A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
March 21, 2018
Wallowa County Chieftain
The ups and
downs of being
in business
W
e have published any number of stories in recent
weeks regarding new businesses coming to
Wallowa County. There can be no better sign of a
healthy economy than investors willing to take a chance on
us.
The number of new businesses that fail remains stagger-
ingly high. I
don’t have any-
thing to prove
that percent-
age is higher
here than any-
Paul Wahl
where else, but
it shouldn’t be.
The area
has myriad
resources to help entrepreneurs succeed, and most of them
are offered free or at low cost.
During my decades in newspaper, I have seen a number
of businesses come and go, some small mom and pop shops
and some of our major retailers. Remember Circuit City?
Professionals who give business advice will tell you
insufficient capitalization is the death knell for most oper-
ations, but in my experience, there’s one other factor that
ranks right up there –– burnout.
It’s not easy maintaining the energy level required to run
a successful business. Too many simply wake up one morn-
ing and say to themselves, “I’m tired of doing this, I’m not
going to do it anymore.”
A portion of my career has been spent in newspaper jobs
where I was the editor, reporter, photographer, ad sales repre-
sentative, business manager, circulation director and janitor.
It’s not always a lot of fun to be the Lone Ranger.
Recognizing when you need to hire help is often a stick-
ing point for business owners. It opens another world of
red tape and paperwork and an intimate relationship with
the IRS. But it’s how businesses grow. It’s called “organic
growth,” marked by increased output, customer base expan-
sion or new product development, as opposed to selling your
business to someone else or locking the door and moving on.
I have tremendous appreciation for the Wallowa County
businesses that started with mom and pop –– literally –– and
grew into a thriving enterprise, providing jobs and helping
support the community.
There are days when any of us would give it up for an all-
day sucker, but there are rewards for hanging in there.
Most importantly, Wallowa County residents need to rec-
ognize the need to support businesses old and new. We need
a healthy and vital business community in every sector. If
there’s one weak sector, those who go elsewhere to shop will
take advantage of that trip to make other purchases in other
markets. That’s called “leakage.”
Putting the shoe on the other foot for a minute, it’s also
incumbent upon business owners to test the waters before
diving in, provide value for dollars spent and to do the mar-
keting and promotion that’s vital to the success of a business.
Working together as a community, everyone can succeed
and grow. It’s not the easiest job in the world, but it is very
rewarding.
WAHL TO WALL
DO YOU know of a young person –– perhaps a son or
daughter or a grandchild –– who spends entirely too much
time in front of a device with a screen? Do you wonder if it’s
healthy to devote hour upon hour to playing video games or
snap-chatting?
Building Healthy Families is sponsoring a showing of the
movie “Screenagers” 6 p.m. Thursday evening. It deals with
how technology impacts kid’s development and the chal-
lenges of parenting in the digital world where parents must
compete with video games, texting addiction and social
media.
Yes, addiction.
A small group of us previewed the presentation last week.
It was eye-opening, to say the least. The producers contend
that screen addiction is every bit as damaging to a teenage
body as drug or alcohol addiction.
Most importantly, it presents strategies parents and grand-
parents can use to help understand how to deal with the
fallout.
It’s worth your time to check it out.
USPS No. 665-100
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
Enterprise, Oregon
M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn
Interim Publisher Kathryn B. Brown, kbbrown@eomedia-
group.com
Editor Paul Wahl, editor@wallowa.com
Reporter Stephen Tool, steve@wallowa.com
Reporter Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com
Newsroom assistant editor@wallowa.com
Ad sales consultant Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com
Office manager Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com
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Teamwork really is the best way
W
e’re trying something new
at the Josephy Center:
“Music Bags” at noon on the
second Tuesday of each month. We ask
musicians to come and sing or play a
few tunes and talk about their music.
Not quite a recital, not quite a lecture or
question and answer, but a little bit of all
three.
Last week Lauren Bihr was the guest.
We thought we’d get a few songs and the
story of how she came to singing, how
she does it and what’s coming next. We
got a lesson instead.
She began with brief words about her
singing past, about singing with her fam-
ily and in a church band under her father,
frustrating college music classes and
then finding herself in a Portland-based
bluegrass and folk’n soul group called
Bitterroot. She toured with them for four
years, and when the group disbanded,
she landed in eastern Oregon, singing
and recording with local musicians and
raising a small child.
And then came the lesson. There were
about 15 of us. We took the chairs out of
rows and put them in a circle, and then
Lauren explained that there was another
model of music than the ones we are
most familiar with. With a few funky
video clips on her computer, she took
us back to a six-month African musi-
cal journey she had made between high
school and college.
Voices, drums, clapping hands and
shuffling feet illustrated a different
teaching and learning story. There were
no obvious leaders, no stars, just people
learning music together.
It starts with breath. So we breathed
together, and then sang some African
words together, passing a drum from
hand to hand, learning to hit the beats
as we did so. Then rounds. “Row your
MAIN STREET
Rich Wandschneider
boat,” but not in two or three groups, but
each of us picking up the cues and sing-
ing the words — and what came of it
was not cacophony but melody, rhythm
and music.
