Opinion
4A
Saturday, August 14, 2021
OUR VIEW
Schools’
compliance
is the proper
move
I
t’s one thing to mandate masks.
It’s an entirely diff erent matter when fi nes
are being doled out for noncompliance.
Yet, that is the exact route the state of Oregon
has taken.
Last month, Gov. Kate Brown required all K-12
schools to have pupils within their walls wear
masks this fall.
That news itself was tough enough to swallow.
Then, the Oregon Health Authority took it a step
further.
Beginning Thursday, Aug. 12, schools that do
not comply with the new mask mandate face a
fi ne of up to $500 per day, per incident.
It sounds all too much like the mandate in the
Aff ordable Care Act that required a citizen to sign
up for health insurance or face a fi ne.
This makes the decision for local school board
members who want to advocate for local control
that much more diffi cult — comply, or face a fi ne.
So far, all school districts in Union and Wal-
lowa counties have agreed to comply, and it’s the
right move to make.
Though, from a fi nancial standpoint, they didn’t
have much choice. As La Grande Superintendent
George Mendoza explained in a note to the dis-
trict, “Each occasion of a verifi ed mask violation
is subject to a $500 fi ne at the school site. $500 for
each instance is a violation … per student … per
staff … per occasion … in the same day.”
Love them or hate them, masks are a good
idea in the school setting for now with cases sky-
rocketing again. No, students have not been get-
ting sick from coronavirus at nearly the rate as
adults or the elderly, but some recent reports seem
to indicate the delta variant — the most promi-
nent one in the U.S. currently — is having a more
severe impact on the younger population.
But it is not a good idea to, in this instance,
strip away the local authority that was just given
to the counties. And then to go a step further and
say you’re going to fi ne dissenters?
It feels like that crosses a line.
Everyone is tired of the rules. Tired of the
masks. Tired of coronavirus. Tired of the hospi-
talizations. Tired of all the politicization of this
18-month mess of mayhem.
But these rural Oregon school districts can’t
stand to lose more money in fi nes, either.
As much as this publication would like the con-
trol to stay local — and believes that is the cor-
rect move — this is an instance where, at least for
now, it is best for the districts of Union and Wal-
lowa counties to comply with the rules and mask
students and staff .
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Risk and reward in the backcountry
BILL
ANEY
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
O
utdoor adventures can
restore the soul, inspire
beautiful art, poetry and
music, and change lives for the
good.
They can also end in tragedy.
I read several recent reports of
people coming face-to-face with
nature with dramatic results. One
was a Michigan woman who died
while on a guided rafting trip in
the Grand Canyon, swept away
from an established campsite by a
fl ash fl ood.
Another was a man in South-
western Oregon who wandered
lost for 17 days before being res-
cued; he thought he was taking a
short hike from his car to a lake
for fi shing.
One tragic loss of life, one
incredibly fortunate rescue, both
the result of a natural quest for
adventure in the backcountry.
Kathy and I have had a few of
our own close encounters of the
natural kind. Perhaps the expe-
rience that impacted us the most
happened while we were teen-
agers. We were climbing Mount
Hood with the Portland-based
Mazamas group, hoping to summit
the peak and thereby qualify for
membership in the club and gain
access to the club’s mountain
cabin.
It was a bright sunny Memorial
Day weekend, and as we neared
the fi nal pitch to the top of the
mountain we were instructed to
attach our crampons and rope up.
We tethered ourselves to a half
dozen other climbers to traverse
across a steep, icy slope. Kathy
and I were tied about 10 feet apart
in the middle of this string of
climbers, halfway across the slope,
when we heard the screams of
“Rock! Rock! Rock!”
We recognized this as the uni-
versal warning that there were
rocks careening downslope.
Our fellow climbers on the
left scampered left and those to
the right scrambled right, leaving
Kathy and I hung out like mario-
nettes on a string and directly in
the path of the tumbling rocks. We
hit the snow and tucked into fetal
positions as snow and scree began
fl ying over and landing on and
around us.
We both felt a tremendous sharp
tug on the rope before the noise
and chaos ended.
I remember hearing people
to the right of me crying out
“Is she all right?” and people to
the left of Kathy yelling “Is he
okay?” We dug ourselves out and
found that a large boulder, about
4 feet in diameter, had landed
and stopped directly on the rope
between the two of us, jerking us
toward it. I couldn’t see Kathy and
she couldn’t see me, so we were
incredibly relieved to fi nd that nei-
ther was injured. We each had
about 3 feet between us and the
rock.
Our group had to all untie to
pull the rope through from under
the rock to free it, allowing us
to continue across the slope and
eventually to the summit.
We realized how close this was
to tragedy — a couple of feet one
way or the other and one of us
wouldn’t be around to continue our
life together, get married, have and
raise our kids, and be each other’s
best friends for life.
One point of this story is that
having public lands and back-
country gives us the opportunity
to explore and experience nature
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in the raw, including all the risks
and rewards that go along with it.
To be sure, more experience
allows us to better recognize risks,
be better prepared, and conse-
quently have even more successful
outings.
Still, there are risks, and some-
times bad outcomes.
Mother Nature is indiff erent
about all of this. She is not mali-
cious, nor is she benevolent. She
just is.
Experienced backcountry
adventurers don’t see their encoun-
ters with nature as battles, but
rather as a sort of cooperative
eff ort; they take what nature gives
them, learn to work with that, and
are better for it.
Too many mosquitoes at the
lake? Make camp on a small knoll
where breezes keep the insects at
bay.
Facing a steep trail with innu-
merable switchbacks up a rocky
open slope? Get an early start to
complete the climb in the shade.
Worried about losing your bear-
ings while traveling off trail in the
backcountry? Learn to use the sun
and your own shadow to keep a
relatively straight course instead of
traveling in circles.
We are so fortunate to have
millions of acres of public lands
in our backyard for rest, play
and rejuvenation. With this
comes responsibility for our own
well-being in the backcountry,
including preparation, experience,
fl exibility and knowing our limits.
This often means the diff erence
between tragedy and a good story
to tell.
Luck should be the last thing we
rely on to get home safe.
———
Bill Aney is a forester and wild-
life biologist living in Pendleton and
loving the Blue Mountains.
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