A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
OUR VIEW
Pump
your own
provision is
out of gas
C
alifornia may have its Silicon Valley and Hollywood.
Ohio gets all those new high-paying computer chip
manufacturing jobs for Intel. Washington state may have
no income tax. But here in Oregon we don’t have to pump our
own gas.
Those aren’t fair comparisons. We are not of a mind to be
fair, hearing that once again a bill to let Oregonians pump their
own gas is dead.
We get it if you don’t want to pump your own. If you appre-
ciate the bond Oregon has with the only other no self-service
state, New Jersey, so be it. If you worry about people who would
fi nd pumping their own diffi cult, if you worry about safety, if
you want another opportunity for jobs in Oregon, those are all
real concerns.
But remember the bill as it was written, House Bill 4151,
would not have removed the requirement to have attendants
ready to pump gas. It would have made it optional for people
who want to pump their own gas.
Is that so bad? We don’t think so.
The undoing of HB 4151 was the need for some $543,000 for
the Oregon Fire Marshal to regulate consumer pumping. Time
became too short to come up with that in this session.
We think the fi re marshal may need even more money, if we
understand the concerns. The worries about people pumping
their own transfer to people plugging in their own electric cars,
right? Especially those higher voltage charging ports.
In the 2023 Legislature shouldn’t there be a bill to require
Oregonians to be assisted with a paid professional when plug-
ging in their electric vehicles?
We can’t claim it as our idea. It would, though, create jobs. It
would be very helpful to those for whom such eff ort can be dif-
fi cult. It would be safer. And just because Oregon would be the
only state to make this requirement, shouldn’t be a reason to
stop us. Maybe New Jersey would join in.
Music is in the ear of the beholder
I
n my youth, I realized I had
become a violin virtuoso.
My bowing skills showed
strength and control. My nim-
ble fingers danced over the E A
D G strings, my vibrato, tender
or triumphant, depending on the
composer.
My violin musicality pos-
sessed one teeny, tiny challenge
— some detractors might even
label it a flaw. Namely, I rarely
played in tune.
“Don’t you want to quit the
violin and the orchestra?” a
friend asked.
“Oh, no. I plan on earning my
way through college with my
violin playing.”
In time, I realized I couldn’t
earn enough with my music skills
to purchase a pencil eraser. Still,
playing with an orchestra in grade
school developed a camarade-
rie that for me went beyond the
closeness I felt with a sports team
or with other actors in a school
play.
“How come violins aren’t
included in the marching band?”
I asked myself.
I thought my younger broth-
ers and I could remedy that.
We’d form a marching violin
band. I played a full-size violin,
one brother played a ¾-size vio-
lin, and the other brother played
a half-size violin. None of us
whipped out con-
certos at age 4.
First challenge
— where to hang
the music? Prob-
lem solved. We’d
march single file
and I’d pin the
Jean Ann
music for each
Moultrie
brother on the
back of the person ahead. Being
the leader in line, I constructed
a music holder out of twigs and
tape and hooked it to my violin.
Next challenge — where to
find an audience for our pre-
mier marching violins extrava-
ganza. The answer — we’d form
a parade and invite the neigh-
bors. Colored paper invitations
we stuck to the neighbors’ screen
doors. Our parade start time —
that very afternoon.
Our dog joined us, which
lent a festive air. As a bonus to
extend the parade, I scrounged
up a piece of rope I used to
tie our little red wagon to the
back belt loops of the younger
brother, the wagon handle bang-
ing on the local asphalt road (no
traffic) not quite in time to the
marching notes, but this did add
a percussion-like flavor to the
music.
Unforeseen problems. Should
a marching violin musician sud-
denly stop, they were rammed
between the shoulder blades by
the violin behind, and should
someone lag behind, they couldn’t
see the music and had to jog to
catch up. My taped twig music
holder fell to pieces.
Even so, we witnessed a suc-
cessful inauguration for us pio-
neers of the violin marching band.
Too bad no one else showed up.
Music can comfort and sustain
in times of sorrow, and entertain in
times of celebration. There’s music
to study by. Music to motivate.
(When I clean house and want to
get into high gear, I play the Hun-
garian Gypsy music I discovered
in Budapest.)
