HoodRiverNews.com • TheDallesChronicle.com • WhiteSalmonEnterprise.com
tried to attract workers with health
benefits. Time has proven this
Continued from page 4
model deeply flawed. For-profit in-
surance companies, drug manufac-
turers, hospitals and providers have
steadily made healthcare benefits
youth organizations in this county
for more than 10 years, I have seen unfordable for employers, putting
them at a big disadvantage in the
tremendous community support!
world market. The result has been
I have also seen that many of our
job loss in our country and shrink-
children miss out on that support.
Too many of our kids in Klickitat
ing coverage, coupled with higher
County experience substance use
copays. And that’s if you are lucky
issues, bullying, abuse, and mental enough to be employed. Otherwise,
health challenges. Too often these
you are just left out on your own:
kids land in the court system or
Uninsured or under-insured. In that
worse.
situation, you are much more likely
Joanna Turner is a parent and
to be unable to manage chronic and
recognizes that the youth in our
new medical conditions adequate-
county need more support. Joanna ly, resulting in avoidable expensive
is committed to helping Klickitat
hospitalizations that we all end up
County support every child with
paying for when you are unable to
prevention — providing and in-
do so. As an ER physician, Tracy
Rushing, MD, deals with avoidable
creasing services like after-school
health crises every day. She is
tutoring, mentoring programs,
acutely aware that there needs to be
youth centers, food support, child
a better way. Some form of univer-
care, reproductive health educa-
tion and support, and in-county
sal healthcare is in place in almost
treatment centers. These preventive every developed country around
services will help us build a safer,
the globe. It is affordable; their
healthier, more supportive Klickitat healthcare costs are less than half of
County, and will ensure all our
ours. It works. They live as long or
youth have the chance to thrive.
longer with better health statistics
Joanna Turner’s commitment
on many measures. Let’s get behind
to our youth and to the longevity
someone who will work to make
of our county is clear. Please join
universal healthcare a reality in
me in voting for Joanna Turner for
our state. Let’s finally get this right!
Klickitat County Commissioner.
Vote for Tracy Rushing to represent
Marisa Cieloha District 14.
White Salmon
Robert C. Florek, MD
Underwood
LETTERS
Rushing for Dist. 14
Many seem to believe that
health insurance provided through
employment is a time-honored
concept that was handed down by
our founding fathers. In fact, em-
ployer-based healthcare only dates
back to World War II when wages
were frozen by law, and companies
Columbia Gorge News
shameful that police enforce it. It
isn’t the sort of thing that should be
made a law in the U.S. of A. Life, lib-
erty, and pursuit of happiness. My
life belongs too me, not the state. It
is unconstitutional, and should be
revoked.
When something you do is likely
to endanger someone else, that’s
different. Requiring measures to
limit disease spread is part of good
government..
It really bugs me that people have
criticized employees who demand
that patrons wear masks. Every
place of business has the right to
demand a dress code of patrons.
Shoes and shirt are not required
by law (except as regards decency
laws). Some establishments de-
mand that a man wear suit and tie.
That is allowed. But unless the dress
code is posted at the door, it is ille-
gal to refuse service or ask someone
to leave for going without tie, shoes,
or anything.
Masks, that’s different.
Adrian Fields
Hood River
Leviathan
government
Wednesday,August26,2020
Democrats subscribe to and faith-
fully practice this seamless system.
On its hind legs, socialism will
eventually intellectualize and even
spiritualize violence in its drive to
create utopia on earth. Jurist Robert
Bork wrote that utopian thinking,
without regard to actual realities,
will instead result in violence and
subjegation for all, including the
very people it says it values.
We now have a front row seat
of leftist violence coupled with
an overall dull response from too
many Republicans. At the same
time, we’re faced with those who
demand, for their own interests, hy-
per-individualism at the same time
demanding hyper-collective rights
according to their specific preferred
group identity.
Klickitat County Sheriff, Bob
Songer, isn’t popular with some
people for the right reason. He
places the guarantees of the
Constitution ahead of and in place
of the destructive tendencies exib-
ited by far too many which is why
some find him objectionable.
Judge Bork also pointed out that
our Constitution presents a firewall
between our individual liberties
at tension with the excesses of the
leviathan government. Ironically
this is available even for those who
want to destroy it.
Mike Goodpaster
Goldendale
5
the reliability of mail-in ballots. This
action is particularly reprehensible
during a pandemic, when voting
by mail is a safe way for people to
exercise their constitutionally guar-
anteed right to vote.
The Post Office is enshrined
in the US Constitution and is a
beloved and essential institution in
America, with as high as 90 percent
approval ratings. For so many of us,
the post office is a lifeline, providing
timely delivery of crucial medicines,
ballots, information, financial mat-
ters, personal correspondence.
