Wednesday, May 5, 2021
A4
OPINION
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
Draft a
wish list for
your state
legislators
W
e’d like you to draft a multi-
million-dollar wish list and
send it off to your Oregon state
senator and state representative.
Each of Oregon’s 30 senators can spend
$4 million in federal funding — almost as
they please. And each of the 60 members
of the House has command of $2 million.
Who knows better than you where it
should be spent? Or at least, they should
listen to your suggestions and thank you
for them.
The total $240 million comes courtesy
of the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
This deal for spreading around the money
was struck to keep Democrats and Repub-
licans in the Legislature focused on pass-
ing legislation, not fighting. Lawmak-
ers have until May 10 to come up with
lists. All the lists submitted may well be
rounded up into what they call a Christmas
tree bill, so everybody’s goodies are rolled
into one. That way the bill surely will pass.
Now you could be a penny-pincher and
tell your Oregon legislators not to spend
a penny. You have to know, though, other
legislators won’t let the money sit around.
They will spend it. Might as well take local
control of the money. The overall state
budget is in good shape. The early-session
pandemic financial fretting melted away
with the spring, because the total Oregon
is expected to get from the federal rescue
plan is some $2.6 billion.
One-time spending of $4 million or $2
million can’t fix wildfire risk in national
forests. It won’t build much for roads any-
where. Some targeted dollars, though, can
change lives.
State Rep. Bobby Levy and Sen. Bill
Hansell, our voices in the Legislature, have
districts covering multiple counties so they
will have plenty of folks asking for the dol-
lars they can allocate.
It perhaps makes sense not to spend it
on hiring people for new jobs or to start up
new programs. How do you pay for them
next year? That said, it might make sense
to spend it on a pilot program if there’s a
good idea that needs testing out. Eastern
Oregon University probably has some of
those that could benefit from a financial
boost.
There’s such a big need for so many
things it’s not going to be easy to divvy up
a few million. Are some needs more acute
right now? Would it help to spend some
more to encourage more people to get vac-
cinated? Is there a program in the schools
that could make a real difference for stu-
dents who lost learning because of the pan-
demic? Could something be done to help
keep businesses operating? Is there any-
thing needed for public safety training?
Affordable housing, fighting child abuse,
homelessness and so many more ideas that
we have not mentioning also are deserving.
It’s not going to be so easy for legisla-
tors to pick. You may have a good idea that
your legislator never thought of. You may
have a good idea that your legislator is on
the fence about. Let them know.
To find your legislator, you can enter
your address at oregonlegislature.gov/Fin-
dYourLegislator/leg-districts.html and it
will tell you. Click on their name and their
email address should pop up. Then plan
your wish list.
LETTER to the EDITOR
Stick to the basics in the
battle against COVID
In “I Feel Lucky,” Mary Chapin Car-
penter sings, “Hey, the stars might lie, but
the numbers never do.”
Well, maybe. Since there are different
ways of looking at numbers, let’s look at
the COVID data from a couple of differ-
ent angles. First, what changes are taking
place around the country? Looking at the
time frame from April 10-24, 16 states are
increasing in numbers of COVID cases.
The highest? Oregon at 51% with average
daily cases of 776 or 18 cases per 100,000
(100K) population.
The second thing to look at is spread
since 18 per 100K is not spread evenly
around the state. Hot spots are Klam-
ath County with 66 per 100K and Grant
County with 60. Baker County stands at
37, Deschutes (home to Bend) at 34 and
Crook at 31. Multnomah with the larg-
est population due to the city of Port-
land, may have the most cases, but stands
at just 18 in 100K. Wallowa County with
176 (as of May 3) cases stands at six.
A third part of the picture comes
into focus when looking at percentage
of increase in cases in 14 days. Crook
County may have had only eight new
cases a day, but that’s a 253% increase.
Wasco was second highest with a 186%
increase and Marion third at 120%. Over-
all, the U.S. rate of infection dropped
12%: one state remained the same, while
34 states and D.C decreased their num-
bers: Oklahoma saw an astounding 54%
drop, Vermont 42%, Idaho 28%, Michi-
gan 26%. These are numbers we should
all strive for.
