VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, March 19, 2022
East Oregonian
A5
BETTE
HUSTED
FROM HERE TO ANY WHERE
Books
as literal
barricades
S
tories shape our world, and the
stories coming from Ukraine have
been so overwhelming that we want
to shrink from the horror of this war.
A recent Guardian headline, “Books
Against Bombs: how Ukrainians are
using literature to fight back,” seemed to
offer a moment of hope — literature, yes
— until I saw the accompanying photo:
a window blocked by stacks of books.
People in this residential area of Kyiv, the
story said, are using books as barricades
against explosions.
“There is no time to read or write now
— everyone is focused on protecting their
loved ones,” writes Katerina Sergatskova.
But she goes on to explain where all those
books had come from. To encourage
vaccination against COVID-19, Ukraine
had offered “culture vouchers” tha people
could spend on tickets to a movie or
concert, a gym membership or books.
People bought books, books, books.
And the next day I saw a photo in Ron
Charles’s Washington Post Book Club
column — a Ukrainian mother reading a
children’s book to a small girl resting on
her suitcase. “In such horrific conditions,
periods of imaginative escape are essen-
tial for children,” Charles writes. “And
books are the perfect vehicle.” A group
of Polish publishers called the Universal
Reading Foundation, he says, has begun
to buy and distribute Ukrainian children’s
books for the youngest refugees taking
shelter in Poland.
Despite the obvious difficulties,
this group found a warehouse in Lviv,
Ukraine, that will try to send the first
batch of 25,000 books to be distributed
to orphanages, day cares, kindergartens,
schools and libraries.
If they can get through.
As Maria Deskur, chief executive offi-
cer of Universal Reading Foundation, told
Charles, “A joyful moment of book shar-
ing and talking with a close person is the
definitive moment of safety, which builds
the fundamentals of our social compe-
tence, self-esteem and psychological
well-being … This is true for every child,
but for these young Ukrainians who have
just lived through a trauma, I would be
ready to argue that their future psycholog-
ical stableness depends on it.”
She plans to help older children, too,
teenagers who will need to redefine them-
selves in Poland, process what they have
seen and find strength to move forward.
“Whenever you take a book in your hand,
it is an act of openness to someone else’s
thoughts and emotions,” she said. “It is an
opening to listen to other points of view;
an entering through the door to dialogue
and mutual understanding. Building
fundamentals for that state of mind is
crucial for the future.”
For democracy, she means.
Who gets to hear which stories? Will
the people of Russia ever see the photo of
that mother squatting on the pavement to
read to her toddler, or the window barri-
caded by books? Will the Ukrainians
who survive this war find the stories they
need? And will our own school children,
whose right to know — to learn to under-
stand others as well as the realities of our
history and to read the novels of a Nobel
prize winning American writer — is
currently under threat?
As I hear news coming from Ukraine
and worry about yet another larger Euro-
pean war, I remember images from Wisl-
awa Symborska’s poem “The End and the
Beginning:”
“After every war / someone has to
clean up. / Things won’t / straighten them-
selves up, after all. / Someone has to push
the rubble / to the side of the road, / so the
corpse-filled wagons / can pass. / Some-
one has to get mired / in scum and ashes,
/ sofa springs, / splintered glass, / and
bloody rags /… Photogenic it’s not, / and
takes years. / All the cameras have left for
another war.”
Katerina Sergatskova is right: first,
people need to save their families. To
survive. But stories matter. On March
1, 800 American and Ukrainian poets
shared a massive Zoom reading, and when
American poet Ilya Kaminsky asked a
friend in Odessa what he can do, the reply
was, “If you want to help, send us some
poems and essays. We are trying to put
together a literary magazine.”
And Ukrainian president Volodymyr
Zelensky has been quoting Hamlet. “The
question for us now is to be or not to be,”
he told the British Parliament. “I can give
you a definitive answer. It’s definitely yes,
to be.”
———
Bette Husted is a writer and a student
of tai chi and the natural world. She lives
in Pendleton.
The state of rural Oregon from the road
MARGIE
HOFFMANN
OTHER VIEWS
I
recently tuned in to President Joe Biden’s
State of the Union speech roughly 90
miles outside of Bend.
