Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
‘I have a dream’
This is the conclusion of the
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say to you today, my friends,
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and frustrations of the moment I
still have a dream. It is a dream
deeply rooted in the American
dream.
I have a dream that one day this
nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: “We hold
these truths to be self-evident; that
all men are created equal.” I have
a dream that one day on the red
hills of Georgia the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave
owners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day
even the state of Mississippi, a
desert state sweltering with the
heat of injustice and oppression,
will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live
in a nation where they will not
be judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their
character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day
the state of Alabama, whose
governor’s lips are presently
dripping with the words of
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be transformed into a situation
where little black boys and black
girls will be able to join hands with
little white boys and white girls
and walk together as sisters and
brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day
every valley shall be exalted, every
hill and mountain shall be made
low, the rough places will be made
plains and the crooked places will
be made straight and the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed and all
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This is our hope. This is the
faith with which I return to the
South. With this faith we will be
able to hew out of the mountain of
despair a stone of hope. With this
faith we will be able to transform
the jangling discords of our nation
into a beautiful symphony of
brotherhood. With this faith we
will be able to work together, to
pray together, to struggle together,
to go to jail together, to stand up
for freedom together, knowing that
we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of
God’s children will be able to sing
with new meaning: My country,
’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing: Land where my
fathers died, Land of the pilgrims’
pride, From every mountain-side
Let freedom ring.
And if America is to be a
great nation this must become
true. So let freedom ring from
the prodigious hilltops of New
Hampshire. Let freedom ring
from the mighty mountains of
New York. Let freedom ring from
the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the
snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous peaks of California!
But not only that; let freedom
ring from Stone Mountain of
Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout
Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill
and molehill of Mississippi. From
every mountainside, let freedom
ring.
When we let freedom ring,
when we let it ring from every
village and every hamlet, from
every state and every city, we will
be able to speed up that day when
all of God’s children, black men
and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be
able to join hands and sing in the
words of the old Negro spiritual,
“Free at last! Free at last! Thank
God almighty, we are free at last!”
OTHER VIEWS
Crackpots in cowboy
hats, and Congress
M
Years of no growth
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
should be an alarm
Residents of Harney County have of the land is controlled by the
been described as the hostages of the federal government, those policy
changes, along with stricter grazing
armed protesters who took over the
restrictions, increased regulation
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
and the ever-present threat of
Jan. 2.
environmental lawsuits that attend
By most accounts the protesters,
any dealing with government
largely out-of-state agitators,
agencies have huge impacts.
have harassed and generally run
“It’s continued
roughshod
rules and
over the local
regulations that
community for
County Judge
everything
three weeks and
Steven Grasty said do
to make it more
have worn out
their welcome.
the job losses in the GLI¿FXOWWRPDNH
a living, to
But the
community have
pay your bills,
government land
educate your
management
led to a general
kids, pay your
policies that at
feeling of despair. mortgage and
least partially
lead a good life,”
underpin the
(They) can no
retired rancher
protest have
longer depend
Bill Wilber said.
constrained the
County Judge
Harney County
on the natural
Steven Grasty
economy for 40
years.
resources jobs that said the job losses
the community
Once upon
once sustained the in have
led to a
a time, Harney
general feeling
County’s
county.
of despair. His
economy was
friends, neighbors
strong. Thirty-one
and their families can no longer
percent of the jobs, 768 in all, were
depend on the natural resource jobs
in the wood products industry. But
since 1978, that number has dropped that once sustained the county.
Many of those jobs have been
to 6, according to a recent report
IURPWKH2UHJRQ2I¿FHRI(FRQRPLF replaced by lower -paying service
sector jobs supporting tourists and
Analysis.
the large contingent of government
And while the rest of the state
workers who manage the public
increased jobs 74 percent since
lands.
the late 1970s, the number of jobs
Government employment now
in Harney County dropped by 10
accounts for 40 percent of the
percent. Since 1980, when the
jobs in the county. Those jobs are
population was 8,314 and the job
welcomed, and are vital to the
losses began, the county has lost
community. In many cases, those
nearly 1,200 people.
“Relative to the late 1970s — just employees are long time residents
with deep local ties.
before the state went into the severe
Still, there is a sense that
early ’80s recession and timber
industry restructuring — the number something has been lost.
“We believe the wealth of a nation
of jobs today in Harney County is
is based on its natural resources,”
10 percent below back then,” Josh
Grasty said. “We’ve lost access
Lehner, the analyst who prepared
to natural resources, in particular,
the report, said. “Clearly, that is a
really long time with essentially no
timber.”
growth.”
The partner that once encouraged
A lot of things have changed
these enterprises has grown distant
since the 1970s. The timber industry
and unresponsive.
has restructured, and there’s more
Sooner or later the protesters will
automation in the mills. So, not all of
decamp the refuge and life in Harney
the wood product job losses can be
County will return to normal.
attributed to federal logging policies.
