VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Quick takes
Oregon to consider bill
to allow harvest of roadkill
They do it all the time in Alaska and it
works beautifully. Why let food waste while
people go hungry?
— Kim Gibson
A deer hit me a few years ago. It totaled
my car. I would have liked to have a steak
out of the deal.
— Joe Ream
Ewww.
— Marvin Williams
Hermiston sewer, water
rates to jump 15 percent
This is exactly why I moved here from
Portland. The sewer and water rates were
beyond reasonable in Portland. About 3
times Hermiston rates. Move to land with a
well and septic.
— Jacky Miller
The reason I live in the county!
— Matt Fisher
Pendleton schools decide
what to do about snow days
I say waiver. People could have vacation
plans which start shortly after the school
year ends.
— Yvette Baysinger Fitzjarrald
My children need an education, not more
vacation time. Have them make up the time
... I have my priorities straight, their educa-
tion is far more important than taking a trip.
— Andrea Ellis
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.
East Oregonian
Page 5A
Why I participated in the Women’s March
By BRIGIT FARLEY
T
his past Saturday, I joined with about
400 old and new friends — gals,
guys, kids and a few dogs — in
the Pendleton Women’s March. It was a
wonderful day of solidarity and purpose
here and worldwide as a new administration
came to power. Since then, social media
has featured lots of commentary on the
event, some of it unaccountably negative
and snarky: “these are sore losers,” “Trump
is President and you can’t change that,” or
“they are throwing a hissy fit.”
I cannot speak for other marchers, but
I can explain my reasons for participating.
They have nothing to do with sore losing,
hissy-fitting or denying that Trump is
president.
I marched because I want to see the
social safety net preserved and hopefully
strengthened. I know from personal
experience that Social Security, Medicare
and the Affordable Care Act are the
underpinnings of a decent and contributory
life in America. My mother was able to go
to college on Social Security death benefits
and educate Pendleton children for 35 years.
Medicare paid most of my parents’ medical
bills in their old age, enabling them to
enjoy retirement and help their community.
Thanks to the ACA, my friend’s daughter
was finally able to obtain affordable
health insurance for her cystic fibrosis, a
pre-existing condition that requires a lot of
care.
President Trump vowed during the
campaign not to touch Social Security or
Medicare, and he said he would replace
the ACA with something better and more
affordable for everyone. But some of his
cabinet nominees and Congressional allies
have signaled they would privatize, phase
out or gut these programs. I marched to hold
the President to his promises.
I marched to protect the rights of
individuals potentially at risk from the
Trump administration. I know at least five
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Gisele Short marches with her moth-
er, Sarah Short, last weekend in the
Pendleton Women’s March.
couples that benefited from the Supreme
Court’s 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex
marriage. President Trump has promised to
appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold
of Antonin Scalia, a known opponent of
marriage equality. Accordingly, I wanted to
dramatize my commitment to preserving it.
At colleges throughout the country, there
are “Dreamers,” undocumented people
brought here as children who have never
known another country. In my experience,
they are good students who stand to
contribute a lot to this country. I don’t want
to lose them to deportation.
I also wanted to demonstrate my
opposition to President Trump’s talk of
a Muslim registry, something that could
lead to a Japanese internment-style mass
punishment in the event of a terror attack. I
hope we can avoid a repetition of that sorry
episode.
I marched in protest of the harsh words
the president had for educators in his
inaugural address. He spoke of schools
“flush with cash” turning out students
“deprived of knowledge.” The teachers
I know are always buying supplies with
their own money for their classes, and no
one works harder at a more challenging
assignment. They do their best for all
students that come through that classroom
door, regardless of economic status,
academic ability or conditions at home.
If President Trump hopes to make
America great again, support for public
schools is an essential part of the equation.
They represent maybe the only common
experience Americans have now, and they
have always been the major driver of social
mobility and national prosperity from the
beginning of the republic.
Finally, I marched because it is what
people have done throughout American
history to show their public officials what
they want. Some detractors wonder aloud
why marchers were silent about injustices
overseas, in Saudi Arabia for example.
Americans have virtually no ability to
change conditions for citizens of other
countries. But they can move mountains
here.
President Trump wants to talk about
America “not winning”? Think about the
suffragette protesters of l00 years ago, who
endured arrest and imprisonment for their
trespass on President Wilson’s sensibilities.
