SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
Small acts can
have big effects in
our community
The pandemic has given many of us reasons to be thankful for things we
might previously have taken for granted.
This is certainly so as we move into the holiday season.
We can eagerly anticipate events such as the downtown Christmas parade,
which, like so many favorite community traditions, was canceled in 2020
but will happen this year so long as the Chamber of Commerce gets enough
entries.
(If you’re interested, check the Chamber’s website, www.visitbaker.com.)
We can also appreciate that unlike a year ago, the virus has mainly been
on a downward trend. A year ago, the number of COVID-19 cases in Baker
County was rising toward what was, until the delta variant surge started in
late July 2021, the peak of the pandemic during December 2020.
All residents 18 and older are now eligible for a booster vaccine dose, an
opportunity everyone should take advantage of.
And in contrast to the situation last year, there are no limits on occupancy
for our beleaguered restaurants, so festive dinners are easier to plan.
But as we celebrate this most magical of seasons, and revel in a return to
holidays that should feel closer to normal than the 2020 versions, let’s also
rejoice that we are all members of a community which consistently burnishes
its reputation for generosity.
You’ve read about examples of this recently in these pages.
A group of volunteers strives to fi nd forever homes for dogs and cats.
A fundraiser draws crowds to help a family whose lives have been over-
turned by COVID-19.
There are undoubtedly dozens more examples.
So as we prepare for the unique joys of this season, let’s each of us try to per-
petuate that spirit of selfl essness that is our community’s greatest attribute.
It needn’t be anything grandiose.
Maybe a neighbor needs help raking leaves or stacking fi rewood.
Or you know someone who would appreciate a hot meal delivered to their
home — and even more so, someone who stays for a conversation after the
warm package has been set on a table.
How about making a phone call to a friend you haven’t talked with since
summer?
We all have limitations, of course.
Some of us can’t afford to buy a dinner or other gift.
Some of us can’t wield a rake or lug stovelengths around.
But smiles cost nothing.
And speaking kindly isn’t likely to strain any muscles.
When so much that we read and see and hear is marked by anger and
bitterness, by tears and regret, surely we can all muster, in the waning days of
2021, some action, no matter how modest, that refl ects the brighter side of our
nature and gives us all reason to hope for a 2022 that is defi ned by happiness
and optimism.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Your views
Baker City Council
shouldn’t pass on
Daugherty’s experience
Many of us remember the
city budget debacle of 2016,
when the promised gains of
third party ambulance billing
and a potential land sale
did not materialize and the
Baker City Fire Department
positions that were funded
based on that revenue were
at risk. This led to a much
maligned “public safety fee”
that offset the approximate
$180,000 annual shortfall
for three years. I want to
thank Randy Daugherty for
volunteering for the budget
board after those mistakes
were made and helping guide
the city back to a reasonable
and balanced budget with
a healthy carryover from
year to year. We were able to
sunset the safety fee while
maintaining our staffi ng
levels due in no small part
to his fi scally conservative
approach and business/em-
ployer experience.
Unfortunately we ap-
pear doomed to repeat the
mistakes of our past as this
council spends money and
funds new positions without
the input, expertise, and
long-term vision the Bud-
get Board and the Public
Works Advisory Committee
members have to offer. To try
and paint Mr. Daugherty as
having anything to do with
the previous budget shortfalls
shows ignorance that can eas-
ily be corrected by the city’s
archived council and budget
minutes.
Councilor Waggoner has
stated that he wants someone
to fi ll the council vacancy
who is “not really a business
owner.” I would argue that
Mr. Daugherty’s skill set
as an employer and budget
watchdog is exactly what this
council is missing. Accept-
ing criticism is part of the
job, and the fact that Randy
is willing to put his money
where his mouth is and do
the work is an opportunity
this council shouldn’t pass up.
Baker City can’t afford it.
Loran Joseph
Baker City
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Mail: To the Editor, Baker City
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P.O. Box 807, Baker City, OR
97814
Email: news@
bakercityherald.com
Online humor from a most unexpected source
Government bureaucrats are
known for many things but humor,
I submit, wouldn’t make the top 10
on anybody’s list.
Indeed I suspect many people
would argue that the larger share of
bureaucrats, at least while engaged
in their frequently dour business,
are utterly incapable of anything
resembling comedy.
(Intentional comedy, anyway;
bureaucracies are prone to doing
amusing things, unwitting though
these may be.)
Given the relentless banality
characteristic of government opera-
tions — and in particular the way
they communicate with the public
— I always get a particular thrill
when I run across an exception.
