OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
A4
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
OTHER VIEWS
Feds not needed
to police school
board meetings
T
he National School
Boards Association’s
defi nition of what might
constitute domestic terrorism and
hate crimes is awfully broad.
Broad enough, potentially, to
encompass actions clearly pro-
tected by the First Amendment.
The Association recently sent
a letter to President Joe Biden
asking for federal law enforce-
ment to help “deal with the
growing number of threats of
violence and acts of intimidation
occurring across the nation.” The
letter reads, in part: “the classi-
fi cation of these heinous actions
could be the equivalent to a form
of domestic terrorism and hate
crimes.”
In response, U.S. Attorney
General Merrick Garland said
the FBI would work with other
federal, state and local agencies
to “develop strategies against the
threats,” according to an Associ-
ated Press story.
Obviously it’s not accept-
able for people who are upset
with school boards to escalate
from verbal or written opposition
to physical. But every state has
criminal laws regarding assault.
And most communities have
police departments to deal with
people who break those laws.
The School Boards Associ-
ation off ers no compelling evi-
dence of a rash of violence
against school boards that local
offi cials aren’t capable of han-
dling, or that warrants federal
involvement.
The letter to Biden cites an
Illinois case in which a per-
son was arrested for aggra-
vated battery and disorderly
conduct during a school board
meeting. This, not surprisingly,
was accomplished without the
involvement of the FBI or any
other federal agency.
Other examples listed in the
letter include school boards
“confronted by angry mobs,”
an Alabama resident who called
school administrators while vid-
eoing himself on Facebook Live,
and a person who yelled a Nazi
salute during a school board
meeting in Michigan.
Some of this behavior sounds
obnoxious. Some, as with the
Nazi salute, is abhorrent.
But being part of an angry
mob, or making videos of phone
calls with public offi cials, or
even yelling Nazi salutes, not
only is unlikely to be criminal,
but it’s probably constitutionally
protected speech.
This is not to suggest that
people who are aggrieved by
school board actions, or inac-
tions, should seek to derail pub-
lic meetings, even by nonviolent
means such as shouting. This
accomplishes nothing.
But the ultimate test of the
First Amendment is not that it
protects the soft-spoken and
the reasonable. That’s easy and
uncontroversial. If the term “free
speech” is to be anything other
than an empty platitude, it must
off er equal protection for the
loud, the boorish and the purvey-
ors of conspiracy theories, even
if they cause school board meet-
ings to last longer than they oth-
erwise would, or expose mem-
bers to uncomfortable diatribes.
In any case, the reality that
disgruntled citizens attend public
meetings is no cause for asking
the most powerful law enforce-
ment agency in the land to get
involved.
suffi ciently loud and clear so as to be
understood. With the present method
of broadcast, a speaker at the podium
using the microphone can be under-
stood; however, court member com-
ments and comments from the audi-
ence are diffi cult to hear and diffi cult
to understand. There also should be
an established procedure to allow
those participating via broadcast to
make comments. The present sys-
tem is unacceptable, and I am asking
the court to address this matter fi rst
by acknowledging this letter and sec-
ondly by responding with a reason-
able solution. Since COVID has cre-
ated this issue, maybe there could be
some COVID funds available to cor-
rect the problem. Just my thought!
Jim Spell
John Day
Blue Mountain
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POSTMASTER — send address changes to
I
n mid-August, three days after
Afghanistan fell to the Taliban,
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown pro-
claimed our state “ready to welcome
any and all Afghans.” Fifty-one of
55 Democratic legislators, who com-
prise supermajorities in the state House
and Senate, issued letters declaring the
same.
So it came as no small surprise
when the White House informed
Brown in mid-September that, of the
initial nationwide distribution of 37,000
Afghan refugees, Oregon would
receive 180.
Consider that number vis-a-vis
other states’. Our neighbors to the north
and south, Washington and Califor-
nia, were allocated 1,679 and 5,255,
respectively. Kentucky, whose popula-
tion approximates Oregon’s, got almost
fi ve times our number (850). Even reli-
ably-red Oklahoma — every one of
whose 77 counties voted for Donald
Trump over Joe Biden in 2020 — net-
ted 1,800.
