FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2016
4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
Opinion
— Editorial —
It pays to
track newly
introduced
bills and
resolutions
Hundreds of bills were introduced
in Congress last-minute in December.
From there, in 2016, these bills are
sent to committee, and if they make it
through that step, they go to the house
and then the senate (or vice versa,
depending upon their origin) for vote.
Assuming they make it past those
votes, they head toward the Presi-
dent’s desk for a signature.
Most of these bills will blessedly fall
by the wayside.
Many of these bills are useless at
best, but several of them would be
horrifically damaging to the Constitu-
tional rights of Americans if passed.
Take, for example, H.R. 4269: As-
sault Weapons Ban of 2015, intro-
duced December 16. The purpose of
this bill as stated is, “To regulate as-
sault weapons, to ensure that the right
to keep and bear arms is not unlimited,
and for other purposes.”
You read that right. This Democrat-
sponsored, 124-page bill’s purpose
is to limit the Second Amendment.
The Committee on the Judiciary was
assigned to this one, where it has an
estimated 6% chance of survival. And
an estimated 2% chance of ever being
enacted.
We hope.
The text of the bill goes on to place
a ban on many of the shotguns, rifles
and handguns common to Baker
County and most other areas, and
outlines which firearms people will
be allowed to own. The rest of the bill
is the standard rhetoric. Pistol grips
are bad. (Yeah, we don’t get that one,
either.) More than ten bullets would
be a crime. How if a family member
simply passes a rifle down to you,
that’s illegal, too. And so on.
Another bit of legislation—H.Res.
569— also caught our eye; it was
introduced December 17. H.Res.
569: Condemning violence, bigotry,
and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims
in the United States attempts to limit
First Amendment Rights by telling
elected officials in the House Cham-
ber who they can and can’t express
an opinion about. In a representative
republic, we view this the same as
limiting the rights of the citizens those
officials represent.
Prognosis: 9% chance of getting past
committee. 8% chance of being agreed
to.
The 82 Democrat co-sponsors of this
resolution say they hope to expand
this resolution to an eventual vote in
both chambers so that it will have the
force of law. Under that scenario, if
we’re Christian or Buddhist or Jewish
and you call us names and hurt our
feelings, it’s fine. But if we convert to
Islam and you provide the same “ver-
bal abuse,” your case will be prose-
cuted as a federal hate crime. Bye-bye
First Amendment.
Several other resolutions and intro-
duced bills beg the questions: We elect
these people to come up with these?
These folks get paid?!
There are resolutions in the works
or that have passed in the last year
that range from honoring the Portland
Timbers as the champions of Major
League Soccer in 2015, to honoring
singer Lena Horne. There’s the Grand
Canyon Bison Management Act. The
Polar Bear Fairness Act. A resolution
declaring “Dia de los ninos.” Because
Spanish-speaking youngsters need a
day?
Hot bills include: S. 2033: Federal
Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of
2015, S. 1014: Personal Care Products
Safety Act and S. 2425: Patient Access
and Medicare Protection Act.
H.R. 1599: Safe and Accurate Food
Labeling Act of 2015, H.R. 1735: Na-
tional Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2016, and S. 2123: Sen-
tencing Reform and Corrections Act
of 2015 are among the most tracked
bills by citizens.
Bills can be monitored and tracked
online at www.govtrack.us. Thomas.
loc.gov, the Library of Congress’s bill
tracking section, is the primary source
for this site.
Browsers can search or browse by
sponsor, by subject or by specific bill.
The point is, it’s easy to stay in-
formed.
—The Baker County Press Editorial Board
— Letters to the Editor —
Health vs. access
To the Editor:
A new process is working its way
throughout eastern Oregon that pits locals
against each other; it is the concept of
“forest health vs. motorized access.” The
model has been seen in the West before.
Idahoans and Montanans have seen forests
build to unsafe fuel loads with eager “con-
servationists” willing to plan projects that
will relieve the burden of the excessive
fuels, if only we are willing destroy roads
after the projects are completed. The work
is done through service contracts that
equate to lawn care services on our public
lands. Companies bid on these contracts to
implement prescriptions for treatment that
are written by the Forest Service, along
with road destruction.
Two examples playing out in eastern
Oregon that show this process are the
Grant County Stewardship Contract, a
massive multi-million-dollar, single-
source contract to Iron Triangle that will
treat vegetation, and restricts motorized
access to thousands of acres of land, and
the East Face Project between La Grande
and Baker, which is planning 38 miles of
road closures.
Letter to the Editor Policy: The Baker
County Press reserves the right not to pub-
lish letters containing factual falsehoods or
incoherent narrative. Letters promoting or
detracting from specific for-profit business-
es will not be published. Word limit is 375
words per letter. Letters are limited to one
every other week per author. Letters should
be submitted to Editor@TheBakerCounty-
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Advertising and Opinion Page Dis-
claimer: Opinions submitted as Guest
Both equate to nothing more than lawn
care service contracts, except in this case,
once mowing the lawn and weeding the
flower garden are complete, they tear out
your driveway so you cannot access them
anymore.
