A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
We must stop
this now
S
ince May we have
watched ever more stun-
ning and audacious acts of
violence committed in our great
cities under the cover of “mostly
peaceful” protests.
Perhaps we became jaded
after more than three months
of nightly riots accentuated by
vandalism, looting, and attempts
to burn public buildings and
immolate police officers.
The sight of an angry mob
of our fellow citizens busting
into the U.S. Capitol, disrupting
the House and Senate sessions
and making a mockery of one
the highest institutions in our
republic is sickening and almost
beyond comprehension.
Almost. We have been build-
ing to this for a very long time.
The politics of the past 20
years have become increasingly
divisive, intolerant and personal.
America has been divided on all
issues into competing factions,
each encouraged to believe in
the infallibility of its position, to
revile the position of opponents
and to doubt our foundational
institutions. The rule of law be
damned.
How did we reach a place
where significant portions of the
electorate believe either Donald
Trump stole the election in 2016
or Joe Biden stole the election
in 2020? When did we lose faith
in each other?
Politicians, left and right,
have become expert at stoking
the flames, without regard to the
potential damage.
Our elected officials — pres-
idents, members of Congress,
governors, mayors — have used
the harshest, most inflamma-
tory rhetoric against their oppo-
nents. They whip these mobs
into a frenzy, send them out into
the street and act surprised when
bad actors embedded with legit-
imate protesters turn ugly. They
deplore the violence while sub-
tly suggesting that it was all
somehow justified.
We should expect more from
our elected officials, but the
fault is in ourselves.
We have become all too
occupied with the divisions,
arranging ourselves neatly in
one camp or another. We have
listened only to those things that
bolstered our world view. We
allowed agitators and activists
to use our fear and anger as a
means to their own ends.
We stopped talking with and
listening to each other. We have
slapped vile labels on our neigh-
bors and turned them into irre-
deemable enemies. And, when
times are desperate, instinct dic-
tates we deal harshly with an
enemy.
Each of us passes through
history so briefly that we
often don’t appreciate the tri-
als endured by previous gener-
ations. America has a fiery his-
tory. We’ve been here before.
Time and again our ances-
tors learned that there are more
things that unite us than divide
us; that we can respectfully dis-
agree; that if not friends, we are
not enemies; that the legitimacy
of an argument is not deter-
mined by the force with which
it is made; that we can restore
trust in our institutions; that no
mob rules.
We can pull ourselves from
the brink. We must stop this
now.
FARMER’S FATE
Electrical tape bandages
A
few years back, we were
riding ATVs on the Ore-
gon Dunes. The group had
stopped to take pictures near a beau-
tiful river below us, winding its
way through the sand hills. I don’t
remember the reason, but somehow
my dad asked if anyone had a zip tie
with them. I actually had a used one,
fastened onto my handle bars. My
dad flipped out his pocket knife and
proceeded to open the zip tie and
slide it off. Just as he was nearly fin-
ished, the knife slipped and gouged
his finger. As blood dripped from
the fresh cut, we started looking for
bandages. We came up with a cou-
ple of napkins and some blue paper
towels — but nothing to fasten it
with. Then we noticed a tree that
had several wraps of electrical tape
around it (I have no idea why), and
we cut off a little piece and relo-
cated it to my dad’s finger — after
which we kept riding and had a fan-
tastic weekend.
But I kept thinking about that lit-
tle piece of tape — and the farmers
and ranchers that would use it as a
bandage. I keep a notebook handy
to jot down random thoughts, and
that weekend I jotted down: “Rea-
sons farmers shouldn’t be counsel-
ors: They think everything can be
fixed with duct tape, baler twine,
a big hammer, electrical tape, a
dead chicken around the neck, a hot
shot — and if all else fails, the sale
yard.” Pretty sure I used most all
of those tools the last week. A gate
coop. Fences, gates, power tools, all
are useful — but pointless if they
stood alone. And without people to
operate the tools or feed the animals
— the whole thing crumbles.
It reminds me of a childhood
song:
If the eye said to the hand, I have
no need of thee
from the head to the feet I have
no need of you
how could we ride or hold a
thimble
how could we ride or run so
nimble
how can the body be complete
without feet?
Feet, hands, eyes, ears — it’s our
differences that make us whole. It is
our differences that us function —
but only if we are united. A whole
fleet of beautiful new bank out wag-
ons would do a wheat farmer no
good unless he also has combines
and tractors. The plow horse, the
guard dog, the climbing goat —
together they make the farm func-
tion. Let’s cherish our individual
heritages, knowing it is in uniting
those differences that gives America
its strength.