I am outraged by the wanton
decommissioning and destruction
of 500 barcode sorters and the re-
moval of many mailboxes. This has
wasted millions of dollars in tax-
payer money. All of this equipment
belongs to the American people.
I encourage everyone who cares
about our Post Office to speak out
and stand up for this vital service
and for free and fair elections. Our
very democracy is at stake.
Carole Anderson
The Dalles
No electricty?
I heard on the radio that we may
very well experience brownouts due
Provided it doesn’t suffer from
to the shutting down of the [elec-
constant deconstruction and revi-
tricity generating] coal plants.
sion, history can be insightful. In
Climate changers responsible
1932, perhaps the worst year of the
for the shutdowns had said there
Depression, Louisiana Democrat
would be a replacement. to take the
and demagogue Senator Huey Long
place of the coal thereby giving us
was asked if fascism was likely to
electricity, but apprently that hasn’t
come to America. He replied, “Sure
happened.
but it will be called anti-fascism.”
Who is responsible?
All shades of socialism are in
I am shocked and deeply con-
Patricia Ward
Making a law that kids have to
cerned by the blatant dismantling of
The Dalles
wear seatbelts was good. But when essence uncomfortably similar
our US Postal Service by the Trump
someone is given a license to drive, economically, socially, and politi-
cally in that eventually, to borrow a administration and Postmaster
they should also have the right to
decide whether or not to wear a seat phrase, there can be nothing above General Louis DeJoy. The President
has made clear that his motivation
belt. It disgusts me that Oregonians the state and nothing outside the
state. Statist Republicans as well as is voter suppression by reducing
voted to make that a law. It is
Dismayed by
USPS actions
On masks
Mid-Columbia Center For Living seeks to end services
to residents with developmental disabilities
■ By Dennis Ziemer
For the last 30 years, Wasco,
Hood River, and Sherman coun-
tries have collectively organized a
County Developmental Disabilities
Program funded by the Oregon
Department of Human Services,
which has been run by the Mid-
Columbia Center for Living
(MCCFL).
County Developmental
Disabilities Programs provide
eligible adults and children with
intellectual and developmental dis-
abilities with services like case man-
agement of an individual support
plan, resource referrals, 24-hour
care, assisted living services and
employment support.
Now, in the midst of a global pan-
demic when the residents of these
counties need these services more
than ever, MCCFL has claimed that
it can no longer run this program
and will be laying off 11 employ-
ees, 10 of whom are considered
essential.
In canceling the program,
MCCFL has not identified anyone
to take over the program, leaving
their clients without the vital ser-
vices they need.
“As front-line workers serving
some of our communities’ most
vulnerable individuals, this decision
in the midst of a global pandemic,
fire season, and the transition for
students to begin remote learning,
is more than disconcerting” said
Sarah Smutz, a service coordinator
at MCCFL.
As recently as June, MCCFL ne-
gotiated reimbursement rates that
more than cover the cost of the pro-
gram and the dedicated staff who
serve the adults and children with
developmental disabilities who rely
on our services.
Anne Lamb, a mother of a child
with special needs who lives in the
area, sees the disruption of services
as the most consequential result of
MCCFL’s decision.
“As a mom of a special needs
child who’s experienced barriers
since birth, knowing that my child
is comfortable with their case
manager for years and then to have
that security yanked away when
it’s already hard for them to have a
voice, is cruel. This is taking their
stability away. It’s an outrage to
mess with kids when they already
have difficulties.”
As a public entity, before closing
this program, MCCFL should have
set up a time for public comments,
obtained board approval, or at the
!
l
l
a
F
s
i
h
T
g
n
i
m
o
C
very least, provided the public with
notice. In closing the program,
they did none of these things.
Furthermore, MCCFL is continuing
to make decisions about the use of
public funds and resources behind
closed doors. Recently, it set up a
private, invitation-only Q&A session
for Friday, Aug. 28, at 1 p.m. By lim-
iting who can attend, MCCFL has
again denied the public the oppor-
tunity to present their concerns.
Dennis Ziemer is media director
for Oregon AFSCME Council 75.
P
SPA LAY IT REMEM
CE A SAF BE
ND E WI R TO
WEA TH
R YO A LIT
UR TLE
MAS
K!
MORE FUN
TO SPARE!
More winners, more often, and now...more FUN!
With over 1,200 Vegas-style slots, table games, scenic golf
and now a Family FunPlex, you'll discover endless ways to play!
BOWLING • ARCADE
• FOOD
COURT • CHILDREN’S
AND MORE!
OVER 30 NEW GAMES
RESTAURANTS AND SWEET SHOP
ENTERTAINMENT
24 LANES / 2 PARTY ROOMS
800.654.9453 • Pendleton, OR • wildhorseresort.com
Owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. 03270.TT.8.20