FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2015
Opinion / Local
— Letters to the Editor —
Thank you, Greater Bowen
RFPD Valley volunteers!
To the Editor:
Greater Bowen Valley RFPD is a volun-
teer fire station. All the volunteers devote
a lot of time and effort to make sure they
are properly trained and ready for action.
To achieve Firefighter I, a volunteer puts
in over 120 hours of time the first year.
This includes the five-weekend academy
and all the in house training that is done at
the station. Greater Bowen Valley RFPD
has nine certified firefighters.
Not only are our firefighters trained for
structure fires, they are also trained for
wildland fires.
These volunteers, just like you, all have
busy schedules, families, and careers, yet
they find the time to devote to the station
and district to be prepared to come to dis-
trict member’s aid. The volunteers are not
paid for their services; they have a passion
for helping people. Without volunteers
there would probably be very few rural
fire departments.
I want to give a big thank you to
Greater Bowen Valley RFPD volunteers
—without them my job would be impos-
sible to do. Chief: Jim Devlin; Asst. Chief:
Keith Jensen; Training Officer LT: Chris
Galiszewski; Prevention Officer, Tab-
bitha Jensen; Firefighters: Rick (Badge)
Badgley, Allen Jensen, Don Copley, Cal
Foster, and Brent Kragness. The Board
Members are President: Cal Foster, David
Downing, Janet Jensen, Penny Devlin, and
Steve Ritch. Please, when you run into
one of these volunteers, thank them.
Jim Devlin,
Fire Chief
Conscience should say no on
1-63
To the Editor:
I have already voted no on 1-63, so this
is for the last-minute voter—the ones who
are Republicans, the ones who are chang-
ing their spots like in the last commission-
er election, the ones who look like a deer
caught in the headlights, the ones who lis-
ten to a silver-haired, silver-tongued New
Age activist liberal progressive orator.
The Communist Party tried to take over
labor in the 1920s. Then we had the Mc-
Carthy hearings and a littler later Nikita
Khrushchev came to town and pounded on
the podium with his shoe and said, “We
will bury you from within.” Then Ron-
ald Reagan came along and said, “Tear
down this wall.” Then Mikhail Gorbachev
moved to California and is, or was, clear
up to his ears in the Green movement,
Rewilding of America, and Agenda 21.
So come on. Vote right. Let your heart
and conscience be your guide. Vote no on
1-63. We do not want a one-party system.
This socialist way is bad. Bad for you and
me. Bad for the county. Bad for the state.
And bad for the United States of America.
Ed Hardt,
Baker City
It’s official: birds like music
To the Editor:
In the months of February and March
of 2015 I was a lucky guy for someone
who studies birds. As I drove off the ranch
one morning, who was perched in the elm
tree right next to the road—not one, but
two bald eagles.
At first they would fly a short distance,
but came right back to the same branch in
the same tree. Each time I passed, driving
slowly, they began to trust me and finally
they did not fly off and watched me as aI
drove by. I could see their yellow eyes
from the car.
So one day as I listened to a CD, “Music
of India,” I rolled down my window and
stopped next to the majestic birds. They
both turned their heads and as I stopped,
they were intensely listening to the beauti-
ful sitar instrumental. They remained
unmoving until the song ended.
Wow.
In the next few days I tried this out on
the local ravens who are indeed very smart
birds. As I drove down the road with the
music playing with the window down,
three ravens paralleled me out some 100
yards and flew right to the car. They fol-
lowed another half-mile, turning when I
did, then finally broke off.
Wow again.
So I guess I’ve answered my own ques-
tion—birds like sitar music for sure. What
else they may enjoy is yet to be learned.
James Smeroglio,
Baker City
County banned pot for wrong
reason
To the Editor:
Last week the Baker County Commis-
sioners approved an Ordinance prohibiting
marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated
portions of Baker County.
Shamefully, that decision was based on
the wrong reason. The Commissioners
“found” that the state-approved measure
was in violation of federal law, and there-
fore prohibited. If this “finding” is true,
the people have something to worry about.
Our commissioners were elected, to
a large degree, on their commitment to
separate Baker County from unconstitu-
tional federal and state regulatory burdens,
and to allow local control over our own
resources to create prosperity and self-
reliance.
Federal authority and jurisdictional
venue is clearly defined in the Constitu-
tion of the United States and other organic
documents which created our lawful
government. Is the law not clear to all?
Constitutional federal “law” cannot and
does not exist in Baker County, except
over federal employees and federally-
owned land.
Can the Commissioners supply admis-
sible evidence of any lawful authority
for federal laws to apply to the people of
Baker County or to local marijuana dis-
pensaries? We san no. But if such claimed
federal authority actually exists within this
county, it could only do so through past
private treasonous contracts and agree-
ments signed by local misguided officials,
and must now be nullified and made right.
Local decisions which affect local
health, safety, and welfare should be made
by the county commissioners on local
merits. They possess authority and power
over federal regulations! Let us run our
own county, for better or worse.
Justifying any local decision as a “con-
flict with federal law” is an irresponsible
cop-out and should never be considered.
Jim & Peg Iler,
Baker City
— Obituaries —
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
Marge Walters
Marge enjoyed cook-
ing, camping and Grange
projects. She enjoyed each
season of the year, because
it was always different.
