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Next up the U.S. Forest Service should extend the bike trail that currently goes from Bend to the Forest Service Welcome Center. If you haven’t ridden it, give it a go! It’s a beautiful ride, and riders, runners and walkers can all avoid the noise and anxiety of motor vehicle traffic on Century Drive. Extending the trail past Mt. Bachelor and into the high lakes basin should be on the Forest Service agenda for future recreation projects.

In the meantime, construction of the Hawthorne Street overpass should get going. It will be a catalyst for redevelopment of the central district, and help to overcome the east west barrier the parkway created when it was constructed back in 1996. Healing that divide deserves to be a priority.

— Ken Brinich, Bend

Ranked choice voting would be confusing

Ranked choice voting measure will be on the November ballot. Please use due diligence to research this proposal. On the surface it may sound fair and reasonable. In actuality it is confusing and may be more expensive. In RCV you are asked to rate all candidates 1, 2, 3, etc. A candidate must have more than 50% of the vote to win, if not they retabulate and those with lesser votes are eliminated. This is done until a winner emerges. This is done at the state level and local control is lost. Alaska has had this system since 2020. This fall they will be voting on whether or not to revert back . Let us learn from their mistake. Our primary system is not broken so there is no need to fix it. Let us keep what we have.

— Cecilia Bryant, Redmond

Wrong for America

Donald Trump made the following comment in New Jersey recently, praising guest Miriam Adelson, who he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018. Miriam Adelson is the widow of one of the GOP’s largest donors, Sheldon Adelson, and she continues to make substantial donations, in the millions, to Trump’s election campaign, aka his personal bank account.

“It’s actually much better because everyone who gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead. She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal.�

I don’t care how conservative you are, or how much you claim to love this country, but there is no universe in which this man deserves to be President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the military.

— Robert Hedeen, Bend

‘F’ Word Dominates

I grew up in Kansas in the heart of the Bible Belt. Profanity was not part of my life. I don’t remember discovering the “F� word until I was in college. I had some college buddies that used it, but only a few. It was not commonly used.

In this age, the F word is used frequently. It is nearly impossible to watch TV or a movie without a constant barrage of foul language with the F word dominating. I don’t understand it because it does not add any value. Let’s face it, did John Wayne use the F word? Spenser Tracy? Marilyn Monroe? Red Skelton? Carol Burnett? Steve McQueen? Think about it, some of the greatest entertainers and movie stars never used foul language. I’ll bet that even Disney characters will resort to foul language. I make a habit of watching classic movies because I am sick of the language in our current movies. Our politicians are now using the F word all of the time. Why? It certainly does not improve their image. How did we get here? How can we clean up our act? I don’t see how. It is just part of a growing need for us to find our moral compass. God help us.

— Barry Jordan, Terrebonne