A4 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
OPINION READER’S FORUM
Founded in 1906
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
A4
OUR VIEW
Active classes inspire students for a world that needs them
Not a week goes by that we are not
impressed by our local students and
educators. Last week was no excep-
tion. We visited Hermiston High
School, and, yet again, we met teenag-
ers and teachers who wowed us.
This time, we dropped into a class
where students were studying to be
medical assistants. An internship class,
it gave students opportunities to study.
Also, it sent these young people out to
actual workplaces, where they could
apply what they learn.
We met a classroom of youngsters
who were taking their fi rst steps into the
world of work. Four of them had even
taken an exam to be licensed phlebot-
omists, which they planned to become
while pursuing careers in medicine.
We look on with excitement. These
students are preparing themselves for a
world that is in desperate need. Their
newly learned skills will serve us well.
In addition, we express our gratitude
to the educators who make their stud-
ies possible. While visiting the intern-
ship class, we met up with a teacher
who seemed very invested in her stu-
dents. She was so devoted to her work
that she allowed herself to be a practice
dummy for her students. She put out
her arm, and she let her students prick
her with needles and draw her blood.
This was their practice.
She joked about the bruises caused
by such practice, but she did not seem
to mind much. She certainly did not
mind enough to stop her students from
doing this.
Besides this one teacher, there likely
are other people who made this work
possible — administrators and so on,
who created and allowed this class.
Similar work is being done with
other programs at Hermiston High and
other area schools, where students are
engaged and active in their education.
We hope it continues.
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Hermiston High School senior Marcos Preciado, 17,
disposes of a vial of blood Friday, Jan. 28, 2022
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Rooting for the underdog
T
his year, I want to see a white-
headed woodpecker.
This medium-sized woodpecker
is a handsome bird, with a
fully black body and striking
white head, and the males
sport a red nape patch. They
have been recorded in Uma-
tilla County, but it is one
of those species that is rare
enough that local birders
Bill
get excited when a sighting
Aney
is reported. The Pendleton
Bird Club keeps a running
list of birds reported by their members
each year, and in 2021 there were 268 spe-
cies recorded in the county. But no white-
headed woodpeckers.
Why? It’s been reported in the past, and
it uses ponderosa pine forests which are
abundant on the Umatilla National Forest.
So why is it so hard to see one?
As with a lot of wildlife questions, it
comes down to habitat. The preferred habitat
is not just pine forests, but a certain type of
ponderosa pine forest that is in short supply
due to current management practices.
These birds build nest cavities close to
the ground in large dead trees (average 26
inches in diameter) and feed heavily on pon-
derosa pine seed — meaning they require
stands of large mature or old growth ponder-
osa pine. These are economically valuable
trees, and past logging has made them rare
on private timberland and not very abun-
dant on the National Forest. That’s one of
the reasons that there has been a general pro-
hibition on logging large ponderosa pine
on National Forests in the Blues since the
1990s. These old growth forests are much
less common than they were before Euro-
pean settlement, with all sorts of eff ects on
wildlife species that use this habitat.
More than just large pine trees, the
white-headed woodpecker prefers open
stands. Forest inventory records from the
early 1900s commonly described pine
stands so open that one could easily drive
a horse and buggy through the forest. Try
that nowadays and you’d soon get bogged
down in dense growth or high-centered on
logs. Our century-long war on wildfi re cou-
pled with timber management practices has
left an unnaturally dense understory.
Why do these woodpeckers prefer
open habitat? One theory is that areas with
undergrowth provide cover for squirrels
that prey on woodpecker nests. An open
forest fl oor makes squirrels more vulner-
able to their own predators (hawks, owls,
cats, coyotes) and so less able to search and
destroy white-headed woodpecker nests.
See, it’s complicated.
Complicated ecosystem management
principles can sometimes be boiled down to
a few guidelines – like rooting for the under-
dog, following nature’s lead, and keeping all
the pieces. To root for the underdog in this
case means paying special attention to spe-
cies that are rare or declining in numbers,
like the white-headed woodpecker.
Following nature’s lead means under-
standing how natural processes, like fi re,
create habitat. It is easy to visualize how
frequent low intensity fi re can create and
maintain open stands of large diameter
ponderosa pine. Happily, this is the type of
habitat that management can help create by
heavily thinning out smaller diameter trees,
leaving the big old trees and applying fi re.
So this spring I have another reason
to head into the Blues, as if hunting tur-
keys, searching for morels, or getting in an
early season camping trip weren’t reason
enough for getting out of town. I’ll have
to fi ne tune my search image for the right
habitat of open stands of large pine, but I
can already think of a few places that fi t
that description. Maybe, just maybe, for-
tune will smile on me and I’ll spot a white-
headed woodpecker.
Wish me luck.
———
Bill Aney is a forester and wildlife
biologist living in Pendleton and loving the
Blue Mountains.
OTHER VIEWS
All Oregonians deserve to vote
I
magine living in a society where only
those with certain birthrights make
decisions for the rest of us. Your taxes,
criminal justice policy, land
use actions, decisions about
your children’s education —
you would have no formal
power over such decisions.
Seems wrong, right? But
that’s the very system we are
allowing to perpetuate under
Anthony
Oregon’s citizen-only vot-
ing structure. All Oregonians Broadman
should work together toward Oregonian suf-
frage — a system in which adults who live in
Oregon can vote in Oregon elections, includ-
ing voters who are not U.S. citizens.
