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Heppner, Ore., Gazette-Times, Thurt., Jan. JJ, W4
Horse sense
2
i
FrAERTV. JOINER
Portland attorney Phil Lowthian wort a President Nixon
mask to a party at the Benson Hotel last week and got
arrested for violating a city ordinance prohibiting the
wearing of a mask or disguise The district attorney later
declined to prosecute the man. but the ordinance remains on
the books Now, when Halloween arrives in Portland and the
trick -or -treat brigade turns up at the door with their false
faces. Portlanders can call the cops and have all the little
rascals thrown in jail. 1 dont know how Portland handles the
problem of actors in dramatic productions who assume
disguises and often wear facial masks to portray their parts.
But whoever elects to play the role of Santa Claus in Portland
next Christmas could be in for a real shock.
Vhile this comedy was being enacted, the same district
attorney was dismissing a prostitution charge against a
TB-yearold man, Murray V. Griffith. Griffith was arrested
after he was approached by a woman police officer who gave
HIM $30 to engage in sexual activity with her! This clear-cut
case of entrapment is the result of a new Oregon law which
makes it illegal for a man to accept payment from a woman
for sexual hanky-panky. I suppose this is one of the gems
members of the last legislature are so proud of that they
carried on extensive letters-to-the-editor campaigns con
gratulating each other on the brilliant record of that session
that enacted legislation so ridiculous and confusing that it
may take 50 years to undo it. A special session had to be
called last week to repeal one of its classic blunders, the real
estate law that had paralyzed the real estate and
construction business in the state. Oregonians will feel the
real blow of that legislative session on July l. when many of
the new laws will go into effect.
As a sample of what to expect, there is a news item in this
issue of the Gazette-Times that should make you proud of
your legislators. Septic tanks no longer come under the
Health Division. Department of Human Resources. Instead,
people with septic tanks have been delivered into the tender
hands of the Department of Environmental Quality-which is
something like throwing a heretic into an executive session of
the Inquisition. From now on. if you need to repair a septic
tank you will pay DEQ a $15 fee. There will be an inspection,
and the equivalent of an environmental impact study . and the
usual redtape and expense before you can make the
repairs-if DEQ permits you to make them at all. If you want
to put in a new septic tank, there is a $30 heist of your
pocketbook, plus the folderol about the environment.
Thanks to the late and enlightened legislature. Morrow
County is in for big trouble. We have got to hire a building
inspector, a plumbing inspector and an electrical inspector.
There doesn't seem to beany of these available in the county.
, So. in order to comply with the law. we have to import them.
Where can you find a qualified inspector in these three
categories who will move here for less than $15,000 a
year-each? And once they're here, it will be something like
putting them on a pension. There isn't enough construction to
keep them busy one-tenth of the time. Maybe they can write
memos to each other to while away the time. If Morrow
County doesn't hire these inspectors, the state will do it for us
and send us the bill.
?'No man's Life. Liberty or Property are safe while the
Legislature is in Session . . . " U Tucker 248. NY. Surr. 1866.
It's just as true 100 years after that was written.
A surprise accomplishment of the 1973 legislature is its
overwhelming approval of a declaration of war against
Russia and Japan. In a move that must have amazed even
the most ardent ecologist, stunned the Kremlin and rocked
the Japanese Diet, the Oregon legislature created a 50-mile
zone off her coast in which Russian and Japanese fishing will
be prohibited. In international law. this is tantamount to a
declaration of war. Gov. McCall, who recognized the
unconstitutionality of such a measure, vetoed it. But the
legislature has served notice that it has votes to override the
veto when the new session opens on Feb. 11. McCall,
anticipating the veto, has started recruiting an Oregon Navy
and has advertised for a used destroyer to use in blasting
Russian and Japanese boats out of our hallowed waters. It
makes no difference to the legislature that Oregon has no
jurisdiction at sea, and the federal government is only
concerned within the i-mtie limit in most cases and to 12
miles in another. From there on out the waters are controlled
by international law. which is going to be one hell of a shock
to the Salem bill- and buck-passers.
.' Thus Oregon joins Morrow County m organizing its own
Navy. Our own Navy consists of one sea-going vessel bought
in 1967 for $4500 to "patrol the Columbia River" in the
interest of marine safety and law enforcement. But it's
dry docked in a Heppner garage. 30 miles from the Columbia,
and gathering cobwebs. Maybe we can consolidate with
Oregon's Imperial Navy and put this mini-destroyer of ours
into the hands of uje Fighting Legislature led by Commander
McCall. I can see it now. Bands playing as the SS Morrow
County slips into Willow Creek for its run toward the
Columbia ; Sheriff John Mollahan at the helm and a volunteer
cre of ex-L'-S. Navy salts singing "16 Men on a Deadman's
Chest;" and the spectators camp-eyed as Morrow County's
Navy moves out to grapple with Russian and Japanese
invaders of our 50-mile limit. The next sound you hear will be
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's teeth dropping.
