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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2019)
OPINION Wallowa County Chieftain A4 Wednesday, March 13, 2019 PRO–CON Should voting age be lowered to 16? O regon voters may soon get to decide whether to lower the voting age to 16. A bill introduced by Sen. Shemia Fagan (D-Portland) would put that question on the 2020 ballot, and if passed would make Oregon the fi rst state in the country to lower the age to 16. Pro: Start early to create engaged citizens The mid-to-late teenage years are a formative time. Habits take root — for good and for ill — and new ideas are considered and explored. As adults, we too often dismiss these years as a reckless time when decision-making is at its most sus- pect. The part of the brain that cal- culates consequences isn’t fully developed, so we assume every decision is driven by impulse instead of reason. But we’re only kidding ourselves if we think citizens 18 and older are cognitively better equipped to select representation or enact laws than a 16-year-old. The question isn’t about brain power, it’s about practical application. There are great benefi ts in low- ering the voting age so that those teens who are empowered to work like adults, drive like adults and in most other ways participate in soci- ety as adults get in the habit of other civic duties. In the same way we raised the age of legal use for tobacco, alco- hol and marijuana to 21 to protect teenagers from harmful habits, we should lower the voting age to 16 to encourage healthy ones. The truth is, our democracy needs a boost, and high school upperclassmen are a great place to start. They’re engaged in civics Con: Voting is a matter of motivation, not just maturity classes, surrounded by peers of dif- ferent cultures and backgrounds and able to process the gray area of an issue that their parents often have given up on. They also have a stake in the out- come. Many join the workforce in high school, which brings both a paycheck and tax withdrawals. We’re quick to require the fi nancial burden of being a citizen but slow to give the full rights — a theme for this country over the centuries. High school students also have a valuable perspective on educa- tion, which could prove helpful when selecting school board can- didates and deciding on bond mea- sures. While they don’t pay prop- erty taxes, many will by the time a bond comes off the books. But mostly, we’re interested in creating better informed and more engaged citizens. Oregon’s motor voter law makes it an easy equa- tion — get a license, get registered to vote. Many Oregonians — espe- cially those under 30 — pass on the right to vote as it is, and there’s no reason to think the 16-18 demo- graphic would buck that trend. But by getting the ballot early, learning about the issues and can- didates in a civics class, and hav- ing the option to cast a vote, we’ll be training students in the ways of a good citizen. With Oregon Democrats embold- ened by the confi dence that a super- majority affords, this legislative session is marked by an ambitious agenda full of bold policy propos- als. These heightened levels of inno- vation and creativity are exactly the qualities we want to see in our legis- lators. Vigorous engagement within the marketplace of ideas is the bed- rock of a healthy democracy. That said, when any political party realizes the benefi ts of con- trolling both legislative chambers along with the governor’s mansion, it becomes even more important to exercise temperate and cautious judgment. While there is an admira- ble quality to the initiative to lower the voting age and grow the demo- cratic process, it would be a mistake to move forward. There’s no denying that many 16-year-olds are technically equipped with the cognitive matu- rity to make sound judgments. We understand, however, that adoles- cence is a complicated time in our intellectual and emotional develop- ment. Adding the unique challenges and importance inherent to the prac- tice of voting to an already delicate developmental period creates an unnecessary risk not justifi ed by the potential benefi t. While typically a 16-year-old adolescent is able to make sound logical decisions, voting is too important and too complex to con- fi dently experiment with in the way this initiative requires. This risky approach would do a great dis- service to the young people it’s intended to benefi t. Unique to this particular stage of development and critical to our analysis is what psychologists call a “maturity gap.” Anchored by the understanding that cognitive matu- rity and emotional maturity develop at a different pace — the latter fully developing often several years after the former — a gap in maturity lev- els often exists. But both are critical to the act of voting. Cognitive maturity may be ade- quate if the act were in a vacuum; however, emotional maturity infl u- ences critical elements as well. For example, motivation to engage in the political process may take lon- ger for an individual to develop than the intellectual capacity to do so. Another example is that adolescents developing their emotional maturity often would be more susceptible to infl uences like peer pressure, which in turn could lead to counterintuitive decisions against one’s own interest. Perhaps the most convincing of all comes from the intuition of these young people themselves, many of whom don’t believe at that age they are well enough informed or moti- vated to be afforded the privilege of voting. Daniel Wattenburger, managing editor of the East Oregonian, and Christian Ambroson, editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain, fl ipped a coin and wrote arguments for and against lowering the voting age to 16. The great stampede of 2012 I n about 1948 my grandfather took me to the Calgary Stampede. When we got about 25 miles from town there were caravans of Ameri- can Indians heading to their encamp- ment at the Stampede. They travelled with teams and wagons driving ponies behind. Calgary now has a popula- tion of over a million and a half but in 1948 it was maybe fi fty thousand. We stayed with friends who ranched southwest of town. The day before the Stampede was to start we headed for town and looked around. A lot of corners on main street had chuck- wagons set up and service clubs like rotary, etc served pancakes for break- fast every day during the rodeo. The reason they called it a stampede was later that morning all the stock used in the rodeo was stampeded down main street from the ranch west of town out to the exhibition grounds. It was pretty exciting to see the cows, calves bucking bulls led by the buck- ing horses stampede fl at out down a city street. The next time I saw bucking horses driven down a city street was the fi rst time I was in this county during Chief Joseph days. This tradition is a big part of our local rodeo and one of the few places you can still do that. The horse drive down main street is a real crowd pleaser and is fairly well