THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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news@bakercityherald.com
EDITORIAL
Ready to
ride to the
rescue
T
here’s no good place to get stranded in a moun-
tain blizzard.
But if you’re unfortunate enough to end up in
such a dangerous predicament, you could do worse
than to have it happen in Baker County.
Five snowmobilers from Washington likely would
attest to this after their experience the day after
Christmas.
The group of friends were riding in the Wallowa
Mountains north of Halfway when they were over-
taken by a storm that brought fog, snow and strong
winds that tossed the fresh powder around so as to
obscure the tracks their machines had made earlier.
As dusk fell, the riders couldn’t fi gure out the
route back to the trailhead.
One of the riders, Mike Kelly, used his cellphone
to call another friend, Brandon Christensen, also of
Washington, and explain the situation.
Christensen, who had just returned from a
snowmobile ride in the Tollgate area north of Elgin,
relayed the message to Baker County Sheriff Tra-
vis Ash.
Another member of the group, Jon Mecham,
used his GPS satellite device to send a text message
that arrived at the Baker County Dispatch Center
at about 5:43 p.m. That message also pinpointed
the riders’ location, about a mile and a half west of
Fish Lake.
Ash immediately phoned Duane Miles of the
Panhandle Snowmobile Club in Halfway. Miles
rounded up nine club members, some of whom had
been riding snowmobiles in the same area that day.
The riders refueled their machines and headed
back into the cold, dark mountains, an inherently
dangerous situation.
Guided by the GPS data, the rescuers reached
the Washington men about 9:10 p.m. and led them
to the Clear Creek Sno-Park.
The Washington group, all experienced snowmo-
bilers, not only had the foresight to bring the GPS
device — which, because it uses satellites rather
than cellphone signals, works almost anywhere —
but they also had materials to build a fi re as they
waited for the rescuers.
Christensen said on Monday that he was
“amazed” by how rapidly the Panhandle Snowmo-
bile Club members responded to the call.
Although the GPS technology was vital in this
case, no battery-powered device can replace the
knowledge that the club members have about the
terrain — experience that made it possible for them
to reach the stranded riders so quickly.
It’s gratifying to know that local residents are
willing to put themselves in potential peril to help
others. Ash said he had worked with the Panhandle
Snowmobile Club on previous search and rescue
operations and didn’t hesitate to make the call to
Miles. The club members who responded on Dec. 26
certainly justifi ed the sheriff’s confi dence in their
abilities.
Everyone involved in the operation deserves
thanks, particularly the club members who rode to
the rescue — Dusty Traw, Ray Denig, Kyle Bennett,
Josh Sevier, Kyle Dennis, Chad DelCurto, Tucker
Gulick, Kelly Grisham and Shane Denig.
The Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce has a well-
trained search and rescue team which never fails
to respond when someone is missing, injured or
otherwise in trouble.
Ash himself has rescued several people, including
drivers who got stuck in snow on mountain roads.
But in Baker County even people who are mem-
bers of a recreational group such as the Panhandle
Snowmobile Club, and not part of an offi cial search
and rescue team, are also willing and capable of
potentially saving lives.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Your views
On frigid nights, remember what
the Golden Rule says
Open letter to Baker City:
The Golden Rule — “Do unto oth-
ers as you would have them do unto
you” — is a teaching common to all of
the world’s cultures and religions. It is
worded differently, but the meaning is
the same.
Are we here in Baker City, Oregon,
living up to this if we fail to provide
shelter for the homeless in our com-
munity? Is it enough for us to say
that there is shelter up the road in
La Grande, and they can get there
easily? How easy is it to get there at a
time like Monday morning, December
27, 2021, at 6 a.m., when the tempera-
ture had dropped to 6 degrees?
I invite each of us to step outside
and try to keep warm, either at
night or in the early morning, when
it is cold outside. Do this for even
a short a time as 15 minutes. How
long would YOU wish to be outside?
How would you wish to be treated if
you had no home to go to, no place to
fi nd warmth, or food, or just a little
compassion?
Please think about what your
spiritual teacher would advise you to
do as you contemplate how we will
treat our neighbors who are without
shelter.
Will we shelter them?
Or will we simply say “go on down
the road?”
George Wheaton
Baker City
Angry over omicron? It’s OK
By OWEN LEE-PARK
As I walk through the entrance of
our busy emergency department, I
see the familiar sight of the anxious
and frustrated faces of patients in the
packed waiting room. We exchange
quick glances at each other, and so
much emotion is conveyed merely
through the eyes above our masks. I sit
down at my computer, get a sign-out
from the outgoing colleague, and do a
quick, silent prayer — please give me
strength, patience, compassion, and hu-
mility as I speak to and care for my pa-
tients. I know that being here is among
the worst and most anxiety-provoking
times for many of my patients. For
some others, it is a routine visit that we
treat with a shabby, cold turkey sand-
wich and a couple hours of observation,
because there is simply nowhere else
for them to go or anyone else to speak
to about their loneliness.
