A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Come together
right now
N
ews is coming fast and
furious these days —
so fast it can be hard
to keep up. But the indictment
against 13 Russian nationals
unsealed in Washington, D.C.,
laid bare the fact that a foreign
government was meddling
successfully in our political
process.
And that should make us stop
and consider the implications
for more than just a moment.
News that Russia wanted to
influence our country may not
be earth-shaking. And we’re
not so naive to think the United
States hasn’t acted similarly for
decades, both with covert and
overt operations the world over.
Loch K. Johnson, the dean of
American intelligence scholars,
told Scott Shane that “(The
United States) has been doing
this kind of thing since the CIA
was created in 1947.”
Yet, in our modern world,
manipulation and propaganda
has become more subtle than
briefcases filled with money,
incendiary mailers delivered
to doorsteps or salacious
information slipped to
newspapers.
Social media allows us
to become easier targets.
Facebook is a near-perfect
portal for passing along dubious
information, and covering your
tracks while doing it. It is an
outrage that these billion-dollar
corporations are becoming rich
while polluting civil discourse
and, like Russia, publishing
information designed to inflame
and distract.
Those attempting to divide
our nation are exploiting an
American nature that we have
been far too eager to engage
ourselves. We’re too likely to
pass along information that
confirms our biases or picks
on people we disagree with.
We’re too quick to demonize the
other side in the debate. We’re
too lax at considering different
opinions.
But we should not feel
helpless in the battle for our
knowledge and our vote.
We can read different
sources. We can take education
seriously and never stop
learning. We can conduct
ourselves decently online, and
think of those we interact with
as real humans who want our
world to be better — but have a
different way of getting there.
Enemies of our democracy,
Russia included, love to see
Americans yelling at one
another. They love it even more
when we turn our weapons
against one another. But why
make the Russians and ISIS
and Kim Jong-Un happy with
our infighting?
We are not vulnerable.
We are a rich, powerful, free
nation. Life is good for most.
As a whole, the world is richer
and healthier and more peaceful
than ever before.
We can argue about taxes
and government, immigration
and gun control. We can argue
online and in the street. And we
should do all of these things —
but we should do it peacefully,
and with respect, and with
people who we know are real
humans and not trolls.
This movement toward
nationalism and ethnic identity
is a reaction to globalization,
loss of identity and fear of
change. Still, we can rise above
the anxiety of the moment, trust
our neighbors and thwart our
enemies.
G UEST C OMMENT
Just a Common Soldier (A Soldier Died Today)
By A. Lawrence Vaincourt
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
He was getting old and paunchy
and his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion,
telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he had fought in
and the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies;
they were heroes, every one.
And tho’ sometimes, to his
neighbors, his tales became a joke,
All his Legion buddies listened,
for they knew whereof he spoke.
But we’ll hear his tales no longer
for old Bill has passed away,
And the world’s a little poorer,
for a soldier died today.
He will not be mourned by many,
just his children and his wife,
For he lived an ordinary and
quite uneventful life.
Held a job and raised a family,
quietly going his own way,
And the world won’t note his
passing, though a soldier died to-
day.
When politicians leave this
earth, their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their pass-
ing and proclaim that they were
great.
Papers tell their whole life sto-
ries, from the time that they were
young,
But the passing of a soldier goes
unnoticed and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution to the
welfare of our land
A guy who breaks his promises
and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow who, in
times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his Country
and offers up his life?
A politician’s stipend and the
style in which he lives
Are sometimes disproportionate
to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary soldier, who
offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal and per-
haps, a pension small.
It’s so easy to forget them for it
was so long ago,
That the old Bills of our Country
went to battle, but we know
It was not the politicians, with
their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom that
our Country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in dan-
ger, with your enemies at hand,
Would you want a politician
with his ever-shifting stand?
Or would you prefer a soldier,
who has sworn to defend
His home, his kin and Country
and would fight until the end?
He was just a common soldier
and his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind
us we may need his like again.
