Is it appropriate for Muslims to construct a building — described almost invariably as a mosque, although it also includes a community center — two blocks from ground zero in Manhattan?

The problem with this question is that it’s the wrong question.

Here’s what we ought to be asking ourselves:

Is it appropriate for any group that condemns Islamic terrorists in general, and the Sept. 11 attacks in particular, to construct a building two blocks from the site of the deadliest of that day’s atrocities?

We suspect a significant number of people would give a different answer to the latter question than to the former.

Almost two years ago, 2,448 Baker City voters picked Milo Pope to represent them.

On Tuesday evening Pope let them down.

He failed to attend the regularly scheduled City Council meeting.

Not because he was out of town or otherwise unavailable.

By his own admission, Pope, who’s an attorney, chose instead to attend a private gathering at his law office.

Pope also acknowledged, in a telephone interview with the Herald, that he regrets his decision.

He said he hasn’t made a habit of missing Council meetings, nor does he intend to.

We’ll take Pope at his word.

Inmates at Baker City’s Powder River Correctional Facility have done a variety of worthwhile tasks over the past 20 years, ranging from fighting wildfires to landscaping the library and other public spaces.

But the latest job assigned to Powder River inmates, though perhaps not the most important, certainly warms our hearts like no other.

Through a program started by New Hope for Eastern Oregon Animals, prisoners will help train abandoned dogs, many of which were abused or neglected.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about two recent cases in which Baker City juveniles are accused of vandalism sprees is that the incidents seemed, well, noteworthy.

They’re conspicuous because they’re rare.

And they’ve been rare for more than a decade.

In 1998, the Baker City Police Department handled 620 juvenile crime cases.

The next year the total plummeted by almost half, to 343.

In the past few years there have been fewer than 100.

For an outfit that goes through more red ink than Hallmark during the pre-Valentines Day rush, Congress seems to have little compunction about spending $10 billion.

Yet, troubled though we are about the near-absence of fiscal restraint in Washington, D.C., we’re also pragmatic.

Which means we recognize that the latest example of federal largesse — the $10 billion Edujobs bill passed last week — should benefit Baker County.

Oregon’s share of the money, which is supposed to prevent school districts from laying off teachers and principals, is estimated at $117 million. The Baker School District stands to get about $421,000, according to the state.

The District should use that money to ensure that the 2010-11 school year, which starts Aug. 30, will not end prematurely, nor will the district schedule furlough days, if the state cuts its payments to school districts.

The former happened in 2009, when the Baker School Board ended classes five days early due to declining support from the state, which supplies more than half the school district’s income.

Baker City councilors have had their disagreements recently, but they proved Tuesday that they can carry out the public’s business in an admirably efficient manner.

And a very vital piece of business at that.

We’re encouraged by the straightforward — and cordial — way in which the Council went about finding a new city manager.

On Tuesday, just six weeks after Steve Bogart told councilors he would resign Sept. 23, they voted unanimously to offer the job to Mike Kee, Ontario’s police chief and a former Baker City resident.

At least one thing, it appears, defies the worst recession.

The commitment that Baker County residents and businesses have for our community’s kids.

As proof of our admittedly bold claim we offer these statistics from the 4-H/FFA livestock auction that took place Saturday, during the Baker County Fair.

Making a big difference in a little kid’s life can be a simple matter.

As simple as tossing a carton of crayons or a plastic ruler into your cart during your next shopping trip.

The annual Project Back to School campaign started today.

The idea is as basic as it is vital.

Residents donate school supplies — everything from pens and pencils to glue sticks — and The Salvation Army distributes the items to students before classes start Aug. 30.

If you spend much time poking around in the Elkhorn Mountains near Baker City you’re apt to get a misleading impression about Oregon’s abundance of mountain goats.

The majestic mammals are indeed plentiful in the Elkhorns. The population there numbers about 400, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

But with the exception of the nearby Wallowas, which harbor most of the rest of Oregon’s estimated herd of 800 goats, the state’s other major mountain ranges have few goats or none at all.

It has not always been so.

Based on historical records and the more recent opinions of wildlife biologists, the consensus is that mountain goats as late as the 1800s lived in parts of the Blue and Wallowa mountains, as well as the Columbia River Gorge and the Cascades as far south as the Three Sisters, near Bend.