KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
THURSDAY, JUNe 9, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Incoming
Governor
a key role
in wildfire
response
F
rom 1992-2001, about 199,000 acres
in Oregon burned annually in wild-
fires.
From 2002-11, about 314,000 acres in
Oregon burned annually in wildfires.
From 2012-21, about 720,000 acres in
Oregon burned annually in wildfires.
You could pick different breakpoints for
the years. The story would not be much
different.
Wildfire has been an increasing threat. It
cost lives, homes, wildlife habitat, damage
from smoke limiting outdoor activities and
the costs of suppression.
The biggest recent response from the
Oregon Legislature was the passage of
Senate Bill 762 in 2021.
“We have done something remarkable,”
state Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, said at
the time, quoted by Oregon Public Broad-
casting. “By we, I mean scores of people
who’ve been working collaboratively for
years, up to and including last night, to
create a wildfire program for Oregon that
rises to the scale of this crisis.”
The bill was an accomplishment. But the
more cautious comment on the bill at the
time from state Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale,
was dead on. “This is not a one-and-done
project. This is absolutely the furthest thing
from a one-and-done,” Findley said. “If we
don’t stay intimately involved, we’re going
to spend $190 million, and we’re not going
to have any results when the smoke clears,
if it clears.”
(Please note he says $190 million in that
quote, but the spending in the bill is more
like $220 million.)
So has Senate Bill 762 worked?
It’s still too early. Legislators are sched-
uled to get an update Thursday. There will
be a presentation from Doug Grafe, the
wildfire program’s director in the gover-
nor’s office.
It’s really going to be up to Oregon’s next
governor to follow through on the plans.
That could be interesting. The part of the
bill that was arguably the most contentious
was wildfire mapping. But it’s one thing
to rank areas in Oregon by wildfire risk. It
is another thing to take that mapping and
start telling people what to do on their land.
And the state is considering rules for what
people might be required to do on their
land.
It could mean orders to clear brush and
other vegetation. It could mean stricter rules
for how homes can be built and what mate-
rials are used. Those may be sensible things
to do. Some people will not appreciate it.
One person’s excessive undergrowth can be
another’s prized landscaping. Farmers also
are worried what any new rules might mean
for them.
There’s much more than mapping and
regulations to the spending from the bill,
wildfire detection cameras, working with
utilities to reduce risk from power lines,
suppression capacity, better smoke monitor-
ing, grants for residential smoke filtration
and the list goes on.
The good thing is baked into the bill are
requirements for reports to the Legislature
about the performance of the legislation
and there are plans to recommend improve-
ments.
All three candidates for Oregon gover-
nor — Democrat Tina Kotek, Republican
Christine Drazan and independent candi-
date Betsy Johnson — voted for SB 762. We
will be asking them how they will follow
through on the legislation and what else
Oregon might do.
Make your journey about more than just you
BRIGIT
FARLEY
PAST AND PROLOGUE
une is commencement season. A
few weeks ago, I was asked to give
a convocation address at my school,
Washington State University, Tri-Cities,
for liberal arts graduates and their fami-
lies. In the onslaught of dispiriting news
lately, especially continuing covid-re-
lated difficulties and the Russian invasion
of Ukraine, I struggled to find words of
compelling wisdom. So I asked for some
help from my go-to sages — significant
men and women in history — and they
came through with some nice perspec-
tive. I offer their thoughts to the Umatilla
County Class of 2022.
The world you are entering is angry and
full of conflict. Here is the late John Hume,
who helped do the impossible in craft-
ing a peace between warring Protestants
and Catholics in Northern Ireland back in
1998. “All conflict is about the same thing,
no matter where it is — it is about differ-
ence,” he said upon receiving the Nobel
Peace Prize.
“Whether difference is your religion or
your race or your nationality, the message
we have to get across is that difference is
an accident of birth. None of us chose to
be born. And we certainly didn’t choose to
be born in a particular community. There
are not two people in this room who are
the same. There are not two people in the
whole world who are the same. Difference
is the essence of humanity, and therefore
respect for difference should be very, very
normal and very common. It is the first and
deepest principle of real peace.”
J
We see clearly in Vladimir Putin’s
invasion of Ukraine what happens when
people do not accept difference. I hope you
will internalize, and then model respect for
difference everywhere you go from here.
The world will be a much more peaceful
and prosperous place if you do.
I hope that you make your onward jour-
ney about more than just you. Civil rights
campaigner Dolores Huerta once mused,
“Every moment is an organizing oppor-
tunity, every person a potential activ-
ist, every minute a chance to change the
world.”
You don’t have to be an activist, per
se — your challenge is to find a way to
give back to your community, however
and wherever that might be. For exam-
ple, I dislike group projects and commit-
tee meetings, because I don’t play well
with others. I’d just as soon work alone.
But I like to write about history, so that
is how I do my bit for the good of the
order. Consider making a self-assessment
and resolve to play to your strengths in
choosing how you will contribute to the
common good.
