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.