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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 2016)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, January 2, 2016 Quick takes Brush, trees cut at Hermiston’s Riverfront Park *HWULGRIWKHVWXIIWKDWLVQHHGHGIRU¿VK and wildlife? When the bank erodes and they have to spend thousands of dollars to ¿[LWEHWWKH\ZLOOVWDUWSODQWLQJVWXIIWKHUH again. — Ashley Madsen Loss of habitat. What were they thinking? it looks awful. — Debbie Dee Foster parents provide safe haven for children The need for quality foster homes is huge. If God is calling you to become a foster parent do it. You will be blessed. — Marchelle Knapp The world needs more people willing to VWHSXSDQG¿JKWIRUWKHVHNLGVDQGQRWMXVW for a paycheck. — Katrina WM Hermiston High School band conquers Holiday Bowl 7KLVRQHWLPHDWEDQGFDPSZHWRRN¿UVW place in everything. Way to go HHS! — Al Rafferty Way to go! Winning every category over nine other bands. Be proud, all. — Donna Betts Band kiddos rock! — Peg Jones One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is that much can be summed up in just a few words. Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours @Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian. com, and keep them to 140 characters. I daho’s White Cloud Mountains seem like an unlikely place for the beginning of a positive shift in public-land management. They gleam high and cold above the seemingly endless sagebrush plains of southern Idaho, one of the most conservative states in the West. Yet it was here last year that Republicans worked with environmentalists to plant a legislative seed that may help reverse a century of decline for native plants and wildlife all over the West. Summers last only a few weeks in the White Cloud Mountains, and with off-road vehicles and mining closing in on these RQFHUHPRWHH[SDQVHVHQYLURQPHQWDOLVWV have campaigned since the 1970s for wilderness protection. Recently, frustration with congressional inaction led to a push for a 600,000-acre national monument, which President Obama seemed ready to endorse. Then the Republican Idaho congressional delegation agreed to compromise on a 275,000-acre wilderness bill that passed last August. Wilderness bills, though rare these days, sometimes include unfortunate concessions. But the Boulder White Clouds wilderness bill included a provision that both ranchers and environmentalists supported, and it’s one that may help shift public-land grazing throughout the West. It allows ranchers to voluntarily sell or donate their federal grazing leases back to the Forest Service on 700,000 acres surrounding the newly designated wilderness. In turn, the Forest Service will permanently close the affected grazing allotments. In large part, ranchers agreed to relinquish these allotments after \HDUVRISUHGDWRUFDWWOHFRQÀLFWVZLWKLQWKH Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Though other localized buyout programs have passed Congress since 1998, ranchers have defeated national buyout legislation because of the precedent-setting nature of ending grazing allotments, and because some ranchers consider federal grazing areas their private property. The Boulder White Clouds bill reveals that an aging population of ranchers, struggling to make ends meet in a drought-affected, urbanizing West, may be ready to ride off into the sunset. According to BeefResearch.org, 65 percent of ranchers are over age 55 and only 12 percent are under 45 years old. As the PDMRULW\RIUDQFKHUVUHDFKUHWLUHPHQWDJH most don’t have children willing to do the Page 5A %HDXWLIXO%HOLQGD6DYHGLQDQROG¿OHER[ S And then I typed it up. orting through )URPWKHYHU\¿UVW ROG¿OHVIURPP\ sentence it is clear that storage unit here the lady was more than outside Pendleton, a a teacher. More, a writer. couple months ago I She remains a legacy unearthed a treasure teacher, one I will never IURPP\WHUUL¿F\HDURI forget or thank enough. growing up —1953—at ———— James Madison Junior Tom “Beautiful Belinda” High School in West Hebert Seattle. Comment (Recite dramatically) Beautiful Belinda It was a beautiful is a dramatic reading spring day in late October. created and written out quickly, The little birds were twittering in longhand, on two and a half (twitter on piano) in the tree pages of lined 3-hole paper tops. The ocean waves were in 1953 for a young Tom beating against the rock-bound Hebert—then a daily ferry coast of Indiana (imitate). A boat commuter from Vashon storm was on the deep. Island—by a wonderful even High up in the heavens a transformative teacher at James Madison. Her 9th grade English single radiant star starred (piano strikes one high note). From a class, actually Speech Arts, was casement window in a castle by where we learned the several varieties of public speaking. But the sea, a beautiful form gazed out upon the landscape. the story she wrote mid-term The castle was ugly (bass on January 28 was her personal rumble). The storm was ugly challenge to me. Of course, she herself played (bass rumble). But the form, ah, the the piano’s sound effects called form (piano plays two lines for in the script. The