Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1975)
Page 2, THE GAZETTE-TIMES, Heppner, Ore., Thursday, Feb. IS, 1975 Horse sense ERNEST V. JOINER 9 Shrove Tuesday, which we have just passed amid relative calm, once was a time when ancient peoples made confession of their sins and to obtain absolution in preparation for Lent. The day was marked by merriment, the eating of pancakes and fritters. Which is why Shrove Tuesday is sometimes called Pancake Tuesday. Each year on Shrove Tuesday the Episcopal Church in Heppner has its Shrove Tuesday Pancake Feed at the Parish Hall, and each year the church puts an ad in the Gazette-Times to advertise the event. Last year we summoned the faithful to pancake with this label: "Schrove Tuesday Pancake Feed." This vear. the good people of the church reminded us, the word Shrove should be spelled correctly. Sure enough, there was a horrible gasp in the newspaper office Thursday when we unfolded the paper to read that on Feb. It we would have a "Shove Tuesday Pancake Feed." Later one of the church women was on the phone to say that the error would probably get more attention than if the word had been spelled correctly. "Well," I said, relieved, "I'm glas you aren't sore about Show Tuesday." "Forget it," she laughed, "And as far as I'm concerned you can "shove" Monday, too!" Forty Oregon legislators have hired their relatives to serve as their secretaries during the current session. One of the legislators. Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Vida, campaigned for the office as an opponent of nepotism. But once elected, he hired his wife, according to an Associated Press story from Salem. Rogers may be remembered for denouncing Richard 0. Eymann. D-Springfield, for hiring his wife, daughter and son-in-law. It is hard to understand why Oregon has no nepotism law that would prevent elected officials from cramming their pay-rolls with relatives. Oregon may be a state that "leads the way" in many fields, but it is far behind other states in outlawing nepotism, requiring law enforcement officers to keep public records and dealing with law violators, both adult and juvenile. While public officials are committing no crime under Oregon law by hiring their relatives, there certainly is some ethical and moral obligation that should place some restraint on the practice. If the ethical and moral issues are disregarded by officials themselves, then the voters should make their wishes known in the matter. The Gazette-Times "spy system" reports that nepotism has been liberally practiced in Morrow County offices, and that some people don't like it. Maybe those who don't like it should call on their officials and say so. When someone gets irked at what the Gazette-Times chooses to publish he doesn't hesitate to voice his displeasure. Why not do the same for public officials who hire their relatives? Meanwhile, we suggest that legislators concern themselves less with agonizing over the legalization of marijuana and join the rest of the country in making nepotism illegal in Oregon. Happy Valentine's Day to citizens of Heppner, who can park free Friday, a Valentine gift from your local merchants , . . and Happy Valentine's Day to all of Oregon, because it was on Feb. 14, 1859 that Congress ratified the Oregon Constitution and Valentine's Day became the official birthday of the state ... A Valentine to Morrow County Grain Growers for publicly recognizing Boy Scout Week with an ad in this issue, a timely ad. considering that one of Troop 66 fs Boy Scouts. Ron Young. 13, apparently saved the life of Mrs. Eva Robinson. 74. at her home on Hager Street Sunday morning. She had lain helpless on her bathroom floor all night, but was able to attract young Ron's attention when he delivered his Sunday Oregonian. Ron summoned an ambulance after making her comfortable. And if the Oregonian doesn't give a Carrier Boy Award to Ron Young, brother of Eagle Scout Bruce Young, we'll cancel our subscription! ... No Valentine whatever to Gene Pierce who, after crossing himself, was persuaded to make a few remarks about Texas at the Chamber of Commerce meeting Monday. 'Texas," intoned Gene, "is the 8th Wonder of the World. It has more rivers with less water, more cows with less milk and more land with less growing on it than any other state. The wonder is that so many people live there." Okay. I'm going to start a run on his bank! . . . Valentine to the economy: Roses are red, violets are blue; I'm still here what happened to you? ... A red heart to President Ford's economists, who have all the answers, but only to last year's questions ... A ticking Valentine to those two tax appraisers who are snooping around your house to see if a new coat of paint has gone on the kitchen wall so they can add $500 to its taxable value ... By the way, who gave these bums the right to invade the privacy of our homes for the express purpose of robbing us? ... , Many young people are buying themselves a lot of trouble by thinking that because juvenile records are closed to public gaze and because law prohibits publication of their offenses, these records