ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TUeSDAY, NoVeMBeR 30, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Being there
to help out
year round
T
he holiday season is here, and the
time to volunteer to help those in
the community who may be less
fortunate or hit hard times is now.
There already have been significant
volunteer events this holiday season. The
recent Community Fellowship Dinner at
Hermiston High School is a good case in
point and the Salvation Army continues
its renowned mission of helping across
the region.
Yet, there will be a greater need,
not just through the holiday season but
the rest of the year. While helping the
community usually takes centerstage
during the holidays — as it should — as
soon as Jan. 1 rolls around the emphasis
seems to evaporate.
We need to change that.
Those who need help do not suddenly
no longer need assistance when the clock
strikes 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1. The need contin-
ues. Food banks still need supplies and
help. Homeless centers still need volun-
teers in March and July and September.
That means all of us in the commu-
nity can pick just about any time of year
to help.
Volunteering to help a local food bank
or deciding to donate money, clothes or
food is more than just a nice thing to do.
It is a concrete statement a person makes
to help.
We need move volunteers, not less.
We need more people to step up and help
across the region. We pride ourselves as a
people who pull ourselves up by the boot-
straps and often we are successful. Yet
there are so many who are not as fortu-
nate, who by circumstances or decisions,
find themselves in a situation where they
must depend on others for the very exis-
tence.
We can forget, after the holidays,
the need that will exist at food banks
or homeless shelters, but it will persist
whether we recognize it or not.
This holiday season we hope everyone
remembers there is a need for volunteers,
but we also want residents to remember
the urgency for help from the community
continues throughout the year.
Giving back to one’s community,
donating time or money or clothes or food
is a way to help, but the effort is also one
that, in the end, helps build a stronger,
more resilient town. We, are indeed, a
culture that believes in self-reliance, but
sometimes there are those who need just
a little more help. Let’s make sure this
year we are there to provide that help.
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
The broad jump world record
ANDREW
CLARK
A SLICE OF LIFE
A
re you familiar with a dik-dik?
It is a very small antelope, being
about the same as a big jackrab-
bit. After roasting over an open campfire,
a dik-dik makes a perfect entree for a
two- or three-person meal.
Last month, we discussed setting a
world record 100-meter dash running
away from a hippopotamus. That
evening also involved an African buffalo,
so both of the most dangerous wild
animals in Africa were involved.
Today, we’ll deal with a dik-dik-asso-
ciated world record broad jump.
Ticks carry several very bad
cattle diseases in tropical Africa, and
controlling these killer diseases is both
very difficult and very important. The
primary control method is having cattle
jump into and swim through a dipping
vat with a chemical that kills the ticks on
the cow.
We were building dipvat in the west-
ern Loliondo area of North Masailand,
right up against the border of the Seren-
geti National Park. It was only about
30 kilometers from home, so my wife,
Barbara, and my nephew, Mark, who
was living with us at the time, had come
along for a few days of living in the bush
and living off the land.
In early evening, Mark and I set off
along the bush-track in my Land Rover
pickup to get a dik-dik for dinner. Mark
drove and I stood in the back with my
bow-and-arrow, and soon there one was
standing in an open piece of woods that
sloped downward toward us. I took a shot
and missed (standard operating proce-
dure), so I went up to retrieve the arrow.
As I walked back and forth I looked up
and there he was again — a nice, clear
shot — and I missed again. So I went up
to find that arrow, Mark came looking
for the first arrow, and here’s where the
action begins.
I was walking around with my head
down, looking at the ground to find the
arrow, when suddenly that was a loud
snort about 20-30 yards away and a huge
bull buffalo jumped up. A singleton old
bull is a deposed king. He has been the
leader of the herd, the boss of the harem
of women buffalos, the winner of the
fights for control, and now he had been
run out of the herd by the younger guys
and he has nothing at all. He is angry,
frustrated, and as I mentioned last
month, African buffalos normally are
“smart, mean, crafty, agile, fast — and
the quintessence of distilled malevo-
lence.”
I had awakened the worst animal
in Africa from his afternoon nap. We
studied each other for about 3/1,000 of a
second, then I turned and began running
down the hill through the sparse trees.
Under circumstances like this, cerebral
function speeds up by geometric multi-
ples and the question “what am I going
to do?” was resolved in micro-millisec-
onds — “jump into the bed of the Land
Rover so that he hits the vehicle and I’m
protected.”
So I jumped. The problem, however,
was that I was running so fast and jump-
ing so hard that I flew over the Land
Rover and landed on the far side of the
road — completely missing the pickup
bed. I have no memory of how Mark did
it, but he reached safety in the cab. I got
up and the buffalo was nowhere to be
seen. Thinking about his mental process
it might be something like, ”I thought that
thing was one of those stupid humans
but it was the wrong color — it was like a
palid termite queen that’s never seen the
light of day and it ran like a wildebeest
and jumped like an impala and could even
soar like a vulture. Hey, this thing might
be dangerous and I’m outta here.”
So I never saw him again.
That is how I made track and field
event history — this had to be a world
record broad jump for sure. The length,
the height and the velocity all put
together how could it not be the record?
What a great video it could have been.
The dik-dik was never seen again,
either, and the two arrows still are in their
resting places in my beloved western
Loliondo bush country.
———
Dr. Andrew Clark is a livestock veter-
inarian with both domestic and inter-
national work experience who lives in
Pendleton.
sources. We need public officials who will
lead us to do these things together.
We need to sign up, speak up for climate
action. Many groups work to stop climate
change and mitigate the effects of the
change. By joining one or more organiza-
tions, you get counted, and politicians and
large corporations care about those counts.
We need to speak up at all levels; with
our friends, with the readers of the local
newspaper, with our state and federal lead-
ers. (Politicians and corporations count
letters, too.) We need to speak up when it
is uncomfortable to do so. Understand the
issues, but don’t wait for perfect knowledge.
We need to share with those who are
suffering now from climate change. Share
with people whose homes were destroyed
by wildfires or hurricanes. Share with
people whose wells have been contami-
nated by rising sea waters or whose crops
were reduced or destroyed by drought.
If not now, when? We are told that
turning from burning fossil fuels would
hurt people and cost too much money.
There are immediate wins for every-
one from reducing air pollution from
burning fossil fuels. It’s estimated that
350,000 Americans die every year from
air pollution alone. The public health
benefits of cleaner air would pay for the
costs of getting off fossil fuels. There
would be transition impacts for people
whose livelihood is tied to fossil fuel
industries; those need to be addressed
by short-term government programs.
But in the not so very long run, the
environmental benefit yields economic
benefits too. The damage from climate
change and the costs of the transition
away from carbon only get bigger the
longer we wait.
Lindsay Winsor
Milton-Freewater
YOUR VIEWS
What can I do about
climate change?
We know the answers. Reduce, reuse,
recycle. Buy local. We are told we are
personally responsible for stopping climate
change. But lots of slogans and most of
the emphasis on person responsibility as
the way to address climate change come
from a campaign by large corporations
that are major polluters. Yes, we need to
monitor and manage our personal carbon
footprint but that is not nearly enough. We
need to get governments and corporations
to quickly stop supporting fossil fuels if we
are to reduce enough in time.
We need to vote for climate activist
candidates for public office. Government
leaders set the policies that lead to a livable
world. By ourselves we can’t end subsidies
for the coal industry. We can’t improve the
electric grid to effectively use renewable