While the president laid out his vision of
an America recovering from the middle out,
not the top down, I wove through large stands
of ponderosa where the high desert meets the
mountains. I crossed rivers only months away
from another drought emergency declaration.
The next day, while carefully stepping
through a burn scar newly blanketed in green
and listening to local leaders extoll the priv-
ilege of potable water, one word stuck with
me: resilience.
Rural Oregonians know all about resil-
ience.
When I first assumed my role as state
director of USDA Rural Development in
Oregon, I made it a priority to get out into
the field and visit the rural communities we
serve.
Even from a home office in Bend, it’s easy
to lose perspective when talking numbers.
RD Oregon invested more than $635 million
last year in loans, grants and guaranteed
loans. We partnered with rural Oregon’s
public bodies, nonprofits, small businesses,
and homeowners on over 2,072 projects.
These are impressive totals, but they are
far more impressive when measured by their
impact.
With a grant from USDA’s Rural Energy
for America Program, a food co-op in Asto-
ria invested in solar energy and now passes
savings on to customers. Children in South-
ern Oregon will have access to critical medi-
cal care over broadband funded by USDA’s
ReConnect Program.
Hundreds of families in rural, suburban
and tribal communities displaced by wild-
fires will sleep in their own beds and wake
up to running water, thanks to the vision of
community changemakers and our multifam-
ily housing and emergency water assistance
programs.
These are the voices from Biden’s econ-
omy of the middle. They tell stories of perse-
verance.
By investing in water infrastructure and
broadband, rural business opportunities and
the American food supply chain, USDA is
helping communities build a foundation for
sustained economic growth.
Every day, RD Oregon has the privilege
of working with growing local networks. As
community partners, environmental stewards
and innovators, we work alongside commu-
nity members to assist them in realizing their
vision for the community.
Together, through USDA’s Food Supply
Chain Guaranteed Loan Program and the
Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion
Program, we will create a food supply chain
that’s more robust, more diverse and fairer,
so Oregon’s farms and ranches take home
a greater share of profits and keep shelves
stocked in their own hometowns.
USDA’s Water and Environmental
Programs will help small towns replace
crumbling pipes and make sure all Oregon
families have safe water at home and at
school while easing water bills. By ensuring
equitable access to federal resources, we will
answer Biden’s call to build from the middle
out.
From my travels across our state, I can tell
you one thing without a doubt: there are few
things stronger than an Oregonian’s resolve.
Through record-breaking heat waves, annual
drought conditions, wildfire season and
everything in between, however deep the
crisis, whatever the ZIP code, Oregonians
will come together to overcome and thrive.
Now, faced with a changing landscape and
a climate in unknown territory, rural Orego-
nians have a chance to chart a new path. To
lead the nation towards a sustainable, brighter
future where all of America prospers.
I’ll see you on the road.
— ——
Margie Hoffmann is state director of
USDA Rural Development in Oregon.
Ag overtime bill is a win, not a victory
BILL
HANSELL
OTHER VIEWS
efore even the first gavel dropped on
the 2022 legislative session, I knew
that one of the most consequential
bills of my legislative career would be consid-
ered.
House Bill 4002, or the agriculture over-
time bill, was a divisive bill from the start
and presented the Oregon Legislature with
two options. One that would favor one side
to the detriment of the rest of Oregon, espe-
cially the agricultural economy. This is what
I called a win — a win for a select few at the
cost of the rest of us. The other path included
compromise, good-faith negotiation and a
bill that would generate support from both
parties. This is what I called a victory — a
victory for all of Oregon.
I worked hard to get a victory, not just
a win on agriculture overtime. But the
final result was a win — a win for Willa-
mette Valley liberal special interests who
donate money to the majority Democrat’s
B
campaign funds.
It will make these groups feel good about
themselves, but it won’t make Oregonians
better off. HB 4002 will result in higher
prices at the grocery store for working fami-
lies, hours and pay capped for agricultural
workers, and ultimately the shuttering of
small family farms that fill my district.
