TWO • Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, March 7, 2001
Letter merits an explanation
Letters to the Editor
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u n d e r"C ard o f Thanks’ at a cost o f $5.)
Put differences aside, work together
To the Editor:
It is important that the Morrow County School Board focus
their attention on the curriculum they are offering the students in
all schools in the county. As the state and nation push for
increased performance in schools, our students will face
increasing difficulty keeping pace if a more comprehensive
curriculum is not provided. Breaking up the county's high school
system is counter-productive in this regard.
The end result of the current Morrow County School system
is as follows (provided by the Morrow County School office):
Scholastic Aptitude Test (S A T )
School Vear ( 1999-2000)
Senior Results
I Su te /D n tn cl/Scho o l
National
Vcrfcal
M ath
M a le of Oregon
• M o m m County
School District
Heppner H igh
$05
$18
$06
482
$32
"$32
lone High
S IS
463
Riverside H igh
472
450
$14
$17
Percent <&
Number
T aking ihe
SAT
-N A -
IT m s s
42.6% (66 out
o f IS S )
78.8% (26 out
of 33)
4 4 % ( I I out
o f 25)
29.9% (29 out
Total
1019
1035
988
i
1064
978
922
* M C S D average sc o rn art not true district averages. Since the schools receive the
individual and school scores, the district com p u tn a school average to figure the
district average. A true district average could only be computed by using individual
sc o rn to compute an average.
Traditionally, all Heppner and lone students have valued a
solid academic achievement record. But if the school board fails
to focus on the curriculum and workable scheduling offered, the
students will suffer from increasing difficulty.
rhe people o f south Morrow need to put differences aside and
work together for the benefit of their children.
(s) Meg Murray
lone
County museum survives transition
To the Editor:
The Morrow County Museum
Board of Commissioners took on
the task of planning the future of
the Morrow County Museum in July
o f2000. Budget cuts by the county
no longer provided for the salaries
o f a director and assistant. Most
museums within Oregon's rural areas
are operated by Museum boards
or Historical societies and depend
solely on volunteers.
At the Feb. 20 meeting of the
Morrow County Museum Board
it was unanimously agreed upon
that the board would merge with
the FARM Foundation, a non-profit
organization formed to secure
expansion and development funding
for the Morrow County Museum
as a whole.
A new board has been named
to continue fund-raising and
operations. The new president is
Cliff Green, Heppner. Vice-president
is Robert Harrison, Lexington;
secretary/treasurer, Larry Mills,
Heppner; board members, Barbara
Bloodsworth, Betty Carlson, Ken
Nelson, Howard Mullins, Butch
Laughlin and Bob Jepsen. Robin
Krebs will continue as director. She
is volunteering 25 hours a week.
The county will continue to
provide for basic operations,
building upkeep, janitorial and
utilities. Robin Krebs is in charge
of recruiting volunteers for
maintenance and operation of the
museum, and will oversee the
volunteer staff. The board has
provided funds to send Mrs. Krebs
to museum operation seminars in
Portland, and private funding was
provided by Mullins Industries for
her to attend the Northwest
Museums Conference. Training and
education will continue to be
provided by the board.
The museum closed for the winter
in order to complete the transition
period. Inventory was taken, and
cleaning and painting were
completed. The Museum Board
members and other volunteers put
many hours in at both museum sites.
St. Patrick's Day will present the
opportunity for the ag equipment
to be displayed at the elevator from
10-5 on Saturday. The Morrow
County Museum will host the
spinners and their wool products
as tradition holds.
Museum hours continue to be
Tuesday-Fnday 1-5 p.m., and
Saturday 11 a m .-3 p.m.. On
Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, special
hours will be 10 a m.-5 p.m.. The
genealogy department is free for
public use.
Museum admission is $3 for
adults and $2 for senior citizens
and students. Children under 12 are
admitted free Museum Board
meetings are the third Tuesday of
each month, 7:30 p.m., at the
museum.
The board is pleased that the
fixture of the museum is stable and
secure and the crisis of July 2000
(
is over. Our sympathies are with
our lost staff, but our focus is the
continuation of museum operations.
