A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
More pressing
issues for Oregon
O
f all the issues worthy
of Oregon legislators’
immediate attention, a
narrow tax break for businesses
would rank far, far down the
list.
Yet that tax break is why
Gov. Kate Brown is ordering
the Legislature to convene on
May 21. Having signed state
legislation that takes a potential
tax break away from many
businesses, Brown now wants
to grant one to roughly 9,000
sole proprietorships.
In Pendleton last month,
Brown said that she thinks
“very strongly that Oregon’s
small businesses need tax
fairness and they need it now.
They can’t wait until 2019.”
The governor, who just
happens to be running for
re-election this year, recently
had a self-realization: “We
have an obvious inequity in
Oregon’s tax system that is
prejudiced against thousands
of small Oregon businesses,
and a simple change can fix it.
I’m simply not willing to let
these main street businesses —
entrepreneurs, mom and pops,
and start-ups — go through
another tax year with unfair tax
treatment as compared to their
larger competitors.”
Thus, Brown wants a one-
day special legislative session
on May 21, although it might
last longer.
That tax break might be
worthwhile, although the
details have been sketchy. But
we wonder why Brown can’t let
the tax break wait for the 2019
Legislature, when she is leaving
a slew of more-important issues
hanging.
Brown is not calling a
special session to make
Oregon’s unstable tax system
better align with the state’s
economic and educational
priorities.
She is not calling a special
session to address our
substance-abuse epidemic
flowing from opioids,
methamphetamine and other
drugs.
She is not calling a special
session to confront the well-
chronicled deficiencies in the
state’s child welfare program.
She is not calling a special
session to complete needed
reforms in the Oregon Public
Employees Retirement System.
She is not calling a special
session to tackle the widespread
shortage of affordable housing
across Oregon.
She is not even calling a
special session to devise a
new, public-supported plan for
replacing the nearly obsolete
Interstate 5 bridges in Portland.
And she certainly is not
calling a special session to
address many of the issues that
have divided rural and urban
Oregon.
Choose any of the above
or add your own topic, and
it likely would matter more
to Oregonians — including
legislators and businesspeople
— than Brown’s plan for a May
21 special session.
G UEST C OMMENT
Protecting young athletes from injury
By Bob Gardner
and Peter Weber
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
One of the responsibilities that
parents take most seriously is pro-
tecting their children from injury,
whether it is buckling seat belts in a
car or wearing a helmet while riding
a bike. And when their kids become
teenagers and want to participate in
sports or other activities, parents do
everything they can to keep their
sons and daughters from getting
hurt.
But not all injuries are caused by
a twist, fall, collision or accident.
Many are caused when young ath-
letes repeat the same athletic activ-
ity so often that muscles, ligaments,
tendons and bones don’t have time
to recover—especially among mid-
dle school and high school students.
These injuries can end promising ca-
reers, cost families tens of thousands
of dollars, squash dreams and literally
change lives.
Examples include elbow and arm
injuries to teenagers who play base-
ball or softball all year long, shoul-
der injuries to year-round swimmers,
wrist and elbow injuries to gymnasts
and stress fractures to soccer players.
The culprit, most often, is what’s
Bob Gardner
Peter Weber
commonly known as “sport special-
ization,” the process of playing the
same sport all year long with the goal
of either gaining a competitive edge
or earning a college scholarship. It in-
volves intense, year-round training in
a single sport.
Research shows that sports spe-
cialization is putting teenage athletes
at risk. According to a study commis-
sioned by the National Federation of
State High School Associations and
conducted by researchers from the
University of Wisconsin, high school
athletes who specialize in a single
sport are 70 percent more likely to
suffer an injury during their playing
season than those who play multiple
sports.
The American Academy of Ortho-
pedic Surgeons says much the same.
It reports that “overuse injuries” (in-
juries caused when an athletic activ-
ity is repeated so often that parts of
the body do not have enough time to
heal) are responsible for nearly half
of all sports injuries to middle school
and high school students.
There is a solution. Young athletes
should be encouraged to play multi-
ple sports.
When student-athletes cross-train,
they work different muscle groups
and joints which, in fact, results in
better overall conditioning. They also
develop a new set of athletic skills
like hand-eye coordination, balance,
endurance, explosion and agility that
are transferable to their primary sport.
It’s no coincidence that 30 of the 32
first-round picks in the 2017 National
Football League draft played multiple
sports in high school. In 2018, 88 per-
cent of all NFL-drafted players were
multi-sport athletes.
Parents can play a key role in
preventing these overuse injuries by
encouraging their kids to play multi-
ple sports rather than pushing them
to specialize in one sport. They will
have more fun, will be less likely to
suffer burnout and will actually be-
come better athletes.
