A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
A Public Forest
Commission
solution
I
n all of the anger
surrounding last fall’s court
decision nullifying the
Public Forest Commission, a
simple solution seems to have
been overlooked.
While the judge ruled the
citizen initiative that created
the commission should never
have been placed on the ballot
in 2002, he also explained
precisely how to overcome the
legal problem he identifi ed.
State Circuit Court Judge
William D. Cramer Jr. ruled the
measure Grant County voters
approved in 2002 was invalid
because it confl icted with
paramount state and federal
laws. Specifi cally, he ruled, the
measure contained language
indicating the Public Forest
Commission would manage all
public land within the county.
Cramer said this violated
the federal Constitution,
federal laws governing Forest
Service and Bureau of Land
Management lands, the Oregon
Constitution, the Oregon
Admission Act and laws
defi ning the legal limits of
county ordinances.
However, Cramer did not
say county residents had no
rights to voice their concerns or
to create a commission devoted
to forest issues. In fact, he said
quite the opposite.
“If the voters or the County
Court of Grant County choose
to pass a measure/ordinance
to set up a forest commission
to develop plans for future
management of lands if those
lands should ever come into
County ownership, or to
provide advisory information
on how the County Court
should seek to collaborate
and advocate for uses on state
and federal lands, they can
do so,” Cramer wrote in his
Nov. 8 opinion on the case.
“But any such measure should
clearly state the commissions
(sic) limits, must meet the
procedural requirements in
its inception and validation,
and must not violate other
superior or paramount laws.
As I understand how this
commission actually functioned
a proper measure could be
developed and passed.”
It has been three months
since Cramer issued his
opinion. If people upset by
the ruling had spent that time
collecting signatures for a new
citizen initiative, they may have
already collected enough to put
this issue before voters again
with revised language that
would not run afoul of the law.
Blame and condemnation
has been cast at the Grant
County Court — for failing to
notify elected Public Forest
Commission members of the
circuit court proceedings and
for refusing to appeal Cramer’s
decision. It should be noted,
however, the county court could
have chosen not to defend the
measure, but the commissioners
chose to spend taxpayer dollars
for the county’s attorney to
fi ght to retain it.
Those upset by the
nullifi cation have argued
the measure only sought to
form a committee to manage
public lands if they were ever
legally transferred to county
control. This, however, was the
argument the county’s attorney
made before the judge. It didn’t
work.
People are understandably
upset. Those who worked to
draft this measure and collect
signatures may feel the fruits
of their labor were stolen.
Those who voted to form
the commission may feel the
government is trying to silence
their voice. Those who served
on the commission and those
campaigning for position
openings this year may feel like
the rug was pulled out from
under their feet.
But the anger surrounding
the commission’s nullifi cation
seems misdirected. And it is
accomplishing far less than a
redirected effort to establish a
commission within the confi nes
of the law.
W HERE TO W RITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541-
575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax:
541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@centu-
rylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day,
97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541-
575-1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax:
541-421-3075. Email: info@cityofl ong-
creek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument
97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025.
Email: cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt.
Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax:
541-932-4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie
City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax:
820-3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State
Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-
3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website: www.
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State Capitol,
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180.
Website: www. leg.state.or.us (includes
Oregon Constitution and Oregon Revised
Statutes).
• State Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario (Dis-
trict: 60), Room H-475, State Capitol, 900
Court St. N.E., Salem OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1460. Email: rep.cliffbentz@state.
or.us. Website: www.leg.state.or.us/bentz/
home.htm.
• State Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R — (District
30) Room S-223, State Capitol, Salem
97310. Phone: 503-986-1950. Email: sen.
tedferrioli@state.or.us. Email: TFER2@aol.
com. Phone: 541-490-6528. Website: www.
leg.state.or.us/ferrioli.
• Oregon Legislative Information —
(For updates on bills, services, capitol or
messages for legislators) — 800-332-2313.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600 Pennsylva-
nia Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500;
Phone-comments: 202-456-1111; Switch-
board: 202-456-1414.
