Page 2 The Skanner August 30, 2017
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Jeff Trades an Unknown Known for a Known Known
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
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Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Melanie Sevcenko
Reporter
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2017
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in y o u r c o m m u n
Opinion
hen Pat and I moved
from Portland to
Central Oregon, I felt
confident that trad-
ing a Rumsfeldian unknown
known risk — that an earth-
quake will devastate Portland
at some unknown time in the
next 500 years — for a known
known risk — that wildland
fires threaten homes in Cen-
tral Oregon every year — was
a good bet. Until last week.
That’s when the sheriff ’s of-
fice ordered us to evacuate
immediately as the number
one priority fire in the entire
country bore down on our
little development. Thanks to
the efforts of hundreds of fire-
fighters over many days, the
fire appears to have spared us
but it has gotten me thinking
about how one manages risk
in life.
I operate on a fairly straight-
forward risk calculation
— size of risk X probability
of event occurring within a
given time period = risk quo-
tient; compare two options
and choose the less risky. OK,
sounds good, but wait, our
house just nearly burned
down and Portland is proba-
bly going to be intact for my
lifetime!
What has worked out for
me since moving here is get-
ting back into horses. Last
year, my boy, Cimarron, and I
had the best ‘limited distance’
(25 – 35 mile courses) record
on any horse and rider in the
entire Northwest region —
Jeff Tryens
Guest
Columnist
five first place race finishes
and four coveted ‘Best Condi-
tion’(BC) awards for Cimar-
ron. Woohoo! And true to
the horse world, this year has
been a wreck. Cim and I start-
ed out beautifully coming in
third against very stiff com-
petition in our first ride and
“
Our house
just nearly
burned down
and Portland
is probably
going to be
intact for my
lifetime
then winning the Klickitat
Trek against 48 other horses.
(See photo.) “Oh no”, vet tells
me Cim is “not right” when
we stand for BC at Klickitat.
$1,000 later, for a limp I can’t
even discern, a big shot lame-
ness vet says Cim is confined
to bed rest for at least 90 days
(the entire riding season) for
an injury he is unable to pin-
point.
So an endurance teammate
Jeff Tryens on his horse Cimarron
(I’m a WhoopA$$er.) kindly
offers me her CMK Arabian
(fancy horse) requesting that
I get this green trail horse to
the point that she can handle
an endurance race. Sweet,
gorgeous Cara — how hard
could that be? Well, turns out
Cara has a couple of really
bad habits — when she doesn’t
want to go forward, she backs
up really fast without looking
where she’s going and when
that doesn’t work she stands
straight up on her hind legs —
think Silver, but out of control
— and, finally, falls over on
her rider — me. With a burst
of humility, I recognize that
Cara is out of my league and
return her to my teammate.
Then, hearing of my misfor-
tune, my chief competitor
from last year of-
fers me her horse
for the next Cen-
tral Oregon ride
while she rides
a teammate’s 50-
mile horse in her
quest to move up
from 25s to 50s - so
I’m back in the sad-
dle. And to think,
two years ago I was
a total stranger in
this world.
Here’s my big
news. As of July, I
am an elected pub-
lic official. How,
you might ask,
could that have
happened? Well,
I’ve been a parkie
for many years,
so, when an uncontested seat
on the parks and recreation
district appeared on the May
ballot, I said, “What the hell”. I
swept to victory with 61 write-
in votes. Turns out we don’t
actually manage any parks
and 25% of the population has
never heard of us despite be-
ing around for 20 years but,
hey, we have taxing authority.
Overheard at the gym in
my semi-liberal town in a red
county — “Of course I voted
for him. What choice did I
have?” I hope the Dems can
do better next time around.
In fact, I’m going to go out
on a limb, right now, and be
the first public official in the
country to endorse Biden/
Obama for 2020!
When You Educate a Girl, You Educate a Nation
A
s I write this, I am pre-
paring to travel with
my colleagues to Nige-
ria, where I will have
the honor of meeting some
of the Chibok girls who were
released after two waves of
negotiations between Boko
Haram and Nigerian govern-
ment officials. It is my fourth
trip to Nigeria since April
14, 2014, when the terrorist
group shocked the world by
abducting nearly 300 school-
girls from their dormitory
rooms. More than three years
later, 113 of the original 276
Chibok girls are still being
held captive.
Many of the girls who es-
caped their kidnappers on
that fateful night or have
since been released have re-
markably not allowed this
hugely traumatic ordeal to di-
minish their determination to
pursue an education. It is my
mission to help ensure that
they, and indeed every girl in
Nigeria, have the opportunity
to go as far as their desire to
learn will take them.
Before Nigeria’s President
Muhammadu Buhari was
sworn into office, the pres-
ident-elect wrote in a New
York Times op-ed about the
urgent necessity to educate
girls so that “they will grow
Frederica S.
Wilson
Congress–
woman
(D-Fla.)
up to be empowered through
learning to play their full
part as citizens of Nigeria and
pull themselves up and out of
poverty.” He rightly surmised
that the country owed at
“
push for them to receive the
“best possible education” that
Buhari promised in his opin-
ion piece. They will in turn
ensure that their children—
boys and girls—are educated,
which as the proverb suggests
will greatly benefit both their
families and ultimately the
nation by equipping it with a
workforce that is prepared to
help undo the extensive dam-
age that has occurred during
Boko Haram’s reign of terror.
A lack of education has been
A lack of education has been a
key factor in Boko Haram’s ongo-
ing ability to successfully recruit
young men and boys
least that much to the Chibok
schoolgirls, whose fate at that
time was gravely uncertain. I
look forward to working with
the nation’s activists and gov-
ernment leaders to examine
ways to help Buhari keep that
pledge.
There is an African proverb
that says, “If we educate a boy,
we educate one person. If we
educate a girl, we educate a
family — and a whole nation.”
Fifty percent of Nigeria’s
population is female, so it
borders on the absurd to not
a key factor in Boko Haram’s
ongoing ability to successful-
ly recruit young men and boys
and continue to replenish
losses incurred in battle with
the Multinational Joint Task
Force. While the insurgents
teach boys, that “Western ed-
ucation is sinful,” educated
mothers are living examples
of the critical role education
plays in determining one’s fu-
ture success. Those boys grow
up viewing a world full of
possibility and opportunities
and are therefore extremely
unlikely to see the appeal of
becoming a terrorist.
Girls can change the world
and there is no better exam-
ple of that than the young
Pakistani activist Malala
Yousafzai, who was famous-
ly shot in the head at age 16
for daring to question the
Taliban’s efforts to deny her
right to an education. In ad-
dition to becoming the first
recipient of her country’s
peace prize, being named one
of Time magazine’s most in-
fluential people, and receiv-
ing the United Nations Hu-
man Rights Award, she is the
world’s youngest Nobel laure-
ate. Malala has earned global
acclaim for championing ed-
ucation for girls around the
world, including Nigeria, and
after completing her studies
at Oxford University will re-
turn to her native Pakistan to
continue those efforts.
It is my hope that the Chi-
bok girls, some of whom met
with Malala this summer,
will be inspired to follow her
path, one on which tragedy is
turned into triumph.
Frederica Wilson represents
Florida’s 24th congressional
district, including parts of Mi-
ami-Dade and Broward coun-
ties. You can follow Rep. Wil-
son on Twitter @RepWilson.
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