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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2018)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, July 28, 2018 East Oregonian Page 5A The tedious, wonderful world of 4-H I ’m sure it was the summer I was 11. I had just finished fifth grade and was going to be a 4-H exhibitor at the Jefferson County Fair for the first time with my club, the Yummy Bunch. I had spent the school year with a handful of my closest friends learning how to follow recipes, set a beautiful table, and create fun crafts and various projects that didn’t require a sewing machine. We were on our way to becoming the next Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart, without a doubt. The club meetings and activities provided opportunities to be creative while learning new things. We memorized and recited the 4-H motto, took turns giving short presentations, assembled information for our record books, and participated in various forms of community service. Our Mother’s Day tea was a huge success and the cleaning up of the Milo Gard Cemetery was appreciated. I had grown very comfortable with being a part of the small club, and although some of the recipes were difficult and I hadn’t completely mastered the whip stitch, I felt accomplished. As the county fair drew closer, my leader insisted that I enroll in the presentation portion of the week. I was not only a nervous wreck about what to give a presentation on, but I couldn’t fathom doing something in front of an actual judge. After brainstorming ideas with my mother, we decided I would be able to prepare an egg salad sandwich without much difficulty. I practiced for weeks, boiling the eggs just long enough, cracking them with ease, mixing just the right amount of mayonnaise, and spreading it across the bread perfectly. The tricky part was doing all of this while talking and maintaining eye contact, but with each practice session, my confidence was boosted. Thankfully, the day of the presentation went well. There was a small audience, the judge, and my family cheering me on from the front row. I organized the materials, put my note cards in front of me, and gave the best smile I could. It was the longest 10 minutes of my life at age eleven, but I survived it. The judge raved about the creaminess of the egg mixture and the diagonal cut of the bread, but was most impressed with my thorough deliverance, noting that she could tell that I had practiced. Yes, repetition and practice is interwoven through everything 4-H is about. And I was just on the cusp of understanding the real worth in those traits. As the Umatilla County Fair quickly approaches, I can’t help but give thanks for that experience I had more than 30 years ago. The words of the judge confirmed that If you get a chance, watch a 4-H member at work in the next month at their county fair. Include the community in hiring a new NORCOR administrator L ast year, local citizens began under the direction of Brandenburg. picketing at the Northern As more details come to light, Oregon Correctional Facility we questioned his competency when immigration detainees held and integrity as a manager. at our local jail had initiated a Otherwise, why would such hunger strike over conditions there. reports continue to surface after 14 These detainees are housed under months of community effort to get contract with the U.S. Immigration improvement? Teresa and Customs Enforcement. The Now Brandenburg has Hepker group that formed around that resigned and the jail is seeking a Comment effort, Gorge ICE Resistance, replacement. It came as a shock to voiced concerns that our jail is see that, as outgoing administrator, not appropriate for housing immigration he will be involved in hiring his successor detainees. — which is unheard of in the professional As we learned more about the world. Previously, a recruiting firm was complexities, a new group emerged from used to replace the prior administrator. This GIR to focus on the governmental structure time around, it seems that Brandenburg is in behind NORCOR and how it operates. The charge of the process. NORCOR Community Resources Coalition His resignation was accepted in began to interview key community leaders executive session of the board on June 21. about their perspectives and knowledge of He apparently presented the board with the jail and details on budgets, policies and a hiring plan that included an application procedures, and resources. deadline of July 20 and minimum We met with Wasco County requirements for the position, which are Administrator Tyler Stone, NORCOR lower than in previous postings. Even board chair Tom McCoy, Wasco County Sherman County Sheriff Brad Lohrey has Commissioner Scott Hege and Wasco expressed concern that there is too short County Sheriff Lane Magill. We learned a timetable in which to find top quality much about how the jail operates and what candidates, conduct interviews and allow the four counties and their sheriffs have time for the chosen candidate to leave a done to try to secure stable funding. current job and transfer to a new one. Meeting with more leaders was stopped Given the problems that have occurred abruptly when, due to a taxpayers lawsuit under Brandenburg’s watch, is it wise to filed in July 2017, the board’s attorney give him this power and responsibility? advised members and other county officials The county governments, through their not to speak with anyone privately about representatives on the NORCOR board, are the jail. responsible for setting the standards and Since January 2017, The Dalles hiring a replacement. Chronicle has reported on a number of We ask county leaders and the NORCOR events that have tarnished the image of board to intervene now. Hire an interim NORCOR and its management. In part, administrator and allow a longer period we have read about two hunger strikes, a in which to recruit and hire a permanent $40,000 legal settlement for detaining a replacement. Include members of the public man beyond his release date at the request and staff in the process. And we advise that of ICE, and a very critical review of the Brandenburg be removed from the process. juvenile detention facility by Disability NORCOR is the only jail remaining in Rights Oregon. Last week, we learned of an Oregon to house ICE detainees. Others federal report issued in 2017 that listed 81 have stopped doing so under legal advice violations of ICE rules for detention. and in response to community demand. It’s Volunteer attorneys and clergy have been time to make our jail into a true correctional visiting and interviewing as many detainees institution, not a punitive holding facility. as possible. While the details of such visits Inmates need help to overcome addictions, are confidential, they have heard multiple deal with mental health issues and learn reports of inadequate clothing, exercise and new ways to live in society peacefully food, expensive phone rates, no visitation, and productively. With whole-community poor access to legal representation, strip cooperation, we can make positive changes searches and more. Some detainees have at NORCOR that will benefit everyone