The next obstacle will be for the
panic to subside in the community
and to dispel the doom and gloom
conversations thatprevail. The board
encourages those with concern for
the museum to volunteer their time
and talents toward the preservation
of Morrow County history. Rachel
Harnett operated the museum for
28 years, learning as she went along
and volunteering thousands of hours.
The board agrees that we should
do no less and strive to train
volunteers for the preservation of
our wonderful collection. This
merely takes people willing to work
and leam without expectation of
financial compensation. To quote
Walter D. Wintle: "If you think you
are beaten, you are; If you think
you dare not you don't. If you'd like
to win but think you can't its almost
a cinch you won't. If you think
you'll lose; you're lost, for out in
the world we find: success begins
with a fellow's will: Its all in the
state of mind."
So when you hear negative talk
about your museum, just smile and
suggest they do something positive
and become a museum volunteer.
A healthy community needs people
working together. Then we not only
survive, we grow, and continue to
do the best we can. Criticism is an
acti\ ty for people who dread getting
involved. Our greatest assets are
positive people taking positive
actions, and attaining impossible
goals. We appreciate to all who
have taken positive action.
(s) Sharon Harrison
Heppner
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To the Editor:
The letter last week from Bonnie
and Jack Engler merits an
explanation to them or others who
may have similar reactions to my
earlier letters.
First and most important: you
misunderstand my purpose. It is
to look to what might be in our
future that could destroy our
democracy.
It is not to continue the election
campaign with that endless,
hackneyed repetition of allegations,
etc. That is history.
It is not to defend Democrats.
Both parties are equally guilty of
accepting the three billion dollars
of special interest funding to buy
the power to govern.
My growing concern is based
on (1) Pres. Eisenhower’s prediction,
(2) the definition of fascism (see
dictionary) and Senators McCain
and Feingold's work to stop
corporate and other special interests
from buying the government. They
include unions as special interests
in their bill. (Their interests are
special since they do the work in
factones, mills, fields, transportation
and work that makes the country
produce.)
My stance comes from my past,
of course. I love my country, having
always thought that the promises
inscribed on the Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbor that my country
is the only one on Earth that offers
home to the oppressed. To me, it
is like Jesus' words: "Come to me,
all you are weary and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." I believe
passionately in democracy where
every single person has a vote to
determine what happens to the
whole.
In World War II, I was in college.
We had to fight the fascist
dictatorships because democracy
can have no power in fascism. Some
o f my classmates, students and
friends, some them very close, died
in that war. They had to do it .1 still
think of them. Do you?
That said, returning to Pres.
Eisenhower: having served as the
great general in the great war and
with two terms as president, could
anyone in the 20th century be better
qualified to make a prediction about
the future of our country? His further
comments on the military will be
in tiie next letter. The military has
always played prominently in fascist
dictatorships.
Let's be clear. I did not say that
the R party is fascist or that Bush
II is a dictator. Only what may be
symptoms have been pointed out.
The quotes from him on the trillion
dollar tax cuts or others by Cheney,
Tom DeLay or Ashcroft which
swear to do only exactly what the
president wants cannot be denied.
They are documented.
Regarding your denial that
anyone was denied the nght to vote,
consider this: if 40,000 votes were
cast but not counted, isn't the result
the same as if they had never been
allowed to vote? Florida law clearly
provided for the hand count as the
way to handle ballots that the
machines were unable to count....
as do other states, including Texas.
The D's are really at fault there.
Under Childs they had known about
the voting mess for years In 1988,
Buddy McKay lost a U.S Senate
race to Connie Mack by a razor-thin
margin after a recount. Same
counties... Broward, Dade and Palm
Beach ....were involved then... same
problem with the punch card ballots
and nothing done about it in all these
years... Now they plan to change
it. Something good happened.
Apologies to Bonnie and Jack.
Ihe mention of the Beer I lall Putsch
expected readers to make the
metaphorical comparisons. A putsch
occurs when on a specific scene,
a group who feel they have the
power move in quickly and take
over. In Flonda, the storm troopers
were the R's with the governor,
secretary of state, legislature and
other election players. Those who
resisted at the Beer Hall were the
Flonda Supreme court judges, and
the shot by Hitler was the U.S.