Will Oregon’s leaders now —
believing an allotment of “only” 180
refugees slights our state’s reputation as
(in Brown’s words) “a welcoming and
inclusive place” — implore the Biden
administration to send us far more?
Most likely. What they should do,
however, is remove their “woke” blind-
ers, look unfl inchingly at Oregon’s
current predicament, and objectively
consider the impact a mass infl ux of
Afghan refugees would have on the cit-
izens of an already-overstressed state.
Even before Afghanistan fell, Ore-
gon was beset by multiple crises.
Since the pandemic’s start, more than
a third of a million Oregonians have
contracted COVID; as of last week,
some 1,400 new cases still were being
reported each day.
In our biggest city,
crime has exploded;
between January and
August 2021, Port-
land already had seen
more murders than in
Richard F.
any entire year since
LaMountain
1994. And rural com-
munities continue to
rebuild from the summer’s devastating
wildfi res, which consumed hundreds of
thousands of acres. Stretched, already,
to the breaking point, need Oregonians’
leaders volunteer them for yet another
costly challenge?
Most harmed by a mass infusion
of Afghan refugees would be Ore-
gon’s poorest. Statewide, reports the
National Low Income Housing Coa-
lition, there is a shortage of almost
99,000 rental homes available to what
it terms “extremely low-income house-
holds, whose incomes are at or below
the poverty guideline or 30 percent
of their area median income.” Should
Gov. Brown and her Democratic col-
leagues force poor U.S. citizens to
compete with thousands more destitute
Afghans for our already-scarce low-in-
come housing?
And however uncomfortable it may
make them, Brown et al should take
a clear, unbiased look at the Afghans
themselves.
Between 2008 and 2012, the Pew
Research Center surveyed residents of
Muslim countries, including Afghan-
istan. (During those years, remember,
Afghanistan had a pro-U.S. govern-
ment and American personnel were
working to imbue its people with dem-
ocratic values.) What Pew discovered:
Ninety-nine percent of Afghans sur-
veyed believed sharia should be the
law of the land. Eighty-fi ve percent
believed sharia should sanction the
stoning of adulterers. And 61 percent
believed sharia should govern not just
Muslims, but non-Muslims.
Considered “sometimes” justifi able
were suicide bombings (by 39 percent
of Afghans polled) and “honor” kill-
ings of female family members who
had engaged in extramarital sex (by 60
percent).
Crime? In Europe, resident Afghans
commit disproportionate numbers of
violent off enses. In Austria, for exam-
ple, a 2018 government report, sum-
marized by the Center for Immigration
Studies’ Jason Richwine, found that
“Afghans’ overall crime rate is seven
times higher than the rate of Austrians,
and that Afghans commit rape at an
astonishing 22 times the Austrian rate.”
Given all this, how likely are
Afghans, as a whole, to assimilate
seamlessly into Oregon communities?
Rather than plead for more Afghan
refugees for our state, Brown and
her colleagues should urge the Biden
Administration to seek to resettle them
in Central Asian nations — especially
Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan, which border Afghani-
stan directly, share its cultural attributes
and, collectively, have received billions
in U.S. aid.
Since 1975, Oregon has welcomed
some 70,000 refugees — which testi-
fi es mightily to our character and com-
passion. But given our already-numer-
ous challenges and the problematic
values, beliefs and behaviors of so
many Afghans, our state, today, must
say no to more.
Richard F. LaMountain, a resident
of Mt. Vernon, is a former assistant edi-
tor of Conservative Digest magazine.
COMMENTARY
To the editor:
For several years I and others
attended Grant County Court meet-
ings and had the opportunity to
become aware of issues before the
court and at times comment. When
COVID became an issue it became
necessary to limit the number of peo-
ple allowed in the room, and pro-
ceedings were broadcast thanks to
the assistance of the Blue Mountain
Eagle and their technology.
Likely the court will, due to
COVID, continue to restrict the num-
ber of individuals allowed to physi-
cally attend court meetings. The alter-
native available for attendance is a
continuation of broadcasting pro-
ceedings. Broadcasts of proceedings
should aff ord to listeners the same
level of involvement as experienced
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
(including online access)
Oregon should pause Afghan resettlement
Editor’s note: This editorial
originally appeared in the Baker
City Herald.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
those physically present in the
County court needs by
courtroom. Specifi cally, communi-
cation by anyone speaking should be
better broadcasts
E DITOR
R EPORTER
S PORTS
M ULTIMEDIA
M ARKETING R EP
O FFICE A SSISTANT
COMMENTARY
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Keeping elk on public land
W
here are all the elk?