been held in NORCOR for many months. involved — the public, law enforcement, All of this was under administrator Bryan staff and inmates. Brandenburg’s watch. ■ While ICE determines who is sent to Teresa Hepker is a member of the NORCOR, conditions at the jail are were NORCOR Community Resources Coalition. my time had been used wisely. It proved that though I may not have maintained eye contact the entire time, and perhaps had forgotten to mention the amount of mayonnaise I was adding to the eggs, it was obvious I had practiced. Now as a parent and club leader, 4-H is at a completely different level for me, reminding me of the importance of repetition and the implications that arise when practice doesn’t happen. It’s no longer boiling eggs or setting the table, but tying slip knots in halters and setting up feet so that the muscle on the animal looks its best. It’s starching shirts and combing hair and practicing over and over and over again. It’s exhausting, it’s tedious, and it can be emotionally draining. But in the end, it’s worth it. It’s worth it because not only are my boys gaining character through trial and error, but they’re learning that practice and hard work do pay off. They’re learning that being a part of an organization whose motto is to improve life for everyone, through the head, the heart, the hands, and overall health, is growing them into young men who others look up to. If you get the chance, watch a 4-H member at work in the next month at their county fairs. Go to the presentations, look at the table settings, check out how well they’ve stitched a seam, walk through the animal and livestock area. Visit with the youth that are the future of our country. Interact with them, make eye contact and question what they’ve done and how they’ve done it. I can guarantee you’ll walk away feeling better about the community L indsay M urdock FROM SUN UP TO SUN DOWN we live in and the kids we’re raising, and they’ll feel better about the adults who are raising them. They’re not perfect, but they’ve put in the hours of practice. It would be a honor to hear from not just the judges, but from others like you, that their efforts are seen and they’re making all of us proud. ■ Lindsay Murdock lives and teaches in Echo. Let’s decide to get the lead out unters and anglers put tens My fellow hunters should be of thousands of tons of lead aware that if we hunt with lead in our environment annually, ammo, we’re almost certainly and it is estimated that between feeding it to our families. Lead 10 and 20 million birds and other bullets fragment on impact, and animals — representing more than many of those fragments remain in 130 species — die each year from the meat no matter how carefully lead poisoning. What’s almost we process it. A study conducted worse is that we could get the lead by the North Dakota Department Jesse out, if we wanted to. of Health found that 59 percent of Alston Comment When it comes to some of my ground venison provided to food fondest outdoor memories, lead pantries contained lead fragments. has played a leading role. When I Another study found that about a reeled in my first bluegill, a lead split-shot third of the venison from a sample of rifle- killed deer was contaminated. Wild game is hung between my hook and bobber. When a great source of lean protein, but it’s also, I killed my first deer, 120 grains of lead unfortunately, a great source of lead when brought it down. And when I caught my biggest fish to date, a four-ounce lead sinker we don’t use non-toxic ammunition. These days, it’s not hard to cut back weight held my bait deep enough for that on lead in our sporting gear. Nontoxic big red grouper to find it. ammunition and fishing tackle are now But those days are over for me. These readily available at most outdoor retailers, days, I think our constant use of lead in the and they perform comparably to lead outdoors must end. Every time we field- equivalents — often even better. It’s also dress an elk or snag a lure on an unseen not much more expensive, especially stump, we leave behind traces of lead that considering that it ensures the health of almost invariably end up in some animal’s both wildlife and the folks around our digestive tract. And the scientific evidence is unequivocal: Ingesting lead greatly harms dinner tables. When the United States banned lead wildlife. shot for hunting waterfowl under the Birds of prey are particularly hard- first President Bush, sportsmen’s groups hit. Ninety percent of the bald eagles the University of Minnesota raptor rehab center worked successfully to reduce the amount of lead used in our outdoor pastimes. I admits have elevated levels of lead in their like to think we’d have gone further had blood. A quarter of these birds suffer from full-blown lead poisoning that usually leads we realized the extent of the problem back then. Now, however, we do know, so we to death. Seventy-five percent of all bald face a crossroads: Do we move forward and and golden eagles in or near Yellowstone follow the lead of past conservationists, or National Park have elevated blood lead do we keep buying lead-based sporting gear levels, with around 14 percent exhibiting levels high enough to cause lead poisoning. because it’s marginally cheaper and easier? California has taken the lead: Lead And as anyone who has ever followed ammunition will be fully illegal there the issue is aware, lead poisoning is the starting next year. Five Northeastern primary threat to the continuing existence states have also banned or restricted lead of California condors. fishing tackle. But the rest of the nation Beyond raptors, lead poisoning from lags well behind. We’ve even reversed fishing tackle has been identified as a large some progress, as when Interior Secretary factor in the decline of New Hampshire’s Ryan Zinke made the decision last year to loons. Among game birds, 8 percent of repeal a prohibition on using lead ammo on chukars tested in Utah had elevated blood national wildlife refuges. lead levels from ingestion of lead shot, and I’m not waiting around for government 2.5 percent of doves in a nationwide study to take action. Personally, I’ve stopped were found to have lead pellets in their using lead ammo on my hunts, and I’m gizzards. Waterfowl still have problems sorting through my tackle box to get all with lead ingestion, and scavenging the lead out of there, too. I hope more mammals like raccoons have been known Westerners join me, and I encourage those to develop lead poisoning, too. who don’t hunt and fish to take action as If wildlife conservation is not reason well. It’s going to take a lot of us working enough to reduce lead use in sporting gear, together to ensure the health and safety of we also know that lead is equally bad for the wildlife and people we love. human health. Nearly every box of ammo ■ and fishing tackle carries a warning label Jesse Alston is a contributor to Writers for a reason. Even at sub-lethal levels, lead on the Range, the opinion service of High damages organs, compromises immune Country News. He lives in Laramie, Wyo- systems, and triggers neurological damage and high blood pressure. ming, with his wife and dog. H
