A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
OUR VIEW
Government
works best when it
works in the open
ur May 25 edition carried a story about corrective action
taken with fi ve members of the Grant School Board for
using part of an executive session last summer to talk
about matters that should have been discussed in open session.
While Oregon law allows public bodies like school boards to go
into executive session — where the general public is excluded
and journalists are directed not to report on the proceedings —
there are strict limits on when they can do so.
The public has the strongest possible interest in having access
to the deliberations of elected offi cials, and it is a fundamental
part of our mission as a newspaper to notify our readers when
we believe those offi cials are improperly operating out of the
public eye. In this case, the Eagle took the unusual step of fi ling
a complaint with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission
in order to get a defi nitive ruling on whether the board members
violated the law. The commission determined that they had done
so and voted to send each member who took part in the session a
letter of education.
The steps taken by the ethics commission — part of a nego-
tiated settlement agreement with the board members — address
the problem not through punishment but through education on
the law. We think that is an appropriate response.
To be clear, we don’t believe any of the school board mem-
bers acted maliciously in this instance. Yes, as elected offi cials,
they should be aware of the laws that govern executive sessions
and take care to abide by those laws. But we also recognize that
it can be easy for those discussions to veer off -track, especially
when the public body doesn’t have an attorney in the room to
remind them of exactly where the legal boundaries are.
And we have nothing but respect for anyone who is willing
to serve their community by sitting on the local school board
— even more so in such emotionally fraught and politically
charged times as these. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,
school boards across the country have become focal points for
discontent over burdensome public health measures aimed at
slowing the spread of the disease. In many cases, school board
members have become the targets of anger and vitriol over deci-
sions made at the state or federal level over which they have no
control.
So while we take a measure of satisfaction in knowing that
the Grant School Board will be more careful in the future not to
stray beyond the limits of Oregon’s open meetings law, we also
off er our sincere appreciation to the school board members for
their continued willingness to do a diffi cult job in the most try-
ing of circumstances. We should all be grateful for their service.
O
FARMER’S FATE
We interrupt this program ...
he light from my husband’s
headlamp swung straight into
my eyes. I blinked hard, shak-
ing my head. “You’re supposed to
blind her—not me,” I hissed. He
nodded silently, his light bouncing
up and down on the barn walls. I
knelt down, opening the box of baby
chicks. They chirped loudly while
they tumbled into the corner try-
ing to hide. I gently scooped one up,
then nodded for my husband to lift
up Grandma Hen.
Grandma Hen was a Barred Rock
chicken with what looked like extra-
fl uff y pantaloons and carried her-
self in a matronly fashion. She had
found herself a straw-fi lled hid-
ey-hole in the barn to nest. Unfor-
tunately, she had been there four
weeks. I was going to move her
off the day before, but she looked
so determined that I decided we’d
pick up a couple chicks in town. We
have surrogated babies under sleepy
momma hens in the middle of the
night several times, and tonight was
no diff erent.
My husband reached down to lift
up Grandma Hen — which started
a kerfuffl e, the size of which I’d
never seen from a chicken at mid-
night. She screeched and pecked,
fl uffi ng up her neck, twisting about
angrily trying to snap her attacker.
Her pecks landed solidly on my hus-
band’s wrist, drawing blood. He
dropped her before I had fully with-
drawn my hand from depositing a
baby chick on her nest of eggs.
“What is wrong with her?” I
asked, questioning if we should even
try to put in the rest of the chicks.
We kept watching her. She
wasn’t accepting the new baby, but
she wasn’t attacking it, either.
“Let’s try once more,” my hus-
band suggested.
We split the one pair of gloves
we had brought, and he pulled his
T
sleeves down to pro-
tect as much skin
as possible. She let
out a blood-curdling
squawk as she was
unceremoniously
lifted into the air —
Brianna
and a baby chick fell
Walker
out of her wings.
I sat back in sur-
prise. No wonder she was creating
such a ruckus. The little yellow baby
scurried into the corner, peeping.
I quickly pushed in the remaining
new babies and my husband happily
dropped her back onto nest.
