KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
TuESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Bill should
not be used
as political
pawn
I
n the end, it is a shame that a few
Oregon lawmakers were forced to
resort to a little-known, and hardly
used, rule to get a bill that addresses crimi-
nal sexual contact off the ice and moving in
the Legislature.
The legislation, Senate Bill 649 — also
known as Bailey’s Bill — boosts penalties
for criminal sexual contact with an under-
age victim if the offender is the victim’s
teacher. The existing law delivers harsher
penalties to a coach caught in the same
situation as a teacher. The bill, named after
Weston-McEwen student Bailey Munck,
received easy approval in the Oregon
Senate before it traveled to the House
where, for reasons not clear, it stalled at the
House Judiciary Committee.
The chair of the committee, Rep. Janelle
Bynum, D-Clackamas, “indicated” she
was not going to give the bill a hearing,
which prompted nine members of the
judicial committee to invoke House Rule
8.20. The rule stipulates that if a majority
of committee members request a hearing
in writing, the chair must set up a hearing
within five days.
Now a hearing on the legislation is set
for Tuesday, May 18.
Bynum’s reluctance to move the bill
may be connected to political brinkman-
ship, where it was going to be used as a
bargaining chip regarding other legislation.
Hopefully, that is incorrect. If it is not, then
that should give readers — not to mention
voters — pause.
A bill that addresses a subject as sensi-
tive as criminal sexual contact should
not be regulated to a mere chess piece on
broader political chess board.
The lawmakers who pushed for the hear-
ing should be lauded. Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Athena, and Sen. Kathleen Taylor,
D-Milwaukie, who navigated the bill
through the Senate, also deserve praise.
Bailey’s Bill should not have ended
up stuck in limbo in a committee of the
House. The bill, once it reached the House,
should have been acted on immediately.
That it was not is troubling.
The broader issue, though, is appropri-
ate punishment for those who prey on our
children. This bill will fix a glaring hole
that seemingly gives instructors a lighter
punishment when they, in fact, should
receive the same penalty as coaches. It will
close a dangerous loophole.
The other key piece of the bill is it has
wide, bipartisan support. Currently, such
unity among lawmakers is rare and when
it occurs should be advanced as quickly as
possible.
This time lawmakers did the right thing
and voters should be pleased.
EDITORIALS
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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.
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More peace, more love, more pupusas
ALEX
HOBBS
PASTURES OF PLENT Y
riving along Interstate 84, the
haze clung to the horizon like
flies to carrion. A roil of various
hues of brown blown across a desolate
landscape. The child sitting shotgun
asked if something was on fire. It was a
fair question for a boy who glimpsed a
red sun through smoke each and every
summer.
I shook my head. It was dust. Dust so
thick that it had choked out the rolling
hills across the Columbia. Topsoil, most
likely. It’s spring harvest, after all. Dust,
high visibility survey flags, tumble-
weeds, concrete bunkers. A certain entity
along the river looming over all of North
Morrow County like Barad-dûr. I cannot
help but cringe in reaction to it all. To the
relentless pursuit of progress.
However, nestled among this woebe-
gone landscape, a spark of magic has
taken hold. A tiny flame nurtured by
women so skilled you wonder if they’ve
unlocked some sort of ancient alchemy.
These women are the true purveyors of
culture in North Morrow County. The
vanguard. Savants of their craft. I am, of
course, talking about the women of El
Salvadoreño Taco Truck in Boardman.
D
If you have never had a pupusa, I’m
not sure I can adequately describe its
rhapsody of flavors and textures. The
pupusa itself is savory, its insides a caul-
dron of cheese and lard. Often the cheese
will burst from its masa home as it cooks
to crisp on the griddle. You’ll do well to
save that bit for last.
Atop a pupusa perches a delight-
fully tangy salsa roja and, of course,
the curtido — a slaw made of cabbage,
onion, carrot, jalapeño and vinegar. Its
bitterness helps edge the umami of the
pupusa. If a pupusa were a piece of music
it would be Chopin nocturne: deceptively
complex, heartbreakingly beautiful, full
of gastronomical trills.
It is not lost on me how many miles
this meal has traveled to find a home
in Northeast Oregon. According to
Google Maps, El Salvador is well over
3,000 miles from Boardman — a simple
gesture of love that has traversed thou-
sands of miles. It is astonishing to think
of all the events that had to occur for me
and these women to live in the same place
at the same time.
Recently, the women of El Salvador-
eño gifted me an El Salvador blue shirt
that reads “More Peace, More Love,
More Pupusas.” Yes, I think to myself as
I shovel another bite into my mouth, more
to all of the above.