Marge was very generous
and always compassionate
to all; especially people in
need. She always had an
extra potato to put in the
pot for dinner when com-
pany came by. Marge was
very family oriented, never
missed a birthday, anni-
versary or other holiday
without a card, call, visit
and/or carefully selected
gift. She corresponded
with dozens of friends
she made over the years
and enjoyed receiving
mail back from them. She
loved bird watching, even
collecting feathers for the
church youth group study
project. Marge liked to sew
and loved to remember that
, "I made Bonnie's baby
clothes" (her youngest
sibling). She embroidered
handkerchiefs, pillow-
cases and even patches
with names, dates, etc, for
family quilts. She enjoyed
working jigsaw puzzles
and was very good at
finding the next piece. She
nurtured dozens of plants
including huge Christmas
cactus.
Marge was an avid read-
er. She had several hundred
books in her personal li-
brary and studied her Bible
daily. She loved animals
and had several dachshund,
one at a time, over the
years. In cold weather they
sported winter coats and
went on car rides with her.
They slept on the foot of
her bed or in her chair with
her when she was napping.
Marge loved collecting
things. She had a nice
collection of black glass
she displayed. She collect
stamps, buttons and nu-
merous other things for her
personal enjoyment. Above
all she will be remembered
most for being a very kind,
loving person and will be
missed very much by her
family and all who had the
pleasure to of known her.
She was preceded in
death by her husband Ed,
all 4 of her siblings and
one half sister, her parents,
and two grandchildren.
Marge is survived by
daughters Janet Rich-
ards of Pasco, Washing-
ton, Cindy Headley of
Central Point, Oregon,
Yvonne(Bill)Wilson of
Trail, Oregon, Sandy
(Jerry) Stowell of Central
Point; son Bill Walter of
Central Point; 8 grandchil-
dren: 10 great grandchil-
dren, 1 great-great grand-
daughter; numerous nieces
and nephews.
Those who wish to make
a memorial donation in
memory of Marge may do
so to the Baker City Sev-
enth-day Adventist Church
through Tami's Pine Valley
Funeral Home PO Box 543
Halfway, Oregon 97834.
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5
— Guest Opinion —
Partisanship
and civil
disagreement
are healthy
By David Spaugh
Special to The Baker County Press
Partisanship is an essential element of
multi-party political systems. Civilized
disagreement between parties with oppos-
ing views promotes compromise, resulting
in a balanced form of democratic govern-
ment that is most acceptable to a majority
its constituents. Until such time that all
citizens share identical values and beliefs,
partisanship is the pathway to stability and
balance in representative government.
Partisanship is transparent. The political
philosophies of partisan candidates are
recognizable and require minimal investi-
gation by individual voters to know where
candidates should stand on major issues.
Political partisanship is a beneficial
core element of the American democratic
republic. It is unwise to construe elimina-
tion of partisanship as a justification for
changes to our basic form of government,
and it is naive to presume that the deci-
sions of “non-partisan” officials will be
made in a vacuum, unaffected by personal
political views.
In Baker County, registered Democrats
were recently prevented from voting in
a primary election for County Commis-
sioner seats because Oregon has a closed
(partisan) primary election system and
because no Democratic candidates filed
for a seat. A number of Baker citizens
who rightly resent voter exclusion poli-
cies have proposed to fix the problem by
making the County Commissioner offices
non-partisan. Their solution intends to
“open up” the primaries to all voters by
eliminating partisanship and transparency
in county government. This is a step in
the wrong direction. It ignores the actual
problem inherent to closed primaries
while attempting to paint over it with two
new problems: removal of the partisan
balance mechanism and removal of trans-
parency.
A better solution would be to leave the
Commissioner seats partisan and instead
devote effort to making the primary elec-
tions non-partisan.
Oregon statewide Measures 65 (2008)
and 90 (2014) attempted to do just that.
They proposed an open blanket non-parti-
san primary election system where all can-
didates and party affiliations are listed on
one ballot, and all citizens are eligible to
vote on that ballot. Many elected officials
Submitted Photo
David Spaugh is a husband, father,
and neighbor who has served three
years as a school board member for
Baker Charter Schools. He is also
an occasional writer here in Baker
County.
from all major parties supported these
measures, but the measures were poorly
understood by Oregon voters and heavily
opposed by Oregon political parties. They
failed.
In a closed primary election system like
the one we have now, political parties
gain an element of control over how their
party members vote because members are
not allowed to vote outside party lines.
This improves the party’s odds of placing
a winning candidate, but it does so at the
cost of removing the members’ freedom to
vote for whomever they please.
In an open primary system, political
parties lose control over how citizens
vote while citizens lose a restriction on
how they vote. Open primaries restore the
citizens’ ability to tell their parties they
do not like the candidates the party is
fielding. This is a step in the direction of
eliminating the peculiar American conven-
tion of “voting for the lesser of two evils
because there is no other choice.”
It wrests influence from the parties and
returns it to the citizens.
Baker County has arrived at a moment
in time where it can choose whether to
gloss over the inherent problems associ-
ated with closed primary elections by
reducing transparency in government. The
better choice would be to reject 1-63 and
instead encourage its authors and sup-
porters to redirect their efforts to the more
intelligent solution of converting Oregon
to an open blanket non-partisan primary
election system.
For readers who struggle with this
decision, it may be informative to read
the Constitution of the United States of
America in an effort to determine how
many times political parties are mentioned
in that document.
Vote no on 1-63. The next time you see
a statewide measure to convert Oregon to
an open primary system, vote yes!