Whether country-western, rock,
jazz, pop, classical, musicals, folk
songs, etc., music can be enjoyed
while driving a vehicle, seated at a
fairgrounds pavilion performance,
or while doing chores.
I wrestle with the notion that
I fi nd music heart-touching, yet
I don’t have musical skills. The
thought pops up in my mind.
Somewhere I do belong in the
music world, no audition neces-
sary — that’s in the audience!
Jean Moultrie is a Grant
County writer. She suggests that
in times of conflict, that Beetho-
ven’s 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy),
“Let all men be brothers,” be
performed as it was at the coming
down of the Berlin Wall.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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@cityofl ongcreek.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,
oregonlegislature.gov.
• Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale — 900 Court St.
NE, S-301, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-986-
1730. Website: oregonlegislature.gov/fi ndley.
Email: sen.lynnfi ndley@oregonlegislature.
gov.
• Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane — 900 Court St.
NE, H-475, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-986-1460.
District address: 258 S. Oregon St., Ontario OR
97914. District phone: 541-889-8866. Website:
oregonlegislature.gov/fi ndley. Email: rep.
markowens@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.
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516 Hart Senate
Offi ce Building, Washington D.C. 20510.
Phone: 202-224-5244. Email: wayne_kinney@
wyden.senate.gov. Website: http://wyden.
senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313 Hart
Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. Email: senator@
merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-228-3997.
Oregon offi ces include One World Trade
Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St., Suite 1250,
Portland, OR 97204; and 310 S.E. Second St.,
Suite 105, Pendleton, OR 97801. Phone: 503-
326-3386; 541-278-1129. Fax: 503-326-2990.
• U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R — (Second District)
1239 Longworth Building, Washington D.C.
20515. Phone: 202-225-6730. No direct email
because of spam. Website: walden.house.
gov Fax: 202-225-5774. Ontario offi ce: 2430
SW Fourth Ave., Suite 2, Ontario, OR 97914.
Phone: 541-709-2040. Medford offi ce: 14 N.
Central Ave., Suite 112, Medford, OR 97501.
Phone: 541-776-4646. Fax: 541-779-0204.
• Pending Bills: For information on bills in
Congress. Phone: 202-225-1772.
A sad day when
Dems won’t fi ght
To the Editor:
Sadly, a recent Quinnipiac Uni-
versity poll showed that if the
United States were to be attacked,
as is happening in Ukraine, 52% of
Democrats would fl ee to another
country rather than stay and fi ght
for this country. It is a sad day for
America.
Ralph Goodwin
John Day
Nuclear fears of
an 8-year-old
To the Editor:
It was a Sunday morning in 1953
at the big stone and brick house
we owned on Washington Street in
Prairie City. My brother and I were
upstairs in the bathroom getting
ready for Sunday school. My parents
were downstairs, with Mom prepar-
ing a pork roast for Chinese noodles
in a pressure cooker. Out of nowhere
there was a blast that to two young
boys seemed like a tremendous
explosion.
I immediately grabbed my
brother and exclaimed, “Mike! It’s
the Russians!” A plugged safety
valve caused the cooker to explode,
and I interpreted it to be a nuclear
bomb. I was only 8, but during this
period older kids and grownups also
lived in fear of a nuclear attack.
The monster of Europe (Stalin)
had just died and been replaced by
Khrushchev. The Cold War contin-
ued between the free world and the
communist world for nearly 40 more
years. I am not overlooking the fact
that it was the United States that
L
ETTERS POLICY: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local,
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MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
developed the atomic bomb, and it is
the only nation to ever use it in war
to bomb an enemy country. How-
ever, through the Cold War years I
never believed that there would ever
be peace between Russia and the
Western nations. What a wonderful
moment it was when the Berlin Wall
came down, followed later by the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
Now, after nearly 30 years of
managing to get along with Rus-
sia, Putin is proving to be every bit
the monster that was Stalin. The
fact that he has just put his nuclear
forces on high alert is frightening.
As I watch the carnage that the Rus-
sian War has brought on the peace-
ful nation of Ukraine, I’m heart-
broken. Here I am, nearly 70 years
later, fi lled with the same dread as I
had when I was an 8-year-old.
Terry Steele
Ritter
Phone: 541-575-0710
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