I can offer one bit of advice that is
purely my own: I hope you will make
travel, whether it’s in country, in hemi-
sphere or overseas, a priority when you
make some decent money. You’ll gain
some good insight into your own country,
and I guarantee you’ll forge some human
connections that will make a difference. I
vividly recall an afternoon when I was a
Russian language student in Leningrad,
now St. Petersburg, Russia. Desperate for
ice cream, which is one really great thing
about Russia, I entered a cafe and told the
waitress, “I’d like 200 kilograms of ice
cream” — I meant to say 200 grams. She
exclaimed, “There’s not 200 kilograms of
ice cream in all of Leningrad.” She looked
me over and asked where I was from.
When I told her, she was shocked. “Oh,
my goodness, I have a capitalist in my ice
cream shop.” I laughed and said, “Well,
look at you, you’ve survived the encounter.
How about that.” I thought I was in for a
recitation of anti-American talking points,
but she surprised me by spontaneously
taking my hand and telling me to give
America her best. I like to think that she
thought just a little differently about her
“enemy” after that.
Speaking of Russia, I hope that you will
adopt Tsar Peter the Great’s motto: “I am a
student and I seek teachers.” Unlike Vladi-
mir Putin, Peter didn’t have time for vanity
wars. He was too busy all his life learning
soldiering, sailing, shipbuilding, city plan-
ning, architecture, medicine and naviga-
tion as he built a new, seafaring capital in
Russia, St. Petersburg. You don’t have to
aspire to his range of proficiencies, but if
you follow his example and keep learning
and upgrading your skills, you’ll become
a versatile and interesting individual. And
you’ll never be bored — or boring.
Finally, I hope that former Georgetown
University President the Rev. Timothy
Healy’s wish for my graduating class of
1979 holds true for all of you.
“May your education have so changed
you that you will need your brains and
know how to use them for the rest of the
time God has given you.”
If you internalize this charge, using
your brains and education every day,
you are guaranteed to lead an interest-
ing and contributory life. Good luck and
Godspeed.
———
Brigit Farley is a Washington State
University professor, student of history,
adventurer and Irish heritage girl living
in Pendleton.
closed and replaced with care provided
on a local basis. As a result, today we
may find the mentally ill living on the
streets as homeless in difficult condi-
tions and they are often self-medi-
cated with drugs or alcohol. Or, we may
find them in jails or prisons because
they have committed crimes, some-
times tragic crimes such as shootings.
Or, we may find that the mentally ill
person has returned home and on occasion
that return has caused pain and trauma to
family members. And sadly, we may find
that the mentally ill person has commit-
ted suicide, which is the second leading
cause of death of people ages 15 to 34.
We need mental health institutions that
are safe, humane and effective. We need
the legal means to compel treatment at
these institutions while recognizing the
civil liberties and due process rights of the
mentally ill. The current method of treat-
ment has been an experiment that has often
failed the patient and the community.
Warner Wasley
La Grande
Navy torpedo aircraft.
Early B-26s were considered “widow-
makers.” To avoid fatal touchdowns, pilots
maintained final approach speed at 150
mph and landed at 120-135 mph; exces-
sive speeds compared to contemporary
planes.
The Mark XIII aerial torpedo was
equally unforgiving by tasking pilots
to hit a 30-knot aircraft carrier with a
33-knot torpedo. They were required to
fly low, straight and slow through intense
fighter and anti-aircraft fire and launch
at less than 1,000 yards. Most torpedoes
failed when released at over 50 feet alti-
tude and at speeds exceeding 126 mph;
speeds at which B-26s often stalled and
crashed.
Army Capt. James Collins led four
aircraft to attack the Japanese carri-
ers, though the pilots had never before
attempted to use torpedoes. The B-26s
obtained no hits, and two of the four
aircraft with their seven-man crews
perished. Collins with another crippled
bomber returned to crash land on Midway.
This dedication was typical of about
550 airmen who lost over half their
number killed when flying into concen-
trated anti-aircraft fire and fighter attacks
to destroy four heavy carriers and defend
Midway. Such courage and sacrifice by
the Army, Navy and Marine flyers perma-
nently seized the initiative in the Pacific
from the Japanese.
Nolan Nelson
Redmond
YOUR VIEWS
We need humane
and effective mental
health institutions
I am writing because it appears that
those suffering acute mental illness are
not receiving adequate treatment. This
is despite the best efforts of law enforce-
ment and mental health providers. My
concern is for both the individual patient
and the safety of our community. There
is an urgent need for a new approach.
I served as circuit court judge for
Union and Wallowa counties begin-
ning in 1974 and continuing on
either a full-time or part-time basis
until 2014, a span of 40 years.
early in my tenure, if a person was
brought into court and found to be
mentally ill due to danger to self or others,
that person could be committed to the
state mental health division for treat-
ment at the state-run mental hospital.
Then that person could be treated with
medication and released if the condi-
tion stabilized. It was not uncommon
for the release to occur in a matter of
days, but usually on a supervised basis.
If the person failed to follow the terms
of release, rehospitalization could be
required for further treatment. However,
the other option available at that time was
to hospitalize that person for an extended
period of time if the illness was seri-
ous enough to warrant that treatment.
This process was, for the most part,
disbanded as state-run hospitals were
The 1942 naval victory
at Midway
June 4 marks the miraculous 1942
naval victory at Midway. Chester Nimitz
risked battle with over a 3-to-1 deficit in
ships, and with aircraft often inferior in
quality and quantity. Assembling possi-
ble resources included the improbable
conversion of Army B-26 bombers into