I have this pair of winter boots, a stout design made by Sorel, a firm famous for its long-lasting cold-weather footwear.

The breaks of the Snake River killed them.

Limestone fins shredded their thick rubber soles into something resembling the scraps you see strewn about the freeway after a semi trailer blows a tire.

The constantly angled terrain etched fissures in their leather flanks.

Stitches, which probably were sewn by a massive and immensely powerful machine, burst from the constant pressure of uphills and downhills and sidehills and the occasional cliff, simply gave up like the heart of a horse made to haul howitzers across the Somme in 1916.

To describe the eastern fringe of Baker County as rugged country is to indulge in colossal understatement. You might as well call Mount Hood a pretty big hill.

My first real boss was Dick Haynes.

I worked at Maxi Mart department store after school and weekends as a receptionist, answering phones and typing correspondence. I remember typing a letter from Dick to President Jimmy Carter, and wondering if the president would really read it, or respond.

One thing I knew, even then, was that many other people did pay attention to Dick Haynes. He had built the farm store Farmterials into a successful retail business and then developed the adjacent Maxi Mart department store. To boost summer sales and bring visitors in to Baker, he started a July mining competition and street dance in the Maxi Mart parking lot that became Miners Jubilee.

Let’s face it, over the course of 50-plus years in business, there have been a lot of us in Baker that have worked for Dick Haynes. Even more people here owe their jobs to him.

We weren’t naive enough to believe, much less to hope, that the first public statement from the National Rifle Association following the Newtown massacre would elevate the national debate about fatal mass shootings at schools.

Still and all, we are disappointed that this crucial discussion seems to be focusing on issues that not only are inherently polarizing, but that have little chance of making a meaningful difference in preventing future tragedies.

Surely no rational person expected that Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s executive vice president, would stand at a lectern and announce that the organization was in favor of reinstituting the federal gun control laws that were in effect from 1994 until 2004.

Nonetheless, gun control advocates have not only decried LaPierre’s proposal to put armed guards in schools, but they’ve raised the volume on the debate to a shrill screaming match that gives us a collective headache.

Meanwhile, topics about which there is little argument seem to be getting short shrift.

One example is the effort to prevent people with mental health problems — pretty much a universal issue in mass shootings — from getting access to a gun. 

The NRA doesn’t advocate that mentally ill people ought to have unfettered access to any gun, whether a semi-automatic rifle or a single-shot .22.

Nor does the organization oppose the widespread use of locked gun safes — gun safety, in fact, is a point of emphasis with the NRA.

Yet rather than concentrate on these areas of agreement — things that might help us to avoid future Newtowns — the publicity after LaPierre’s statement has much to do with criticizing his organization as tone-deaf on the issue of gun violence.

Yes, LaPierre’s suggestion to assign police to patrol public schools presents major, and possibly insurmountable, challenges, chief among financial ones.

Yet that’s no reason to dismiss the notion outright.

Almost all of us would agree, in a situation such as Sandy Hook Elementary, that having a trained officer with a gun present, were it to have any effect, would likely reduce the death toll rather than add to it.

That said, we would prefer that in future appearances LaPierre talk about ways to keep deranged people from getting guns, in addition to his polished speech about what to do with those people when they show up at school.

Video games send an awful message about violence

I was horrified by the shootings in Newtown, Conn., on 14 December. I cried many times that weekend as I followed the story and listened to the interfaith service on 16 December.

And then I was outraged when I read the “Best of 2012: Games” (Time magazine, Dec. 24, 2012, page 60). The top five games listed were: Guild Wars 2, Xenoblade Chronicles, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Dishonored, and Assassin’s Creed III. Seriously? Thousands of years of civilization; abundant natural, technical and intellectual resources; and the best our society has to offer are these violence-saturated games?

I am not so naive to believe that violent video games are THE cause of real-world violence, but I do believe that they contribute to the problem. Studies show a link between playing violent video games and subsequent aggressive behavior.

I believe that all of us, on some level, accept that video games can influence behavior. I assume that is the reason there are no commercially available games called “Rapist” or “Prostitute” or “Child Abuser.” Moral revulsion prevents us from allowing these role-playing games to exist. Why do we have a different standard for murder?

Killing is not a game.

