SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
Your views
Vaccine
‘mandates’
Gov. Kate Brown has a laudable goal: To boost Or-
egon’s COVID-19 vaccination rate among health care
and school workers.
Everyone except the exceedingly small percentage
of residents who have medical issues that make vac-
cinations potentially dangerous should be inoculated
against this virus that continues to spread rapidly. The
vaccines are safe. They are effective. Not as effective
against the currently predominant delta variant, to be
sure. But “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated
people are still rare — about 8% of cases in Baker
County during the fi rst half of August — and vaccinat-
ed people, even if they contract COVID-19, are vastly
less likely to become seriously ill.
But Brown’s vaccination mandates won’t have the
desired result, at least not at a signifi cant rate.
Critics say the requirement that health care and
school workers be vaccinated by Oct. 18 will prompt
many employees to resign, creating a staffi ng crisis in
these crucial public services.
But it’s at least as likely that many workers, rather
than lose their jobs, will simply cite either the medical
or religious exemption that make this rather less than
a “mandate.” Besides which, 65% of health care workers
in Baker County are already vaccinated, according to
the Oregon Health Authority.
Baker County’s two state legislators, Sen. Lynn
Findley, R-Vale, and Rep. Mark Owens, D-Crane, are
urging Brown to cancel the vaccine requirement but
also to “implement robust medical and religious exemp-
tions immediately,” according to a press release.
Neither outcome — vital workers quitting or being
fi red, or using an exemption — would result in more
people being vaccinated.
What, then, can the governor, and other public of-
fi cials, do to boost the vaccination rate?
Threats don’t work. They only spawn anger and
nourish stubbornness.
The Baker City Council on Tuesday, Aug. 24 di-
rected City Manager Jon Cannon to fi nd an attorney to
represent the city in a potential lawsuit against Brown.
The city shouldn’t spend public money contesting a
mandate that really isn’t one and that does not abso-
lutely force people to decide between keeping their jobs
and being vaccinated. Also, the governor has the legal
authority to issue such executive orders.
The City Council would better show its respect for
health care, education and other workers, and the com-
munity as a whole, by encouraging them to be vaccinat-
ed. That would protect not only these workers, but also
the rest of us who depend every day on their skills.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Employees’ choice not to be
vaccinated can harm others
How disappointing that representa-
tives of fi refi ghter/paramedic unions
and certain health care workers value
their “political” rights over the health
and safety of the patients they serve
(Per the Aug. 24, 2021, Herald story).
I hope these folks might fi nd the love
and grace to care more for the children
and adults they originally trained and
educated themselves to protect and
serve.
Please reconsider supporting the
emergency mandate for vaccinations to
protect the public health.
People also want to drive drunk,
blow through stop signs, or speed reck-
lessly, which also puts others at risk.
Their poor choices harm others and
result in criminal penalties. While it
may be their sincerely held belief that
it’s their right to do what they want, it
still harms others.
It is concerning that folks resist
the single most important health care
measure to protect themselves and oth-
ers — vaccinations. They resist, despite
ample medical and scientifi c evidence
of their safety and effectiveness and
increasing numbers of COVID cases
— largely of the unvaccinated. Their
choices exhaust doctors and nurses and
overcrowd hospitals that must turn
away others who need care.
Those of us who choose to follow
medical advice to get fully vaccinated
and wear masks pay the price for
those who do not. Because people have
resisted vaccines and masking, highly
contagious variants continue to evolve.
Young children who can’t yet be vac-
cinated, immunocompromised, people
undergoing chemotherapy, or have a
transplant are at even greater risk.
Thank you for the opportunity to
provide a different perspective than
that of a vocal minority of protesters.
Mary B. Tomlinson
Baker City
City refugees are threatening
rural communities
Many of our neighbors are express-
ing growing concern and baffl ement
over the rapid changes in our country
and culture. One thing it seems we all
worry about is a sense that our town
is being reshaped by “Nut Cases From
Other Places.” Refugees from the inhos-
pitable concrete canyons.
