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January 22, 2009 Opinions |
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—Editorial—
It’s Time To Support The Leader We’ve Chosen
Barack Obama took his place in the Oval Office this week with all of the pomp and circumstance befitting a... well... president. His inauguration was expensive and grandiose. But we need to keep in mind that this was also a milestone and celebration for our nation with the election of America's first African American president. This is proof that the majority of Americans have overcome racial bias.
In less than 60 years we are a nation of people who have gone from ostracizing each other because of our differences to embracing our differences. We can’t just throw a baton in the air and let out a whoop for such a monumental and history-making occasion. It deserves recognition. It is one of the single most important national-scale events that will happen in our lifetime. We should all be dancing in the streets; however, we could have celebrated it just a little cheaper…
More important than the cost of the inauguration though, is that even if you didn't cast your vote for Obama, and even if you don't like America's choice for president from a political standpoint, you can still be proud that we are a nation where equality reins. A nation where dreams, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of a day when his children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, comes true.
But now that we have a man who’s appointment has literally changed our society do we blindly follow him because of the significance of this event? No. Just like every other president, we question, we criticize, we voice our opinions, and when we feel he makes a mistake, we call him to task.
However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t support our new president. If ever there was a time that we needed to present a united front, that time is now.
Much of our country's strength is in our democracy, our ability to let the masses choose who will lead us. When we rally behind our president and elected officials, no matter how we personally voted, this shows other countries that we are solid, that we are not divided within our own country. Other countries are watching — national security is still a major concern — with the economic crisis and presidential passing of power we need to show them we support our president and our democratic process.
Former Speaker of the House and staunch Republican Newt Gingrich was quoted, "Once President Obama takes office, Republicans should be eager to work with him when he is right, and, when he is wrong, offer a better solution, instead of just opposing him." Gingrich said in doing so the Republican Party can become known as the "better solutions" party, not just an opposition party. He also said providing solutions to the problems we face is the only way Republicans will ever regain the trust of the voters.
Gingrich is right. Even if you are Republican, you can still support a president who is affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Obama has demonstrated by his selections for Cabinet positions that he is not exclusive to his Democratic Party and its agenda. He has chosen people with a wide variety of ethnic and political backgrounds, as well as experience to help stabilize the economy and put the country back on solid ground. Obama has even said he doesn’t want to surround himself with “yes” people. He wants people with differing opinions, who will question him, and help him find solutions to our nation’s problems.
Let’s not allow past presidential mistakes, past party disagreements and economic upheavals to dampen our spirits or our faith in the world’s strongest nation. It’s a new day, we have a new President, let’s rally behind Obama, and help change our world for the better for ourselves and future generations. More important than being a Republican, more important than being a Democrat, and more important than racial differences is being an American. (DS)
—Guest Opinion—
County Should Opt Out Of Statewide Land Use Planning
By Steve Culley, Baker City
I attended all of the meetings on Baker County’s land use ordinance and the meetings on LCDC’s Big Look report to the legislature. It seems like the transportation plan got a lot of opposition, as it should have because it is more of the Feudal state, Oregon way, zoning by money for a new royal class. If you can afford to build roads you can live in the country. The fire chiefs and Randy Joseph seem to think that they are responsible for your personal safety. They do a good job, if it comes down to personal freedoms and decision making you should be allowed to make those decisions. The nanny state seems to have completely matured. Old concepts like being responsible for yourself are gone. Simple things like the fire districts informing you that they can’t provide fire protection and letting the free market work by being able to get insurance and financing from banks has been taken over by the planning and zoners.
Oregonians made a lot of sacrifices in the years since the implementation of statewide land use planning with the loss of personal property rights and the state veto power over every decision made on private land in the attempt to mitigate the federal government’s policy of rapid and constant population increases through liberal legal and illegal immigration. We added 3 million more Americans last year mostly immigration related. We lost 3 million jobs. Naturally Oregon will ask us to mitigate the results of more people with more restrictions on freedom. Native born commoners can no longer hope to own a small parcel of land outside an urban growth boundary that isn’t on a government approved rock pile or a city in the country. Elbow room has been saved for the new royal class who made their money in large urban areas who now want to come and own a castle on a hill or a spread of land to raise a herd of cows and get the tax deductions. Locals “sprawling” and messing up their views or encroaching into their private domains is an affront to their sensibilities. We aren’t people anymore, just nuisances in the way of the progressive new way. That was one of my main objections to the plan. The definition of “person” in the ordinance. Even foreign corporations are allowed to come and buy what the locals couldn’t possibly afford because of artificially high land prices caused by supply restrictions through zoning.
I recall the instance at Bly, Ore., a few years back where the terrorists bought a ranch so they could train to kill us. It’s really good to know that under the Oregon way of saving farm land, open space and wildlife habitat that there are no provisions for being an American citizen. Good to see Baker County agrees with this policy.
