SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
Feds not needed
to police school
board meetings
The National School Boards Association’s defi nition of what might
constitute domestic terrorism and hate crimes is awfully broad.
Broad enough, potentially, to encompass actions clearly protected
by the First Amendment.
The Association recently sent a letter to President Joe Biden
asking for federal law enforcement to help “deal with the growing
number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring
across the nation.” The letter reads, in part: “the classifi cation of these
heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terror-
ism and hate crimes.”
In response, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the FBI
would work with other federal, state and local agencies to “develop
strategies against the threats,” according to an Associated Press story.
Obviously it’s not acceptable for people who are upset with school
boards to escalate from verbal or written opposition to physical. But
every state has criminal laws regarding assault. And most communi-
ties have police departments to deal with people who break those
laws.
The School Boards Association offers no compelling evidence of
a rash of violence against school boards that local offi cials aren’t
capable of handling, or that warrants federal involvement.
The letter to Biden cites an Illinois case in which a person was ar-
rested for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct during a school
board meeting. This, not surprisingly, was accomplished without the
involvement of the FBI or any other federal agency.
Other examples listed in the letter include school boards “confront-
ed by angry mobs,” an Alabama resident who called school adminis-
trators while videoing himself on Facebook Live, and a person who
yelled a Nazi salute during a school board meeting in Michigan.
Some of this behavior sounds obnoxious. Some, as with the Nazi
salute, is abhorrent.
But being part of an angry mob, or making videos of phone calls
with public offi cials, or even yelling Nazi salutes, not only is unlikely
to be criminal, but it’s probably constitutionally protected speech.
This is not to suggest that people who are aggrieved by school
board actions, or inactions, should seek to derail public meetings,
even by nonviolent means such as shouting. This accomplishes
nothing.
But the ultimate test of the First Amendment is not that it
protects the soft-spoken and the reasonable. That’s easy and un-
controversial. If the term “free speech” is to be anything other than
an empty platitude, it must offer equal protection for the loud,
the boorish and the purveyors of conspiracy theories, even if they
cause school board meetings to last longer than they otherwise
would, or expose members to uncomfortable diatribes.
In any case, the reality that disgruntled citizens attend public
meetings is no cause for asking the most powerful law enforce-
ment agency in the land to get involved.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
OTHER VIEWS
Editorial from The Dallas
Morning News:
If you mailed a letter across
town on Friday, it might not
have reached its destination
until Wednesday. That’s because,
as of Oct. 1, the U.S. Postal Ser-
vice has implemented changes
that will slow down the mail.
While we’re not thrilled about
delays, we welcome this news as
evidence of reform at an agency
that badly needs to adjust to the
current economy.
Under Postmaster General
Louis DeJoy’s strategic restruc-
turing plan, fi rst-class mail will
take as much as a day longer
to reach its destination, though
the added time won’t be uniform
across the country. According to
an analysis by The Washington
Post, the longest delays will be
west of the Rocky Mountains
and in some parts of Florida
and South Texas. In Dallas-Fort
Worth, customers can expect
service about a half-day slower
than in the past.
The plan is part of DeJoy’s
efforts to keep the Postal Service
solvent, which is no easy lift. The
agency faces a projected $160
billion defi cit over the next de-
cade. For fi scal year 2020, its net
operating loss was $3.6 billion,
which was $409 million more
than the previous year, accord-
ing to an April report from the
Postal Regulatory Commission.
Some of the fi nancial pres-
sures faced by USPS are out
of its hands. It doesn’t receive
taxpayer funding and it’s not
allowed to set its own prices.
Plus, the 2006 Postal Account-
ability and Enhancement Act
required it to pre-fund 75 years’
worth of retiree health benefi ts
in 10 years.
Any corporation that faced
that level of fi nancial shortfall
would have long since gone the
way of the Pony Express. So it’s
only reasonable for DeJoy to
make use of the management
levers still available to him.
Delivery times are a big one.
DeJoy is getting pushback
on Capitol Hill from lawmakers
who say the changes will drive
away customers and erode the
agency’s credibility. They are
joined by a group of 21 attorneys
general, led by Pennsylvania
and New York. In our view, it’s
a little late for those concerns.
The USPS has taken its place
alongside the department of
motor vehicles as a poster child
for bureaucratic complexity and
poor customer service. And, to be
honest, the Postal Service’s mo-
nopoly on cheap letter delivery is
a big driver of its customer base.
If DeJoy’s plan works, the
service will increase reliability.
The agency hasn’t hit its inter-
nal standard of 96% on-time
delivery for almost a decade.
Currently, only 86% of two-day
mail and 58% of three-plus-
day mail is arriving on time,
according to The Post’s report-
ing. DeJoy is trading speed for
dependability here, which could
earn back some customer trust
in the long run.
This is an industry that
has experienced foundational
disruption in recent decades.
Restrictions from Congress and
competition from companies like
FedEx, UPS and Amazon have
eroded its business model.
Americans will have to adjust,
especially older Americans and
those who rely on the mail for
critical things like medication.