Not long ago. in a burst of brilliance, I conceived the
perfect solution to the problem of irresponsible and idiotic
legislators. My plan is simple. Pay our legislators $100,000 a
year each, but on one condition-that they never meet. If as
many as three of them ever meet their salaries would
terminate Statistics prove that the people aren't robbed or
deprived of their liberties until these legislative clabber
beads get together So the obvious solution is to see that they
never meet. And never meeting to plunder the public, the
people can at least enjoy the liberty and property they have
left at this point, secure in the knowledge that they won't
wake up some morning to find themselves taxed and relaxed,
slaved and enslaved. I guess I ought to get the Legion of
Honor for that one!
Paul C. Arnold, the Gazette Time s Colorado editor, has
come up with a story about hovt Congressmen use their time
when thev have better things to do, like getting Willow Creek
Dam built before they argue about it for another 40 years.
Barney Ford, according to Arnold, was an escaped Negro
slave who went to Breckenridge, Cole, during the Civil War.
He look up a mining claim on the hill east of town, which the
natives called Nigger Hill When tne civil rights virus and the
Up-the-Minonty mania swept the country. Congress
deliberated at great length about what to do with Nigger Hill,
winch had, by this tune, gone onto the maps and records and
into the history books Finally, they enacted a law abolishing
Nigger Hill and expunging the name from ail maps and
records. The official name is now Barney Ford Mountain.
And that, Arnold adds, "is how you make a mountain out of a
hiil " I dont guess it made any difference to Barney, who bad
gone to that great Integration in the Sky-but not before he
went to Denver, built the first three-story hotel in town, and
became respected citizen and businessman, without help
from CongTss.
Tn Mayor of Hardman
'Isn't there a better way to get to the facts, gentlemen
The mail pouch
EDITOR:
I was quietly enjoying a cup of rotgut at the Fern Inn in
Guerneville, minding my own business and reading your
paper when another masochist sidled up to me and said.
"Heppner...where'n 'ell is that?" Often wondering about that
myself. I mumbled something vague. "North. ..some place."
and pointed in the general direction of up.
I got to thinking about the good PR job you're doing for
Heppner, because I surely must be the only one down here
crazv enough to subscribe to your paper.
Still. I'm prejudiced in favor of your gutsy writing and I
like people who call a spade a spade (I hope the NAACP
doesn't picket me for that!) It is refreshing to read of
Heppner s little problems instead of the buggers in the White
House or the other buggers who set fire to Monte Rio School
Last week, as you may know, we had floods. The Fern Inn's
motel complex "was awash and the septic tanks filled with
water. There was an enormous explosion in the mam house at
Fern Inn caused by the ignition of methane gas which
escaped from a waterlogged septic tank. I wasn't there a! the
time, but it blew the plate glass windows in and two kids and
the owner out! No-one got hurt. The plate glass window was
also in the bar...followed shortly by the owner. I have made a
suggestion to the proprietor of the restaurant section and it is
that she quit serving them damned Mexican beans.
It has been (using the occult language so popular today!
manv moons' since you and I took Jack Daniels to lunch at
the country club in Sebastopol and if things keep going the
way they are. Jack Daniels and I may see a lot more of each
other.
Consider this "a letter from home" to offer encouragement
to some enterprising soul to construct a road between here
and there....wherever you are. The people in Heppner seem
mighty fine though, but be sure not to let them know we miss
you. They might give you a complimentary plane ticket back.
Things are pretty bad with the economy this year, what
with the oil crisis and that. Why, the only thing the young
folks are giving to each other is hepatitis.
I ran for the Monte Rio School Board last summer, the way
a man runs after a bus... .and finds he's on the wrong one.
Winning a seat on the board was like winning 10 rounds with
Cassius Clav; uh, Muhammed Ali. Anyway-both of 'em ! The
way EJERKASHUN is today in California, I could pyook.,.if
onlv I cud spel.
Made no New Year resolutions this year, except to make
none. However, I did make a few wishes for our overworked,
underpaid people who aren't on government payrolls,
junkets or claimed as accessories or dependents. May the
lawmakers be duly bound by red tape. May the bureaucrats
discover you've "spent it all" before they do. And, may the
Good Samaritan who helped you across the street after a
night with Jack Daniels and who ran off with your wallet,
discover this to be a truly cashless society.