The Oregon Constitution arguably bars
non-U.S. citizens from voting. This disen-
franchises many of us. And it wasn’t always
this way. In fact, it’s inconsistent with some
of the most positive aspects of our often-trou-
bling heritage as a state. In 1848, Congress
passed an organic act for the Oregon Ter-
ritory that allowed noncitizens to vote. It
wasn’t until the early 20th century, on a wave
of anti-immigrant sentiment, that Oregon
undid noncitizen suff rage and sought to limit
voting rights to only U.S. citizens.
In other words, we can change. And we
should. All it takes is a constitutional amend-
ment. We should change our state constitu-
tion because it’s right for our democracy and
right for our community. Disenfranchising
people based on citizenship is wrong under
any theory of tax fairness, representative
democracy or equality.
We’re behind. Communities across the
country have committed to extending the
franchise beyond U.S. citizens. Cities in
Maryland, Vermont, California and New
York have changed their city charters to
allow noncitizen residents to vote in local
elections.
Despite disputes over these initia-
tives elsewhere, universal suff rage in Ore-
gon shouldn’t be partisan. While Hispanic
voters have tended to support the Demo-
cratic Party historically, in the last presiden-
tial election, areas with high populations
of Hispanic and Asian-American voters
turned out in higher numbers and shifted to
the right. A recent Wall Street Journal poll
shows Hispanic voters evenly split between
the parties. Reducing the question to prej-
udiced hypotheses about how people of a
particular ethnicity might vote cheapens
our republican form of government. Guar-
anteeing the right to vote isn’t a Democratic
or Republican value, but an American one.
We need to truly welcome people who
choose to move to Bend and Oregon, enfran-
chise them and ensure they possess the same
power to make decisions about our commu-
nity and our future as every other voter.
It shouldn’t matter where they were born
or their citizenship status. It shouldn’t mat-
ter whether you moved here from Califor-
nia or France. Representative democracy is
part of ensuring our community evolves and
remains an exceptional place to live.
Part of encouraging immigrants to live in
Bend and Oregon means ensuring that when
they get here they’re part of the democratic
process. And many “immigrants” have lived
here longer than the 80,000 or so U.S. citi-
zens who have moved to Bend since 1990.
If our republic is truly the land of the
free and we are serious about upholding
equal justice as a foundational value of our
government, let’s show it.
Hold our representatives to the promises
they make about the public being involved
in governmental decisions. Demand that
when they say Oregon should be welcom-
ing and equitable for all, they mean that for
everyone, including all the people paying
taxes, starting businesses and working for
the future of our state and city.
———
Anthony Broadman is a Bend city
councilor. The opinions expressed are his
own.
CORRECTIONS
Printed on
recycled
newsprint
VOLUME 115 • NUMBER 6
Andrew Cutler | Publisher • acutler@hermistonherald.com • 541-278-2673
Erick Peterson | Editor • epeterson@hermistonherald.com • 541-564-4536
Angel Aguilar | Multi-Media consultant • aaguilar@hermiston herald.com 541-564-4531
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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Letters to the Editor is a forum for the Hermiston Herald readers to
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Volunteers help make holidays special
for children
Despite a global pandemic, residents of Uma-
tilla and Morrow counties shared the true mean-
ing of Christmas with children in need this past
holiday season.
Generosity throughout our area resulted in
3,499 shoebox gifts collected at curbside drop-
off locations for the Samaritan’s Purse project
Operation Christmas Child. Across the U.S., the
project collected 9,127,591 such gifts in 2021.
Combined with those collected from partnering
countries in 2021, the ministry is now sending
more than 10 million shoebox gifts to children
worldwide.
Through shoeboxes — packed with fun toys,
school supplies and hygiene items — volunteers
from Umatilla and Morrow counties brought joy
to children in need around the world. Each gift-
fi lled shoebox is a tangible expression of God’s
love, and it is often the fi rst gift these children
have ever received. Through the continued gen-
erosity of donors since 1993, Operation Christ-
mas Child has collected and delivered more than
188 million gift-fi lled shoeboxes to children in
more than 160 countries and territories
Across our nation, shoebox packers shop for
shoebox gift deals year round, and many serve at
a deeper level. Information about ways Eastern
Oregon participants can get involved year round
can also be found at samaritanspurse.org/occ.
These simple gifts, packed with love, send
a message to children worldwide that they are
loved and not forgotten.
I would like to thank Tammy Malgesini and
the East Oregonian for helping us get the word
out about this great project last fall, and of course
each individual and family that donated.
Barb Wattenburger
Hermiston
Back our blue
There has to be millions of people in Amer-
ica like me whose hearts are broken for our
police. You can’t turn on the news today with-
out hearing of the murder of another policeman.
However, when it comes to a show of love
for law enforcement, our big cities seem to have
rigor mortis. In my opinion that leaves it up to
little town America to show them how to make
a very loud noise. Nobody in the world can cre-
ate a blood-curdling scream like us “unsophisti-
cated” in “fl y over” town, USA. I think we can
show the big city how it is done.
Yesterday I talked to Charles Byram, chief
of the Pendleton Police Department, about
some kind of demonstration, and he said he was
for it as long as we had the proper authoriza-
tions and it was lawful and respectable. Pendle-
ton has the ability to be the fi rst “fl y over” town
to light a confl agration of little towns all over
America to laud our self-sacrifi cing policemen.
Sure, there are bad policemen, but every
demographic has its degenerates. We need to
stand up for law enforcement in a very loud
way. I am not sure how to do that, but someone
out there must have the expertise and network
capabilities to create a scenario that will force-
fully grab nationwide attention that will become
viral in every single hick town in America.
We are Americans, and nobody can draw
attention like we can. Let’s start a burgeoning
scream all over this country for our policemen.
Sharolyn Gemmell
Pendleton
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