North Morrow County is an astound-
ing amalgam of people and cultures. I
am not sure there are many places in
the Pacific Northwest quite like it. The
aforementioned women are just one
example of those quietly toiling out
here, doing their part to enrich, amplify,
and love. Whether they are flattening
pupusas, milking cows, manejando
camiones (driving trucks), making anto-
jitos, grilling hash browns, grinding
espresso, bagging groceries, teaching
math or coaching soccer, these working
people are dedicated to their families
and community. It’s a place not unlike
a pupusa. A concert of flavors coming
together to make something sabroso.
Something simple and beautiful.
So as its surroundings morph and
change, this little taco truck remains a
steadfast beacon and a gentle reminder to
proceed with caution. The pupusa isn’t a
golf course, it’s not a giant, illuminated
concrete bunker that collects all our data
to sell us more stuff we don’t need, nor
is it an electrical substation. It’s a simple
dish from a Central American country
thousands of miles away. They feed us,
nourish us.
It does these things far from their
origin by women who dish them up with
power those who we traditionally think of
as “being in power” could only dream of.
Viva la pupusa.
———
Alex Hobbs lives in Irrigon and is a
former educator turned full-time homes-
chooling mom. She has a degree in politi-
cal science from Oregon State University.
The hard reality of Greater Idaho
CHARLES
JONES
OTHER VIEWS
he devil is in the details. The devil
is also in hard realities. Veteran
Mike McCarter, president of Move
Oregon’s Border, wrote an opinion piece
in local papers supporting MOB, which
wants to force 850,000 Oregonians to
become Idahoans and force 75% of the
land in Oregon into Idaho.
This fellow veteran looks at just eight
of a thousand devilish details and realities
that would result from MOB’s plan.
T
Snowplows
Those plows that keep our highways
and freeways open are owned by Oregon.
Will Oregon donate millions of dollars of
plows to another state? Is Idaho going to
spend millions to buy plows and pay driv-
ers to service nearly all the snow country
of Oregon, which is now largely paid for
by western Oregon gas taxes? Who will
keep our highways clear? MOB volun-
teers?
Prisons and criminals
Several state prisons are in MOB’s
targeted counties. Snake River Correc-
tional Institution, near Ontario, was
first built in 1991. The 1994 addition
alone cost $175 million (not corrected
for inflation), the largest Oregon general
fund expenditure ever, even to this day.
You think Idaho is going to buy? What
happens when they don’t? Also, there are
nearly 3,000 prisoners in that one prison.
They are charged with Oregon crimes.
They are not guilty of Idaho crimes.
Will people volunteer to move the prison
structures and infrastructure to Western
Oregon?
Ontario and Malheur counties
In 2020, Ontario recreational mari-
juana dispensaries did over $91 million in
sales. Ontario received over $1.85 million
in marijuana taxes in fiscal year 2019-20.
Most sales were to people coming from
Idaho. Additionally, a huge part of Ontar-
io’s retail and most of business growth
has been along the border, where Idaho-
ans shop to avoid sales tax on furniture,
lawn mowers, clothing and many durable
goods. Does MOB hope Ontario (most of
the population of Malheur County) will
kill their golden-egg goose by becoming
Idaho? Not a surprise that almost no one
attended the recent MOB rally in Ontario.
Buildings
Oregon owns hundreds of million
dollars of buildings throughout the
MOB-targeted counties. As a tiny exam-
ple, in La Grande alone the building
values are staggering. Tens of millions
of dollars just at Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity. Then there are Oregon Department
of Transportation facilities, Oregon State
Police, state forestry, and on and on.
MOB leaders may be spending too much
time at the Ontario dispensaries if they
think Oregon will give that all away.
Land
Besides the aforementioned real
estate, consider the thousands of acres
of state forest in the targeted coun-
ties. All the thousands of miles of state
highways. All the state parks. Consider
the tiniest fraction of these holdings —
Wallowa Lake State Park. How many
millions is that incredible chunk of land
worth? If you owned it, would you just
give it to your neighbor?
BondsOregon owns hundreds of
million dollars in bonds issued to
service debt on construction in targeted
counties. Will Idaho happily take over
those bond payments? And who will be
paying the accountants and lawyers for
incredibly complex transfers?
Retirement accounts
Oregon holds retirement accounts
for not just state employees, but also
for nearly all police officers, firefight-
ers, teachers ... the list goes on. Courts
have consistently ruled those retire-
ment contracts are legal and binding. So
Idaho will merrily pick up a few billion
of debt?
And this is only the tip of that devil-
ish iceberg — that devilish reality of our
complicated lives, economy and citizen-
ship in the year 2021.
———
Charles Jones, a retired navy
commander and science teacher, is a
fourth generation Eastern Oregonian
living in La Grande. His grandfather, as
1920 Ontario’s mayor, paved the town’s
first streets.