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Saturday, March 5, 2022
East Oregonian
A5
ALEX
SKOG
OTHER VIEWS
Bill could
prevent
violence in
emergency
departments
H
ouse Bill 4142 could prevent
violence in emergency depart-
ments
Among the many ripple effects of the
pandemic, in the last two years health
care workers have reported a disturbingly
prolific increase in assaults while they
are providing care. According to surveys
by the American College of Emergency
Physicians and the Emergency Nurses
Association, almost half of emergency
physicians and 70% of emergency nurses
reported being physically assaulted on
the job. This phenomenon is not simply
something that is showing up in esoteric
statistical data but it is playing out every
day in Oregon’s hospitals.
Several weeks ago, I was toward
the end of one of a string of 5 p.m. to
1 a.m. emergency department shifts that
had prevented me from seeing my two
young children for four days straight. A
COVID-19 test on an older patient I was
taking care of came back positive. The
patient had a low oxygen level necessitat-
ing admission to the hospital. As I started
to discuss the unfortunate result with the
patient and family, the patient’s son stood
up from his chair and walked up to me
screaming that he wouldn’t’t let me admit
his father to the hospital so that I could
put his father on a ventilator and kill him.
I explained that my only goal was to do
everything possible to make his father
get better and that a ventilator was only
a last resort. He pushed his jacket back
to reveal a gun holster strapped to his
hip and said, “If anything happens to my
father, I will kill you and your family. It
will be World War III.”
Fortunately, I was able to get out of the
room and call security and subsequently
police. Police officers escorted the
patient’s son out to his car in the parking
lot where he undoubtedly left the firearm
that he carried in the holster he was wear-
ing. I was left in the emergency depart-
ment unarmed and virtually defenseless.
Acts like this don’t just effect the
health care provider personally but send
shockwaves that reverberate long after
the incident’s immediate aftermath.
For the remainder of my shift I caught
myself regularly looking at the secu-
rity camera video screen, hoping not to
see the ED doors sliding open to reveal
this person returning. I listened for
any commotion in the waiting room,
instead of focusing on a nurse asking
me to confirm the correct medication for
another patient. While trying to see the
remaining patients who had overwhelmed
us during the latest COVID-19 surge, I
found my mind regularly drifting to my
two sons whom I hadn’t seen in four days.
This person had my name and, therefore,
would be able to find my address where
my children were sleeping.
Unfortunately, this type of experi-
ence is far from unique, and numerous
Oregon hospital workers have stories
where threats have progressed to actual
assault. An emergency department tech-
nician was tackled, causing ligaments
in his knee to tear, requiring surgery. A
pregnant nurse was kicked in the abdo-
men and went into premature labor. A
provider was strangled with the stetho-
scope that hung around her neck. The
effect of these assaults goes far beyond
the immediate physical and emotional
trauma they cause by fueling the never-
before-seen exodus of health care work-
ers and leaving the most vulnerable
Oregonians sicker and further marginal-
ized with substandard care.
Oregon has an opportunity to make
a major stride toward addressing this by
passing HB 4142. In doing so, Oregon
would join 34 other states with similar
laws, which make it a felony to assault
a hospital employee while specifically
shielding vulnerable Oregonians in
mental health crises from being charged.
Currently, it is only a misdemeanor to
assault a hospital employee. Victims of
assault have been told by police that it is
not worth the paperwork to charge the
assailant. It is past time for this to change.
House Bill 4142’s greatest impact will
be its effect on the numerous patients I
see daily who have red flags on their chart
for previous history of assaulting health
care workers. Currently, these repeat
offenders know that there are virtually
no legal repercussions from past assaults
and, therefore, are completely unin-
hibited and emboldened to do it again.
Having actual consequences will change
this calculation.
———
Dr. Alex Skog is an emergency physi-
cian and president-elect of the Oregon
Chapter of the American College of Emer-
gency Physicians.