Out here we know that rural folk,
America’s farmers and ranchers, are
the foundation stones of this nation.
These are the people that grew the
crops and livestock that fed our devel-
oping country. Small towns formed,
starting slowly as they grew to provide
essential services and goods. Soon
libraries and churches appeared. On
market day families could walk the
town, greeting one another with a smile
and a handshake, as they caught up on
the latest news.
America’s rural families also know
that bad things often happen in the
middle of the night. As when you must
leave a warm bed to face an early storm
that puts the stock at risk. Or when a
wildfi re sweeps the prairie, taking out
a crop and threatening homes of those
who grew it. These people understand
rallying together to save a neighbor or
a community. They are tough enough to
do whatever it takes. They are honest
and forthright. Their promise given is
a promise honored. They are tough —
they don’t start a fi ght but if one comes,
they fi ght to win.
I grew up in the Rocky Mountain
West, infused with the Code Of The
West. At 17, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
Years later, returning to my roots, I cre-
ated a business that served our moun-
tain towns. In my travels I watched
the “Nut Cases From Other Places” as
they began fi lling the front range towns.
People from places like “New Joisey” or
“New Yaak.” They came to our state but
cared nothing of its culture and values.
They brought what they considered
mountain music, Bluegrass! Nuts! Our
mountain music was cowboy music.
Sons of the Pioneers echoes in my ears
to this day.
Now, we face a time where the es-
sential elements of rural life are under
a similar threat. People are coming here
bringing ideas we can barely under-
stand and will not accept. One current
campaign is to spend our town’s limited
funds to create a “quiet zone” where the
train cannot sound its horn. Can we
agree, if you move into a place with ac-
tive railroad tracks, you will hear trains?
The same trains that brought prosper-
ity to the nation as it connected our far
reaches. Living here, we are delighted
to hear the trains. They remind us of
the enormity of success in our pioneer
family’s achievement. They opened
this country and created a nation. Let’s
not lose another unique testament to
who we are to the “Nut Cases From
Other Places.”
Rick Rienks
Baker City
We need to work together to end
the pandemic
Baker City Council and Baker City
Mayor. You may cause the very destruc-
tion you are complaining about. The
protest you have initiated against the
mandates of the governor and your plan
to explore a lawsuit could be the fi nal
nail in the coffi n of the many businesses
you claim to be fi ghting for. Just the hint
of such a rebellion could be the begin-
ning of the downfall. How many will say,
if City Council is fi ghting it, then I am
too? How many will refuse? How many
more will die?
Each and every citizen of this nation
has been required at some point in time
to comply with a regulation or law that
they don’t agree with. We are required
by law to vaccinate our children before
sending them to the education we are
required to provide for them. We are
required to pass a test in order to receive
a license to drive a vehicle, which we are
then required by law to insure. We pay
taxes on the homes we own, the income
we earn and products we purchase.
These taxes go to pay the salaries you
receive, in order to be able to sit in judge-
ment of someone doing a very diffi cult
job, during very diffi cult times.
As long as there is the potential to see
some end to this virus and because of the
sacrifi ces made to overcome it, we should
be standing together, fi ghting against
the virus, not against other people.
How can you endanger the lives of
so many? You have given many unin-
formed or misinformed people the per-
fect reason for refusing to be vaccinated
or wear a mask.
We are losing PEOPLE, real lives
are at stake because of your political
manipulations. Are you so busy trying to
be right, that you can’t see who is paying
the price?
Look behind those masks, those are
your neighbors, friends, family and yes
your constituents. If you continue killing
them off, you won’t have a stake in the
game, there won’t be a game.
Ritha Wilcox
Baker City
The glorious shivering of a stroll on the beach
I zipped the fl eece jacket snug to
my chin and still I shivered.
It was glorious.
I couldn’t recall, in that moment
of joy, when I had last felt truly
chilled.
The series of heat waves which
had passed in the meantime had
made the notion of donning a gar-
ment with long sleeves seem hazy,
as ephemeral as a dream.
