A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
The cost of war, at
home and abroad
On Monday, we honored
those who made the ultimate
sacrifi ce — giving their life
because their country sent them
to war.
Americans answer the call.
Generation after generation, the
urge to serve our nation draws
excellent people into military
service. They defend us from
foreign threats, protect vital
interests around the world and
gain unique experiences and
job skills that strengthen the
U.S. once they return to civilian
life.
Living here as we do
in small communities and
rural areas, we take special
pride in personally knowing
servicemen and women.
Spring high school graduation
ceremonies often include
news about local kids making
the leap into becoming adult
women and men by joining the
armed forces. We then follow
their accomplishments and
adventures on their parents’
Facebook pages and in printed
news items. It is among the
signature experiences of
small-town life to encounter
young people we witnessed
growing up — perhaps playing
on the basketball court —
now returned on leave from a
military assignment someplace
far away.
These relationships
between civilians and active-
service personnel are some
of the strongest glue holding
the nation together. It is
fundamental to the essential
national DNA of the U.S. that
we respect and appreciate our
fellow citizens who man the
guard posts of democracy.
There was a time when
Congress and the White House
contained many veterans. They
had personally witnessed the
horrible cost of war, in the form
of friends shot down before
their eyes. Because there is
no draft, there are now few
veterans among our nation’s
top leadership — nor do many
of their children serve in the
armed forces. War has become
something they send other
Americans’ children to do.
And in all fairness, fewer U.S.
citizens in general have close
kinfolk in the line of fi re. Most
of us, though, in every station
of life share a deep and sincere
appreciation for our honored
war dead.
Since the awful events of
Sept. 11, 2001, it is generally
reported that more than 5,000
U.S. service personnel have
died. More than 50,000 have
been physically wounded.
Many more suffer from
combat-related stress disorders.
So even though the generations
that fought in World War II,
Korea and Vietnam are passing
away, we will be paying tribute
to modern American warriors
for the next half century or
more.
President Ulysses S. Grant
— as good a general as the
U.S. ever had — said, “There
never was a time when, in my
opinion, some way could not be
found to prevent the drawing of
the sword.” Our sad drumbeat
of wars in the 20th and 21st
centuries informs us that we are
still too far away from learning
this lesson.
But war is not the true
subject for Memorial Day. We
honor the personal sacrifi ces
that men and women have
made in the name of our nation
and its Constitution in many
forms.
We were reminded of the
ongoing struggle Friday night,
as complete strangers came
to the aid of two Muslim
women on the Portland MAX
being harassed by an angry
and misguided man, a self-
described sociopath and white
supremacist. Two of the men
who stepped forward — a
53-year-old Army veteran and
a 23-year-old recent college
graduate — were stabbed to
death standing between the
knife-wielding attacker and the
women.
They paid dearly, as did their
families, for standing without
hesitation for the American
promise.
What we honored on
Memorial Day is selfl ess
service to the country. But if
the day is to be anything but
an excuse for a day off from
work, we must put meat on
the bones of otherwise empty
promises.
History teaches the danger
faced by powerful nations
where the majority of the
citizenry no longer remembers
the hardship and realities faced
by its defenders. It becomes
far too easy to expend their
lives for meager pay to achieve
too little, then bringing them
home and forgetting them.
Repairing the disconnect
between decision-makers and
these sacrifi ces is essential
to the long-term survival of
America’s great experiment in
democracy. Honoring life is
the best payment we can make
to the dead.
Meanwhile, genuine respect
for America’s war dead is best
translated into remembering
living veterans and tending to
their needs. Memorial Day is
only the start, not the fi nish, of
recognizing the debt we owe to
veterans. Truly honoring them
means embodying their values
and honor in our own lives
every day of the year.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
Omnibus bill
maintains key
community and
economic funding
To the Editor:
The recently approved omni-
bus bill supported by Oregon’s
members of Congress – Sen. Ron
Wyden, Sen. Jeff Merkley and
Rep. Greg Walden – maintains key
community and economic funding
through September 2017. Knowing
that Congress is working to sustain
these programs for fi scal year 2017
is a good sign for these programs’
continued funding in 2018, despite
the president’s proposal to elimi-
nate fi nancing for these important
programs.
Why is this important? Eastern
Oregon’s public infrastructure,
such as water, sewer and waste-
water systems, are aging and are
in need of repair or replacement.
The Water Infrastructure and Inno-
vation Act – strongly supported by
Sen. Merkley – provides a source
of funding to meet the infrastruc-
ture needs in Eastern Oregon. Oth-
er programs in the omnibus bill that
support Eastern Oregon’s commu-
nity and economic development in
a variety of ways include:
• Economic Development Ad-
ministration contribution through
investment in the Comprehensive
Economic Development Strat-
egy. The CEDS process, led by
EDA-designated Economic De-
velopment Districts, such as the
Greater Eastern Oregon Develop-
ment Corporation, brings together
local stakeholders to assess and
plan for regional growth. This
funding has created or retained 130
jobs annually within GEODC’s
seven-county district;
• The Community Development
Block Grant to support infrastruc-
ture and housing;
• FAA Contract Tower Program,
which is vital to sustaining the city
of Pendleton’s airport; and
• USDA Rural Development
funding that supports rural infra-
structure, entrepreneurship and job
creation.
