A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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news@bakercityherald.com
Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
Let voters decide
on governor’s
authority
R
ep. Mark Owens, the Crane Republican
whose district includes Baker County, thinks
state law has given Gov. Kate Brown too
much power to impose restrictions, under unilat-
eral executive orders, during the pandemic. Owens
believes no governor, regardless of party, should
have that much authority.
But he doesn’t want either the executive or the leg-
islative branch to decide whether to make changes.
Owens, quite reasonably, thinks the matter should be
up to voters.
Unfortunately not enough of his colleagues in
the Democrat-controlled Legislature agree. Owens’
bill, House Joint Resolution 206, has stalled in the
House Rules Committee. Owens said it won’t even
get a hearing in Salem before the Legislature ad-
journs next month.
That’s a pity. Owens’ bill would ask voters to amend
the state constitution to limit governors’ emergency
declarations to 30 days and allow county officials to
extend such declarations, or to get rid of aspects of
such declarations.
It’s not likely that such an amendment would pass
in Oregon, where a majority of voters are registered
Democrats, the party that has offered little if any ob-
jection to Brown’s executive orders.
But voters should at least have a chance to decide
whether to shift the balance of power away from ful-
crum of Salem to the state’s 36 counties.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
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: 1239 Longworth House Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. Medford
office: 14 N. Central Avenue Suite 112, Medford, OR 97850; Phone: 541-776-
4646; fax: 541-779-0204; Ontario office: 2430 S.W. Fourth Ave., No. 2, Ontario,
OR 97914; Phone: 541-709-2040. bentz.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.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem office: 900 Court St.
N.E., S-403, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem office: 900 Court St. N.E., H-475,
Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep.MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City, OR 97814; 541-523-
6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at
7 p.m. in Council Chambers. Councilors Jason Spriet, Kerry McQuisten, Shane
Alderson, Joanna Dixon, Heather Sells, Johnny Waggoner Sr. and Dean Guyer.
Baker City administration: 541-523-6541. Jonathan Cannon, city manager; Ty
Duby, police chief; Sean Lee, fire chief; Michelle Owen, public works director.
OTHER VIEWS
Ranchers suffer as meat prices soar
Editorial from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Farmers and ranchers in rural Missouri
and Illinois, it’s safe to say, are a pretty con-
servative group, firm in their longtime
dedication to the deregulation and free
market principles of the Republican Party.
But now might be a good time for them
to take a good look at their bank accounts
and contrast their increasingly meager
earnings to the astounding profits being
enjoyed by the corporate conglomerates
that control America’s meat, poultry and
pork markets. Someone is taking it on the
chin, and it ain’t the conglomerates.
The last entity farmers and ranchers
should turn to for help is the Republican
Party, which has a demonstrated record of
siding with corporate interests whenever
it involves a matchup against the little guy.
At some point, rural voters in Missouri
and Illinois will perform a frank economic
assessment of their sagging financial pros-
pects and start questioning why their party
isn’t stepping up to help.
What’s happening right now across
America is bizarre and defies all standard
economic models. Demand is high for
meat, poultry and pork in American su-
permarkets. Supplies are dwindling and
prices are through the roof — rising 20%
just in the past year. Under normal cir-
cumstances, that situation would deliver
a sizable financial windfall for those who
control the source product — that is, the
ranchers and farmers whose farm animals
supply those markets. But both consumers
and source suppliers find themselves in-
creasingly squeezed.
Right there in the middle, however,
are corporate conglomerates, like Tyson,
Cargill and Sysco, that have seen their
profitability skyrocket since the pan-
demic began. The Biden administration
says four large conglomerates control
85% of the market. Their domination
allows them to dictate purchase prices
at the producer level and sales prices at
the consumer level. If ranchers dare to
challenge them, they can find themselves
with no slaughterhouses willing to accept
their animals because no one wants to
get squashed by Bigfoot.
“We are contemplating getting out,”
Montana rancher Steve Charter told
The New York Times in December as he
choked back tears. “We are not getting our
share of the consumer dollars.”
The tactics employed by the conglomer-
ates invoke the same images of the robber
barons from the dawn of America’s west-
ward expansion. Republicans, transfixed
with the idea that unbridled free enter-
prise can do no wrong, don’t dare question
the unfair practices that are taking place.
