can be prevented from running for public office under the terms of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment without being formally convicted of insurrection. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that an individual who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. or “given aid or comfort to the enemies” of the nation is disqualified from holding public office, unless granted amnesty by a two-thirds vote of each House of Congress. This provision has been used in the past to disqualify individuals from running for office, and it does not explicitly require a formal conviction for insurrection.
The Colorado Supreme Court has rightly barred Trump from the state’s ballot because he criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful certification of the 2020 presidential election, which led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. There’s a mountain of evidence to support this and if Trump’s actions don’t constitute insurrection, what does?
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— Don Miller, Bend
Putin puppet
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, thinks that Ukraine must cede land to Russia to stop the invasion. I’m not sure what the citizens of Ukraine who live in the ceded areas would think of that. However, let’s use the senator’s idea for a domestic problem. Vance and many Republicans have said that what is happening at our southern border is an invasion. They have used this term repeatedly. Perhaps an easy way to stop this invasion is to cede Arizona and New Mexico to the migrants. I’m sure the citizens of those states would be just as willing to live under the rule of the migrants as the Ukrainians in the ceded lands would be to live under the control of a Russian dictatorship. Or, perhaps, we cede Ohio and let Govs. DeSantis and Abbot bus and fly the migrants there. The problem is solved.
If we and our allies cave to Vance’s idea are we saying that we are willing to put American lives at risk if Putin decides to take a piece of Poland or Hungary or any of the other NATO countries on Russia’s border. Or is Vance supporting the idea that we should leave NATO. If he is he should tell us that.
I’m sorry to say it but I think Senator Vance, like his party leader Trump, is just a Putin puppet.
— Michael T. McGinnis, Madras
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