ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Homeless
shelter plan
meets an
important need
T
he Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners made a good
decision last week when it agreed
to allow a warming station and tempo-
rary living huts to be installed on 10 acres
of county land to address the ongoing
homeless challenge.
The property, at the intersection of
Lind and Bensel roads in Hermiston, is a
suitable place for the temporary facility.
While the project is mostly spear-
headed by a new state law that mandates
city codify ordinance that protects people
from fines and fees for sleeping on public
lands, the decision by the board was
correct.
The homeless shelter plan also is the
result of a united effort between the
county, Umatilla, Hermiston, Echo and
Stanfield. That sends the loud and clear
signal that while the new state law is the
fuel behind the homeless shelter blue-
print, local officials can work together to
find a solution that works.
The homeless situation isn’t going
to go away, and this new plan reflects
that reality. Every winter the same
issues regarding the health and safety of
those struggling arrives and officials or
nonprofits struggle to meet the need.
Ignoring the problem hasn’t worked
and it isn’t a method toward success.
We can’t simply turn our heads away
from the homeless situation. We need
to address it through proactive, viable
measures that furnish everyone with
a solution. Elected officials could have
simply kicked the can, so to speak, on
this problem down the road. That they did
not shows an admirable degree of fore-
sight and planning.
That’s why this decision is such a good
one. The key piece of the plan is it will
be temporary, not permanent, and that
should alleviate at least some concerns by
area residents.
The plan, as officials admit, still is in
its preliminary stages. Many details need
to be worked out. However, this move to
create the temporary shelter and warming
stations is a good one and we applaud 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.
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YOUR VIEWS
It is not right to mandate
vaccination consent
People need to learn to stay out of
others business and quit arrogating for
them, no matter how well intentioned.
More than once a day I read how inef-
fective and uncertain these “vaccines”
are alongside increased “mandates” to
force them. This makes no sense.
One of the Nuremberg principles
is that humans should not be subject
to medical experiments without their
voluntary consent. The “vaccines”
currently deployed are “experimen-
tal” though “authorized for emergency
use.” The “authorized” “vaccine,”
Comirnaty, is scarce and not one of
the ones being pushed. They’re still
jabbing emergency use, experimental
gene therapies into our arms. Plenty
of educated, reasonable people do
not trust any “experimental” medi-
cine, approved or otherwise. There
are plenty of historical and scientific
reasons to support this view.
The Nuremberg principles were
created with the horrors of fascism,
or totalitarianism, in mind. Ridding
protections against tyranny has
proven considerably more fatal and
destructive of society than COVID-
19. Again, there are ample historical
examples. Experimental medicine
mandates violate the Nuremberg prin-
ciple.
Ostensibly there’s a bedrock prin-
ciple of medicine called “informed
consent” where each “patient” figures
out what they want done to them
based on information presented in an
impartial manner; these “mandates”
undermine that principle.
It is disrespectful of people to
browbeat others into getting jabbed,
as it does not respect their privacy and
capacity to make their own health-
care decisions, and that’s no way to
reach a civil decision.
Keith Gallagher
Condon
Give us an eastern route
for Interstate 82
When Interstate 82 was first plot-
ted, the preferred route was east of
Hermiston. Studies had indicated
most people coming south out of
Washington would be heading east
after crossing into Oregon. Nothing
has changed except there are more of
them. Consideration of an east/west
bridge route is a desirable goal, but
an east route for I-82 is more urgent.
In early 1980, when I-82 was
being considered, the business
people in Hermiston lobbied for and
successfully persuaded the state
to build a west alternate and leave
Highway 395 to go through Herm-
iston. Now I have heard there have
been potential businesses who have
not come into Hermiston because of
the traffic problems.
Enough already. Give us an east-
ern route to I-82.
As for the bridge route, Elm Street
should be a non-starter. There will
be schools on each side of the route.
There is a proliferation of housing
adjacent to the street. The intersec-
tion with Highway 395 has resulted
in two truck caused deaths in recent
years and there is a potential for
more deaths. All of these hazards
will dictate a reduction in speed.
The Punkin Center route would
lend itself to a roundabout, which
traffic planners indicate will move traf-
fic more efficiently.
Carlisle Harrison
Hermiston
Senate rightly considers a
carbon price
This couldn’t come soon enough. I
think it is fair to say that we’ve had a
summer like no other. A record June
temperature and virtually no rain
between June and Sept. 10 as well as
smoke. But also, terrible flooding from
Phoenix to the East Coast. Climate
change is no longer a partisan issue.
The chair of the Senate Finance
Committee, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden,
has included a carbon price for budget
consideration under the reconciliation
process.
The price of $15 per carbon ton
is there and it increases every year.
The price of carbon is collected at the
producer level, reducing the cost of
administration. In fact, though the cost
of the budget is large, the administra-
tive cost of a carbon price is minus-
cule. It provides a level playing field for
commerce and industry to compete to
avoid the rising price of carbon.
The single change? The reconcilia-
tion process prevents a direct refund of
revenue to households, though equity is
still served by a rebate to lower-income
tax filers.
A carbon price is the most power-
ful tool available to bend the curve of
atmospheric carbon. If we can’t save
the planet, we can’t save anything or
anybody else. I remember the Econ-
omist magazine saying that a carbon
price couldn’t be done in America.
Prove them wrong.
Your voice matters, and its impact
could be profound.
An easy way to let the president
know is to use citizensclimatelobby.org/
white-house/ or simply www.white-
house.gov/contact.
Brenda Pace
Bend
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNOR
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
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
SENATOR
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-415
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us