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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2017)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com January 11, 2017 Wallowa County Chieftain Improving data security must be a top priority R ussian meddling in the U.S. election certainly should make all Americans angry, no matter our political differences. Moving forward, it’s important to learn from it and incorporate these lessons throughout our personal, professional and political lives. Despicable as it was to hack into Democratic National Committee computers and selectively leak information in a way that undercut the party’s candidate, such shenanigans couldn’t have been effective if the Voice of the Chieftain DNC had not engaged in embarrassing acts and stockpiled damaging data in its files. Three keys points to note about this: • The DNC and, presumably, the Republican National Committee are guilty of trying to skew the presidential selection process in ways that support favorites already anointed behind the scenes. Many in the DNC believed Hillary Clinton was owed her party’s nomination by acclamation. They resented Bernie Sanders’ spirited opposition. To the extent they are capable of doing so, the national political committees must resolve to be honest brokers that provide a level playing field for all credible candidates. Citizen resentment about being force-fed political dynasties — in the form of the Clintons and Bushes — partly precipitated the Trump surprise. • If the DNC was incapable of withstanding or resisting efforts by Clinton stalwarts to skew the selection process, it should at a minimum have been much smarter about protecting its inner workings. For would-be world leaders, they were blindingly stupid. Unlike the Watergate burglary that required physically entering an office and trying to steal papers, we live in an age when electronic information is spread throughout the world on computer servers, protected (and unprotected) in ways few of us understand. Nothing should ever be sent in an email or stored electronically that you would not want to have read aloud in a court deposition or news report. For ordinary citizens, the corresponding lesson is to zealously safeguard financial information, credit card numbers and passwords. Any time such data is exposed in an email or other unencrypted form, it is susceptible to being hacked and misused. • Government and corporations owe an enormous responsibility to better protect electronic information. Our democracy, economy and security hang in the balance. Far more important than a physical fence along a peaceful international border, defending our electronic frontier ought to be at the forefront of the U.S. national agenda. If the world tips into chaos — as it has often done in the past — in could be because a madman, tyrant or criminal enterprise deliberately or accidentally crashes the information systems on which we rely for so many vital services in modern life. America has been delivered a stinging rebuke about sloppy data management. Let’s never allow it to be repeated. EDITORIAL — TT USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 Enterprise, Oregon M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn P UBLISHER E DITOR R EPORTER R EPORTER N EWSROOM ASSISTANT A D S ALES CONSULTANT O FFICE MANAGER Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Tim Trainor, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com editor@wallowa.com Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com p ublished every w ednesday by : EO Media Group Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offices Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet www.wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa | twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER — Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828 Contents copyright © 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Volume 134 Rogers twins, strange to the end Jim Rogers and his twin Bill were a little on the eccentric side. The stories about their mishaps are legion. We referred to Jim as a self-made millionaire. Inherited six million and through creative investing was down to one. Both the boys were bipolar and usually when one was manic, the other was down. When they were down, it was way down, but when it was manic time, Jim especially was unrealistically optimistic. We were discussing the agriculture futures market once and someone asked Jim if he played the futures. He replied “I have one hundred and fifty thousand reasons why I don’t play the futures, all of them a dollar bill.” Jim went on and explained that he had invested unwisely in the futures market and lost it all. This was not an uncommon occurrence for Jim. The twist to this was that he sued the bank for lending him the money. His reasoning was that the banker knew he was going to invest the money in futures and as Jim said, “He knew I didn’t know anything about investing and the idiot OPEN RANGE Barrie Qualle lent me the money anyway.” The bank won the lawsuit. Jim should have known he would lose when the only attorney he could find to take the case was a worn out alcoholic classmate of mine. The Rogers twins did everything bizarre from writing girls in prison to dating strippers. The odd thing was that they never considered their behavior abnormal. The Salinas Rodeo was interrupted and stopped when they got into a fist fight in front of the roping chutes. The second bout they had in an arena was at the Oakdale ten steer a few years later. They were both good sized guys and Jim was actually fairly tough. Their spats could be about something anyone else would consider trivial, but not to them. We ran into Bill one day in Oakdale and asked how things were going. “Well not too good” he replied. We pressed him as to what his troubles were. “Well I got a ticket the other day for running a red light.” “That’s too bad,” we said. “What happened? It wrecked my pickup, he responded. I guess the woman I hit is going to be OK though.” This was shaping up into a classic Rogers story. We pressed him for details. “Well, you know that exotic dancer I’ve been dating? I have been taking care of her boa constrictor she uses in her act while she is in jail. I got to thinking that they eat rats and mice