A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
OUR VIEW
DeFazio’s energy
and infl uence
will be missed
O
regon is losing an
able and hardworking
advocate in Congress
with the impending retirement of
Peter DeFazio.
The Springfi eld Democrat
announced last week that he
will not seek reelection in 2022,
bringing his political career to a
close after 36 years in the U.S.
House of Representatives. That
longevity has made him Ore-
gon’s longest-serving member of
Congress — and has given him
the political clout to do a lot of
good things for this state and the
nation.
“He is very smart, very pas-
sionate and very knowledge-
able about the details,” 2nd Dis-
trict Rep. Earl Blumenauer said
of his longtime colleague during
a Zoom call Friday with repre-
sentatives of the East Oregonian
Media Group. “This is a tremen-
dous loss for Oregon and a tre-
mendous loss for the country.”
At 74, DeFazio has certainly
earned the right to retire. He
recently underwent back surgery,
and his announcement stated
that he was stepping down in
order to focus on his health and
well-being.
But Oregonians will feel the
loss of his considerable infl uence
on Capitol Hill, especially in the
realm of transportation.
DeFazio joined the House
Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee when he fi rst came to
Congress in 1987 and gradually
rose through the ranks, becoming
chair of the panel in 2019. Over
the years, his position on the
committee and his vast exper-
tise on transportation issues has
enabled him to steer millions
of dollars in federal funding to
his home state, helping to bank-
roll important improvements for
Oregon’s ports and railroads. In
2006, he was able to tweak the
federal highway funding formula
to free up an additional $1.3 bil-
lion in funding for Oregon roads
and bridges. His fi ngerprints are
all over the $1.2 billion infra-
structure package recently passed
by Congress, which may fi nally
pave the way for the Columbia
River Crossing, a badly needed
project that would ease the bot-
tleneck where Interstate 5 links
Oregon and Washington. And it
was DeFazio who led the charge
to hold Boeing and the FAA
accountable after a malfunction-
ing control system caused two
Boeing 737 MAX jetliners to
crash, killing 346 people.
Of course, DeFazio has his
share of detractors, many of
whom take issue with some of
his more left-leaning positions.
But he’s never been afraid to
stand up against his own party.
He crossed the aisle to support a
Republican plan to create a con-
stitutional amendment requiring
a balanced budget, bucked Pres-
idents Bill Clinton and Barack
Obama on free trade agreements
he thought harmed American
workers and harshly criticized
Obama’s $787 billion stimulus
package in the wake of the Great
Recession, saying the money
should have gone toward infra-
structure improvements rather
than Wall Street bailouts.
And it’s worth noting that
DeFazio has been able to hold
his seat against all comers for
18 terms in the House. Oregon’s
4th Congressional District is a
politically diverse territory that
encompasses not only the liberal
enclaves of Eugene and Corvallis
but a large swath of conservative
Southwest Oregon. The district
leans a bit more to the left after
the recent redistricting orches-
trated by the Democrat-held Leg-
islature, but it’s been competitive
in the past: Last year, Republican
Alek Skarlatos lost by just 6 per-
centage points.
Whoever the voters elect in
2022 will have a tough time
matching DeFazio’s long-run-
ning political tightrope act —
or his ability to serve the inter-
ests of Oregonians of all party
affi liations.
FARMER’S FATE
Pumpkin spice or peppermint cocoa?
W
e’re the family who skips
pumpkin spice and goes
straight to peppermint
cocoa. We carved pumpkins while lis-
tening to Frank Sinatra sing “Jingle
Bells.” We brainstormed Christmas
gifts while we plunged apples down
the barrel of the washing machine-
turned-cider press. We whistled carols
while we steamed grapes into juice.
We fi nished up our last cutting of hay,
wrapping white, round silage bales,
singing “it’s a marshmallow world in
the winter...” As soon as the pumpkins
begin turning orange, the Christmas
season offi cially starts at our house.
Everything Christmas except the
tree. The tree doesn’t go up until the
day after Thanksgiving — because of
some crazy idea my husband has of
allowing each holiday it’s own space.
Over the years he’s softened — with
everything except the tree. The stock-
ings are hung with care long before
Thanksgiving, and he breaks out the
Hallmark Christmas movies at the
start of November. But so far, he’s
held fast to the tree rule.
Recently, on a picnic with my par-
ents, we discovered some of the most
beautiful pine cones — and I suddenly
had a crazy idea that would satisfy his
tree rule and yet circumvent it at the
same time. I would make a pine cone
tree. It was such a beautifully devious
plan, for a moment I thought I should
try my hand at politics!
It was nearly dusk before we
started collecting the cones. Every-
one helped, exclaiming with delight
each time an especially large one was
found. It was much more fun than
the mushroom hunting we usually
do after a picnic with
my parents — per-
haps because I loathe
mushrooms, and I
love pine cones.
We had fi lled
two boxes before it
became too dark to
Brianna
see the diff erence
Walker
between a pine cone
and a cow pie — and
not wanting to mistake one for the
other, we decided it was time to call
it a day.
I had memories of my mom want-
ing to just pick a few more mush-
rooms “because they were so pretty,”
and for the fi rst time, I felt I under-
stood that feeling — although never
about mushrooms.
Later that week, my husband and I
celebrated our 17th anniversary with
our traditional gas station burritos.
