Saturday, March 27, 2021
VIEWPOINTS
East Oregonian
A5
Grateful for Peace Corps opportunities
ANDREW
CLARK
A SLICE OF LIFE
T
he U.S. Peace Corps celebrated its
60th birthday on March 1. Happy
birthday to a beloved organization
that has done wonderful things all around
the world. Since inception, the Peace Corps
has fielded more than 240,000 volunteers
for service in 141 nations doing all sorts of
work and making significant improvements
for many lives in the developing world.
I joined in 1964 and I clearly remem-
ber opening that envelope and the thrill of
reading “You are assigned to Tanganyika.”
I received my doctor of veterinary medi-
cine degree on a Saturday in June and left
for the Peace Corps on Sunday.
At that time, early in Peace Corps
history, what did it take to be a Peace
Corps volunteer — a PCV? The organiza-
tion was quite new. Technically, you must
have a serious work qualification of some
sort — but what about who you are? What
are your motivations? Why do you want
to be a PCV? I think of several important
factors.
First, a dedication to the idea that some-
where, somehow, something for somebody
could be done to help them with their live-
lihood. Altruism was the word of the day.
But there had to be other elements too. An
adventurous spirit for one, because if you
were going to invest two years of your life
in an idea you had to jump in feet first. And
also, you had to be a basic risk taker as an
attitude in life.
So, if you were a dedicated, adventur-
ous, risk taker, how do you find a mate?
Most of us were relatively young and single
was the decade of freedom for many Afri-
can nations and lots of the colonial era
government servants had cleared off. They
would not work under a Black government,
so there were massive holes in the civil
service. We in Tanganyika 5 filled some of
those holes.
My first job was in a senior government
position because there were no Tangan-
“PEACE CORPS COMPLETELY
CHANGED MY PROFESSIONAL CAREER.
I AM IMMENSELY GRATEFUL FOR
THE OPPORTUNITIES AND WORK
SITUATIONS THAT HAVE FOLLOWED.”
and we were all university graduates, but in
a huge university (Michigan State where I
went had 42,000 students) how do you sort
through the myriad people to find some-
one with similar approach to life? Well,
the Peace Corps did the sorting for us. A
concentrated population of dedicated risk
takers of both genders already selected.
How can it get better than that? And there
are thousands and thousands of Peace
Corps marriages as a result.
I’m one of the so-called “Kennedy
Kids” whose life was completely changed
by the Peace Corps experience. The 1960s
yikan veterinarians at all. One of the basics
of Peace Corps was that we would be paid
approximately what a local Tanganyikan in
the same job would be paid. So the salary
on my first job as a qualified veterinary
professional was $120 a month. And in the
economics of that time it was sufficient.
As soon as the Peace Corps was
finished, I was immediately hired to stay
on and was there for nine years. My most
favorite posting was as a veterinary officer
of Masailand. There were about 1 million
cattle and 1 million sheep and goats and
tens of thousands of donkeys — and I was
their vet. There was a good cadre of Tanza-
nian field staff, but no other qualified vets.
The concept of veterinary work there
is quite different in that you treat popula-
tions of livestock rather than individuals.
As an example, each year we vaccinated
about 850,000 cattle against rinderpest, the
worst cattle disease ever known, and many
more than that through dipping vats for
tick-borne diseases. These experiences led
to another career here in Oregon ending up
as a state veterinarian, which is essentially
the same for livestock as public health is
for humans, and then, after retirement,
back to Africa and still working there
today after 57 years.
Peace Corps completely changed my
professional career. I am immensely grate-
ful for the opportunities and work situ-
ations that have followed. But, back to
mates. I was in Tanganyika 5 and in the
Tanganyika 6 Peace Corps group, a bunch
of teachers, there was one magnificent
young woman whose name was Barbara
Bainbridge, so her initials were “BB.”
In Swahili, my work language, the
word “bibi “(pronounced bee-bee) means
“sweetheart.” Is that serendipitous? A
portent for the future? Or fate? Or divine
intervention? Or all four put together? But
that’s another story for another day.
———
Dr. Andrew Clark is a livestock veteri-
narian with both domestic and international
work experience who lives in Pendleton.
Oregon should not allow mink farms
SCOTT
BECKSTEAD
OTHER VIEWS
nimal Wellness Action is supporting
Senate Bill 832, a bill sponsored by
state Sen. Floyd Prozanski that aims
to close down the small number of industrial
mink farms in Oregon and help the farm-
ers transition to other commodities or lines
of work. The legislation will be heard by the
Senate Committee on Natural Resources and
Wildfire Recovery on April 5.