and I had a granary full of mice and I thought I would just take it out to the ranch and have it clean out the mice. That way I wouldn’t have to take care of the damn thing. I put the snake in a box and had it un- der the seat of the pickup and was head- ing for the ranch. See QUALLE, Page A5 Classroom kits important part of disaster preparation in schools School officials are understandably jumpy these days. School shootings are unspeakably tragic, they get nationwide attention and no school administrator wants to be caught unprepared in the event the unthinkable happens in their school. Consequently most schools have developed a lockdown procedure which secures each classroom and isolates safe zones in the building. Some states have even enacted legislation mandating that schools develop a viable lockdown policy and conduct periodic drills, much the same as the fire drills with which we are all familiar. Schools activate their lockdown plan for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is when the safety of the students is at stake. Another reason is when the police are conducting a drug search, usually with a specially trained dog and they don’t want several hundred kids milling about. Also if an event is occurring nearby the school, such GUEST OPINION Dave Robinson as some kind of “person with a gun” situation, bank robbery or other incident which could be potentially hazardous to the students, the school will lockdown. Different schools do lockdowns differently. The first step is to secure the students in their classrooms, secure all entrances to the building and block visual access to the rooms. Students are directed to position themselves in an area of the room away from the door. Often the classroom lights are turned off. Students are usually required to remain quiet for the duration of the lockdown. Lockdowns can last from a few minutes to several hours. Not all classrooms are directly connected to a restroom. Can you see where I’m going with this? Human nature being what it is, there will always be the kid who just finished off a 44-ounce Big Gulp moments before the lockdown was ordered. Other students may have skipped breakfast, then sometime during first period the school building locked down and now it’s two periods after lunch. To plan for just such a contingency, some schools have purchased lockdown kits. The kit is usually stored in a five-gallon bucket and contains water pouches, food bars, first aid supplies and many other items considered useful to weather such an incident. Some even include a snap-on toilet seat/lid and toilet bags to provide for the sanitary needs that would inevitably arise. (Yes, a roll of tissue is also included.) Ideally each classroom has a kit with enough supplies to meet the needs of several students. See DISASTER, Page A5 Lets’ crack down on bad drivers In response to your editorial about pedestrian safety, let me first wish Ms. Ellyn a quick and full recovery. You raise several very good points about the dangers in Wallowa County, specifically the tricky winter footing and the heavy traffic from the state highway. However, there’s a lot that can be done to improve safety by those of us who drive here on a regular basis. Every day I see drivers speeding, flipping u-turns in the middle of the street, ignoring people in the crosswalks, and barely even slowing down for a stop sign. Don’t even get me started on the parking! And many times this is all done with their cell phone firmly in hand. We could all help make the streets safer if we would just hang up, slow down, pay attention and obey the laws. And for those people who still don’t feel the rules of the road should apply to them, a little traffic enforcement would help. Start writing some tickets for the worse offenses, and offer warnings and some education for the lesser ones, and we’ll all be better off. Kari Carper Wallowa Don’t repeal Obamacare without a replacement If Congress votes to repeal Obamacare without immediately LETTERS to the EDITOR replacing it with something better, millions that are presently covered by the Affordable Care Act could see a lapse in their health insurance coverage or worse, lose access to insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions. It could trigger an unprecedented health care crisis. The Republicans’ intent is to repeal Obamacare but delay replacing it for up to two years. The health care industry and health care providers are warning against systemic chaos and that millions, who are presently relying on coverage under the ACA, will no longer be covered. When/if the ACA is replaced, some of what is being considered is reducing subsidies that help many pay for coverage, raising deductibles and eliminating prescription drug discounts for the elderly. These are not viable solutions but would rather just place a burden on those presently benefiting from these and other aspects of the ACA. Millions of Americans covered by Obamacare would be unable to afford insurance or to pay for prescription drugs that, in some cases, are the difference between life and death. Obamacare is not perfect. It is clear some small businesses and families are stinging from the high premium rates. A lot of Americans are deeply frustrated by the logistical headaches built into our health care system. For many, insurance needs to become much more under- standable. These issues and others can be addressed. It can be done without re- pealing the law. It requires our govern- ment leaders to come together, beyond party lines, and figure out solutions to strengthen the law. That’s what true governance looks like. Most sweeping, complicated laws, such as the ACA, require tweaking and changes over the course of years. We elect our govern- ment officials to work together to find solutions to problems and to protect the safety and well being of all their constit- uents, regardless of party affiliation. If you are currently enrolled in Obamacare, I urge you to contact U.S. Representative Greg Walden and Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and demand they not repeal the Affordable Care Act but rather work across party lines to improve the existing law. Otherwise, millions stand to lose the coverage they presently have and thousands of families will find themselves in peril. Maggie Conley Wallowa