The Observer., January 30, 2021, Weekend Edition, Page 4, Image 4

Opinion
4A
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Our View
Pendleton Whisky/Contributed Photo
Alcohol drinkers could be contributing $746 million
in new taxes every year in Oregon to raise money for
mental health.
Buying alcohol
could be good
for Oregon’s
mental health
My Voice
Finding a common ground and moving forward
R
aise your glass for mental health. Alcohol
drinkers could be contributing $746 mil-
lion in new taxes every year to raise
money for mental health.
The Oregon Health Authority had proposed
a similar tax in its plans, but Gov. Kate Brown
declined to include it in her budget. The nonprofit
Oregon Recovers has teamed up with legislators
to work up a tax bill anyway. Is it what Oregon
needs?
Suggesting higher taxes on alcohol might not
make you popular at parties, but it makes sense
on some levels. Higher taxes can reduce con-
sumption and raise money. As the price goes up,
some problems might go down. The state can also
raise taxes without creating a whole new bureau-
cracy because the bureaucracy is already there.
The concept under consideration would take the
money raised and use it to help Oregonians with
mental health problems.
And there is a need. Relatively speaking, the
state of Oregon has one of the highest rates of
need for mental health care and the lowest rates
of access, according to Mental Health America, a
nonprofit dedicated to mental health.
We haven’t seen the exact proposal, but
according to the Willamette Week, it would
“compel the Oregon Liquor Control Commission
to raise prices 20%” on hard alcohol. The rest of
the money would be raised by increasing taxes
on beer and wine. It’s not clear what that would
mean to prices for a six-pack or a bottle of wine.
Are Oregon’s taxes on alcohol too high or too
low now? The Tax Foundation regularly puts out
maps that show relative rates among the states.
Beer taxes in Oregon in 2020 were about 8 cents
a gallon, giving it one of the lowest rates in the
country, 45th. Wine taxes were about 67 cents a
gallon, making it 31st in the country. And Oregon
was No. 2 in taxes for distilled spirits at $21.95
a gallon, though that takes into consideration an
implied rate because the state of Oregon controls
hard liquor sales.
Of course, higher taxes could mean lower
sales, and that could mean jobs. Oregon has some
900 wineries, 400 breweries, 100 cideries and
73 distributors. You can’t walk far around some
communities without bumping into a brewer or
distiller. And many of those businesses have been
slammed by the pandemic.
No matter how you feel about this tax pro-
posal, you can let your legislator know.
ANDREW
CUTLER
EOMG
nation bitterly divided stood
by on Jan. 20 as Joe Biden
was sworn in as the next pres-
ident of the United States. And while
the pageantry was typical of the aura
of what is usually a day of renewal,
it occurred under the watchful eye
of more than 20,000 National Guard
soldiers.
Few of us now need to wonder why
so many Guardsmen were on hand.
Security at the inauguration was at an
all-time high because of the riot that
erupted a few weeks ago and ignited
a mob that overran the U.S. Capitol.
Division is nothing new to Amer-
ica’s brand of politics, but recent
events show the discord is deepening
and swallowing up the logical and
pragmatic element to our national
nature. Pick any political subject and
there is an almost instant national dis-
sonance. The battle lines are quickly
drawn and everyone — it seems —
A
comes down on one side or the other.
There is no longer an adult politi-
cian or pundit in the American polit-
ical room. No Sam Rayburn to work
quietly in the background to make
deals that helped not just Republicans
or Democrats, but all Americans.
Instead, we’ve somehow all been
shanghaied onto a fast-moving train
of half-truths, distortions and con-
spiracy theories. We don’t, on the
national level, work to find a compro-
mise. We work to smash the enemy.
And the enemy is the other political
party.
We can bemoan the fact that our
national soul is in the process of
being abducted, but in the end it is
up to all of us to try to change the
trajectory of what has become a
red-hot cannonball slicing through
the night sky. That will, in the end,
be the real challenge. Because Amer-
icans have been fed — for more than
30 years — a diet of fear, dogma and
dissension by on-air personalities of
both parties.
