OPINION READER’S FORUM
Founded in 1906
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2022
A4
OUR VIEW
COVID-19 precautions are worth the hassle
eeing recent growth in COVID-
19 infections, we compli-
ment people who have man-
aged to stay the course. It is not
easy, but those of us who have held
true to pandemic protocols are help-
ing to ﬁ ght back wave after wave of
infection.
Last week, we reported on a “sixth
wave of COVID-19 infections as
the world marked the two-year anni-
versary of the pandemic on Dec.
31.” We quoted the Oregon Health
Authority on new cases, deaths and
hospitalizations. Oregon had then
reached 5,655 deaths and 421,263
infections. Hospitalizations were up,
too, fueled by omicron, an infectious
new variant.
It is sad to see our numbers
have not improved since last week.
According to the Oregon Health
Authority the state has grown in
infections – 478,203, as of Monday,
Jan. 10. OHA also informed us that
total deaths grew to 5,779.
The OHA reported 16,738 cases
and 188 deaths in Umatilla County,
and 2,207 cases and 26 deaths in
Morrow County.
These numbers hit hard, as each
one represents a neighbor and a loved
one.
Leading experts have given us
their best advice for containing the
illness, and these suggestions have
remained the same for a long time
now. Mask, vaccinate and keep dis-
tance, they said; experts continue to
say these things.
Around town, many people still
are taking the suggestions of our best
scientists and top healthcare work-
ers. At restaurants, many servers are
masked. In grocery store checkout
lines, many people stand 6 feet away
from the people ahead of them. And
so on.
These actions are a hassle, for cer-
tain. Masks are uncomfortable, and
S
social distancing seems anti-social.
Still, if it saves even a single life, it
seems worth it. Our experts tell us
that our actions save many lives, so
it is right to continue – not because
they are authorities, but because
they are knowledgeable and they are
likely correct.
So, too, many of us vaccinate. In
Hermiston, COVID-19 vaccines are
available at Family Health Associ-
ates, Good Shepherd Health Care
System, Hermiston Family Medi-
cine, Mirasol Family Health Cen-
ter, Rite Aid, Safeway and Walmart,
according to Umatilla County Public
Health. In addition, there are clinics
that have popped up in many work-
places and schools throughout our
region.
People still are getting their vac-
cinations. We know this is true,
because we have seen them do it,
and we applaud them for it. Many of
the holdouts have struggled with this
decision, and they are especially wor-
thy of praise. Afterall, it is not easy to
give up on a strongly held belief after
it is held so ﬁ rmly for so long.
At this point, it is getting hard to
believe the pandemic will ever be
over. Now two years from the date
that we ﬁ rst heard of the coronavi-
rus and COVID-19, it feels like many
ages ago. It can, then, be tempting to
give up on any hope of an end, and
perhaps let the virus win. Some peo-
ple have even advocated letting the
coronavirus “wash over us” and take
the people who are most at risk so
that the rest of us can live normal
lives.
For those of us who continue to
follow the experts and heed their
warnings, however, we suﬀ er the dis-
comfort willingly. We seek the end of
the pandemic, and we want to stand
with as many people as possible at
the end of this dark tunnel. We can-
not give up now.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
A sense of place in the Blue Mountains
Friends, neighbors there when
you need them
here is a place along the
belonging. My childhood expe-
upper Grande Ronde
riences created for me a primal
River that has a hold on
landscape, and it is common for
my heart.
exposure to natural landscapes
As a kid, I would camp there to inﬂ uence our preferences
with my grandfather, him teach- later in life. That certainly held
ing me to build a ﬁ re, split kin-
true for me.
dling, play gin rummy, ﬂ ip pan-
Have you ever driven by
cakes (“belly gaskets” he would a house where you lived as a
call them) and ﬁ sh for trout.
kid and felt a rush of
Imagine the patience it must
memories, sights and
take to teach a 10-year-old
sounds? That’s sense of
how to cast a ﬂ y.
place.
