Page 4A
OPINION
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Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OTHER VIEWS
Speaking out for
rural Oregon
I
ranchers they had to build the
n recent weeks, the people
fence. When I pointed out their
of Harney County have
error, they basically told me to
become no stranger to
stuff it. When I provided them
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with the documentation from
a group of armed protesters
more than a decade before that
overtook a federal facility in
proved the intent of Congress,
the Malheur National Wildlife
they doubled down. Finally,
Refuge. Two days later Dwight
when I got Congress to pass
and Steve Hammond — father
Greg
and son ranchers from Harney
Walden a restatement of the original
intent, they said they’d review
County who were convicted
Comment
it.
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A similar experience is taking
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place across the West through so-called
land — reported to prison to serve the
travel management plans. Originally
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intended to minimize damage from
sentence.
off-road vehicles, it quickly became a
While these stories played out
powerful tool to close
across every major
roads and shut people
media outlet, it’s
out of their forests.
important to understand
What happened in
what is driving this
the Wallowa-Whitman
anger and what steps we
National Forest is
can take to improve the
a classic case in
situation.
point. After years of
The thread that ties
community meetings,
the Hammond family’s
public workshops and
case together with
incredible efforts to
the calls of those who
update the government’s
took over the refuge is
faulty maps, a forest
decades of frustration,
supervisor decided she
arrogance and betrayal
knew better. Her choice
that has contributed
of a management plan
to the mistrust of the
was such an affront that
federal government.
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While I understand
packed a meeting in La Grande in
their passion, I cannot condone the
protest. I, too, was incensed and called
actions of the armed protesters, led
largely by people who are not from our upon the Forest Service to withdraw the
plan, and they did. But the damage was
state. They’ve made their point loud
and clear, and local community leaders, done. How can people be expected to
have faith in a public process when they
including many ranchers, have asked
see outcomes like these?
them to leave. They should do so.
Meanwhile, other threats loom on
The day after the Hammonds went
these same people. From the onerous
to prison, I went to the U.S. House
“waters of the United States” rules, to
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threats of more national monuments,
speech on what was unfolding in
the federal government is aggressively
Harney County. But when decades
trying to get cattle off the range and
of my own pent-up frustration with
people off their public lands.
the federal government’s treatment of
The Hammonds were tried and
rural Oregonians came to the surface, I
convicted under a law written after
spoke before my colleagues for nearly
the Oklahoma City bombing. The
half an hour. (You can watch my full
presiding judge in the case made clear
speech at www.walden.house.gov/
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speech).
on the high desert of Eastern Oregon
In my years representing the people
RI2UHJRQ¶VQG'LVWULFW,KDYHZRUNHG didn’t make sense. But a court found he
lacked the authority to invoke a lesser
with local ranchers and the citizens of
sentence.
Eastern Oregon to resolve disputes,
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that landed the Hammonds with a
cooperative spirit and partnership with
punishment disproportionate to the
the federal agencies. After all, more
severity of the crime. I’m working with
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my colleagues to do just that.
federal management, or lack thereof.
We need to have the president
The Steens Mountain Cooperative
understand that more monuments may
Management and Protection Act is a
bring cheers from certain companies
prime example of those cumulative
and communities, but in reality they
efforts. But after it was signed into law
leave behind more mistrust and
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mismanagement.
decided to reinterpret it and follow it
And those not familiar with the high
at their own convenience, or ignore
desert of the West need to understand
the law altogether. At the suggestion
what we face before they quickly
of local ranchers, the law created
condemn the frustration and anger that
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is so evident.
United States, but the tradeoff was
Ŷ
a legal requirement for the federal
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden represents
government to provide the fencing.