original from “Oh, You Great Big copy has been saved, as she Beautiful Doll” and chorus ordered, for 63 years. I don’t says rapturously “Bee-youtiful remember her name but I have asked the principal to search for Belinda!!!!). She shuddered (piano keys her. tremble). And then she heaved a $Q\ZD\XSRQ¿QGLQJLWLQ sigh (descending slide across the WKDWEDWWHUHGROG¿OHER[DV keys from treble to bass). She a writer would I put it in my desktop’s Slough of Despond — was pensive because she was alone. What was she thinking things I have to read and work of? (bugle call). Ah, hah! She on, eventually. But, driven by curiosity, the manuscript rose to was thinking of Alphonso, the aviator hero! the top quickly and earlier this But hark! (base cord). A week I read it through for the sound of galloping hooves ¿UVWWLPHVLQFH-DQXDU\ Buyouts of grazing allotments win important support By TOM RIBE Writers on the Range East Oregonian hard work and earn the low pay that comes with ranching in the arid West. Buyouts offer ranching families a chance to end their ranching careers with a decent income. )DUWKHUVRXWKLQ1HZ0H[LFR¶V*LOD 0RXQWDLQVQRQSUR¿WRUJDQL]DWLRQVKDYH been working for years to develop a grazing allotment buyout plan to restore overgrazed Forest Service land and reduce cattle- 0H[LFDQZROIFRQÀLFWV0DQ\UDQFKHUV say they are ready to take privately funded buyouts on a half-million acres of public land, but the Forest Service is making things GLI¿FXOW,WLVEORFNLQJWKHEX\RXWVEHFDXVH having fewer cattle allotments to manage means budget cuts for the agency. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management spent about $128 million in 2013 administering their grazing programs while receiving only $12 million in receipts from ranchers, a small fraction of which goes back to the agencies. These direct costs to WD[SD\HUVVWDQGEHVLGHLQFDOFXODEOHLQGLUHFW costs, such as watershed damage, and the VSUHDGRIÀDPPDEOHFKHDWJUDVVZKHUHFDWWOH have trampled biotic crusts. There’s also the impact of grazing on hundreds of millions of acres of sage grouse habitat and recreation areas in high-altitude wilderness areas. Since 2011, a bill to permit permanent federal grazing allotment buyouts has languished in Congress. Called the Rural Economic Vitalization Act, it would authorize buyouts on any federal lands and would be a critical tool for agencies facing HQGDQJHUHGVSHFLHVFRQÀLFWVVXFKDVWKH BLM with sage grouse, or the Forest Service with bison, wolves and 170 other species. If passed, the bill would allow conservation groups, ranchers and agency managers to end grazing on key areas in a way that promises both dignity for the rancher and restoration for the land. This market-based solution should appeal to conservative politicians as well as to many ranchers of retirement age. By endorsing grazing buyouts in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho’s congressional delegation has given the national buyout campaign the biggest bipartisan push it has received to date. Idaho especially stands to gain if agencies can relieve grazing pressure on sage grouse habitat. Ending grazing with buyouts will ¿QDOO\EHJLQWKHORQJSURFHVVRIQDWLYHSODQW restoration over hundreds of millions of acres of public land. Ŷ Tom Ribe, Writers on the Range. is heard at the front door. A knock! (knock four times on top of piano). She shudders (tremble on piano). For she knew that Desperate Desmond, the Demon of the Deep was here (base cord). A moment later she heard him batter down the front door (discord all over the piano). She is in breathless apprehension (shrink to left foot IRUIDFLDOH[SUHVVLRQZDVOLNH a terror-stricken doe awaiting the approach of a blood-thirsty lion. Then — then she heard him coming up the stairs. She was trapped! (chord). She shuddered (tremolo). And then she shuddered some more (more tremolo). But she was safe for the present at least. The second door was locked. But hark! (cord). Desperate Desmond calls for his men. And his blood-thirsty crew all ascend the stairs (piano ascends the scale by twos). Gracious heavens! They are breaking down the door (discord). They enter — Desperate Desmond and his Demon Crew (piano: “Hail, Hail, the gang’s all here!”). Beautiful Belinda is in their power! But without, the little birds still twittered in the tree-tops (twitter) and the storm was on the deep (rumble) and the single star but not as high as before, still starred. She was alone, but assistance is at hand (bugle call). Handsome Harry Alphonso, the American aviator ÀLHVLQMXVWLQWKHQLFNRIWLPH He seizes Bee-youtiful Belinda with one hand, dashes Desperate Desmond and his Demon Crew to the earth with the other, starts his motor with one foot, shoots the villain with the other, and they are saved! (chord). 