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Horse sense
By
ERNEST V. JOINER
6
1
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Thai wire story from Washington Friday about chances
for reviving the Willow Creek Dam project is pure smoke.
The dam is buried for good. The story was a political caper.
This is election year and Cong. Al Ullman doesn't plan to lose
any more votes than he has to, so his office told reporters
there is a chance the dam could be reauthorized. This was the
carrot Our Excellencies has been dangling successfully
before the eyes of local residents for 40 years, so he must
have thought it would work again. But for all our sakes, I
hope nobody ever mentions reviving this money-glutted
albatross that has swung 'round the necks of Heppnerites for
so manv vears and upon which so many hundreds of
thousands of our tax dollars have been expended in making
jobs for federal paper shufflers and somet ime engineers. And
any politician naive enough to bring up the dam again ought
to be tarred, feathered and dumped on the outskirts of town.
The late and lamented Willow Creek Dam should be an object
lesson to the nation : if there's a job that needs doing, keep the
government out of it. Some people know this already, which
may be why so many business men are hand-delivering their
own letters and monthly statements these days!
Last week we were discussing proposed amendments to
the constitution tobe voted upon by the people on Nov. 5. The
proposed amendments are important, more so than voting
for candidates. We can vote out a bad legislator; he may die
of natural or for justifiable cause. But a bad constitutional
amendment is almost as permanent as the World War II
Temporary Tax on telephone calls. Repealing a con
stitutional' amendment is like reversing apple pie,
motherhood and Henry Kissinger. Which is why we're
talking about those amendments (which are all different)
and not candidates (who are all alike).
No. 8. This measure would reduce the minimum age for
voting in a school district election from 21 to 18 years of age
and reduces the requirement of six months' residence to 30
days' residence in the district. Voting is a precious privilege
anywhere in the world it exists, and it should not be given
lightly. Those who have the franchise should nurture and
treasure it, exercise it wisely and with maturity. I do not feel
that many 18-year-olds appreciate the right to vote, have the
maturity necessary to pass on the issues or realize the
gravity of the process of voting. Iam aware that some adults
at age 60 lack the maturity and responsibility to make good
voters, but the rules have to be applied somewhere. No on R
No. 9. Voter approval of this proposed constitutional
amendment would permit a state employe, other than an
executive in the exempt or nonacademic unclassified
servite. to simultaneously serve as a member of the
legislature. The legislature would provide for rules
governing leaves, position protection and other employment
relationships during election campaigns and during
legislative service. It would be difficult for any state employe
io serve simultaneously in the legislature without having a
conflict of interest. If a state employe wants to stand for
election to the legislature, he may do so. If he loses, he can
still be rehired on his state job if he's needed. If he isn't
Reeded, why should he be hired? This is another step toward
sening up an entrenched governmental hierarchy. The
people would be wise to vote no on No. 9.
No. 10. This proposed amendment would revise the
Oregon voter qualification law and make it conform to the
L'.srConstitution by lowering the minimum voting age for all
elect ions in Oregon from 21 to 18 years of age. It would reduce
the state residency requirements from six months to 30 days.
It would also eliminate requirements that every voter be able
tci read and write the English language. If No. 10 (this one) is
passed, what are we doing being asked to vote on No. 8, which
is essentially the same amendment? I oppose No. 10 for the
same reasons I oppose No. 8 and No. 4. And the intention to let
people vote who can neither read nor write their own
language is absurd. If a man wants to participate in
government he should be able to read and write, unless we
are enamoured of illiterates and desire to exalt them.
Should ! there be some incentive to learn to read and write?
If we extend voting privileges to illiterates, won't there soon
be enough of them to elect an illiterate president and an
illiterate Congress? The fate of the republic should not be
plated in the hands of these sloven, lazy dummies. No on No.
10.
No. 11. At present a person is entitled to a jury trial in a
civil case involving $20 or more. This proposed amendment
would raise this limit to $200. When the present provision was
made a part of the state constitution, $20 was a real head of
lettuce. Not today. A good cap pistol costs that much. $20 then
equals $200 now". We're just keeping up with inflation by
raising the ante here. Besides, anybody with no more than a
$20 beef who can't settle it in the back alley with his fists
hasn't got any business clogging up our courts and forcing
taxpayers to hire jurors to adjudicate a $20 cap pistol.
Spending $500 in tax money in order to settle a $20 dispute is
"economic unfeasibility" (as our Willow Creek Dam
assassinators recently reasoned). Let us raise the ante to
$200 and get the courts out of the peanuts business. Yes on No.
11.
