VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Warming Station,
Relief Nursery relocate
That’s awesome, maybe the warming
station can be open earlier and longer.
— Sharon Boothe
Great way to utilize one of many empty
spaces!
— Angela Cimmiyotti
A wonderful act.
— Pat Tempinski
Hermiston growth continues
Thank you Port of Morrow for providing
jobs for all of the people in Hermiston!
— Tim Wardwell
Love the new paint job on the water
tower! Good job!
— Jeanne Perkins
Meteor flashes through sky
We were coming from Tri-Cities, it
streaked across the southern sky. Beautiful
colors and went almost to the horizon, First
one I ever saw.
— John Perkins
I saw it from my kitchen window. My
family thought I was crazy.
— Tena Tickal
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.
D
ear conservative family
outweigh the importance of those pesky
members and friends,
Ten Commandments and the like?
You’ve been urging
You’ve been trying to reassure me
me and like-minded folks who
that now that he’s won, Mr. Trump
were shocked and disheartened
will be a changed man. He wants to be
by Donald Trump’s victory to quit
everyone’s president, he says, and no
whining and rally around our new
one should be afraid.
leader. We all need to pull together,
But surely you realize
you say, to help our country move
that after months of
Hal
forward.
McCune demonizing Muslims
I know you’re sincere. But I
and Hispanics, belittling
Comment
hope you’ll admit that it would be
women, and cheering on
a lot more genuine if you hadn’t
violent followers, some
spent the last eight years calling President
of us will take a wait and see
Obama the Antichrist. Your “team” proudly
attitude. The enduring image for me is Mr.
abrogated its duty to work with other
Trump gleefully ridiculing a handicapped
members in Congress to address America’s
reporter.
challenges, and instead concentrated on being
If the president-elect wants to reject the
obstructionists — and was very good at it. So, bigotry and hatred his campaign cultivated,
I hope you’ll understand that while your plea
appointing a chief strategist with a history
for cooperation is understandable, it is soaked of espousing degrading opinions of women,
in the most blatant hypocrisy.
demeaning Jews and championing white
To help me move forward, I also need you nationalist views is a strange way to show it.
to explain how you squared your Christian
But let’s get to the crux of the matter.
values with your support of Donald Trump.
I’m aware that this election exposed a deep
Some far-right fundamentalists went
mistrust of the “establishment” and a backlash
so far as to proclaim that God had raised
against “political correctness” by a large
up Mr. Trump for this specific time to
segment of society that feels ignored and
“make America great again,” but it takes a
disenfranchised. I know political affiliation
depressingly cynical view of God to believe
does not determine the goodness of a person,
he would choose an arrogant, dishonest,
actions do. I know you love your kids and
womanizing internet troll as his vessel, and
grandkids every bit as much as I do mine, and
allow him to lurch through life grabbing
you want the best possible future for them.
women and cheating debtors and college
You want peace, a safe home and economic
students until the time came for him to lead
security, just like I do.
the USA out of bondage.
That’s why I want President Trump to
So, I’d like to know, do character and
succeed. Despite my deep skepticism I’m
actions matter, or does political expediency
willing to give him some time to prove if he’s
Living in a bubble,
even in a small town
I
n my small town in southwestern
Colorado, those who did not vote
for Donald Trump seemed numbed
and stunned by the result. Mostly
college-educated and originally from
away, they grouped in their usual places
to commiserate.
Maybe it was a shocking result. But
if these folks had visited outside their
circles, if they’d tried to get a fix on
what makes the longtime locals tick,
they might have had a better sense of
what was to come.
Mancos, Colorado, population about
1,300, is mostly white, with folks here
mostly ranching and farming and some
doing outdoor recreational and nonprofit
work. It is also a Colorado Creative
District, and because of its growing
diversity, Mancos was named one of the
“Top 20 Small Towns” by Smithsonian
Magazine.
But in my experience, pockets of
people here act more like species in
the wilderness. They clump together
and interact with other groups only
when they must. That’s too bad, since
reaching beyond a comfortable circles
has mostly positive consequences.
Researchers at Stanford and Harvard
universities say so. Yet I see plenty of
miscommunication and even disdain
between community groups here.
