OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
A4
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Ag does heavy
lifting in
coronavirus
outbreak
F
eeding America is a
tough job, but U.S.
farmers, ranchers,
orchardists, dairy operators
and food processors rise to the
occasion every day. Together,
they produce plenty of afford-
able food for the nation’s 328
million people, plus plenty left
over to help feed the rest of
the world.
But when COVID-19
showed up last winter, our
exceedingly complex food
system got even more chal-
lenging. Deemed an essential
industry, all sectors of agricul-
ture had to make sure plenty
of food was produced — while
dealing with a pandemic that
threatened the health of their
employees.
The results of their efforts
can be seen in the nation’s
38,307 grocery stores, where
any shortages have been few
and temporary and custom-
ers can still find every type of
fresh, frozen and shelf-stable
food. A typical grocery store
carries 40,000 to 50,000 items.
It’s not been easy, and the
learning curve has been steep
for everyone trying to deal
with COVID-19, the coronavi-
rus that is easily spread where
people are in close quarters.
In the orchards, cherry har-
vest has continued, and other
tree fruits and berries are rip-
ening while farmers take pre-
cautions to limit the possibility
of spreading the virus. Masks,
hand-washing and other facili-
ties help stop the spread of the
virus.
Harvest of other crops is
continuing as well, with farm-
ers and ranchers doing their
best to keep workers healthy
and safe.
The Northwest’s 150 food
processors have developed
best practices for coping with
COVID-19, often with the
help of state agencies such as
the departments of agriculture.
Working together, they have
been able to minimize the
spread of the virus.
They have spread out
work stations and installed
partitions, staggered break
times, tested for the virus and
checked temperatures to pre-
vent possible contamination as
workers sort and pack fruits,
butcher cattle, hogs and chick-
ens and pack vegetables.
A major challenge for
everyone in ag has been edu-
cating employees to prevent
the spread of COVID-19 when
they are off work. Trying to
prevent the spread of a disease
that doesn’t even show symp-
toms in many is impossible.
Worse yet is the fact it is fatal
for a few who contract it.
The bottom line is that agri-
culture has been doing the
heavy lifting during this pan-
demic. No one involved in
growing, harvesting or pro-
cessing crops can work from
home. No one in agriculture
can have a “Zoom” meeting
and call it a day.
The miracle of modern agri-
culture requires plain old hard
work — and lots of people.
Nationwide more than 22 mil-
lion people work in agricul-
ture-related jobs.
Three times a day, we are
thankful that they all are on
the job.
That’s why agriculture is
the most important industry in
the world.
FARMER’S FATE
The catapulting mattress
H
ow old would you be, if you
didn’t know how old you
actually were? I’m guess-
ing I would be 32. Old enough to
start having second thoughts first,
but young enough to still believe that
age will bring wisdom. Although, the
older I get, the less I trust that famil-
iar doctrine— instead, I feel more in
line with Mark Twain when he said
of himself, “I was young and foolish
then; now I am old and foolisher.”
A recent family gathering proved
this thought. The children had
tired of food and conversation and
had gone off in search of adven-
ture. Before long a scream shattered
the chattering, and one of the lit-
tle kids came bursting into the room
with tears streaming down his face.
I jumped up and headed towards
the kids. I have two boys — with a
seven-year age gap — which often
means that the youngest one plays (a
lot) more rough than he should. I’d
already had to intervene once ear-
lier, when he had made a cousin cry. I
had picked him up and sternly asked
what happened.
“I hit him,” he answered matter of
factly, jutting his chin out.
“You can’t hit!” I admonished.
“But he hit me, so I hit him back
— harder!” he said defiantly.
“It’s never OK to hit anyone.” I
recognized my mom’s tone of voice
coming out of my mouth, and won-
dered how many times she had
wanted to laugh while scolding my
cousins and I at family functions. He
apologized to his cousin, with about
as much sincerity as I remember feel-
ing when our parents had made us
say sorry and hug.
With this scenario fresh in my
mind, I hurried down the stairs, hop-
ing my Little hadn’t hurt some-
one else. The child was still scream-
ing incoherently, leaving me no clue
Brianna
Walker
“THERE WAS NO RESPECT FOR
YOUTH WHEN I WAS YOUNG, AND
NOW THAT I AM OLD, THERE IS NO
RESPECT FOR AGE — I MISSED IT
COMING AND GOING.”
what had happened, or what I was
going to find. Whatever I was expect-
ing was not what I found — seven
kids standing around a partially-de-
flated air mattress in my aunt’s sew-
ing room.
I didn’t even know what to make
of the situation, so I used my best
“scolding adult” voice.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“It was an accident!” the three
older cousins chorused.
“What was an accident?” I tried
to keep my eyebrows furrowed,
attempting to mimic the expressions
of my own aunts and uncles from my
childhood years.
The kids started chattering at
once.
“He fell on his side...”
“We may have gotten a bit
rough...”
“The little ones bounce better...”
About this time, my cousin
arrived at my side to check on her
kids and see what had caused all the
commotion.