Having kept lions to keep burglars at bay, as well as two
covote-German Shepherd dogs, three peacocks and assorted
stray wildlife helping itself to the food available. I have been
toid manv times that I am eccentric. If "being eccentric"
means that one gets the most out of life ; that one speaks one s
mind so that friend and toe aliKe know where they stand;
then yes. I am an eccentric. One needs enemies because they
will always point out one's deficiencies and shortcomings in
life, but, on the other hand, the friends one has are equally as
dependable. So, when I croak, I'll have many good friends, of
which you are one.
All the best from Monte Rio.
MIKE ERICKSON.
Monte Rio, Ca.
EDITOR:
Enclosed is a check for a one-year subscription to the
paper.
I have lots of relatives in Heppner. Kmzua and Lexington,
and people I still know after many years away from my home
town.
I wish you could find a good news person who would find
lots of local news I know many people who are distant places
still like to hear of some of the old timers.
MRS BLANCHE (GROSHENS i DEMPSEY,
Portland
EDITOR:
Fire destroyed an apartment house in Lakeview last
weekend Friends of the Reish family will be glad to learn
that everyone got out safely, but the family lost almost
evervthing
Ra'mona was able to save her kitten Her brother Robert
saved her, her cat and dog while Billy was waking two
elderly women and getting them to safety. Mrs Reish was on
crutches following recent surgery.
The Reish family used to live here and the children
attended Heppner Elementary School a few years ago.
If friends of the family wish to help them, the address is
General Delivery. Lakeview, Ore 97630.
I understand their problem, as we lost our home a few
years ago
ALENA ANDERSON,
Heppner.
EDITOR:
An increase in assessed values does not mean the taxes will
raise. The property class that will raise in value by 43 per
cent is onlv about i per cent of the total property in Morrow
Countv. Tiiis is farm land without farm deferral located 10-12
miles south of Boardman running north to the Columbia
River
An increase in taxes is determined by the increase
demands of the budgeting districts as well as the values.
1373-74 tax rates were lower partly because the school
received $63,728.34 from revenue sharing which was an offset
from the total school budget of $1,408,422.00, leaving
$1,342,693.66 to be collected from taxes.
it is impossible io determine what the increase in value will
be for the 1974 assessment roll. We have a long list of new
construction and mobile homes. However, industrial and
commercial buildings which are incomplete the first of
January can qualifv for an exemption under ORS 307:340 if
thev aren't in use a't that time. ORS 310.608 allows a 40 per
cent exemption to personal property assessed values of
inventory, livestock and farm machinery'. This will be
approximately S2.SO0.000 value loss and will absorb a good
share of our anticipated increase.
At this point it is impossible for anyone to say what our
total value increase will be. With the laws of the state I would
say using our right to vote is the only control we have over
tax increases.
JOYCE BERGSTROM, Assessor,
Morrow County.
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DEAR MISTER EDITOR:
The feller that runs the country itor has worked out I
energy emit lystem he C1U BYOW.
He explained to the fellen Saturday night that mean brinf
your own wood, and that ' what he wanu us to do. He u Id ho
got the idee from reading In one of the magazine put out by
the oil company he does business with.
Since he ha a old wood heater in the back of the itore, and
a oil neater clo6t to the front where the paying customer! art,
he said he figgered he wa on a "tnterruptible" oil rate. Thii
means if a customer has two wayt of heating, he can be
interrupted with one and switch to the other. So far. the itore
feller said, he ami been interrupted by the oil people, but he
wants to lay by some wood jest in case.
It's strange. Mister Editor, how the shortage of gasoline
and heating oil can change your life.
We fellers used to think nothing of gitting in our pickups
and driving seperate to the store. Now we work out a pickup
pool, where three or four of us nde together. It's going to be
more than strange f it gits to the place we have to walk.
Actual. 1 look fer some of the old songs to come back. There
was one. I recall, about a feller "walking my baby back
home."
That ami had no public understanding amongst young
folks fer the past generation. A boy without a car was a boy
without a girl. But 1 see by the papers where the cities that is
having no-driving Sundays people are gitting out and finding
thev enjov walking. It may be that we'll even start talking to
one another on the streets Fer so long we took pedestrian to
mean a person going to or from his car and it's hard to think
of a feller walking as actual going somewhere.
