A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Time will tell
if Republican
strategy will
pay off
O
regon voters
watched Monday
as political drama
took center stage in Salem
when Republican members
of the Senate returned after
a week-long walk out.
The result was the pas-
sage of the Student Suc-
cess Act, a multi-tiered piece
of legislation that will fun-
nel money into schools but
boost taxes.
Two other controversial
bills — each opposed by
Republicans — evaporated,
seemingly part of the deal to
bring Senate GOP members
back to the Capitol.
Voters, though, should
remember that the Sen-
ate GOP walkout was never
about funding education.
Republicans have consis-
tently stated on the record
that they support giving
more funds to Oregon’s
schools.
No, the walkout was
a move of desperation,
prompted by the lack of
urgency from Democrats to
work with their GOP col-
leagues. With a supermajor-
ity, Democrats hold supreme
power in the Legislature.
The sentiment seemed to be
that if Republicans were not
going to play political ball,
then Democrats would just
go ahead and greenlight their
legislative priorities.
Except even with a super-
majority the old fundamen-
tal of democracy — work-
ing along a bipartisan route
to solve problems — reigns.
Even if it means Repub-
licans walking away for a
week.
In the end, GOP senators,
including Cliff Bentz who
represents Grant County, had
little choice but to evacuate
the capital and deprive Dem-
ocrats of the needed quorum
to vote on the education bill.
Time will tell if the tactic
will pay off. Now, it appears
to have been only margin-
ally successful. Yes, Repub-
lican did gain some political
traction — the vaccination
and gun bills were dropped
— and more funding for
schools is now a reality.
Yet at least one major ele-
phant — the cap and trade
bill — is still standing on
the Oregon political porch.
House Bill 2020 is con-
troversial across the east-
ern side of the state and for
good reason. GOP lawmak-
ers, most notably Bentz,
have worked hard this ses-
sion to put the brakes on the
carbon emission legislation
— if only to develop a bet-
ter, more equitable plan in
the future. So far, his Dem-
ocratic colleagues don’t
appear to be listening. We
hope that changes.
In the end, the walkout,
while politically unseemly,
did produce more funding
for our local schools. No
matter what one’s political
persuasion, producing more
money to educate our chil-
dren is always a good idea.
And sometimes good ideas
can be a rare species inside
Oregon’s Capitol.
GUEST COMMENT
Why I hate wolves
By Reg LeQuieu
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
W
olves kill in packs,
driving, exhausting,
surrounding and ter-
rifying until they have singled
out an animal — infant, healthy
or aged, it really doesn’t mat-
ter. Then they close in, snap-
ping and snarling, tearing fi rst
at genitals and bellies, mutilat-
ing and ripping, spilling intes-
tines that will be dragged,
stepped on and seized by jaws
that tear the life right out of the
victim from the inside out. The
term “gut-wrenching” takes on
a whole new meaning here. It
becomes a horrifying death, both
frantically fast and agonizingly
slow. These predators frequently
settle in to feed before the vic-
tim succumbs.
I have to question the prem-
ise that we want to preserve this
— even reintroduce and increase
this — as the fate of more and
more animals.
Unlike predators, the sports-
man kills from a distance; there
is the striking absence of eye-
ball-to-eyeball impact and the
indescribable horror of claws
and teeth tearing the living fl esh
and crushing bone. There is
always the desire for a humane,
quick kill; there is usually that
result. With predators there is
never the desire for a humane,
quick kill; there is seldom that
result.
Predators put on their hor-
ror show year-round, terrify-
ing daily, killing indiscrimi-
nately. Wolves, especially, raise
the stress level of the prey spe-
cies exponentially, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. The
sportsman, by vivid contrast,
hunts from afar, only during two
months in the fall, and kills dis-
criminately — selectively. The
benefi t to the prey species is
obvious — and profound.
To prefer the “natural” inhu-
mane and cruel treatment of ani-
mals to man’s less natural but
more humane benefi cial treat-
ment just does not make ethical
sense.
It is legitimate for man, the
hunter, to largely supplant the
role of the predators when we
multiply and fi ll a geographic
area. If we are going to partake
of this natural bounty and utilize
it for some of our own food and
recreational needs, we do have
to reduce the predators. That
we can manage the resource
and harvest humanely is a huge
bonus to the resource. If they
could, they would thank us for it
— and curse us for the reintro-
duction of wolves.
The pioneers who eliminated
the wolf did so not because they
misunderstood the wolf, but
because they understood the
wolf intimately.
They witnessed the wolves’
idle cruelty and wanton killing;
they saw the waste and experi-
enced the loss of their own live-
stock. They learned to hate the
wolf because that is what the
wolf taught them to do; they
responded to what they wit-
nessed as any rational per-
son would. They were the true
friends of animals.
Our shared hunting heritage
is tied up with values that lead to
improving the human, as well as
the animal, condition. What the
proponents of predators desire
will be worse for both the hunter
and the hunted — and the unin-
tended consequence will also
be reduced opportunity to view
wildlife for the non-hunter.
I hate cruelty; you should too!
Reg LeQuieu lives in Mt.
Vernon.
GUEST COMMENT
Why deny the Democratic majority a quorum?
By Herman Baertschiger Jr.
and Cliff Bentz
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
L
WHERE TO WRITE
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@
cityofl ongcreek.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:
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
egislators should use
every tool available to
protect their constituents.
When the majority party pro-
poses laws that place Oregonians
at risk, one of those tools is the
refusal to provide a quorum.
The requirement that a “quo-
rum” be present before a body
can act is to assure that action
is based on more than just a few
opinions. In the Senate, a body
of 30 people, a quorum con-
sists of no fewer than 20 sena-
tors. There are 18 Democrats and
12 Republicans in the Oregon
Legislature.
of your money into a bucket with
a huge PERS hole in it. Yes, if
ever there were a time to step out
and say “stop,” it is now.
The Republican senators’
decision to walk out should be
understood for what it is: a pre-
dictable response to legislation
that is seriously fl awed. Or, to
quote our Democratic governor,
Kate Brown, who was the Sen-
ate Democratic Leader in 2001
at the time of a Democratic boy-
cott: “Under certain circum-
stances, it’s fair to say we would
use all tools available to us and
stage a similar boycott.”
Baertschiger, R-Grants Pass, is
the Senate minority leader. Bentz,
R-Ontario, is a state senator rep-
resenting District 30.
L
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MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
This tactic is
justifi ed because
the Democrats’
corporate activity
tax and cap and
trade tax are ineq-
uitable, regressive
Oregon Sen.
and damaging at
Cliff Bentz
every level. Other
bills brought by
Democrats restrict personal free-
doms and are equally extreme.
Topping this off is the Demo-
crats’ willingness to pass a $2
billion gross receipts tax before
stopping the real harm that the
Public Employees Retirement
System continues to wreak upon
Oregon children’s educational
opportunities. Essentially, the
Democrats are pouring $2 billion
Grant County .........................................$45
Everywhere else in U.S. .......................$57
Outside Continental U.S. ....................$60
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