Lately, though, it’s been getting
harder to ignore the voice inside of me
that says, “I’m exhausted. I feel burned
out.”
Last week, several of my colleagues
tested positive for COVID. They were
“triple vaccinated,” with two injections
of the Moderna or Pfi zer vaccines, as
well as a booster shot that is now offi -
cially recommended by the CDC. Many
U.S. states are also recording the high-
est single day count of new COVID-19
cases since the onset of the pandemic,
while holiday parties and plane tickets
are also being canceled left and right.
This, just as it began to feel as if things
were beginning to go back to normalcy.
As for me, I had plans to visit my
family for the holiday and lunch dates
with my friends, but now with the new
surge of cases, I will be joining others
in responding to the call of duty at
work for our colleagues who’ve fallen
ill despite having done everything they
were supposed to. Truly, the past two
years of uncertainty and anxiety, with
intermittent periods of hope, have
been exhausting for all of us, including
us health care workers.
There have been numerous peer
reviewed studies that show the
pandemic’s more subtle and insidi-
ous effects on our mental health. But
I also palpate so much of this angst
personally as I speak to my patients,
who come to the ER for a multitude of
reasons. As I listen to their stories in
the cold emergency department room,
it becomes so evident to me that we
are all very, very tired and anxious. Of
course, how could we not be? Another
surge? Another round of cancellations?
Not again! Will it ever end?
Although we still do not know
much about the nature of the omi-
cron variant (and likely other future
variants), research done by some of
the brightest minds of humanity has
shown us that vaccination and get-
ting boosters can reduce the risk of
ourselves and our loved ones getting
serious illnesses from COVID (i.e.
death) by over tenfold. And the scien-
tifi c and medical community is already
developing treatments that could
prevent serious cases of COVID-19,
with some already showing promis-
ing results. If science can bring forth
effective vaccination and treatment, it
is possible that in the near future, we
may fi nally achieve the elusive state
of herd immunity, much like we do for
annual infl uenza cases.
But as we patiently wait for the
scientifi c breakthroughs, I believe it is
so important for us to give ourselves
the permission to be sad, frustrated
and angry. We should acknowledge
that this absolutely sucks, that we
are all very tired, overwhelmed and
sometimes hopeless — and that all of
this is OK. Surely, this acceptance will
not solve our problems, particularly
for those who were already struggling
to make ends meet or keep up with
their numerous responsibilities for
their loved ones. But in these divisive,
vitriolic and isolating times, I hope
this acknowledgment of our feelings
could at least help us see the thread
that connects all of us — that we are
all trying to do our best and that, after
two years, we are all exhausted.
I may not be your doctor, but I
know your pain. And I love you, and I
will pray for you. I hope you will do the
same for us.
Owen Lee-Park is an emergency
medicine resident doctor at George
Washington Hospital in Washington,
OTHER VIEWS
Tyrants can’t expunge their crimes
Editorial from The New
York Daily News:
Tyrants like Xi Jinping of
China strive to control peo-
ple’s actions and thoughts
and by trying to control the
truth, which is why Hong
Kong monuments to the
peaceful protest of Tianan-
men Square turned into a
bloody massacre are being
torn down and carted away
under cover of darkness.
The joyful spring 1989
explosion of free expression
and hope for liberty in the
center of Beijing, with the
impromptu erection of a
Goddess of Democracy stat-
ue not too dissimilar to our
own Statue of Liberty, ended
with the death of hundreds
or thousands killed by the
People’s Liberation Army
attacking the people seeking
liberation.
But none of this exists in
Red China; nothing hap-
pened in Tiananmen Square
that May and June. Tank
Man never stood down a
column of T-54 tanks. The
students of China never
sought freedom and found
death under the boot of their
oppressors in the Commu-
nist Party. Now, Hong Kong,
a once-free bastion, is com-
ing under that same boot.
First to vanish last week
was the Pillar of Shame
sculpture at the University
of Hong Kong commemo-
rating Tiananmen Square.
Dedicated for the eight year
anniversary of the massacre
on June 4, 1997, Hong Kong
was still under British rule,
which ended weeks later
on July 1, with a solemn
promise that Beijing would
respect the former colony’s
independent economic, legal
and judicial systems for 50
years.
Less than halfway
through that half century,
the freedoms which pro-
duced the dynamic city
are being stripped away.
Formerly free elections are
rigged or cancelled if they
can’t be suffi ciently rigged.
The truth-telling Apple
Daily newspaper was shut-
tered by decree, with the
fi nal edition published in
June.
And now come down the
Tiananmen monuments,
using as an excuse an old
British-era sedition law, as
though the ruling thugs
actually care about some
dusty colonial statute. After
the University of Hong
Kong, several other uni-
versities in the city have
removed their own Tianan-
men commemorations.
One day, freedom will come
to China and Hong Kong
and those markers will be
restored.