It’s true that animal welfare advocates
have long sought to end commerce in fur.
As the grandson of an Idaho mink farmer,
who spent much of my childhood and youth
on mink farms, I can attest to the inhumane
conditions on those operations and the unde-
niable misery endured by the animals.
But the legislative and regulatory efforts
to regulate mink in Oregon have more to do
A
with protecting human health than ending
inhumane mink farms. Mink are uniquely
susceptible to the coronavirus, which they
easily catch from infected farm workers. In
Denmark, the world’s leading producer of
mink pelts, scientists discovered the virus
uses the mink to mutate into a pathogen that
is transmissible back to people, and in a form
that could be resistant to vaccines.
That’s why Denmark culled all 17 million
of the mink raised on over 1,100 mink farms
and provided farmers with a generous relief
package. Other European nations, respond-
ing to outbreaks of their own, have similarly
moved to shutter their mink farms.
While other countries have moved
swiftly to eliminate the threat posed by mink
farms, authorities in the U.S. and the states
where outbreaks have occurred, including
Oregon, have largely shrugged off the threat
and taken a “wait and see” approach. Their
ho-hum attitude was matched by an alarm-
ing lack of transparency; after the coronavi-
rus outbreak on an Oregon mink farm, state
agencies refused to disclose to the public
many important details, including the loca-
tion of the farm where the outbreak occurred.
In Oregon, as in other mink-producing states,
agencies appear more concerned about
protecting the viability of their mink indus-
tries than in informing and protecting the
public at large.
The Oregon outbreak was anomalous in
a couple respects. First, while mink in other
countries and states quickly succumbed to
COVID-19, the Oregon mink got sick, but
then recovered. Officials also noted that
captive mink that escaped from the farm and
were later trapped, tested positive for the
virus. Farmed mink that escape (a frequent
occurrence on factory mink farms) pose a
major threat to our native wildlife, includ-
ing wild mink and other mustelid species,
such as fishers, martens, and badgers. Should
those creatures catch the virus, they could
potentially transmit the disease to a trapper
or other human who comes in contact with
them.
It would be one thing if mink were being
raised to supply a much-needed product for
consumers in the U.S. But they’re not. Amer-
icans have largely sworn off fur as a luxury
fashion item, so the pelts being raised on
Oregon mink farms are destined for China,
where a small segment of the population
still wears fur. Why should Oregonians be
expected to tolerate a grave public health
threat for the sake of a product destined for
the very country where COVID-19 started?
The global pandemics that have resulted in
millions of human deaths started as a direct
result of our unhealthy relationship with
wildlife, especially wildlife raised on factory
farms. Scientists are warning that if we
don’t move to eliminate this threat, COVID-
19 might look like a comparatively benign
precursor to a far deadlier pandemic. Thank-
fully, some Oregon lawmakers are heeding
that warning and moving decisively to miti-
gate the threat for the people of our state.
———
Scott Beckstead is director of campaigns for
Animal Wellness Action. There is more infor-
mation about the group at animalwellnessac-
tion.org.
Oregon Republicans must stop
saving Democrats from themselves
EVAN
BRYAN
OTHER VIEWS
O
regon Senate Republicans have
engaged in four legislative walk-
outs in less than two years. Demo-
crats and Republicans alike have used
quorum denial as a negotiating chip when
all else has failed, but this nuclear option
should not be used frivolously.
The first Republican walkout in 2019
occurred over a reprisal of the gross
receipts tax, deceptively dubbed by
Democrats as “The Student Success Act.”
The proposal completely disregarded the
will of Oregonians, who killed a similar
ballot measure in 2016 by over 350,000
votes. When Republicans said the bill
should be decided by Oregonians instead
of politicians, Democrats said “no.” The
first walkout of 2019 ensued.
The bill easily passed the Oregon
House, but in the Senate, Democrats could
not afford to lose any support — needing
all 18 of their members to vote “yes.” In
some cases, common-sense Democrats
were threatened with expulsion from
committee assignments and other political
“punishments.” To get Republicans back,
Democrats agreed to kill their own gun
safety measures and a vaccine mandate.
Democrats then passed the tax hike and
denied Oregonians a say.
Republicans had a small “win” by
Democrats dropping some of their
agenda, at the cost of a tax hike. Senate
Democrats did not have the votes to
pass the vaccine mandate, as it was very
controversial in many of their districts.
The gun legislation, including banning
pepper spray in public buildings, would
have also been massively unpopular and
likely challenged in the courts or forced
to the ballot. Had these passed, it would
have encouraged Republican turnout in
the coming election. In talking with a
former Republican leader, who served in
the majority, they remarked, “Republicans
just saved the Democrats from them-
selves.”