No. 12. This one would permit state bonding to assist
cities and counties in such matters as housing, water
supplies, streets, lighting, etc. Total bonds cannot exceed 1.
per cent of the value of taxable property in the state, or $276
million at present. The state would very much like to
complete the act of taking over cities and counties by making
them dependent upon it for such vital services especially
when the state proposes to finance the bonds by raising our
property taxes. No thanks.
No. 13. Surprise! We have another obscenity and sexual
conduct bill as a constitutional amendment yet! This
amendment would make it a crime to distribute or exhibit
obscene materials to adults or to conduct live sex shows in
public places or clubs. It prohibits sexual intercourse (want
to bet?) for a fee (But it's OK, fellows, if it's free). It also
prohibits any physical touching for the purpose of arousing or
gratifying sexual desire and prohibits paying for either. Do
you ever get the feeling that your sex life is none of the
government's business? And that if the government can't
even catch a last-class burglar there isn't much chance it can
apprehend a guy who gets his gratification by tweeking
somebody's nose? Does it matter that the U.S. Supreme
Court has tried, and failed, to even define obscenity? Or that
every obscenity law passed by any state has been declared
unconstitutional? If the Lord can't stop people from looking
at Playboy centerfolds, Oregon isn't going to. Obscenity, like
beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Each person is the best
judge of what is and what is not obscene, and each person has
the right to accept or reject his judgment. It is one of the few
choices we have left. But, if Oregon must make a fool of
itself, nobody will complain because nobody's going to pay
any attention to such a law. Hie big reason I vote No on No. 13
is because I don't want to be laughed at when I visit friends
out of state.
"Why Wilbur...You Old Son-Of-A-Gun, You..."
Heppner
CROSSROADS
REPORT
DEAR EDITOR:
The figure jugglers say 85
million Americans were eligi
ble for welfare handouts at
some time during the past six
years. Which is about 40 per
cent of us.
This low figure seems to
distress the politician class,
who consider it a sign they are
not doing their duty as long as
60 per cent of us have enough
left after taxes to sort of live
on.
So they are working on a
new tax bill to cut out enough
deductions to get this national
indigency figure up to, say, 95
per cent. Or everybody but the
taxers and their campaign
angels.
D.E.SCOTT,
Crossroads, U.S.A.
quoteunquote
"According to a long lost
statistic from the Internal
Revenue Service, 50 per cent
of Americans file their income
(ax the other 50 per cent
chisel it." Lake Crystal
(Minn.) Tribune.
The mail pouch
EDITOR:
It was of considerable interest to finally see something in
print from the pen of Joyce Bergstrom's opponent for the
office of county assessor. It has been difficult to determine
from the paid advertisements (i.e., mules, etc.) just how the
county will or will not benefit if he is elected.
The gentleman's apparent interpretation of the recent
letter from Jackson County Assessor Ray Stewart caused us
grave apprehension of the candidate's judgement of who
informed people are and his "hesitation" (quote) in following
their advice.
Hopefully, he realizes the office of county assessor is not a
kingdom within itself, but one spoke of 36 in a wheel
controlled bv a voluminous amount of statutes, many of
which are enacted, revised and repealed with each session of
the state legislature. Even the most knowledgeable should
not "hesitate" to consider the advice of those better informed
than himself.
Recent evidence of the importance of this has to be the
successful endeavor of Joyce Bergstrom, resulting in
uniform farm use values of adjacent counties, saving
Morrow County taxpayers approximately $9,500, that
otherwise would have been absorbed in the county's
apportionment of the Blue Mountain College 1974-75 levy..
As property owners no longer privileged to express our
opinions at the polls in Morrow County, we can only hope the
candidate, in the event of his election, is burning the
midnight oil, familiarizing himself with the many
complexities of the office he seeks.
WAYNE & LOY HARSIN
Forest Grove.
EDITOR:
While visiting at a friend's house, I had the pleasure of
reading your paper of last week.
I was quite interested in the letter about the person who
didn't want to ride a mule. After some investigating I found
he was a farmer up Willow Creek so I took the liberty of
calling him on the phone to find out why he is a mule hater.
This is what he said:
"I have a mule but really don't like to ride him. But, if it
will make anybody happy I will ride him. I have always
called him my mule but if it will make anyone feel better I'll
call him my ass."
I was quite impressed with this fine show of good will and
generosity. So, I think the least that his accuser could do is to
go shake hands with him and pat his ass.
SUE FELLER
Portland.
EDITOR:
In our wanderings we somehow arrived here in Carlsbad,
N.M.
Thought you might be interested in this article, since you
are a former Texan. It says Texas has $1 billion in surplus
funds and is considering slashing state sales taxes. All "sales
tax" states don't come off this well, so perhaps the quality of
administration has something to do with it.
We are having a great time seeing the Land of
Enchantment on our way to Big Bend National Park; after
that perhaps to the Brownsville area of Texas. Have a good
winter.