They celebrated victory in the 19th
amendment of l920. Recall Martin Luther
King’s civil rights movement, soldiering
on through beatings, bombings and bloody
murder to achieve their goal in the passage
of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts
of l964 and ’65. And let’s not forget that
this country got kickstarted in a protest,
a violent one at that — some Boston tea,
anybody? Bottom line, I marched because
protest is patriotic, as “winning” and
American as apple pie.
■
Brigit Farley is a Russian and European
history professor at Washington State
University-Tri-Cities and lives in Pendleton.
Every president needs a dog Hunting, fishing with lead part
’m not sure why so many rural
enough other dogs to fill an animal
Westerners voted for President
shelter. Among others, Teddy had
Donald J. Trump. He doesn’t
a Manchester terrier, a Chesapeake
drive a pickup with a gun rack. He
retriever, a bull terrier named Pete
doesn’t wear Levis or Wranglers,
and a Jack Russell called Skip — the
and his hairstyle certainly wouldn’t
president’s favorite dog, because he
work in a Wyoming wind. He’s
found it while he was hunting bears
never fixed fence, bucked bales,
in Colorado.
cut wheat or field-dressed an elk.
We Westerners love our dogs.
Andrew
But most important, he doesn’t
Gulliford They do-si-do in the back of our
have a dog, and he needs a canine
pickup trucks, guard sheep, herd
Comment
companion in the White House,
cattle, flush pheasants, and always
especially since his wife, Melania,
seem glad to see us. Trump has
apparently plans to stay for months in
never tied a bandanna around his neck.
Manhattan with their son.
Trump doesn’t have mud on his boots; he
What’s the de facto bachelor president
doesn’t even have boots. He needs cowboy
going to do? He’ll need a warm heart and
boots, a snap-button shirt, leather work
a cold nose to come home to. Who’s going
gloves, and a pair of fencing pliers in his hip
to bring him his slippers and fetch his
pocket, but most of all he needs a dog. How
newspaper? Oh, I forgot. He doesn’t read the can you trust a man without a dog?
news. No matter. He still needs a dog.
A lot of rural Westerners voted for Trump.
Every president has had one. Trump
If he’s going to be our head of state, then he
scorns tradition, but maybe a furry, friendly
needs a dog to talk to and share confidential
creature with paws will make the president
briefings with. A good dog listens well,
pause and not send out so many bombastic
responds to treats, and rarely barks back.
tweets. He is going to need a wagging tail
But what kind of dog? Out West, we
to cheer him up. Yes, he has lapdogs in his
have a variety of working dogs and canine
presidential cabinet, but that’s not the same.
companions. We live with Labrador
As Harry Truman famously said, “If you
retrievers, border collies, Australian
want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”
shepherds and blue heelers. But unlike the
George H.W. Bush had a springer spaniel dogs that roam ranches and our cherished
named Millie. Millie’s Book, as dictated
public lands, Trump’s pup would live in a
by the dog to Barbara Bush, outsold the
penthouse when not in the White House.
president’s own memoirs. LBJ famously
What kind of dog would fit Donald Trump’s
picked up his beagles — named Him and
lifestyle? Would it be a fluffy toy poodle
Her — by the ears, “to make them bark,” he
with ribbons, a diamond-studded collar and
said. A maudlin speech by Richard Nixon
toenails painted pink? It would have to be a
about his cocker spaniel Checkers helped
female dog, because a male dog might be too
save Tricky Dick’s political career at one
competitive and garner too much attention.
I recommend a Chihuahua, but we’d
point. The public adored FDR’s Scottie,
have to be sure the dog arrived in the
named Fala.
James Garfield named his dog Veto.
country legally and acquired a green card.
George Washington began his presidency
Maybe Putin could send Trump a Russian
with black-and-tan Virginia hounds. James
wolfhound, but I’d be leery of a hidden
Buchanan’s Newfoundland often lay
microphone in the dog’s collar. Perhaps
motionless for hours, doing nothing, with
the best fit for President Trump would be a
one eye open and the other eye closed, rather Pomeranian. The hairstyle would work. It’s
like Congress. President Rutherford B.
a yappy little dog with attitude that needs
Hayes, like Trump, lost the popular vote and constant grooming, affection and attention.
squeaked by with a narrow electoral victory,
On second thought, however, maybe Trump
thereby earning the nickname “Rutherfraud.” should get a fish in a bowl or a cat.