Shoot a person and he bleeds. He is maimed or dies. His family grieves. First responders are haunted by memories. Lives are shattered. There is no reset button.

Killing is not a game.

We don’t need legislation to lessen the effect of violent video games. Do not buy these games. Do not rent them. Do not play them. Talk with family and friends about using these games.

Because, killing is not a game.

Barbara Tylka

Baker City

Spend school money on schools, not legal advice

With the election over, we had hope that we could all move on.

Unfortunately, during the District’s December meeting, Walt Wegener orchestrated another maneuver.  He contacted the Secretary of State’s Office and instructed the board to authorize the use of School District funds to consult with legal counsel.  This would allow them to start the proceedings of a civil suit against the petitioner in an effort to recover the costs of the election.

You’d think that with all of the challenges and problems we’re facing with educating our children they could find better things to do with their time and our money?  Maybe they could start by changing the budgeting process that currently “allows” the administration to negotiate contracts prior to having an approved budget, AND one that does not allow public comment until AFTER the budget has been approved.

Perhaps they could figure out how to improve our District’s performance in a state whose overall grades and scores rank 42nd and whose K-12 achievement ranks 45th in the nation. Oregon’s high school graduation rate is fourth worst in the nation!  It wouldn’t hurt to discuss ways to improve that.  Why do we rank near the bottom in all of these categories yet rank near the top in average salaries?

Five states recently announced that they will be adding at least 300 hours of instructional time to their school calendars.  These states are already near the top and are all currently operating on a longer school year than the State of Oregon whose school year ranks second to last in the nation.

Only South Dakota has a shorter school year and, coincidentally, ranks dead last in overall grades and scores.  To compound the issue, the administrators and school board have saddled our District with arguably the shortest school year in the nation with a 147 day school year.

We have some of the best teachers, principals, and classified staff around.

However, we have severely handicapped them with bad policy.  Now, they’re after revenge and pursuing personal vendettas.  Advocating for a better educational future for our children will have to wait.   

Mike Ogan

Baker City

On the road to Lexington and Concord

We are living in historic times. The country is divided like the period of the American Revolution and the Civil War. The school shooting in Connecticut has brought things to a head. In times like these it is important for Americans to be able to express an opinion, but it’s not to be. The only opinions that get a lot of play from the major media come from the talking heads and those in government who have zero experience with firearms. The biggest fool and biggest threat comes from CNN’s Peirs Morgan, a foreigner from England who is pushing an English and Australian type of gun control. On the off chance that there are some from the has-been British empire visiting my country I would like you to take this message home. 

Mr. Morgan, the Brits underestimated us in 1775 and you are doing it again. Your disarmament agenda is setting us on a road to another Lexington and Concord. You are right, I don’t need a so-called assault weapon to hunt. I have one but don’t hunt with it. The reason I have one is precisely because the military and police have them. It might sound quaint to you but an armed populace is a barrier to tyranny. Our founders believed it and things have not changed. Human nature is the same as at the time of the revolution and the centuries before. I would offer recent history as proof, the massacre in Tiananmen square, and the massacre of unarmed civilians in Syria right now. Places that could use a Second Amendment. I have no desire to become like England where you can go to jail for life for shooting an intruder in your own home. The Martin case comes to mind. We gun owners were appalled when Australia destroyed 700,000 rifles and shotguns and we know that is your agenda here.

Go back to extolling the virtues of your idiot royalty and keep your British nose out of my business. Better yet go home. 

P.S. I would like to thank you for waking up so many gun owners, they are arming themselves at an incredible rate.

Steve Culley

Richland

We thought the recall campaign against Baker School Board Chair Lynne Burroughs and Director Mark Henderson was over.

It should be.

And indeed it would be over, had Burroughs, Henderson and Director Andrew Bryan decided Tuesday evening to let this unfortunate episode recede into history.

Instead, that trio, despite two of the three having prevailed at the ballot box less than two weeks ago, refused to let the matter rest.

Fortunately, they didn’t commit the school district to a legal morass that could linger for months.

Yet their decision to seek advice from a lawyer about the possibility of suing Kerry McQuisten, the chief petitioner in the failed campaign to recall Burroughs and Henderson, was neither necessary nor productive.

Vindictive seems to us the more appropriate adjective.

