opinion
november21
2013
An Opinion: No Support for Sheriff...Again
By Randy Sanders
Another Columbia County pub-
lic safety levy has failed, this time with
a lowly 39% voter turnout. “Get a gun,”
is the answer that echoes from the very
bottom of the intellect barrel. This is
nothing more than a short-sighted rem-
edy, mostly from angry Face Book trolls
who waste hours of their lives posting
tough-talk rhetoric with gun graphics
depicting these grand scenarios of just
exactly what could happen if thieves
dared enter their home.
Frankly, this is a tired, ill-witted
response based on pure ignorance. I own
a gun -- actually a few of them -- and
yet this still doesn’t make me a crime
fighter or you either. If owning a gun
is a substitute for a competent sheriff’s
department, then owning a garden hose
is a substitute for the local fire depart-
ment. It’s no secret that criminals who
break into homes also have guns that
are just as powerful as the gun the home
owner carries. Perhaps at that point, it
just might not be a bad idea to have a
few of those deputies they insist on not
supporting, respond to their calls while
they attempt to defend themselves?
Although guns are a great first
defense, they are not a logical substi-
tute for a sheriff’s department. Your
gun can’t patrol our highways and
back roads arresting drunk drivers who
threaten the safety of you or your family
members. Your gun cannot respond to a
domestic dispute when a young mother
is being beaten mercilessly in full view
of her young children. Your gun can-
not serve papers to the shady contractor
who gladly took your hard earned mon-
ey, yet never finished the job. And most
importantly here, your gun cannot prop-
erly maintain order in a jail filled with
women beaters, arsonists, pedophiles,
thieves, and other dangerous criminals.
Even our early settlers -- who all car-
ried guns -- in the old west certainly
understood this. That’s why they hired
professional sheriffs to serve them be-
cause they were too busy running their
ranches and providing for their families.
Have we really lost our sense
of community? While we enjoy an edu-
cated, even-tempered sheriff who has
served us well by providing an effec-
tive, squeaky clean sheriff’s office, free
of corruption; perhaps we do not trust
him when he asks for the funds that are
sorely needed. Each time he’s come to
us with hat in hand asking us to sup-
port a public safety levy we have flatly
turned him down. And each time over
the past five years, he’s gone right back
to work doing the best he can, but now
the game has come to an end.
Stretching a buck is not easy
to do, I get that, we all must do it; but
we all aren’t housing and feeding crimi-
nals and filling patrol cars with fuel
every day. Sheriff Jeff Dickerson has
been more than gracious about this,
scrambling to make ends meet until the
situation has now become bleak. Crime
within a community reflects its livabil-
ity, social environment and even prop-
erty values. I doubt voters don’t trust
the sheriff when he lays things out; after
all he’s been elected twice. My fear is --
judging from the recent voter turnout --
people have grown apathetic, and that’s
a disturbing situation.
I do accept the argument that
many folks cannot afford a tax hike and
this opens up another issue: jobs. Just
how many jobs have our elected com-
missioners helped usher into this county
lately? That’s an argument for another
day. Besides, by now releasing criminals
back into the county without serving
their time, it doesn’t exactly invite de-
cent companies here who are looking to
expand. Being a property owner within
a community does come with responsi-
bilities and we have repeatedly ditched
those responsibilities. Looking around
the United States we see governments
failing, towns and counties falling into
bankruptcy and crime steadily seeping
into places we once thought were safe
and livable. Sadly, that day is not too far
off in Columbia County.
It’s too late for this levy, I real-
ize, but I am appealing to you, the in-
telligent, reasonable, respectable and
hardworking citizen just to think about
the bed we’ve now made. Am I the only
one who wants Columbia County to re-
main a great place to live and perhaps
even grow into something better? Am I
the only one that has a vision for a com-
munity where good paying jobs comple-
ment our natural, green surroundings?
We have an opportunity to surpass other
communities and draw businesses here;
good businesses with good jobs! But
sadly, without a decent sheriff’s office,
we invite lawlessness that will eventu-
ally destroy everything that is livable
here.
3
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Chip Bubl
Tobie Finzel
Bill Haack
Dr. Carol McIntyre
Randy Sanders
Sonia Spackman
Nate Underwood
Grant Williams
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