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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2021)
ANDREW CUTLER Publisher/Editor KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor JADE McDOWELL Hermiston Editor SaTURDay, FEBRUaRy 13, 2021 A4 Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW Tip of the hat, kick in the pants A tip of the hat to Steve Myren, the former Morrow County undersheriff who will be honored on Sunday, Feb. 14, by an emer- gency vehicle procession through the county after his death on Feb. 1. His service record shows he served Morrow County in a number of ways throughout his career, not just as a deputy and undersheriff but also through emer- gency management work and participa- tion in anti-drug programs at schools. He also traveled to help manage other disaster sites, according to his colleagues, including the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Rural areas often struggle with find- ing enough qualified people for positions in public safety, medicine and other vital services. We appreciate people who are willing to stick around here for the long haul. A kick in the pants to the dire situ- ation a new Portland State University study warns is coming for Oregon on June 30, as a moratorium on evictions is set to expire. The report states an estimated 89,000 households in Oregon have fallen behind on rent, while as many as 200,000 report not being confident they will be able to pay their next month’s rent in full. This sets the stage for a huge wave of evictions on top of those already displaced by fires or floods in 2020. PSU calculates such a sudden spike in evictions could end up costing between $1-3 billion for home- less shelters, medical care, child welfare services and other “downstream” costs. Oregon can’t keep expecting land- lords to eat the cost of their tenants’ rent forever, and needs to provide assistance to landlords as well as tenants. But the Oregon Legislature and local govern- ments also need to act now to prevent a mass eviction scenario. Some worthy suggestions in the report include rental assistance programs, increasing afford- able housing, providing landlord-tenant mediation and helping tenants understand their rights and resources when they are facing evictions. A tip of the hat to those who keep their sidewalks shoveled, the walkways in front of their businesses ice-free, and a path cleared for delivery people and mail carriers when it snows. Bonus points for those who also help clear snow for friends and neighbors in need. Those who have to be out in the bad weather appreciate it. EDITORIALS 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. LETTERS 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. SEND LETTERS TO: editor@eastoregonian.com, or via mail to Andrew Cutler, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 YOUR VIEWS Election voting needs new safeguards If you wanted to set up a president for impeachment, you would not provide police protection or National Guard protection during his political rally. Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell were in charge of the Capitol security. She should be held responsible and impeached. The guards removed the barricades and allowed the protesters to enter. She allowed this to happen. She did get the election fraud review, as suggested by Senator Ted Cruz, stopped. The American people know that there was massive voter fraud in our last election and deserve to know what the government is going to do to instill confidence in our elections. What happened to the 432,000 missing Trump votes in Pennsylvania? Why did the six swing states’ state legislators not meet their constitutional requirements to set election standards? Why did some states allow delayed voting? Why won’t they allow the Dominion voting machines to be examined? Why did Mark Zuckerberg spend $500,000,000 to install voter drop boxes only in inner cities? He is married to a Chinese woman. How could they refuse to report the Hunter Biden corruption? How can they censure our president? Free speech will be over if we don’t examine this election and correct the voting system, like Florida did. Every- one should be required to vote, even if it is “no opinion,” so we could eliminate our census collections. It is not OK for the liberals, as in Portland and Seat- tle, to riot and not be held accountable. Equal justice for all must be required. We need to require Social Security numbers and computer verified signa- tures on each ballot. This would not be hard to do. We could then trust mail-in ballots. Picture voting IDs would be good. We need to allow Eastern Oregon and Washington to form a new state to coun- terbalance Washington, D.C., becoming a state. Our votes do not matter, and we have no Electoral College influence. China does not allow free speech! Our big tech companies, Wall Street and Silicon Valley companies all under- stand that if you want to do business with China, you cannot expose Joe Biden, them, or our election process to transparency. They want a “One World Order” with them in complete control. No individualism will be allowed. China is trying to own us. President Trump has unmasked them. Kalvin B. Garton Pendleton Oil isn’t just for fuel One may be interested to know what a 45-gallon barrel of oil is made into. Only 40% is made into petroleum products. Lubricants and fuel. The rest is made into plastic, fertilizer products and, in an exceedingly small amount, some medication. Even if one owns an electric auto it still has to be lubricated. Most machinery must be lubricated. Any auto today has a vast amount of plastic in it. Look around and see how many products use plastic, rayon, etcetera. So, when manufacturers have no synthetics, just what will they use? Or the farmers have no fertilizer. Even if we still have some oil, the cost will skyrocket for any product. The price of fuel is starting to go up at this moment, also fertilizer. If one is a farmer currently, they are getting very afraid. Food prices will go up, and on down the line. Home heat- ing will rise. One should look at what a barrel of oil is made into. Just Google it. Easy peasy. One last thing: If two masks are good, why not five or 10? The anointed Dr. Fauci told us all at one time masks were not necessary. Also, if one had coronavirus and had the antibodies or was vaccinated, why would one have to wear a mask? Roesch Kishpaugh Pendleton Let’s get kids back to school It’s past time to put the teachers back to work and open the schools for in-person learning. Roughly 63% of my property taxes are in support of public education. Our government school systems are not teaching students. How about the peons who pay for the educa- tion system rise up and demand a rebate of 63% of their property taxes for the past year? Think that might inspire government to send the kids back to school for in-person learning? Just a thought from one of the peons. Alice Stanley Hermiston CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES U.S. PRESIDENT Joe Biden The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 GOVERNOR Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, OR 97301-4047 503-378-4582 U.S. SENATORS Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande office: 541-962-7691 Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton office: 541-278-1129 REPRESENTATIVES Bobby Levy, District 58 900 Court St. NE, H-376 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1458 Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us Greg Smith, District 57 900 Court St. NE, H-482 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1457 Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us U.S. REPRESENTATIVE Cliff Bentz 2185 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6730 Medford office: 541-776-4646 SENATOR Bill Hansell, District 29 900 Court St. NE, S-415 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