Following the gross receipts tax deba-
cle, Democrats were intent on pushing
through a phony climate proposal, known
as cap and trade. Many who have worked
at the Oregon Capitol for years had never
seen such opposition to attempts to refer
an impactful policy change to voters. A
little less than a decade before, Demo-
crats, with some Republican support,
referred tax measures (66 and 67) to the
ballot.
At the time, it was unclear if Demo-
crats would fall short of the 16 votes
needed for passage, so Republicans
walked. That walkout generated inter-
national media attention and gave rise
to historic grassroots engagement at the
Capitol. After several days of a standoff,
the Senate president announced that cap
and trade didn’t have the votes to pass and
the session concluded over a marathon
weekend at the Capitol. Democrats and
the governor then blamed Republicans
for the failure of their own cap-and-trade
climate proposal — they didn’t actually
have the votes within their own party to
pass it.
Cap and trade then returned in the 2020
Session. Republicans requested to sched-
ule the proposal toward the end of the
session to consider immediately pressing
legislation. Democrats refused and would
not compromise. Senate Republicans,
joined by House Republicans, walked and
the 2020 session never resumed.
Denying quorum can be a useful, short-
term tactic for a minority party, but it is
not a strategy and the long-term conse-
quences are dire. It is blunderous.
I am alarmed the politics behind the
walkouts are still occurring during a
pandemic. It must end.
As Oregonians, it’s time to elect new
leaders who don’t consider compromise
a dirty word. Having the longest serving
Senate president and House speaker in
state history might sound impressive, but
the current reality says otherwise.
Democrats run the show in Salem. It’s
time for Republicans in Oregon to make a
strong case to Oregonians with solutions
to improve lives and livelihoods. They
need to stop giving Democrats cover. It’s
time for the party in charge to be held
accountable.
———
Evan Bryan served as a Legislative
Director at the Oregon State Senate. He
holds a master’s in Legislative Affairs from
George Washington University.
Key changes shape sports coverage
ANDREW
CUTLER
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
A
s an editor, nothing strikes so hard and
so quick as the notion you must make
changes to the existing product in
order to meet economic realities.
I sometimes wish being an editor was like
it was back in the day when the man in charge
of the newsroom wore his Fedora and sat with
his sleeves rolled up and dealt strictly with the
“news.”
That paradigm, if it ever existed, is long
gone from this business. Editors must wear
a number of different hats in today’s shift-
ing economic landscape. Yet, this job, as
editor, as a journalist at a small town paper, is
truly rewarding. If you are good at what you
do, you get to make a real difference in the
community nearly every day.
And that fact overshadows almost all of
the negatives that are attached to this particu-
lar vocation.
In past columns, I’ve talked about the
impact COVID-19 has had on the East
Oregonian and our parent company, EO
Media Group. It forced our hand on a few
fronts and accelerated some timelines into
decisions that — at the time — seemed
unthinkable.
So what does all this mean, Andrew, you
may ask.
Well, for one, it has meant the way the East
Oregonian is covering the return of sports is
starkly different that it was prepandemic.
Prior to COVID-19, Annie Fowler and
Brett Kane worked as hard as any other sports
department in the state, covering games all
across Umatilla County and finding those
interesting athletes with unique stories to tell.
Once the virus brought sports in Oregon to a
screeching halt, Fowler and Kane, along with
a number of other employees all across EO
Media Group, were casualties of some tough
financial decisions. Both were laid off.
As we navigated through a COVID-19
world, Fowler provided stories as a freelancer
to make sure the East Oregonian had a sports
presence every Saturday. Now that sports is
tiptoeing back into existence, Fowler is back
on a part-time basis.
Having Fowler back on staff is good news.
However, the way we report on local sports
isn’t going to look like the way we reported
on sports before COVID, and before the East
Oregonian began publishing in print three
days a week.
Our digital news coverage is 24-7, reported
as it happens. Game updates will be reported
in real time, giving you your local sports
results in the most timely manner. Print
reporting will recap scores, but focus more on
features and upcoming matches than on game
coverage. Our sports pages will be devoted to
telling unique stories on the athletes or teams
in the area and preview some of the bigger
games.
These changes to our sports coverage
matrix will take a little getting used to for
all of us, but offers the best of what the East
Oregonian offers — timely coverage and
unique local stories in print and online. If
you’re a subscriber and haven’t yet taken
advantage of activating the digital features
included in your print subscription price, call
our customer service center at 800-781-3214
and activate your digital access.
———
Andrew Cutler is the publisher/editor of
the East Oregonian.