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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2022)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, January 29, 2022 East Oregonian A5 ANDREW CLARK SLICE OF LIFE Do you have a bucket list? D Let all Oregonians vote ANTHONY BROADMAN OTHER VIEWS I magine living in a society where only those with certain birthrights make decisions for the rest of us. Your taxes, criminal justice policy, land use actions, decisions about your children’s education — you would have no formal power over such decisions. Seems wrong, right? But that’s the very system we are allowing to perpet- uate under Oregon’s citizen-only voting structure. All Oregonians should work together toward Oregonian suffrage — a system in which adults who live in Oregon can vote in Oregon elections, including voters who are not U.S. citi- zens. The Oregon Constitution arguably bars non-U.S. citizens from voting. This disenfranchises many of us. And it wasn’t always this way. In fact, it’s inconsistent with some of the most positive aspects of our often-troubling heritage as a state. In 1848, Congress passed an organic act for the Oregon Territory that allowed noncit- izens to vote. It wasn’t until the early 20th century, on a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment, that Oregon undid noncitizen suffrage and sought to limit voting rights to only U.S. citizens. In other words, we can change and we should. All it takes is a constitutional amendment. We should change our state constitution because it’s right for our democracy and right for our commu- nity. Disenfranchising people based on citizenship is wrong under any theory of tax fairness, representative democracy or equality. We’re behind. Communities across the country have committed to extending the franchise beyond U.S. citizens. Cities in Maryland, Vermont, California and New York have changed their city charters to allow noncitizen residents to vote in local elections. Despite disputes over these initia- tives elsewhere, universal suffrage in Oregon shouldn’t be partisan. While “ALL OREGONIANS SHOULD WORK TOGETHER TOWARD OREGONIAN SUFFRAGE — A SYSTEM IN WHICH ADULTS WHO LIVE IN OREGON CAN VOTE IN OREGON ELECTIONS, INCLUDING VOTERS WHO ARE NOT U.S. CITIZENS.” — Anthony Broadman Hispanic voters have tended to support the Democratic Party historically, in the last presidential election, areas with high populations of Hispanic and Asian-Amer- ican voters turned out in higher numbers and shifted to the right. A recent Wall Street Journal poll shows Hispanic voters evenly split between the parties. Reduc- ing the question to prejudiced hypotheses about how people of a particular ethnicity might vote cheapens our republican form of government. Guaranteeing the right to vote isn’t a Democratic or Republican value, but an American one. We need to truly welcome people who choose to move to Oregon, enfran- chise them and ensure they possess the same power to make decisions about our community and our future as every other voter. It shouldn’t matter where they were born or their citizenship status. It shouldn’t matter whether you moved here from California or France. Repre- sentative democracy is part of ensuring our community evolves and remains an exceptional place to live. Part of encouraging immigrants to live in Oregon means ensuring that when they get here they’re part of the demo- cratic process. And many “immigrants” have lived here longer than the 80,000 or so U.S. citizens who have moved to Bend, for example, since 1990. If our republic is truly the land of the free and we are serious about upholding equal justice as a foundational value of our government, let’s show it. Hold our representatives to the prom- ises they make about the public being involved in governmental decisions. Demand that when they say Oregon should be welcoming and equitable for all, they mean that for everyone, includ- ing all the people paying taxes, starting businesses and working for the future of our state and city. ——— Anthony Broadman is a Bend city coun- cilor. The opinions expressed are his own. We’re still waiting to see the maps MATT McELLIGOTT OTHER VIEWS S ome things from 2021 are still linger- ing in 2022, like the River Democ- racy Act that Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are pushing. They are trying to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. For several months I’ve been follow- ing this issue and still there are no answers to many revolving questions. Like why are some of the designated streams not streams at all, but dry washes? Why are the stream buffers increased from a quarter mile to a half mile? The act has pages of coordinates of the streams, rivers and dry gulches to be protected, but not one map. In May, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Asso- ciation asked for the maps and then they asked again in November. As of this writ- ing, we still don’t have the maps from Wyden’s office. I know of two counties in Eastern Oregon that have at their own expense, hired an engineering firm to map the coordinates in the act in order to have a visual map of the affected streams. These visual maps give the county a picture of how this act will impact them. It is unconscionable that any county government should have to spend money from its general fund to map these streams when information should be available upon request from Wyden or Merkley. Yet, they continue to ignore the requests. How will this affect livestock grazing and other natural resource users? This act talks a lot about fire resiliency but