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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2019)
OPINION Wallowa County Chieftain A4 Wednesday, April 3, 2019 Oregon’s complicated past with capital punishment VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN O regon’s history tells story of a pop- ulace’s fi ckle approach to the death penalty. Initially adopted in 1864, capital punishment has since twice been abolished and three times reinstated by a popular vote of the people. The one time the State’s Judicial Branch stepped in — holding it unconstitutional in 1981— was not well received by the voters who in turn amended the Constitution to reinstate it just three years later. There are plenty of reasons why the outdated practice of capital punishment is not only unnec- essary, but also unwise. And as a practical mat- ter, Oregon hasn’t executed an individual since 1997— our court system makes it nearly impos- sible to accomplish. It would seem that the Oregon Legisla- ture is attempting to carve out some middle ground. While technically not abolishing the death penalty, House Bill 3268 effectively does just that by only allowing capital punishment in cases involving terrorism-related killing of more than one person. If history lends any per- spective, the independent spirit of Oregon vot- ers will not appreciate being dictated to by the courts or the legislature, the bill’s nominal effect notwithstanding. Rather than use valuable political capital pushing through legislation with little foresee- able benefi t, Oregon’s politicians should engage a campaign to educate the public on the folly of death row but allow Oregonians the ultimate say. Developments in the social sciences, fi scal impact studies and our society’s capacity to pro- tect itself from violent criminals speak volumes. The harsh nature of the death penalty has never proven to be a deterrent. Taxpayers actually save money when the state doesn’t engage in capi- tal punishment. And most importantly, too many people are convicted and sentenced, only to fi nd out later the verdict was incorrect. In fact, the only rational support for capi- tal punishment boils down to a human impulse for revenge. But contemporary psychology pre- scribes that any perceived gratifi cation that one derives from revenge is not just short lived, but often leaves an individual feeling worse than before. Revenge in the place of justice does not fi ll the void left when we lose a loved one. Mrs. Coretta Scott King, the widow of Mar- tin Luther King Jr., knows as well as anyone the pain and heartbreak of the senseless mur- der of a loved one. And perhaps she says it best: “An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed in retaliation.” Even more, perhaps Oregon’s ambiva- lence surrounding this highly controversial act lends insight. The state’s history of fl uid value judgments regarding the death penalty pro- vides a narrative of clashing interests, pitting the impulse for revenge against the instinctive squeamishness that tells us the government has the right and obligation to protect and to pun- ish, but not to kill. The collective body ought to always set the bar high, and should never stoop to dangerously emotional impulses. Until the people of Oregon come to this con- clusion themselves, any legislative attempt to dictate value judgments appears futile and costly. Christian Ambroson is the editor of The Wallowa County Chieftain. He lives in Joseph. WHERE TO WRITE Washington, D.C. The White House — 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500; Phone-comments: 202-456-1111; Switch- board: 202-456-1414. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516 Hart Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224- 5244. E-mail: wayne_kin- ney@wyden.senate.gov Web site: http://wyden.sen- ate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merk- ley, D — 313 Hart Senate Offi ce Building, Washing- ton D.C. 20510. Phone: 202- 224-3753. E-mail: senator@ merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-228-3997. Navigation by bushes I need to be more careful about being careful about what I wish for. My new job has me down in the Imnaha Canyon a bunch, and it’s great. So they say to me, hey, do you wanna go around and do the tempera- ture loggers once a month? These log- ging devices are small doodads in the water that take the temperature of the stream every so often. They scrib- ble little digital notes to themselves and you come along periodically to squeeze the information out through some wires. Then you carry that info back to town and put the numbers inside a thinking box, which is called a “computer.” It’s kind of technical. The part that sounded good to me was walking up the creeks every month. Seeing new territory is always nice but I sure do enjoy revisiting cer- tain spots to see what they look and act like in different moods. So I was keen to get acquainted with these creeks through regular checkups. I believe I went so far as to say these words out loud: “It’ll be great to really get to know them.” Well, mission accomplished. I was shown the locations of the temperature logger sites and when the next month rolled around, I assured my bosses I could fi nd those suckers again, no problem. You just go up the creek and then there’s that trail, by those trees. And some rocks. Maybe a bush? Um. A call to action for Child Abuse Prevention Month We Can Prevent Child Sexual Abuse in Wallowa County. We’ve all seen the stories: A trusted adult is charged with sexually abusing the children they care for. Child sexual abuse is a serious health problem that can happen anywhere, even in Wallowa County. Luckily, it can be stopped. According to the prevention orga- nization Darkness to Light, one in 10 children will experience child sexual abuse before their 18th birthday. And the impact can be long-lasting. Research shows that children who are sexually violated are far more likely to experience psychological problems. Fortunately, there are steps to prevent this from happening in Wallowa County. The Ford Family Foundation’s Pro- tect Our Children program administers a nationally acclaimed training curric- ulum, Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children. The