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.
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