2XWDQGDZD\WKH\À\WROLIH and liberty and wedding bells (Wedding March). And without the little birds still twittering in the treetops (twitter). They twittered and twittered and twittered until there wasn’t a twitter left in them (twitter dies away). The ocean wave still beats upon the rock-bound coast of Indiana (rumble) and high up in the heavens the single star still stars! (same high note). ——— 2IFRXUVH,MXVWUHDGLWDJDLQ RXWORXGDQGMXVWOLNHWKHNLG I was in 1953, laughed and laughed. :LWKWKHFRQ¿GHQFHJDLQHG LQWKDWMXQLRUKLJKFODVVURRP this Island immigrant to Seattle ended 1953 at James Madison as master of ceremonies for the school’s Annual Springtime Talent Show and went on to a bachelor degree in Speech DQG7KHDWUH$UWVDW/LQ¿HOG College and graduate school at the Dallas Theater Center and Baylor University. And later taught Public Speaking at Prairie View A&M University. And, as friends will attest, has been telling stories ever since. Ŷ Today, Tom Hebert is a writer and public policy consultant living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation outside Pendleton. Privilege, pathology and power W ealth can be bad for your including links to organized VRXO7KDW¶VQRWMXVWDKRDU\ crime and prostitution. Given his piece of folk wisdom; it’s business, this may not be all that a conclusion from serious social surprising. What was surprising VFLHQFHFRQ¿UPHGE\VWDWLVWLFDO was his behavior in court, where DQDO\VLVDQGH[SHULPHQW7KH he refused to answer routine DIÀXHQWDUHRQDYHUDJHOHVVOLNHO\ questions and argued with the WRH[KLELWHPSDWK\OHVVOLNHO\WR MXGJH(OL]DEHWK*RQ]DOHV7KDW respect norms and even laws, more as she rightly pointed out, isn’t Paul likely to cheat, than those occupying Krugman something witnesses get to do. lower rungs on the economic ladder. Then Adelson bought Nevada’s Comment And it’s obvious, even if we don’t largest newspaper. As the sale KDYHVWDWLVWLFDOFRQ¿UPDWLRQWKDW ZDVEHLQJ¿QDOL]HGUHSRUWHUVDW H[WUHPHZHDOWKFDQGRH[WUHPHVSLULWXDO the paper were told to drop everything damage. Take someone whose personality and start monitoring all activity of three might have been merely disagreeable MXGJHVLQFOXGLQJ*RQ]DOHV$QGZKLOHWKH under normal circumstances, and give him paper never published any results from the kind of wealth that lets him surround that investigation, an attack on Gonzales, himself with sycophants and usually get ZLWKZKDWORRNVOLNHD¿FWLWLRXVE\OLQHGLG whatever he wants. It’s not hard to see how appear in a small Connecticut newspaper he could become almost pathologically owned by one of Adelson’s associates. self-regarding and unconcerned with OK, but why do we care? Because others. Adelson’s political spending has made him Modern America is a society in which a huge player in Republican politics — so a growing share of income and wealth much so that reporters routinely talk about is concentrated in the hands of a small the “Adelson primary,” in which candidates number of people, and these people have trek to Las Vegas to pay obeisance. KXJHSROLWLFDOLQÀXHQFH²LQWKHHDUO\ Are there other cases? Yes indeed, stages of the 2016 presidential campaign, even if the egomania doesn’t rise to around half the contributions came from $GHOVRQOHYHOV,¿QGP\VHOIWKLQNLQJIRU fewer than 200 wealthy families. The usual H[DPSOHRIKHGJHIXQGELOOLRQDLUH3DXO concern about this march toward oligarchy Singer, another big power in the GOP, who is that the interests and policy preferences published an investor’s letter declaring that of the very rich are quite different from LQÀDWLRQZDVUXQQLQJUDPSDQW²KHFRXOG those of the population at large, and that is tell from the prices of Hamptons real estate surely the biggest problem. and high-end art. Economists got some But it’s also true that those empowered laughs out of the incident, but think of the by money-driven politics include a self-absorption required to write something disproportionate number of spoiled like that without realizing how it would egomaniacs. Which brings me to the sound to non-billionaires. current election cycle. Just to be clear, the biggest reason to The most obvious illustration of the oppose the power of money in politics is point I’ve been making is the man now the way it lets the wealthy rig the system OHDGLQJWKH5HSXEOLFDQ¿HOG'RQDOG and distort policy priorities. And the Trump would probably have been a biggest reason billionaires hate Obama blowhard and a bully whatever his social LVZKDWKHGLGWRWKHLUWD[HVQRWWKHLU station. But his billions have insulated him feelings. The fact that some of those IURPWKHH[WHUQDOFKHFNVWKDWOLPLWPRVW EX\LQJLQÀXHQFHDUHDOVRKRUULEOHSHRSOHLV people’s ability to act out their narcissistic secondary. tendencies; nobody has ever been in a But it’s not trivial. Oligarchy, rule by SRVLWLRQWRWHOOKLP³<RX¶UH¿UHG´7KH the few, also tends to become rule by the result is the face you keep seeing on your monstrously self-centered. Narcisstocracy? TV. Jerkigarchy? Anyway, it’s an ugly But Trump isn’t the only awesomely spectacle, and it’s probably going to get self-centered billionaire playing an outsized even uglier over the course of the year role in the 2016 campaign. ahead. There have been some interesting news Ŷ reports lately about Sheldon Adelson, the Paul Krugman joined The New York Las Vegas gambling magnate. Adelson has Times in 1999 as a columnist on the EHHQLQYROYHGLQVRPHIDLUO\FRPSOH[FRXUW Op-Ed Page and continues as professor proceedings, which revolve around claims of Economics and International Affairs at of misconduct in his operations in Macau, Princeton University.
