HERALD
OPINION
and
reader’s
forum
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
OUR VIEW
Health
improvement
plan a good
idea for area
T
he fact that Umatilla County staff are hard at
work preparing a five-year health improvement
plan should be good news to voters, and if the
pandemic taught us anything it is being prepared is
crucial for the future.
The effort will focus on emergency preparedness, wa-
ter testing and community health programs. Crafting
a plan for the future is, of course, crucial, and Umatilla
County elected leaders should be lauded for spearhead-
ing the work.
The county conducted health assessments during the
past two years and any other data will ensure the infor-
mation gathered can be put to good use.
The county, and the state, need to have such plans on
the shelf and ready. The county in the past has been no
stranger to natural disasters — such as floods — and the
pandemic rode into the local area with a vengeance and
caused death and havoc.
A health improvement plan is just simply a good idea.
While no one can be blamed for being unprepared
for the pandemic, the impact of the coronavirus shows
clearly what happens when the unexpected arrives. Nei-
ther the U.S. nor the state nor the county was prepared
for the onset of the virus and COVID-19, the disease the
virus causes.
While overall results were mixed, the state and the
county did as well as could be expected considering no
one since 1918 had experienced such a terrible challenge.
In short, the nation, the state and the local area did as
best they could.
Yet we can’t utilize a “best we could” theory in the fu-
ture. In short, doing the best we can isn’t a method. It is a
reaction to an unprecedented event and preparing now
for a future such disaster can go a long way toward saving
lives.
Of course, the health plan isn’t just about possible cri-
ses such as a pandemic. Other items — especially wa-
ter — also will be reviewed and a plan crafted and that
should also be good news to voters. The hope now it ap-
pears is to develop and then publish the plan this year
and revise it every five years.
Once the plan is published voters should take the op-
portunity to become acquainted with it and then give
feedback to their elected leaders.
COLUMN
Better late than never
I
played basketball at Marshfield High
School after Title IX was enacted.
However, I didn’t receive my varsity
letter from the Coos Bay school until
shortly after my 50th birthday.
While I earned the honor, all I received as
a student-athlete in the late ’70s was a cer-
tificate that said, “Marshfield High School
Athletic Department awards this ‘M’ certif-
icate to Tammy Stockman in recognition of
his (note: HIS) participation in basketball.”
However, I didn’t actually receive a physical
letter.
When my yellow “M” with purple outlin-
ing finally arrived in the mail, it had been 32
years since I last donned a Pirate uniform.
All I had were a few photos and fading
memories of hearing, “Tammy Stockman, a
5-foot-4-inch guard, drives the lane — she
scores!”
Oh wait, there we didn’t have announc-
ers at girls’ games back then in Coos Bay. In
fact, we were relegated to playing in the aux-
iliary gym, while the boys hit the hardwood
in the Pirate Palace, a 4,000-seat gymnasium
complex.
Basketball wasn’t even an official Ore-
gon School Activities Association sport for
girls until 1976, which might explain why
I had to buy a T-shirt when I played junior
varsity as a freshman. Not only did the guys
have spiffy home and away uniforms — OK,
really, they were the goofy-looking short
shorts — they didn’t have to buy them and
they were issued practice shorts and jerseys,
too.
There were other discrepancies between
male and female athletes during my time at
Marshfield. The guys received a shoe allow-
ance, were treated to steak dinners during
away games and traveled in a chartered
TAMMY
MALGESINI
INSIDE MY SHOES
motorcoach. The gals had to buy their own
shoes and ate fast food on road trips — we
felt like royalty if the budget allowed for
King’s Table Buffet. And we boarded a reg-
ular school bus for a rickety ride to Eugene
for games.
As teammates, we knew it wasn’t right.
However, we didn’t know how to challenge
a system that clearly dismissed the achieve-
ments of female athletes.
And I wasn’t the only Pirate who waited
decades to get a letter. Far superior athletes
were overlooked:
• Fran (Auer-Sichting) Worthen (1972),
who won 10 state titles in track and field,
and broke the national high school long
jump record. After high school, she was fea-
tured in Sports Illustrated for her prowess
on the track while competing and beating
men while running at Southwestern Oregon
Community College.