We still weren’t quite sure what
had happened, so to explain, the
kids demonstrated. One of the littlest
cousins laid down on one end of the
air mattress, while the rest of them
lined up along the other side. “One-a,
Two-a, Cow-a-bunga!” they shouted
as they jumped on their end, shooting
the 3-year-old into the air — to land
(mostly) on a thin blanket they had
put down to cushion the fall onto the
— J.B. Priestl
cement floor.
No amount of channeling grouchy
great-aunts had any effect on the
nearly instant burst of laughter from
both my cousin and myself. And
instead of scolding, we scurried off to
grab cameras!
“The little ones bounce better!”
one of the older cousins repeated,
as they flipped child after child into
the air and onto the floor. Sometimes
coming down harder onto the con-
crete than others. After a particu-
larly hard splat, the Little’s expres-
sion was somewhere between pride
and tears. My cousin reached down
and scooped him up, “Good job for
being so tough!” She patted his head
and set him back down in line for the
mattress.
Watching those little bodies twist
in the air, while my cousin snapped
pictures and I clapped, I discovered
two things: As you get older and
wiser, you’re not actually much wiser
(although we did move the air com-
pressor farther away from the mat-
tress), and behind the pretend scowl
lines, you’re not any older either —
for which I am thankful.
Maybe by next year, we can come
up with a partially-deflated air mat-
tress big enough to catapult the adults
— and we’ll leave the scolding up to
the truly old and wise.
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
‘God bless our
patriots, and God
bless America’
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
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@MyEagleNews
To the Editor:
The 243rd Fourth of July would
have went unnoticed in Prairie City,
where a celebration has been held
yearly since the bicentennial in
1976, save for the American Legion
Post 106 members that staged a
“protest.” Seeing as how Gov. Kate
Brown frowns on public gatherings,
something called a parade would be
forbidden. So veterans of our armed
forces gathered together with flags,
rifles and marched down the main
drag to wheel about and return to the
starting point by the Legion Hall.
Amid cheers, applause and music
that included the national anthem
and “I’m Proud To Be An Amer-
ican,” the group was followed by
motorcyclists, ATVs and a vintage
truck as they showed their patriotism
to those standing along the route.
Was it a successful protest? By
Portland, Seattle and other large cit-
ies’ “protests,” I figure it was pretty
much a flop. You see, folks were
friendly to the two deputies that pro-
ceeded those walking. There were
no jeers or curses from those pres-
ent. Not a single rock, brick or bot-
tle was thrown. Storefronts were not
smashed in, absolutely no looting
and the only arson noted was the lit
fuse on the black powder howitzer
that started the whole shebang with
a roar!
Like our Founding Fathers so
long ago, patriotism still burns
fiercely. There will always be Amer-
icans who will stand up for what is
right and make an effort to show it.
We know that we are privileged and
not “entitled” and appreciate the
difference.
God bless our patriots, and God
bless America!
Dave Traylor
John Day
Trump lies,
contradicts himself
To the Editor:
I have heard that some folks are
calling COVID-19 a “plandemic” to
make President Trump look bad. He
does a good job of that by himself.
Don’t these folks ever watch him
on TV? He lies, he contradicts him-
self and doesn’t make sure he has
his facts straight. That is why I abso-
lutely and indubitably will not vote
for Trump in November.
Elberta Miller
Mt. Vernon
‘Brad has always
stood by his
innocence’
To the Editor:
We want to thank our friends,
family and a lot of the commu-
nity for the overwhelming sup-
port and prayers concerning the
release of Bradley Moles. With
a special thanks to the appellate
attorney who worked so diligently
reviewing lengthy trial transcripts
and the Innocence Project who
stood by to fight for Brad and his
innocence.
The district attorney has his
opinion on the case, but here are
the documented facts.
Brad has always stood by his
innocence. He had the choice
to wait on a very strong appeal,
or to be reversed and remanded
back to the courts with the recent
Supreme Court ruling on Ramos
v. Louisiana on how nonunani-
mous verdicts are unconstitutional
and lead to wrongful convictions.
Of course, Brad wanted to get him
to his wife and his life.
Brad was found not guilty of
the indicted charges but convicted
with an inconsistent verdict. At
least three jurors wrote letters
stating they were confused, tired
and made mistakes, stating they
agreed that the child wasn’t hon-
est and that Brad was not guilty.
We believe there is documented
misconduct at every level in this
case. The witness tried to recant
her story including writing letters
that she wasn’t honest because
she thought that making up a lie
would fix the problems she was
having, like not being able to
see her mom very often due to
homelessness and to date a boy.
The witness even wrote that she
wanted to apologize to the fam-
ily and stated that DHS and her
counselor at CCS wouldn’t listen
to her.
There is no compensation for
the wrongly convicted in Oregon.
Brad lost his home, his job and
two and a half years of his life,
but he is happy to be home and
ready to start rebuilding his life.
We live in a time where our
professionals abuse their power with
little accountability. Our system is
sadly flawed, and unfortunately, it’s
the children and their families that
suffer.
Wendy Cates
Mt. Vernon