Oh well, it will soon be law and you can go through the hoops, cross the T’s and dot the I’s and kiss the planning commission and director czar in all the proper places and maybe nobody will appeal their decisions to LUBA in Salem, but maybe not. You could be tied up for years in appeals. Kind of like the fast track of Measure 49 that was going to solve all of our problems, but has yet to get on the track. If you object to all this then in the years to come you can again attend meetings and testify on the county plan designed to please the state. Soon we will be able to start all over and testify on the comprehensive plan and after that maybe the state will decide that the local yokels passed enough restrictions that they will O.K. it. Hell, maybe this legislature will actually take a look at the testimony on the Big Look and give some local control back to the region and create an eastside LCDC, with veto power resting in Salem, of course, and we can start the lawsuits and Salem hearings on regional control. With the state going bankrupt the budget might take up the whole session and land use might not even get talked about.
There is another way, but a generation that grew up under LCDC might have trouble with the concept of not kissing keister, but it is simple. Get two county commissioners to vote an ordinance opting out of statewide land use planning. Put the county plan and comprehensive plan in a box, send it back to Salem and say we quit, we’re done, we don’t need your guidance anymore. Land use decisions remain in the county. Do it right now while the legislature is in session. The state will threaten, The Oregonian will scream bloody murder, Thousand Friends will look for friendly lawyers, but more eastside counties will follow suit. The planners and zoners and controllers will have a fit, fearing that the sky will fall with no law to direct our daily lives, but I’ve already volunteered to write a simple law, in under 200 words, that says don’t bother me and I won’t bother you. Conflicts go the county commissioners and if there is no satisfaction then the Constitution would come in to play. You know the jury of your peers thing. One additional provision would prohibit any monuments to Tom McCall.
There would be other benefits. The county zoning commission could quit spending all those endless hours protecting us from ourselves. They could move out of the courthouse and we could put in a pool room or day care center or something useful, or board it up and save money on the heat bill.
If we can’t find two commissioners now we can try to get new ones or go to a local initiative process or start withholding county property tax payments. It takes a while to foreclose on property and the county needs the money. Creative thinkers could find a way. Freedom and rights aren’t so bad, you could get used to it. Not all revolutions have to be bloody. If we can’t change our county then we need to think about two different states. It might be time to part with The Valley. Leaving urban Oregon in charge of the basics of life with a potential economic meltdown is not acceptable. You might need those person property rights to save your land from the banks. Selling off a few acres might be preferable to selling it all because the estate mandates large land blocks.
And with late breaking news, the best president Mexico ever had, George W. Bush, just commuted the sentences of Capeon and Ramos. The two border agents that have spent the last two years in prison for shooting the Mexican drug smuggler in the butt. Maybe being like a bothersome horsefly to those in power eventually makes the most stubborn of mules finally react. Today, after I turn this in Barack Obama will become president. He’s going to need a lot of skill and luck to get us out of this mess. I predict the urban left will soon push the gun control and open borders agenda and the globalists will force Obama to renege on the review of NAFTA and trade deals with China. That will set the state for a come back for the traditional American. We’ll see how long the honeymoon lasts.
—Letters To The Editor—
Who Is Listening?
To The Record-Courier:
At the last miners’ meeting in Baker, Colby Marshall, from Greg Walden’s staff, advised organization and correspondence in the struggle with the Wallowa Whitman Forest Travel Management Plan. This past year has been filled with correspondence and organization. Still I wonder who is listening. The upcoming Forest Service public meetings, when the alternatives are presented, will signify if the message was heard.
All last year, throughout meeting after meeting with the public, Forest Service, and county commissioners, public sentiment consistently reflected support for maintaining public access and opposition to further regulations and road closures. Boxes of written comments decrying further regulations have been submitted. 6,000 signatures on a petition, each of which reflected opposition to further road closures, have been presented to county representatives, state and federal representatives, and forest service officials.
All the obvious arguments have been repeated time and again with letters to the editor. To take Colby’s advice, here I am again repeating just a few of my tired old lines. Again, I return to the Federal Register. “Local” is used in the section concerning travel management in nearly every column, including a quote about no additional funding for the implementation of the new rule.
Sadly, another agency has taken a stand for total closure. Branch Chief of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Spencer Hovekamp, has lined up behind ODFW, plus every conservation group that anoints itself with a title, supporting closure. Sediment in the spawning grounds being a concern. Hells Canyon Dam is impassable, I guess human created spawning tanks are now considered spawning grounds.
We all need to focus on keeping the remainder of the Wallowa Whitman open. Cross country travel has somehow morphed into closing roads. Many of us hope the presentation by Fred Kelly Grant will take us down a new path, a path that protects public access and the use of our natural resources.
The “no change” alternative is the only acceptable choice for the stakeholders. Whether it be mineral, grazing, or recreation we stand to lose a traditional way of life.