will never be used against them. Wrong. They are being lulled into a false sense of security. As long as records exist there are people with access to them. To illustrate what I mean, take the case of a 22-year -old construction worker in Heppner who put in four years in the Navy Sea Bees He told this story. He had the highest enlisted rating he could get, he loved the work and the service, and because he was an outstanding young man he was recommended for Officers Candidate School. That's when his world fell apart. He was rejected because when he was 16 or 17 he was arrested for M1P (minor in possession). He appealed; appeal denied. The armed forces have a policy of not making officers of those convicted of crime, and the fact that he was only 16 or 17 at the time made no difference. He turned down an offer to reenlist because he had gone as far as he could in non-commissioned ranks. So he lost his chance to become an officer in the branch of service he loved, all because of a youthful indiscretion he thought was past and forgotten. And the country lost of skills and abilities of a fine officer. It's something to remember the next time a youngster is tempted to ride around with beer in the car. Lion Country Safari, a Southern California wild animal preserve, has begun the sale of lion dung to home gardeners whose green thumb activities are harassed by deer. The "product" has a lot to recommend it. It's good for flowers, shrubs and vegetables in the garden. But its very presence scares the daylights out of hungry deer, and they give a wide berth to lion-fertilized land. WAVAVAW .v.v.v THE GAZETTE-TIMES MORROW COUNTY'S NEWSPAPER Box 337, Heppner, Ore. 97836 Subscription rate : $6 per year in Oregon, $7 elsewhere Ernest V. Joiner, Publisher Published every Thursday and entered as a second-class matter at the post office at Heppner, Oregon, under the act of March 3, 1879. Second-class postage paid at Heppner, Oregon.' hmmmix' r 19 Mr mw IK is. IMv t .t I Fair theme chosen The theme for the 1975 fair and rodeo is "Bi-centennial." The theme is used throughout the exhibit buildings and community exhibits at the fair and for the parade. Dates for the 1975 fair are Aug. 19-24. . Organizations throughout the county are urged to put in a booth at the county fair. Booth spaces are set up and the fair theme will be the theme for booths as well. Any community organization may enter the booth competition. They should notify Liz Curtis at 676-9454, to reserve a booth space. quoteunquote "I was bugged by the other ( Democratic side and paid no attention to it. They had even put television monitors across the elevator in my apartment building. A bachelor across the hall caught on and said. 'Hey. I bring chicks up here and I don't want to get caught.' So I didn't say anything: I just took my clippers and dismantled the thing "-Sen. Barry M. Gold water, on political espionage against him during the 1964 presidential campaign. The mail pouch UNLIKELY LETTERS EDITOR: In your Jan. 30. 1975 issue of the Heppner Gazette-Times, a letter from Frances Cox Griffin states that a cemetery on my ranch has been destroyed. It also seems to me that Mrs. Griffin is implying that I either destroyed or caused the destruction of this cemetery and that this sort of thing is to be prevented in the future. I wish to make clear that no cemetery within the boundaries of my ranch has been destroyed. The cemetery on my ranch is still there and. with the exception of the fence around it which has deteriorated with the ravages of time, is still in the same condition as it was 40-odd years ago, when I first remember seeing it. Descendants of the people buried here have recently visited the plot and were pleased to find the cemetery still intact. In fact, one of these people informed me that the cemetery was donated to the county many years ago, and she intended to ask the Heppner Cemetery District to replace the enclosure around it : however. I have not been informed of the extent of any negotiations on this matter. I suggest those who want to preserve the records and history of Morrow County, and I do feel this to be a very worthy cause, take a cue from these descendants of early settlers and check with the people presently living on the land and perhaps misunderstandings and false accusations, whether direct or implied, could be avoided. RAYMOND FRENCH, Heppner. Zulu. tuloi J I 9iui ft uU U wjet t)sa &ol tin J j (uiMfni cub ft tin AUimlxaUtH wilt le Acit' Equity ud it tbuk'uq at tutu rfetigk. 