The national news splashed across
our television screens at night in no
way resembles what we all saw 30 or
40 years ago. Pundits, not newsmen
and women, have the microphone
now, and they use their platforms not
to unite but to divide. At the end of
it all is the voter. He or she is bom-
barded daily with slanted information
that leads to more misinformation
and, eventually, to a mob.
As an editor of a small-town news-
paper I don’t profess to have all the
answers. Heck, I don’t even profess to
have half the answers. All I know is
that I am increasingly troubled by the
path this great nation is on.
Only voters — you and I — can fix
this developing division. Not through
shouts and slogans, not through the
peddling of falsehoods, but by finding
a common ground and working for-
ward. We all know the problem.
There is no secret to our discontent.
Yet, we must look not toward blame,
but to finding a solution.
———
Andrew Cutler is a former editor
of The Observer and is the regional
editorial director for the EO Media
Group, overseeing The Observer,
Wallowa County Chieftain and four
more newspapers in Eastern Oregon.
buildings and statues, and have
destroyed parts of many great Amer-
ican cities across our country. Why
was this not call “insurrection” and
“domestic terrorism”? Why are these
people not being taken to jail and
prosecuted?
There is definitely a very evi-
dent bias in this country. If we are to
unify, we need to be fair in our judg-
ments and criticisms of people. Espe-
cially in regard to the Capitol raid.
There were good people at that rally
with good intentions to peacefully
protest. Let’s not let a very small few
of the minority destroy the message
of the vast majority.
Lilly Roe
Island City
skin, we take to arms looking like
those jackasses that hide behind
their sheep and the internet with a
crooked “crown.”
So many of us seem to think it
is OK to treat women as meat since
the 45th president presided over us;
treat children not from our country
as ants to squash or animals to cage
while shipping their parents back;
treat men as just mindless soldiers
unable to think for themselves while
raping the economy and reaping the
benefits for themselves and their
families as if they had no dignity for
the human race or economy in the
USA; lie to the general public about
what was really happening about
the COVID-19 pandemic; rip off the
public about a border wall and who
would actually pay.
Meanwhile, every single one of
us will be paying for years if not
decades for the injustices done to us
over the last four years, just like pre-
vious presidents have done regard-
less of political party. Instead of
fueled anger and rage fed to you by a
nonpolitical 45th president, why not
raise your hometown, home state,
your roots up by bringing back that
feeling of supporting each other and
making our economy and lifestyle
better for ourselves and each other?
Jeanmarie Warren
Elgin
Letters
Don’t use broad brush to
paint Jan. 6 Capitol protest
I just wanted to express my
opinion about the Associated Press
article “Capitol attack reflects U.S.
extremist evolution over decades,”
which The Observer ran on Tuesday,
Jan. 26.
I felt that it put many Trump sup-
porters into a negative light. Thou-
sands gathered at the Capitol with
hope and love in their hearts for an
amazing president with a dream
to “Make American Great Again.”
Many of these people were teachers,
business owners, lawyers, doctors,
even families with their children.
They were all American citizens and
patriots who love their country.
Yes, a very small percentage of
them did raid the Capitol, which was
not right. Any violence is unaccept-
able and should be dealt with to the
full extent of the law. However, the
other people who did not do these
things should not be victimized for
exercising their First Amendment
right to peacefully assemble.
Antifa and Black Lives Matter
protests trashed cities for months
with the full support of the liberal
media. The riots have killed at least
29 people, including many brave
police officers, caused millions of
dollars in damages, including public
Ditch the anger,
improve ourselves
Since when has the art of being
human turned into being a nega-
tive leftist attribute? When has the
need for finger pointing for what
our leader has done turn into finger
pointing at each other?
So many of us have started this
silly and hateful nonsense fol-
lowing suit and becoming sheep fol-
lowing the hate spewed upon us
by those that are meant to lead us.
From tweets ordered online by those
wolves dressed in our own sheep-