Oregon’s Second Congressional
And yet bureaucrats within the Bureau
District, which includes 20 counties in
of Land Management wouldn’t listen
central, southern, and eastern Oregon.
and wouldn’t follow the law. They told
Decades of
frustration,
arrogance and
betrayal that
has contributed
to the mistrust
of the federal
government
OTHER VIEWS
Focus on illegal guns
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quoted researchers who found the
ate Thursday a madman
following:
approached a police cruiser in
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felons had acquired their most recent
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weapon through their own theft; an
striking him three times in the left arm.
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friend, family, or street source had
was able to get out, chase the shooter
stolen the weapon before conveying it;
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buttocks.
Charles DQGDQDGGLWLRQDOSHUFHQWWKRXJKW
that the weapon probably had been
The shooter would later tell the
Blow
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police, according to Capt. James Clark,
Comment
percent, then, and possibly as many
commander of the Police Department’s
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homicide division: “I follow Allah and
I pledge allegiance to the Islamic State. That is RZQHG¿UHDUPVKDGEHHQVWROHQHLWKHUE\WKH
offender himself or by the source from whom
the reason why I did what I did.”
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This is a disturbing reminder of the
of the respondents quizzed as to whether
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disposed to acts of terror, and how hard it is
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to identify all of them before they commit a
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violent act.
reported multiple thefts.”
But the episode also highlighted something
Rather than focusing on all guns, the
else that does not get enough discussion: the
vast, vast majority of which are owned by
use of stolen guns in crimes.
responsible people and are never used in the
You see, the gun used in the Philadelphia
DWWDFNKDGEHHQVWROHQIURPDSROLFHRI¿FHUQR commission of a crime, we have to focus on
keeping guns out of the hands of this relatively
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Our current discussion about increasing gun small number of criminals.
People, including the president in his
regulations often centers on efforts that would
PRVWO\DIIHFWSHRSOHZKROHJDOO\EX\¿UHDUPV speech and town hall meeting last week, like
to compare increasing gun regulations to the
Many of them make sense, in theory, but the
way cars are regulated. But they didn’t simply
truth is that they would not be likely to have a
huge impact on criminal gun violence, because get safer due to regulations. They also got safer
because the market desired more safety, as well
many of those criminals obtain their weapons
as anti-theft features. Many of the innovations,
illegally.
carmakers came up with on their own. The gun
So, when the gun lobby and gun owners
market doesn’t behave that way.
make this case, we must admit that they have
Furthermore, cars are required to be
a point.
licensed, registered, insured and periodically
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Institute wrote a fascinating article about where inspected. Also, you can’t hide a car the way
FULPLQDOVJHWWKHLUJXQVDQGKLV¿QGLQJVZHUH you can hide a gun. Cars are operated on public
roads.
somewhat shocking.
If we want to truly put a dent in gun
Corrupt dealers supply some of the guns.
violence, we must take some incredibly
According to Bieler:
unpopular steps in some pockets. Safety
“Some researchers have suggested that
features — including smart guns that can only
gun retailers divert a relatively low volume of
weapons, while others have found them to be a EH¿UHGE\WKHRZQHU²DUHJRLQJWRKDYH
to be added to the market. That will be hard
major source.”
to sell because no one wants a gun to fail to
Some come from gangs and family and
because it lacks a charge or due to a technology
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is that, technologically, they are simple and
of crime guns, but little is known about the
ancient. There are no batteries or chips.
composition of this nebulous ‘friends and
We are also likely to have to register guns
family’ category.”
and require insurance. This would be almost
And research by the Bureau of Alcohol,
impossible, given the gun lobby’s and many
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives suggests
gun owners’ current stance and the paranoid
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IHDUVRIFRQ¿VFDWLRQDIHDUVRPHOLEHUDOVIHHG
dealers sold more than half of the guns
Making guns safer and keeping more of
recovered in crimes, and that most gun dealers
them out of the hands of criminals and in the
rarely have one of their guns show up in
hands of responsible owners can be done, but
crime.”
not as long as many responsible owners are
But what I found most shocking was the
also unreasonable ones.
number of guns that are stolen each year: as
Ŷ
many as half a million. Each year! And many
Charles M. Blow is The New York Times’s
of those stolen guns are used in other crimes.
