A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Government
officials must keep
the people informed
O
ur system of govern-
ment by the people for
the people does not
work when government offi-
cials refuse to keep the people
informed about their actions.
We elect people to repre-
sent us, and we expect the peo-
ple we elect to act in our col-
lective best interests. We
expect them to spend tax-
payer dollars wisely. We expect
accountability.
Above all, we expect
that our leaders will keep us
apprised. We expect honest and
open dealings — transparency
— so we know what our lead-
ers are doing with our money.
It should be more than a lit-
tle alarming when public offi-
cials openly admit they will not
answer questions about official
policies or programs.
This week, Grant County
Sheriff Glenn Palmer told the
Eagle directly he would not
answer our questions about the
authority of people he has dep-
utized. This is extremely prob-
lematic and goes against the
tenets of our open system of
government.
How can the people hold the
government accountable and
ensure the public systems are
working for the people when
they don’t know what’s going
on?
It should be especially con-
cerning when the questions
revolve around the rights and
responsibilities of people who
carry badges and guns on
behalf of the county — and
even more so when those peo-
ple are not trained and certified
by Oregon’s police licensing
agency, as is the case with the
latest special deputies the Eagle
inquired about.
Should people treat these
special deputies as if they are
certified law enforcement offi-
cers, or are they in a different
class? If a special deputy inter-
acts with a citizen, what author-
ity do they have? These are
routine questions, and every-
one should want to know the
answers. The people deserve to
know.
The sheriff refused to even
state whether there were other
special deputies beyond the
two county commissioners the
Eagle inquired about. At this
point, we only know there are
an unknown number of people
— with badges — who have
unknown authority in the com-
munity. The people deserve to
know these things.
The sheriff said it has been
his policy for some time to not
respond to any media requests.
He said the coverage has not
been fair or accurate.
Yet, the sheriff has not
reached out to the Eagle about
any inaccuracies. If something
is inaccurate, we want to know
about it. We don’t claim to be
perfect and may get something
wrong from time to time, but
if someone points out some-
thing that is inaccurate, we will
always get it fixed as quickly as
possible.
It’s easy to blame the media
without offering any specif-
ics on what they got wrong. It
helps politicians cast blame and
direct attention elsewhere. But
it does not inform the people.
Refusing to answer ques-
tions about public business is
about as far from the ideals
upon which our country was
founded as one can get. The
people deserve better.
GUEST COMMENT
Social distancing working
I
t’s hard to believe that we are
already over four weeks into our
COVID-19 lifestyle. Tremen-
dous sacrifices have been made
across the board. We just cele-
brated Easter without large family
gatherings or in-person church ser-
vices. Small business owners and
those who are laid off are watch-
ing their bank accounts dwindle
and wondering how they’re going
to keep the lights on. Young peo-
ples’ education has been slowed
and their activities put on hold. A
full list of the things folks have
had to endure would be beyond the
scope of this essay. The sacrifices
are many, and they just keep get-
ting deeper the longer this goes on.
At the same time, we look
around Grant County and see that
our hospital is not overwhelmed
and wonder if this perhaps all a lit-
tle over the top. Or could we at
least start to relax a bit?
Initial models showed that Ore-
gon would be overwhelmed by
mid-April if business as usual was
maintained. This is why we under-
took social distancing so early and
so aggressively here in Oregon.
If you look across the country to
New York City, you will see that
they are digging mass graves for
the dead from COVID. The rea-
son isn’t that they’re so big, or so
dense, or that so
many people came
in from abroad.
The reason is that
they didn’t start
social distanc-
ing as early in
Dr. Raffaella
their curve as we
Betza
did here in Ore-
gon. It’s as sim-
ple as that. Thanks to our aggres-
sive social distancing, our curve
of infections here in Oregon looks
more like a plateau. Even bet-
ter news, we may already be near
the top of the plateau. If we keep
doing what we’re doing, things
may never get much worse, and
we will start to see real improve-
ment by mid-May.
Now that things look so good
and we’ve already been doing all
this social distancing for so long,
it’s only natural to want to let up
a little bit. Many of us are think-
ing about sneaking in a play date
here or a visit to grandma there.
Oregon Health Authority has mod-
els out at this point that show that, if
we were to return to moderate social
distancing, we would run out of ICU
beds in Oregon by April 28. All of
the sacrifices you made thus far will
have been nullified by then if we
give up too soon.
Before we can start relaxing
social distancing, we need to see
new cases in the state get to near
zero for an extended period of time.
We also need a plan for increased
testing and contact tracing capac-
ity. This isn’t the last of COVID-19.
Moving forward, we need to plan
on widespread testing and thorough
contract tracing and targeted isola-
tion of individuals and communi-
ties with positive tests. This kind of
targeted approach just isn’t possi-
ble yet, and it isn’t feasible at a time
when the nation as a whole is still
adding tens of thousands of new
COVID-19 cases each week.
All of which is to say that we
deserve a moment to feel proud
of our efforts and relieved at the
improved outlook. We deserve a
moment to grieve for our sacri-
fices and the loved ones already
lost to this disease. We deserve a
moment to look forward to a time
when we can hug a friend and go
to the park. After these moments,
we need to look ahead with steady
resolve. We’re winning this first bat-
tle against COVID-19, but it’s too
soon to declare victory, and the war
is just beginning. So please, con-
tinue to stay home and safe to flatten
the curve.
Dr. Raffaella Betza is the chief
of staff for Blue Mountain Hospital
District.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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@
cityoflongcreek.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.
• Oregon Legislature — State
Capitol, Salem, 97310. Phone: (503)
986-1180. Website: 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:
oregonlegislature.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: oregonlegislature.
gov/findley. Email: Rep.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
Raschio for circuit
court judge
To the Editor:
Rob Raschio is an excellent
choice for circuit court judge. He is
committed to listening to all sides
and seeing all angles of an issue
in order to find the best solution
for the situation. We have worked
together many times on many issues.
He is firm, but fair, thoughtful, but
decisive.
As judge, I know that Rob will
continue to uphold this same tem-
perament on the bench to ensure that
the community is protected to the
best of his ability. I trust Rob whole-
heartedly, and he has my full support
for judge.
We will be voting for Rob this
May and encourage you to do the
same.
Sam Palmer
John Day
Raschio would be
‘fair and thoughtful’
To the Editor:
Until moving to Grant County
about 13 years ago, I had limited
knowledge of the inner workings of
the court system in general. In the
last few years, however,
I have witnessed detrimental out-
comes in the cases of friends or
acquaintances where I actually knew
the inside stories. It appeared that
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
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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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MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
a lack of tenacity on the part of the
district attorney’s office, or whom-
ever was supposed to be seeking
the best outcome for those parties
involved, actually brought harm to
either the defendant or the commu-
nity or both.
I am pleased that Rob Raschio
is running for circuit court judge,
and from conversations with him, I
am confident that he will be fair and
thoughtful in his decisions concern-
ing our citizens and community. He
has my vote, and I hope that you
will consider voting for him as well,
so that we can create a positive rela-
tionship between our community
and the courts.
Mary Brown
Prairie City
Phone: 541-575-0710
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