OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
A4
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
OUR VIEW
Have your say
about Pacifi c
Power’s proposed
14% rate hike
T
hirteen dollars a month doesn’t go far. It won’t buy more
than a couple gallons of gas. It may not buy you any baby
formula, at all.
But $13.01 is how much more an average Pacifi c Power’s
residential customer in Oregon may have to pay as of Jan. 1.
Add in increases for business and industrial customers and
Pacifi c Power will come away with a revenue increase in the
tens of millions. The Citizens Utility Board, which looks after
the interests of consumers in Oregon, says it would be a $106
million increase for Pacifi c Power.
Should Pacifi c Power get it? Or is the utility asking for too
much? You can tell the Oregon Public Utility Commission what
you think.
The increase for average residential customers will be about
14%. That’s where the $13.01 a month comes from. It assumes
power usage of 900 kilowatt hours a month.
Pacifi c Power faces increasing costs. It must close coal-fi red
plants and transition more to renewable energy. It is spending
millions to reduce the danger of wildfi re from power lines. Nat-
ural gas prices are going up. Buying electricity on the market
can cost more.
Pacifi c Power also proposes to move to seasonal rates. Elec-
tricity would be cheaper in winter and more expensive in sum-
mer. That makes sense to encourage people to use power wisely
when demand will spike in the summer for air conditioning. But
it’s going to hit people with less money harder.
Bob Jenks, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board,
told us Pacifi c Power also wants to alter the rules for power
costs. Most businesses set a price for a product. They don’t get
to come back later and say: “Sorry, we were off in our projec-
tions. You need to pay more.” Utilities in Oregon already get to
come back later and justify rate increases, because, well, we all
need utilities to provide reliable service. Pacifi c Power in its pro-
posals is essentially asking to shift additional risk to customers,
Jenks said.
The PUC was set to meet Tuesday, May 24, at 6 p.m. to dis-
cuss this rate proposal. There is more general information about
the PUC and rate increases here: tinyurl.com/ORpucrates. You
can comment on the proposed increases by emailing the PUC
at PUC.PublicComments@puc.oregon.gov. You can also call
503-378-6600.
FARMER’S FATE
Keeping it clean on the farm
W
e live on a farm. At the
end of the day, we all
smell like dirt — or mud
and manure, as this spring hasn’t
quite seemed to make up its mind if
there should be snow or sunshine.
This has tripled the laundry and
doubled the baths — a situation
my 6-year-old hasn’t been thrilled
about. I think he’s afraid that the
adventure memories might wash
down the drain with the mud! It
also means we have gone through
more soap than normal. So when we
began studying soap in chemistry
class, I may have gotten a little more
excited than the kids.
We read about soap throughout
history — learning that Queen Eliz-
abeth I reportedly took a bath every
four weeks “whether it was neces-
sary or not.” My 6-year-old thought
that she must have been a very intel-
ligent queen.
We read about soap legends.
According to the Roman tale, soap
got its name from Mount Sapo,
where animals were sacrifi ced. Rain
would wash the fat from the sac-
rifi ced animals along with alka-
line wooden ashes from the sacrifi -
cial fi res into the Tiber River, where
people found the mixture helped to
clean clothes.
And fi nally we began read-
ing about the chemistry of soap —
saponifi cation, during which an
ester reacts with an inorganic base
to produce alcohol and soap. When
triglycerides react with sodium
hydroxide (NaOH), it produces
glycerol and fatty acid salt.
“Soap is basically a salt prod-
uct that is made by combining an
alkali with fats,” I exclaim. The
more excited I got over the chem-
ical equations, the
more my kids’ eyes
glazed over. “What
do you call someone
who mixes H20 and
NaOH?” I asked.
“A lyer!” I laughed.
Brianna
They didn’t.
Walker
That’s when I
decided it was time
we had some good, clean fun. Our
kitchen counters soon looked like
an herbal apothecary. Bottles of oils
and tubs of fats lined the counters,
along with containers holding last
year’s dried herbs, blossoms and
berries.
We made a hyssop-shea but-
ter blend, then an aloe-oatmeal
variety. One of the goats had kid-
ded recently, so we threw in a few
batches of goatmilk soap. Coff ee
soap, tea soap, calendula and lilac
— soon the kitchen was fi lled with
hundreds of bars of soap in various
stages of curing.
My husband teased that I was
becoming addicted to making soap.
What soap is to the body, laugh-
ter is to the soul, so I agreed that
yes, while I may have started down
the slippery “soap” of addiction, I
assured him I was clean now!
He rolled his eyes and asked
why, with all this soap, we
still had the dirtiest kids in the
neighborhood?
I smirked. “They’re farm
kids. That isn’t dirt, it’s potential
income.”
I’ve heard you need two baths a
day to stay really clean, one a day
to be passably clean, and just one
a week to avoid becoming a pub-
lic menace. So to keep from men-
acing society — during this ter-
ribly muddy spring, we decided
our kitchen science experiments
weren’t quite complete yet. We
took out baking soda, citric acid
and cornstarch.
What kind of chemical reactions
would occur when sodium bicar-
bonate dissolves in water along
with citric acid? As the baking
soda dissolves, positively charged
sodium breaks apart from the neg-
atively charged bicarbonate. As the
citric acid dissolves, a single hydro-
gen ion separates from the rest
of the molecule. Very quickly the
hydrogen and bicarbonate mingle
and begin undergoing a series of
reactions, creating carbon dioxide.
