SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
4A
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EDITORIAL
Seniors get
the shaft
yet again
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown isn’t the only elected
offi cial who has forced older Oregonians to wait for a
COVID-19 vaccine despite the irrefutable evidence
that they are vastly more likely to die from the virus
if they remain unvaccinated.
President Joe Biden has joined Brown in earning
this dubious distinction.
For a pair of politicians who have vowed to heed
science as they deal with the pandemic, Biden and
Brown have in effect ignored third-grade math.
The numbers tell an unequivocal story.
In Oregon, almost 77% of those who have died
after testing positive for COVID-19 were 70 or older.
And 91% were 60 or older.
Yet fi rst Brown, and more recently Biden, have
given priority for vaccination to teachers, the vast
majority of whom are younger than 60, rather than
to those for whom this virus truly is life-threatening.
In January Brown decided that teachers would
have priority for receiving vaccines. Older Orego-
nians had to wait from one to four weeks to become
eligible, depending on their age.
On March 2 President Biden announced that vac-
cinating teachers was a priority during March, and
he asked pharmacies that participate in a federal
vaccine program to set aside doses for teachers, other
school employees and child care workers.
Brown said the White House failed to consult with
Oregon, meaning Biden apparently didn’t know the
state had already given priority to teachers. Fortu-
nately, on Thursday, March 11, the federal govern-
ment exempted Oregon from Biden’s policy.
Both Biden and Brown justifi ed their decision by
saying their goal is to vaccinate teachers so students
can return to their classrooms. A fi ne idea, to be sure.
Trouble is, neither the governor nor the president
can compel teachers to go back to school. In Oregon,
seven weeks after Brown moved teachers to the head
of the line, many of the state’s larger school districts
haven’t resumed in-person classes, at least for older
students. Last week the governor ordered all schools
to have in-person classes for kindergarten through
fi fth-grade by March 29, and for older students by
April 19. But that doesn’t necessarily mean students
will be in their classes every day — Brown’s order
allows hybrid schedules as well.
Neither Brown’s nor Biden’s decision to give
preference to teachers for vaccines has had the result
they claimed it would. But both have deprived those
most vulnerable to the virus from getting access to a
vaccine.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
City Council needs to be civil
By Beverly Calder
Less than 60 days ago, fi ve mem-
bers of our council took an oath to
uphold and defend the constitutions
of our country and our state as well as
the charter of Baker City.
Our city charter is a short and
concise document, although written
in legalese as should be expected. It
outlines the powers of the city and
provides the framework for ordinance
creation, public works, elections and
the duties of the council and city
manager.
Chapter 3, Section 12 states: “All
elections for city offi ce must be non-
partisan.”
As council, they represent and serve
all 10,000 plus citizens of Baker City,
nearly four times the number of votes
that any individual received in the
last election. There are no party lines
in our council chamber. Our council
represents the whole community.
Our charter further states, in Chap-
ter 5, Section 18: “The mayor shall
enforce the rules of council.”
The Revised Rules of Council —
amended just this past April — are
more specifi c:
• 5a. All members of council shall
accord the utmost courtesy to each
other, to city employees and to the
public and shall refrain at all times
from rude or derogatory remarks,
refl ections as to integrity, abusive com-
ments and statements as to motive
and personalities.
• 17. Each member should support
the collective decision making of the
council.
In the past 30 days we have seen a
lack of civility. We have witnessed vio-
lations of these rules. We have heard
malicious statements made against
public servants, volunteers and lead-
ers in our community.
We have seen repulsive statements
made online. These acts are in viola-
tion of both our City Charter and the
Rules of Procedure of the Council.
These acts certainly do not represent
the oath taken by each member of our
council and they cause harm. Public
service demands civility to function
properly.
Many of the statements have been
made without “naming names” but
in a community as small as ours, the
objects are often obvious. Each of the
people maligned have given much to
our community and deserve, at a mini-
mum, the respect of the council and a
civil manner.
The mayor impugned the character
of an applicant for the Golf Board
a month ago. That applicant, Fred
Warner Jr., has served this community
well and faithfully. The Warner family
has been a contributing part of Baker
City for generations. These statements
shocked me but it was only the begin-
ning.
A council member posted a state-
ment online maligning both the
elected members of the county com-
mission and the appointed committee
volunteers that serve the county.
One council member posted a silent
assault on another member of the
council on Facebook. I feel compelled
to include this because it matters
what is said — or posted — when you
represent the city council. I will not
include the obscenities.
“As for you worthless (bleep) ly-
ing piece of (bleep). You can kiss my
(bleep) I got zero time for any more of
your (bleep).”
This comment was “‘liked” by the
mayor — the person charged with
enforcing the rules of council.
In the Feb. 23 council meeting, the
mayor also impugned the character
and motives of three business leaders
in our community that also volunteer
their service on boards and commit-
tees. Not saying their names provides
no cover for this attack. Business
creators and volunteers should not
need to be defended; they should be
respected and honored for their will-
ingness to serve.
