East Oregonian : E.O., July 04, 2017, Page Page 4A, Image 4

Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
A declaration of purpose
OUR VIEW
We didn’t stumble accidentally or
coincidentally into freedom. We didn’t
simply awaken from a nightmare of
tyranny into the daylight of democracy.
The United States of America wasn’t a
granted gift or a fortuitous discovery.
This nation, which we celebrate today
with flags and friends and fireworks,
was earned by intellectual, spiritual and
physical toil. It’s hard to comprehend
that momentous effort of 241 years
ago, when a group of 56 men started a
revolution by signing the Declaration
of Independence. They weren’t just
penning dissatisfaction with the
status quo; they were signing a check
that would be paid for with 4,435 of
their countrymen’s lives to begin an
experiment with an unknown outcome.
To commemorate that moment on this
Fourth of July, we would like to take a
closer look at the document that started
the war that founded the United States
of America.
———
hen in the course of human
events it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected
them with another and to assume among
the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the Laws
of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions
of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to
the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness. — That to
secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the
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cutting trade.
The list begins formally, but by the
end you can hear both the founders’
anger and fear — they declare the
king “has plundered our seas, ravaged
our coasts, burnt our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people,” and
worry about lack of protection from
mercenaries from the sea and the Indians
from inland.
More importantly, representatives
from all 13 colonies substantiated the
complaints and were willing to sign.
———
e, therefore, the representatives
of the United States of America,
in General Congress, assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions,
do, in the name, and by authority of the
good people of these Colonies, solemnly
publish and declare, that these united
Colonies are, and of right ought to be
free and independent states, that they
are absolved from all allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State
of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally
dissolved; and that as free and independent
states, they have full power to levy
war, conclude peace, contract alliances,
establish commerce, and to do all other
acts and things which independent states
may of right do. — And for the support of
this Declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of Divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
———
As we celebrate this country and
continue to test the ideal that all people
are born with the right to live freely
and pursue happiness, we should do so
with the independent, optimistic and
purposeful spirit with which it was
founded.
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governed — That whenever any form
of government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the right of the
people to alter or to abolish it, and
to institute new government, laying
its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as
to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that governments
long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn
that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such government, and to provide new
guards for their future security. — Such
has been the patient sufferance of these
Colonies; and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their
former systems of government. The
history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute
tyranny over these States. To prove this,
let facts be submitted to a candid world.
———
The document then lists 27 specific
grievances against an absent king and
his oppressive government. Among
them, he refused to allow the creation
of new laws to address pressing
issues, hindered or eliminated local
representation while building up his
own administrative state, wouldn’t
allow foreigners to become citizens in
the states, kept standing armies in times
of peace, and kept adding taxes while
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.
OTHER VIEWS
Bring on the UFOs
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
YOUR VIEWS
Salmon recovery funds
have benefited Oregon
The Milton-Freewater region, and
also most of Oregon, has benefited
from the federal funding investment of
the Pacific Coastal Salmon recovery
funds that have come to Oregon
to restore salmon and steelhead
populations in our rivers.
Locally, in the Milton-Freewater
area, the Walla Walla Basin Watershed
Council has competed for and received
PCSRF dollars offered by the Oregon
Watershed Enhancement Board through
a competitive grants program.
The watershed council matches
these PCSRF funds with property
owner cost share dollars, Bonneville
Power Administration funds, other
state grants and private foundation
funds to improve water quality, water
availability, fish passage and fish
habitat.
The Walla Walla Basin Watershed
Council is a nonprofit in the Milton-
Freewater area that has been working
with the local community for the
last 22 years to implement locally
acceptable watershed restoration
projects. Competitive grants pay for
designing and constructing projects
that put Oregonians to work.
As much as possible, the Walla
Walla basin council and other
watershed councils and soil and water
conservation districts in the region use
local contracting companies and locally
sourced materials such as fencing,
irrigation pipe, quarry rock, and trees
to build projects.
We appreciate our Oregon
congressional delegation’s work
(U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron
Wyden and U.S. Rep. Greg Walden)
in past years to secure these funds
for Oregon. Locally, the Walla Walla
Basin Watershed Council has used
these dollars to implement river
habitat restoration, fish passage,
irrigation efficiency, managed aquifer
recharge projects, and surface water
and groundwater monitoring work in
Northeast Umatilla County.
The Pacific Coastal Salmon
Recovery Funds received and used
across Oregon have typically been
$10-15 million a year. Hopefully
this successful program that benefits
Oregon will continue.
John Zerba, chair
Walla Walla Basin watershed council
Milton-Freewater
Trump not looking out
for workforce
In 1998, after having lived in the
intolerant conservative bastion of Salt
Lake City for 15 years, I was looking
forward to the move to Oregon and
the less narrow-minded viewpoints
I thought were prevalent here. Little
did I know that Eastern Oregon was
just an extension of Utah in a sense.
At least in Utah the union members I
worked with had the good sense to not
vote against their own self interests and
align themselves with the union hating
Republican Party. Not so here.
Just an example of Trump’s
antagonism for unions: In Las Vegas,
95 percent of all hotels and casinos are
union and pay three dollars more an
hour than the non-union ones. Which
percentage does the Trump casino
belong to? You guessed it. The 5 percent
group. When his employees voted to
unionize, he took them to court to try
and block the move.
