VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, December 15, 2018
East Oregonian
A5
A poem for a friend in need
O
f all the things Oregon Poet Lau-
reate Kim Stafford told us when
he read at the First Draft Writers’
Series last month, these words touched me
the most: “Someone in your life needs a
poem, right now.”
I thought of the people in
my life. Could I write such
a poem?
Stafford’s friend Sharon
had needed a poem, he said,
when the circumstances of
her life presented her with
overwhelming challenges.
How did he know? She told
him so. He found her mes-
sage one morning at work,
but she had written it at
3 a.m. “In the wee hours of
the morning it struck me
that I am in need of a poem
— a prescription that would
hearten my soul and give
me strength to face these
days …”
She was simply asking him for a favor-
ite poem, something Stafford might rec-
ommend that “through humor or empathy
or drawing on Spirit, brings a little Light
and Hope.”
You might have a favorite poem, too,
words you lean on in times of loss or
fear. After the deaths of September 11,
2001, many Americans turned to poetry,
an almost instinctive search for ways to
understand our feelings. Auden’s “Sep-
tember 1, 1939” was a favorite. When my
mother was suffering after surgery, she and
I recited Yeats’ “The Lake Isle of Innis-
free” together — a comfort to us both.
How many of us have Kentucky poet-
farmer Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of
Wild Things” taped to the wall
above our desks or pinned to a
bulletin board in our houses?
“When despair for the world
grows in me … I go and lie
down where the wood drake
/ rests in his beauty on the
water, and the great heron
feeds.” There’s more — I hope
you will find that poem, if you
don’t know it yet, and I hope it
helps you, too.
But sometimes people need
words that can come only
from us. From you and me.
Stafford, knowing this, gath-
ered poems for Sharon from
his own writing. “Turns out,”
he writes in the small collec-
tion he would title “Circum-
ference: Poems of Consolation and Bless-
ing,” he had “many little spells to sustain
my own buoyancy in the face of hard news
and daily assaults to heart and mind.” One
such spell he calls “Improvisational Salva-
tion.” Remembering what Miles Davis had
said about playing the wrong note — when
you play the wrong note, it’s the next note
that makes it right — Stafford says, “So /
stay awake / & play.”
Another of my favorites from this col-
lection is “Allegiance” (“I pledge alle-
We all know
the winter
holidays
can be a
challenge
for those
dealing with
pain or loss.
giance to the doomed life, / clumsy per-
son, old salmon struggling up / a shallow
stream”), which ends with another Stafford
story. “Once I had a sweetgrass bag, and
I gave it away / to a stranger. ‘You have a
sorrow,’ she said. / ‘Don’t be afraid to see
how deep it goes.’”
Stafford has written more than a
dozen books, including a prize-win-
ning essay collection and powerful mem-
oir. But the book that quickly disappeared
from the sale table after his reading was
“Circumference.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll send
more.” Roberta Lavadour has several cop-
ies waiting at Pendleton Center for the
Arts, a gift for those who knew this was
the book they needed.
It’s not easy, writing a poem for the per-
son in your life who needs to hear these
particular words. Stafford was asked to
write a poem for the surgical waiting room
in Doernbecher Children’s Hospital —
for parents who would be waiting in that
nearly unbearable situation. What could he
say? Not that all would be well, because it
might not be. Somehow, though, he made
a gift for those people. And sometimes, he
told us, he goes up to the eighth floor to
read that poem himself.
We all know the winter holidays can
be a challenge for those dealing with pain
or loss. It may be that in this season Staf-
ford’s assertion is more relevant than ever.
Whether or not we consider ourselves
poets, I suspect he’s right: Someone in our
lives needs a poem. Or just a word, a word
B ette H usted
FROM HERE TO ANYWHERE
from us.
And after all, that’s what poems are
made of.
Bette Husted is a writer and a student of
T’ai Chi and the natural world. She lives in
Pendleton.
First step in forest
revision was positive
mental groups, industry, and business —
all of whom seek assurances that the Forest
Service will protect their priority resources.
ear objectors, interested persons,
During the initial meetings the Forest
and Blue Mountains community
Service heard a lot about a wide range of
members:
topics, including access; aquatic and ripar-
ian conservation; elk security and big-
I recently had the privilege of meet-
horn sheep; fire and fuels; fish, wildlife and
ing many of you during the first round of
plants; livestock grazing; local government
objection-resolution meetings for the Blue
cooperation and coordination; public par-
Mountains Revised Forest Plans. I want to
ticipation; social and economic issues; tim-
sincerely thank everyone who participated.