Agriculture is a unique industry. During
harvest seasons, it requires long hours to reap
all the crops before frost or rains come. In
ranching, there is even more nuance.
The bottom line is that farmers and ranch-
ers don’t set their own prices, they have to
take whatever price the markets are offer-
ing. The Democrats advanced an argument
about ag overtime that essentially stated a
bushel of wheat harvested in the 41st hour is
worth 50% more than one harvested at the
fifth hour. Anyone who has grown up around
farms knows that that is not true. And requir-
ing farmers to pay their workers as such soon
will result in a dwindling number of family
farms to even employ these workers.
HB 4002 leveled all these unique distinc-
tions in agriculture and mandated a one-size-
fits-all “solution” that is really no solution
at all. The “olive-branches” that Democrats
extended, the agricultural community never
asked for. One example: Under this new
overtime pay mandate, family farms now
will be able to apply for tax credits to ease
the burden of the new overtime pay mandate.
Now taxpayers will be subsidizing this new
program. Farmers and ranchers never asked
for that, but the majority decided that is what
would be best for them.
I worked hard to come to a compromise.
Simple adjustments for seasonality, flexible
scheduling, and recognizing the difference
between the kinds of agriculture would have
helped. But the majority party rejected all
these and charged ahead with what seemed to
be a predetermined outcome, driven by their
special interest groups.
I know how much Oregon’s farmers and
ranchers care about their employees and
their families. HB 4002 will now force those
farmers and ranchers to make difficult deci-
sions about how much they can afford their
employees to work. I grew up on these kinds
of farms, and I am afraid that under this
policy, less and less of those farms will be
around in the future.
———
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, is in his 10th
year representing the seven counties that
make up Senate District 29.
River Democracy Act protects water, restores forest health
JAMES
JOHNSTON
OTHER VIEWS
O
regon’s most important natural
resource is water. Continued access
to cool, clean water is critical for
agriculture, high tech industry, recreation,
fish and wildlife habitat, to say nothing of
drinking water.
As a native Oregonian, angler and scien-
tist who studies fire and forest health, I’m
glad that Sen. Ron Wyden is working to
expand Wild and Scenic River designations
on select federal lands in Oregon.
Protecting Oregon’s pristine rivers and
streams isn’t inconsistent with restoring
forests and protecting communities from
catastrophic wildfire. We can’t restore forests
without protecting streams and rivers, and
we can’t protect streams and rivers without
restoring forests.
Our climate is changing for the worse.
In the coming decades we can expect hotter
summers, shallower snow packs and longer
fire seasons.
The Wild and Scenic River designations
that will be created by the River Democracy
Act introduced by Oregon Sens. Wyden and
Jeff Merkley will keep rivers and streams in
their free-flowing state. That means more
water will be available for fish, wildlife
and people downstream. Forests alongside
streams need water from free-flowing rivers
to be resistant to fire and drought. Healthy
forests in turn provide shade and contribute
wood that provides in-stream fish habitat.
New Wild and Scenic River designa-
tions respect private property rights and only
apply to federal lands. On federal lands, the
River Democracy Act will require compre-
hensive management plans for new wild and
scenic river stretches that require protection
of native species and active management of
areas at high risk of catastrophic wildfire that
threaten clean water.
Equally important, the bill establishes
an appropriation of at least $30 million a
year to ensure that fire risk reduction work
is carried out.
Many decades of neglect have contrib-
uted to degraded watersheds and out-of-con-
trol wildfires. Oregonians need to be
prepared for many decades of work includ-
ing storm-proofing road systems, in-stream
habitat enhancement, thinning overly dense
forest stands and reintroducing fire under
favorable weather conditions.
Federal legislation like the River Democ-
racy Act can be part of the solution.
In addition to more federal investments,
we need honest communication and account-
ability among stakeholders here in Oregon.
There is room for improvements to the
River Democracy Act, and I hope Orego-
nians will read about the River Democracy
Act at wyden.senate.gov and share ideas
about the act and other steps that are neces-
sary to protect water quality and restore
forests with Wyden.
———
James Johnston is a forest ecologist
at Oregon State University. The views he
expressed are his own and do not represent
OSU.