State Senate Democrats draw line on masks
DICK
HUGHES
OTHER VIEWS
W
hen I was a kid, there was a
short-lived TV program called
“Slattery’s People.” The plot
centered around a state legislator. That
probably explains why the audience soon
faded, even though one co-star was Ed
Asner, before he became the popular char-
acter Lou Grant.
I remember nothing about “Slattery’s
People” except that each episode opened
with these words: “Democracy is a very
bad form of government. But I ask you
never to forget: All the others are so much
worse.”
That admonition was a play on a quota-
tion from Winston Churchill, which I didn’t
realize at the time. But the words left a life-
long impression on me. They again hit me
full in the face Thursday morning, Feb. 24,
as I read the news about global develop-
ments, a stark contrast to American democ-
racy despite its multitude of flaws.
Certainly, the messiness of democ-
racy has been on display at the Oregon
State Capitol during the Legislature’s
35-day session. A veteran Oregon legisla-
tor recently mused, “You’re always caught
between your conscience, your caucus and
your constituents.”
His insight was powerful. I’ll add a
corollary: When those three influences
do align, legislators often find themselves
pitted against their colleagues.
Such was the case Feb. 24 for state Sen.
Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg.
On a party-line vote, Democratic sena-
tors booted him from the Senate floor —
and the entire Capitol — for not wearing
a face covering, as is required by legis-
lative and state rules. Heard, who also is
chairman of the Oregon Republican Party,
rarely has been on the Senate floor this year
because he opposes this mask mandate.
The dramatic scene rolled out in mostly
calm, respectful tones. Bear in mind,
however, the tone can shift quickly as
legislators rush to pass, modify or kill bills
before the March 7 deadline for them to
adjourn the 2022 session.
As an example of that nimble or hasty
pace — pick your preferred description —
the newly formed Joint Committee on Farm
Worker Overtime met for the first time Feb.
24 and heard pro-and-con testimony on
House Bill 4002.
To protect against the spread of COVID-
19, all committee meetings are by video-
conference and phone. At one point, Sen.
Kathleen Taylor, D-Portland, who co-chairs
the committee, paused to remind people
testifying that they should be respectful of
folks on the other side.
As for Heard, Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, had ordered him
escorted off the Senate floor during Decem-
ber’s special session when Heard refused to
wear a mask. This time, Heard refused to
go, forcing the Senate vote.
Their interactions were firm but polite.
Heard said no one should be forced to wear
a mask and that his protest was about stand-
ing up for the young children of America.
“These rules are not moral. A mask is
not moral,” he said. “These mandates don’t
work if the ultimate goal is to protect our
children.”
Courtney responded by asking him not
to create a hole in the Senate family: “Sen.
Heard, you were kind enough, and gentle-
man enough, to text me this morning and
say, ‘Good morning, brother.’”
Speakers on both sides said to follow the
science. But they — like their fellow Amer-
icans — differed on what science says.
Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath
Falls, said masks don’t work, and senators
don’t need masks because they aren’t carry-
ing the coronavirus anyway.
Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland,
responded that individuals don’t know at
any given moment whether they have the
coronavirus, so masks are worn to guard
against transmitting it to others.
Republicans pointed out that lawmakers
frequently violate the mask mandate else-
where in the Capitol, such as when going to
the restroom or parking areas.
Legislators, though masked, often gather
less than 6 feet apart while chatting infor-
mally.
Side note: Constituent newsletters from
Sen. Akasha Lawrence Spence, D-Port-
land, have said immune-compromised
people such as she cannot be vaccinated.
She contracted COVID-19 before the 2022
session and self-isolated but has returned to
the Capitol.
Some senators seemed unaware that
earlier Feb. 24, Gov. Kate Brown and state
agencies had announced the indoor mask
mandate and the state’s COVID-19 state of
emergency soon would end.
During the debate, Senate Republican
Leader Tim Knopp, of Bend, joked that
Brown’s action was a belated response
to his letter urging her to lift all mask
mandates by noon Feb. 23.
Knopp had written, “After nearly two
years of constant masking, it would be a
breath of fresh air for Oregonians to see
their democratically elected representatives
in the Legislature remove their masks and
do their business.” Though Brown didn’t
comply with his deadline, she and Knopp
talked by phone later Feb. 23.
