Network of mutuality

This past Sunday morning, on the eve of celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, we were reminded of one of his profound phrases that “we are in an inescapable network of mutuality.” Especially important as we will have political change in Washington in a time of extreme division in our country.

The outgoing president was maligned recently for extending an invitation to the president-elect to come to the White House for what had been a long tradition between the outgoing and incoming presidents. “Weakness” some hollered, horrified that Joe Biden could extend civility to someone so resentful of his defeat at the ballot box 4 years earlier. But the 50 years of public service by the retiring president spoke louder and the greeting went on publicly.

In this nation, politics has become the stage of the impossible camaraderie, an act of giving in to an enemy, something that one’s base could never forgive. When will this end? How did Dr. King do in the face of centuries of horrible treatment of his race? Even as he grew up during the era of Jim Crow, the time of the historical Civil Rights debate and ultimate passage by Congress. Well, he did out of mercy he learned in his faith, in the necessity of compromise for the sake of something bigger.

The time has come for us all to declare: If this story does not end in love, then the story is not over. The American dream is still attainable if we love enough.

We are all Americans.

— Carlos “Charlie” Wysling, Bend

Respect for the police

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, at about 10:30 a.m., I was driving north on Third Street and was stopped at the traffic light at Revere. A City of Bend police cruiser pulled into the left turn lane beside me. As traffic on Revere was moving, a man driving a pickup heading east on Revere turned right to head south on Third Street. While the man was making his turn, he flipped his middle finger at the policeman. I pulled forward a few feet, got the policeman’s attention, and he rolled down his window. I asked him if he saw that gesture. He said that he did.

I replied that was very disrespectful, and was sorry he had to deal with that. The policeman was calm, said it happens all the time, and that he was used to such gestures. I have lived in Central Oregon for 37 years and have never witnessed such a disrespectful gesture towards our men in blue. The pickup driver should issue an apology to the police department.

— Mark Herbert, Bend

Limits on growth

Kudos to Cylvia Hayes on her thoughtful and well crafted warning about unrestrained growth. Over 200 years ago Thomas Malthus theorized that unrestrained population growth would result in the demise of humanity, due to a lack of food. That may still happen but my concern has always been ignoring all the signs of water shortage from overuse and pollution of our water supply. You only need to look at what has happened to the Colorado River as a harbinger of things to come. There is a limit to what population size our community can sustain and political ambivalence and developer profits are not going to resolve the issue.

Our way of life is in jeopardy and hard decisions need to be made now. Morro Bay, Cambria and other cities have imposed building moratoriums due to water shortages. It might be time to consider the hard choices.

— Robert Agli, Bend

Ban fireworks

There are a myriad number of causes for wildfires. Many are human caused from mistakes to arson. We will likely have a conflagration here in Central Oregon, which could be on a huge scale like the recent California fires. Could we not at least remove one predictable cause and ban all fireworks in the area? It would require taking on a very powerful lobby but we could as a people, sitting in harm’s way, at least try to delegitimize the sale and use of such a dangerous and deadly source of damage.

— Rex Urich, Bend

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