Tyler Brown’s family has served,
quite literally, this community for 40
years. Beyond creating a brand that
is talked about with envy around the
Northwest, Tyler has created jobs and
has actively served his community
as a volunteer with the Chamber, the
Downtown and the County.
Scott Thatcher is one of the larg-
est employers in our downtown. His
company provides some of the best
and most relied upon customer service
in our town. The Thatchers have
expanded their operation to the great
benefi t of our entire county as well as
the county to the north of us with a
second store.
Tori Thatcher was raised by a
second-generation entrepreneur. She
returned to Baker City after college
to pursue her career, marry a public
servant raised by another local entre-
preneur and start a family. Tori served
as the fi rst president of Baker City
Downtown and has been an exception-
al new voice on the Transient Lodging
committee as a representative of the
burgeoning AirBnB economy. This
industry has been critically important
during our COVID year for tourists.
These individuals have contributed
energy, ideas and jobs to our commu-
nity. None of these industry leaders
fi nancially benefi t from volunteer
service and not one of these people
should suffer derision from their
elected leaders.
It is time we ask our city council to
observe and respect the City Charter
and the Rules of Procedure. It should
be the desire of the council as a whole
to lift up our community and encour-
age more participation.
Beverly Calder is a former Baker City
Council member and a Baker City
business owner.
Paying the price for another slothful autumn
The problem with leaves is that
they don’t.
Leave, that is.
Every autumn, while engaged in
the seasonal ritual of raking, I con-
vince myself that the scattering of
leaves which get stuck around the
bases of shrubs or in other inacces-
sible spots will eventually go away.
I am quite persuasive.
I assure myself that the leaves,
left to themselves and exposed to
the gales that are apt to arrive
on occasion between Halloween
and Easter, will bustle off to the
adjacent fi eld or out onto the street,
beyond the reach of my rake and,
more important, my concern.
Perhaps this is true of certain
leaves.
But it is decidedly not so with my
leaves.
We have several types of trees on
the place but the most prolifi c leaf-
producers are the several willows.
There is a weeping willow, and
JAYSON
JACOBY
four or fi ve others whose variety I
can’t remember.
As willows are wont to do, each
of these trees produces every year a
prodigious volume of long, narrow
leaves. Willow leaves, despite being
shaped rather like spears, are not
aerodynamic.
The physics of the matter are
beyond my ken, but it seems to
me that willow leaves, lacking the
surface area of, say, maple leaves,
are less likely to catch the wind
and sail away.
Once winter arrives and the
snow conceals my sloth, I tempo-
rarily forget about the leaves.
The pristine white scene hides
all manner of sins — the garden
tool I neglected to return to the
shed, the abandoned lawn sprin-
kler, the plastic fi re engine that my
grandson, Brysen, was the last to
touch.
But then along comes a balmy
morning in March, and the snow
retreats to reveal the leafy reality.
I happened to look out my
bedroom window on just such a day
recently and I noticed that the west
side of our lot — the side where
most of our willows grow — looked
rather like the yard of a homestead
abandoned decades ago.
The ground was littered with a
messy mixture of limbs — willows
shed these almost as readily as a
shaggy dog transfers fur to a new
sofa — piles of pebbly brown deer
scat, and dingy old snow.
And, of course, leaves.
But these leaves aren’t the color-
ful, pleasantly scented leaves of a
brilliant October day.
In the climatic purgatory of early
March in a mountain valley, where
snow squalls and sunshine swap
places seemingly on an hourly
basis, willow leaves are a uniform
slate-grey and coated with a cold
slime.
You don’t so much rake them as
scrape them.
I used a hand trowel to peel the
leafy layers, more the method of a
geologist than a gardener.
Indeed the procedure told a story
of sorts, just as examining the
strata of stone can do.
Beneath the sodden surface layer
of decaying leaves the trowel blade
clanged off a congealed melange of
ice and granular snow.
I felt the slight thrill of discov-
ery, and a twinge of nostalgia as I
recalled the snowfalls of a winter
now almost past.
These frozen traces also bolster
my belief that my haphazard
handling of leaves each autumn is
justifi ed.
This is proof, or so I tell myself,
that willow leaves are effective
insulation, and that by maintain-
ing our landscaping in an unkempt
manner I deserve not to be branded
as lazy but rather celebrated for
protecting the roots of the perenni-
als from the ravages of arctic fronts.
This is scanty evidence, to be
sure — unlikely to persuade the
most credulous jury.
But my threshold for proof is low,
and I am satisfi ed.
Anyway it’s pleasant just to be
out in the good air, feeling the cold
earth, knowing that soon enough,
with the sun’s aid, it will yield its
annual bounty of the warm and
living green.
The next day the snow slunk
back and the slate once again was
white and clean, waiting for new
stories to be written.
Jayson Jacoby is editor
of the Baker City Herald.