con- trolled except for Luke riding his horse into the Stubborn Mule some- times. By far the most exciting horse stampede through Joseph had noth- ing to do with the rodeo and was wit- nessed only by locals as it happened in the off season. I can’t remember the exact year, probably about 2012, a ranch out north of Troy had about a hundred and fi fty head of Andalusian looking horses owned by a lady that could no longer take care of them. The Sher- OPEN RANGE Barrie Qualle riff’s Department had to confi scate them and bring them to town to feed and take care of. The horses were hauled to a fi eld that Dan DeBoie had just northeast of Joseph. The horses had feed and water and were supple- mented with hay. It was determined that the lady who owned the horses was not going to be able to get them back and they were to be sold by the Sherriff. The horses were chipped and we had to scan them individually to match up papers prior to the sale. The Sherriff assembled a team of top- notch cowboys and we gathered them up. The drive to the rodeo grounds came in from the east and everything went pretty well until we were about two blocks into town. Don and Fred were in front of the herd leading them. When the lead horses saw the action ahead in town they stalled. The fol- lowing horses kegged up behind them and after a little milling they scattered like quail with horses going down side streets on both sides of the hi-way. Some got into a fi eld on the north side of the road and tried to head back to the fi eld they came out of. Mark and I were riding drag and saw the wreck developing. We had a cop car behind us and we abandoned him to retrieve the horses from the side streets and yards. Lucky we live in an area where we have fairly tolerant neighbors. After about thirty minutes of chas- ing by all cowboys we had them all collected back on the main road. The drive crossed main-street and we got them turned into the rodeo grounds and collected in the arena. The fun wasn’t over. Everything we tried to do seemed to require a big fi ght. We processed all the horses and were ready to return them to Dan’s pasture. Mark and I had discussed the return trip and decided that a horse herd going somewhere is easier to control than one that is viewing side streets as an escape route. With Fred and Don stationed near the Chey- enne Café, Abby off on Mill st. and me at the gate to turn them east Mark brought them out of the arena. I still don’t know how he got them com- ing that fast. He must have circled them once to get up speed and then opened the gate. The herd roared out of the arena and with great diffi culty I hazed them down the road toward the Cheyenne. The horses were going fl at out and Sherriff Rogers stationed at main street barely had time to stop traffi c before the lead crossed run- ning hard on slick pavement. When the last of the herd passed me I rode as fast as I dared to catch up and help keep the herd on the right road. Not far from the R&R drive in Fred and Don attempted to slow the stampede. I saw Fred’s horse slip on his hind legs and almost go down on the pavement. Had he gone down, like Little Joe the Wrangler, his spurs would have rung the knell. The lead horses in the stampede were some colts and young horses and luckily they knew where home was. The herd passed Don and Fred and a cop car down the road sent them down the road to Dan’s. We got them stopped in his yard and put away. We turned off our adrenalin pumps and called it a day. The follow- ing week in the Oregonian paper there was a picture of the horses with me in hot pursuit near the Cheyenne, my slicker fl ying straight out behind me. God I love that picture. Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 M EMBER O REGON N EWSPAPER P UBLISHERS A SSOCIATION Published every Wednesday by: EO Media Group VOLUME 134 USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Offi ce: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Contents copyright © 2019. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. General manager, Jennifer Cooney, jcooney@wallowa.com Editor, Christian Ambroson, editor@wallowa.com Publisher, Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com Reporter, Stephen Tool, steve@wallowa.com Reporter, Ellen Morris Bishop, ebishop@wallowa.com Administrative Assistant, Amber Mock, amock@wallowa.com Advertising Assistant, Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com We need a rural housing solution T he Oregon Legislature can’t get housing right, on either side of the aisle. Like almost any spot in Oregon, Wal- lowa County faces a housing crunch that cripples the livelihood of many and threatens the heart of the local economy. The growing force of tourism urges property owners to turn otherwise longterm housing rentals for local families into short term vacation rent- als for visitors. At the same time, large- scale economic infl u- encers like boom- ing student debt and stagnate wages are Christian Ambroson keeping young fam- ilies from purchas- ing property longer. The result? The future movers and shakers of our local economy can’t stay here for lack of a roof over their heads. Oregon Democrats attempted to ease the burdens of renters by imposing the nation’s fi rst state-wide rent control law. The spirit of the law is applaudable but a one sized hat doesn’t fi t all in Oregon and the newly signed law shows just how little urban politicians understand the plight of rural Oregonians. Sometimes economic variables diminish the natural checks and balances of a market system warranting heavy-handed reg- ulations. But those regulations should be tailored to the mar- kets that require them. Wallowa County isn’t seeing massive 100 percent rent increases like folks in Portland are realizing. Our problems lie elsewhere — so renters benefi t very little and property owners shoulder disproportionate burdens. And on the other hand, Republican lawmakers have intro- duced a bill that would stop local governments at the city and county level from regulating the amount of homes that are used as short-term vacation rentals. This effectively ties the hands of county commissions and city councils from implementing cre- ative policy solutions to uniquely local problems. Unlike the state-wide rent control law, this initiative directly impacts Wallowa County and rural communities like it. Strong rural communities are inviting to young families. We emphasize our children in our school systems throughout our community but offer them nothing to return to when they’ve grown and have families of their own. When one stumbles upon a family-wage job they can’t stay because they can’t provide a roof for their children. Wallowa County must fi nd a creatively rural solution to its uniquely rural housing problem. CURRENT STATE of AFFAIRS Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offi ces Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $45.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet Wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828
