East Oregonian : E.O., October 28, 2017, WEEKEND EDITION, Page Page 5A, Image 5

Saturday, October 28, 2017
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East Oregonian
Page 5A
Take the present over the perfect
he line to the dock was short. We had
evergreens, and beautiful deciduous trees
just missed the 8 o’clock ferry and
dropping their leaves — allowing freedom
were now front and center for the 8:30 to swirl through the air. The glimpses of the
with thoughts of the day ahead filling every
water caught our eyes, and we both noticed
ounce of the wait. The sky was gray, but
the familiar signs and landmarks that have
not the heavy kind of gray that adds extra
filled our hearts for years.
weight. It was a gray
We passed by the
that seemed to allow
hospital we’d spent
the reds, yellows, and
hours in — singing
oranges of the nearby
and praying our Papa
trees permission to
Roy through the
boldly say “Look at
last few days of his
me! I’m changing into
life. We crossed the
something beautiful
intersection that led
just for you!” It was
to the cemetery our
a gray that seemed
family had released
to be welcoming us
handfuls of beautiful
to add our own color
red balloons from with
to the day, as well as
my Grams leading
slowing us down long
us in “I’ll Fly Away.”
enough to see our own
And as we drove, we
reflections in the soft
reminisced about the
and still of just being
beautiful moments
quiet.
and memories this
Submitted photo
My sister and I had
island has given us,
Lindsay Murdock shares a laugh with anticipating more to
just shared a double
her grandmother.
bed in our cousin’s
come in the hours that
home in West Seattle
lie ahead.
for a few short but restful hours, and were
With an eight-ounce decaf caramel
now on our way to Whidbey Island for
macchiato in hand for Grams, a box of our
a long overdue day with our 92-year-old
favorite donuts, and a ramekin filled with the
grandmother. The ferry ride was calming,
treasured family favorite — rice pudding —
with only a slight breeze and very little
we made our way into the care facility our
commotion. We sat in chairs inside the deck
beautiful grandmother has called home for
window and talked about soccer schedules,
the past seven years. The hallway was lined
football games, marriage, stresses at work,
with beautiful seascape photographs, and the
and even quick meals our families had
porch outside room 201 held the flowers that
enjoyed recently. Why had we not made time told us we were in the right place. Joy was
for these conversations until now? How do
evident and soaked our souls. We knocked
the four hours we live apart keep us from
with care and then ushered ourselves into the
connecting more regularly?
room, greeted by a quiet, yet happy shout of
Our drive from the south end of the island “Oh girls ... hooray … you’re here!”
to the north wound its way through farmland,
The next few hours were filled with
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conversations, laughter, questions, answers,
and even bits of advice I hope to hold onto
for the rest of my life. We shared a meal
together in the large dining hall, completed
a crossword puzzle successfully, updated
school pictures on the wall, took a short nap,
FaceTimed with my parents, brother-in- law
and nieces, shared a to-go order of delicious
fish ‘n’ chips for dinner, and loved each
other the best we knew how. Tears fell and
were wiped away, laughter filled the quiet,
and even the soft snores of true rest were
welcoming. Those hours were priceless in
every sort of way.
Time is something we have very little
of these days — no matter what age we
find ourselves at. My sister and I, like most
women our age, move at a very fast pace,
filling every second we have with something
… anything … everything. But that day,
those nine hours, they seemed to be the
slowest and steadiest of hours either of us
had recently spent. They put the brakes on
our screaming, roller coaster-paced life,
giving us just enough time to stop and honor
each other and our grandmother with the gift
of being present over perfect.
That day with our grandmother — even
in the short dose that is was — allowed us
to rest, not only physically but mentally. It
brought us back to simplicity and a rhythm
of being who we’ve been created to be.
Being present over perfect, slow over rushed,
and calm over chaotic that day gave my
sister and me meaning over mania, but it also
gave our grandmother an opportunity to see
us slow down long enough to truly show her
what she means to us. Those unrushed hours
offered each of us treasured time with no
expectations, which is exactly what many of
us crave.
As the holidays approach, and time with
family and friends fill the spaces of our
L indsay M urdock
FROM SUN UP TO SUN DOWN
calendars, may we all look for, and vow
to create, opportunities to experience the
tremendous value in finding time, as well as
making time, to connect with those we love
most.
May we slow down long enough for
the layers of expectations and pressures to
fall away — making room for the present.