An example: Mancos’ motto is
“Where the West Still Lives” and sure
enough, cattle drives are regular deals.
Recently, I helped friends move 50
pairs along a few miles of back road.
Most cars stopped to let us pass, but
one local driver in a new Subaru tried
to pass a stopped car and push through
the herd. Now, side-by-side vehicles
blocked the cattle, and the frustration
was palpable.
The driver, in his ignorance and
impatience, had made matters worse.
Maybe it’s a scene that plays out across
other small Western towns.
Another example: Colorado is a
fence-out state, so gates and fences
are nothing new. But more and more
transplants to our area lock their gates.
Inevitably, cattle get through their
fencing.
Perry Lewis served on the town
board. Born and raised here, Lewis lived
in California, Illinois, Massachusetts
and elsewhere before returning home.
“I wanted my three sons to be able to
grab their horse and their dog and go up
into the mountains,” he said.
I asked Lewis about diversity,
newcomers and old-timers. “I love the
Page 5A
Wish Trump the best, but watch closely
Quick takes
By MADDY BUTCHER
Writers on the Range
East Oregonian
diversity. But the thing that drives me
batty? They want paved roads or don’t
want their neighbor to have chickens.
But that’s why they moved to Mancos.”
You might think differences could
be worked out over a cup of coffee.
But even coffee reveals divisiveness.
Most ranchers grab their morning cup
at the Conoco station or at the P & D,
which for decades has served as the
town’s grocery store. A quarter-mile
away, Fahrenheit Coffee Roasters
charges the same price but hosts a
different clientele, who tote laptops and
smartphones. Some sit for hours at the
metal tables, working online.
Matt Lauer, who owns Fahrenheit
with his wife, smiles at how old-timers
label his customers. “It’s ‘yuppie,’ ‘new
age,’ ‘expensive,’” he said. “There are
folks who grew up on Folgers and who
think this coffee sucks.” One rancher
told me that cowboy hats don’t fit
through Fahrenheit’s doorway and that
Lauer’s customers “need to get a job.”
You might assume that transplants
are better at embracing a town’s
diversity. But sandal wearers with
messenger bags are just as rutted in
their routines as the cowhands dipping
Copenhagen. Lewis and others said
they do not see the new, young farmers
reaching beyond their circle to get know
farmers who have lived in Mancos for
generations.
It makes me think that diversity
takes work. Books help. My favorite
is “The Good Neighbor Guidebook for
Colorado,” edited by Nancy S. Greif
and Erin J. Johnson. The driver stuck
in cows would do well to read it: “New
neighbors must be prepared to assume
responsibility for the impact that their
presence can have on working farms
and ranches ... living next door to a
farm or ranch involves ... a commitment
to open communication, hard work, and
constant learning.”
“Great Work,” a business practices
book by David Sturt, points to the need
to reach outside usual circles. When
people do that, “it makes communities
interesting, welcoming, vibrant,” Sturt
writes. “It’s actually a disadvantage to
only talk with people who like us, care
about us, and believe in us.”
I mentioned the cattle drive snafu
to Sturt. He laughed and offered the
driver some advice: “Get out of your
little bubble. Roll down your window.
Smell the cattle. Listen to them. Get off
autopilot. It takes more effort. And it’s a
delight.”
■
Maddy Butcher is a contributor to
High Country News.
up to the task.
We should be able to agree on some of the
measures for that success, such as a humane
and equitable revision of immigration policy
and an overhaul of our stupefying tax system,
which does a pathetic job of sharing the
burden of citizenship fairly
among all classes of society
(i.e., a lot of millionaires pay
little or no taxes, such as Mr.
Trump).
But you and your choice
for president should know,
I am not willing to shrug
off demeaning treatment of women, or
disparaging remarks and policies regarding
immigrants, minorities, gays and lesbians, or
people who don’t worship the same way you
do — there should be no going back when it
comes to treating all people equally.
I’m not going to sit by quietly if willful
ignorance of climate change threatens
the future for my posterity. I’m not
going to passively accept a gutting of the
Environmental Protection Agency so BP or
Halliburton can make a little more money
while the world burns.
You’re right, we’re in this together. But
clearly we see the world, and how best
to progress as a country and society, very
differently.