This is not about the money, the estimated $10,000 the school district will have to pay for the Dec. 11 election.

Even if the school district did sue McQuisten, and then won in court, it would recoup only that cost.

The school district’s annual budget is about $15.7 million.

The loss of $10,000 has no measurable effect on the quality of education the school district offers.

What a lawsuit would do — and, arguably, even the threat of a lawsuit, which is where things stand now — is discourage citizens from exercising their legal right to try to recall elected officials.

We opposed the attempt to recall Burroughs and Henderson, and we felt the same about two recall campaigns against Baker City Council members over the past decade or so.

But aside from our opinions about the merits of those specific recalls, we strongly support the recall petition as a valid way for citizens to seek redress against the officials who represent them.

Although we don’t think every complaint that McQuisten leveled against Burroughs and Henderson in her petition was compelling, some of them were. More importantly, none of those complaints was irresponsible or beyond the bounds of reasonable political speech.

Yet the majority of the board, by even pondering a lawsuit against McQuisten, implies to all citizens that even if they have a legitimate grievance against an elected official and they pursue a recall, they might end up footing the bill.

School Superintendent Walt Wegener, in a written report to the board, rightfully noted that making a convincing legal case that McQuisten is liable for the election costs requires “a very high standard of proof” that is “very rarely proven.”

We think the district would lose in court.

We think they’ve already lost in the court of public opinion by considering filing a lawsuit against a citizen who took her case to the voters, failed, and then accepted their verdict.

Would that the victors act as graciously.

Buying a Fire Med policy makes a lot of sense

Baker City Fire Med is currently accepting enrollments as noted by articles and ads published in the Herald. That is a program which, for a reasonable annual fee, insures affordable ground and/or (depending on which package one subscribes to) air ambulance transportation in time of medical need. Over the past 10 years our family has utilized this service twice. One involved a horseback riding injury to a family member and the second involved a family member being injured in an accident in Union County.  In both cases the patient was transported to a local hospital by ambulance for treatment.

 My family and I are blessed with good medical insurance.  Yet, in both cases, had it not been for Fire-Med membership our out of pocket expense for ambulance services above and beyond what our insurance paid would have been substantial.  Fire-Med prevented what could have been a serious financial burden by accepting what our insurance paid and it billed us not one penny more than that.

 It is important to recognize also that a Baker City Fire-Med subscription covers a geographic region, not just the boundaries of Baker City or Baker County.  A member injured in a nearby county is covered just as if the event occurred here in Baker.  I cannot recommend Fire-Med membership too strongly.

Jerry Boyd

Baker City

Museum helped me track down my family’s history

I have often wondered about my ancestors, especially those who my father told me were indigenous people of the Northwest.  Recently, a friend used a skeletal four generation family tree of mine to help me find who and where I came from. One thing she found is that my great great grandmother’s parents were full-blooded Native Americans from the Northern California Mendocino Valley. With this information I soon found a photograph of Mary Ford (1856-1916) from the website of the Baker Heritage Museum. I also found that my great-great grandmother married and had at least five children with Richard Bruer Markle (1819-1890) and that both Mary and Richard are buried in the Rock Creek Cemetery.

It’s hard to describe how I felt as I sat looking at the photograph of my grandmother’s grandmother sitting wide-eyed in a chair with her white hair pulled back in a bun wearing a high collared long-sleeved black blouse, a butterfly brooch and a long patterned skirt while holding what looked like a thick scrap book. Without the Baker Heritage Museum and their generations of volunteer and paid staff, I would never have had the opportunity to have known what this ancestor of mine looked like, and neither would my niece and nephews, and the children who will come after them.

Although I still have many questions about my living relatives, as well as those who have come and gone before me, I am incredibly appreciative of the people of your community who have made it possible for me to put some of the pieces of my family history together.

Danny Wilson Smith

Son of Ralph Vasco Smith (1930-1984)

Grandson of Ralph’s mother Jessie Williams Smith (1891-1984)

Great-grandson of Jessie’s mother Louleolio “Lulu” Markle Williams (1870-1929)

Great-great-grandson of Lulu’s mother Mary Ford Markle (1856-1916)

Still concerned about        Kyle Knight’s motivations

Your recent editorial, “After the recall,” (Dec. 14) implies that Kyle Knight had a compelling reason and performed a useful service when he forwarded the confidential email about the Srack affair to the media. In fact, one could infer that you think the rest of the Baker School Board might have joined with him, had they held an executive session that Knight asked for.  

