Wednesday, July 27, 2022
A4
OPINION
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
Poaching
punishes
those who
play by
the rules
S
tories from such faraway places
as Harney County often do not
resonate locally, but the recent
sentencing of a Hines couple for
their involvement in killing at least
seven elk last year carries implica-
tions for everyone who hunts across
our great region.
The couple, Chris and Stephanie
Lardy, both face stiff penalties for
the crime that police said occurred
in December. Chris Lardy was con-
victed of taking a bull elk out of
season and exceeding the bag limit
while Stephanie Lardy pled guilty
to aiding/counseling in a game vio-
lation. In the wake of the crime, two
calves, two cows and a spike bull
were left rotting.
The case is significant because our
region, to a large extent, represents
a vast and rich hunting environ-
ment. Every year, hunters enter the
woods in hopes of bagging an elk or
deer. To a lesser extent, our economy
prospers from the influx of hunters.
Hunting, then, for many is a seri-
ous business. Most hunters follow
the rules. They take only what they
are allowed to by law. In that way,
each hunter is a steward of not only
our game herds but of the forests
where they search for game.
We are all naturally proud of our
traditions of self-sufficiency and
resiliency along with the knowledge
that we can hunt during the des-
ignated season. Hunting for many
is generational. Fathers and moth-
ers pass on the tradition to their
children.
Yet when anyone poaches or oth-
erwise mars the philosophy of hunt-
ing, it damages the entire sport. Not
only does it impact the judicial sys-
tem, but it also punishes those who
play by the rules every year. Poach-
ing also sends a message that the
rules don’t matter. Those who poach
conduct their actions of aggression
in a concealed manner.
Fortunately, there are laws that
keep crimes against our wildlife in
check. However, no number of legal
statutes can erase what is often the
depravity of human nature.
That means all of us have a
responsibility to ensure that our
great resource — the elk and deer
and other game that traverse East-
ern Oregon — remain viable for the
future. Hunting, is indeed, serious
business. We are the ones who can
keep our herds of wildlife stable and
safe so that when we journey into
the woods, lawfully, to enjoy one of
our region’s great pastimes we won’t
be disappointed.
Jan. 6 committee reveals Trump’s
Orwellian attempt to win the election
OTHER VIEWS
Naseem Rakha
A
nyone who’s read George Orwell’s
“1984,” the dystopian novel about
life in the U.S. under an authori-
tarian regime, knows that to survive, one
had to accept whatever Big Brother said no
matter how big the lie. Proof you’d come
to fully embrace the all-controlling Party
was to believe without question that two
plus two never equaled four but always the
number five. Anyone who claimed other-
wise was considered a traitor and treated
as such.
I think of that now knowing that despite
the hours of testimony and truckloads of
evidence of President Donald Trump’s
attempt to overthrow the election, much of
it coming from Trump loyalists, the major-
ity of House and Senate Republicans and
many Republican voters, including 50%
of them here in Oregon, still swallow and
spew Trump’s lie, and consider those who
do not parrot his prattle like Republican
Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger,
traitors. Both of these conservatives are
central to the committee’s investigation
and both were censured by Republican
party brass for having the temerity to doubt
Trump’s math.
Yet doubt is exactly what most Ameri-
cans have.
One of the more damning pieces of evi-
dence that has come out in the investiga-
tion is an audio recording of Steve Bannon,
one of Trump’s closest advisers, telling a
group of associates three days before the
election that Trump would declare vic-
tory on election night no matter how the
election was trending. “That doesn’t mean
he’s a winner, but he is just gonna to say
he is,” Bannon said. “That’s our strategy.”
He explained to the group that Republi-
cans generally vote on the day of election
while Democrats favored mail-in ballots
that are tallied later. Trump, said Bannon,
would grab the momentum of the early
tally and simply claim victory. “If Trump is
losing by 10 or 11 o’clock, it’s going to be
even crazier because he’s going to sit right
there and say they stole it,” Bannon said.
“Trump is going to do some crazy shit.”
He was right.
Around 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, with a
blue wave starting to gain steam and mil-
lions of votes yet to be counted, Trump
took to the podium in the East Wing of
the White House and declared himself the
winner of the election.
In 2016, Trump once told a crowd that
he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Ave-
nue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t
lose any voters.” What he was saying was
that as long as he convinced enough peo-
ple that he was the only candidate with the
chutzpah to return the American Dream
back to its “rightful owners,” he would be
forgiven for any behavior, whether it was
shooting someone or killing a democracy.
I don’t fault Trump supporters for their
commitment to the man. History is littered
with the debris of people who had fallen
under the spell of charlatans. And, quite
frankly, I don’t even fault Trump for his
mercenary attacks on our democracy. The
man is exactly what he’s always been, a
megalomaniac, obsessed with power. He
even warned us back in 2016 that he would
never accept a loss. He was a cheater and
a liar as a businessman, and he is a cheater
and a liar as a politician.
Who I find fault with are those in lead-
ership who lack the spine to say “Trump
is dead wrong.” Sycophants such as Sens.
Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and
Ted Cruz, people joined at the hip to
Trump and his lies because of their own
selfish desires for power and their fear of
retribution by the very voters they and
Trump have cultivated.
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The Jan. 6 committee has shown that
Trump planned to retain the presidency no
matter what. It showed how he used his
office to intimidate election workers and
politicians who would not do his bidding,
and how he brokered his grand lie into a
money-making scheme, collecting almost
a quarter of a billion dollars in donations to
“Stop the Steal.” They showed how Trump
intentionally riled armed supporters into
a frenzy, urging them to go to the Capi-
tol to give his vice president and others the
“courage to do the right thing.” And they
showed that while lawmakers and staff
were running for their lives in our nation’s
Capitol building, Trump sat comfortably
in his private dining room watching Fox
News and choosing to do nothing to stop
the attack. Yet those very people who were
escaping Trump’s armed insurrection are
now trying to punish those Republicans
who’ve provided evidence of the presi-
dent’s seditious acts.
In Orwell’s fictionalized world, an
all-controlling Party successfully chiseled
away truth, and as a result dignity and per-
sonal autonomy were lost.
In our world today, the truth contin-
ues to be chiseled away by Trump and
his lackeys. Attempting to overthrow an
election is not a justifiable act; it’s trea-
sonous. A violent attack on the Capitol is
not heroic; it’s criminal. And refusing to
accept an election loss is not patriotic; it’s
pathetic.
Trump lost the election. I’m thankful
the Jan. 6 committee is showing the world
there are truths to be spoken, and that real
patriots know two plus two will always
equal four.
———
Naseem Rakha is a former public radio
reporter, news show host and commenta-
tor. She is an author of the novel “The Cry-
ing Tree,” which was inspired by her time
covering two executions in Oregon. Naseem
spends her time hiking, climbing, rafting
and photographing areas throughout the
American West.
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