A6
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
$15 minimum
wage would
hit rural
economy hard
ulfilling a campaign
promise, Joe Biden
wants to boost the
federal minimum wage to $15
an hour.
Farmers, whose livelihoods
and property are on the line,
are right to be wary of the
possibilities.
Proponents suggest that
employers are able either to
absorb increased labor costs,
or increase prices to offset
costs without negative impacts
to employees.
It’s political claptrap.
Advocates say boosting the
minimum wage will give mil-
lions of Americans a much-
needed raise — or, at least,
the ones lucky enough to keep
their jobs. Politicians and pro-
ponents somehow miss the
fact that hard-pressed employ-
ers will scour their operations
for ways to reduce their pay-
rolls to offset the increase. In
addition to layoffs, many will
switch to part-time and on-call
employees as ways to save
money.
Mechanization and automa-
tion, which eliminate jobs, will
also become more attractive.
This wage hike would hurt
small businesses the most.
Big chains can absorb the
increase, safe in the knowl-
edge that their smaller compet-
itors won’t be able to keep up.
F
Those smaller ag operations
and processors in labor-inten-
sive sectors will be forced to
sell out to larger competitors.
And it’s not only businesses
that will feel the pinch. Local
governments and school dis-
tricts will also have to raise
wages, or cut staff.
President Biden put his pro-
posal to increase the mini-
mum wage into his $2 bil-
lion COVID relief package.
He most likely believes reluc-
tant lawmakers — even many
moderate Democrats have
balked at the $15 figure —
will have a tougher time say-
ing “no” if it’s wrapped in the
flag of pandemic aid.
But Congress needs to be
cautious. The result will be
fewer jobs, fewer businesses
and a weaker rural economy.
Putting the thousands of busi-
nesses battered by government
reaction to the virus on a better
footing makes more sense than
increasing their costs.
Those seeking higher min-
imum wages want to use
other people’s money to make
political points with their
supporters.
Proponents of higher min-
imum wages may be dis-
appointed to find out that a
robust economy, not govern-
mental fiat, benefits workers
most.
EDUCATION CORNER
Six helpful hints
ith the development of
vaccines for the coro-
navirus and distribu-
tion underway, there may be an end
to distance learning just around
the corner. This said, there are still
many children struggling with their
reading and parents assisting their
children with schooling. Learning
to read is not the same for every-
one. Reading text is a human-cre-
ated skill and not a natural skill for
our brains to process. Therefore,
depending on acquisition of a long
spectrum of skills, some children
have no problems learning to read
while others struggle. To add to the
confusion, English is a blend of sev-
eral different languages and rules,
making it even harder to understand.
There are those few people in
our country who spend their time
studying our language and all the
rules that apply, yet most of us do
not aspire to be linguists. Webster,
back in the 1800s, brought us a com-
plete rule book of most of the words
and rules behind their spellings.
There was a time when teachers were
expected to know all those rules prior
to starting to teach. Over the years
we have relied on textbook publish-
ers to provide those rules embed-
ded in their curriculum. Many of us
do not always pick up on the rules
or remember them because the cur-
riculum moves on quickly. When
challenged why a word is spelled a
certain way, we dismiss it and say
something like, “The English lan-
W
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.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20500; Phone-comments: 202-
456-1111; Switchboard: 202-456-
1414.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
‘Bentz was not
representing his
constituents’
guage just has some
odd spellings.” In
most cases, there is
a reason behind that
spelling, whether it
be from the root of
the word or the lan-
Dr. Scott
guage the word was
Smith
adopted from.
Having kids
read to adults is always beneficial —
well, most of the time. What do we
find ourselves saying to a child when
they come to a word they do not rec-
ognize? The most popular response
is, “Sound the word out.” The only
problem is that the only English
words that can easily be sounded out
are one-syllable, short vowel words.
In the English language, you have to
be able to identify the vowel sounds
in words, many of which contain
multiple letters, and then you are
able to blend the word and hopefully
get the sounds close enough that you
are able to recognize the word from
your auditory vocabulary or lexicon.
No worries! Here is some help.
This will be enough to get you by
without having to become a linguist.
There are six basic syllable rules
that most English words follow or
at least follow closely enough that
you can get an approximation and
then recognize the word. The same
six rules also help with spelling.
Here they are: open syllable (go,
me), closed syllable (cat, fin), vowel
team, “r”-controlled (first, far, or),
vowel/consonant/silent “e” (same,
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
of white crosses in England and
Stand beside her,
Normandy of young men who
not against her
fought for freedom, not just for
To the Editor:
Representative Bentz’s first act
in Congress to challenge the Elec-
toral College vote repudiates Rep.
Greg Walden’s legacy. Rep. Bentz
was not representing his constitu-
ents. He was supporting and perpe-
trating a lie.
America has many problems,
especially now. Rep. Bentz needs to
be one of the brave souls who actu-
ally wants to solve them.
Mark Murray
Prairie City
To the Editor:
I came to this amazing country
from England 50 years ago at the
age of 18.
We drove from Seattle to Day-
ville. I was in awe of the vastness
and splendor of it all.
What I really noticed was
how kind and friendly Americans
were. But what I really wanted
to say is coming from post-war
England, I have seen what one
man’s distorted way of thinking
can do, not just to a country, but
a nation.
I have seen the rows and rows
this country, for all countries.
They did not get to come home
and enjoy the freedoms they
fought and died for.
Next time free-thinking Amer-
icans decide to do what you all
did on Jan. 6, don’t just get on
one knee, get on both knees and
thank God and the brave men and
women who are standing beside
her, not against her, still putting
their lives on the line so we can
live the lives we all live in this
beautiful land we call the USA.
God bless America.
Pam Martin
Dayville
L
ETTERS POLICY: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local,
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case) and consonant “-le” (little,
able). Common blends, digraphs
and diphthongs can also cause con-
fusion. Blends are connected let-
ters where you can hear all the let-
ter sounds. Digraphs are a cluster of
consonants that create a new sound,
and diphthongs are a cluster of let-
ters with at least one vowel. These
are the most commonly found word
parts in elementary texts. The let-
ter “y” is sometimes considered a
vowel, but there is a reason. English
words don’t end in the letter “i” so
they use “y” (my, sky, by).
A great activity for students
to do is sort single syllable words
into each of the above groups. This
allows them to work with words
along with looking for vowel
sounds. This activity only focuses
on vowel sounds. The objective is
to identify the vowel sound in each
word or syllable and then blend the
sounds together to get an approxi-
mation close enough that they can
recognize the word or are able to
spell the word closely enough to be
able to recognize it.
Happy word discovery!
Dr. Scott Smith is a Umatilla
County educator with 40-plus
years of experience. He taught
at McNary Heights Elementary
School and then for Eastern Ore-
gon University in their teacher edu-
cation program at Blue Mountain
Community College. He serves on
the Decoding Dyslexia — OR board
as their parent-teacher liaison.
Phone: 541-575-0710
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