Wanda Ballard
Baker City
The Pickens Plan
To The Record-Courier:
I am thrilled to see oilman T. Boone Pickens acknowledge that we can't drill our way out of our energy crisis. Our foreign oil imports have grown from 24% in 1970 to 70% today.
Pickens has put his money were his mouth is, and has launched a massive media and grassroots/online campaign — the Pickens Plan — calling for major investments in windpower for electricity, while freeing up more clean burning natural gas to be used for autos. The goal is to reduce our oil imports by at least 1/3 in 10 years.
To make this happen, we need broad public and political support. I recently signed up as a supporter on www.pickensplan.com and wrote Senators Wyden and Merkley and Congressman Walden, urging them to do the same.
As a Democrat, I am proud to join Republican T. Boone Pickens in his bi-partisan effort to help save our economy and environment by investing in renewable power. Please take the time to check out the Pickens Plan.
Grant Schott
Fossil, Ore.
Every Qualified American Should Get Concealed Weapons Permit
To The Record-Courier:
In response to the realization of the negative effects of the gun control and seizures in The United Kingdom and Australia and in view of current proposed legislation across this country, I would like to make a few comments. (for details of the UK story go to this web site) http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=yTq2NEUlhDE.
There are those out there who are again aggressively after our guns and ammunition. See the “Ammunition Accountability Acts” etc. Without ammunition our guns won't defend us from “enemies both foreign and domestic.”
On last Monday I spoke with our local sheriff and there are movements abroad and already court cases, which say that the agreement’s made with the State and our local County Sheriff’s office to carry a concealed weapon should be open public knowledge and concealed weapons permit holders’ lists printed in the newspaper etc.
If I were a non-permit holder I would be as outraged at this as the permit holders should be. The non permit holders have just been put on the other list that says, “These people are less likely to be able to defend themselves therefore they make an easier target for the bad guys.”
I will say it again that every qualified American should get and maintain a concealed weapons permit. This will neutralize those extorted lists and make them worthless to those who would fragment us to control us or would deprive us of life, liberty or property.
Tim Smith
Harney County, Ore.
In Memory Of Bruce Klunder
To The Record-Courier:
On our beautiful, historic courthouse grounds we pay tribute to heroes and patriots and a flame burns eternal in their honor. These brave Americans served their country in all branches of our military.
Did you know there is one name missing? Did you know he was not in the military and he did not wear a uniform. Did you know he gave his life for a cause that we all believe in: that we are all created equal and free.
He was a Baker boy. Maybe you know his mother, Marie Klunder, who was our County Treasurer for many years. He went to Sunday school and to church in Baker and graduated from Baker High School in 1954. He went to Yale and became a Presbyterian minister and was one of the first people to die in the modern day civil rights movement. Bruce was killed (crushed by a bulldozer) on April 7, 1964, while protesting the construction of a segregated school in Cleveland, Ohio. He was 27 years old.
A memorial to civil rights martyrs with 40 names, selected out of thousands, stands in Montgomery, Alabama. Bruce Klunder is one of those 40 names inscribed, with his story, on the circular granite table memorial designed by Maya Lin, creator of the Vietnam Memorial. It is washed with water continually just as water for cleansing and reconciliation are spoken about in holy writings, worldwide. From Dr. King’s Dream Speech echo these words inscribed in the granite memorial “...until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream...”
On this Martin Luther King holiday let us reflect on Dr. King and Bruce Klunder of Baker who is remembered in Montgomery next to Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King, and the untold numbers who died to further the cause of land of the free and home of the brave.
It is befitting that Baker, far removed from the violence and tyranny of the Civil Rights movement during the 50’s and 60’s, not only remember one of their own who gave his life for that cause, but should we not also have a permanent remembrance in our town honoring Reverend Bruce Klunder’s sacrifice?
Susan Castles, Retired
Baker City
Big Brother Is Watching
To The Record-Courier:
I certainly agree with The Record-Courier editorial of Jan. 15. Big Brother is watching you. Apparently not close enough to suit our governor. He wants a GPS in everyone’s vehicle, to be checked so our government can check you each individually and tax you on the miles you drive. Tax at the pump is not good enough, or just not enough to suit the spending habits of State government officials? The liberals and environmentalists (one and the same) seem to want gas to stay at least $3.50 a gallon. Most of those spendthrift idiots are on the public tit or have so much money they feel no pain.
If you want to know which way this country is going, you should read “1984” by George Orwell and “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. I remember well when Nikita Kruschev said at the end of the Cold War with Russia: all they had to do was wait because with American youth having sports, drugs and sex being their dominant interest, the USA would fall like a ripe plumb into “their hands” (communist hands). And look what we have now: a socialist (to be kind) for president, and all people with their hands out for freebies. It all started with outrageous gas prices (and USA has its own, plenty of oil in our country). But idiots in charge won’t allow the use of our own resources. The inmates are in charge of the asylum.
Ann Racey
Bridgeport, Ore.
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