Because carbon dioxide is a gas, it
forms small bubbles in the water —
we had just created bath bombs.
Bath bombs turned out to be just
like the soap. We couldn’t seem to
stop with one batch. We tried sub-
stituting other ingredients while still
looking for things that would make
that fi zzing reaction. We tried sev-
eral items with moderate success,
including Crystal Light packets and
cream of tartar. But the best reaction
came from citric acid. Quite quickly,
dozens of recipes of bath bombs
replaced the bars of soap that lined
our counters.
The school year is wrapping up,
and then our mad scientist proj-
ects will take a back burner to har-
vest. I don’t know what kind of sea-
son we’ll have or what kind of dirt
we’ll encounter, but I’m confi dent
we’ll have enough soap (hope) to
get through it!
Brianna Walker is a Grant
County resident who occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
COMMENTARY
Finding purpose inside prison walls
F
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
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@MyEagleNews
or more than 20 years now,
I have been inmate No.
12729124, but my name is
Eric. I am serving a 25 year-to-life
sentence for second-degree murder.
On Sept. 5, 2001, I took a man’s
life during a fi ght I started while
drunk, creating a ripple eff ect of pain
and suff ering that damaged count-
less lives. I take full responsibility
for how my violence harmed oth-
ers, and early in my prison sentence
I made the decision to do something
about it, although back then I didn’t
know what.
When I was arrested, I was 21
years old, staggeringly narcissistic,
addicted to alcohol, marijuana and
methamphetamines, lost behind the
mask I used to hide my shortcom-
ings, and profoundly undereducated.
I didn’t even have a GED. I acted
out in ways I thought would eff ec-
tively conceal my insecurities, and
I pretended to be someone I am not.
I was broken, and wounded people
tend to hurt others. Once I honestly
took responsibility for my selfi shness
and violence, however, I regained
the power to determine my impact
on the world. I may have ended up
in prison, but prison is not the end of
my story.
My fi rst few years of incarcer-
ation were chaotic as I adjusted to
my new reality and the fact that
deep down I knew I deserved to be
in prison, but I knew I didn’t want
to be a man who belonged here. A
few life-changing experiences led
to some deep personal growth, and
I learned how to make better deci-
sions. While it took time to gain
momentum, I was able to overcome
the swamp of inner turmoil and the
darkness of my environment.
In 2003, I earned my GED, and
I began working as a tutor in the
Education Depart-
ment in early 2008.
I began taking col-
lege courses and
earned an associ-
ate of arts degree
in 2013. I went on
Eric Burnham
to earn a Bache-
lor of Arts degree in
2015, graduating summa cum laude
with a 3.98 GPA. In 2017 I com-
pleted my master’s of counseling
degree, and on Dec. 10, 2021, I grad-
uated with a Ph.D. in psychology
and counseling from Liberty Univer-
sity, the culmination of a long and
demanding journey of self-discovery,
personal growth, and educational
achievement.
I could not have done it alone.
I am so grateful for the fi nancial
assistance of my mother who com-
pletely paid for my education —
every penny from the fi rst course in
my associate degree program to the
fi nal practicum of my doctoral pro-
gram. Her investment in me and in
my future was not only a vehicle
for my transformation; it very likely
saved my life. I also must extend my
gratitude to the Blue Mountain Com-
munity College instructors who staff
the education department at East-
ern Oregon Correctional Institution,
Pendleton. I will never forget them,
for they are real world life-changers.
Prison can be deeply toxic and
ruthlessly oppressive, fi lled with
hidden exploitation, normalized
dehumanization, arbitrary rules
with inconsistent enforcement and
an infl exible power structure that
often folds resentment and rage
into the personality of the incar-
cerated. Adversity does not ade-
quately describe the pursuit of
a college education while incar-
cerated; resisting the temptation
to become callous in an eff ort to
remain physically and emotion-
ally safe has literally changed my
life. When I arrived at EOCI, I was
empty and without purpose, and
in my spirit I knew I off ered noth-
ing good to the world. I only con-
sumed, never contributing much of
substance or worth. I did not know
how to be anything other than what
I had always been, and within a
few years of being here, I reached
a point where I did not want to live
anymore.
Yet, through my studies in psy-
chology and philosophy, I have
found not only understanding,
meaning in my mistakes, and pur-
pose in my pain, but also the insight
and skills needed to use my expe-
riences to help others. Many steps
along the way have seemed insignif-
icant and very diffi cult, but looking
back on how far I have come, I can
see how each one mattered. Today
I no longer need to hide behind a
mask or fi nd refuge in a pretense
of violence or in the numbness of
intoxication. I can be my authentic
self, allowing empathy and compas-
sion for others to take root within
my personality.
I have made so many mistakes,
but through my faith in God and my
education I have found the strength
to keep moving forward. I can never
repay all that I have taken, but I am
committed to spending the rest of
my life giving all I can to make the
world even just a little better. My
future may be shaped by my past,
but it will not be defi ned by it.
Eric Burnham is an adult in cus-
tody at Eastern Oregon Correc-
tional Institution, Pendleton, and
has earned a doctorate in psychol-
ogy and counseling while serving
his sentence of 25 years to life.