,QDERRN³7KH&KDOOHQJHRI&ULPH´ visual Op-Ed columnist. His column appears
published by Harvard University Press, authors in The Times on Saturday.
YOUR VIEWS
American West as
important as ever
Amazing how fast the East Oregonian
has backed away from its bold stand, “Mr.
President, free the Hammonds.” Now it’s
“But the Hammonds — and the militia —
fail to understand that the West is changing
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detriment of others.” Consistent with the
EO, bend over and get used to the new order
of Manifest Destiny in the American West;
they have deleted from my editorial as well
as ignored Representative Greg Walden’s
impassioned congressional speech on behalf
of the Hammonds.
According to the EO, “In the last half
century the importance of ranching, logging,
and mining have diminished dramatically
in the American West.” Really? Apparently
the EO editors do not buy food or building
materials in local markets, use fuels or
energy mined in the American West,
or appreciate the culture that made the
Pendleton Round-Up famous.
The new strategy of the press is to
publicly undermine the integrity of the
Hammonds and their way of life and brand
the protesters as armed white Christian
fanatical terrorists. The Jan. 9 EO op-ed
by Paul Larmer claims the Hammonds
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“burning up thousands of acres of public
land.” According to court documents Steve
Hammond had BLM approval for the range
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acres of government land. According to
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Hammond ranch and no evidence was
established that any government land was
burned.
EO “Your Views” writer George
Wuerthuer claims “the Hammonds were
convicted of poaching at least seven deer, a
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slander should have been edited out of letter,
something the EO is very good at. The only
“crime” the Hammonds were found guilty
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readily admitted from the start. The jury had
no idea these ranchers would be convicted
as terrorists and under the dictates of the
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in what presiding Judge Hogan called “a
sentence that would shock the conscience.”
Stand with your original conviction, East
Oregonian! Free the Hammonds and stop
the assault on our American and Christian
heritage and way of life. Our forefathers, in
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so that the great Northwest, Old Oregon,
would be the heritage of the American
people.
Stuart Dick
Irrigon
Schools should stay out
of health care business
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students in Hermiston School District:
Please remember that you have the right
and duty to know what is directed at your
child while at school. Yes, you know and
trust the teacher(s); yet, have you asked
the school whether they will administer the
Healthy Teens Survey promoted and pushed
by OHA across Oregon? Who has access to
this information and what is it being used
for?
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your child is not subject to this.
Compose an “Opt-Out” letter with your
signature advising that you be personally
consulted before your child is submitted to
any survey.
Ask for access information on the school
website.
Parents need to continually remind the
school that their job is education, not health
care.
We citizens of Hermiston care about who
decides personal issues for our youth.
Marge Rolen
Hermiston
A victory for cancer patients
and their families
Everyone is only One Degree from
cancer; whether it’s a friend, family or
ourselves directly, it affects all of us. My
“One Degree” is my brother-in-law and best
friend Rich, who died from cancer three
years ago. That’s why I’m so grateful that
Congress passed the largest funding increase
for cancer research in more than a decade.
Thousands of cancer survivors, patients
and advocates shared their One Degree
stories with Congress, urging them to
commit to a disease that’s expected to kill
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residents will hear the dreaded words, “You
have cancer.” By ensuring necessary funding
is available, Congress put lifesaving research
back on track to help restore resources that
are critical to the development of early
detection tests and cutting-edge therapies.
Together, we can save more lives from
cancer.
As an American Cancer Society Cancer
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Congressional District, I’d like to thank U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden for supporting cancer
research and giving us the gift of hope this
year. There is still more work to be done in
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for the support of my member of Congress
against a disease that has greatly impacted
my family.
Karen Malcolm
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspa-
per reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual ser-
vices and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted
letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime
phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be
published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave.
Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.