So, may I ask what purpose Knight’s email to the media prematurely publicizing a criminal investigation might have served? Why did he send it, and why might the rest of the School Board have concurred? If you or Mr. Knight have an answer, it would be helpful to learn what it is.

Forgive me if I’m wrong, but, until I learn otherwise, I’m going to continue to conclude that Knight’s action was part of an ongoing strategy to undermine and belittle the school system on behalf of anti-government ideology promoted by the Tea Party, Americans for Prosperity, and the Western Liberty Network. I see it as part of a pattern of deliberate disruption that includes his premature disclosure of a police investigation of gang activity, his complaints to at least four state agencies, the recall campaign, and the lawsuit.  

In an Oregonian interview on Oct. 16, Knight declared, “When it has to do with the taxpayers’ money, it’s not confidential.”  To me, that clearly demonstrates unreasoned, absolutist thought and action that can only serve to harm the functioning of a well-run, public institution.  

We deserve better. I believe that our government of, by, and for the people has a central role in using the common wealth for the common good. Ours is a good school system that can always be improved, but I find nothing in Mr. Knight’s words or behavior contributing to that improvement. I believe it’s time for open and thorough discussion and review of this subversive political force operating in our community.

Marshall McComb

Baker City

I was lucky to share in Baker County’s generosity

In the past I have read letters of those sharing the generosity of folks in Baker City/Baker County. This last Tuesday, I had the privilege of experiencing this also. While shopping at Bi-Mart, I became very ill. I was sitting on the steps going up to the break room where they had a sofa. I was able to get up the steps with help from my husband as well as assistance from Royce, from the pharmacy. Royce was kind enough to stay with me for a while, and later the assistant manager, Aaron, was there to be with me. These folks and others shared their generosity, caring, and compassion I will not soon forget.

When I thought I could manage getting down the steps, my husband, Aaron, and another Bi-Mart employee (I did not get her name) assisted me down the steps where they had a wheelchair waiting for me. I was wheeled out and was placed in the car.

Yes, Baker County is a great place to live. I pray for a blessed Christmas and holiday season to those who helped me as well as the other Bi-Mart employees.

Patty Shumway

Bridgeport

To stop the killing we must turn away from sin

As a Christian man, my heart is broken for the victims of recent shootings.

We obviously have a problem. Not a gun problem, but a heart problem. Guns don’t kill people. People using (fill in blank) kill people. Guns don’t pull their own triggers.

Jesus, my Lord, tells me the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. He offered me a heart transplant and I took it. Until we turn from sin, murder will be more and more common, whether it be by bombs, guns, knives, rocks or sticks.

I have been changed and I caution all other Christian brothers who love to kill animals or video game opponents.

Jesus, my Lord, said the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come to see that you may have life and have it to the full.

Joe Painter

Keating

Buying a Fire Med policy makes a lot of sense

Baker City Fire Med is currently accepting enrollments as noted by articles and ads published in the Herald. That is a program which, for a reasonable annual fee, insures affordable ground and/or (depending on which package one subscribes to) air ambulance transportation in time of medical need. Over the past 10 years our family has utilized this service twice. One involved a horseback riding injury to a family member and the second involved a family member being injured in an accident in Union County.  In both cases the patient was transported to a local hospital by ambulance for treatment.

 My family and I are blessed with good medical insurance.  Yet, in both cases, had it not been for Fire-Med membership our out of pocket expense for ambulance services above and beyond what our insurance paid would have been substantial.  Fire-Med prevented what could have been a serious financial burden by accepting what our insurance paid and it billed us not one penny more than that.

 It is important to recognize also that a Baker City Fire-Med subscription covers a geographic region, not just the boundaries of Baker City or Baker County.  A member injured in a nearby county is covered just as if the event occurred here in Baker.  I cannot recommend Fire-Med membership too strongly.

