Wednesday, August 4, 2021
A4
OPINION
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
Mask mandate
thrusts schools
into spotlight
L
ast week, our school-age chil-
dren and youth were once again
thrust into center of the corona-
virus pandemic when Gov. Kate Brown
ordered new mask mandates for K-12
students.
Our students shouldn’t be there. Nor
should our teachers and administrators.
Yet, they are, and the move creates
new questions about local control.
Still, the new mandates potentially
push students and teachers and adminis-
trators into the middle of what is essen-
tially a cultural/political debate regarding
vaccinations and the seriousness of the
coronavirus pandemic.
There is also the risk that many par-
ents — for various reasons — will keep
their students away from education cen-
ters because they do not agree with the
mask mandate. If so, that doesn’t help
in our collective effort to provide our
youths with the best education possible.
Another piece that complicates this
new paradigm is that many children are
still ineligible to be vaccinated.
Last week, Intermountain Educa-
tion Service District Superintendent
Mark Mulvihill said the new mask man-
date puts schools “in the crosshairs” of
an issue that has polarized America. He
rightly was concerned about how much
more pressure will be placed on teach-
ers and school administrators to enforce
a new mask requirement.
As a community, regardless of where
we stand on vaccinations and masks, we
should work to be as helpful as possible
to our local schools.
We need to remember that the teach-
ers, superintendents and other school
officials are not responsible for the mask
mandate. They, like all state agencies,
must obey the orders of the governor.
They don’t have the option to ignore her
mandate.
That means trying to push them
into the center of a political/cultural
debate about coronavirus and vaccina-
tions is wrong and won’t solve the basic
problem.
Our students and their teachers should
not be in the middle of this debate. How-
ever, as cases climb, and vaccination
rates continue to lag, we now face a
new coronavirus crisis. No one wants to
return to the draconian restrictions insti-
tuted by the governor last year. We must
all work hard to ensure we do not.
Meanwhile, we must give our local
school districts, teachers and administra-
tors all the help we can as they struggle
to work through yet another coronavirus
challenge.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Money for proposed road would be better
spent improving Wallowa Lake Dam
The present proposal to build new road segments (join-
ing the Lake Shore Road) for possible fire evacuation of state
park visitors has neither common-sense planning or local sup-
port. A fraction of the proposed project money should rather
be spent on a reliable first-alert system and evacuation plan
using both lanes east side of the lake.
It would much better serve our agricultural community and
residents to plan and raise finances to improve the Wallowa
Lake Dam, a proposal that has been pushed aside for almost
20 years. Failure of the lake dam would be catastrophic to the
towns of Joseph and Enterprise.
Boyd McAvoy
Joseph
GOP letter decrying Cuban dictatorship
merely crocodile tears
On July 21, our congressional Representative Cliff Bentz,
along with many of his GOP colleagues, signed a letter to
CONTACT your REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
EDITORIALS: Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Wallowa County Chieftain editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of
the Wallowa County Chieftain.
LETTERS: The Wallowa County Chieftain welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the
right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that
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.
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
Cliff Bentz
1239 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford office: 541-776-4646
REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNOR
SENATOR
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the city of
residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will
not be published.
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VOLUME 134
“Leaders of Democratic States” decrying the Cuban dictator-
ship and calling upon our allies to support the impassioned
pleas for democracy by that island’s beleaguered popula-
tion. Unfortunately, the crocodilian nature of the tears shed by
Republicans for oppressed Cubans has been revealed by GOP
actions here at home.
Mr. Bentz and his colleagues chose to support Trump’s
Big Lie of a stolen election by voting against certifying Joe
Biden’s electoral win. They then refused to endorse a bipar-
tisan investigation into the Jan. 6 terrorist attack on the Capi-
tol incited by their leader. Even worse, their party has passed
laws across the country to suppress voting rights and enable
partisan bodies to overturn elections. Republican lawmak-
ers seem to believe that they will have a hard time holding or
gaining power unless they rig the electoral game and crush
democracy in the U.S.
It appears obvious that the Trump cult, whether through its
congressional wing (the GOP), or its paramilitary wing (the
Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, etc.), has no goal beyond the ter-
mination of our tradition of fair elections so that in 2024 they
can turn Trump into America’s Fidel.
Stephen Ducat
Joseph
General manager, Jennifer Cooney, jcooney@wallowa.com
Editor, Ronald Bond, rbond@wallowa.com
Reporter, Bill Bradshaw, bbradshaw@wallowa.com
Advertising Assistant, Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com
Designer, Martha Allen, mallen@eomediagroup.com
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