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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 31, 2018)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, March 31, 2018 East Oregonian Page 5A A military-grade weapon demands some military-grade training By JORDAN CHANEY For The East Oregonian W hen the Columbine High School massacre first happened, Marilyn Manson, a popular and controversial musician, was blamed for the school shooting due to some of the violent lyrics in his music. The media said that he was in some part responsible, so a reporter asked the musician what he would’ve said to the students that shot up the school in attempt to prevent it from happening. But before I tell you what the controversial musician responded with, I want to tell you a story about an old friend of mine: Isabel. I met Isabel shortly after I took the ASVAB for the Marine Corps on Sept. 11, 2001. The smoke and fire hadn’t even cleared from the Twin Towers falling and I had already raised my right hand and took an oath to protect our country from enemies both “domestic and foreign.” Even though my views about militaries and wars have dramatically changed since then, I’ll never forget the training that I received during boot camp — and how could I? The extensive and exhaustive training is designed to stay with you for the rest of your life. And it does. To this day, I still sit at the dinner table with my feet at a 45 degree angle, and I still shave my chin and upper lip every single morning. Those are a few innocuous examples, but the training to become a United States Marine is as physically demanding as it is psychologically demanding. As it should be. I mean, after all, we were training to go to war. I’d liken the brainwashing phase of boot camp to taking a spoon to the inside of a honeydew melon and scraping it clean until all that’s left is a bitter light green rind, then filling it with what you wish. That sweet hollow space is then filled subliminally with weapons knowledge and safety training. Here are some examples: The toilet paper roll always had to have a 45 degree angle folded into the last sheet after usage, our bunk beds had to be made so that 18 inches of white were showing, and we even had to stand with our feet at a 45 degree angle. The 18 inches of white sheet showing was a reminder of the length of the weapons barrel, which was more muzzle awareness training, and the 45-degree angle is a rifleman’s safest range to prevent friendly fire. Our training was thorough. Upon being issued our M16-A2 Service Rifles, we were first instructed to give them a name, a woman’s name, the name of a lover. They wanted us to have a deep and intimate connection with our weapons. I named mine Isabel. Isabel would now become an extension of my person. Every single night from that day forward I would recite The Rifleman’s Creed. Google it, it’s too long to quote here, but imagine reciting an affection prayer to an inanimate object designed to take human lives every night. It’s creepy, really creepy when I really stop and think about it. On top of all that, before we were ever allowed to shoot the weapon, we had to be able to disassemble and reassemble it in under 60 seconds on our knees while a drill instructor yelled and screamed at us. But from all that, I became an expert rifleman at the top of platoon. I even qualified for sniper school, according to my ecstatic drill instructors jumping and shouting in excitement over my 10 bullseyes from 500 yards a way. I took their “attaboys” with a grain of salt because all I could see were human beings on my target practice paper. Trust me, I don’t want the “slippery slope of situational ethics” to gradually take away anyone’s right to bear arms. I don’t own any guns, but I would like to think that if some of my fellow Americans’ worst nightmares came to pass, that they would take up their arms and defend my family and me as well. But what I think would be fair and reasonable is to have a law passed that says if a person really wants to own a military- grade weapon, like the M16 A2 service rifle or the AR15, they would at minimum be required to get military-grade training, or spend four grueling months in a boot camp- like situation with barking drill instructors ... and Isabel. I don’t think civilians need to own military weapons in the first place, but that is my own personal opinion. I honestly didn’t even want to write this piece because the arguments are as old as the battle itself. I have seen a new wave of youth standing up for a better world now. It’s inspiring. I stood with #MarchForOurLives last weekend because that is what our kids are asking us to do, figure out our mess and save their lives. So, while wearing what looked to be coffin