KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Firefighters’
hard work
appreciated
T
he actions by the more than 70
firefighters who responded to the
once-in-a-decade fire at Shear-
er’s Foods in Hermiston last week
deserve praise and to be recognized.
None of us will ever hear emer-
gency response personnel sing their
own praises. That isn’t how they operate
and the most you might get out of them
is they were simply doing their job.
That wonderful self-effacing attitude
is what makes our emergency services
personnel so endearing and so important.
Yes, they were just doing their jobs,
and yes, they were fulfilling the mission
entrusted to them by the public. Yet
there is more to this specific situa-
tion than that and always has been.
The men and women who gladly take
up the mantle of public service — as
police, as firefighters and EMTs — are
a special breed and deserve as much
admiration and respect as we can give.
The fire disaster at Shearer’s is a good
example of how important such emer-
gency services are. The fierce blaze
destroyed a warehouse, but the fire crews
were able to keep the fire from spreading.
Nine agencies and 73 firefight-
ers responded to the fire that could
have inflicted far more damage and
threatened the lives of far more
people if not for the efforts of our
emergency service agencies.
Periodically, bonds or other legis-
lative devices will come before voters
regarding upgrading funding for fire or
police services. The usual debate — so
important in a democracy — will erupt
but in the end any investment in fire and
police services is the best one taxpay-
ers can make, and the fire at Shearer’s
warehouse is a good case in point as
to why emergency services agencies
deserve every dollar taxpayers can spare.
We often do not give such services
much thought until tragedy strikes close
to home. Then, firefighters, police and
emergency medical services agencies
loom very large in our vision. When
they are needed, they are needed badly.
We must as a community — and
as voters — always remember that
investing in the fire department or the
police department is not about boost-
ing the pay of public servants but show-
ing our gratitude for the job these men
and women do on a regular basis.
We cannot forget how important they
are to all of us, and we must always
strive to ensure they are fully funded.
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 journalist-politician worked well for Oregon
STEVE
FORRESTER
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
t is unfortunate that Nicholas Kris-
tof won’t be on the Oregon Demo-
cratic primary ballot for governor.
Kristof and former state Sen. Betsy
Johnson were the two candidates
who did not neatly fit into the tradi-
tion of electing Democrats beholden to
public employee unions. As the former
Republican Secretary of State Dennis
Richardson once said during conver-
sation at The Astorian, “The public
employees unions run the statehouse.”
In different ways, Kristof and John-
son would have brought fresh ideas to
this race for governor. Johnson has yet
to flesh out her message, but Kristof’s
was clearly about human welfare — the
vast swath of displaced and damaged
Oregonians. His nationally published
articles and books are about the travail
of common people in turbulent times.
One of those books is about drug addic-
tion among Oregonians whom Kristof
knew while growing up in this state.
Some referred to Kristof’s national
and international journalism as though
I
that made him a novelty candidate. But
Oregon has enjoyed good luck with jour-
nalist-politicians. Three of our promi-
nent officeholders have been journalists.
One of those was Oregon’s most conse-
quential governor of the 20th century.
Charles Sprague owned the Oregon
Statesman newspaper in Salem. As
editor, he wrote editorials and a widely
read front-page column, “It Seems
to Me.” He became Oregon gover-
nor in 1939 and served through 1943.
Sprague was a Republican in the Theo-
dore Roosevelt Progressive tradition.
His defense of civil liberties put him
at odds with the GOP’s right wing.
Today’s Oregon Republican
Party would turn their backs on the
man. To learn more about Sprague,
read Floyd McKay’s biography,
“An Editor for Oregon: Charles A.
Sprague and the Politics of Change.”
Tom McCall and Richard Neuberger
were journalists of a different sort,
but they had a symbiotic relation-
ship. McCall began as a sportswriter
in Idaho and became one of Oregon’s
most prominent television journal-
ists, as a news analyst for KGW-TV.
