A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Health authority’s
smear plans should
outrage taxpayers
A
lthough the plan went
nowhere, Oregonians
should be outraged that
a state agency even considered
planting negative news stories
about a health care nonprofi t.
The Portland Tribune broke
the story last week about an
Oregon Health Authority
proposal to promote negative
news coverage and undermine
the credibility of FamilyCare
Health, one of the state’s
coordinated care organizations.
The draft communications
plan included looking for
an HIV patient who would
complain about FamilyCare
and trying to get a journalist
to write about that patient’s
experience. Journalists often
work off such tips, but it’s
beyond callous for a state
agency — especially the state
health agency — to consider
exploiting a patient in such a
way.
The plan never was
implemented. Lynne Saxton,
director of the Oregon Health
Authority, said it was part of
an initial draft that was soon
squelched.
“If something bad
happens ( at OHA) , I take full
responsibility for it, as I am
doing here,” she told us on
Monday.
Saxton said she encourages
her staff to be creative. But
the fact that anyone in a state
agency would even suggest
planting negative news stories
raises questions about the
culture at the Oregon Health
Authority and the leadership of
Democratic Gov. Kate Brown.
“This is outrageous. I’ve
never heard or seen anything
like this,” said state Sen. Jackie
Winters, R-Salem, whose
roots in state government
reach back to the Tom McCall
administration.
“This is not the Oregon
way. Our way is to work
collaboratively and hammer
out compromises, not to throw
people under the bus just
because you disagree with
them.”
The health authority already
had raised eyebrows this
year for its aggressive press
releases about its dispute with
FamilyCare, with which the
health authority has been in
litigation and mediation for 2
1/2 years.
It’s been a tough year for
the state health department.
This spring, Republican
legislators criticized the
health authority and the state
Department of Environmental
Quality for attempting “to
push a misleading story
line” regarding health and
environmental concerns at
Entek International in Lebanon.
Legislators also were upset
that the health authority may
have been authorizing state-
paid health care to substantial
numbers of Oregonians
who were ineligible, despite
assurances to the Legislature
that everything was under
control.
Against that backdrop, it’s
troubling that the state was
slow to respond to last week’s
Tribune article.
Saxton told us that she would
be sending a letter of apology
to Oregon’s coordinating care
organizations, assuring them
that the health authority would
treat them fairly and would not
tolerate negative public-relations
efforts. She also will ask the
state Department of Justice to
train her staff on attorney-client
privilege .
Those may be worthwhile
steps, assuming they promote
transparency and openness
instead of fi nding ways to hide
“creative” ideas under the veil
of attorney-client privilege .
Still, it is disconcerting that
the Governor’s Offi ce did not
immediately respond to the
Tribune’s revelations.
One leading Republican
candidate for governor, Bend
Rep. Knute Buehler, said the
Oregon Health Authority’s
negative-publicity plan –
even though it never was
implemented – demonstrates
arrogance and a lack of
accountability by a state
agency. The state’s CEO, Gov.
Brown, should recognize that
as well.
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.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
• 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.
T HE B ACKROADS
A win-win-win-win
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
It was nice to see some live mu-
sic in town this weekend.
As a musician and music lover
from a small town in Eastern Or-
egon, I’ve grown accustomed over
the years to traveling to larger ar-
eas to see concerts — and being
forced to spend my money outside
of my community.
With the new venue in John
Day, I can get my fi x while sup-
porting local business, with far less
time and expense for travel. It’s a
win-win: for local patrons and the
local economy.
While the Madden Brothers
Performing Arts Center would
never be able to host some of the
larger shows I’ve attended — the
Merle Haggards and Bob Dylans
— the gym in the old junior high
provides a suitable place for small-
town entertainment.
The building that sat vacant for
so many years now has new life.
The Madden brothers fi xed up the
Sean Hart
facade, and instead
of a sign of de-
cline, the perform-
ing arts center now
stands as a com-
munity asset.
With the com-
munity benefi t, I
guess it’s a win-
win-win.
A fair number of communi-
ty members came out for the fi rst
show Friday, and most seemed to
be enjoying themselves.
The sound was good. The food
was good. The musicians — Micky
& the Motorcars and Dustin Schae-
fer — were good.
It really was a high-quality little
show — not just for a small town
deprived of ample opportunities to
experience the arts.
But in an area like ours with few
concerts outside of special events,
a venue that can host such shows
year-round will make it much eas-
ier to provide a splash of culture to
local youth. Watching a live show is
a far more fulfi lling experience than
listening to an iPod.
Maybe the next Bob Dylan or
Merle Haggard is growing up in
Grant County, just waiting for the
inspiration to start their journey to
the stage. And maybe they’ll fi nd it
as the bass lines and guitar riffs per-
meate their bodies and the lyrics re-
verberate in their minds, their eyes
fi xed on the musicians making the
magic that fi lls the room and echoes
into the hallways.
I remember well the fi rst shows I
attended and would never have tak-
en up music without the experience.
