Wednesday, August 24, 2022
A4
OPINION
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
Elections
are crucial
to our
democracy
O
regon voters may well secure
one of those rare election
moments in November when
they can choose from three diff erent
candidates but the key, as always, is
that all residents take advantage of
the opportunity to vote.
That may prove to be quite a chal-
lenge, though we hope not.
Now, three candidates — Betsy
Johnson, Tina Kotek and Christine
Drazan — are vying for the state’s
top political position.
Kotek is on the Democratic ticket
while Drazan is the GOP front-run-
ner. Johnson, who is unaffi liated,
recently turned in enough signatures
to get a spot on the Nov. 8 election
ballot.
While there will be plenty of bom-
bast and wide sweeping proclama-
tions by all the candidates between
now and November, what is really
key about the election is that enough
Oregonians vote.
The right to vote is more than just
a nice, quaint concept about Amer-
ica. It is the key element to our
democracy.
Multitudes of people have died on
distant battlefi elds for us to enjoy
that right. Many brave souls during
the Civil Rights era marched and
faced danger to ensure everyone held
the ability to vote.
As voters we owe them all a great
debt, but if we do not use what is the
key tool of our democracy, then our
very future is at risk.
Sure, at least for now there isn’t a
whole lot of variety among the can-
didates. Kotek is as solidly Demo-
crat as Drazan is Republican. John-
son is trying to capitalize on her role
as a political outlier to get elected.
In other words, this election
doesn’t appear to be one that will be
needlessly complicated. The battle
lines are drawn. The issue is famil-
iar. Now all that needs to happen is
that eligible voters actually vote.
Regardless of what one reads or
hears, every vote does count. We, as
Americans, enjoy a specifi c ability
to peacefully complete a process that
selects those who will represent us
during every election. Our privilege
to vote — and it is a privilege — is
only as eff ective as those who chose
to use it.
We must guard against apathy and
the dissonance created by modern
day pop culture and political sound
bites to focus on exercising our right
to vote.
The state faces many challenges,
no doubt about it. Yet we have the
opportunity to do something about
those challenges by voting. Every
election is crucial in a democracy.
Let’s not allow our great privilege to
be wasted.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
We enjoy the show at Chief
Joseph Days rodeo
To those people who have issues with
our small-town rodeo, I will make this
simple: Stay home. I would suggest to
head to the other side of the state to Port-
land, which I hear has lots of down-
town activities that are always politically
correct.
The attempt at “country folk/rodeo”
lingo is condescending.
Thank you, Jody and John. We enjoy
the show and appreciate your love of the
sport of rodeo, our country and those who
serve it, our Lord and Savior and our rural
lifestyles.
Most of us are not participating in the
slow murder of America. God bless the
USA.
Lori Butterfi eld
Joseph
You have the freedom
to not attend rodeo
As a longtime county visitor/then res-
ident, I want to address the comments
made regarding our Chief Joseph Days
rodeo. Long before there was tourism,
there was ranching — and rodeo. Our
way of life should not be made to change
because someone from Portland says so.
When you come to visit our county, we
have welcomed you warmly with open
arms, despite the fact you speed through
our small, quiet towns and run down the
animals that help make our county so
lovely. We accept your rudeness, impa-
tience and forgive you for the trash you
leave on our trails, parks and along the
highway.
We don’t tell you you how to think, or
what to say — but you think you can tell
us how to put on our rodeos?
We pray, we stand and salute our coun-
try’s fl ag, we openly support our law
enforcement and military. So if you don’t
like what you hear, then just put on your
“big-boy pants” and deal with it. Because
we call that freedom of speech and we
defend those freedoms.
If you choose not to come here and
go to the rodeo, that is your freedom to
do so. So stay home. We will miss your
money, but we will not miss your attitude.
Ruthmarie Lavezzo
Lostine
Bentz campaigning
throughout district
on our tax dollars
Many of us were surprised by the
appearance of House Rep. Cliff Bentz,
who held town halls that were seem-
ingly scheduled last minute with little to
no media attention.
But this was precisely what Cliff
Bentz wanted to do after receiving news
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VOLUME 134
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that his opponent — Joe Yetter — had
completed a district-wide road trip in
early August. During Cliff ’s town halls,
he and his campaign team maintained
that these town halls were “offi cial Con-
gress business.” Bentz’s campaign team
kept these town halls largely underpub-
licized, so Bentz could get away with
campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime.
Bentz can use taxpayer money to
travel throughout his district if it’s asso-
ciated with his term as our congress-
man. Meanwhile, Bentz is holding town
halls in every county of CD-2, main-
taining that he’s there for his people,
while using the time he spends in each
district to campaign for his upcoming
reelection.
Once the House breaks for campaign
time, Bentz will likely call on the fact
that he has already visited every county
in his district and not grace us with his
presence again. The last thing we need
is to reelect a big-money-funded poli-
tician who happens to be a lawyer and
knows his campaign fi nance laws and
who uses our hard-earned taxes to fund
a hush-hush campaign tour of CD-2.
Cliff sits on over half a million dol-
lars given to him by super-PACs and
chooses to use our tax dollars to fund
his secret campaign tour.
Not a good look, Cliff .
Devon Maxwell
Enterprise
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