A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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news@bakercityherald.com
Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
Welcome
reversal
on football
B
rad Dunten and Josh Cobb talked, and
people listened.
Th e winners are high school football players
in some of Oregon’s tiniest towns.
Dunten, the athletic director at Powder
Valley High School in North Powder, and
Cobb, the school’s head football coach, were
dismayed by a recent proposal from a state
committee to do away with 8-man football, the
format that Powder Valley and dozens of other
Class 1A schools have used for decades.
Th e Oregon School Activities Association’s
(OSAA) Football Ad Hoc Committee made
that recommendation on Dec. 20. Th e com-
mittee’s plan would have switched to either
a 9-man or a 6-man football format for the
state’s smaller high schools.
Th e proposal prompted immediate oppo-
sition from Dunten and Cobb, who had, less
than a month earlier, watched Powder Valley
play Adrian in a classic Class 1A state champi-
onship game at Baker High School, a thrilling
contest in which Adrian rallied to win 46-38.
Dunten dispatched a survey to 95 Class 1A
schools, which are fairly evenly distributed,
geographically speaking, in the state, including
more than a dozen in Northeastern Oregon.
Th e response was overwhelmingly in favor
of keeping the 8-man format. School offi cials
who answered Dunten’s survey mentioned,
among other reasons for their preference, that
the 8-man format is well-suited to the number
of players who normally turn out for football
at Class 1A schools, and that it allows schools
to schedule games against teams from neigh-
boring states that also play 8-man football
rather than the 9-man format.
“Eight-man just feels right,” Cobb said.
Dunten was among the Class 1A school
offi cials who expressed their concerns during
the OSAA committee’s Jan. 5 meeting.
Two days later the committee announced
that it supported continuing the 8-man format
for Class 1A schools.
Th e 6-man option, which has been in place
for the past few years, would continue for the
smallest schools or those that have too few
players for 8-man competition. Baker County’s
three Class 1A schools — Pine Eagle, Hun-
tington and Burnt River — already play 6-man
football.
Th e OSAA executive board has yet to
approve the committee’s revised recommenda-
tion. But it should be an easy choice.
Th anks to Dunten’s eff orts, the schools most
directly aff ected by the committee’s earlier
proposal to do away with 8-man football have
made explicit their feelings on the matter.
Th e committee acknowledged those schools’
preferences, and OSAA should make it offi cial.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
YOUR VIEWS
City dropped the ball on plowing
snow last week
I understand city Public Works bigshot
Tom Fisk decided the rate of melting Fri-
day, Jan. 7, was going to solve all our prob-
lems with the snow and, therefore, plow-
ing was no longer necessary.
So, is he not capable of reading a
weather forecast? Or doesn’t he under-
stand that melting depends on the tem-
perature ... which fell again to freezing Sat-
urday and days thereafter?
I have some pictures of the frozen snow
ruts on city streets. I’d like to complete the
collection with street conditions in front
of Tom Fisk’s house...and the houses of
ALL city bigshots, for that matter. I have
a feeling THEIR places look a little more
tidy than ours.
Doug Darlington
Baker City
Idaho Power should leave Oregon
property owners alone
I am responding to article “Utility
goes to court over B2H,” which explains
how Idaho Power Corporation is now
attempting to compel land owners in
Baker County to allow surveying for the
proposed B2H power line project. One
of my big objections to this massive and
unneeded project is the sheer amount of
private land that the government will have
to take in order to complete the project.
Even though the article mentions only
five parcels in Baker County, the amount
of private property required for the entire
B2H line is enormous. Do the math: 74%
of the proposed 296-mile power line is on
private land. And the line requires a min-
imum 250-foot-wide corridor. Any land
owner who doesn’t want to cooperate will
eventually get hauled into court, first to
allow surveys, and later to coerce sale of
their land through eminent domain.
And for what? The line passes through
five Oregon counties and distributes no
power along its way to SW Idaho. Idaho
Power has been fixated on building a new
B2H line for 14 years without adequately
considering alternatives, like upgrading
and fire-hardening existing lines, or siting
wind and solar plants in SW Idaho, where
the power would be used. It’s time to tell
Idaho Power to leave Oregonians alone. For
more information, see www.stopb2h.org.
Jon White
La Grande
Why did Baker school district refuse
to delay or cancel classes?
Who is running the school district?
With several feet of snow, sub-zero tem-
peratures, and slick road conditions why
does Baker School District (BSD) refuse to
delay opening or cancel classes? When ev-
ery other school in Eastern Oregon shuts
down, does BSD? No. When the heat-
ing system breaks down leaving classes
a balmy 40°F do they shut down, delay
start, or even warn parents and students
of the refrigerator they’ll be learning in?
No. When four entire bus routes are shut
down forcing their hand, do they close the
school so teachers won’t have to re-teach
their absentee students when they return
the next school day? No. When a dozen
students and staff members, driving on
their own to make it to school on these
wintery days, slide off of the road, into
other cars or buildings or trees or ditches,
do they cancel school the next time snow-
pocalypse arrives? No. So I ask again, who
the hell is running this school and why am
I the only one pissed off about their negli-
gence? Oh, and if you’ve been wondering,
all of that happened last week.
Best regards and Happy New Year.
Casey Smith
Baker City
Commissioners should reject
‘constitutional county’ proposal
I write today to express my opposi-
tion in the strongest possible terms the
resolution recently brought forward by
the group Baker County United to make
Baker County a “constitutional county.”
I also oppose any attempt by the county
to join the fringe group COSPA.
And I most strongly oppose empower-
ing our county sheriff with the power of
interpreting federal and state law.
