Opinion
A4
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
OUR VIEW
Compromise,
statesmanship
is best path to a
unifi ed Oregon
T
he Greater Idaho movement has secured
a lot of momentum in many diff erent
rural areas of our state and it should be no
surprise.
That’s because many residents of Eastern
Oregon are fed up with what they perceive to be
a lack of accountability of their state government
and a disconnect between what are almost two
diff erent cultures.
Clearly there is a political and cultural chasm
between many portions of Eastern Oregon and
pieces of the western side of the state.
All too often concepts that seem logical and
useful in the Portland-metro area simply do not
apply to the eastern part of the state.
The aim of the Greater Idaho movement is to
use the Cascade Mountains as a sort of a dividing
line. Land west of the mountains remains in
Oregon, as would Bend and Sisters. Much of the
rest of the state would become part of Idaho, seen
by many as an entity that better fi ts the cultural
and political outlook of the majority of Eastern
Oregon’s residents.
Earlier this year, Mike McCarter, the president
of Citizen for Greater Idaho, the group pushing to
move Idaho’s border, said he wants Oregon legisla-
tors to sponsor a resolution next spring that would
kickstart talks with Idaho about the concept.
Lynn Findley, R-Vale, told his constituents
last year he would introduce such a resolution if
county commissioners asked. Findley, though,
said he didn’t personally support the idea of
moving the state’s borders.
There are a lot of moving parts to this concept,
a lot to unpack. While the idea has some merit, it
really is very much like bringing a sledgehammer
to a job that requires a tiny pickax.
In short, it proposes to tap into widespread
discontent to deliver an answer that clearly
overreaches.
The people that support the political eff ort
of the Greater Idaho movement deserve a lot of
credit. Their dedication can’t be questioned. Yet,
potential problems to enacting such a plan — and
there is an array of challenges to it — make the
idea nearly impracticable.
The real answer rests in the political arena,
with our elected legislative leaders. There is a
disconnect between specifi c portions of Oregon.
They are deep, and they rest within a political
pool of disgruntlement.
Our elected legislative leaders need to start
working on bridging the political and cultural
gap, fi nding ways to be successful even though
they are in a minority party. That involves com-
promise and statesmanship. Not adhering to
dogma.
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YOUR VIEWS
Second District needs a
veteran to represent us
The climate crisis is
actually a crime
This letter is directed to every
veteran in Oregon’s 2nd Congres-
sional District because our won-
derful representative, Cliff Bentz,
voted against allowing 56,000 vet-
erans who are victims of the burn
pits in the Middle East from having
access to Veteran’s Aff airs Health
Care, citing it would cost too much.
What Rep. Bentz fails to realize
is that taking care of the men and
women who fought for freedom in a
far-off land is part of the cost of war.
To not vote for that bill shows me
that Bentz hasn’t been in the military
nor has he talked to any of you who
are suff ering from the after-eff ects of
those burn pits.
I think it’s high time that Ore-
gon’s 2nd Congressional District got
a veteran to represent us who knows
what it means to protect the men and
women who served.
Dr. Joseph Yetter is a military
veteran and a medical doctor who
will represent all of the district, not
just those who gave him big cam-
paign contributions. Oregon’s 2nd
Congressional District is better with
Yetter. So in November remember
vote Joe Yetter for Congress and
send a fi ghter to Washington.
Barbara Ann Wright
Pendleton
As someone who follows local
and national news reports, I must
tell you I am worried about the
recent extreme heat and wildfires
raging across the country. I feel
for people who lose their lives and
livelihoods to extreme weather,
and I’m scared that it’s only a
matter of time until it directly hits
me and my community.
Seeing headlines in local news
outlets covering these climate
disasters made me realize that
most news stories show no con-
nection between them and their
main cause: fossil fuels. This is
dangerous, because many people
will continue to refuse to see that
longer, hotter and deadlier sum-
mers are caused and perpetuated
by the disastrous coal, oil and
gas projects — and the fossil fuel
industry.
The science is clear — the
longer we allow coal, oil and gas
companies to dig and burn, the
worse the impacts of the climate
crisis will be. With every frac-
tion of a degree of warming, we’ll
see and suffer more extreme heat,
droughts, floods, wildfires and
hurricanes. But the fossil fuel
industry continues to ignore these
alerts and undermine our chances
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
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Comments: 202-456-1111
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for a safer future, and CO2 emis-
sions keep rising. We all know
this is causing global heating
and resulting in extreme weather
events, yet they keep digging,
burning and profiting, with zero
accountability.
Climate impacts — like the
recent heat waves and wildfires —
disproportionately affect people
and communities who are already
marginalized and disadvantaged.
People who did the least to cause
the climate crisis suffer the worst
from its impacts — they lose live-
lihoods, hope and worse: their
lives — while oil companies con-
tinue to hit record profits. This is
wrong on so many levels.
Local, regional and national
media have an important role to
play — and a moral obligation
to tell the whole truth. It’s time
to make one thing about extreme
weather very clear: It’s not a
“crisis” that just happens to us
— it’s a crime, and the fossil fuel
industry is to blame. And saying
it once isn’t enough. Media has
an important job to do to turn the
tide of public opinion and help the
world avoid the worst of the cli-
mate impacts.
Please tell the real story about
the climate crisis.
Louise Squire
La Grande
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