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516 Hart
Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Email:
wayne_kinney@wyden.senate.gov Website:
http://wyden.senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313 Hart
Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C.
20510?. Phone: 202-224-3753. Email:
senator@merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-
228-3997. Oregon offi ces include One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St.,
Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; and 310
S.E. Second St., Suite 105, Pendleton, OR
97801. Phone: 503-326-3386; 541-278-
1129. Fax: 503-326-2990.
F ARMER ’ S F ATE
Hieroglyphic English
By Brianna Walker
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
“I thought a thought. But the
thought I thought wasn’t the thought
I thought I thought.”
My son just looked at me like I
wasn’t thinking clearly. Of all the
subjects in school, English was
defi nitely the one we both found the
most challenging: I to teach it, and
he to learn it. Holding a degree in
English and having a bit of experi-
ence teaching high school English
had me more confi dent and less pre-
pared for our actual experience.
Rule: When two vowels go
a-walking, the fi rst one does the
talking. As in boat, or train. Except
when they don’t as in double or
howl.
Rule: ie says I as in pie or allies.
Except when it makes the E sound
like chief or reprieve.
Rule: The i says I in words end-
ing with -ild or -ind: wild, mild,
bind, kind. Except wind, unless it’s
wind.
Rule: If a root word ends in a
consonant, double it before adding
the suffi x such as plan/planned, sip/
sipping, fat/fatty. Except in the case
of words like fasten/fastening, glis-
ten/glistened, canter/cantered.
Rule: The letter C is pronounced
K as in camel or caramel unless it
sounds like cyclone.
Rule: G is pronounced guh as in
gears or gaffe, unless it’s giraffe or
George.
Rule: The g in gn is silent in gnu,
gnaw and sign. Yet
if the g and n occur
at a syllable break,
it becomes signal,
and indignant.
When we got to
the silent letters,
Brianna
my son looked
Walker
up from his book:
“Why do they even
bother putting on a letter if we have
to ignore it anyway?”
How do I answer that? I have
no idea. I’ve always just accepted
it. But why? What purpose do all
the silent letters serve? My son sat
looking expectantly at me.
“Yes, English is weird. It can be
understood though, through tough
thorough thought.” He wasn’t im-
pressed.
And that was just one of many
baffl ing English moments we have
had over the past year and a half.
Plural words are also fun. Man is
men, but pan is not pen. Foot is feet
but boot is not beet. One is that, and
three is those. Box becomes box-
es — but ox becomes oxen. I have
laughed at these oddities before, but
never before was I trying to explain
them to an inquiring 7-year-old.
Struggling with the suffi x o-w, I
started punching him playfully ev-
ery time it came up in our reading
to help him remember, “o-w says
(ou)ch.”
But then he said that “row should
be R-O-E, not R-O-W, because it
says O, now OW.” True ... but ... it
just doesn’t. Not a great answer —
not even a good answer. But I bare-
ly understand digraphs and how
syllable breaks and letter clusters
change letter sounds myself — how
can I explain it to a second grader?
Our book continued with the story
of King Tut’s tomb — pronounced
toom. Here we go again. Womb
says room, tomb says toom, bomb
says boom ... oh wow, that example
blew up in my face.
Then there is the emphasis on
certain syllables to make different
words: In a minute I’ll examine
this minute sample. I’m not content
with the content of this book. I ob-
ject to that object.
There are double words as in the
sentence: “All the faith we had had,
had had no effect on the outcome of
his life.”
We have noses that run and feet
that smell. Slim chance and fat
chance mean the same thing — but
wise man and wise guy don’t. A
house burns up while it burns down.
There is no egg in eggplant. Ham-
burgers don’t have ham in them. We
recite at a play and play at a recital.
And we haven’t even started on
the letters that sometimes say dif-
ferent things entirely. I once saw a
sign that read: “GHOTI says fi sh.”
G-H as in cough.
O as in women.
T-I as in nation.