makeup, purple lipstick, and greasy black hair — Marilyn Manson sat back in his chair, and almost embodying Yoda Staff photo by E.J. Harris Poet Jordan Chaney from the Tri-Cities spoke at the First Methodist Church in Hermiston this January. himself, shot back with, “I wouldn’t say a single word to ’em. I would have listened to what they have to say, and that’s what no one did.” ■ Jordan Chaney is a poet and author who lives in the Tri-Cities and works with youths in arts and leadership. Killer bees are calming down have felt the Godínez-García stings of killer to recover his bees. My first equipment hours bee job was in later. Jordan, where “Even then, my the Holy Land veil was so thick race of European with bees I could honeybee, Apis see nothing through mellifera syriaca, it,” Godínez-García W.S. is a holy terror. I said. showed up for work Robinson But surprise: Comment in khakis, sleeves The bees are rolled to the elbows, gentler than they an outfit I’d wear to used to be. Not work fairly aggressive bees exactly kittens, but they’re in the United States. manageable. I spent three My Jordanian partner, weeks in Tabasco at the turn Muhammed, took one look of the new year, and with and burst out laughing. Godínez-García worked We went to a tailor for many hives of Africanized thick-weave, heavy white bees. He knows how to coveralls, which I wore over keep the bees calm. He my khakis, tucked into high works with a team of two leather boots in the baking or preferably three people, desert heat. uses a lot of smoke, and Still, merely approaching occasionally mists the bees a Jordanian apiary inspired with water to wet their caution, if not downright wings and keep them from fear. Our driver would wait flying. in the oven-like cab of a “The only time they are pickup, windows rolled dangerous,” he says, “is up. Even after we finished, when you make a serious we kept our veils on, bees error.” bouncing off them as we There’s a combination hopped aboard the flatbed of natural and artificial and sped away from the selection, on both humans clouds of raging insects. and bees, going on in A year later, I was Tabasco. Many beekeepers working bees in Kenya, accustomed to gentle bees where in Swahili the abandoned the business honeybee is called “kali” — upon the African bees’ a word that means “fierce.” I arrival. A new generation was happy that I still owned took over, with different my tailor-made coveralls. I expectations about stinging dreaded opening the hive. behavior. The neighbors across the People destroyed fence got even angrier than extremely defensive the bees. swarms, hiving gentler bees That bee belonged to the that over time spawned subspecies Apis mellifera gentler offspring. Godínez- scutellata, the African race García also encourages dubbed a killer after it was beekeepers to harvest bees introduced to Brazil in from the forest, where 1956. Twenty-six queens natural selection has favored escaped from a research bees resistant to the mite project there, and the bees pest, Varroa destructor. flew north, interbreeding These mites are major with more docile resident contributors to the loss of honeybees. But they European honeybees around retained much of their the world, but in Godínez- frighteningly defensive García’s corner of Tabasco I behavior. Tales of carnage saw no mites. the “Africanized” killer Similar trends toward bees left in their wake were tractability are emerging numerous and terrifying. in other places where the Occasionally they were “killers” have appeared. even true. People died. These findings bode So when the opportunity well for the future of arose recently to work with beekeeping across the the so-called killer bees southern United States, in southeastern Mexico, where African bees are well I bought a spanking-new, established and the need for brilliant white suit of heavy their crop-pollinating and fabric, bee-tight with its honey-making services is zip-on “fencers’ veil.” strong. We may end up with Luis Manuel Godínez- a manageable honeybee that García, biologist at the is resistant to mites. Universidad Politécnica My new bee suit? It’s Mesoamericana in Tabasco, still in its plastic wrapping. recalls when the African ■ bees first hit southern W. S. Robinson is Mexico in 1985. He told me a contributor to High of a TV news reporter who Country News. He teaches had to abandon his camera at Casper College and and tripod to the masses recently visited Mexico as of stinging bees, leaving a Fulbright specialist. I Safety upgrades coming to Cabbage Hill I would like to share some information regarding an upcoming safety improvement project along Interstate 84 between Pendleton and La Grande. This freeway section offers many challenges, especially during inclement