These proposals, taken separately,
amount to:
1) A resolution for Baker County to un-
necessarily declare that we’re governed by
a constitution. We’re already aware of this.
In fact, we’re governed according to fed-
eral and state constitutions that do not
mention sheriffs!
2) A resolution to give undue influ-
ence over county affairs to an anti-gov-
ernment, extremist, minority group with
known ties and relationships to white
supremacist organizations. (Founder
Richard Mack was a board member of
the Oath Keepers and the concept of
“county supremacy” originates with the
far-right Posse Comitatus movement of
the 1960s).
3) A resolution to subvert state and
federal jurisdiction and grant the county
sheriff outsized authority over the citi-
zens of this county.
Taken together, these proposals are a
subversion of the supremacy clause of the
US Constitution, Article VI, Paragraph
2 which prohibits states from interfering
with the federal government’s exercise of
its constitutional powers.
This entire proposal is distracting the
Baker County Commission from the very
real job of guiding this county through
the crisis of COVID as well as its ongoing
work on the deep issues confronting our
citizens: jobs, lack of health care, home-
lessness, food scarcity, and poverty.
Additionally, members of the Baker
County United group openly flouted the
mask mandate at the last public meet-
ing on Dec. 15 and this mandate was
not enforced by the commission. This is
extremely unfortunate. Not only did it
send the wrong signal but, as a parent of
a medically fragile child, it made it im-
possible for me to attend the meeting on
Jan. 12 to make my voice heard. I have
no doubt that this tactic is intended to
silence the voices of the majority of peo-
ple in this county who take the recent
COVID surge seriously and who oppose
this proposal. If Baker County United
wants to waste our time with a vote on
this proposal, they should be required to
gather the requisite number of signatures
to get it on the ballot. (496 necessary sig-
natures — 6% of 2020 votes cast for gov-
ernor).
The Baker County Commission should
table this resolution and move on to more
important matters.
Jack Greenman
Halfway
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-
1111; to send comments, go to www.whitehouse.
gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate
Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510;
202-224-3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland office: One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250,
Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386; fax 503-326-2900.
Baker City office, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-278-
1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. office: 221 Dirksen Senate
Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-
5244; fax 202-228-2717. La Grande office: 105 Fir St.,
No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax,
541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District): D.C. office: 2182
Rayburn Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515,
202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. La Grande office:
1211 Washington Ave., La Grande, OR 97850; 541-
624-2400, fax, 541-624-2402; walden.house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem,
OR 97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.
treasurer@ost.state.or.us; 350 Winter St. NE, Suite 100,
Salem OR 97301-3896; 503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum:
Justice Building, Salem, OR 97301-4096; 503-378-
4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and
information are available online at www.leg.state.
or.us.
OTHER VIEWS
Social media: prophets for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot
Editorial from St. Louis Post-
Dispatch:
In the weeks before the Novem-
ber 2020 election and subsequent
Capitol insurrection, podcasts and
Facebook postings lit up with al-
legations of massive voting fraud
and calls for violence to address the
spreading myth of a stolen presiden-
tial election. Social media compa-
nies, including Google and YouTube,
allowed the use of their platforms
to spread the myth and whip up
pre-insurrection hysteria. And re-
cent investigations indicate social
media companies had the technol-
ogy to intervene but didn’t. Misin-
formation sites flourished, including
one formed by a Missourian, United
Conservatives for America, with
more than 11,000 group members
on Facebook.
Facebook waited until after the
Jan. 6, 2021, attack to curtail that
latter group’s activities, which
prompted founder Jerry Smith to
complain to a Washington Post/Pro-
Publica reporter: “Are you going to
do away with their free speech? If
someone thinks it’s not a fair elec-
tion … why can’t they have their
opinion on whether it’s a fair elec-
tion or not?”
Freedom of expression is a right
that all Americans should exercise
and defend. But all should be able
to recognize the difference between
responsible free expression and de-
liberate misinformation that incites
violence. It’s not always easy to draw
a clear line, particularly when it in-
volves internet communications. The
kinds of violent discourse outlined in
separate investigations by the Brook-
ings Institution, ProPublica and The
Washington Post underscore the
need for tighter checks by social me-
dia companies on the radical groups
using their services.
The “big lie” wasn’t something
President Donald Trump invented
on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, be-
fore he unleashed thousands of sup-
porters to attack the Capitol. Rather,
Trump’s foot soldiers had spent pre-
vious weeks and months flooding
the internet with wild, unsubstanti-
ated assertions that Democrats were
plotting to steal the election. Smith,
for example, posted in August 2020
that “DEMS Are Pushing For Vote
By Mail. Another Way For Them To
Steal The Election.” That was just
one posting that prompted the un-
filtered conspiracy-mongering by
thousands of his other members.
Facebook didn’t intervene until it
was too late.
Crazed rants on other group sites
talked of lynchings, civil war and
shooting traitors. They were so vo-
luminous — 10,000 per day — that
Facebook either couldn’t keep up or
stopped trying. It did crack down
completely on QAnon groups before
the election. But then Facebook re-
laxed its focus, just as a new crop of
radical groups was surging forward
between November and Jan. 6, the
ProPublica/Post investigation found.
A Brookings analysis of podcasts
yielded similar findings, with a par-
ticularly sharp increase in the ad-
vancement of the big lie by prom-
inent Trump backers like Steve
Bannon, Sean Hannity and Rush
Limbaugh, each of whom devoted
half or more of their episodes to elec-
tion-fraud conspiracy theories.
The insurrection might have
come as a huge surprise to most
Americans, but these investigations
suggest it should’ve been no surprise
at all, especially for their social me-
dia hosts.