Jerry Boyd

Baker City

Museum helped me track down my family’s history

I have often wondered about my ancestors, especially those who my father told me were indigenous people of the Northwest.  Recently, a friend used a skeletal four generation family tree of mine to help me find who and where I came from. One thing she found is that my great great grandmother’s parents were full-blooded Native Americans from the Northern California Mendocino Valley. With this information I soon found a photograph of Mary Ford (1856-1916) from the website of the Baker Heritage Museum. I also found that my great-great grandmother married and had at least five children with Richard Bruer Markle (1819-1890) and that both Mary and Richard are buried in the Rock Creek Cemetery.

It’s hard to describe how I felt as I sat looking at the photograph of my grandmother’s grandmother sitting wide-eyed in a chair with her white hair pulled back in a bun wearing a high collared long-sleeved black blouse, a butterfly brooch and a long patterned skirt while holding what looked like a thick scrap book. Without the Baker Heritage Museum and their generations of volunteer and paid staff, I would never have had the opportunity to have known what this ancestor of mine looked like, and neither would my niece and nephews, and the children who will come after them.

Although I still have many questions about my living relatives, as well as those who have come and gone before me, I am incredibly appreciative of the people of your community who have made it possible for me to put some of the pieces of my family history together.

Danny Wilson Smith

Son of Ralph Vasco Smith (1930-1984)

Grandson of Ralph’s mother Jessie Williams Smith (1891-1984)

Great-grandson of Jessie’s mother Louleolio “Lulu” Markle Williams (1870-1929)

Great-great-grandson of Lulu’s mother Mary Ford Markle (1856-1916)

Still concerned about        Kyle Knight’s motivations

Your recent editorial, “After the recall,” (Dec. 14) implies that Kyle Knight had a compelling reason and performed a useful service when he forwarded the confidential email about the Srack affair to the media. In fact, one could infer that you think the rest of the Baker School Board might have joined with him, had they held an executive session that Knight asked for.  

So, may I ask what purpose Knight’s email to the media prematurely publicizing a criminal investigation might have served? Why did he send it, and why might the rest of the School Board have concurred? If you or Mr. Knight have an answer, it would be helpful to learn what it is.

Forgive me if I’m wrong, but, until I learn otherwise, I’m going to continue to conclude that Knight’s action was part of an ongoing strategy to undermine and belittle the school system on behalf of anti-government ideology promoted by the Tea Party, Americans for Prosperity, and the Western Liberty Network. I see it as part of a pattern of deliberate disruption that includes his premature disclosure of a police investigation of gang activity, his complaints to at least four state agencies, the recall campaign, and the lawsuit.  

In an Oregonian interview on Oct. 16, Knight declared, “When it has to do with the taxpayers’ money, it’s not confidential.”  To me, that clearly demonstrates unreasoned, absolutist thought and action that can only serve to harm the functioning of a well-run, public institution.  

We deserve better. I believe that our government of, by, and for the people has a central role in using the common wealth for the common good. Ours is a good school system that can always be improved, but I find nothing in Mr. Knight’s words or behavior contributing to that improvement. I believe it’s time for open and thorough discussion and review of this subversive political force operating in our community.

Marshall McComb

Baker City

I was lucky to share in Baker County’s generosity

In the past I have read letters of those sharing the generosity of folks in Baker City/Baker County. This last Tuesday, I had the privilege of experiencing this also. While shopping at Bi-Mart, I became very ill. I was sitting on the steps going up to the break room where they had a sofa. I was able to get up the steps with help from my husband as well as assistance from Royce, from the pharmacy. Royce was kind enough to stay with me for a while, and later the assistant manager, Aaron, was there to be with me. These folks and others shared their generosity, caring, and compassion I will not soon forget.

When I thought I could manage getting down the steps, my husband, Aaron, and another Bi-Mart employee (I did not get her name) assisted me down the steps where they had a wheelchair waiting for me. I was wheeled out and was placed in the car.

Yes, Baker County is a great place to live. I pray for a blessed Christmas and holiday season to those who helped me as well as the other Bi-Mart employees.

Patty Shumway

Bridgeport

To stop the killing we must turn away from sin

As a Christian man, my heart is broken for the victims of recent shootings.

We obviously have a problem. Not a gun problem, but a heart problem. Guns don’t kill people. People using (fill in blank) kill people. Guns don’t pull their own triggers.

