VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Quick takes
Brush, trees cut at
Hermiston’s Riverfront Park
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and wildlife? When the bank erodes and
they have to spend thousands of dollars to
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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
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for a paycheck.
— Katrina WM
Hermiston High School band
conquers Holiday Bowl
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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
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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
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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
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S
And then I typed it up.
orting through
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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been working for years to develop a grazing
allotment buyout plan to restore overgrazed
Forest Service land and reduce cattle-
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say they are ready to take privately funded
buyouts on a half-million acres of public
land, but the Forest Service is making things
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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
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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).
———
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I was in 1953, laughed and
laughed.
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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
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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
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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
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was his behavior in court, where
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he refused to answer routine
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questions and argued with the
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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
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the paper were told to drop everything
damage. Take someone whose personality
and start monitoring all activity of three
might have been merely disagreeable
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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and distort policy priorities. And the
Trump would probably have been a
biggest reason billionaires hate Obama
blowhard and a bully whatever his social
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station. But his billions have insulated him
feelings. The fact that some of those
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people’s ability to act out their narcissistic
secondary.
tendencies; nobody has ever been in a
But it’s not trivial. Oligarchy, rule by
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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.