Most of the union members I used
to work with and native to this area
don’t realize they are cutting their own
throats in supporting anything GOP.
Their misguided hatred of Obama
has deluded their thought process —
even after Obama gave us the best
contract ever signed during my 37
years of railroad employment. Trump
rescinded all of the union-friendly
appointees that Obama put on the
labor relations board.
When your contract comes to
mediation after the next contract talks
stall, guess who appoints the mediator?
Don’t complain about the gutting you’re
about to get if you voted for Trump.
Time to pay the piper for your ignorance.
David Gracia
Hermiston
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.
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missing the big buck. John was not
hen folks think Pendleton,
shy about what he saw, was not
they think Round-Up. I say
embarrassed. This thing happened.
we should get them thinking
Only the thing was a reptilian alien
“flying saucers.”
who locked eyes with him early one
The East Oregonian broke the UFO
morning. Kind of became John’s
story 70 years ago that introduced the
defining moment.
world to flying saucers, a whole new
I’m not judging.
culture and more. Pendleton has done
And neither should Pendleton.
next to nothing with that history.
Phil
The
community has welcomed
Over in McMinnville, a sighting
Wright cowboys
and rodeo fans for more
and pair of saucer pics from 1950
Comment
than a hundred years. We’ve been
spurred McMenamins to hold a UFO
friendly to lovers of small high
festival. The McMenamins Hotel
Oregon wrapped up UFOfest No. 19 in May.
school basketball since the mid-’60s. And this
Several ufologists — yes, that’s a term —
July will mark the third year we’ve opened
held forth on everything from the history of
doors to several thousand people who love
UFOs in the Northwest to alien abductions.
motorcycles.
Each audience was typically a few hundred
UFOs might be out of this world, but we
large. Each seat came with a ticket that cost at know what tourism dollars can do. And as
least $20.
strange as aliens might seem, Round-Up packs
Festival organizers estimated the crowd
plenty of weirdness.
peaked at 10,000 for the big Saturday UFO
Now, I told John I was a reporter, I think I
Parade.
even gave him a business card. I’m not outing
I checked out that scene in my research for
him because he revealed his story in the
a feature on Ken Arnold’s famous sighting of
relative comfort and safety of fellow UFO and
June 24, 1947, and the EO’s reporting then on alien believers.
the sighting. I heard some incredible claims.
And that’s the core of it. Folks like to
The one that resonates with me was from
gather to discuss, debate, and celebrate what
John, the guy I happened to sit next to for a
they are passionate about. That’s about as
breakfast presentation. Slim, middle aged,
downright human as it gets, and that’s the very
mild mannered, a father, John told the story
atmosphere Pendleton can provide.
of the night several years ago when he saw an
■
alien.
Phil Wright is a reporter for the East
He told the story like the hunter who recalls Oregonian.
Another failed federal response
By LOREN STOUT
I
n the last two years there have been two
major takeovers of federal property here in
Eastern Oregon. One occurred in Harney
County and now we have one in progress in
Grant County. There are many similarities
and some very stark contrasts pertaining to
how each incident was handled by the federal
government.
One of the similarities is that both
takeovers could have been stopped before they
happened. In the Harney County incident,
the FBI knew beforehand the Bundys were
coming into Burns to support a local rancher.
Instead of arresting them en route, they chose
to teach them a lesson at the expense of the
town of Burns. A fairly predictable outcome
ensued stemming from this approach. The
people involved in the takeover were cleared
of all charges and a federal agent is now under
indictment. The outrage by the environmental-
ists due to the resource damage was deafening.
These occupiers were a threat to unveil this
cozy relationship, especially bringing to light
the Canyonlands Monument debacle that was
going on at the time.
In the Grant County incident, the federal
government was also informed that it was
going to occur. According to the reports,
a representative of the environmental
community, forest service and a tribal member
were present when the decision was made
for the Rainbow Gathering to take place at
Flagtail Meadows. No effort was made to use
the existing environmental laws to stop the
proceedings. The trouble the Forest Service
had was they were already in the process
of trying to put the permitted grazers out
of business. Bad timing for them. The one
chance they had to stick up for the welfare of
a small rural community and they refused to
do it.
The environmental carnage that is taking
place in this area is indescribable. They are
digging trenches and using them for toilet
facilities. That is a lot of human waste in a
possible burial ground. They are piping water
out of undeveloped springs. It would take the
normal person three years to develop a spring,
even for the benefit of the public. Compaction
from that many people is overwhelming.
Everything in the government’s playbook
is in play here. The trouble is none of the
environmental laws are being enforced.
This is the stuff the federal government uses
to put industries out of business. It is really
hard to describe how bad this remote area has
been transformed according to the standards the
locals have to abide by. I will give the hippies
credit for one thing: They are unveiling the
discrimination that is behind the implementation
of these environmental laws. They are telling the
Forest Service to go take a nature hike.
Notice how quiet the liberal press is on
this environmental disaster. Not one peep out
of our federal senators. Hopefully some new
leadership will help to alleviate these discrimi-
natory actions by our own federal government.
■
Loren Stout is a rancher with property near
the Rainbow Gathering.