A8 The BulleTin • Wednesday, June 9, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Cost of inaction
in the schools is
much higher
H
elping kids succeed in Bend-La Pine Schools just got an
apparent win from Deschutes County.
Deschutes County’s budget com-
mittee voted 4-2 Friday to put in the
county budget about $160,000 to-
ward a new partnership. The county
would put health professionals in
the Bend-La Pine Schools to work
with students on health promotion
and prevention. The county and the
school district would split the cost
50-50.
County Commissioners Patti
Adair and Phil Chang voted for the
Youth Success Partnership, as did
two other budget committee mem-
bers. What’s more interesting were
the two “no” votes. County Com-
missioner Tony DeBone voted “no,”
as did Bruce Barrett, another mem-
ber of the budget committee.
Why vote “no”?
DeBone and Barrett didn’t dis-
pute there are problems in the
schools that are not so much about
teaching. Mental health is one. De-
schutes County has one of the high-
est rates of youth suicide in the state.
The county rate is 18.9 suicides per
100,000. Substance abuse from va-
ping to alcohol to marijuana is an-
other. There, too, youth in Deschutes
County can trend higher. Then
there’s teen pregnancy and sexually
transmitted diseases. In 2019, 25
youths between the ages of 10 to 17
in the county got pregnant.
DeBone and Barrett believed the
program may not be ready to go.
DeBone explained his vote to us
by saying he voted “no,” but he is not
against the program. Now there’s an
answer that might have you thinking
you have landed in an M.C. Escher
drawing. The way we understand it
from our conversation with DeBone
is that he had reservations that not
enough work has been done already
to develop the new program for him
to approve spending money on it.
He also brought up a concern about
how involved parents would be.
County officials mentioned parental
involvement. They didn’t empha-
size it.
Barrett had similar worries. He,
too, talked about how he didn’t think
there was enough detail. He and
other budget committee members
were bothered that no specific met-
rics were identified to measure the
program’s performance.
“I feel like this was just kind of a
patchwork presentation to get this
thing underway, so they can spend
some CAT tax and I just don’t feel like
the program is there,” Barrett said.
The CAT tax reference is about
Oregon’s new corporate activity tax.
It could bring in about $1 billion
a year to schools. We are not sure
how Barrett meant that jab about
the CAT tax, though we don’t think
it would be fair to suggest the dis-
trict is throwing together something
quickly just to spend money. Suicide,
substance abuse and teen pregnancy
are serious problems in the schools.
The real problem would be if the
school district and the county were
not willing to try anything new,
not willing to take a chance on a
new program to solve these prob-
lems that are more acute here and
threaten to wreck the ability of stu-
dents to succeed. If everyone on the
county budget committee voted as
DeBone and Barrett did, that’s where
the county would be.
As Nahad Sadr-Azodi, public
health director at Deschutes County,
put it: “If we think the cost of this
program is high, the cost of inaction
is higher.”
Reinforce openness in
Oregon government
T
he secret to more open Or-
egon government is simple:
fewer secrets.
Fewer records requests that have
to go to court to have any chance
of success. Lower prices or a price
of zero charged by government for
records the public is entitled to see.
Public records should not only be
accessible to wealthy individuals or
big corporations.
The Oregon Legislature could
help ensure those things happen
by passing Senate Bill 500. The bill
doesn’t technically make Oregon
government more open. It takes
Oregon’s position of public records
advocate and moves it to be more
independent. The position will be
subject to less control from the gov-
ernor’s office. The bill is scheduled
for a work session later this week.
Nobody in the governor’s office
may have done anything techni-
cally wrong in the events that led
to the resignation of Oregon’s first
public records advocate Ginger Mc-
Call. It felt wrong to her. And the
independence of the office was a
critical issue in that dispute.
Oregon needs a strong indepen-
dent voice helping state and local
government adhere to the letter
and the spirit of the state’s public
records law. SB 500 helps get us
there.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
GUEST COLUMN
Roll up your sleeve, and get your shot
BY FARON SCHULTZ
W
ith jeans, a black T-shirt and
a floppy hat resting on her
head, she sat in the chair
and received her second vaccination
for COVID-19. It was Friday May 28,
2021. When she was finished, a group
of National Guard members, doctors,
nurses and dozens of volunteers gath-
ered around and cheered. You see, this
young woman was the final person to
be vaccinated at the mass vaccination
clinic located at the Deschutes County
fairgrounds.
Immediately we began to tear down
this amazing enterprise that had vac-
cinated more than 119,000 Central
Oregonians. There was a sense of
pride. A sense of accomplishment.
And the realization that we could
have done more.
When the clinic opened early this
year, St. Charles and Volunteers in
Medicine reached out to the commu-
nity for help. We of the tri-county area
raised our hands. More than 1,000
people enlisted. People from Jefferson
County and Crook County joined De-
schutes County volunteers to support
this valiant effort.
We began vaccinating our neigh-
bors aged 75 years and older. Many of
these folks came with a daughter or
son to help with the process. Women
came dressed up and with proper
hair, or as well as it can be during a
pandemic. The men wore veteran’s
caps from WWII and the Korean war.
So many suspenders! We witnessed
wheelchairs, walkers and canes ma-
neuver from the vaccine building to
the respite building. And if you did
not experience this fun, your loss!
Many folks asked if the bar was open,
or if they could go dancing.
These first vaccines were for our
Central Oregon Connects file
In this March photo, those at the Deschutes County fairgrounds prep to give COVID-19
vaccinations. For current vaccine information visit, https://tinyurl.com/ywbx42re
most vulnerable, and our Greatest
Generation did not disappoint. Eyes
were filled with joy, hope and opti-
mism; resolute to claim a more nor-
mal future.