DeJoy isn’t exactly an inspir-
ing fi gure. He’s currently under
investigation related to cam-
paign fi nancing. But the USPS
is long overdue for an overhaul,
and he’s taking action. If we
have to mail those Christmas
cards a day earlier, that’s an ad-
justment we’re willing to make.
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claims. However, we cannot verify
Mail: To the Editor, Baker City
Herald,
P.O. Box 807, Baker City, OR 97814
Email: news@bakercityherald.
com
Robocall overload; and Viola’s touch with cows
I’ve been unusually distracted
recently.
Apparently there’s an issue with
my car’s extended warranty. This di-
lemma, about which I am reminded
regularly via thoughtful calls to my
cellphone, has been nagging at me,
like a fragment of a song lyric you
can’t quite remember.
Worse still, it’s not clear which of
my two vehicles is the problem.
I have two, and neither, so far as
I can tell after sifting through the
wads of receipts wedged into their
respective glove boxes, actually has
an extended warranty.
So now, in addition to worrying
about the status of the warranty,
I fear I might have acquired this
additional, and no doubt valuable,
protection by fraudulent means.
This wasn’t intentional, of course.
But I know better than to argue
ignorance of the law.
And based on the frequency of
the phone calls, the people in charge
of the extended warranty are quite
eager to speak with me.
This sort of eagerness, in my
experience, is proportional to the
amount of money involved.
Lest I carry this charade
beyond a reasonable number of
paragraphs, I recognize, of course,
that these calls are not legitimate.
I don’t have an extended war-
ranty on either of my vehicles.
And if I did, the company that
sold me the warranty wouldn’t sic
the automated call machine on me
to address any trouble.
Among the distressingly long
roster of scams that pollute our
world of saturated communications,
these extended warranty calls strike
me as especially transparent.
The much more insidious
versions prey on, for instance, our
emotional response to the possibility
that a loved one is in danger.
If you get a call from someone
claiming to be a relative whose car
has broke down in a distant city,
even a modestly talented imperson-
ator might be convincing enough
to prompt you to divulge personal
information, the modern digital
equivalent to handing over your
wallet or opening your purse.
The warranty calls, by contrast,
seem to me both impersonal in
their approach and implausible in
their content, a combination that
makes them more amusing than
annoying.
But of course they must work,
or else my phone wouldn’t keep
ringing.
JAYSON
JACOBY
Along with millions of other
phones, no doubt.
Volume, I’m sure, compensates
for the low success rate of these
sleazy ventures.
Just as a gill net dragged
through the ocean or a great river
will bring in a lot more fi sh than a
single hook dangling below a bobber
in a farm pond, automation allows
scammers to peddle their criminal
wares to a mass audience.
Probably I would be depressed
to have this question answered, but
I am curious about precisely how
many of these calls are placed in the
U.S. in a given day.
I doubt that I’m considered a ripe
target — I presume the tech-savvy
people behind these operations have
at least a general idea of my net
worth, which is decidedly modest.
And yet scarcely a day passes
when my phone stays quiet (not
that I much mind the interruption;
my ringtone is the University of
Oregon’s fi ght song, and if I don’t
recognize the caller’s number I usu-
ally tap my fi ngers on my desk for a
couple of bars).
I suspect that these calls, which
are easy to ignore and even easier
to lampoon, have affected me in at
least one way.
I haven’t bought a new car in
going on eight years, and I don’t
expect to be dickering with a sales
manager for many more years. But
I’m pretty sure that whenever that
occasion arises — presuming such
transactions will still be conducted
from chairs upholstered in un-
convincingly fake leather arrayed
around a cheap table — I’ll give a
slight start, as from a minor fright,
when the phrase “extended war-
ranty” reaches my ears.
I have read many hundreds of
obituaries in nearly three decades
at the Herald, and although these
documents naturally have many
similarities, each is, like the people
whose lives are memorialized,
unique.
I have yet to tire of reading
these odes.
I fi nd it eternally fascinating
to ponder the ways in which a life
extending for many decades, and
occasionally for the whole of a cen-
tury or a bit more, can be distilled
into some hundreds of words.
But only occasionally do I come
across an anecdote, or even a single
sentence, that strikes me as particu-
larly piquant, something perhaps
suitable as an epitaph.
I read one such recently in the
obituary for Viola Perkins, who lived
most of her life in Baker Valley and
was involved in a host of good works.
Toward the end of her obituary
was this sentence.
“And by golly, she could get cows
— anybody’s cows — to gather and
come running to the gate when
it was time to move them, with a
hearty ‘suuuuboss.’ ”
I also learned that Viola baked
scrumptious chocolate chip and
peanut butter cookies.
A fi ne skill, certainly. And one
worth including in an obituary.
But I believe there are far more
people who can bake a tasty cookie
than there are people who can get
cows — anybody’s cows — to go
through a gate.
Viola was one. I wish I could
have seen her working cattle. I’m
sure those who did see that spec-
tacle will always remember.
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the
Baker City Herald.