I guess that makes it a win-
win-win-win when you add
in the educational cultural
enhancement.
This new venue has the possi-
bility to bring a variety of benefi ts
to Grant County, and I, for one, am
grateful the Madden brothers are
taking the risk to get it going.
Hopefully the community will
support this endeavor to keep it go-
ing.
Sean Hart is the editor of the
Blue Mountain Eagle.
F ARMER ’ S F ATE
Grandma’s ketchup soup was a surprise
By Brianna Walker
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
I wasn’t sure what I was expect-
ing 17 years ago when I went on
my fi rst date with my husband. Din-
ner and a movie maybe? Flowers or
candy? Maybe a peck on the cheek
goodnight? What I did not expect
was watching “The Sound of Mu-
sic” — with his grandparents.
We drove to a tidy, little blue
and white house — tulips and ros-
es lining the sidewalk. Usually one
has a little more time to prepare for
“meeting the parents” or grandpar-
ents — like several months, may-
be a year? As if a fi rst date wasn’t
enough stress, now I had to try to
make a good impression on three
people.
His grandmother was worrying
too — albeit for different reasons.
She was concerned about us sitting
idle in front of the TV for three
hours. We had hardly made intro-
ductions before we were hustled in
to the back room and given scissors
and felts to cut out for a project she
was working on. For three hours,
we listened to Julie Andrews sing
while we dutifully cut out felt an-
imals and stacked them into piles.
The date, while unusual, unorth-
odox and productive, turned out
to be enjoyable enough that one
turned into two, then fi ve, and be-
fore I knew it, his grandmother had
invited me back for a birthday party.
The whole family turned out,
a lovely dinner was set and then
the guest of honor
was pushed up to
the head of the ta-
ble — the family
poodle. He had a
nicely shaped can
of dog food on a
Brianna
china plate, with
Walker
carrots for candles.
I guess the surprise
showed on my face, because my fu-
ture husband leaned over and whis-
pered, “At least this year she didn’t
make everyone’s food look like dog
food!”
Going to her house became an
adventure — and you could never
predict what was going to happen.
One evening we dropped by at sup-
per time.
“Oh there’s plenty of toma-
to soup,” she said, scurrying to
set two more bowls on the table.
“Here, to make sure, we’ll just
add some ketchup and water, after
all it’s mostly tomatoes anyway,
right?”
Ketchup soup? Mmm, wonder
why this hasn’t been picked up by
a chain restaurant yet?
On a family camping trip, she ac-
cidentally threw out her can opener
with the trash. After searching the
whole trailer, my husband and I had
given up and went hiking. Arriving
back into the camp site, we found
his grandmother near the dumpster
— where she had organized a small
group of other campers to help her
look through the trash in hopes of
fi nding her “very expensive” can
opener. It eventually turned up in a
bag of bananas in the camp trailer
— no dumpster digging had been
needed after all.
Several years after her husband
had passed away, she was on an-
other trip with us to the coast. She
had been seeing a lot of an elderly
gentleman, and spent the majority
of our trip waving her cellphone
around trying to fi nd reception to
call him. Many times through the
day we would see her out on the
beach standing on a big rock, her
back to the wind and the phone
pressed tightly to her ear. We had
just fi nished a fresh batch of hot,
homemade salsa when she came
into the camp trailer from one of
these calls.
“I have found myself a lover!”
she announced, with a pleased ex-
pression.
Just for the record, hot salsa
seems even hotter coming out your
nose!
My husband’s grandmother is
turning 90 this month — and would
still fi nd sitting for a three-hour
movie to be a waste of time, unless
there was a project to be fi nished.
Seventeen years ago, I had no idea
that ketchup soup or dog birthday
parties were in my future. It was an
unusual fi rst date, to meet an unusu-
al woman, with unusual ideas, and
who has infl uenced my life — un-
usually so.
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
L
etters policy: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local, state, national or world issues. Brevity
is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank-you
letters. Submissions to this page become property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must
be original and signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they can be reached for
questions. We must limit all contributors to one letter per person per month. Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Send letters to editor@bmeagle.com, or Blue
Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or fax to 541-575-1244.
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
P UBLISHER ............................... M ARISSA W ILLIAMS , MARISSA @ BMEAGLE . COM
E DITOR .................................... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ 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
O FFICE A SSISTANT .................... A LIXANDRA P ERKINS , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION RATES
(including online access)
Grant County .....................................$40
Everywhere else in U.S. .....................$51
Outside Continental U.S. ....................$60
Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery
MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Email: www.MyEagleNews.com Phone: 541-575-0710
Periodicals Postage Paid at John
Day and additional mailing offi ces.
POSTMASTER
send address changes to:
Blue Mountain Eagle
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845-1187
USPS 226-340
Copyright © 2017 Blue Mountain Eagle
All rights reserved. No part of this
publication covered by the copyright
hereon may be reproduced or
copied in any form or by any means
— graphic, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, taping or
information storage and retrieval
systems — without written
permission of the publisher.
www.facebook.com/MyEagleNews
@MyEagleNews