Jesus, my Lord, tells me the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. He offered me a heart transplant and I took it. Until we turn from sin, murder will be more and more common, whether it be by bombs, guns, knives, rocks or sticks.

I have been changed and I caution all other Christian brothers who love to kill animals or video game opponents.

Jesus, my Lord, said the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come to see that you may have life and have it to the full.

Joe Painter

Keating

My son Max has the typically limited lexicon of a 21-month-old, but one of the favorite arrows in his modest verbal quiver is “light.”

He doesn’t just say the word. He proclaims it.

And when his audience fails to show a satisfactory level of interest he will repeat himself as often as he deems necessary, and accompanied by increasingly frantic gesticulations.

His zealotry can seem either cute or obnoxious, depending on how often the listener has been subjected to it.

Anyway he’s dedicated.

What’s great about Baker? Here’s a list to get started

 As I attended the OPB broadcast from Bull Ridge Brew Pub last week, I started thinking about Baker City. One thing came to me: the sense of pride we all have about our town. Sure, there are some things that aren’t great but there are people and things I realize make me proud and should make us all proud. 

Here they are, in no particular order:  

1. Dave Johnson and Baker High football team.  Two state championships in three years. Need I say more? 

2. Our agricultural community. Farmers like Brent Kerns and his family, and the Blatchfords and others, produce a huge amount of the best potatoes anywhere.  

3. Our ranching community, like Rob Thomas and his family with innovative breeding techniques produce some of the best Angus bulls in the country.  

4. Dwight and Barbara Sidway, who took over a dilapidated building in our city center and made it into a regional treasure by dint of hard work and long hours.  

5. Bev Calder who took a small wine shop into the spotlight and then expanded it into La Grande. A tourist stop without tackiness.  

6. Bill Brown and Tyler  Brown and their family who started a unique restaurant and brewery which regularly wins national championships and which is now expanding to a new building.  

7. Mary Stevenson who started with a dream in the middle of the worst recession in the history of the country and has made a beautiful, quiet facility for us to enjoy, and is now expanding.  

8. Anthony Lakes Ski Area.  Best powder in Oregon.  Enough said.  

9. Richard and Kathleen Chaves. Hometown boy makes good and keeps it at home. Look at the Sports Complex, the Crossroads/Carnegie Art Center and, now, the Old Post Office. All done with class.  

10. Brian and Corrine Vegter. They operate under the radar but are integral in many community projects including the Elkhorn Classic bicycle race and the annual turkey trot. Now involved in a bike path along the old Sumpter Valley right of way.  Talented artists.

11. Heidi Dalton. Although only on the job for several months as director of the YMCA she has already transformed the institution and is dynamically leading it into a new facility for the benefit of all of us.  

12. John Wilson and Beef Northwest. Know how many cattle they feed? Don’t ask.  They are supplying a large (and tasty) protein source to the west.  

13. Barbara McNeil – Zephyrs. She chose Baker City over Manhattan. That has to count.  

14. Randy and Mary Jane Guyer. He is head of a large accounting firm and they are both constantly involved in community civic projects, usually as leaders.  

15. Tabor Clarke, who almost singlehandedly over many years developed the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway, giving our town a scenic foot and bicycle pathway along our beautiful river.  

There are, I’m sure, many others that affect you and that I have not mentioned.  Just keep them in mind when someone “disses” our town.

Dave Coughlin is a Baker City attorney.

 Keep America safe; defend the Second Amendment

As we Americans, and our elected officials, struggle to make sense of the increasing violence by armed mass murderers, the issue of revisiting our Second Amendment rights is again at the top of the list as a foundational contributing factor to the senseless slaughter we have recently witnessed. Over the last 20 years we have seen mass killings in public schools, Amish schools, universities, military bases, (where arms were unavailable to the military personnel victims, but stored in the armory), churches, Hindu temples, theaters, nursing homes, beauty salons, political gatherings, shopping malls, parking lots, etc;....... one venue has been noticeably absent from the list. There has never been a mass shooting at a gun show. One needs not to spend much mental energy to figure out why.  The greatest deterrent to an armed criminal, or even an armed mentally ill person seeking to take innocent lives, (as evidenced in the venues where these attacks occur), is the realization his evil actions may be countered by law-abiding armed citizens.

