Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, October 27, 2021 -- THREE
Spiritually Speaking
Love of God: through
your brothers in need
By Fr. Thankachan Joseph
The two greatest commandments
that the Lord leaves with humanity are
the first, to love God, and the second,
to love our neighbor. We speak to God
when we pray, but do we speak to all our
neighbors who need special care? What
is my approach to the neighbor who is in
need of my help?
Fr. Thankachan
In the Book of Deuteronomy (6:2- Joseph
6), Moses reminds the people of the
great commandment to love God, which
means to keep His commandments and to walk in His
ways. Moses, in his farewell message, reminds us that
being faithful to God and His commandments is the best
way to prosperity and eternal life. He concludes with the
famous call known in Hebrew as Shema Yisrael (Hear, O
Israel)! It is the centerpiece of Jewish morning and eve-
ning prayer, and forms parts of some Christian prayers. I
think the second is very difficult, but if we can obey the
second, we can and have indeed obeyed the first. This is
because God lives in our neighbor. We cannot hate or do
harm to our neighbor for any reason and still claim we
love God. We need to observe and put into practice what
Moses taught in this book of the Torah.
In Mark (12: 28-34) is the repetition of in the first
reading’s message. When Jesus was questioned by a scribe
asking Him about the greatest of the commandments, Je-
sus replied, “The first is this: Hear O Israel! The Lord our
God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and
with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love
your neighbor as yourself” (12: 29-32). When I read this
passage, I remembered something from sometime back in
a parish in which I was serving as associate pastor. (The
name of the person involved is changed.) One afternoon
someone called and asked me, “Father, are you free some
time to help Mrs. Molly?” Mrs. Molly’s husband was
seriously ill and had been admitted into the intensive care
unit of a hospital. The authorities allowed one person to
stay with him. The only person he was really comfortable
with was his wife. The only piece of furniture in the small
cell, in addition to his bed, was a small stool. Molly spent
eight days in that cell looking after her husband, without
ever lying down. The person who called me asked me to
substitute for her on the fourth day. When I asked her how
she managed that, she told me: “Looking back, I, too, do
not know how I managed it. I suppose that when there
is a real need, we somehow find the strength.” How did
this middle-aged woman find such stamina and strength?
Love gave her the strength she needed. Deep down we all
know this. When we really like to do something, or meet
someone we love, or help a person we really care about,
we have great reservoirs of energy.
I was also reminded of another story about two broth-
ers who worked together on the family farm. One married
with a large family, the other single. The brothers shared
equally the day’s harvest and profits. One day, the single
brother decided to secretly leave a sack of grain every
night in his brother’s shed, reasoning that since he was
single, his needs were not as great as his brother’s. Like-
wise, his brother had similar thoughts, but in reverse. He
felt that his single brother, not having a wife and children
to care for him in his old age, needed a little something
to ensure his future. Each night, he would take across a
sack of grain to his brother’s shed. Years passed. Both
men were puzzled because their supplies of grain never
dwindled. Then, one dark night, the two bumped into each
other, realized what had been happening all those years,
and dropped their sacks and hugged each other.
Are you a person who is approachable by others at any
time? We need to remember the answer to the question,
“Lord when did we see you as a stranger, hungry or thirsty,
sick or in prison and did the necessary things for you?”
The master will answer you, “In truth I tell you, insofar
as you did this to one of the least of these brothers and
sisters of mine you did it me” (Mt. 25:39-40).
MCSD board to
hold work session
Morrow County School
District Board of Direc-
tors will hold a work ses-
sion, Monday, November
8, 2021, 6 p.m. at Morrow
Education Center and via
zoom. The purpose of the
work session is review of
OSBA’s superintendent
search proposal.
The regular board
meeting will follow at 7
p.m.
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at a cost of $10. Email to editor@rapidserve.net or upload to Heppner.net.
Common sense group
steps up
To the editor;
Advocates for Com-
mon Sense and Liberty is
a fresh body of Morrow
County citizens that are
stepping up to find solutions
to the current Covid restric-
tions, solutions that bring us
together instead of divid-
ing us. For instance, these
Morrow County neighbors
advocate liberty: a personal
choice to take the shot and/
or mask or liberty to resist
these mandates. These cit-
izens advocate common
sense solutions not arbitrary
mandates. The next meeting
will be Monday, October 31
at 5 p.m. at Two Old Hags
Pizza in Heppner.
“There can be no keen-
er revelation of a societ-
ies soul than the way it
treats its children.” (Nelson
Mandela) This column is
written especially to Mor-
row County’s school board
members because the great-
est issue facing our county
is the care, treatment and
protection of our youth.
My father was on the Mor-
row County school board
during the 40s, 50s and 60s
so I witnessed firsthand the
dedication and commit-
ment required to be a board
member. He lost half his
business because of unpop-
ular positions he advocated.
Nevertheless, we need to be
reminded that school board
members are elected to
represent Morrow County
citizens not the governor
of Oregon. These taxpayers
and the businesses they own
pay over $12,000,000 dol-
lars in taxes to fund Morrow
County schools and there-
fore the school board is ac-
countable to these citizens,
not questionable, liberty
choking mandates.