Bob Gardner is the executive di-
rector of the National Federation of
State High School Associations, and
Peter Weber is the executive director
of the Oregon School Activities Asso-
ciation.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
What happened to
‘moral majority’?
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@
centurylink.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, Monu-
ment 97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-
2025. Email: cityofmonument@centurytel.
net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt. Ver-
non 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.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
To the Editor:
So, whatever happened to the
Republican “moral majority”? It
appears that the president of the
United States paid $130,000 to
cover up an affair he had while the
future first lady was nursing their
newborn. Unless it is extinct, per-
haps the “moral majority” should
review the meaning of the word
“hypocrisy” in the dictionary.
Fred Fitzgerald
Monument
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.
• Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario – 900
Court St. NE, S-301, Salem 97301. Phone:
503-986-1730. Website: www.oregonlegis-
lature.gov/Bentz. Email: Sen.CliffBentz@
oregonlegislature.gov.
• Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale – 900 Court
St. NE, H-475, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-
986-1460. Website: www.oregonlegisla-
ture.gov/findley. Email: Rep.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
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.
Firearms in schools
‘reckless and
irresponsible’
To the Editor:
As a parent and gun owner, I am
disappointed at how the conversa-
tion on “school safety” so quickly
devolved into the arming of teach-
ers and staff.
The idea of arming school facul-
ty is an irresponsible and dangerous
reaction that may sound reasonable
at face value but is inherently reck-
less in implementation. For me to
keep a gun safe in my home with
children, it must be locked up in a
key-less safe. The same standard
applies to schools with staff and
children: There is no way to com-
pletely prevent accidental discharge
or irresponsible use of a firearm if
it is loaded and carried on a person.
However, if guns are locked up in
a safe, there is little chance they
can be effectively used in an active
shooter situation. Secondly, most
active shooter situations that I am
aware of have involved the use of
semi-automatic assault rifles and/
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
P UBLISHER ............ ..................... C HRIS R USH , CRUSH @ EOMEDIAGROUP . COM
E DITOR & G ENERAL M ANAGER ... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ BMEAGLE . COM
R EPORTER ............................... R ICHARD H ANNERS , RICK @ 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
or high capacity magazines. There
is very limited ability to defend
oneself with a handgun against an
assault rifle.
I fully support efforts to ensure
the children of Grant School District
3 have a safe learning environment.
To that end, I would encourage
the district to seek out funding for
school resource officers at all three
campuses. If this is not feasible in
the near future, I would propose
more creative means of providing
a professional law enforcement
presence. Perhaps an office at each
school could be provided for local
law enforcement where they could
share shifts to cover the school day
and take care of their own adminis-
trative duties? I would be supportive
of physical measures to create hard-
ened points of entry and locking
doors to outside visitors. Finally, I
would encourage the school district
to work with other local entities to
identify and treat the root causes
associated with the deadly acts that
have recently occurred in schools
across the United States. The men-
tal health and emotional well-being
of our children (and community)
should be prioritized in order to
prevent these heinous acts. Putting
firearms in our schools is a reckless
and irresponsible reaction with the
potential to have catastrophic con-
sequences.
Darin Toy
John Day
Safety above
ridiculous laws
To the Editor:
On Feb. 16, I drove past this
deer carcass that I had driven past
a few times on previous days.
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After the fourth day, I decided
to take action. I pulled over into
the bar ditch, completely off the
highway and turned my emergen-
cy lights on to warn other drivers
of my existence there along the
road. As I was finishing loading
the deer, I looked up the road
and noticed a state police game
warden stop up ahead and turn
around to come back to my ve-
hicle. He pulled over to speak to
me. He quickly stated that it was
illegal for me to pick up this deer
off the state highway or any high-
way for that matter. I asked him
about the ordinance in the news-
paper, which said it was legal to
do this. The officer told me that,
though the law had passed, it had
not been put into effect. I tried to
reason with him by explaining to
him that all I was doing was try-
ing to protect the citizens of Grant
County by removing a very real
road hazard that could potential-
ly be a real threat to driver safety.
He warned me that if I am caught
committing this “crime” again, he
would write me a ticket. The offi-
cer then instructed me to drag the
deer back out of my grandfather’s
pickup and leave it where I had
found it. I put it into the ditch next
the highway.
It is apparent that some officers
in Grant County have neglected
the spirit of the law only to em-
brace the narrow-minded view
that ridiculous ordinances take
precedence over public safety.
At some point, we, as citizens of
Grant County, need to put safety
above the ridiculousness of law-
makers who are disconnected from
rural realities.
Grant LeQuieu
Mt. Vernon
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