For when countries are in con-
flict, then we find the soldier’s part
Is to clean up all the troubles that
the politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor while
he’s here to hear the praise,
Then at least let’s give him hom-
age at the ending of his days.
Perhaps just a simple headline in
a paper that would say,
Our Country is in mourning, for
a soldier died today.
Reprinted with permission. For
more information about the author,
visit vaincourt.homestead.com.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
Sign advertises
by appearance
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@cityoflong-
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.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
• 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,
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180.
Website: www. leg.state.or.us (includes
Oregon Constitution and Oregon Revised
Statutes).
• 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 Office Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Email:
wayne_kinney@wyden.senate.gov Website:
http://wyden.senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
To the Editor:
Litter and trash alongside the
John Day Taxi portion of “Adopt-
A-Highway” could not have been
cleaned up four times as Richie
Colbeth claims. There is cardboard,
seat cushions and a venetian blind
that has been alongside the road
since last summer. Perhaps that
does not constitute litter or was just
overlooked!
What is perplexing is the convo-
luted response on the part of John
Day Taxi that it is someone else’s
fault, including the wind, that the
roadside has an accumulation of
litter. Colbeth agrees the roadside
should be kept clean, but he can’t
do it and a litter patrol won’t do it
for him.
Having a name under an Adopt-
A-Highway sign indicates that the
person or entity has the responsibil-
ity to keep the roadside picked up of
litter. The sign does advertise some-
one performing a conscientious ef-
fort to keep the area looking neat
by its very appearance, or shoddy
noncompliance. I’m not buying the
excuses.
Herb Brusman
John Day
Editor’s note: The Eagle con-
tacted John Eden from the Oregon
Department of Transportation, who
said the agency is “currently eval-
uating the situation to determine
an appropriate course of action.”
Eden said Adopt-A-Highway vol-
unteers in Grant County have only
been required to clean up twice per
year under the program, but the
number will be increasing in the fu-
ture. John Day Taxi applied to be in
the program in January 2017, Eden
said, and completed its first cleanup
in April. Subsequent cleanups are
coordinated through the local main-
tenance crew. Eden said the agency
appreciates its volunteers who are
“a rare and coveted resource for
our maintenance crews due to their
willingness to do something good
for the state, for free.” The Eagle
will not publish any further letters
on this topic until ODOT deter-
mines its course of action.
‘Participate in the
upcoming objection
process’
To the Editor:
In the next few months, we an-
ticipate the release of the Blue
Mountains Forest Plan Revision
(BMFPR). This revision by the
U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is
a rewrite of the 1990 Forest Plan
that currently sets policy for man-
agement of our lands administered
by the USFS in Eastern Oregon.
The revision will cover all three
national forests and calls for a
monumental shift in how Eastern
Oregonians enjoy our mountains
and access natural resources we
have utilized for over 150 years.
That shift will take place in adop-
tion of a “closed unless open” for-
est model.
This new model will adopt mo-
torized access restrictions known
as “designated routes” and “closed
cross country travel.”
When adopted, Eastern Orego-
nians will no longer be allowed to
access natural resources via a mo-
torized means if they are not within
a “designated route.”
You will not be allowed to re-
trieve your big game with an ATV
“off a road,” and if your private
property isn’t on a “designated
route,” you will have to request
permission from the USFS to ac-
cess it. These are but a couple of
examples.
Any motorized use off a desig-
nated route could lead to a fine of
up to $5,000 and/or up to one year
in jail.
To be clear, the BMFPR does not
itself close the forest, as that will
happen through the Travel Man-
agement Plan. But the BMFPR will
allow the USFS to change current
policy cutting off “cross country
travel,” then justifying travel man-
agement plans restricting motorized
access to public lands.
Please, participate in the up-
coming objection process and let
the USFS know these restrictions
are unacceptable, and you, as a
resident of the area, expect your
public lands to remain open to full
multiple use, not to the segregated
system currently being proposed.
John D. George
Bates
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.
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