Timber sales do not have to equate to
road closures, jobs for our families do not
have to mean loss of motorized access.
Roads were built to harvest these lands,
for them stay the productive resources we
were promised they would be when set
aside in the early 1900s. Not the multi-
billion dollar drains they have become
over the last 30-plus years under the failed
leadership of the Forest Service, who no
longer serve the people, but serve their
own personal agendas.
I support vegetative treatments. I sup-
port logging/mill jobs, and all the services
that come with them. But I do not believe
you have to destroy motorized access to
have jobs or a healthy forest.
I ask that if you don’t support these
restrictions, you become active in these
projects to speak out against them.
John George
Bates
— Monthly Guest Column —
So I was
thinking ...
Snow Days
By Jimmy Ingram
Special to The Baker County Press
Eastern Oregon folk are used to
snow. Most of us grew up playing in it,
driving in it, enjoying winter sports and
shoveling the walkway over and over
and over again. And though its draw-
backs like slick roads and less than
ideal walking conditions, it’s Mother
Nature’s way of making summer that
much better for everyone. There are
also lesser discussed benefits.
Parking. While the unwritten rules
of society and those pesky painted
yellow lines dictate where we can park
most of the year, winter parking is a
free for all. With no visible yellow
lines to keep us from parking like civi-
lized members of society, we cut loose.
Suddenly parking spots appear out
of nowhere. “That looks like it could
be a driveway.” Not any more! It’s
your new VIP parking spot, a mere
3.5 feet from your destination. Noth-
ing is out of bounds—curbs, lawns,
crosswalks—if you can’t see lines or
barriers, it must mean they aren’t there.
The one foot from curb rule of thumb
for parallel parking instantly becomes
2-10 feet, much to the relief of a select
few drivers to whom parallel parking
ranks just below landing a fighter jet
on an aircraft carrier on the degree of
difficulty scale. Stopping at stop signs
appears to become optional, replaced
with the “slide of good intentions.”
So while white-knuckle driving on
bad roads is a headache, the guilt-free
“anything goes” parking once at your
destination is sweet relief. (*Keep in
mind I’m not advocating the break-
ing of traffic laws, just poking fun at
winter drivers).
Justification of your snowblower
purchase. Your six-foot-wide, 40 hp
snowblower is a sweet machine. It also
cost $1,200 and sits in the garage 360
days a year, begging to be set free. And
once that first snow hits, the manliest
of men fire up their machines like jet
fueled dragsters just waiting for the
green light. While neighbors labor to
move 6” of snow a shovel scoop at a
time, you cut it like a hot knife through
butter, sending a stream of snow 20
feet in every direction—in your lawn,
over the fence toward your neighbors’
barking dog, toward the curb mowing
down your mailbox. It doesn’t matter
where it goes. You just know it’s gone.
It’s at this testosterone-filled moment
that you know that $1,200 was well
spent. At least till the carburetor needs
Submitted Photo
Jimmy Ingram is a local farmer and
father of two who enjoys people
watching within our wonderful com-
munity and beyond.
rebuilt.
Justifiable laziness. There’s few
ways to justify sitting around the house
on a nice weekend day. A snow day is
just the opposite.
Instantly you are able to talk your-
self out of things like taking out the
garbage, going to the bank, or return-
ing your neighbor’s Tupperware. “It’s
snowing,” you say, confining yourself
to the warmth of your living room
and the sweatpants you don’t want to
change out of. You are now able to jus-
tify drinking two pots of coffee before
noon and watching CSI re-runs com-
fortably. You may even use the oppor-
tunity to clean out your attic, vacuum
the house, or email your sister, but then
you look out the window again. “I’d
better not, it’s snowing outside. I’ll
just sit here and make sure the couch
doesn’t go anywhere.”
Additional style choices. How
boring would life be limited to warm
weather clothing? You wouldn’t be
able to wear that sweet jacket you
bought on sale last May that has 14
pockets, hand warmers and a bottle
opener on the zipper. And you’d look
foolish wearing those fancy UGG
boots, colorful winter hat, and polar
fleece gloves in the summer. Thanks to
wintertime snow, your wardrobe has
grown by 25%, bumping you up one
notch on the modern style chart from
“not stylish at all” to “it doesn’t matter
because it’s winter.” Okay, let’s face it,
we all look like abominable snowmen
out there. Just try and stay warm.
Appreciation for summer hobbies.
Nothing gives you a better perspective
on the enjoyment of warm weather
hobbies than not being able do them
in the winter. Bicycling, golf, fishing,
softball, swimming, etc. Taking a four-
month hiatus from warm(er) weather
activities because of snow makes you
appreciate them more when spring
rolls around.
Think of it like a spouse or a sibling.
You love them but you appreciate them
more when you don’t see them all the
time. It always feels good to dust off
the golf clubs or tune up the bike in
March knowing that soon the snow
will be gone. Well, maybe.
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