supplies no details as to how locking up 3.1 million acres of federal land will reduce threat of fire to land, lumber, and lives. What will the long-term economic effect of this bill have on rural Oregon? Wyden and his team expound on the great benefits of tourism and the dollars spent on recreation. “Money will flow like Mana from the Gods to rural Oregon.” That’s the well-polished sales pitch and talking points pounded into their heads at staff meetings. When hikers, bikers and ATVers visit rural Oregon most of them bring their own tents, campers, or RV’s. They fill their coolers and gas tanks at home and don’t spend much in the small towns they drive through. Wyden’s bill has a $30 million price tag. Not just for the first year but every year — forever. Only $5 million of that is earmarked, what is the other $25 million for? They haven’t answered that one either. The original intent of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was to preserve certain rivers with “outstanding, natural, cultural and recreational values in a free-flow- ing condition.” This act as presented is a vast departure from the original Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. If this act passes into law, it will set grave precedent that will enable law makers to circumvent protocol and procedures. Our senators were elected to represent all Oregonians, not a select demographic. Please take the time to look up SB 192. If you don’t like what you see, if you don’t want another 4,700 miles of streams and 3.1 million acres of Oregon locked up, reach out to Oregon’s senators and let them know. ——— Matt McElligott is the Oregon Cattle- men’s Association president-elect and public lands council committee chair. o you have a bucket list? If not, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have one? Don’t we all have dreams of places we would like to go and things we would like to do before we “kick the bucket?” Like maybe skydiv- ing. Or scuba diving. How about going on safari and watching a leopard pour out of a tree with such graceful movements that it’s like running water, or see elephants dust themselves with trunk-fulls of dirt? How about checking out a giraffe lunching on the top of a thorn tree? Or have you ever been chased by a rhino? Having been there and done that, it’s a bit of a kick. On my bucket list I’ve had seeing a giraffe calf be born for a long, long time, and when we were working in Tanzania we saw hundreds of giraffe in small groups and once a herd of 69, but never a birth. That baby doesn’t need a slap on the butt to start breathing — it falls about 8 feet to the ground, then struggles around trying to figure out how those long legs work, and in a while it gets up into a wobbly stance, finds the mother’s nipple, and life is good for them both. So — how about your bucket list? Take a few minutes right now and sit down at the kitchen table with some paper and a pen and start your writing. It’s fun. Think big. No holds barred. Nothing is too great. Nothing is stupid. Noth- ing is too wild. Nothing is weird. Where to go to do what? Anyplace at all in the world. With a bucket list we’re dreaming and practical- ity isn’t necessary. What would you like to accom- plish that you haven’t yet gotten to do? Is there something — like a goal or activity or talent — that has slept in your psyche and perhaps could be accomplished if you put your mind to it. What memories of you do you want people to have? And if you want those to be something more or less than they might be now, the time is here to get that sorted out. Are there apologies you need to make so that both you and the other person are made more whole? Are there statements of admiration or appreciation or thankfulness that should be made to someone? Or should admiration and appreci- ation and thankfulness be more of a daily thing for you yourself? There are all sorts of good things to be thinking about when you make your bucket list, so write some down — let it lie for a while, then pick it up again for some re-calculations and additions. And perhaps because you have some of those things in your mind and you put a bit more thought into how to accomplish them, maybe they’ll get done after all. It takes awareness of yourself and prod- ding of yourself to do it. The list is for opening up that awareness and you, yourself are in charge of the prodding. There is a fun film with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nich- olson called “The Bucket List” — but it isn’t all fun. It’s actu- ally a serious film like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The two of them are terminally ill in a cancer ward and escape to fulfill their bucket list dreams. They do a good job of it and the film is really worth seeing. You can Google it, see a trailer and some snippets, get a good idea of what it is about, and after you have seen the film (it can be streamed from several sources) maybe you’ll get some ideas of your own to bucket about. We’re all getting older. Time is running out. Decrepitation is settling in. Our bodies are falling apart. But there’s still time and there are lots of things to see and do regardless of wherever we are on the age, time, decrepitude, and disintegration scales. So — let’s get on with it. Get out your pencil and paper. Write “My Bucket List” at the top and put some ideas down. Keep them in your mind and get to work on implementation. Old-schmold. I’m 81 and ready and raring to go, so how about you? ——— Dr. Andrew Clark is a livestock veterinarian with both domestic and international work experience who lives in Pendleton.