Next we moved to the 65 and older
crowd. This awesome group was fo-
cused on duty, with determination
for success. They were committed to
do everything possible and bring our
country back to normal.
Men’s caps began to read Vietnam
Veteran. Women sported workout
clothes. It was evident that the choice
of vaccination was correct. All were
looking for a return to normal.
As we moved to younger and
younger neighbors, the clothing
changed. The vernacular changed.
The attitudes changed. Parents
brought their children and both em-
braced the solution. The desire to
neutralize this virus remained front
and center.
When the clinic began to operate,
we were driving on snow and ice. Feb-
ruary was dark and gray. And slowly,
the gray began to transition to spring.
A perfect metaphor. The vaccine was
taking hold, and we could see the
light.
To quote the Eagles, “We may lose
or we may win… but we will never be
here again”. The virus is here; it is real,
and it is not going away. Our chances
to win are so much better with the
vaccination.
COVID-19 is agnostic. It does not
care where you live or what you do. It
does not care how you like your eggs
or what language you speak. It simply
attacks. It has killed almost 600,000
Americans since the pandemic began.
And to bring it closer to home, as of
Tuesday, the virus has taken the lives
of 80 Deschutes County residents,
38 dead in Jefferson Country and 22
dead in Crook County.
Central Oregon has made great
progress, but there is more to do.
We all want normal. And normal is
within reach. These vaccines work.
They are safe. They are free.
For me, it is difficult to under-
stand why so many people have de-
cided the vaccination is not right for
them. Please educate yourself. Talk
with your doctor or pharmacist. It is
a personal decision. It is your body. It
is your choice. And understand that
your choice impacts the entire popu-
lation.
Roll up your sleeve.
e
Faron Schultz lives in Powell Butte.
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Create an independent district in Oregon with new 6th seat
BY KEVIN FRAZIER
I
n the 2019 legislative year, there were
236 Democrats in the U.S. House of
Representatives, four of whom were
from Oregon. Out of those 236, though,
the Oregonians were nearly
indistinguishable from the rest
of the Democratic block. Reps.
Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blu-
menauer, and Peter DeFazio
all recorded nearly perfect par-
ty-line records; CQ Press re-
ported their party unity scores
Frazier
as 99 out of 100; Rep. Kurt
Schrader came in at 93. Com-
paratively, on the other side of the aisle,
then-Rep. Greg Walden had a far lower
party unity score of just 81.
On the whole, these scores go to
show that Oregonians have lacked an
independent voice in D.C. Sure, Or-
egon’s Democratic representatives
have spoken out against their party
from time to time and, though less fre-
quently, even voted against their ideo-
logical colleagues; but, from a voting
record perspective, there’s nothing dis-
tinctive about the state’s congressional
delegates — especially on the
Democratic side. In defense
of Oregon’s Democratic dele-
gates, they’re just following a
much larger trend. The aver-
age party unity score in 2019
for House Democrats was
97.6 — up from 75.8 in 1983.
Oregonians have a chance
to elect a voice, rather than
an echo, in their sixth congressional
district. Now more than ever, indepen-
dent voices in the House have a chance
to sway the conversation by virtue of
the fact that neither party has a con-
trolling presence in the chamber. Right
now, there’s 219 Democrats, 212 Re-
publicans and four vacancies. Electing
GUEST COLUMN
independent representatives in a hand-
ful of districts would upend politics as
usual by forcing both parties to cater to
this party-free caucus.
Of course, the odds of state legisla-
tors drawing an independent district
are low. It’s in the interest of both par-
ties to draw “safe” seats. These are seats
with such skewed party registration
differentials that it’s a Sisyphean act for
someone from the other side to run a
credible campaign. These sorts of seats
save both parties money because the
general elections are so uncompeti-
tive. They also reinforce the faulty idea
that we’re stuck with two options when
it comes to our elected officials and,
therefore, entrench the dominance of
the two parties.
So as legislators start to redistrict,
Democrats will push for a map that
has five safe, blue seats and that offers
the Republicans one safe, red seat; Re-
publicans will push for a four-two map.
Neither will advocate for a purple dis-
trict. That’s why the rest of us, the vot-
ers of Oregon, must do so.
A competitive district in Oregon will
give at least some Oregonians a mean-
ingful choice every election cycle. The
two parties will have to put forth their
best candidates, and third party or non-
affiliated candidates may even have a
chance at running competitive races.
This district can become an example
of the sort of democratic competition
that voters have long been denied due
to closed primaries, gerrymandered dis-
tricts and undue influence afforded to
ideologically exclusive parties.
If just a few other states take this
brave approach of thwarting party ef-
forts to draw safe seats, then we could
see the emergence of U.S. Representa-
tives capable of offering their voice and
not merely an echo of the party line.
Our democracy is not broken; it’s
fixed. The rules, the game board and
the players are tilted to two sides. Let’s
create space for an independent voice
in Oregon again; someone who can
truthfully share these same lines from
Sen. Wayne Morse: “I will exercise an
independence of judgment based on
the evidence of each issue. I will weigh
the views of my constituents and party,
but cast my vote free of political pres-
sure and unmoved by threats of loss of
political support.”
e
Kevin Frazier formerly led Passport Oregon, which
helped young Oregonians explore the state’s
outdoors. He currently operates No One Left
Offline, which has distributed nearly 100 Wi-Fi
hot spots throughout Oregon, especially Central
Oregon. Kevin will graduate from the University of
California, Berkeley School of Law in May of 2022.