I was a city kid, raised
Do you choose to
in Portland and Corvallis,
camp in the same loca-
but every summer I would
tion every hunting sea-
spend several weeks with my Bill
son, perhaps your
grandparents in Northeastern Aney
grandparents’ hunting
Oregon.
campsite, even when
I see now that these expe-
the hunting success doesn’t
riences and places led me to
live up to the memories of your
make life choices that have
youth? That tug is your sense of
always brought me back to the
place, and it’s important.
Blue Mountains. My education,
During my career I was
summer jobs and career moves
sometimes frustrated by my
kept returning me to this place
agencies’ inability to close
that feels like home.
roads, even when the roads
In an incredible stroke of
were reducing the value of
luck, one of my ﬁ rst Forest Ser- wildlife habitat or damaging
vice jobs was as a ﬁ re preven-
soil and water quality. It seemed
tion technician, patrolling an
like every two-track road in the
area that included the upper
forest led to someone’s tradi-
Grande Ronde. A campground
tional family hunting camp.
had been developed where
Some elements of the sense
grandpa used to park his trailer, of place are cultural, referring
the lodgepole pine forest had
to the attachment of a people
been ravaged by pine bee-
or culture to an environment or
tles, and eventually the river
homeland. I don’t compare my
was no longer stocked with
own feelings of sense of place
native hatchery trout, but I still
with the connections that Native
felt a great attachment to this
people have to their ancestral
landscape.
lands, as my connection only
Each day I visited with
runs one or two generations
campers, ﬁ shers and woodcut-
deep and doesn’t include the
ters and shared with them sto-
land providing for the needs of
ries of my summers in the same my ancestors — nor was it ever
spot, pointing out good ﬁ sh-
taken from them.
ing holes, access roads and
But I do respect that Native
spring sources — and of course, people have a long and spiri-
spreading the ﬁ re prevention
tual connection to the land, and
message.
I appreciate the signiﬁ cance of
Social scientists have a term
their work to restore the capac-
for this special feeling I have
ity of the land and waters to
for the upper Grande Ronde. It
provide for them. It must be
is called “sense of place” and
a powerful emotional experi-
refers to the characteristics of
ence to see salmon return to a
a place that make it special or
stream that one’s ancestors used
unique or that create in peo-
to ﬁ sh, or to pick huckleberries
ple a sense of attachment and
in areas known through family
Last week’s storms snowed us in
here on Butler Grade. The ﬁ rst day
was an adventure, but by the second
day we were becoming concerned
for our safety.
Thanks to Kirk Terjeson we were
able to get to the main road by way
of driving through our ﬁ eld. How-
ever, it was clear that that was a
route not to be relied on.
For years, Tom Fellows at the
Umatilla County Public Works
Department has always been acces-
sible by phone, and this time was
no diﬀ erent. When he assured us
that they would get to us as soon
as possible, we knew we could
rely on that. Sure enough, Brian
Zimmerman showed up with his
grader/plow in the evening and then
returned the next morning, working
until he provided us with access to
the rest of the world.
All three of these people were
there when we needed them and we
can’t thank them enough. They truly
are what you hope for in neighbors
and government support.
Frank and Nancy Duﬀ
Helix
T
oral history.
We spend plenty of time in
inauthentic locations, places
that could be put anywhere.
Strip malls, fast food restau-
rants, large box stores and
downtown areas that have been
converted to tourist traps or
heavy commercial use all lose
their ability to connect to peo-
ple with a sense of place.
Gertrude Stein visited the
site where her childhood home
and farm once stood, and upon
seeing that the land had been
converted to housing develop-
ments, summarized her feel-
ings by saying “there is no there
there.” This certainly is the
antithesis of the sense of place;
I sense in her writing a mourn-
ing for the loss of part of her
own identity.
To be sure, the upper Grande
Ronde is not the only place that
evokes strong feelings for me.