Senate Majority Leader Rob Wagner,
D-Lake Oswego, officially made the motion
that Heard had violated the rules and should
be excluded from the Senate chamber and
the Capitol until he complied.
“Sadly, please call the roll,” Courtney
instructed the Senate staff when it came
time to vote.
———
Dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
Protect climate-storing forests on public, private lands
MARINA
RICHIE
OTHER VIEWS
he morning after Valentine’s Day, I
woke to heartening climate news. A
coalition of 70 environmental groups
called on President Joe Biden to protect our
mature and old-growth forests on federal
land. But we also must urge Biden to take
measures to protect our private forestlands,
too.
Thousands of acres are being felled in the
Southeast U.S. alone to feed the dirty wood
pellet industry and to fuel biomass energy
in the U.K. and Japan. Logging rates in the
Southeast are four times as high as in South
American rainforests.
Many of these targeted forests are
bottomland hardwoods — magnificent big
trees pulling carbon dioxide from the air
and storing it for long periods. The wild
groves harbor precious biodiversity and are
havens of beauty.
Biomass is touted as a renewable source
of energy and it’s far from it. Biomass burn-
ing power plants emit 150% the carbon
dioxide of coal, and 300 – 400% the carbon
dioxide of natural gas, per unit energy
produced.
The “renewable” argument goes this way
— trees grow back and will then once again
store carbon. But trees burned today release
T
carbon dioxide today — and the new trees
if planted (no guarantee) would take a long
time to rival the carbon storage of trees that
are even 30 years old, let alone a century or
more. Scientific studies are conclusive that
the older and bigger trees store far more
carbon and for longer than young trees.
So why would we want to add even
more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere
now with some vague notion we will lower
it later? Checking the latest daily CO2,
the recorded level is close to 419 parts per
million. Here in the West we now know the
megadrought is the driest in 1,200 years.
We’re getting ever closer to a point of no
return — an unlivable planet.
We desperately need to lower carbon
dioxide levels. Instead, we’re adding a stag-
gering 40 billion metric tons of carbon diox-
ide per year while we’re destroying forests
and other natural ecosystems. We live in a
terrifying time.
Returning to the biomass debacle, I
am mystified why we’re taking this route,
especially when the wood pellet industry
and biomass burning are heavily subsi-
dized. They could not succeed on their own.
There’s also the insidious and untrue argu-
ment that biomass energy simply uses up
excess pieces of wood that would otherwise
go to waste. No. Biomass creates a huge
drive for wood, wood and more wood to
burn.
Fortunately, there are courageous people
and groups standing up for our forests and
calling for an end to subsidies for biomass
and for incentives for forest owners to
protect their trees for the climate, for biodi-
versity and for our children and their chil-
dren.
I just received aerial footage from one of
those conservationists after his recent flight
over a 120 square mile area in Virginia in
the vicinity of an Enviva pellet plant. I was
horrified by the scarred clearcuts, all that
was left of hardwood forests along rivers.
However, we can only fathom the true loss
when we know the beauty of wild wood-
lands close-up.
My parents once lived near Wilmington,
North Carolina, and from my visits there I
have vivid images of paddling a canoe with
my dad on the Cape Fear River, our strokes
in rhythm with the serenades of warblers
flitting among leafy trees rising from still
dark waters and the thrum of woodpeckers
drumming hollow buttressed trees. When
I think of these irreplaceable and complex
forests crashing to the ground, I am more
than heartbroken.
It’s past time to choose true climate
solutions. Pay our landowners to be ecosys-
tem protectors of forests—and stop putting
money in the pockets of big corporations
bent on destruction. Protect our precious
mature and older forests and big trees on
federal and private lands. Embrace solar,
wind, and energy conservation — in ways
that also protect our natural ecosystems that
are our last best hope.
———
Marina Richie is a writer and author of
the forthcoming book, “Halcyon Journey: in
Search of the Belted Kingfisher.”