Supreme Court Judge (one of the
five) who stopped the counting. It
was a putsch.... a naked,
unconstitutional,
illegal,
undemocratic power grab. Hitler
didn't succeed but he had a foot in
the door. Bush II was successful;
he became president. Those who
love democracy should never let
it happen again.
Bonnie and Jack, you mention
Clinton. Whatever one thinks of
him, all have to admit that he was
a very popular president, retaining
that popularity through two terms
(and impeachment, Monica etc.),
emerging in January 2000 with a
67 percent majority, greater even
than Reagan's. Still young, he
represents a power—majorities have
power in a democracy.
What is happening now reminds
me o f a tour of Auschwitz a few
years ago where I learned that a
good percentage of those
imprisoned, shot or incinerated there
were not Jews, but anyone offering
resistance to the Nazis, not only
the individual but everyone in his
family. Now two R Reps. Burton
and Barr who have built their
political careers on bnnging Clinton
down are heading a campaign to
destroy his popularity in retirement.
Look at the D's who arejoining the
mob, seeking to destroy his wife,
his brother, her brothers, their
friends. Is this the same process used
by one-party governments? Is it
because they fear his potential
political power? It is true that
President Carter derided his pardons,
but Carter also said,"Gore got a bad
deal in Florida," and answered "No"
when asked if his well-known
election-monitoring team would
have gone into the Flonda situation.
In summary, I asl^ only that
Americans for democracy take time
to listen to our prophets and assess
if and where we are on a "slippery
slope."
Someone with more power than
our politicians said, "A prophet is
not without honor, except in his own
town.”
(s) Jane Rawlins
Heppner
MCEA endorses
Renfro for
school board
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April Hilton-Sykes
....................
Editor
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Species Act seriously flawed
To the Editor:
The Endangered Species Act is
seriously flawed. The threat o f a
lawsuit to stop or delay irrigation
development in Morrow County
was serious enough that an
environmental group. The Nature
Conservancy, acting in concert with
a number of other environmental
groups, was able to extort 20,000
acres for its own purposes,
purchased for a token amount of
money. These 20,000 acres will
never again be able to positively
impact the economy of Morrow
County. Why? To preserve a few
colonies of squirrels in second rate
habitat.
If the Washington Ground
Squirrel is indeed endangered, they
should be taken care o f in
Washington and not Oregon. These
squirrels, which are thriving in
Oregon, may be similar to their
cousins in Washington but they have
been separated from them for many
thousand generations. The same
agency that contends that salmon
can develop genetic variations in
one or two generations through a
hatchery tells us that these two
populations, which have been
separated for many thousand
generations, are identical.
The other flaw with the act is
that the protection is not limited
to national parks and federal
wilderness areas (which seem to
be growing constantly) but it extends
to private lands dedicated to other
purposes. For instance, a livestock
grower must care for his livestock
which includes protecting them.
Therefore, the producer has a strong
moral imperative to eliminate any
predator that menaces his herd. This
includes bears, cougars, wolves,
coyotes and stray dogs. Producers
are being forced to shoot, shovel
and shut up. This makes criminals
out of honest livestock growers and
this has already happened in
Montana, Idaho and Oregon.
Talk of aversion therapy on the
predatory species is as naive and
as likely to succeed as aversion
therapy is on the human species.
(s) CR McEUigott
lone
0 i& eO'M'I'NQ!
H ave You ...
CLEANED THOSE FLOWER BEDS?
To the Editor,
On Feb. 28,2001, the executive
board of the Morrow County
Education Association held a school
board candidate interview.
The interview team was
impressed with the sincere interest
and positive responses of the
candidates. After much deliberation,
the Morrow County Education
Association voted to recommend
John Renfro for the Zone 2 position.
We hope you will take this into
consideration when you cast your
vote.
(s) Sally Walker,
for Morrow County
Education Association
Heppner
PRUNED THE TREES?
THATCHED THE LAWN?
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