Neuberger’s prodigious output
appeared in The Oregonian, from
the time he was 18, and subsequently
in national magazines that collec-
tively reached a broad demographic.
Conservation was a paramount
value — a theme in many of Neuberg-
er’s articles. By the time he was elected
to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat,
Neuberger had built a national constit-
uency among conservationists, and
they were elated at his victory. Brent
Walth in “Fire at Eden’s Gate” describes
Neuberger as McCall’s “role model.”
When Neuberger died at the age of 47
in 1960, McCall took up the cause of
conservation and became Oregon’s
most prominent conservationist.
In other words, Oregon’s three
prominent journalist officeholders
carried positive, inspirational values
into the arena and left their mark.
The important distinction between
Neuberger and Kristof is that Neuberger
served in the Oregon House of Repre-
sentatives and the state Senate prior
to the U.S. Senate. Neuberger had
done a legislative apprenticeship
— all of which he wrote about.
Nonetheless, it would have been
useful to have an injection of Kristof’s
perspective in the race that lies ahead.
———
Steve Forrester is the president and
chief executive officer of EO Media Group
and author of the recent book, “Eminent
Oregonians: Three Who Matter.”
supply livestock managers with “tools”
such as telemetry equipment tuned
to wolf radio collars and ATVs used
in state-issued kill orders. “Coexis-
tence” doesn’t mean deputizing these
compensated livestock managers to
hunt down state-protected wildlife.
Before handing out any tax candy,
the political arm of the livestock indus-
try needs to prove the same success
as individual ranchers. The largest
sheep operation in Idaho has proven
such success. Even after initial skep-
ticism, the most cost-effective protec-
tion of their business is nonlethal
methods over killing programs or
reimbursement fund programs. See
link to film: wildlifecoexistence.
org/the-wood-river-wolf-project.
Killing everything in order to do
our human business is not the future
we want to hand our children.
Susan Strass
Bend
Since becoming a player of some
significance on the oil and petro-
chemical scene, Putin has decided to
flex his muscles and he needs to be
reminded he is not invincible. One way
to do that is to hit him in the pocket-
book. Every time we fill our tanks with
gas, we contribute to his war chest.
Why are we still buying Russian
oil? Oh, right, now I remember, some-
one higher up decided we Americans
should quit being energy independent,
quit producing so much oil at home
and buy Russian. By doing so we have
aided and abetted — and still are by the
way — Ukraine’s desperate situation.
We should not be begging Russia or
OPEC to sell us more oil, we should be
petitioning our politicians to do their job
and demand the restoration of drilling
operations and the opening up of the
Keystone Pipeline work here in Amer-
ica immediately, creating American jobs
and American profit. America could
be exporting oil and gas to the EU.
Please, folks, write to your represen-
tatives and senators. Time for us “little
people” to make our voices heard. Stand
up for American Made, America.
Darrell and Rose Howe
Monument
YOUR VIEWS
Use nonlethal practices
on wolves and coyotes
We are a rural, hunting family and
would never kill a wolf or a coyote.
Research in several states has proven
wolves and coyotes prefer to eat wild
game. Destroying their family struc-
tures leads to increased livestock
predation. So we buy beef only from
ranchers that use predator-friendly
practices, available locally.
Currently before the state Legis-
lature are two bills: House Bill 4080
authorizes creation of “predator damage
control districts” to pay the controver-
sial “Wildlife Services” program of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture to
kill Oregon’s wildlife deemed a threat
to private property, without having
to use or consider nonlethal methods.
End of year 2020, this program killed
201,606 native wildlife in Oregon.
HB 4127 requests an additional $1
million on the heels of $400,000 from
the Legislature, just last year, to be
paid into the current Wolf Compensa-
tion Fund. This fund was established
to support nonlethal prevention meth-
ods and compensate rancher losses.
These funds have been misused to
Time to restore
energy independence
Time to wake up, America. Things
have to change. What we see happen-
ing in Ukraine is unconscionable.