Hayes sought comfort in his dogs,
■
surrounding himself with a cocker spaniel, a
Andrew Gulliford is a contributor to
small black mutt, a mastiff, a greyhound, a
Writers on the Range, an opinion service of
pair of shepherds and two hunting pups.
High Country News (hcn.org). He is professor
My own presidential hero, Theodore
of history and Environmental Studies at
Roosevelt, came to Pennsylvania Avenue
Fort Lewis College in Colorado and can be
with a Pekingese, a St. Bernard, and
reached at gulliford_a@fortlewis.edu.
I
of the American tradition
By GARY LEWIS
W
hen I was 19 years old, a doctor
told me I should only eat wild
meat. He said it would be much
easier to digest.
What the doctor didn’t tell me was the
pursuit of the wild meat would be hard and
the challenge would be good for me too.
I have been a conservationist since I
was young, learning catch-and-release,
learning to preserve places where fish and
wildlife thrive. What I didn’t know until
later was the money I spent on fishing and,
later, on hunting, also
supported local jobs and
conservation.
This week I felt
betrayed to learn the
outgoing administration
undercut hunters and
anglers with a ban on
traditional ammunition
on federal lands and
traditional fishing tackle
on federal waters. With
all eyes on the new
president’s inauguration,
the outgoing U.S. Fish
and Wildlife director Dan Ashe placed
the ban which took immediate effect in
national parks, wildlife refuges and all
other lands and waters administered by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
What lands and waters are we talking
about? As I read Director’s Order 219,
the Department of the Interior oversees
the Bureau of Land Management and the
Bureau of Reclamation, refuges and other
divisions.
In my corner of Oregon, Prineville
Reservoir is managed by the Bureau
of Reclamation. Imagine an angler on
Prineville Reservoir fishing through a hole
in the ice on January 19. He lowers down a
skirted jig. Maybe he caught a fish or two
or a bucketful. By the time he pulled his jig
out of the water at the end of the afternoon,
he was fishing illegally.
Now imagine a traditional blackpowder
hunter going for a hunt on BLM lands. The
muzzleloader has historic value, it employs
technology that was state-of-the-art in
the 1840s when the pioneers filtered into
Oregon Territory. By law in the state of
Oregon, a muzzleloader, to be legal in a
muzzleloader hunt, must be loaded with a
lead projectile. Thanks to Director Ashe’s
last act in office, it is illegal to use it on
BLM land.
This underhanded order, issued while
no one was paying attention, undercuts
hunters, anglers, small businesses and
conservation across our country. If Director
Ashe cared about environmental protection
he would have considered these factors.
Hunters and anglers pay for
conservation via licenses and stamps and
voluntary taxes. Hunters in particular,
through the Pittman-Robertson Act (levies
an 11-percent tax on guns
and ammunition), lobbied
for these taxes and fees.
Order 219 mandates
more expensive bullets
and more expensive
fishing tackle on many
public lands and waters.
Some people won’t be
able to afford to replace
all their tackle or all their
ammunition — to hunt
on public land they own
in common with all other
Americans. I see it as
another barrier to participation. Whenever
it costs more to participate in an activity,
we lose the people on the lower end of the
economic scale. It hurts kids most because
their parents can’t afford to participate in
the activity.
Fewer hunters and fewer anglers mean
fewer dollars for conservation and for
wildlife habitat.
Why would an unelected, appointed
bureaucrat issue such an order on the last
day of his job? If it was so important, why
didn’t he issue that order earlier in his
administration?
In my view this is a cheap shot from
an anti-hunting, anti-conservation bias.
The legal hunter and angler, who pays a
voluntary tax to help wildlife, becomes the
scapegoat.
If this order is allowed to stand it hurts
hunters and anglers and harms what it
claims to help — wildlife habitat and
populations across the United States.
■
Gary Lewis is the author of Hunting
Oregon and host of Frontier Unlimited and
a columnist for The Bulletin in Bend.
Fewer hunters
and fewer
anglers mean
fewer dollars
for conservation
and for wildlife
habitat.