I had my blissful bout of goose-
bumps while standing on the beach
near Bandon, buffeted by the breeze
blowing off the Pacifi c.
Except breeze, though appropri-
ately alliterative, is a poor choice in
this context.
Breeze connotes a gentle zephyr
that falls gently upon the face.
This wind careening off the foam-
ing breakers slapped.
It stung.
It scoured.
The sand on this particular
stretch of shoreline is more coarse
than is typical in Oregon, and fl ung
about by the gale it nipped my bare
calves with a minor but constant
pain, as though I were being stung
simultaneously by a whole swarm of
venomless wasps.
And generally, as on the day of
my walk at Bandon, it’s comfort-
ably below that.
Or uncomfortably, depending
on how many layers you happen
I suppose I have some sense
to bring and on the velocity of
of what it would be like to get
the wind.
trapped in a sandblasting ma-
Most summers — even ones
chine.
less overbearing with their heat
But the slight unpleasantness
than the current version has been
of the high velocity sand didn’t
dampen my joy at being outdoors — I begin to daydream, as August
begins, about strolling along the
without a sheen of sweat on my
beach, the refreshing ocean wind
forehead.
The Pacifi c Ocean is the great- feathering my hair.
This August, for the fi rst time
est natural air conditioner, more
reliable even than the high moun- in two years, we managed to actu-
tains, which at times this summer ally get some salty air into our
lungs.
have offered scant relief from the
We spent more than half the
torrid doldrums of the valleys.
week along the coast, covering
The Pacifi c, where it crashes
almost the whole of Oregon’s em-
ashore in Oregon, even in high
barrassing wealth of seacoast.
summer rarely warms above 60
(A wealth which is not, however,
degrees; more typically the water
exclusive to the wealthy; I am
measures in the low to mid 50s.
eternally grateful to Gov. Oswald
So long as the wind is blowing
West for preserving our state’s
onshore — and so it does along
the Oregon coast, with exceedingly beaches as public, surely one of the
rare exceptions — the air tempera- greatest gifts any politician has
ture along the beach, and usually ever bestowed on his constituents
and on their offspring for genera-
for at least a few miles inland,
tions to come.)
almost certainly won’t surpass
We ventured as far south as
70 degrees.
JAYSON
JACOBY
Gold Beach, where the Rogue
River empties into the sea, and
left Oregon by way of the Astoria
Megler Bridge, across the Colum-
bia into Washington.
We got the sand of several
beaches between our toes (and
on the carpeted fl oormats of our
car, there to remain for eternity,
beyond the power of any vacuum),
and in every case the temperature
was bracing.
Our kids, Olivia and Max,
seemed immune. They generally
shunned jackets as they splashed
into the surf, Max, as is his wont,
dousing himself up to the waist at
a minimum. I waded into water a
few inches deep occasionally and
it had the same skin-contracting
frigidity of an alpine brook, except
more foamy.
And littered with the discarded
shells of Dungeness crab, scraps
of kelp and the transparent blobs
of jellyfi sh remnants, all fl otsam
not usually found in mountain
streams.
On our last day at the seaside
(well, technically riverside, as the
Astoria Megler Bridge, like Astoria
itself, is a bit inland), I checked
the car thermometer as we began
our inland journey. It showed 62
degrees.
We hadn’t made it three miles
before the temperature crept up
to 70. And although it was already
going on 7 o’clock in the evening,
I knew the number would only
continue to rise as we continued
west, widening the distance from
the Pacifi c’s benefi cent chill.
When we entered Longview it
was up to 84. We stopped at a con-
venience store to use the restroom
and when I opened the car door
the air, heavy and sultry, slunk in.
I knew that for the rest of our
journey the air conditioner would
run almost constantly, its effects
welcome, to be sure, but also an er-
satz version of a stroll on a beach.
The artifi cially cooled air issu-
ing from the dashboard vents is
effective.
But it lacks the aroma of
the shore, that rich and unique
mixture — fi shy, earthy, tangy, but
always, owing to its utter absence
of energy-sapping heat, refreshing
to body and soul.
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the
Baker City Herald.