Over 300 objectors, interested persons, and ber and vegetation; and wilderness, back-
public observers attended meetings in John country, and other special areas. Digging
into these topics in person gave the For-
Day, Pendleton, Wallowa, Baker City and
est Service the opportunity
La Grande. I am grateful for
to explore issues that were
the time and effort invested
not as prominent in the writ-
by each of you. I hope you
Spending time ten objection letters. From
will agree that this first round
the dialogue, some issues
of resolution meetings was a
in Eastern
appear to be close to resolu-
positive step.
tion while others will require
The meetings were led by
Oregon
further discussion, so there
objection reviewing officers
be more steps to take in
based in Washington, D.C.,
improved much will
this process. The Forest Ser-
with support and coordina-
tion from the Pacific North-
more than our vice knows that many topics
west Regional Office as well
are interrelated, and we will
as the Malheur, Umatilla and
understanding work to pull together the
Wallowa-Whitman national
related topics for discussion
of the issues
forests. The goal for these
in future meetings, so all of
initial meetings was to bring
can better see the connec-
identified in the us
tions and consider the trade-
clarity and mutual under-
standing to the Blue Moun-
offs of potential resolutions.
objections.
tain Forest Plan objection
The Forest Service also
issues. The dialogue helped
understands that not all
Forest Service leadership and
objectors and interested per-
sons were able to attend the first round of
staff to better understand your values, con-
cerns and views.
meetings or have their voices represented
Spending time in Eastern Oregon
by others. So, as we navigate these next
improved much more than our understand-
steps, the Forest Service will work ensure
ing of the issues identified in the objec-
we are as inclusive as possible in future
tions, though. Through our initial discus-
objections-resolutions meetings.
sions we also gained a deeper appreciation
Over the coming weeks the review-
of local residents’ special relationships with ing officers will be studying the notes and
reflecting on what we heard in the first
the land. We had it affirmed that, for many
round of resolution meetings and we will
of those who live in and around the Blue
be helping the Washington office in sched-
Mountains, these national forests are not
uling the next round of objections-resolu-
just places to visit and recreate — the for-
ests are a vital part of your community life, tions meetings. We will be in touch again
identity, heritage and livelihoods. The For-
to announce the next steps. Thank you for
est Service is striving to honor these special your contributions, and I look forward to
relationships in the Blue Mountain Forest
making more progress together in the near
Plan’s resolution process. In doing so, we
future.
will better respect the views of many differ-
———
ent community members — including our
Glenn Casamassa is the Pacific
Tribal neighbors, the states of Oregon and
Northwest regional forester overseeing the
Washington, county and other local govern- Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman
ment representatives, user groups, environ- national forests.
By Glen Casamassa
National Forrest Service
D
Terminate
robocalls
By The (Huntington, W.V.) Herald-Dispatch
H
ow many of us have missed an
important phone call because we
didn’t recognize the number? Now-
adays if you don’t recognize the num-
ber, you don’t answer the phone. Why?
Because of all those annoying robocalls.
Some robocalls mask themselves by
using a local number when the call really
is made from far, far away. You can’t even
trust the caller ID on your phone anymore.
According to a recent
article in the Washington
Post, reports of unwanted
phone calls are rising.
Nearly half of all cell-
phone calls next year
will be spam, accord-
ing to projections by First
Orion, a caller ID firm.
An article in USA
Today quoted statistics
from YouMail, a company
that provides a service to
block robocalls. The arti-
cle said U.S. consumers
and businesses received
about 30.5 billion robo-
calls in 2017. That broke
the record of 29.3 billion
calls set the previous year.
YouMail estimates the 2018 total will jump
to roughly 48 billion.
U.S. phones received some 6.1 mil-
lion robocalls per hour in September 2018
alone, YouMail said.
Help may be on the way.
West Virginia Attorney General Pat-
rick Morrisey said last week he had joined
a bipartisan group of 40 attorneys general
to stop or reduce annoying and harmful
robocalls.
The coalition is reviewing the technol-
ogy major telecom companies are pursu-
ing to combat illegal robocalls, which can
make it appear that the incoming call is
coming from a legitimate source, such as a
well-known financial institution, business
and/or government entity.
“Our office receives numerous calls
from West Virginia consumers annoyed by
the prevalence and frequency of robocalls,”
Morrisey said in a news release. “By join-
ing forces, I believe our coalition can work
with the telecom companies and produce
real results to quell these intrusions and
stop scammers from taking advantage of
West Virginians.”
Attorneys general from Ohio and Ken-
tucky are also part of the coalition.
Morrisey said the multi-state group he
has joined has had in-depth meetings with
several major telecom companies. The
attorneys general share information about
the technological capabilities already in
existence or in development to fight these
calls.
The coalition is working to
develop a detailed understand-
ing of what is technologically
feasible to minimize unwanted
robocalls and illegal telemarket-
ing, engaging the major telecom
companies to encourage them to
expedite the best possible solu-
tions for consumers, and consid-
ering further recommendations
the states should make to the
Federal Communications Com-
mission, Morrisey said.
The coalition’s efforts will
enhance West Virginia’s abil-
ity to enforce anti-spoofing leg-
islation passed earlier this year,
which prohibits any seller or
telemarketer from misrepre-
senting its caller identification
data in order to deceive the call’s recipient,
Morrisey said.
Meanwhile, the FCC is consider-
ing action to create a national database of
phone numbers that have been terminated
and reassigned. The database would help
prevent accidental robocalls to numbers
that are no longer assigned to consumers
who signed up to receive those calls.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who offered
the FCC proposal on robocalls, has offered
another proposal that he says will help pre-
vent spam text messages. But spam mes-
saging via texting is not nearly as trouble-
some as robocalls. Pai’s announcement
says as much. It says the spam rate for
texts is estimated at 2.8 percent, while the
spam rate for email is estimated at more
than 50 percent.
The sheer volume of robocalls renders
cellphone service almost useless at times.
It’s good to see efforts are underway to
limit the damage robocallers are doing to
our ability to enjoy our phone service.
The sheer
volume of
robocalls
renders
cellphone
service
almost
useless at
times.