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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2022)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, October 19 , 2022 -- THREE Good News Only by Doris Brosnan Father Thankachan Joseph St. Patrick Catholic Church Heppner The Heppner Gazette Times will print all letters to the Editor with the following criteria met: letters submitted to the newspaper will need to have the name of the sender along with a legible signature. We are also requesting that you provide your address and a phone number where you can be reached. The address and phone number will only be used for verification and will not be printed in the newspaper. Letters may not be libelous. The GT reserves the right to edit. The GT is not responsible for accuracy of statements made in letters. Any letters expressing thanks will be placed in the classifieds under “Card of Thanks” at a cost of $10. Email to editor@rapidserve.net or upload to Heppner.net. Have all the facts Make use of daylight to keep Heppner clean With Daylight Sav- ing Time ending the first Sunday in November, it is a good time to do a bit of roadway and street litter pickup before the daylight hours for doing it go away. If everyone will pick up their part of the landscape, then an important job gets done with everyone pitch- ing in to do their bit. A litter-free town is nice for ourselves and our visitors. John Edmundson Heppner, OR HHS reunion attendees (front row): Ferne Albert Healy, Evelyn Tucker Ross, Marlene Griffin Gray, Doris Morris Brosnan, Shirley VanWinkle George and Elaine Laird Mc- Gann. Second row: Bill Monagle, Tom Glass, Kathy Spencer Clark and Sharon Keithley Harrison. -Contributed photo Sixty-one years ago, the pictured good-looking Hep- pner High School students and their classmates graduated and went off to make their marks on the world. Since then, they have reunited several times to report in and check on one another. Saturday evening, they met at the Elks club for dinner and conversation, which actually did include more than just comparisons of hearing aids and artificial body parts. Four spouses also joined in, but several other distant classmates and locals Omer Huston, Sandra Jones Blake and Judy Brinda Stevens were unable to attend. During homecoming week in Heppner, a large crowd of HHS students attended the volleyball games. Between the JV and varsity games, the noise level of the rowdy, good-natured crowd seemed to “old ears” to intensify, so barely discernable was the announcement to “please stand and remove your hats for the National Anthem.” Amazing! With the very first note came absolute silence from the students, as they removed various headgear and turned their attention to the flag. These old ears were so impressed by the respect the students showed their coun- try. Thank you all! (Of course, the chants immediately restarted after the last note was played!) Ione High School’s homecoming was last week, a week of fun-filled craziness and competitions that ended with the Ione-Arlington football team fighting a good fight on Friday night when they suffered a loss. Undeterred from celebrating a long-standing tradition, fireworks lit up the sky as the explosive ending to a busy week. Not uncommon is a guest’s leaving a host a gift as a thank-you for the stay. Maybe perky puppy Lily thought that was the case when she idly roamed her house Sun- day evening and discovered a pair of anklets left by their guest and waddled out to the living room as her owner visited with someone, with anklets hanging from the side of her mouth. Such a thoughtful treat: something new to chew on! Last evening, the Ione community could attend a presentation of the architect’s drawings of a new high school building. This was another step in their process toward a new school. Finally, after several weeks of telling her doctors what was causing her pain and what they should do about it, Bonnie Campbell got her wish last week. The doctors realized that, by gosh, she was right about having spinal stenosis, the same condition she had two years ago. They agreed to the same treatment she had then, shots in her back at about waist level, which should, in a couple of weeks, eliminate her pain, at least for some time. Bonnie reports hope of walking without a cane, but she is pre- pared for results short of that. All G-T readers do not get their newsy notes from social media, so the contributors to this column are bring- ing them smiles they would not otherwise have. Thank you! To add your tidbit, send it to dbrosnan123@gmail. com or call 541-223-1490. Here’s hoping that some good news comes to ev- eryone reading this! Support Christine Boardman Halloween festival planned Drazan It is time to voice your The Boardman Parks and Recreation District will host a Halloween festival at the Boardman Marina and RV Park on Friday, Oct. 28, and Sat., Oct. 29, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night. Activities will include a Halloween harvest mar- ket with local artisan and food vendors, doggy and youth costume contests sponsored by Banner Bank, a mad-scientist kids corner, a self-guided Halloween Nightmare Haunt and a bonfire on the beach. Tickets for the Haunt will cost $5 per person or $15 for a family of four or more. All other festival attractions are free. Go to boardmanpar- kandrec.com for more in- formation and vendor ap- plications. USE PROMO CODE: GIFT50 CALL CONSUMER CELLULAR 877-916-0803 © 2022 Consumer Cellular Inc. For promo details please call 877-916-0803 U STAN HEPPNER M BOOSTER HHS OO ER S T CLUB DINNER & AUCTION G vote at the ballot box. Or- egonians need a governor who represents all of the people of Oregon, not just a few. We need a change and a new direction. My vote will be for Christine Drazan. Christine is for restor- ing our city streets back to law enforcement. She plans to do this by providing more funding of our police, and by increasing the number of them on our streets. Chris- tine is also for getting rid of Cap and Trade in order to help our gas prices. She is for appointing judges who will follow the Constitution and uphold the rule of law. These are just a few of the policy change ideas. Please read your voter pam- phlet and do your own research to compare the three Oregon governor can- didates’ policies and back- grounds. We need Christine Dra- zan. Oregon needs Chris- tine Drazan. Vernie Mudie Basford Ione, OR The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds The central focus of today’s parable is pride, humility, and the role of grace in our salvation. The reading from Sirach is a perfect companion piece to the Gospel parable, as the writer talks about “the prayer of the lowly, pierc- ing the clouds to reach the unseen throne of God.” Such prayers are heard because they come from the hearts of people who know how much they need God. In Sirach (3512-14, 16-18), a wise Jew taught how faithful Jews should live good lives, what moral and spiritual choices they should make, and what behavior would be honorable. Chapter 35 begins with the kinds of sacrifice truly acceptable to God, including keeping the law, observing the commandments, doing works of charity, giving alms, refraining from evil and avoiding injustice. Sirach asserts that God has no favorites. He always hears and grants humble prayers of widows, or- phans, the lowly, the weak and the oppressed. In Luke 18:9-14, two Jewish men, a Pharisee and a publican, went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee saw himself as the perfect example of a true Jewish believer. The publican regarded himself as a failure. The nominal Christian tries, like the Pharisee, to make himself one with sole control over all his actions. The proud and self-righ- teous Pharisee did not really go to the temple to pray to God, but only to tell God how good he was in the guise of thanking Him. He “said this prayer to” himself! He was proud, despising all others, labeling them sinners. He was really a good man but lacked compassion for others. His first big mistake was to think that God would be im- pressed by his boasting; the second was in thinking that he was better than others. Two things especially make our prayers void: a proud sense of our own righteousness, and contempt for others. A humble heart is contrary to both. We read that the Lord loved the prayer of the tax collector, who stood at the back of the Temple and would not even lift his eyes to God. He confessed his sins and brought before God his unworthiness with sincere heart of repentance, humbly asking for mercy: “Kyrie, eleison,” “O God, be merciful to me—a sinner.” His heartbroken, humble prayer won him acceptance before God. His humility led him to repentance and prompted him to ask for mercy. Lessons from the parable of the Pharisee and publican: 1) We need to expel the Pharisee and recover the pub- lican in each of us. There is a big dose of the Pharisee’s pride in many of us and a small dose of the tax-collector’s humility. Jesus invites us to make a pilgrimage from pride to humility. If we are not sensitive to other people, we are not sensitive to God. The Pharisee was not sensitive. The tax collector was sensitive to his own failings and thus, was equally sensitive to God. Sensitivity to others and to God go hand in hand. 2) Let us have the correct approach in our prayer lives. For most of us, prayer means asking God for something when in need. We conveniently forget the more important aspects of prayer, like adoration, praise and thanksgiving. How many of us remember to say, “Thank You, God, for giving me another day,” when we awake in the morning? How many of us show our gratitude for our health, jobs, food and other daily needs? As long as our earthly lives run along smoothly, we are likely to forget God. If we have forgotten God through our years of prosperity, how can we expect him to take notice of us when something goes wrong? Our day’s work and our day’s recreation, if offered for the honor and glory of God, are prayers to Him. Further, we have to surrender our lives completely and unconditionally to God, holding out empty hands to receive Him in all humility. 