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The INDEPENDENT, November 2, 2006
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Assoc. Editor Noni Andersen, noni@the-independent.net
Opinion
On voting and democracy
In 1996, only 54.2 percent of eligible United States
voters cast a ballot. Only 70 percent of eligible citizens
are even registered to vote. Yet, the others, both un-
registered and those who don’t vote, expect to live in a
democracy. If so, they should probably move to India,
the world’s largest democracy where 380 million peo-
ple voted in 2004 (that’s 80 million more people than
live here).
In the U.S., only white male landowners voted be-
fore 1830. African Americans couldn’t really vote until
1870, even then road blocks were put in their way.
Women couldn’t vote until 1920. Native Americans
weren’t recognized as citizens (and therefore eligible
to vote) until 1947. It wasn’t until 1971 that the voting
age was lowered from 21 to 18. 1993 was the year
when voting rights started to lessen rather than broad-
en, and the right to vote has been eroding since that
time (More on that at another time.).
Why is it important to vote? Our system was de-
signed so there would be no taxation without represen-
tation, this was a major issue that resulted in the ratifi-
cation of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. Voting deter-
mines who represents you – at city, county, state and
federal levels. Of five people shown in the picture be-
low, two are the only members of the public (the other
three are related to candidates) who attended a Can-
didate Forum at Vernonia City Hall, October 20, to be-
come informed voters. That’s a shame!
Perhaps more people would become informed and
vote if we had a system like ancient Greece; every
year their election determined which politician was dis-
liked enough to be exiled for ten years.
Voting is important. Informed voters are vital.
Ike Says…
By Dale Webb, member
Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter
Hunting seasons are in
full swing, the weather is
nice and the scenery is
just beautiful! It is a great
country we live in and I
don’t think a lot of us fully
understand that. Make
time to pull on the boots
and at least go on a hike,
the fresh air will clear your
head and the exercise will refresh your body.
I made it over East again this year for our
Mule deer hunt. We did not go for the opening
weekend, there are just too many people to
make it enjoyable, so we waited until Wednes-
day of the first week. This worked out fine for us,
we got into our usual camping spot and I would
say over 50 percent of the hunters had already
gone home. Of course, the only drawback to
this late arrival is that 50 percent of the bucks
had gone home with some of those hunters, too.
That’s ok, I’d rather hunt in less crowded condi-
tions.
Right after we got the tent up, the weather
turned and we had a few showers and more rain
during the night. When we woke up, the day was
cloudy and threatened more rain, so we geared
up for cool, wet conditions. We could have used
a weatherman! By noon the weather had broken
and was sunny and warm again. Needless to
say, a little sweat was involved before we got
back to camp. Dad had even put on his long
johns! The next day we stayed with the hammer
jeans and sweatshirts for clothes, even though
the day again looked like rain. My hunting part-
ner, Ken, and I had my brother-in-law and
nephew drop us off up on the mountain so we
could hunt back down hill towards camp. The
terrain where we were hunting is an old burn that
is now growing up with jack pine and buck brush;
it is getting tall enough now that hunting is be-
coming harder each year.
I started wandering around through the small
trees following deer and elk trails. I don’t know
why I go where I do sometimes, I just let the con-
ditions (wind) and signs (tracks) lead me along.
I had planned to go down a long ridge that drops
off into a creek, then cut up through a saddle in
a ridge and back towards camp. In a straight
line of distance this would be about three miles;
traveling the contours, who knows? I had
worked towards the North, then got on the par-
ticular ridge I wanted. It traveled back southwest,
then I started jumping deer, one of which moved
straight south. I decided to follow along since
there was a good game trail and soon I jumped
the deer again, it was a Doe. I figured it was, but
liked the direction it was headed. Soon I found a
neat little pocket in the sea of small trees, with
several springs, tall grass and willows where I
could see game animals had been bedding
down. I took extra time as I dissected this small
pocket and, of course, there was a nice set of
deer tracks. They looked like buck tracks to me,
unfortunately, they seemed to be going towards
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