It’s a common ques-
tion heard every fall
around campfi res and wood cook-
stoves in the Blue Mountains.
Hunters share any number of the-
ories about why they can’t fi nd
elk: too many predators, too many
hunters, too many motor vehicles,
not enough (or too much) logging,
too much cattle grazing, bad herd
management — the list is long and
imaginative.
The Blue Mountains have the
potential for some of the world’s
best quality habitat for Rocky
Mountain elk. There are about
55,000 elk in the Blue Moun-
tains, and in most areas the herds
are near the state’s management
objectives. So why do some hunt-
ers have a hard time fi nding elk?
As is often the case, it’s not about
numbers, it’s about distribution.
Elk like to be where they can
fi nd good habitat without being
disturbed. Traditionally elk would
spend the spring, summer and fall
in the Blue Mountains, where they
found cooler temperatures and
shade, plentiful water and lush
forage. With the arrival of winter
snow, they migrated to lower ele-
vations, only to repeat the cycle in
the spring and follow the green-up
into the hills.
But some elk in the Blues have
changed their habits to avoid pub-
lic land, spending more time on
lower-elevation private lands,
where hunters and motorized vehi-
cles don’t disturb them. By the
time elk rifl e season rolls around,
the elk have been pushed around
for several months by bowhunters
and deer hunters and in increasing
numbers they have moved off pub-
lic lands to get the security they
L
crave, well before
the winter snow.
Private land-
owners greet this
development in a
variety of ways.
Some are pleased
Bill
just to see elk on
Aney
their land. Some
want elk so that
their family and friends can hunt,
and some are fi nding ways to
monetize this public resource by
charging for hunting and/or access
on their property. And some land-
owners want no elk on their land
because elk eat the same feed as
domestic livestock and have a
habit of destroying fences.
I maintain that we need a way
to hold more elk on public lands
through the fall. This is good for
public land hunters, obviously,
but it also would reduce confl icts
with agricultural interests. I also
confess that I don’t like the idea
of private landowners selling the
rights to hunt native wildlife when
those animals should be on pub-
lic lands.
How do we keep them there?
The science is known — and it’s
local. Projects completed on the
La Grande Ranger District have
demonstrated how managing veg-
etation and reducing disturbance
from motor vehicles can turn around
this problematic migration pattern.
Forest thinning and prescribed burn-
ing creates quality feeding areas that
are especially attractive to elk in
the late summer and fall when they
are trying to put on the calories for
winter.
But quality feed is useless to elk
if they are constantly disturbed by
motor vehicles. With over 4,500
miles of roads on the Umatilla
National Forest, elk often abandon
areas used by cars, pickups, ATVs,
motorcycles and the like. Fortu-
nately, the Umatilla National For-
est has a travel management plan
that identifi es only a subset of these
roads as open to motor vehicles,
with the remainder closed for all or
part of the year.
This is a good thing for elk as
it improves habitat security and
can ultimately increase public land
elk hunting opportunities when elk
relearn to stay on public lands later
in the fall.
However, this requires that we
all know what roads are open to
traffi c and which are closed, and fol-
low the plan. A new cooperative
venture between the Forest Service,
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, and Oregon State Univer-
sity Extension Service should help.
The eff ort will be highlighted in the
2022 big game hunting season syn-
opsis, as well as on signboards at
National Forest entry points and in
printed brochures and downloadable
digital maps.
In the meantime, elk hunters
need to learn which roads are closed
to motor vehicles in their hunting
area and commit to driving only
on open roads. The Forest Service
Motor Vehicle Use Maps are avail-
able for free download on their web-
site and paper copies in the forest
offi ces.
We also need to be supportive
of forest thinning and prescribed
burning projects, recognizing that
the high-quality habitat that results
will attract and hold more elk and
improve the odds for public land
hunters.
Bill Aney is a forester and wild-
life biologist living in Pendleton and
loving the Blue Mountains.
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