1 He i0i) Qui tfcm pttttg toU fanJutj fega y ikai gut &m km txen'l t$uqk, , J Sit TkMto Mate J V CbueetfM J by Williams Oregon sacred cow higher education By M ll.l.l M BEBOl'T Krbout is editorial page Hilar of the Salrm Capital Journal.) Higher education has had its problems with past sessions of the Oregon Legislature. And there have been times when it appeared the legislators might actually demand that hieher ed justify its multi million dollar operations. But as past sessions have failed to really get a grip on higher education, the one now assembled in Salem isn't even likely to try very hard. That's partly because this is a conservative "establish ment" legislature and there's nothing in all of government quite as "establishment" as higher education. More im portant, however, is the nat ure of higher ed It is as big as a giant squid and as slippery as an eel. If you manage to pounce on one tentacle and hang on. you are likely to be throttled with another. Higher ed also has the advantage of carrying out a mission that nearly everybody thinks is next to god linesseducation. And there is a bit of folklore which has it that only educators can properly assess education. In the past, there have been legislators who didn't buy that folklore. Chief among them in my memory was Rep. Staf ford Hansell. the conservative Republican hog farmer from Hermiston. And there were Reps LB. Day and Bob Davis. Hansell now has joined the Straub administration as dir ector of the executive depart ment. That means he and the higher ed types are on the same side. And Day and Davis have been gone from the legislature for several years. This doesn't mean that higher education's proposals In the legislature will sail through untouched. A tentacle or two may even be bruised. But like the squid which releases an inky substance into the sea to hide its whereabouts, any serious assault on higher education will be met with an over whelming defense that will leave the legislators utterly con fused. If higher ed gets into trouble, one of the campus newspapers will run a porno graphic photo. That will produce a cry of outrage from the public; that will panic the legislators: higher ed officials will join the public and the legislators in voicing dismay and horror, and when the dust settles higher ed's budget will emerge intact. Don't ask me how it works, but it does. To the extent that higher education gets serious atten tion from the legislature, most of the talk will be about "governance." Thai's eduea tionese for the old baseball question: "Who's on first?" Should we merge the Slate Board of Education which oversees community colleges w ith the State Board of Higher Education? Should we have a "lay" (that's how educators refer to citizens) board or one composed of professional ed ucators? Should we . . .? That's "governance." And if "governance" doesn't divert the legislature from the basic question of whether higher education in Oregon is doing its job in the best interests of the students and taxpayers, the academi cians will plant another dirty picture in the PSU newspaper. Permi? needed to fade wood v.y.-.v.y.;-.) Ambitious Oregonians cut ting their own firewood or trying to make a profit on the timber salvage market may be running afoul of the law, according to Oregon State Department of Forestry offi cials. Free permits for personal use woodcutting, available at Department of Forestry offices, are required of all persons cutting dead and downed timber on state forest lands. Federal and private landowners also issue permits for salvage material without charge. Anyone cutting timber on state and private lands for sale needs proper permits from the Department of For estry as well as landowner permission. Anyone planning to parti cipate in any timber salvage operation should check with the landowner and the local Department of Forestry office to be sure he has the proper permits and landowner per mission. Once this has been done, the woodcutter should check ownership boundaries. Cutting timber without per mission is punishable as theft. In addition, restitution to the rightful owner of double or triple the stumpage value can be required by Oregon law. L-H m'''' "If The Arabs Are To Blame For The Energy Shortage Does That Mean They're Republicans?" Mayor of Hardman DEAR MISTER EDITOR ; Bill Wcalherford was wound up tight as a 3 watch when he got to the country store Saturday night. He told the fellers he had been reading about where politicians go when they're put out of office. Bill said he had studied the situation up one side and down the other and he hud decided that politics has got turned clean around like everything else In this country. Fer Instant, allowed Bill, laws in elections now is thp winners. II I alius been that a feller with his head In the public trough had a gnod chanel to keep il there, said Hill, but now we got more places than ever afore to put ex office holders that don't want to go back home and go to work, Bill said he had saw a rundown on what happened to some of them Congressmen that lost in November, and he was of mind they was playing Brer Rabbit to the voter's Brer Fox when they was running for re-election. General speaking, declared Bill, they come out better gilting appointed than elected. In North Carolina, Earl Ruth got beat , so he got a vacation in the South Seas ax governor of a island out there at higher pay than he got in Congress. A lot of the rabbits that voters throwed in the briarpatch went on to become third assistant undersecretaries in some Guvernment department. Bill reported, where they tn live happy ever after and never have to face the homefolks bIkiu! the kind of job they're doing that lets them live in the manner to which