These programs, and many
others, return tax dollars to com-
munities that need them. GEODC
will work hard to make sure they
remain available here in GEODC’s
seven-county Eastern Oregon Dis-
trict.
Susan Christensen
Executive director
Greater Eastern Oregon Devel-
opment Corporation
Agenda 21
on a platter
To the Editor:
I am taking the opportunity to
comment of the Forest Service
May 2017 Final Environmental
Assessment of the Summit Creek
Landscape Restoration project.
Twenty-one people have “stand-
ing” to state objections.
So, I guess I am asking:
“Where the heck were you when
you had the opportunity to speak
up for our county’s economy and
access?” This project raised its
head back in July 2015 with the
Blue Mountain
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Draft Purpose and Need Proposed
Action, followed by the August
2015 Purpose and Need Proposed
Action, then the September 2015
Scoping Package Update and fi-
nally the December 2016 Prelim-
inary EA.
You all had almost two years
to play “catch up” with a project
that had been announced in the
local newspaper. The Draft Find-
ing of No Significant Impact is
available, and in it, with Final EA,
the FS has chosen which issues to
address and which comments to
ignore.
It ignores my September 2015
scoping comments referencing
County Ordinance 2013-01 (with
copy attached) pertaining to pub-
lic road closures within Grant
County, statutes on the power of
county governing bodies/electors
over matters of county concern
and county legal adviser Ron
Yockim’s email that clearly stated
the ordinance was enforceable in
spite of the federal government’s
claim against its legality, which
was also challenged by ex-judge
Webb, head of the Blue Moun-
tains Forest Partners, and has yet
to be decided or is still being shuf-
fled around to be hidden until it
pops out with the popularity of a
red headed stepchild at a family
reunion.
There are county residents
putting themselves on the firing
line to stand up for your customs
and culture, economical interests,
public access, Oregon statutes and
U.S. constitutional rights while
most residents sit back, complain
and moan, and do nothing while
dissenters posture and pose with
selfies taken during protests pro-
claiming “not my sheriff.”
At least that product hasn’t
spilled over into “not my presi-
dent” yet or burning of the Amer-
ican fl ag. So sit back and relax
while Agenda 21 gets served up to
you on a platter.
Judy Kerr
Canyon City
Ratio of road closures
to business closures
To the Editor:
As I was driving through John
Day, I took notice of King’s be-
ing out of business, and it got
me thinking: What ratio of road
closure would it take to keep our
stores open in town?
It’s a simple question. The for-
est supervisor says roads must be
closed for projects to move for-
ward, six miles here, 20 miles
there.
With each “project,” anoth-
er set of road closures, which
should equate to more timber at
the mill, if you believe the forest
supervisor.
So, what has the Forest Ser-
vice and the Blue Mountains
Forest Partners identified as the
correct ratio of road closures to
have in a project to keep King’s,
McDonalds, the bowling alley or
other businesses going?
Obviously six to 20 miles isn’t
enough, maybe take half away,
maybe that would meet the need.
Or, maybe the opposite is true.
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Maybe road closures make an
economy less stable, therefore
reducing the number of business-
es we can retain. Let’s see, prior
to all this collaboration/coopera-
tion, we had more businesses in
town than we do today. Is there
a correlation there? Hmm, seems
to be.
Maybe the answer is letting
the community have open access
to the forest and utilize the re-
sources as was intended in 1908
when the Malheur National For-
est was formed, as an economic
resource to the local community,
not as a financial burden to the
nation.
The irony of the Malheur is
found in the name of the forest,
French for misfortune. It has be-
come just that, a misfortune to
those it fails to support and to
those businesses it lets wither on
the vine.
The Forest Service was housed
under the U.S. Department of Ag-
riculture to treat “public lands”
they administer as “agricultural
grounds” to grow a sustainable
product the nation could bene-
fit from, not to be a “nature pre-
serve” in a National Parks style. If
that was the intent, they would be
better suited for the Department
of Interior.
We need more access, not less,
to sustain our communities.
Ron Rue
Prairie City
European
immigrant problems
To the Editor:
A truck assault in Berlin, Ger-
many, is one of many problems
Germany is experiencing with 1
million Middle East and North Af-
rican immigrants, mostly young
males, who are committing mur-
ders, robberies and assaults on
German Christians and Jews, es-
pecially women; and Chancellor
Merkel wants to take in another 1
million. The German interior min-
ister said German citizens with
dual nationalities who are terror-
ists and/or a threat to national se-
curity should be deported.
These people come from a dif-
ferent culture, and their loyalty is
not to Germany. They do not re-
spect native Germans and consid-
er them infidels to be converted or
made to pay tribute or killed.
Germany is reaping the whirl-
wind of what it sowed in the 1930s
and 1940s when it murdered about
25 million European Christians
and Jews, especially Russians and
Poles. Since then Germany has
tried to make up for its barbarism
and guilt complex by opening its
borders to lawless migrants.
The United States should pay
attention to the immigrant prob-
lems in Germany, France, Great
Britian, Denmark, Sweden, The
Netherlands, Belgium and other
European countries, and imple-
ment strict immigration policies
to bolster our security and prevent
potential terrorists of any back-
ground from entering our country.
Donald Moskowitz
Londonderry, New Hampshire
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