Ranchers like Charter have long been
loath to challenge that conservative ortho-
doxy, yet they cannot deny the real-life ef-
fects corporate market domination is hav-
ing on their ability to survive.
What’s happening here is not free en-
terprise. It bears all the hallmarks of
abuse bordering on antitrust. If farmers
and ranchers want to see this unfair cor-
porate domination change so they can
survive, they’ll either have to change
party loyalties or force their own party
to come to grips with the monster Re-
publicans helped create.
our children got to be free all day from
mask-induced bacteria, oxygen depriva-
tion, and skin disorders. The proposed
With the widespread knowledge ex-
resolution also covered our natural re-
panding every day that cloth masks don’t sources within Baker County and ac-
work, that vaccination injuries far out-
cented our right to due process.
weigh a 99.9% coronavirus survivability,
Gary Dielman and other far left extrem-
and the pain exacted on our families and ists have repeatedly misrepresented BCU
economy from the manufactured lock-
for several weeks now in this publication.
downs, it’s obvious that our individual
They have made some absurdly false state-
liberties should have never been com-
ments regarding BCU. I understand those
promised for a “security” narrative.
few liberals will continue their sideshow of
Baker County United (BCU) started
ambient noise, but this merely platforms
late last year as a gathering for our
a community discussion on how we can
county residents to work together in pre- retain our Republic and leave the kind of
serving our Bill of Rights while using
America to our kids that previous genera-
our Constitution as the measuring stick tions sacrificed for. While I disagree with
with which to grade our locally elected
nearly everything they’ve written, I do
public servants. While other counties
agree with them in inviting you to come
have passed resolutions representing
see what all the fuss is about surrounding
their citizens against big government’s
BCU. All are welcome that embrace lib-
overreach, the Constitutional resolution erty, truth, and non-violence.
that BCU proposed to our county com-
I further plead with our local elected
missioners has been largely shunned.
officials to remain true to their oaths of
The resolution was proposed in the
office and remember that they represent
preservation of our right to medical
and work for us ... not Salem. Our Baker
choice; for citizens to decide regarding
County school boards need to do the
forced vaccinations, and whether or not same. In addition to their regularly tax-
funded budgets, our four school districts
have accepted millions of dollars from the
federal government for forcing our chil-
dren to suffer with masks. Our children’s
health should not be for sale in exchange
for bribe money.
I think our commissioners and may-
ors are simply scared and want extra
money. Our county budget is over $40
million but the county only raises about
$6 million from us in property taxes. To
what extent are we for sale? Courage and
unity for our basic inherent rights must
be the standard. 2022 is an election year.
Consenting to the government of our
choosing is infused into the very fabric of
America’s bedrock. Consent is our heri-
tage, and Jefferson championed it in the
greatest resolution ever passed, our Dec-
laration of Independence.
I encourage all of you who have not at-
tended a BCU gathering to come and in-
vestigate what is actually being done to
preserve our culture and economy. Come
find us on Facebook and visit us on our
website at www.bakercountyunited.com.
Jake Brown
Halfway
YOUR VIEWS
Baker County United welcomes
people to learn about the group
COLUMN
Banning books weakens our democracy
BY SUZANNE NOSSEL
In the ever-worsening culture wars,
schools have emerged as a battle-
front, with fierce arguments raging
about the contents of curricula and
propriety of particular books. Debat-
ing what literature and ideas to teach
students is a mark of a healthy dem-
ocratic society. But coming amid as-
saults on voting rights, protest rights
and respect for dissent, these efforts
to repress disfavored ideas and books
must be recognized as part of a larger
attack on democracy itself.
Since January 2021 more than
150 bills have been introduced in 39
states that would restrict the teach-
ing of certain curricula, mostly on
issues of race and gender. Of these
bills, more than 103 were intro-
duced since the start of 2022. Twelve
have already become law. Roughly
two-thirds of the bills target K-12
schools, with the rest focused on
higher education, libraries and state
agencies. Sixty-two include manda-
tory punishments for those who vio-
late the bans.
Initially, most of these measures
used the misnomer of “critical race
theory” in an effort to push back
against teachings thought to over-
emphasize the role of race as the
driving force in American history
and culture. But more recently intro-
duced restrictions reach beyond any
single concept.