Right now the gate feels a bit
wobbly, but with a little baler twine
and duct tape we can sturdy that
right up — if not, there’s always
electrical tape bandages and dead
chickens!
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
needed to be stur-
died up — baler
twine. The kids’
beach ball had a
hole in it — gorilla
tape. The rake wheel
needed some work
Brianna
— a big hammer. A
Walker
couple of the roost-
ers decided to move
up their pecking order — a hot shot.
And a trailer load of lambs headed
to the sale yard. I guess no one had
a dead chicken around their neck —
although I was ready to hang one
around those bloody rooster’s necks!
Wonder if it works on roosters as
well as dogs?
Right now is a strange time to
be alive — if you stoop over you
get walked on, if you stand up tall
you get shot. There are opinions
and ideas circulating, and it’s get-
ting harder to discern fact from fic-
tion. There’s a bitter undercurrent,
and it seems just like those two
roosters fighting to determine who
is the most important — which got
me to thinking about who is the
most important on a farm. Cows
give butter, chickens give eggs, the
dog provides protection and the
cats keep the mice down. Maybe it
would be easier to think of what is
most important on a farm. Tractors
quickly come to mind — but with-
out implements, they become use-
less. The shop is only important if
there is something to put in it —
same with the barn and the chicken
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
‘Trump’s thugs’
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.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
To the Editor:
Since last Wednesday’s insur-
rection at our nation’s Capitol, I’ve
heard the people involved referred
to by different names. What I would
call them are “Trump’s thugs.” The
most horrifying thing I saw was
one carrying a sign saying, “Jesus
Saves.” Was their message that God
approves of their criminal behavior?
Make no mistake, Donald Trump
was totally responsible for this
entire abomination. Jesus had noth-
ing to do with it.
Terry Steele
Ritter
‘Determining the
pay of elected
officials’
To the Editor:
I am responding to the article in
the Eagle last week about potentially
replacing Bob Quinton on the Bud-
get Committee with an employee
of the Prairie City Mayor Jim Ham-
sher, who is also a county commis-
sioner. The Grant County Budget
Committee does not approve hours
for anyone on the payroll. That is
an administrative process. The Bud-
get Committee receives the budget,
reviews it for appropriateness, bal-
ance and feasibility, and they make
recommendations.
There is a proper process for
determining the pay of elected offi-
cials as defined in ORS 204.112. It
is not in the hands of the commis-
sioners themselves. And their duties
are defined by statute. The requests
on the part of Jim Hamsher and
Sam Palmer are inappropriate. They
should stop trying to circumvent
the laws. We have seen enough of
that. If they want a raise they should
do it the right way and not replace
a valued Budget Committee mem-
ber because he didn’t support their
requested pay raise.
Eva Harris
Canyon City
The country
is becoming a
dictatorship
To the Editor:
If you could possibly pry your
face away from your flat screen
TV that has more square inches of
surface than my two-car garage, I
have some information you may
be interested in. I know you may
miss a few minutes of football, bas-
ketball, baseball, hopscotch and
Naked and Afraid, but I can assure
you that when you get back to your
TV, Naked and Afraid will still be
naked. Whenever a wannabe dic-
tator decides to take over a coun-
try he or she will follow the recipe
that the Nazis followed in Ger-
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
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many. No. 1, seize all of the weap-
ons from the citizens. It is OK to
leave a few garden and farm tools
as long as they are dull. At least part
of the U.S. Congress is trying to
implement this step. No. 2, control
the media so you will hear what the
leaders of this takeover want you to
hear. This has already been accom-
plished. No. 3, install professors in
our colleges that teach the students
that socialism is the best thing since
the smart phone. They will also be
taught that the Holocaust did not
happen and that a man placed on the
moon was fake. When our glassy-
eyed college students graduate form
the college, some of them will actu-
ally be able to fill out a job applica-
tion (if there are any jobs). Already
done. No. 4, make sure that the citi-
zens have easy access to recreational
drugs. Citizens that are in a con-
stant state of euphoria usually do not
cause problems such as those messy
old protests. Again, already done.
It sounds like there is only about
one more step to be accomplished
and the U.S. will be a dictatorship.
I’m not sure if Hitler and Bin Laden
are still alive, but I heard that they
had been seen in Starbucks having
their latte. They would be safe there
because Starbucks in the past has
refused service to police. If these
two are in their graves, I bet they
are clapping their hands and saying,
“Maybe we won after all.”
Ed Butler
Prairie City
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