There is a lake in the Wallowas
I call “spread your ashes wor-
thy” because of its sheer beauty.
Hayward Field in Eugene is a
place that holds special memo-
ries for me as a track and ﬁ eld
athlete, coach and spectator.
Even the sidewalk in front of
the Great Paciﬁ c has a special
place in my heart because of the
many summer Friday evenings
I have spent there with good
friends.
As an adult, I have visited
and ﬁ shed the upper Grande
Ronde with my own family.
The day is coming soon when I
will be able to take my grand-
children to the same place, and
I look forward to setting up a
camp, cooking belly gaskets,
building a campﬁ re, playing
in the river, and helping them
catch trout on a ﬂ y.
I suspect these experiences
will bring a tear or two to my
eye; such is the power of sense
of place.
———
Bill Aney is a forester and
wildlife biologist living in
Pendleton and loving the Blue
Mountains.
A couple of facts about
proposed B2H line
The Boardman to Hemingway
project power line, proposed by
Idaho Power, is nothing but a strong
arming of the 700 private land-
owners as the power line would cut
through farms, ranches, forest lands,
Ladd Wildlife Marsh, Morgan Lake
and in front of the Oregon Trail
Center.
It should be noted this project
will be 100% on private property
in Umatilla County. Idaho Power
also wants to build new roads and
remove anything in its path while
destroying the land, wildlife habi-
tat and water resources on the same
private properties. Many of these
roads they desire to build or rebuild
are outside the desired route of the
power line its self.
Idaho Power claims to be wanting
to work with the 700 private land
owners, all the while threatening the
same landowners if Idaho Power is
not allowed to enter the private prop-
CORRECTIONS
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VOLUME 115 • NUMBER 2
Erick Peterson | Editor • epeterson@hermistonherald.com • 541-564-4536
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Audra Workman | Oﬃ ce Manager • aworkman@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4538
Tammy Malgesini | Community Editor • community@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4532
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SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
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OBITUARY AND DEATH NOTICE POLICY
OBITUARY PACKAGE • Paid • Advertising formatting — oﬀ ering three,
templated options featuring one full color photo. • Prices and sizes
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erty, prior to being issued the certiﬁ -
cate to build by the state of Oregon,
by taking the owners to court.
A couple of facts need to be
pointed out.
First, Idaho Power does not have
the authority needed to build the
power line at this time, and it can
still be denied the right to build.
There is currently a couple of con-
tested cases in the courts, and Ore-
gon will not issue the required cer-
tiﬁ cates until they have been settled,
which means most likely those cases
will go to the Supreme Court. Again
with no certiﬁ cate, Idaho Power has
no authority to build the line.
Second, the fact is that Idaho
Power is demanding access to the
700 private properties to do survey-
ing and studies that they had already
done in 2011.
The governments in Umatilla and
Morrow counties don’t seem to care
about their residents but more about
promised tax dollars from this badly
planned project. This for-proﬁ t pri-
vate corporation has some county,
city and state agencies on its side
as it means dollars to them and the
landowners be damned. Union and
Baker counties are both opposed to
the line being built.
I have asked before, why zig-
zag across private lands as opposed
to a straight line between Board-
man and Idaho? The main reason,
although denied by B2H, is to avoid
all forms of government land and the
stricter requirements it would have
to meet. It is estimated that if the
line was built in a straight line from
Boardman to Hemmingway, Idaho,
it would cut the 293 mile proposed
route by approximately 50 miles, but
to avoid public and tribal lands, a
zigzag route across private property
was selected by Idaho Power.
I understand that if it doesn’t
cross people’s land, they say what
do we care? Why they should care is
if at anytime this project goes broke,
or drops the ball on any of their pie
in the sky promises, you, the taxpay-
ers, will be on the hook to cover the
costs.
Again I ask people to contact
your county, city and state oﬃ cials
and stop this theft of private prop-
erty and the rights of the owners.
John Harvey
Stanﬁ eld
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