Because that time you find and give is truly
the perfect “present.” And, according to my
92-year-old Grams, can’t be bought, but is
worth absolutely everything!
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Lindsay Murdock lives in Echo and
teaches in the Hermiston School District.
What to do about wild horses?
I
magine a proposal to introduce
unlike their domestic counterparts,
an exotic species to the sagebrush
cannot overgraze or harm other
steppe of the American West.
wildlife species, and that they are
This species could successfully
native to North America, despite
reproduce and expand into forested
arriving on Spanish ships alongside
areas, uplands and wetlands. It
pigs, cattle and sheep.
would be a large charismatic
These supporters further argue that
creature that attracted a passionate
if only greedy ranchers would stop
following — people who loved it
raising cattle and sheep, an infinite
Sharon
so much that the management of
O’Toole grass resource would exist for an
its expanding population would be
exponentially expanding wild horse
Comment
restricted by law. Some of them
herd. Never mind that those ranchers
would be so passionate that armed
produce food, manage the resource
guards would be necessary at academic
and support their local economies and
meetings about the species.
communities.
The downside of this beautiful animal
The arguments of these advocates are
would be that it outcompeted native wildlife, countered by facts on www.BLM.gov.
plants and insects, degraded water sources
Forty-six years ago, an estimated 17,300
and turned grasslands into deserts of cheat
feral horses and 8,045 burros were on the
grass or dust. As its numbers increased,
range. In March 2017, about 73,000 horses
native species would be devastated.
were counted on the range. Another 46,000
The cost to the public of supporting these
were held in corrals, 29 percent of the total,
creatures would increase each year until
and “eco-sanctuaries” held 1 percent.
it was projected to exceed $1 billion in 20
These feral horses cost the BLM about
years or so. And ultimately, when the natural
$50 million per year, or 63 percent of the
resources were exhausted, many would
agency’s total annual budget of $80.4 million.
starve or die of thirst.
Adoption, which is difficult and costs about
Clearly, this is a difficult scenario to
$4,500 per horse, has declined by 70 percent
support. It was not envisioned by Congress
over the past 10 years to 2,912 in 2016.
when legislators passed the 1971 Wild and
Fertility control has helped some, but the
Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The
drug PZP must be administered every year
act directed the Bureau of Land Management to each mare. This is physically impossible
to manage free-roaming horses to “maintain
in large rugged horse management areas,
a thriving natural ecological balance and
and it requires horse “gathers,” which some
multiple use relationship.”
advocates consider unnatural and overly
The law has been amended several
stressful. Spaying is not safe, because the
times to address the health of the land and
mares are pregnant virtually all the time.
management of the horses. It allows for the
Left unchecked, each herd increases by 20
humane “removal or destruction” of “excess” per cent every year and doubles in four or
animals “so as to restore a thriving natural
five years. These numbers do not include the
ecological balance to the range, and protect
estimated 100,000 animals within Native
the range from the deterioration associated
American reservations.
with overpopulation.”
Beyond the numbers is the heart-breaking
The act further details practices like
reality — because everyone, really, is a
the removal of old and sick animals as
horse-lover at heart. In our area, many of the
well as the removal of horses from private
horse advocates work hard for the horses and
land — private landowners are forbidden
do not want to “love them to death.” Some
from shooing them off. It also covers proper
even adopt animals.
adoption procedures. But in reality, due to
Fringe “advocates” have been effective
lobbying efforts by horse advocates, actions
at lobbying against the slaughter of old,
by Congress and the lack of adequate horse
unadoptable — or really any — horses. Only
management funding for the BLM, the
10 states have horse management areas, and
wild horse population has exploded beyond
most of their congressional representatives
the tipping point, both ecologically and
want to find a better solution.
economically.
It is easy for people in the other 40 states
I recently attended the National Wild
to be swayed by the extremists. Their efforts
Horse and Burro Summit in Salt Lake
are responsible for the current situation,
City — the meeting I mentioned earlier that
in which taxpayers support at least 80,000
required armed guards. Most of the attendees excess horses, leaving us with no end in
were academics, presenting research papers
sight, not in numbers, not in funding, not
detailing the effects of overpopulation of
in ecological damage. What is a real-world
horses and burros on rangeland ecosystems.
solution?
Outside were demonstrators who dubbed the
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meeting the “Slaughter Summit.”
Sharon O’Toole is a contributor to High
Go to the websites of wild horse
Country News. She is a rancher and writer in
advocates, and you’ll be told that wild horses, Wyoming.