At fi rst the new babies were
afraid of this large, still disgruntled
creature looming over them, and
they tried to peck their way farther
into the corner, but after a few min-
utes the heat she exuded seemed to
be too great of a temptation, and one
by one they all squeezed their way
under her.
We watched a bit longer before
making a run for the house in the
downpour. We were drenched by the
time we shut the kitchen door. Cold,
wet, and still slightly worried about
Grandma Hen and her new babies, I
wasn’t quite ready to go back to bed.
“Why don’t we fi nish watching
that movie,” my husband suggested.
We changed into dry pajamas, made
cups of hot cocoa and snuggled up
on the couch for a middle-of-the-
night movie.
“With the house quiet, the kids
and puppies asleep, and us watching
a movie, drinking cocoa, after just
giving orphan babies a new mom —
we are practically living a Hallmark
movie, ” my husband said as I snug-
gled into his arms.
I was still thinking about
the chicks when my husband
announced, “That’s how they’re
gonna get together! The guy he gave
the book to in the beginning is going
to bring them together.”
I love Hallmark movies — but
they are terribly predictable. One
can nearly always tell within min-
utes of the opening who is going to
end up with whom. This time was
no diff erent, although I hadn’t yet
made the connection of how it was
going to happen.
“Everything happens for a rea-
son,” he continued. “People don’t
show up without a purpose.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Never?” I
asking, remembering a rather point-
less altercation he’d had recently
with a most disagreeable person.
“Everything happens for a rea-
son in a Hallmark movie,” he
emphasized.
“But I thought you said we are
basically living a Hallmark movie?”
I asked saccharinely, making a show
of taking a long sip of hot cocoa.
He paused, then, just as I swal-
lowed, said, “Those people are the
interrupting commercials!”
After the cocoa had warmed my
nose, I snuggled back and felt my
heart pulse with a heat that warmed
my soul. I had a husband who would
get up in the middle of a thunder-
storm to deliver baby chicks (that
we didn’t need) to a broody hen
(who pecked him), get wet and cold,
and still think of our lives as a Hall-
mark movie.
This winter has had its share of
bumps, but I loved my husband’s
idea of commercials. No matter how
annoying, pesky or untimely people
and situations may be, they are just
small interruptions — they don’t
aff ect our love story at all. Wishing
you all a Hallmark love story whose
commercials interrupt just long
enough to refi ll your popcorn bowls.
Brianna Walker is a Grant
County resident who occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Time to mend the
Second Amendment
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.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
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.
To the Editor:
I’m a gun person. I got my fi rst
rifl e when I was 9 years old. As a
teenager, I owned nearly 20 fi re-
arms. I didn’t think of any of them
as weapons; they were all for hunt-
ing, muzzleloader shooting, or
hanging on the wall as antiques.
As strange as it sounds, I’ve
never been able to give approval
to the National Rifl e Association’s
approach to gun ownership. It’s
always been obvious to me that
certain people have no business
in possessing a fi rearm. The prob-
lem is that we don’t have the abil-
ity to see into a person’s mind to
know their intentions. So, up to
now, I’ve been against all forms of
gun control.
The heinous murder of 19 beau-
tiful children and their teachers has
totally horrifi ed me. The fact that
I’ve been to Uvalde during past
years doing nature photography in
Texas makes these killings very
real to me. There have been other
mass shootings that were very
upsetting, but with this latest one, I
am convinced that it is time to out-
law all rapid-fi re, high-capacity
weapons from public ownership.
Now, I can hear objections from
advocates of the 2nd Amendment:
L
ETTERS POLICY: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local, state, national or world issues.
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be original and signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they can be reached for
questions. We must limit all contributors to two letters per person per month. Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Send letters by email to editor@bmeagle.com; by
mail to Blue Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or by fax to 541-575-1244.
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MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
“What about my rights?” In reply,
what about the rights of children
to go to school without fearing for
their lives? What about their rights
to expect to be able to go home to
their families? What about their
parents’ and brothers’ and sisters’
rights to go forward in life without
nightmares of their loss?
Your rights pale in comparison
to these babies’ right to life. The
Second Amendment was written as
an amendment for the times they
were living in. Perhaps it’s time
for another amendment for the
current times we are living (and
dying) in.
Terry Steele
Ritter
Phone: 541-575-0710
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