Despite all those obstacles, I suspect we
still have a lot in common when it comes to
what’s most important us, and that’s cause for
hope, and maybe even cooperation.
■
Hal McCune is a longtime Pendleton
resident.
You’re right,
we’re in this
together.
Say no to Hells Canyon condors
mostly outside the area who took over
the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Nevertheless, many in the county were — and
still are — sympathetic to the movement to
he U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
“take back” Western public lands currently
recently awarded the Nez Perce Tribe
$200,000 to study introducing California administered by the federal government.
This leads me to believe that anything
condors into the Hells Canyon area between
that looks like an increased federal presence
Idaho and Oregon.
in this part of the West is bound to provoke
I can save everybody time and money by
suspicion and hostility among local people.
announcing right now: California condors
And condor introduction comes with its own
can almost certainly survive in the Snake
built-in controversy:
River Canyon once
lead poisoning.
introduced there. I
The first press
can make the same
releases on the grant
prediction about any
to the Nez Perce
number of locations
Tribe noted that lead
from the Pacific Coast
ammunition for hunting
to the Black Hills. I
has been banned in
base my conclusion
California, principally
on almost 50 years of
because of the threat
studying the condor
of condors dying from
and its history. My
lead fragments found
question: Why would
in the animal carcasses
anybody want to
they eat. Sportsmen’s
put condors in Hells
Joseph Brandt/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP groups and anti-gun
Canyon?
control groups quickly
Hells Canyon was
expressed concerns about the
almost certainly not within
future of hunting if condors
the historic breeding range
were introduced. Sadly, this
of the condor. Condors in
adds one more reason for some
the 19th century might have
locals to “hate the Feds.”
occasionally wandered
The federal government
that far east, but if nesting
does a lot of good work
ever occurred in Oregon,
in the region, and most of
it would have been in the
its land management has
western part of the state, at
benefitted local economies as
least 300 miles from Hells
well. Many residents know
Canyon, and in far different
this, and there are many
environmental conditions.
Call me a purist — which, indeed, I am, when examples of excellent cooperation between the
government, communities, and individuals.
it comes to environmental tinkering — but I
Why, then, inflame anti-government feelings
think species belong where they belong.
with something that is biologically illogical,
Some might suggest that we set aside
and probably unnecessary?
“purism” and introduce condors where they
If increasing the chances of condor survival
haven’t been before, if that’s what it takes to
is the issue, why not put the full force of
save the birds. I like condors enough that I
the government behind first expanding the
might agree, if there were no places in their
condor recovery program in California? The
recent habitat into which they could expand.
Yurok of northwestern California have much
That isn’t the case. There are locations
stronger cultural ties to condors than do any of
in California, and perhaps in western
the Northwestern tribes, and they have been
Oregon, that look highly suitable for condor
working on a reintroduction strategy for years.
reintroductions. They lie within the bird’s
While the ban on using lead ammunition in
recent — meaning the last 150 years or so —
California may not have completely resolved
historic habitat, and they are not likely to be
what most threatens condors, it is a done deal,
pioneered by condors expanding their range
from current release sites. So, why fiddle with and it doesn’t have to be re-fought with every
new release proposal. Involving the Yurok
Mother Nature if we don’t have to?
Tribe in condor survival will also open the
There are strong socio-political reasons
door for condor releases in other areas.
to keep condor introductions out of eastern
Let’s not let the recovery of California
Oregon and Idaho. First, there are few areas in
condors become yet another anti-government
the country where “We hate the government”
cause for a vocal minority in the Mountain
feelings are stronger. Twenty years after
West.
the fact, wolf introduction in Idaho and the
■
wolves’ subsequent spread to Oregon is still a
Sandy Wilbur is a contributor to Writers
hot-button issue. You can’t deny that wolves
on the Range, the opinion service of High
have killed some livestock, and some people
Country News. He is a wildlife biologist and
are still afraid of the “big bad wolf.”
historian who headed the California condor
Recently, the citizens of Harney County
research and recovery efforts from 1969-1980.
were traumatized by armed agitators from
By SANFORD “SANDY” WILBUR
Writers on the Range
T
The canyon was
almost certainly
not within the
historic breeding
range of the
condor.