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East Oregonian
Friday, January 25, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OTHER VIEWS
Let the Legislature know you’re there
Albany Democrat-Herald
GOVERNOR
I
t’s an easy thing (a
time-honored tradition,
in fact) to bad-mouth the
Oregon Legislature, which
opened its 2019 session yes-
terday and is scheduled to
meet in Salem until the end
of June.
To be sure, it’s a certain
bet that the Legislature this
session will do some dopey
things, and will deserve at
least some of the criticism
that onlookers and citizens
will deliver.
With that said, and
before the session heats up,
here are some other points
worth making about Ore-
gon’s Legislature:
First, even though we do
pay lawmakers (a laughably
small sum, considering the
work most of them put in),
this is still, for all intents
and purposes, a citizen Leg-
islature. Generally speak-
ing, we don’t yet have full-
time legislators, although
many legislators would tell
you that their duties take up
plenty of time even when
the Legislature isn’t in
session.
The second point flows
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
REPRESENTATIVES
Greg Barreto, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-38
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.
or.us
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
A man walks by the Oregon State Capitol in Salem on Tues-
day, the first day of the Legislature’s 2019 session.
from that first one: In part
because this is a citizen
Legislature, most legislators
are legitimately interested in
what their constituents have
to say. (Legislators who are
not might have a hard time
getting re-elected.) A story
by reporter Claire Withy-
combe of the Oregon Capi-
tal Bureau outlined some of
the ways that regular peo-
ple who don’t have access
to high-powered lobby-
ists can connect with their
legislators.
Of course, it helps to
know who your legislators
are, and our guess is that
many people would fail this
relatively simple test. If you
want to find out, though,
there’s an easy way to do
so: The Legislature’s web-
site includes a nifty feature
where all you have to do is
enter your address to find
out who’s representing you
in Salem. The feature also
includes links to your legis-
lators’ web pages and email
addresses.
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
SENATOR
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
If you want to send an
email address to your leg-
islator, feel free to do that:
Just be sure you write it
in your own words. That’s
much more valuable to a
legislator than if you just
copied and pasted some
boilerplate language from
an advocacy group; legis-
lators discount that sort of
message. (Snail mail also is
accepted at the Capitol.)
If there’s an issue that
really engages you, think
about joining an organiza-
tion that feels the same way:
There’s power in numbers
in Salem.
It also helps if you do
some research before you
fire off that email, and the
Legislature operates an
invaluable site that features
up-to-the-minute informa-
tion, including updated ver-
sions of bills and current
calendars. The site, the Ore-
gon Legislative Information
System, can be accessed at
this address: https://olis.leg.
state.or.us/liz/2019R1. If you
have any interest in legis-
lative doings, it’ll be worth
your while to spend some
time exploring the site,
which boasts a wealth of
other information — includ-
ing lists of bills that your
legislator is sponsoring.
A couple of additional
points are worth keeping
in mind as the session gets
rolling:
Although news accounts
of the Legislature often
focus on partisan rifts (and
there will be partisan rifts),
it’s not at all unusual for
legislators to work with
their counterparts on the
other side of the aisle. In
this regard, the Legislature
is different than the U.S.
Congress, which seems to
be permanently paralyzed
in partisan gridlock.
Remember as well that
legislators face a daunting
workload: Nearly 1,500 bills
already have been intro-
duced in this session and
that number will grow dra-
matically over the next few
weeks. Most of those bills
will not pass; many, in fact,
are essentially dead on
arrival. (One of the under-
valued functions of a Legis-
lature is to kill bills.) Even
with that high mortality
rate, it still amounts to a lot
of work in a short period of
time.
But that doesn’t mean
you can’t chide a legisla-
tor for what you think is an
ill-advised bill or vote.
After all, the Legislature
convenes to do the work of
the people. It works better if
the people are watching.
YOUR VIEWS
Congress, President
should forego pay, too
We face a crisis in government. Our
elected leaders are not doing the jobs
they were elected to do. We have a tri-
pod form of government for a reason
(read the Federalist Papers). Our sys-
tem was never set up for the leader-
ship, both the Congress and President,
to act like 2-year olds fighting over a
toy. This is no longer “partisanship.”