My husband brought out burritos
and DEF fl uid for the swather. “We
gotta get this hay up before it rains this
weekend,” he says. “But this weekend
is supposed to be nasty, we could do
something fun for our anniversary?”
This is when my devious plan mani-
fested itself.
“Do you wanna build a pine cone
tree?” I sing-songed in “Frozen” style.
He gave me a look, like he knew
what I was doing, but he merely nod-
ded. The weather forecaster was right
— it was nasty and bleak out — and
the gloom had never looked more
appealing. In no time we were sur-
rounded with sawdust, plastic tubing
and chicken wire. Hours later, a wire
mesh tree shape had emerged.
We wrapped it in lights and then
began the pleasurable task of wir-
ing on the pine cones — a Hallmark
movie playing in the background.
As the tree took shape, my heart
soared as the heart of my 5-year-old
plummeted. “But Mommy,” he whim-
pered, “I want a real tree.”
“Don’t you think this one is
pretty?” I asked, looking into his
large, sad eyes.
“Yes.”
“Then why do you want a real
one?”
“Because,” he answered soberly,
“there’s no room for presents under
this one.”
We are now calling this one our
Thanksgiving tree. A Christmas tree
came the fourth Friday of November
— satisfying the rules, the wants, and
even the capacity for presents.
So however you deck your halls —
be it with pumpkin pies and overfl ow-
ing cornucopias, or peppermint cocoa
and Christmas lights — or whether
your tree comes with the fi rst frost or
the fi rst snow, may your holiday sea-
son be especially joyful. Filled with
love, laughter and maybe a pine cone
or two.
Deck the halls with loads of pine
cones
fa la la la la, la la la la
Hang the stockings on the fi re
stones
fa la la la la, la la la la
Don we now our Claus apparel
fa la la, la la la, la la la
Skip the spice, move on to cocoa
fa la la la la, la la la la.
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle
COMMENTARY
Masks in schools oppress our kids
I
Blue Mountain
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n life there is no position greater
than that of raising a child. The
duties set forth in this position are
of great gravity. Our actions will for-
ever be remembered as the path these
children should follow. In adulthood
they will do so with confi dence or
blindly with shame.
Every day, we the community go
to the stores and continue on with
our business enjoying the fruits of the
blood of our fathers. They fought and
died for these rights. My grandfather
along with many others were in WW2
fi ghting for the very rights I speak of
today. Simple rights, rights granted to
us not by the existence of authority,
but instead given to us by God through
the gift of life.
We as patriotic Americans see our-
selves as willing to do the same; sadly,
I’m afraid we will not. It’s easy to buy
your groceries for dinner, or talk to
your friends downtown. Taking for
granted our ability to not fear if you
left your mask at home. This is your
right and you can do so without fear of
oppression. If someone questions you,
you can go somewhere else without
fear of actions taken against you.
These simple things are fundamen-
tal aspects of dignity granted to all
people regardless of position or color.
Simple respect for humankind that
is expected to permeate throughout a
free society. Today
we are faced with
these simple rights
being stripped from
our children. We as
community mem-
bers, fathers, moth-
ers, grandparents,
Lucas
aunts, uncles, and
Andrew
friends go through
our daily lives, knowing these simple
rights are guaranteed while our chil-
dren are being stripped of them.
As we see daily, the empathy of
the community condemns horrible
actions against helpless beings such
as pets. There is no excuse for muz-
zling a helpless animal, unable to fi ght
for itself. Today our legislature ban-
ters about the dignity of livestock
in our farms. Fighting for the rights
of a “living being” to a fruitful exis-
tence untainted by the injustice of
oppression.
While we debate the dignity of
oppressed livestock and the rights of
sheep, our children are watching this,
heartbroken. They are unable to speak
because they themselves have been
muzzled… by us. They are watch-
ing haunted by the threat they may at
any point be caught unmuzzled and
removed from class, or denied and iso-
lated from their sports games or scho-
lastic activities.
How can we as their home com-
munity allow this to continue? Telling
our children their rights are only given
when a teacher or principal grants
them? Are we so lazy as to allow the
forced conformity of our youth?
I wonder how history would have
changed if Harriet Tubman had suc-
cumbed to her oppressors and died a
slave in servitude. Will we allow the
leaders of our schools to utilize oppres-
sion as a tool to shadow the rights of
our helpless children? How, as a com-
munity, can we send our young men
to fi ght oppression abroad when we
have not rid ourselves of it at home? Is
there no dignity for children today? Is
it OK to allow others to utilize fear to
force covering the face of our beauti-
ful children?
I am disgusted with our community
for allowing this injustice perpetrated
and cloaked in the color of offi ce and
law. We are teaching our children that
there is no dignity or sovereignty in
humanity unless granted by those who
would oppress it. We tell our children
they can be anything they want. Sadly,
that’s only true if they cover their faces
in shame fi rst.
Lucas Andrew is a resident of Mt.
Vernon, he graduated from Grant
Union High School, and up until
recent events, he had two students
enrolled in the Grant School District.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
nities respond to public health threats such as COVID-
Health Department’s
19 infections.
dedication commendable
Jessica Winegar with the Grant County Heath Depart-
To the editor:
The Grant County Health Department has been a
valuable resource in our county for years. It has helped
build resilient communities and has helped our commu-
ment has come to Seneca three times off ering COVID-
19 vaccinations to our residents. This commitment to the
people in Grant County is commendable.
Barbara Northington
Seneca