VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, May 12, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 5A
Voters are powerful people
H
ave you voted? I hope so. But
if you haven’t — if you’re not
even registered to vote — you’re
not alone. In fact, the East Oregonian
reminds me that Umatilla County has been
consistently one of the lowest-turnout
counties in Oregon.
And it’s not just us.
In the 2014 midterm
election, all across
America, only about
one of three eligible
voters mailed in ballots
or showed up at the
polls.
Another important
election is coming up
this fall. A lot rides on
the approaching 2018 midterms, or so we
keep hearing. Mail-in or drop-off ballots
make voting easier in Oregon, but in many
states it can be difficult for some people to
get to the polls, or they may be discouraged
by restrictive voting policies. But a Suffolk
University and USA Today poll of nonvoters
found that many of them had simply given
up on the political parties and a system they
say is “beyond reform and repair.”
It’s not that these folks don’t have
opinions. The country’s most important
problems, they said, are political gridlock,
the economy, health care, education, and
immigration—subjects they mentioned far
more frequently than guns, terrorism, taxes,
or Trump, though most of them don’t like
the job he’s doing. They lean left in their
theoretical political choices, but describe
their political philosophy as conservative.
Religion is important in their lives. So is the
federal government.
They care. They just don’t vote.
Pondering this survey, I thought of
the scene in Craig Lesley’s “River Song”
when Danny Kachiah
and his son Jack are
thinning pears above
Hood River to earn
money for rodeo entry
fees. “Across the river,
bright green orchards
contrasted with snow-
topped Mt. Adams.
Sailboards skimmed
the white-capped
Columbia, their bright
sails resembling summer butterflies. ‘Looks
like fun,’ Jack said. Danny took off his cap
and wiped his forehead. ‘That’s for rich
guys.’”
I think I remembered this moment
in Lesley’s story because it struck such
a familiar chord. People who grew
up in poor families can identify with
feeling disconnected, and not just from
windsurfers. So can people exhausted from
working two or three jobs to make ends
meet, I’m sure. Or those whose work is not
always respected by others — teachers, all
too often, as well as restaurant and orchard
workers, and people who scrub public
toilets or work in canneries — all jobs I’ve
held myself. I vote, but I can understand
why some might feel so disconnected, and
not just for economic reasons, that voting
They care.
They just don’t vote.
What if all the
nonvoters voted?
Hermiston School District
wants to hear from you
T
he fact that Hermiston
district enrollment is expected
School District has a
to exceed 6,200 students, and
need for facility upgrades
by the 2032-33 school year,
and renovation should not be a
HSD could be over 6,800
surprise. Over the past 10 years,
students, an increase of well
the district has experienced
over one thousand students when
great student enrollment growth,
compared to current enrollment
stretching the capacity of our
numbers.
Tricia
current facilities. Not only are
The Facility Planning
Mooney Committee is also examining
our buildings reaching capacity,
Comment
they also continue to age each
the current condition of district
year, and some of the campuses
facilities and has toured the
do not meet current safety and security
district’s more aged buildings: Highland
standards.
Hills and Rocky Heights elementary
This past January, by direction
schools, along with Sandstone Middle
of the Board of
School. The committee
Education, the
also toured Hermiston
Facility Planning
High School to gain
Committee was
a perspective of the
formed. It was charged
capacity issues that
with identifying the
building experiences.
district’s facility needs
The final theme
and developing a list
considered by the group
of projects, in priority
references school safety
order, to submit to the
and security. To assist
board for consideration
with this analysis,
in a potential bond.
Hermiston Police
The committee has
Department completed
35 members, of
a security assessment of
which almost two-
the district’s facilities.
thirds are community
Chief of Police Jason
representatives and the
Edmiston provided the
remainder are district
assessment’s findings
administrators, board members, and
to the committee. It included suggested
union representatives.
areas for improvement, based on
In reviewing district facilities, the
building designs; parking lot structure
Facility Planning Committee used three
and flow, notably entry and exit issues;
key themes, or challenges, faced by
and traffic concerns.
the district: Student Enrollment and
Prior to reaching any decisions or
Capacity, Condition of Facilities, and
providing recommendations to the Board
Safety and Security.
of Education, committee members
The committee is cognizant to
are conducting several community
maintain a balance of the three themes,
presentations, seeking input and
as it prioritizes the list of projects and
feedback from the community. Two
determines which may be more critical
community meetings are scheduled and
than others.
the public is encouraged to attend:
With regard to student enrollment
• May 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the
and capacity, Hermiston has
Hermiston Community Center
experienced tremendous student
• May 24 at 6:30 pm. at Armand
enrollment growth over the past several
Larive Middle School (in Spanish)
years, which has resulted in one of
On behalf of the district and board,
the highest student growth rates in the
thank you for your continued support of
state. HSD currently has over 5,650
Hermiston schools. The district looks
students across its eight campuses. Over forward to hearing from you and seeing
the past five years, Hermiston School
you at one of these meetings.
District has experienced an increase of
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595 students, a growth rate of over 11
Tricia Mooney is the interim
percent, which is not expected to slow
superintendent for the Hermiston School
District.
down. By the 2022-23 school year, the
Over the past
five years, the
district has
experienced an
growth rate of
more than 11
percent, which is
not expected to
slow.
can seem irrelevant, even a sharp reminder
of their own powerlessness.
But what if all of these nonvoters voted?