weather conditions. The Oregon Department of Transportation recently finalized its Interstate 84 Corridor Management Plan that suggests key safety improvements for the freeway through Eastern Oregon, from Boardman to the Idaho border. We are now finalizing the design of our first project based on recommendations listed in the plan. It will focus on the beautiful but often challenging freeway section between Pendleton and La Grande. Construction will take place in 2019 and 2020. Additional plan recommended changes will be pursued as funding becomes available. The project includes: • More than a dozen new variable message signs at various mile points. The new signs will consist of lighted message boards mounted above the interstate, similar to the speed limit signs in the Baker Valley area. Some will be linked to road and weather sensors to display safety messages and real time information, which could include temperature, presence of ice or low visibility/fog, chain requirements and more. • 10 road/weather sensors. • A dozen curve warning signs with flashing beacons in the Grande Ronde and La Grande, a River Canyon west separate freeway of La Grande. safety project will • Nine miles add a third lane for of cable barrier eastbound trucks in between eastbound Ladd Canyon, east and westbound lanes of La Grande, in the at two locations to next couple years. prevent cross over Marilyn This challenging crashes (roughly freeway section Holt between mileposts has been the site of Comment 229 and 238 and numerous closures in mileposts 249 to 250. the past due to trucks • Two miles of LED spinning out and not enough lighting at Cabbage Hill room for traffic to get around westbound curves; 20 lights disabled vehicles. will be installed initially Although the I-84 corridor with additional illumination plan is new, construction as funding allows. The safety improvements are LED illumination will help not. Major Eastern Oregon delineate the westbound lanes freeway projects built over through the curves as you are the past couple decades driving down the hill. include adding the third • New road camera lane for westbound trucks at (westbound MP 247.4), Spring Creek grade east of snow zone sign (eastbound Meacham in 2015 and a third MP 220.6), and ramp gate eastbound truck lane north (westbound Exit 224). of Ontario at Three Mile Hill • More than a dozen miles in 2009. In 2006, the Burnt of yellow reflective markers River Canyon area south of attached to guardrail in Baker City received curve Cabbage Hill area. corrections, curve warning • More than 10 miles of signs with flashing lights, buried power line (to support variable message boards and these enhancements and radar speed signs that have future upgrades). greatly reduced the number The project is currently of crashes in that area. We’ve funded at $11 million, with learned a lot from those $4 million allocated from improvements and will be the 2017 Transportation adding similar signs and Bill. Eastern Oregon was advisories next year through very fortunate to receive the the twisty Grande Ronde extra funding support from River Canyon, west of La our legislators. Without the Grande. bill, we wouldn’t be able Since 2005 more than a to construct the number of dozen I-84 truck chain-up safety improvements we have areas were constructed or planned now and for future enhanced, several stretches projects. of new snow zone fencing In addition to the work have been built, and scheduled between Pendleton numerous highway cameras and variable message reader boards have gone up between Boardman and Ontario. We wish we could implement all the safety improvements on our wish list right away. But like everyone else, we have to prioritize based on available funding and resources. Along with constructing safety improvements in the summer, we perform around-the-clock winter maintenance operations to keep the highways as safe as feasible. This year we have added new snow plows that can clear two freeway lanes at one time and we’re using salt on the interstate when appropriate. These changes are helping improve winter conditions, but we can’t be everywhere at the same time. And, no amount of salt or plowing will replace the need for motorists to drive responsibly. Excessive speed for the road conditions and distracted or inattentive driving remain top contributing factors in serious crashes. The new signage and sensors will help alert you, but everyone needs to stay focused on driving and slow down when ice, slick conditions, fog, or other road hazards such as blowing dust might be present. Please remember it is still snowing in the mountains. At the end of the day, we want everyone to get home safe. ■ Marilyn Holt is ODOT’s district manager based in Pendleton.