And what of death rates? Due to better
understanding of the needs of hospitalized
patients, death rates are dropping around
the country. The average daily death rate
was 717.6 for a percentage of 0.22 per
100K. Oregon averages 3.4 deaths per
day for 0.08 per 100K. Since the begin-
ning of the pandemic, Wallowa County
has had five deaths. With a population of
approximately 7,200, that means a statis-
tically low number. But these deaths are
not statistics, they are our loved ones, our
friends, our neighbors. Let’s work hard to
get to zero infections and zero loss of life.
By going back to the basics, we can
do it — by washing our hands frequently,
keeping our distance, wearing a mask,
getting the vaccine. The freedom of our
family, friends, neighbors and fellow cit-
izens to live a healthy, COVID-free life
depends on the steps we all take to keep
them safe.
Catherine Matthias
Joseph
Individual freedom vs.
public safety
”Your right to swing your arms ends
just where the other man’s nose begins.”
From “Freedom of Speech in War
Time” by Zechariah Chafee Jr., the Har-
vard Law Review, 1919, and other
attributions
Recently, the subject of individ-
ual freedom vs. public health safety and
the common good is making the rounds
again, courtesy of the long-running coro-
navirus pandemic. The op-eds and pro-
tests abound. So far 11 states have even
made it illegal to implement COVID
passports on the premise that they inhibit
the personal freedoms of the unvacci-
nated, although this also limits others’
right to eat in a restaurant free of conta-
gion. In other words, some would walk
around freely swinging their unvaccinated
arms.
Even the right to play professional ten-
nis while unvaccinated is in play, since
Novak Djokovic said this past week that
he hopes COVID-19 vaccines will not be
mandatory for players on tour.
“I don’t think it’ll come to that,”
Djokovic said. “I hope not, because I’ve
always believed in freedom of choice.”
Tennis tournaments aside, in the U.S.
this argument was, surprisingly, legally
settled by the Supreme Court way back
in 1905, in a Massachusetts case. In that
case, the Supreme Court upheld the con-
stitutionality of a state law requiring com-
EDITORIALS: Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Wallowa County Chieftain
editorial board. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opin-
ions of the authors and not necessarily that of the Wallowa County Chieftain.
LETTERS: The Wallowa County Chieftain welcomes original letters of 400 words or
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Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
Member Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association
Published every Wednesday by: EO Media Group
General manager, Jennifer Cooney, jcooney@wallowa.com
VOLUME 134
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
Contents copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
pulsory vaccinations against smallpox.
The court declared, “Upon the princi-
ple of self-defense, of paramount neces-
sity, a community has the right to pro-
tect itself against an epidemic of disease
which threatens the safety of its mem-
bers.” (from Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of
the UC Berkeley School of Law, in the
LA Times, April 20, 2020)
I’ll just let that sink in.
In a more recent clash of security vs.
freedom, the Patriot Act enacted after
9/11 by the Bush/Cheney administra-
tion was criticized by both Republicans
and Democrats (as well as the ACLU and
other organizations) for infringements on
liberties, especially surveillance of U.S.
citizens. Freedom pushed back, and the
act has been revised a few times since,
most recently just last year, although
much of it is still in force.
Sure, we struggle to get the right bal-
ance sometimes. You can still have a spir-
ited debate about the ethical and moral
primacy of public safety vs. sacred free-
doms, but we are still a nation of laws,
and in our freedom-loving country the
existential preservation of “we the peo-
ple” sometimes trumps an individual’s
liberties, as in the freedom to potentially
infect others.
Now, I am not a constitutional lawyer,
but since the 1905 SCOTUS ruling, how
U.S. law treats the COVID-19 pandemic
looks legally pretty clear. But I suppose
11 strongly Republican states could press
the currently conservative Supreme Court
for a review and reversal. It didn’t work
for an election recount last year, but hey,
they can ask.
In any case, it is well to remember
the arm-swinging vs. nose principle: it is
essentially the law of the land. If the court
were ever to overturn the 1905 ruling and
its spirit, some people might feel glee-
fully unfettered and vindicated, sure. But
there could be a lot more bloody noses in
this country. And more dead people from
COVID-19.
Rob Kemp
Joseph
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