• Linda Prefontaine (1971) played tennis
in high school/college and a decade later
was ranked among the top 10 competitors
in the Ladies Professional Racquetball As-
sociation. She is the younger sister to Steve
Prefontaine, who certainly received his letter
while still in high school at Marshfield.
I ran hurdles and sprints on the varsity
track team my freshman year and played
three seasons of basketball, “lettering” my
last two years. We enjoyed the camarade-
rie of being a part of a team, doing what we
Tammy Malgesini/Hermiston Herald
Despite playing basketball at Marshfield High
School after Title IX was enacted, Tammy
(Stockman) Malgesini, pictured as a sopho-
more in 1976, didn’t receive her varsity letter
until 2010.
loved — playing a game. But the biggest
score was finally receiving our varsity letters.
Although, I’d sure like a new pair of Nikes.
█
Tammy Malgesini, the Hermiston Herald
community editor, enjoys reminiscing about her
glory days as a student-athlete at Marshfield High
School — once a Pirate, always a Pirate — and at
George Fox College.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Women cannot be equal
to men without the legal
right to abortion
The overturning of Roe v. Wade is
more than its parts. It is not simply
a reversal of 50 years of precedent
on reproductive rights for women.
It is a repudiation of female equal-
ity in universum. It is a reclamation
of male dominance over more than
half of our population.
The right to oppose abortion
has never been the issue. Opposing
abortion is a reasonable position,
and no one should ever feel obli-
gated to terminate a pregnancy. But,
abolishing the legal right to do so
relegates all women to second class
citizenship.
It is a platitude that if men en-
dured pregnancy there would be
no debate. Abortion would be the
norm. Simply put, no man could
have equal opportunity if some were
required by law to undergo nine
months of physical upheaval while
others were not.
Women cannot be equal to men
without the legal right to abortion.
Moral and religious objection
should be heard and respected.
Personal opposition to abortion
is reasonable and proper, but one
cannot support laws controlling re-
productive rights for women unless
he or she is also willing to confess
a belief that women are inherently
inferior to men.
Women must have complete
control of their own bodies to
have equality in our culture. It is
reasonable to believe that this is
guaranteed by the Fourth Amend-
ment to the U.S. Constitution. I
believe the debate should not be
about abortion, but whether as a
society we recognize equality be-
tween the sexes.
Joseph Brusberg
Hermiston
Trump is the only example of
fraud in the current situation
Where to start? The Jan. 6 hear-
ings that a lot of President Donald
Trump supporters have no doubt
been afraid to watch for fear of hear-
ing the damning testimonies of peo-
ple formerly loyal to the Donald have
peeled back one ugly layer after an-
other about this highly incompetent
and abhorrent individual.
A person so un-American that he
lets his own personal interests and
ego come before the good of the na-
tion. So petty and childish that we
can almost feel pity for this man
child with claims of fraud. He is and
continues to be the only example of
fraud in the current situation.
The ultimate irony is that the only
fraud committed came from him
and his lapdogs, asking for dona-
tions from those still foolish enough
to believe in his false claims of voter
fraud. Millions given for his phony
stop the steal campaign. Money
that’ll never be used for anything
other than to line Trumps pocket.
The Democrats can’t even get
out of their own way, let alone or-
ganize choreographed fraud on a
multi-state scale. Stop the whining,
come to realize that the inability of
Trump to even bring about a scant
resemblance of a grown man and
admit he lost in a free and fair elec-
tion is the reality.
There is a sucker born every
minute according to P. T. Barnum.
Trump’s lackeys prove that every day.
David Gracia
Hermiston
HERMISTON
HERALD
Volume 115 • Number 27
Andrew Cutler | Publisher • acutler@hermistonherald.com • 541-278-2673
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Audra Workman | Office Manager • aworkman@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4538
Tammy Malgesini | Community Editor • community@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4532
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CORRECTIONS
It is the policy of the Hermiston Herald to correct
errors as soon as they are discovered. Incorrect
information will be corrected on Page A2. Errors
committed on the Opinion page will be corrected on
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Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should
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