training is available for free at Building Healthy Families. Youth athletic coaches regularly inter- act with kids and teens and can become excellent mentors who help guide stu- dents on productive paths forward. That’s why all coaches should be trained to detect and prevent child sexual abuse. In honor of National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, I am ask- ing you to help me put an end to child sexual abuse. The next free training will be held on Friday April 26, 2019, at 9 a.m. at Building Healthy Fami- lies. Advance registration is required by phone 541.426.9411 or email to mdal- ton@oregonbhf.org. We owe it to the children of Wallowa County. Let’s be a champion for them. Maria Weer Enterprise AND FURTHERMORE Jon Rombach Man, there’s a lot of rocks and little trails and bushes in the world. And a lot of them start looking alike if a per- son isn’t careful. On my very fi rst try I gained inti- mate knowledge of two drainages in particular. There was some poison ivy involved. Thorns. It was snowing. Lots of backtracking. Getting whipped in the face by tiny branches. What I was looking for were sections of small cable, attached to trees and run- ning into the creek. The business end of the cable is attached to metal hous- ings to protect the little digital loggers. The diameter and color of the cable is not too much different from the four- teen-zillion stalks of grass and small twigs that also drape themselves along these creekbeds and run into the water at the same angle a cable would. I, uh, really got to know the area. Thing was, when I was shown the sites on the fi rst go-round we were walking along talking about work and this and that and a few other things and then suddenly, whoah. Here we are. See this rock here? And this tree? LETTERS to the EDITOR Response to Op-Ed conceding Rail with Trails In a March 27 Op-Ed, Annette Lath- rop charges Trail advocates of deceit and manipulation. We challenge her to sup- port these claims. What are the specifi c “partial truths, half-truths and untruths”? What are her opposing arguments and supporting evidence? She claims: “Tens of thousands of dollars in grant money has allowed the hiring of a slew of professionals to pro- duce this application.” Specifi cally, how has this resulted in a fl awed application? The “confl ict...of a powerful group pushing a recreational trail vs. hard working local agricultural producers, long term county residents with a record of supporting the community” is a false dichotomy. We are a cooperative, inter- woven and interdependent community, not a war zone. If Joseph Branch Trail Consortium “cherry picked” data to produce an “illu- sion of massive public support,” provide data that this is not true. The author resents funds for the Trail come from grants and tax dollars. How are non-agricultural workers supposed to view taxes that support farm subsidies? In a pluralistic society, none of us has the luxury of providing taxes only to select organizations that personally benefi t us. Finally, “JBTC does not understand nor value our agricultural lifestyle, set- ting up an unhealthy county dynamic.” Another false dichotomy. Those of us not directly involved in farming can still understand and value agriculture practices; this is one reason many of us moved here! To suggest the trail will 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 OK. Now, this very faint trail is what we’re looking for. I tried to sear the landmarks into my brain. Really took some mental notes. What I should have taken was my GPS. Back when I was learning the ropes of rafting on the Grande Ronde, rowing the gearboat for Wind- ing Waters River Expeditions, there may have been some trial and error involved with me fi nding certain camps. “Remember: start pulling over when you see that tree on the bend with those rocks, next to the bushes. Can’t miss it.” OK. Got it. Rocks and bushes. And a tree. But, hey, it’s like taking the wrong exit off the freeway in Portland. You end up going over some bridge and it takes forty minutes to backtrack and you learn your lesson after doing that three or four times. I wish I was one of those people with a built-in compass that was fac- tory-installed before being born. Or do I? Do those people ever really appre- ciate the instinctive knowing of exact coordinates? Maybe, just maybe, a person needs to experience some fruit- less searching fi rst with a vague under- standing of where they need to be before they can truly know what it is to fi nd what they’re after. Yeah, prob- ably not. That internal compass pro- gram sounds way better. Jon Rombach is a local columnist for the Chieftain. bring the end of agriculture in Wallowa County borders on an unhealthy delu- sion that should be called out for what it is. Terry and Ron Polk Lostine David vs. Goliath? The David vs. Goliath compari- son described in last week’s anti-Jo- seph Branch Trail Op-Ed is accurate — except the writer has it backwards. The real Davids are the many hard working neighbors throughout our community who support a simple trail which will connect two of our towns. That support represents a long term investment in a unique project which will benefi t the majority of our citizens. It has everything to do with our mutual support of agriculture and our rural lives by connecting us more to each other, not by dividing us as insinuated. The Goliath the author portrays is not a “powerful group pushing a recreational trail… .” Instead, an anti-this, anti-that, anti-anything cloud, which lurks over our valley under the guise that “any and all change must be bad.” The cloud forms when positive things like the trail, which would improve the lives of the majority of our citizens, appear. It’s the Goliath-size cloud that has now permeated proceedings of the mis- named “planning” commission. The commission reached a negative deci- sion based on hearsay: “what-if” specu- lations, false perceptions and a failure to follow required procedure. Finally, the commission failed to address the valid- ity of the comprehensive study in the conditional use permit that concluded a trail would not interfere with farming See Letters, Page A5 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
