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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2018)
A4 Opinion Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, November 21, 2018 Election underscores urban-rural divide T he urban-rural divide is not just a “divide.” It is a widening chasm, one whose fissures were underscored by this month’s election results. Large cities and suburbs supported Democrats. Rural areas went Republican. The results were that Democrats took over the U.S. House and Republicans expanded control of the Senate. Those results were backed up by research. Based on a survey of more than 115,000 voters and 20,000 non-voters, The Associated Press reported, “Nationally, urban and suburban voters preferred Democratic over Republican candidates, while voters in small towns and rural places favored Republicans.” There were exceptions, of course. However, the same split generally held true in Oregon, where the geographically largest part of the state was on the losing side of the governor’s race and high-profile ballot measures concerning immigration and abortion. Democrats also gained supermajorities in the Legislature, in part by ousting suburban Republicans. In Washington state, urban areas ensured passage of statewide ballot measures that restricted firearms and enabled more criminal prosecutions of police officers who used deadly force. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell was overwhelmingly re-elected by Western Washington and Eastern Washington’s Whitman County. But with the exception of King and Jefferson counties, the state’s voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposed carbon fee, which should give the Oregon Legislature pause as it considers a state carbon cap-and-invest program. In Oregon, Republican Knute Buehler prevailed in 29 of Oregon’s 36 counties but lost by a substantial margin to incumbent Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. In several rural counties, including Grant County, Brown didn’t crack 20 percent of the vote. What does this mean for the rural Northwest? For politicians, they must be wary of treating statewide vote totals as mandates. If they assume otherwise, they will increase the urban-rural chasm. For residents, they need to figure out how to better convey their story to urbanites: That they live in rural America out of choice, not because they are economic or geographic victims of circumstances. That they value the land and water because they interact with natural resources every day. That although they hold fewer degrees in higher education, according to state and national data, those statistics are irrelevant as far as rural residents’ intelligence, ingenuity and aptitude for solving problems. And that without the daily toil of rural Americans, urbanites would not have the food, electricity, water and natural resources they take for granted. This challenge is not new. Rural Americans have been telling their story for generations. But the 2018 election results give increased urgency. 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. • 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 — Blue Mountain EAGLE P UBLISHED EVERY W EDNESDAY BY (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.oregonlegislature. gov/findley. Email: Rep.LynnFindley@ oregonlegislature.gov. 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. • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. Email: senator@merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202- 228-3997. Oregon offices 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. • U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R — (Second District) 1404 Longworth Building, Wash- ington D.C. 20515. Phone: 202-225-6730. No direct email because of spam. Website: www.walden.house.gov Fax: 202-225-5774. Medford office: 14 North Central, Suite 112, Medford, OR 97501. Phone: 541-776-4646. Fax: 541-779-0204. • Pending Bills: For information on bills in Congress, Phone: 202-225-1772. F ARMER ’ S F ATE Hydraulic strollers? By Brianna Walker For the Blue Mountain Eagle “Mom, Mom, Mom... Mommy!” Mom was not my first name, but it’s my favorite — most of the time. I look over at my two boys playing at the front of my watermelon trailer at the farmer’s market. They had one of their brand new camp chairs tipped over and were star- ing intently at the base. “Mommy!” my littlest kept hol- lering. “What do you Brianna need?” I asked, as Walker I walked over and peered at the chair legs with them. “We can’t collapse it,” my oldest answered. “It just squishes together, like the rest of our camping chairs,” I answered, picking up the chair and squeezing. The chair quickly made a liar out of me, as I pulled and pushed and stretched the canvas fabric. Stupid chair is broken, I thought, trying to force it to collapse. Custom- ers were lining up, and I didn’t have time to deal with a broken chair. I set it back down, “I’ll collapse it for you when the market is over.” Once again the chair made me lie. The market ended, and after packing up the bins and pallets — all the non-child items — I focused my attention on their two little camp chairs proudly displaying the WSU logo. I squeezed and pulled and pinched and shook them. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, I tossed the fully opened chairs into the back of the pickup. When I got home, I asked my husband if he could collapse them and put them back in their matching crimson carrying bags. “You’d think they’d collapse like regular camp chairs,” he said, grimac- ing as he tried to make the chair legs fold together. They were broken. Odd that they both broke the first time out of the bag — but at least they were fully set up and still functional. We put the cute but broken chairs in our camp trailer and forgot all about them. Months later, I was doing a quick cleaning of the trailer. As I moved the little chairs to sweep under them, I no- ticed one of the caps on the leg base looked different from the other three. I picked up the chair and turned it over. It was wider than the rest, and looked to have a plastic washer in it. I pushed it, and suddenly felt the legs of the chair collapse. It was a child-safety mechanism. I picked up the other one, and just as quickly got it collapsed and was able to slide them both into their bags. Success at last! That night, I had to take my husband out to show him my ac- complishment. He groaned when I showed him the nearly invisible latch. “This reminds me of the stroller at Disneyland,” he said. Now it was my turn to groan. Strollers are pretty impractical in the field, so my experi- ence with them was little to none. My husband’s knowledge of strollers was maybe half a freckle more — mean- ing he thought he had pushed one at some point of his life — maybe. Disneyland, however, seemed to be a good place to have one, and we’d picked one up right before our oldest son’s first trip to southern Cal- ifornia — when he was 11 months old. It was collapsed and folded into a small, easy-to-pack bundle. Arriving at our hotel, we began unpacking and getting ready for our week at Disney- land. Out came the stroller. It took a few minutes to figure out how to open it up — and it took all week to get accustomed to pushing it — feeling very suburban motherly. It was good, though, a great place for my baby to nap — and an even better place to store all of our coats and jackets when the afternoon sun blazed down! Too soon our vacation was over, and we were packing up — that’s when the stroller outwitted us. We pushed and pulled, twisted anything that moved, squeezed and pressed — but nothing we did would collapse that stroller. We sat on it, stood on it, tipped it upside down and sideways — and that stupid stroller happily defied us. I was ready to leave it behind, but my husband juggled all our luggage around to accommodate a fully opened stroller in the back of the pickup. My husband picked up the lit- tle WSU chairs to put them away, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “We open and collapse hay rakes all the time, open and collapse hay clamps, squeeze and move balers into road position — and yet children’s items outsmart us every time.” My husband looked at me and deadpanned, “Hydraulics — chil- dren’s items are missing hydraulics.” Brianna Walker occasionally writes about the Farmer’s Fate for the Blue Mountain Eagle. L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR Locally grown music director exceptional cheon while reminiscing about past service, duty stations, MOS (field of training) with a few “war stories” sprinkled in. Mostly it was ques- tioned, “Where did all the time go?” At the closing, the bill was re- quested, only to learn that Pat Hol- liday, mother of Marine Warrant Officer Nick Holliday, who is near retirement, had called in and paid for our luncheon. We appreciate it, Pat! And to all those on Nov. 10 and Nov. 11 that said, “Thank you for your service,” we can only say, as part of the 1 percent of this country that serve in our armed forces, “It was an honor.” Semper Fi. Dave Traylor John Day group of veterans being thanked for your service by receiving a beautiful Quilt of Valor. So many ladies in our community spent countless hours making these quilts, and I feel very honored to have received one recog- nizing my time in the Army during the Korean conflict. I would like to congratulate all the ladies for putting on such a great event. I was proud to serve my country and was humbled to finally receive such recognition. The wonderful quilting ladies de- serve appreciation, as do all the other veterans for their service to this great country of ours. Darrell Howe Monument Letter: Thank you for your service Stop ad hominem Humbled by honor on attacks on Trump To the Editor: Veterans Day I understand that mud slinging is To the Editor: Nine Marines with ages averag- ing around three quarters of a cen- tury met at the Outpost on Nov. 10 to observe the 243rd Marine Corps birthday. It was an enjoyable lun- To the Editor: It is quite something to head down to what you think is just go- ing to be a lunch at the Monument Senior Center to celebrate Veterans Day, only to find yourself one of a part of the elective process, running or not, but next time someone has an ad hominem blast at President Trump, they should visit promiseskept.com. Richie Colbeth John Day To the Editor: Surprise: The new music director is locally grown. Photos in the last two issues of the Blue Mountain Eagle show Leva- na James as music director at Grant Union Junior-Senior High School. It’s not so well known that she was Levana Gilmore, the daughter of Buzz and Bobbie Gilmore. She’s a highly talented young lady who’s trained as a violinist and fiddle player. Her teaching in our schools will be exceptional. Al Olson John Day 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 ............ ..................... 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 A DMINISTRATIVE A SSISTANT ........ M AKENNA A DAIR , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM O FFICE A SSISTANT .................... A LIXANDRA H AND , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . 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