Several years ago Mary Louise Nel-
son gave me singing lessons as a birth-
day present. At 65, I found myself sing-
ing in the Wallowa County Chorale,
and for three years rehearsals were high
points in the week and performances
peaks in the year.
When Randy Morgan wasn’t direct-
ing, he sang tenor beside me. He told me,
as we prepared for the “Hallelujah Cho-
rus,” and later, as we performed it, that
if I could not hit the high notes I should
just mouth them.
But I hit ‘em! In large part because
Randy was singing beside me
Lauren reminded me of that joy —
and reminded me that music is more
than metaphor for everything else; it is
a model. And, while it seems the cur-
rent model, from baseball to politics and
business, is all about soloists, it doesn’t
have to be that way.
Today, the soloist—musician, poli-
tician or ballplayer — who makes the
biggest splash and the most money is
deemed the most successful: the high
point man; the Forbes’ list of world’s
wealthiest; the president or dictator who
wields the most and loudest power.
But there’s change in the air. I
remember reading somewhere that our
country always swings between indi-
vidualism and community. The women
marching — and now the students
— point to change. Even in basket-
ball, where LeBron James, who might
be the best player in the world, and his
team fade while team-ball Golden State
attracts imitators.
The team-ball Gonzaga Bulldogs just
made the sweet 16, and our Joseph High
girls and boys basket-ballers made it to
state without stars.
When I think back to my coming of
age in the ‘60s, what stands out is that
communitarian spirit. We were naïve of
course.
The Peace Corps did not make the
world peaceful; the Civil Rights marches
did not make a color-blind world; the
women’s movement did not make women
safe from exploitation and harassment;
and the European Union has not solved
the problem of nations getting along.
But what a ride! What a thrill to
be a part of that choir of young and
old, black, brown and white, men and
women, singing our way to a better
world.
If you are under 40, you might not
remember that the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir was once on the record charts or
that UCLA once dominated college bas-
ketball. And yes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
played there for a time, but John Wooden
coached the team ball that won 10 of 12
NCAA titles, seven in a row. Name the
stars on those teams.
We’ll never get everything right, but
we can remember “murderers’ row” in
baseball, the four-horsemen in football,
the CCC camps that helped lift us out of
the Great Depression, and we can sing,
play and work together now and nudge
the world to better.
Columnist Rich Wandschneider lives
in Joseph.
Column ignored Democrat dalliances
Isn’t it amazing how Democrats,
like your columnist John McCol-
gan of Joseph, suddenly become mor-
ally outraged when a Republican is
only rumored to have done what many,
many Democrats have been proven to
have done? Do Democrat “dalliances”
matter to him and pose a threat to our
country? I’m trying hard to recall their
outrage.
For the benefit of your columnist,
let’s take a little stroll down presiden-
tial memory lane. Do you remember
the salacious tales about JFK and Mar-
ilyn Monroe? A slight detour, but how
about his brother, Teddy, and the naked
woman he left to drown in his car after
he drove it off a bridge?
Then we might mention LBJ,
another well-known “womanizer.” No
condemnation for him in John’s arti-
cle? And we still haven’t gotten around
to the serial rapist who disgraced the
Oval Office with numerous “dalli-
ances” right there, in our historic White
House, right when he was president!
What did Democrats say about Bill
Clinton back then? Not important.
Didn’t affect his job. Shouldn’t today’s
Democrats be consistent and apply the
same rules to Trump?
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Please consider this, too. Bill did it
in our White House! Trump’s alleged
“dalliances” were many years ago and
none sink to the level of depravity of
Clinton’s decades-long rapist-level
assaults!
And for current events, what about
the #MeToo explosion of women who
have spoken out about sexual abuse?
Did you notice that the overwhelm-
ing percentage of politicians who were
accused were Democrats?
Harvey Weinstein, a prominent
Democrat supporter, I will not count
here because he is not a politician. But
he sure looked happy posing with Hil-
lary. Like best of friends –– or birds of
a feather?
Dear John, we “deplorables,” who
are excited about the $1,000 “crumbs”
we got in bonuses and tax cuts, are far
more interested in what Trump is actu-
ally doing as President than in what he
may have done many years ago as a
business tycoon.
Meanwhile, would you please focus
on cleaning out the predators in your
own Democrat party? You are living in
a glass house.
Anita VanGrunsven
Wallowa
Dunn solid candidate for
county commission
Our May elections are fast
approaching and throwing his hat in
the ring for Wallowa County Commis-
sioner is Bruce Dunn.
I can’t think of a more solid candi-
date for the job than Bruce. His com-
mitment and dedication to the county
has been apparent for nearly 30 years.
His service with many boards and com-
mittees has always been based on what
is best for the County and our people.
Bruce is always looking for ways to
develop family wage jobs in a diverse
economy from natural resources to
health care. Bruce knows and under-
stands the legislative process and is
well-respected in state and federal
arenas.
Bruce Dunn is our best choice for
county commissioner.
Judy Wortman
Enterprise
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Volume 134
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L
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