I’m starting to see the appeal of
hieroglyphics.
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
Thankful to have
ambulance back
To the Editor:
On Thursday night, I spent most
of the entire night by myself be-
cause my wife was in and out of bed,
answering the call of the ambulance
pager, which is once again sitting
by the bed. She was no sooner back
from one call when the pager went
off again. That night the Monument
ambulance transported three local
citizens in distress to meet the John
Day ambulance where they were
taken to Blue Mountain Hospital
for treatment. A month ago, those
people would have had to wait over
an hour for an ambulance. But now,
they only wait 15-30 minutes be-
fore someone is on their doorstep
to attend to them. I want to person-
ally thank the new Blue Mountain
Hospital CEO Derek Daly and the
new Ambulance Administrator Re-
bekah Rand for all they have done
to bring ambulance service back to
Monument. I appreciate all the peo-
ple who spoke out; everyone should
be thankful to have the ambulance
back.
Darrell Howe
Monument
Discrimination?
To the Editor:
If our Governor Kate Brown is
willing to use her executive pow-
ers to protect undocumented aliens
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
P UBLISHER ............................... M ARISSA W ILLIAMS , MARISSA @ BMEAGLE . COM
E DITOR .................................... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ BMEAGLE . COM
A DMINISTRATIVE A SSISTANT ........ J ACKIE O SBORNE , JACKIE @ BMEAGLE . COM
R EPORTER ............................... R YLAN B OGGS , RYLAN @ BMEAGLE . COM
C OMMUNITY N EWS .................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
S PORTS ................................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
M ARKETING R EP ....................... K IM K ELL , ADS @ BMEAGLE . COM
O FFICE M ANAGER ..................... L INDSAY B ULLOCK , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
from federal prosecution, shouldn’t
she also protect Oregon citizens
such as farmers and ranchers from
federal overreach and prosecution?
Such an example is ranchers Steven
and Dwight Hammond in regards to
their fi ve-year prison sentences for
burns used to protect and improve
their ranch. Is this not discrimina-
tion?
Sam Noonkester
Myrtle Creek
Choosing laws
to obey
To the Editor:
I recently read at KGW.com that
both Senator Merkley and Senator
Wyden have told the city of Port-
land that they can pick and choose
which federal laws that they will
obey. Based on that premise, Grant
County citizens can pick and choose
which laws we will obey. I am sure
glad they clarifi ed that for us.
Ralph Goodwin
John Day
Malheur protest
trial, part two
To the Editor:
The “leaders” of the Malheur
refuge protest were acquitted on all
charges last October. The prosecu-
tion’s response was to add many
more charges to the remaining de-
fendants, Darryl Thorn, Jake Ryan,
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Duane Ehmer, Dylan Anderson,
Jason Patrick and Sean and Sandy
Anderson.
Judge Anna Brown decided that
the defendants are not entitled to be
judged by the jury on the misde-
meanor charges, instead their inno-
cence or guilt and the sentencing on
the misdemeanors will be decided
by bench trial by Judge Anna Brown
herself. For a judge that showed so
much contempt for the defendants
of part one of this trial, this seems to
be a guarantee that the prosecution
will get at least some convictions.
The jury will be allowed to decide
innocence or guilt on the felony
charges only, and even then the jury
will not be allowed to know what
the sentencing for those charges
may be.
When denying a jury trial on
misdemeanor charges, Judge Anna
Brown is holding a U.S. Supreme
Court opinion superior to the U.S.
Constitution. It is written in the
U.S. Constitution, Article III, Sec-
tion 2: “ The trial of all Crimes, ex-
cept in Cases of Impeachment; shall
be by jury...” There are no other ex-
ceptions. This goes against the Su-
premacy Clause of the Constitution.
Starting Feb. 14, supporters of
the defendants will be watching the
trial and gathering across the street
from the courthouse at “Patriots
Corner.” Hatfi eld Federal Court-
house is at 1000 SW Third Ave. in
downtown Portland.
Terry Noonkester
Myrtle Creek
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