JIM & BOBBE DRISCOLL,
Heppner.
Oregon Country ....
By PATRICK STEBER
Gambling has been around for years. The Indian usually
gambled for fun but sometimes all his worldly belongings,
including wives and children, might be staked in a contest.
Losses were accepted without complaint or self pity.
In Indian society gambling was accompanied by a complex
set of rituals. The customs of the Calapooia Indians recall
elaborate preparations of a spiritual nature which included
bathing, fasting and praying prior to any gambling session.
In one game a polished bone was held in one hand. The
opponent was challenged to guess which hand held the bone.
Stick counters were passed from the losing side to the
winning until all the sticks were on one side. The stakes were
then passed to the winner and a new game began.
Any number of persons could make a wager during a
game. The player who possessed the most supernatural
powers, or luck, was chosen to represent the group.
Chanting, dancing and calling upon the gods were all
permissible and sometimes the game went on for days.
Occasionally a blind person was designated to manipulate
and hide the bone. His services were invoked during the
importand matches because of his ability to maintain a poker
face.
The Indian women plaved their own games of chance. By
carving varying marks on woodchuck teeth, they fashioned
casting bones, similiar to dice. The combination of marked or
unmarked sides that turned up after the dice were cast
determined the winner.
All types of bones were used in the gambling sessions
because it was believed that the gods would favor certain
bones from a few chosen animals. An old legend near
Klamath Falls tells of an Indian chief who cut the forearms
from a cavalry soldier for his gambling sticks. But the gods
were displeased and sent the ghost of the soldier to haunt the
home of the chief.
The foxes of inflation
Everyone knows you don't hire the fox to guard the hen
house. Bui what can you expect when the farmer who does
the hiring is one of the foxes.
Well, it happens in the nation's capital, where your tax
dollars are collected and spent. Congress gives federal
bureaucrats the job of making the surveys to determine pay
increases for 3.5 million federal civilian and military
employes. The law under which the increases are computed
is intended to make government salaries competitive with
jobs in private industry.
Not surprisingly, under such a setup, federal salaries have
outstripped those of workers in private industry. An article in
Washington Report, biweekly publication of the Chamber of
Commerce stales, the average federal pay is $12,984 per
year, or 46 per cent more than the average $8,900 received in
the private sector.
"But that's not all. A Department of Labor report slates
that Federal Government fringe benefits, as a percentage of
pay, are about 12 per cent greater than those of workers
employed in the private sector. Federal Government
employes, according to the report, receive better vacations,
holidays, sick and leave benefits, retirement programs and
health insurance programs than those employed in the
private sector."
Because of rampaging inflation, which hits everyone's
pockeibook, President Ford asked the Congress to delay for
three months a proposed pay raise of 5.5 per cent for federal
workers. The President said the action would save $700
million this fiscal year and was "essential" in the fight
against inflation. Either House could override the
President's action by voting to go ahead with the pay raises
as scheduled for Oct. 1.
Well, what do you think the foxes did?
Ignoring the President's plea, the Senate voted 64 to 35 to
go ahead with the pay raises, as scheduled.
Surprised?
IHt
"Good Grief I That's My Broker!'
GAZETTE-TIMES
MORROW COUNTY'S. NEWSPAPER
Box 337, Heppner, Ore. 97836
Subscription rate: $6 per year in
Oregon, $7 elsewhere
Ernest V. Joiner, Publisher
Publishes every Thursday, and entered as a second-class.
Hr at thP nnst office at HenDner. Oregon, under the act of.
March 3, 1879. Second-class postage paid at Heppner.
Oregon.
, Ore., Gazette-Times, Thursday, Oct. 17, 1974
Mayor of Hardmon
DEAR MISTER EDITOR:
The fellers was general agreed after the discussion at the
country store Saturday night that they know e lot about
wimmen, but they don't know nothing fer shore. Wtmmen,
allowed Bug Hookum, is as changeable as HEW guidelines. .
What got em on the subject was Bug's report that wimmen
in this country seem to be gitting powerful trigger happy.
Bug said it looked to him like more wimmen than ever is
doing in their menfolk.
He said he read one piece where a wife up in Maine shot her
husband and told the judge she did it to help him out of his
financial troubles. .
Another wife in Florida explained she shot her old man in ,
the leg cause she loved him o much. He was lucky she ,
didn't love him enough to aim between the eyes, was Bug's
words. .
And they ain't no way fer a man to turn down all this help
and acts of love. Zeke Grubb said he saw by the paper where
this feller was in court fer assailing his wife. He told the
judge he never give her a spanking unless she needed it. The
judge ruled that no wife ought to be spanked that much, and
he put the husband away fer three months.
