CHEERS & JEERS: Do the Right Thing, Because

JEERS to Other Local Media for sending D&D people to C3 at 1:00 on July 23 for no darned reason whatsoever. Turned out the Dungeons & Dragons crowd was meeting on days around that day, although not on that day, and much much later in the day… like five hours later. It’s okay guys… we know that calendar and clock math can be hard for writerly types. HEARTS GO OUT to the players and volunteers – the former for showing up and not being able to play, the latter for having to explain to a slew of people unhappy about missing their D&D session that they would be missing their D&D session.   

CHEERS for the first finalist for the Ward 8 Council seat – Tracey Yee! If the name looks familiar, that’s because Yee ran for the seat back in 2014 [she lost to Frank Hann, so, you know, be cool and don’t bring it up, alright?]. Who will be signing up next in the run to replace Ed Junkins?  

CHEERS for Former Rep. Mike Nearman… yes, that was a cheers. Nearman could have stayed in the legislature until they had to force him out… and he did. He could have bragged about waiting for a jury trial while arranging for a plea deal behind closed doors… and he did that too. But he could have also ducked out of that there deal and run for the hills, which he did not do, but rather faced the judge and admitted some level of guilt… even if it wasn’t the full level he was probably responsible for… even though he was sorta pressured to admit the guilt… let’s all move on from this little historic event now. 

JEERS to the latest vaccine plan of giving prospective recipients money to get vaccinated. We’re happy to know that our neighbors will get $100 to get the shots. We’re incredibly disappointed in those self-same neighbors for having to be bribed into doing the right thing by protecting those who can’t be vaccinated. [Please, we beg of you, evolve beyond this level of self-serving conduct]  

CHEERS to Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority for seeing that the “herd immunity” dog-and-pony show wasn’t going to happen yet, and coming together to decide that children should be wearing masks in school again. Now, let’s see which parents are going to actually abide by the order, shall we?   

HEAD SCRATCHES over National Drive Sober (or get pulled over) Week. We thought it was a joke, because every week should be Drive Sober (or get pulled over) Week. But there it was, right between August 18 – National Mail Order Catalog Day – and September 6 – National Coffee Ice Cream Day. It’s even longer than a week… which sort of plays into our comment about every week being… well you read it, right? So we want you all to go out there and drive like people who haven’t been drinking, because we want you to not drink and drive every week of the year! [BTW What other weeks of import are we missing? Is there Don’t Shake the Baby Week? How about Let’s Not Slap Grandma Day? I think there used to be a Drive on the Sidewalk Month…] 

ON A SERIOUS NOTE we are not children, regardless of the entry directly above this. Drunk driving kills about 28 people every day in America. That’s more than a person an hour for all the way around the clock. That means approximately 10,220 people will die this year from something completely preventable. This week, a Washington man was sentenced to 12.5 years in jail for killing two siblings in 2020 in Linn County – he was driving drunk and it ruined his life as well as the lives of everyone else involved. Call Uber or Lyft! Call your Mom or Dad! Don’t drink if you have to drive! There are always options, folks. 

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