South Carolina’s House Bill 4605
seeks to protect students from any
material that might cause “discom-
fort, guilt, anguish, or any other form
of psychological distress” on account
of their “race, ethnicity, sex, sexual
orientation, national origin, heritage,
culture, religion, or political belief.”
Such language, common to many of
these bills, is dangerous. It is impossi-
bly broad, opening the door to elimi-
nating an endless range of works and
topics. It also undermines one of the
very aims of education, which is to
help students move beyond their ex-
isting assumptions about the world.
Most book bans target works by
and about people of color as well as
LGBTQ subjects and storylines. Flor-
ida’s Polk County “quarantined” 16
books, including Toni Morrison’s “Be-
loved” and “The Bluest Eye,” based
on complaints from a group called
County Citizens Defending Freedom.
And as the calls for book banning in-
crease, so does the vitriol that accom-
panies them: Last fall two Spotsylva-
nia, Virginia, school board members
called for books banned in the county
to be burned.
International examples offer an
ominous clue as to where this could
lead. In the 20th century the South
African apartheid state banned
12,000 books, at one point comman-
deering a steel factory furnace in or-
der to burn reviled texts. And in the
1930s the Nazi Party railed against
“un-German books,” staging book
burnings of Jewish, Marxist, pacifist
and sexually explicit literature.
More recently, in 2018 Iran banned
the study of English in primary
school to ward off “cultural invasion.”
Legislation adopted in Hungary last
year banned all curriculum referenc-
ing homosexuality from schools in
the name of “protection of children.”
In 2014 Russia passed a new law add-
ing Nazi propaganda to the subjects it
bans and restricts — LGBTQ content,
offenses to traditional values and crit-
icisms of the state are among others.
Booksellers were so fearful of run-
ning afoul of the broad law that they
removed Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer
Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus”
from stores because of the swastika
on the book’s cover, despite its po-
tent anti-fascist message. Last month
a Tennessee school board banned
“Maus” from its curriculum.
Book bans and curriculum de-
bates in the United States have flared
up episodically over time, as rattled
communities have sought to pump
the brakes on social change in ar-
eas including evolutionary science,
sexuality and the embrace of ethnic
differences. Although some of the ar-
guments being made today — about
protecting innocent students from
corrupting ideas — echo traditional
motives for book banning, the current
crusade has a more sinister cast.
The spiking numbers — what the
American Library Association has
called an “unprecedented volume” of
book challenges including more than
155 unique “censorship incidents”
between June and November, 2021
— indicate that something organized
is afoot. In many cases the new bans
are not simply spontaneous initia-
tives by local citizens. Conservative
donors, think tanks and organizers
have been drafting and shopping
model laws, lobbying legislators, re-
cruiting parent and community ac-
tivists, and providing playbooks on
what to get banned and how.
Some of the same institutions and
funders fueling book and curricu-
lum bans are mounting parallel, par-
tisan efforts to curb assembly rights,
make it more difficult for members
of minority groups to vote, comman-
deer election administration and sow
doubts about election integrity. It is
all part of the work of a revanchist
political movement bent on tram-
pling civil liberties in order to gain
and hold power. Organizers have hit
upon bans as a potent tool to fire up
suburban parents with an issue that
affects their own kids’ bookbags.
The techniques being used to en-
force these prohibitions feed into an
already menacing atmosphere of po-
litical schism. School board members
in Redding, Connecticut, and Eureka,
Missouri, stepped down last year after
receiving death threats in the course
of curricular battles. In an incident
reminiscent of Cold War-era purges, a
school principal in Colleyville, Texas,
was put under investigation for his
teachings on issues of race, finally re-
signing under pressure after being
accused of “encouraging the disrup-
tion and destruction of our district.”
School officials across the country
have been similarly targeted.
The blitz on books and curricula
is one flank in a wider onslaught on
institutions and norms, aligned with
part of our country’s resistance to the
political and social implications that
come with demographic and ideolog-
ical shifts. Holding fast to democracy
means holding fast to books, defend-
ing the judgment of teachers and li-
brarians, and vigorously upholding
the rights to read and learn.
Suzanne Nossel is chief executive of
PEN America and author of “Dare to
Speak: Defending Free Speech for All.”