3) Let us get rid of our self-justification: It is a tragedy that those who justify themselves leave no room to receive grace, though morally, they may be living exemplary lives, as their self-justification leaves no room for the grace of God to take hold. On the other hand, if we are truly humble, we will find grace, mercy and peace. There must be a space in our lives for grace to enter and work its miracle. We must keep focused on our relationship with God, recognizing that we are constantly in need of His mercy and forgiveness. B In regards to recall ef- forts of Morrow County commissioners, and from what I’ve read in the news- papers, I feel compelled to start the conversation regarding transparency and the accusations being made about the commissioners. As someone who has sat on public boards, I am truly concerned about peo- ple having and understand- ing the facts about how the process works. I am all about freedom of speech and total transparency, but I am alarmed with how peo- ple can say and do whatever they want without people questioning whether what they are saying is true?? Let’s start with due process and executive ses- sions, especially in regards to personnel issues. Basic Roberts Rules of Order are guidelines used to pro- tect people who represent businesses and institutions. When these representatives are faced with personnel issues, they can be very sensitive and must be han- dled appropriately. This is to protect the accusers and the person or institution being accused. If a victim or victims come forward and approach the board or commissioners with accusations of harassment, abuse or any form of illegal conduct, it is morally, eth- ically and legally required that it goes into executive session, where it imme- diately is kept between the board or, in this case, commissioners. As I said, this is not only to protect the accusers but also the person being accused. Basic Roberts Rules of Order (IEEE Policies 9.24) states: A member of a society can be punished under disciplinary proce- dure if he/she violates the secrecy of an executive session. Anyone allowed to be present is honor-bound not to divulge publicly anything discussed in these meetings. Again, to protect the accusers and the person being accused. It goes on to state: Notwithstanding the dedication to the fun- damental importance of transparency IEEE also rec- ognizes that some aspects of its operations need to be kept confidential. Thus certain types of informa- tion are protected when unrestricted availability would be detrimental to the organization they represent. So again I ask, do we have all the facts? I believe the commissioners did have all the facts. According to Basic Roberts Rules of Order, the public is not en- titled to all the detailed in- formation. Accusing them of being dangerous for not being transparent when quite the opposite is true. Not following the guide- lines given them along with legal advice would be dangerous and com- promise the due process. Unless victims come for- ward themselves we do not know the details. Do you think commissioners took their actions lightly? Did they do their due diligence, listen to everyone involved, seek legal counsel and dig deep morally, legally and ethically and try to do the right thing for the county at large, knowing it would most likely cause them personal public criticism? As I said before, I am alarmed how many voters are not questioning those throwing harsh accusations around without having all the facts. What are these people motivated by? You the voters have the oppor- tunity to base your vote on facts. Ask yourself, what are the people behind the recall motivated by? There seems to be a lot of hate, vindictiveness, or possibly other ulterior motives. Do you want to be a part of that? Commissioner Lindsay was voted out by a relative- ly small margin. Her term ends in January. Many of us witnessed an impressive amount of hard work on her part. She was passionate and accomplished a lot of great things, focusing on all residents and communities in Morrow County. I encourage voters to look at the facts and think long and hard with your head and your heart when you go to vote in Novem- ber. Gregg Rietmann Ione, OR Spiritually Speaking S ~ Letters to the Editor ~ Saturday, October 22nd Gilliam & Bisbee Building D oors open at 5:00 Dinner at 6:00 Live Auction: 7:00 STEAK DINNER $20/person SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE! Silent & Live Auction The Card Game - Raf f l e Heads & Tails Game Please come out and Support the Mustangs!