they become accustomed. Ed Gonty final got slowed down enuff to remind him that back scratching in politics is the name of the game Ever now and then. Ed said, somebody will start an Investigation into what they call the "integrity of Guvernment," and folks back home wait in hopes they find some of it. When Democrat Senator Jackson said Republican President Ford's plans to save energy and git the stalled economy started was like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic he was just doing what all politicians do. They blame the other party. All of em is to busy pointing at the other feller to work on the problem, Ed said, and most of em wouldn't know integrity If it fell on their heads. Zcke Grubb said he wasn't to worked up over them ex Congressmen gitting good jobs After all, Zeke said, Guvernmcnts at all levels is spending 117 billion this year on make-work jobs, so Congress must figger that charity begins at home. What bothers him, Zeke said, is that while the appointers and appointees play musical chairs, the Guvernment is left to run itself. Personal, Mister Editor, I'm with Zeke. I recall the two drunks in court fer w recking a car. When the judge ask one of em who was driving at the time of the accident, he thought it over and said the best he could recollect they was both ruling in the back seat Right now. it looks like to me that r very body in Washington is riding In the hack seat. Yours truly. MAYOR ROY, Church harassment campaign for radio -TV By LESTER KIVS4).V1; In its page one story headlined "Broadcasters Give In To Citizens Demands on Program Content," The Wall Street Journal noted: ""Although only one station has actually lost its license because of a petition by a citizen group, broadcasters know that the filing of such a petition can cost them dearly , , . up o , . 1500.000 in legal fees to defend itself before the Federal Communications Commission." The Journal did not mention that this one license loss, by Station WLBT in Jackson, Miss., was largely engineered by the Rev. Everett Parker. Director of Communications for the I'nited Church of Christ, according to Parker himself, Theitev. I)r Parker has apparently never gotten over this l4 6triumph. For he recalled, when asked by this column, thai since that time he has been involved in at least loo more license challenges. He has also produced no less than 5 major books and 16 pamphlets outlining just how anybody can go about bringing pressure to bear on radio and TV stations regarding the obtaining and renewing of licenses. Anybody indeed. For (he following conversation was tape recorded in the White House: "The main thing is that the (Washington) Post is going to have damnable, damnable problems out of this one. They have a television station . . . And they're going to have to get it renewed." (Nixon to llaldeman ) This conversation came on top of similar threats, denunciations and plottings by such as Dean Burch, Spiro Agnew, Clay Whitehead and Charles Colson. This tape has caused an enormous congressional reassessment of the merits and demerits of governmental control of TV and radio. Sen. William Proxmire ID-Wise ), for example, was a leading proponent years ago in requiring the FCC to judge how stations handle controversial issues. But now he , declares that the so-called Fairness Doctrine of the FCC is "unconstitutional . . . Orwellian double think." (The Fairness Doctrine was described by one exasperated broadcaster as "requiring that equal time be given to Jesus Christ and Judas Iseariot.") Other liberals, like Sen. George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy as well as Supreme Court Justices William O. Douglas and Potter Stewart, are now emphasizing that the electronic media should be entitled to just as much freedom of the press as newspapers. The FCC is presently preparing a position paper which most observers predict will substantially reduce the number of spurious demands by groups who can hardly be described " as either reasonable or representative. In Congress, bills to increase the license renewal period from 3 to 5 years passed the Senate 69-2 and the House, 369 14. - Despite this, growing abhorrence of governmental controlled broadcasting, the Rev. Dr. Parker has launched his "Check Your Local Station" campaign, in which effort his denomination has been joined by the United Methodists. Such "strategy" may be in part responsible for the sizeable losses of membership in both denominations during the past decade with the United Church of Christ having lost nearly 10 per cent of its members since 1964, The National Association of Broadcasters has never arranged any retaliatory campaign against the denoralna- ' tion which finances Parker (such as "Check Your Local U.C.C. Church"!). But FCC Commissioner James Quellohas described the Rev. Dr. Parker's efforts as "the work of an extremist group." Quello also commented: "We license a broadcaster to serve the public all of it What we have now is program dictatorship by small group of activists saying 'Give us what we want or we'll file a petition to deny your license' , . , It's blackmail "