My father liked to tease Mom about
wasting a trip to town “just to cancel out
each other’s vote,” but her reply was always
firm. “We’re going.”
She had stories.
Like the time her mother was angry
because the envelope she had sent her
then nine-year-old daughter across town to
retrieve wasn’t sealed. What if her daughter
had looked inside? Worse yet, what if
someone had stopped her? This was 1927,
and until the Comstock Laws were repealed
in 1938, simply possessing Margaret
Sanger’s “Family Limitation” pamphlet
could send a woman to prison.
There’s a lot of disconnection in our
society right now, even among voters.
(Hilary or Trump?) But stories — like my
mother’s, and your stories, or mine —
connect us. That’s why Pendleton Center
for the Arts hosts the First Draft Writers’
Series every month. We all need to listen
as other people try to make sense of it all
or simply celebrate being alive on this
earth. And sometimes we need be heard
ourselves.
On May 17 at 7 p.m., Michael McGriff
will be the featured writer. McGriff grew up
in Coos Bay (feeling a little disconnected
himself, I suspect) and now teaches at
the University of Idaho, and Joe Wilkins
says he’s one of the two or three best
poets writing in the United States. Jeff
Gordinier, writing in the New York Times,
B ette H usted
FROM HERE TO ANYWHERE
said McGriff is “plunging into the depths
of some underground waterway in the
American psyche — what’s happening to
the environment, what’s happening to jobs,
what’s happening to families — and rising
to the surface to show us the debris.”
Sounds good. I hope you’ll come.
■
Bette Husted is a writer and a student of
T’ai Chi and the natural world. She lives in
Pendleton.
Safe place for Hanford’s waste
F
or communities along the
It’s well past time to move
Columbia River, nuclear
this project forward and fulfill
waste sitting at the Hanford
the federal government’s promise
site remains a worrisome neighbor.
to clean up Hanford and other
Fifty-six million gallons of Cold
sites. That’s why I worked to pass
War era toxic, nuclear waste are
legislation through the House on a
sitting in corroding and leaking
strong bipartisan vote (340-72) to
metal tanks. The threat of potential
reopen Yucca Mountain and finally
Greg
get us back on track for a permanent
environmental disaster and
Walden storage location for this waste.
pollution persists in the minds of
Comment
Our bill, the Nuclear Waste
Oregonians and people throughout
Policy Amendments Act,
the Pacific Northwest.
recognizes that Yucca Mountain is
I was born in The Dalles and live in
the most expeditious pathway for
Hood River, so the Columbia River has
communities that store spent nuclear fuel
always been part of my life. I know all too
— like the Hanford Site
well the issues at Hanford
— to dispose of that
and the slow cleanup from
waste. This bill — which
the federal government.
passed my committee
We’ve even been misled
49-4 — reinstates
at times, but, finally, it
Yucca Mountain as
appears they’re making
the cornerstone of the
progress at the site.
nation’s nuclear waste
As the chair of the
disposal.
Energy and Commerce
While nuclear
Committee, I’ve made
energy produces
cleaning up the waste at
zero greenhouse gas
Hanford a top priority.
emissions, offers a low-
That’s why I brought
cost power alternative
Energy Secretary Rick
for consumers, and
Perry out to Hanford to
supports our defense
see firsthand the issues,
priorities, the federal
and the progress towards
government has missed the mark when
turning that waste into the glass cylinders
disposing of the spent nuclear fuel from
needed for final storage.
commercially generated nuclear power
This progress is welcome news for all
and defense-level nuclear waste. Our bill
of us in the region, but successful cleanup
will ensure this waste has a permanent
requires a safe, secure and permanent
repository so that we can improve the role
storage location for those glass cylinders.
nuclear power plays in our energy mix and
That location is Yucca Mountain, deep in
defensive capabilities. We also reform the
the Nevada desert.
broken financing mechanism to protect
Yucca Mountain was chosen by
ratepayers and ensure DOE has adequate
Congress in 1978 to house spent nuclear
funding to construct and operate a multi-
fuel and the hazardous waste sitting
generational repository project.
at Hanford. The Nuclear Regulatory
This legislation fulfills the federal
Commission determined that nuclear
government’s legal obligation to clean up
material could be safely stored at Yucca
Mountain for one million years — isolated nuclear waste in our communities. Perhaps
more importantly, our plan fulfills the
1,000 feet underground. The science is
federal government’s moral obligation as
clear. The environmental and economic
well.
benefits are widespread for the 121
While the nuclear waste challenge has
communities across the country where
vexed policy makers for generations, we
nuclear waste sits idle.
are moving forward in a bipartisan way
Electricity consumers throughout
to successfully build a durable solution.
the United States have paid the federal
The nuclear waste sitting idle at Hanford,
government more than $40 billion to
and in 39 states across the country, is
develop, license, construct, and operate
destined for permanent storage at the
a nuclear waste repository Congress
Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada. This
mandated under federal law. Oregon
legislation — when approved by the
ratepayers have paid the Department
Senate — will make that happen.
of Energy more than $160 million to
■
establish a permanent storage site for
U.S. Representative Greg Walden, a
nuclear waste. Unfortunately, because
Republican, represents Oregon’s Second
of political efforts to hold up the project,
there is little to show from our investment. Congressional District.
Yucca Mountain
is the most
expeditious
pathway for
communities
like Hanford to
dispose of that
waste.