The bold rise of China’s president
he cover of the Oct. 14 issue
the ranks.
of The Economist carries a
In that period, he was
picture of China’s President
considered very adept at managing
Xi Jinping and labels him as “The
his image and his relationships,
world’s most powerful man.”
including with the military. He
Really? How has Xi achieved his
avoided controversial reforms.
tight grip on power in just five
A U.S. interlude occurred in
years? What is his background?
1985 when he spent two weeks as
What is his leadership style?
Harriet part of an agricultural delegation
Congress: Xi is currently being
to Iowa and met Terry Branstad,
Isom
analyzed extensively in the Western
who was serving his first term as
Comment
press because China’s ruling
governor of Iowa. They met again
Communist Party is just concluding
on several occasions and that has
its five-year congress in Beijing. Xi is
led President Trump to tap Branstad as the
expected to win a second and possibly final next U.S. Ambassador to China.
five-year term.
In 1986, Xi, a divorcée, met his current
Leadership: From a review of
wife an opera and folk singer who was
Xi’s presidency, I note his supremely
then far more famous than Xi.
self-confident leadership, employing
It was during his assignment to
significantly his “princeling” status as the
Shanghai that his big opportunity came.
son of a Communist revolutionary under
At the CP Congress in 2012, party elders
Mao Zedong who came to power and
decided to elevate princelings, different
established the Republic of China in 1949.
from those leaders previously chosen for
In a form of Neo-Maoism, Xi has thus far
academic or technocratic merit. When Xi
championed a strict, one-man, one-party,
became president that year, four out of
no-dissent rule over 1.4 billion Chinese,
the seven men on the Politburo Standing
letting fall by the wayside expected
Committee were princelings, more than
political and economic reforms that had
any ratio since the beginning of the
begun to percolate under the leadership of
republic.
the technocrats before him. Political power
Fast Rise: Astonishingly, just two
has been everything for him.
years into his presidency, Xi was already
Background: Much indeed is made of
being called the strongest president since
Xi as a “princeling,” those called the “Red
Deng Xiaoping. He has used his father’s
Generation” who are children of those
prestige, his fellow princeling contacts
who fought and served with Mao. There is
and his carefully cultivated credibility
a whole cadre of “princelings” who have
with the military to launch his presidency
been certain that they have a natural claim
forcefully from the beginning. He has
to leadership.
used a draconian anti-corruption campaign
I found a detailed biography of Xi by
to quell rivals, including formerly
Evan Osnos in the April 2015 New Yorker. untouchable top party and military officials.
It tells how Xi, born in 1953 in Beijing,
He soon replaced collective decision
grew up in relative luxury because his
making with one-man rule, supremely
father was a prominent senior official in the confident of his ability to manage
first years under Mao. Then Mao created
singlehandedly.
the hugely disruptive Red Guard. Xi’s
His titles and power have grown through
father was detained by the Red Guards in
his assuming leadership of dozens of small
1967, accused of being a class enemy, and
committees, old and newly created, that
the teen age Xi was forced to denounce his bypass regular governance circles. His
father several times.
fear-raising campaign against dissent in
When Mao ordered the Red Guards
the last three years includes a renewal of
and all students to the countryside to be
Mao-style forced confessions. In foreign
reeducated, Xi went to his father’s old
policy, he has been assertive in promoting
China as a unique and leading world power
stronghold province in Shaanxi. He tried
— and in assuming the role of leader of
to flee but was forcefully returned and
“globalization.”
now uses his experience of living in a cave
My next column will look more closely
dwelling as his story of being “reborn” as a
at Xi’s policies and his philosophy. They
loyal Communist Party cadre.
can help determine whether, now that he
Evidently viewing the Party as the one
is cementing another five-year term and
and only route ahead, in spite of the ill
promoting his allies into wide-ranging
treatment of himself and his family, he
positions, he may relax his thus far
thereafter sought repeatedly to join the CP
authoritarian, non-reformist policies for
Youth League and finally was accepted
China, at least in part for needed economic
after many rejections; and he went on to
changes. And, important too, is to gain a
university.
better sense of where Xi might take China
Mao rehabilitated his father to a senior
on the global scene and in China’s relations
position and the father procured for his
son a first job in the defense establishment. with the United States.
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After that, the young Xi served in the
Ambassador Harriet Isom grew up in
eastern provinces, growth engines of
Pendleton. She was a career diplomat.
China’s economy, steadily rising through
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