It is a complete failure to do their
jobs. Their salaries should be the ones
suspended.
No one in leadership should be
exempt: the President, the Congress,
no one should get a paycheck until an
agreement is reached. The rest of us
should not be punished for the failure
of our leadership to lead.
Dale Hilding
Pendleton
Covington incident should
have been researched
OTHER VIEWS
Fighting the fear of falling
I
get is running out.
t is wet and gloomy outside. The rain
thundered on the roof last night. All
Also, as a citizen volunteer, I have recently
week the rain has been persistent, some-
been voted onto a board supporting Oregon’s
times colder, sometimes warmer, but not yet
seniors’ disabilities advisory and advocacy
snow.
groups. My main focus is on peo-
ple with disabilities. This week I
I am preparing for a blitz of
preaching for Pastor Chuck at Zion
attended a legislative boot camp put
Lutheran Church in Newberg this
on by DHS, to teach us how to sup-
port the politicians in their struggles
next couple of months. The first will
to help the seniors and the disabled.
be preaching in an adult Vacation
I’m going to be a little critical
Bible School on February 6 to do a
here of our highest levels of gov-
20-minute gig to raise spirits. (I’m
ernment, and criticize our gov-
listed on the bulletin as “Comedian
ernment’s leadership for holding
Pastor” for this one.) Then, after
C olin
human beings of kindness and vir-
that, I will be preaching the five
B rown
tue in the federal government in a
COMMENT
Wednesday Lenten services, start-
ing in March, and each one of these
blackmail that threatens their lives
sermons / reflections will be a take
and livelihoods. I regard this as a
on prayer.
criminal and immoral act. It is like lifting the
I work a regular day job, and we are all
wallet of a poor man, while holding a knife to
nervous now, as my colleagues and I serve
the throat of his child.
some functions of the federal government —
I know our president, in his previous
which, as you may know, is having a little
incarnation as a builder, has a reputation of
pushback in keeping the lights on. Our bud-
not paying his workmen and has left them
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
damaged and impoverished in many cases,
while he walks away from his moral obliga-
tions with the property and the money bags
of others. He has used bankruptcy as a tool
for his own enrichment. I know that it may
not be illegal in the convolutions of our law,
but I know that he has sinned and continues
to sin against the requirements of his heav-
enly father to pay workmen what they are
owed. His punishment, I have no doubt, is
coming unless he repents.
Here, I am looking sideways at Greg
Walden, our Prince of Eastern Oregon, who
I feel is a principled man and somebody
who is being called by his Lord to speak out
for moral behavior all through our govern-
ment. He has my backing in prayer to do
what needs to be done to restore honor to our
nation.
Amen.
———
Colin Brown is the former pastor of Good
Shepherd Lutheran Church in Boardman.
Contact him at colin.brown@usa.net
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies
for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold
letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights
of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime
phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published.
I was very surprised to find, start-
ing in the second paragraph of the Sol-
idarity Walk story, information about
the “alleged” misconduct of the stu-
dents from Covington High School.
Obviously the story must have been
written before doing research on the
incident and determining that the stu-
dents in question did not in fact cause
the incident or respond in a hostile
manner to anyone in the crowd. I am
disturbed that your writer jumped on
the “blame the #MAGA hat wearers”
wagon by going on the word of the
BuzzFeed article that a lot of “profes-
sional reporters” took as gospel truth
without doing any research about what
exactly happened.
As you know, Covington HS had
to cancel school Monday due to death
threats from the crazies who jump on
these types of stories. I would like to
see a follow-up article clearly stating
just what happened at the Right to Life
March and how these students were
initially the target of some pretty mean
and nasty accusations by a hate group.
Social media just may be the down-
fall of this great republic. The haters
are going to hate, but threatening high
school students and journalists report-
ing misinformation is not going to help
the situation. Please be peaceful every-
one, love your neighbor and let the
hatred go.
Toni Baldassarre
Pendleton
Send letters to managing
editor Daniel Wattenburger,
211 S.E. Byers Ave.
Pendleton, OR 9780, or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.