Ed Doolittle was thinking along the same line Saturday
night. He said he had saw where this country was shipping
wrecked cars to Hungry, where they use the spare parts to
keep their cars going Ed said that looked like to a good a deal
to last. We got paid fer gitting rid of junkyards Now with
gasoline running out. nobody won't need to fix their cars, and
there will be a junkyard in every driveway.
Practical speaking. Mister Editor, this country runs on
hope. With a public and private debt in the hundreds of
trillions, and monthly payments running more than we
make, we got to believe in the future.
This is the same human nature that causes a fisherman
that gits one nibble to set in the hot sun all day. Even as we
hear how bad the shortages are, we git a feeling that
evervthing will work out.
Personal. I was talking to my old lady about the general
shortage situation and blaming the politicians. She said 1 was
barking up the wrong tree She said the politicians are all
right, what we need is a better class of consumers
Yours truly,
MAYOR ROY.
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reaO to aos.er G. McCaU s call for a !. ilk RM.iaa a4 Japae ftthwg boats
UmU t Waling Oreg-a s we Sa-mUe ffsbore uiniu. Tke ship lies at aachr ii Ibe c-nnty
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Moslem
fanaticism
BY
LESTER KINSOLVING
The Jews are accursed by God through the prophets. . .
They have deviated from the teachings of Moses and have
attempted to murder Jesus Christ. . . They have no
connection or right to have any presence in Jerusalem. The
Wailing Wall is a structure they weep against; another wall
can be built for them to weep against."
These words are not from ME IN KAMPF, or from such
aged and virulent Jew-baiters as the Rev. Gerald L.K. Smith
or Father Charles Coughlin of Detroit.
They are from a speech made in December and an
interview given in November - of 1973 - by King Faisal of
Saudi Arabia. The King is known as the "Protector of
Islam."
This title was for several centuries a euphemism for the
Arab leader who controlled Mecca and Medina - and who
could therefore extract fees from religious pilgrims.
Since "The Protector of Islam" still bars all Jews and all
Christians from the cities or Mecca and Medina, the world's
nearly one billion Christians might do well to contemplate
what would happen if this feudalists Moslem fanatic were to
gain control of Islam's third holiest city - Jerusalem.
The world s Christians might also ask why their leaders in
the Vatican and the World Council of Churches said nothing
when the Arab Legion invaded the Old City of Jerusalem in
1947, destroyed the synagogues and for the next 20 years
excluded all Jews from even'visiting the Wailing Wall.
Now, when the death ovens of Auschwitz have been cool for
less than three decades, the world's Christians should have
expected that King Faisal's obscene, neo-Nazi outburst
would have evoked so strong a reaction from the Vatican and
the World Council as to be page one news throughout the
world.
If there was any reaction from either Geneva or Rome -other
than ear-splitting silence - it somehow escaped the
attention of most of the wire services.
This appalling silence should be encouraging to a wide
spectrum of people, including Father Daniel Berngan - who
appears willing to do or say anything just so that he can keep
in the headlines.
Last October he addressed an audience of Arabs in
Washington and excoriated Israel with such stupendous
venom and inaccuracy that fellow liberal Catholic and
scholar Michael Novak cited this event as an example of
"The New Anti-Semitism" of the far left.
Across the Potomac near the Arlington Cemetery, George
L. Pierce, head of a tax-exempt organization called the
National Youth Alliance, was busy publishing such
periodicals as "Attack!" and "Blackmail!" The latter is a
one-sheet contention that the nation's TV networks as well as
"the great majority of the 62,000,000 newspapers published in
this country every day" are controlled by 'Zionists'."
Pierce, the former ideological officer for George Lincoin
Rockwell's American Nazi Party, was following the post-1967-preil-embargo
Arab line, which goes like: "We as
fellow Semites can hardly be anti-Semitic - We don't hate
Jews, we just oppose Zionists."
This verbal weaseling is apparently no longer necessary.
For Maj. Gen. Idi Amin ("Big Daddy") Dada, Uganda's
progressively maniacal Moslem dictator, has written the
Secretary General of the United Nations to say that he
appreciates Hitler's attempts to exterminate the Jews.
Still another Moselm firebrand is Libya's Muammer
Quaddifi. who is so erratic an extremist that his fellow Arab
leaders have reportedly begun to shun him. In his rage at
being satirized Qaddifi recently demanded that unless the
government of Italy had a Jewish editor in Turin fired, he
would break off diplomatic relations. To its everlasting
credit. Fiat, the giant automobile manufacturer which owns
this editors s paper, has at this writing refused to buckle
under to such extortion
But such extortion may well increase - especially if there
is no protest of such immorality and anti-Semitism by the
leaders of Christianity.