The current child/adult
face mask mandate is not an
Oregon law, it is not based
on science, it has no peer
reviewed documented evi-
dence of efficacy, it does not
protect children or adults
from Covid 19 or the Delta
variant. If there is estab-
lished science, documented
evidence or peer reviewed
studies proving the efficacy
of these mandated masks
I exhort the school board,
medical community and/or
Morrow County superin-
tendent to publicly produce
this evidence. If the only
reason our youth are being
forced to wear this face
mask for up to ten hours a
day is because our school
board and superintendent
chose to obey a governor’s
edict instead of the citizens
that elected them and pay
for our schools, then that
needs to change. If the cit-
izens do not exercise their
constitutional authority
over our local schools and
the care and treatment of
our children, the next edict
will be forced vaccinations
for our children to attend
our government controlled
schools. This cancer will
only metastasize with com-
pliance.
What can the citizens
do to protect our youth?
Let me share some ideas.
1) Citizens can organize
to attend Morrow Coun-
ty school board meetings
and ask for a board vote
on protecting our youth
from these worthless face
masks. 2) We can go to
the schools and peacefully
and respectfully protest. 3)
We can refuse to pay taxes
to fund schools that abuse
our children. 4) We can
establish public meetings
and forums to educate our
community on the dangers
of face masks (and vaccina-
tions) being forced on our
children (and adults). 5) We
can organize stay at home
school days demonstrating
our children belong to their
parents not a school system
with no local control.
Allow me to share just
the tip of the iceberg of
the documented evidence
that proves these mandated
face masks are not only
worthless, but they are also
medically, emotionally and
psychological harmful to
our (your) children and
adults. Check any fall foot-
ball game (local, college,
professional) if you still
believe in facemasks.
The Covid 19 School
Response Dashboard, in-
cluding the School Supt.
Association “found that
schools and school districts
without mask mandates had
a lower case ratio (Covid
19) than schools with mask
mandates (the same is true
of states without mask man-
dates versus states with).
Wearing a mask longer than
four hours for Covid 19
containment decreases cog-
nitive precision, increases
headaches and sweating,
encourages dehydration,
increasing bacterial infec-
tion risk…(prolonged) face
masks cause carbon dioxide
reloading and hypercapnia
(excess carbon dioxide in
the bloodstream) trapping
CO2 rich respiration ex-
halations at the mask in-
terface forcing rebreathing
of CO2…” (medRxlv.org.
meta- analysis, Children
Health Defense, Damien &
Daniel Guerra) “Children
rely on facial expressions
to interpret what they hear.
They respond to facial ex-
pressions to interact and
respond appropriately to
teachers and peers.” (De-
seret News, Aug. 13,21,
Autumn Foster Cook).
If the school board
and superintendent require
forced face masks on our
youth solely because of a
governor’s yet to be de-
termined court contested
mandate without a valid
medical, scientific or edu-
cational rationale, then the
citizens must stand united
to end this child abuse and
protect our children. They
are not old enough to pro-
tect themselves.
Stuart Dick, Irrigon
A dangerous step
To the editor;
I am confused. When
Trump was in office, he
initiated the production of
the COVID-19 vaccine, and
all the democrats were con-
demning it. I heard some
of them say they wouldn’t
get the shot if Trump had
anything to do with it. Now,
Biden is in office and the
very same goofy democrats
are pushing the vaccine.
They are trying to encour-
age the people to get vac-
cinated.
All of my life, differ-
ent prophets have warned
of the Anti-Christ. With-
out the mark of the beast,
you can neither buy, sell
or trade. Today, you have
to show proof that you
are vaccinated to get into
some restaurants, get on
an airplane, ride the bus,
etc. I have often wondered
how this mark could come
to pass. Now I understand
how it could happen.
Biden has mandated
that everyone get vacci-
nated, or they will lose
their jobs. Local and fami-
ly-owned restaurants could
face heavy fines if they al-
low someone to enter their
business without proof of
vaccination. This makes
me wonder who’s coaching
Biden in the background?
I am vaccinated of my
own free will. If you feel
inclined to be vaccinated,
do it. I encourage you to
consider it. It is safe and
it works. However, do it
of your own free will, not
because Biden is forcing
it upon you. If you choose
not to be vaccinated, it is
your God-given and con-
stitutional right to be free
to choose.
If you people are will-
ing to give up your free-
dom, let’s mandate gun
control. There is no differ-
ence. Both are oppressive,
ineffective and forms of
Socialism. This is a small
step on a dangerous path
towards our loss of liberty.
P.S. Where will all the
refugees live you people
that think a mandate is the
right way to go. Maybe we
should have a mandate to
force you to house a refu-
gee family and give them
an extra car you may have.
Jerry Koeppel
Vernal, UT
(visitor to the Ontario
area)
Paving starts
Paving has started on the big street rehabilitation project in
Heppner. Above: pavers lay asphalt on Chase Street. Below:
paving is done on the back side of Thomson Court next to the
post office downtown on Main Street.
Heppner Outreach Council & Hopeful Saints Ministry Presents:
Trunk
or
Treat
OCT 30, 2021
Morrow County Fairgrounds
runks, Di nn e r,
rn i v a l a m e s
T
Ca
5-8PM
Partially Funded by Morrow County Unified Park District
Please follow COVID-19 Health and safety guidelines