But there and in a hundred places
But community leaders and
across the West, they will wait for
residents say that in a county
the federal government to loosen its
where more than 70 percent
grip.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
whites kicked them off. This week
ost of the ranchers I know
the Paiutes told the Bundy gang to
are decent folks, men and
go away, and said they looked to the
women of a few well-chosen
federal government as protectors of
words, slow to rouse, distrustful of
their cultural artifacts.
a show horse on four legs or two.
“It just rubs me in the wrong way
And then there’s the armed gang who
that we have a bunch of misinformed
seized an Oregon bird sanctuary —
people in here,” said Charlotte
Y’all Qaeda, as the twittersphere has
dubbed them.
Timothy Rodrique, the tribal chairwoman.
“They’re not the original owners.”
The leader, Ammon Bundy, is the
Egan
It’s beyond the historical literacy
son of Cliven Bundy, the deadbeat
Comment
of the anti-public-lands crowd
rancher and Fox News hero who
to understand that. But they do
still owes more than $1 million in
understand the greater stakes. “The idea is
unpaid grazing fees. The elder Bundy says
power,” said Ryan Payne, another one of the
he doesn’t recognize the government. The
occupiers in Oregon. “Land is power.”
younger Bundy recognized it enough to get
Let’s talk about that power. The media
DIHGHUDOORDQJXDUDQWHHIRUKLVÀHHWUHSDLU
shorthand for this staged event is an outdated
business in the rugged sprawl of Phoenix.
stereotype of a Sagebrush Rebellion. In
Ammon Bundy says God drove him to
truth, an overwhelming
EUHDNLQWRWKHRI¿FHVRIDQ
majority of Westerners
agency that works on behalf
enjoy their public lands
of pileated woodpeckers,
for all the things that the
yellow warblers and other
federal government protects
avian wonders. Bundy’s
for them — recreation,
not leaving, he says, until
wildlife, history, open
land that we own — that is,
space, clean water.
every American citizen —
The 47 million bird
is taken from us and given
watchers in this country
to some unnamed private
spend $40 billion a year
entity.
to follow creatures whose
Yes, it’s comical —
lives are dependent on
white privilege mixed
federal wildlife refuges.
with a “Hee Haw” parody.
Imagine if a bunch
The only thing Bundy and
of birders, lathered in
his fellow burglars have
sunscreen, their heads
accomplished thus far is
FRYHUHGLQÀRSS\KDWV
to leave behind enough
— Charlotte Rodrique,
took over a federal facility
evidence for prosecutors
Paiute Tribe chairwoman
to protest the innumerable
WR¿OHQXPHURXVFULPLQDO
predations of wildlife
charges against them.
habitat by cattle ranchers.
But this Gang That Can’t
Birders generate 660,000 jobs, through
Protest Straight is not far removed from a
trips and retail sales, according to the Fish
better-dressed crowd in Congress pushing
and Wildlife Service. By contrast, grazing
for radical change in the nation’s public land
allotments on federal public land number a
endowment. The locked-and-loaded crazies
bit more than 20,000. For those ranchers, the
in the Oregon high desert are using the same
language as Republican legislators who want deal is a steal — about 90 percent cheaper
than the market rate on private land in 16
to take away an American birthright.
Western states. We subsidize the ranchers,
On Wednesday, leading Republicans
while a majority of our public land users
in Washington expressed sympathy for
generate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and
the ideas behind the criminal takeover.
never threaten to kill a forest ranger.
“You have a frustration that they feel the
That’s why only a handful of ranchers
federal government is not listening to them
anymore,” said Representative Raúl Labrador — Cliven Bundy being the best-known
culprit — refuse to pay what most others do.
of Idaho, a Tea Party favorite.
But why, then, the push to privatize our great
The goal of Labrador and other far-right
open spaces? It goes back to power.
politicians from the West is similar to the
Teddy Roosevelt framed the struggle in
demands of the Bundy gang. Earlier this year
terms of the people against the exploiters.
a group led by Representative Rob Bishop,
It was Roosevelt who created the wildlife
the Utah Republican who is chairman of
refuge in Oregon, angering white squatters.
the House Natural Resources Committee,
The Supreme Court twice upheld the right of
announced plans to “develop a legislative
the government to protect the high desert.
framework for transferring public land to
The extremists, in Congress and the snows
local ownership and control.”
of Oregon, want to return to a 19th century
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world where blunt force — against Indians,
“to return these lands back to their rightful
wildlife, the public good — prevails. It’s a
owners.” It’s the identical language used
fantasy, costumed in western wear, except
by the militants. “We have research teams
¿QGLQJRXWZKRWKLVODQGZDVWDNHQIURPDQG that the guns are real.
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who it needs to be sent back to,” said one of
Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a
the occupiers, Jon Rizheimer
writer for The 1ew <ork Times ¿ rst as the
Um, the Indians? Well, yes, Paiutes
3aFi¿ F 1orthwest ForresSondent then as a
had been living on the well-watered desert
nationaO enterSrise reSorter.
sanctuary for at least 6,000 years, until
“It just rubs me
in the wrong
way that we
have a bunch
of misinformed
people in here.
They’re not
the original
owners.”
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 newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services 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.