So as you hear the media attacking Second Amendment rights (which began again Monday on NBC Morning Show), remember the only certain deterrent to unlawful deadly force, is lawful deadly force. The Nazis well understood that concept. Murderers and terrorists will always be with us. Guns will always be with us, regardless of legislation. As with illegal drugs, where there is a demand there is a supply,  generated by those who seek to thwart the law.  

Conversely, a gun is not always the preferred weapon, as we saw in the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history, when on 9/11/2001, a few crazed Muslim extremists slaughtered 3,000 innocent people, using box cutters, jet engines, and jet-A fuel. One (sane) legally armed citizen on each of those aircraft, or at Sandy Hook School, could have made a huge difference in the loss of innocent life.

Keep American safe.... defend our Second Amendment right.

Don Williams

Baker City

Local residents did Baker proud on OPB’s ‘Think Out Loud’

One of my favorite Oregon Public Radio programs, “Think Out Loud,” was recorded in Baker City last week. It was a wonderful program. All the speakers were enthusiastic, factual and positive about life in Baker County.

Barbara Sidway, TImothy Bishop, Mark Ferns, Ginger Savage, Rob Thomas, Richard Chaves and several others let the rest of Oregon know how lucky we are to live in Baker County.

Frances Burgess

Baker City

We weep as a nation for Sandy Hook Elementary.

We seethe with anger at the senseless slaughter.

But neither our tears nor or rage will reduce the chances of future tragedies happening, any more than our similar, and understandable, reactions to Thurston and to Columbine prevented Virginia Tech or Aurora.

So what would accomplish this vital goal?

The answer, we believe, is twofold:

First: How we deal with the people who would commit such atrocities.

Second: How we manage the places, and in particular the schools, where they would commit these acts.

We haven’t mentioned guns. This might seem a curious omission in discussing crimes carried out by people wielding guns.

Here’s why we don’t believe gun control laws, such as a revival of the assault weapons ban in place from 1994 to 2004, would have an appreciable effect on protecting our children, and our society, from the next Adam Lanza.

There are so many guns.

We state this not as a value judgment — opinions vary, obviously, on whether the number of guns in America is a good thing or a bad thing.

It’s plain fact.

The sorts of gun control laws that are in effect now, or that well-meaning people have called for since the Sandy Hook shootings, would do little if anything to prevent mentally unbalanced people from getting semi-automatic guns and ammunition for them.

The only way to do that is by gathering the vast majority of such guns that exist now, either through mandatory confiscation by the government, or by encouraging legal owners to turn in their guns, or by a combination of the two methods.

But with millions of guns in existence, this task simply is not feasible.

Then too there are significant legal hurdles to the confiscation part of that equation.

The other obvious flaw in focusing on guns is that they are not a necessary ingredient in the massacre of innocent people.

Killers in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other places — including Oklahoma City in 1995 — have slain dozens or hundreds with bombs made of ordinary, readily available materials.

The bottom line is that people who intend to kill indiscriminately have myriad ways to do so.

Which is why we believe the focus of America’s efforts, legislatively and culturally, should be to identify and deal with such people before they brandish the weapon of their choice. And in the inevitable cases when we can’t prevent that, we need to reduce the vulnerability of their targets.

To the first point, we encourage changes to laws, both state and federal, that would make it more likely that people who could be prone to committing mass murder are identified and treated.

This is a difficult task, to be sure, one for which there is no foolproof solution. The vast majority of people who are “a little different” will never shoot up a school or detonate a bomb next to a federal building.

Yet neither do such people attack without ever giving a hint of the potentially murderous trouble that lurks in their flawed minds.

To the second point, we think schools should make the “lockdown” strategy something nearer the standard rather than one employed only during the rare emergency.

This isn’t to say our classrooms should be turned into prisons.

But the simple act of locking doors, which requires no legal action and impinges on no one’s rights, could save lives.

Although the Sandy Hook tragedy has devolved into a predictable, and predictably polarized, debate over guns, on the positive side of the ledger, everyone abhors what happened.

We hope this universal outrage prompts us as a society to try to deal with this terrible problem in an analytical rather than an emotional, or political, way.

Keeping guns out of schools might well help. But keeping murderers out absolutely will save lives, and that should be our foremost goal.