A feller can't please his old lady, said Clem Webster, and
farthermore she can't satisfy herself. She'll make up her
mind and her face four times a day, and she don't want to be
confused "with facts. She don't understand that she is
overdrawed at the bank, the way she sees it her husband is
underdeposiled. And she's got the law on her side, Clem said.
He said he saw where this 21-year-old gal in New York City
was training to be a prize fighter, and she's already got the
rules fixed so when she boxes they can't be no punches below .
the belt or between the belt and the neck. And what man
would try to hit a woman in the nose. Clem asked.
Practical speaking, Hi Doolittle said, he alius had heard
that a feller that can keep up a car, a flashlight and a cigaret
lighter probable is in a high enough income bracket to keep
up a wife, if he gits rid of his car, his flashlight and his cigaret
lighter. But he ain't likely to support her in the manner she
had expected. Hi said, so she goes out and gits a job and he
eats cold beans fer supper that he could of eat without her.
And if he complains about that arrangement, she shoots him
to help his financial affairs.
Actual, declared Hi, a man dealing with wimmen is up
against a stacked deck. He expects to lose cause he don't
know the rules, and he loses. He's like the feller that quit
smoking and took up chewing toothpicks. He got to feeling
poorly and went fer a checkup. The doctor told him to go back
to cigars cause the toothpicks had give him dutch elm
disease. Men usual find that their solution to wimmen
problems is worst than the problems.
Personal, Mister Editor, I know the fellers ain't talking
serious when they give wimmen a bad mouth. They jest let
off steam now and agin when they're well out of earshot of
their old ladies.
Yours truly,
MAYOR HOY.
1
Selective
Indignation at
lnmn nn ri ohrnorl
) v y
r--r-. Bv LESTER
KINSOLVING
"Is it necessarily less moral for American oil companies to
do business in Portuguese Guinea than for American wheat
dealers to do business with the Soviet Union?"
Christianity Today magazine
Why is it that so many of the main line Protestant
denominations have used their stockholdings in repeated "
attempts to pressure corporations to take action against the
while segregationist government of South Africa but not
against the Arabs who have killed a substantial portion of the
black population of Sudan?
Why is it that liberal Protestant church leaders so often
declaim loudly against white racism-but say little about the
black racism of Uganda's dictator, Gen. ldi Amin ("Big
Daddy") Dada?
This same sort of "selective indignation" is seen rather
regularly in Christianity Today's sagging rival, The
Christian Century. (Founded some 60 years before
Christianity Today, The Century has now dropped to less
than one fifth of Today's growing circulation.)
Recently, for example. The Century sent a reporter from
Chicago to Palo Alto, Ca to interview physicist William
Shockley about his controversial theories of alleged Negro
genetic inferiority. The result ("The Moral Postulates of A
Racist") was considerably more civilized than Shockley's
treatment at the hands of young storm troopers who are
enrolled al such alleged centers of academic freedom as Yale
and Princeton.
But when asked why no reporter covered Mayor Richard
Daley and the Rev. Jesse Jackson's participation in the
honor afforded an especially hateful racist-one "Honorable
Elijah Muhammed Day" The Century's managing editor,
Dean Peerman replied: "That's a good question."
Another good question was raised recently at the annual
convocation (national convention) of the Church of England.
"One rarely opens the newspaper without seeing some
fresh new idiocy of the World Council of Churches," observed
one of the clergy delegates, who proceeded to compare the
terrorists of the Irish Republican Army with the African
terrorists to whom the World Council of Churches has been
sending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, the Church of England voted to chop off two thousand
pounds of its giving to the World Council of Churches. But for
major effect apparently there will have to be similar action
by the U.S. and West German churches (which have been the
prime source of WCC income) because the recent WCC
Central Committee meeting in Berlin voted to go right ahead
with the "Program to Combat Racism" which has been
funding the black African terrorists.
The problem in most U.S. denominations who belong to the
National and World Council of Churches is that in almost all
cases support of these two organizations is a decision made
at national conventions or by sequestered ecclesiastical
bureaucrats. And the average layman, who does not want to
support these organizations in their subsidizing terrorism
and in their selective indignation, is generally at a loss as to
how to do anything about it other than cancelling all support
of his or her local church. And when this happens, all too
often the high ranking bureaucrats are skillful enough to see
to it that the financial axe falls on the innocent, whether
low-rankiflg headquarters staffers or (particularly) overseas
missionairies.
The only apparent solution is to realize that organized
resistance and sharp inquiry, of incumbent office holders
is the only way to bring about desired reforms in the
administration of giant, multi-million dollar denominations.
And the time to act is not primarily at national religious
conventions (which ecclesiastical bureaucrats are expert at
manipulating) but when there is the election of local
delegates.