Baker County has a chance to be a leader in an economic and environmental sense.

Now we just have to take advantage of that chance.

So somebody hands you a copy of “War and Peace” one evening and then comes back the next morning and asks you what you thought about it.

Not the first 10 pages.

Not the first chapter.

The whole, thick-as-a-metro-phone-directory, book.

Your answer, almost certainly, is something along the lines of “I’m not sure yet.”

This is an acceptable answer regarding a novel written 140 years ago.

It is an absolutely wretched answer when it comes to legislation under consideration in Congress.

Yet that “War and Peace” analogy pretty accurately describes the demands we’re putting on the people we elect to make our laws.

In February, for instance, lawmakers voted on the $747 billion stimulus bill just 12 hours after the 1,073-page document was delivered to them (by forklift, presumably).

We applaud the Baker City Council for making time during its meetings for citizens to express their opinions.

However, when a resident challenges the actions of, or makes specific allegations against, a councilor, then the mayor should allow that councilor to respond.

The next time you discover, after it’s too late to make other arrangements, that the Forest Service or BLM restroom you’re visiting contains not a scrap of toilet paper, you might be wise to blame a wildfire.

It’s not that a blaze burned the toilet paper (although flames certainly would, given the chance.)

When Baker City voters elected Dennis Dorrah and Beverly Calder to the City Council in November 2006, they entrusted with the pair the responsibility for making decisions.

Difficult decisions.

Controversial decisions.

Amazing how the prospect of having a lethal dose of drugs injected into the bloodstream can change a person’s attitude.

Too bad this epiphany for Joel Courtney happened five years after he murdered Brooke Wilberger.

We have a fresh idea for spending a tiny fraction of the $787 billion federal stimulus package.

How about we stimulate a restful night’s sleep for Baker City residents?

We can do it.

Baker County’s Economic Development Committee (EDC) was wise to deny, at least temporarily, a request for $18,000 to study the efficacy of the “Base Camp Baker” marketing campaign.

That request came from the Transient Lodging Tax Committee (TLTC). That group receives 75 percent of the money collected through a tax on motel rooms, bed-and-breakfasts and RV parks. The EDC receives the remaining 25 percent.

Greg Walden should run for Oregon governor.

And if Walden, who represents Central and Eastern Oregon in the U.S. House, won’t run, then former Sen. Gordon Smith, who unlike Walden has won a statewide race, should.

Trinity Health’s pending purchase of St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City — it’s Baker County’s only hospital — should benefit patients from across the county.

We hope, though, that those benefits aren’t offset by the loss of a significant number of jobs at the hospital.