Stephen Cramer

Tom Fosdick,

Obviously you know zip about meat processing and the food supply. These swine operations aren't small family farms with a couple dozen hogs. These are factory farms with thousands of animals ready for market. Have you ever slaughtered a hog? I have and the idea of disposing of the offal such an action would generate is laughable. There is a difference between unprocessed pork and ham by the way, but based on your lack of knowledge about any of this it's par for the course. Most of us don't have a clue about where our food comes from and how it gets from the source to the table. We put it in our shopping cart without thinking and order it from a menu without concern about health risk or quality.
When this is all over, visit a meat processing plant for a tour. Believe it or not there is such a thing.

Stephen Cramer

Once again deWitt is using his platform to spout the usual deflection, misinformation, and hateful rhetoric that he uses to roundly condemn what he opposes in every written or spoken forum I find him. He and the GOP he once headed have gone so far afield--distanced themselves from the values they promoted for decades--that I wonder how he has the nerve to comment at all in any venue. I already know all of his wrong-headed talking points on climate change that he has clung to for years with a cult-like religious fervor that allows him to ignore ever-increasing data and information and hold on to that sliver of information he claims bolsters his belief and in Quixote-like fashion defeats his opponents. I already know that his belief in President Trump is so overwhelming that the betrayal of the GOP's platform on the economy, foreign policy, and government spending is okay and fourth dimensional chess. I already know he will excoriate the poor soul who dares criticize him, the GOP or the President using the most inflammatory terms--mixing in a little Obama and Hillary along with a dash of communism, socialism and fascism. I already know because too many like him have gone to the kool-aid well and partook of heady and long draughts. Some are my friends and some are my relatives.

Although I find the outpouring of swill by deWitt contemptible, I also have little patience for the progressive left's proclivity to assault the vast majority similarly with self-righteous indignation because of some ill-defined purity test.

But that's for another time...

Stephen Cramer

As I watch the pavement in almost every intersection in Bend explode in potholes and fight to keep my vehicle in the ruts on (put your street name here) I want to congratulate Councilmen Roats and Chudowsky on their success in defeating the gas tax measure. I now look forward to their detailed funding plan for street pavement replacement, repair, and maintenance. At this time, the onus rests on them to uncover the 'hidden' funds, reprioritize spending, and adequately budget the street construction and maintenance in Bend. Along with the rest of the anti-tax crowd, they wrote a check with their votes that the community at large wants to cash. Let's hope it doesn't bounce (the way my truck does every time I drive through the intersection of Third and Greenwood.)

I'm sure that I am not the only one who noticed, but the conceptual drawing of the 'Heritage' proposal shows buildings on the Troy Field site, doesn't it? How is this preservation of the touted 'green space' the writer leads one to believe will include the field. The Heritage Square concept should be left to moulder along with the Mirror Pond restoration and the Juniper Ridge development area. 'It's a good notion that as a growing metropolis...' Really? We are a floundering growing small city that needs some serious leadership to handle the current problems, not bite off a whole new mouthful. The City of Bend can't maintain streets and other services. Come to the table with a market value offer--not bloody likely. BPRD? Why? What is the value for them to subsidize a city development well outside their purview? The community that wants this purchased by the community at large should put the pipe down. The school district will dispose of the property at the best price they can get. If someone wants it they should get in line and buy it.