My wife, Lisa, for at least the
past couple of years has occasional-
ly rushed up, still chortling, to show
me a Facebook post on her phone.
The page is maintained by the
Portland District of the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.
This agency, which builds and
manages dams, by any reason-
able measure ought to rank as an
especially straitlaced branch of the
federal government.
Dam engineers, who are after
all engaged in a serious business
— their foul ups could fl ood cities
and kill a lot of people — aren’t
renowned for getting up to the sort
of hijinks normally associated with
fraternities.
But the employee who manages
the Portland District’s Facebook
page relentlessly refuses to issue
communications that seem to be
the product of a microprocessor
rather than a human brain.
Chris Gaylord, a public affairs
specialist at the district, has over-
seen the district’s Facebook page,
among his other duties, since the
fall of 2019.
The page’s most persistent trait
is its wittiness.
Gaylord said his fi rst attempt
to inject not only humor, but also a
sense of humanity, into the Corps of
Engineers was an internal publi-
cation distributed only to agency
employees.
That effort, which involved the
installation of water bottle fi lling
stations, was well-received, Gaylord
said, so during the Christmas
season in 2019 he decided to try a
similar approach with the Portland
District’s Facebook page.
“It’s social media so it should be
social,” Gaylord told me in a recent
phone interview. “It can be funny.”
Ever since Gaylord, as he puts it,
“fl ipped the script,” comments from
the public on the District’s comedic
Facebook page have been almost
exclusively positive, he said.
“Humor keeps people engaged
JAYSON
JACOBY
and interested,” Gaylord said.
Which is to say, it encourages
them to check the page frequently.
And that’s the goal, Gaylord said.
The next time the Corps of En-
gineers needs to use the Facebook
page to get vital information to
the public — a fl ood, for instance
— more people are likely to see it
than was the case before Gaylord
revamped the page.
And of course a post about a
potentially dangerous situation
would be rendered in more straight-
forward terms, he said.
In the meantime, though,
Gaylord will continue to enliven
the internet with what I consider a
beacon of good-natured humor.
He said his efforts have also en-
couraged some of his colleagues to
contribute ideas for potential posts.
One of those led to an Oct. 4 post.
It’s the sort of announcement that is
not exactly scintillating, but which
government agencies usually leach
of the tiniest shred of humanity.
But Gaylord, with the assis-
tance of a co-worker, will have none
of this.
The Oct. 4 post reads: “Rec-
reational boaters can now pass
through our three lower #Colum-
biaRiver navigation locks during
daylight hours only — which
eliminates the possibility that
vampires will be travelling down
the Columbia as the nights grow
longer. Sorry, vampires. You’ll have
to resort to draining people’s en-
ergy via the internet (or else send
a familiar through on your behalf
during the daytime).”
The post concludes with a par-
enthetical:
“(We did not consult the Vam-
piric Council.)”
Here’s another example:
On Oct. 1, in recognition of
National Body Language Day (an
event which somehow has man-
aged to elude me until now), the
page had a post lampooning the
tendency for engineers to defl ect
attention, by way of pointing,
from themselves to the inanimate
objects they work with.
Gaylord’s post, which refers to
this as the “Engineer Point,” says
the gesture “says so much at once,
including:
• “I’m an engineer. I’m awk-
ward. If I have to pose for a photo,
then I’m going to direct your atten-
tion to something that isn’t me.”
• “Look at that spalling.”
• “Look at that cavitation.”
• “Really just fi ll in the blank
for any object you could be looking
at.”
• “I just really like pointing at
things.”
• “I am extremely uncomfort-
able.”
On Sept. 28, which is Na-
tional Ask a Stupid Question Day
(another unoffi cial holiday I have,
until now, missed), Gaylord had a
post saying, “Of course, there are
really no stupid questions. But
we’ve defi nitely been asked some
that have made us go, ‘Huh?’ ”
I don’t as a rule recommend
anyone browse a Facebook page,
but I’m pleased to make an excep-
tion for the Portland District.
Nor is the mirth limited to
Gaylord’s words.
He also makes deft use of pho-
tographs — doctored photographs,
in most cases — to augment the
humor.
Gaylord’s responses to com-
ments are clever, too. And, perhaps
most refreshing of all, given the
onslaught of invective and nasti-
ness that is a hallmark of social
media, almost all of those who com-
ment seem to appreciate, as I do,
this beacon of joviality from such
an unexpected source.
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the
Baker City Herald.