Salem Political Snark

GOP having Oregon legislature temper tantrums

Long ago, I was the parent of a child who went though the "terrible two's." Temper tantrums were common. Crying fits happened routinely.

So I feel for Democratic leaders in the Oregon legislature. They have to deal with Republicans who are the adult equivalent of immature children.

The worst thing is, my daughter grew out of her terrible two'ness, while Oregon Republicans show no sign of acting responsibly.

Almost certainly they're going to do the walkout thing again in this legislative session, thereby denying the 2/3 quorum that the Oregon constitution insanely requires for doing the people's business in the state House and Senate.

(A majority of members present is a typical quorum requirement.)

Oregon Republicans are acting like national Republicans. Unable to appeal to a majority of voters in this state, they're choosing to behave like wanna-be autocrats instead of making their policy positions more palatable to citizens. 

Usually a minority party aspires to becoming the majority party. 

But that takes work. You have to grasp what turns voters off about your party. For example, professing fervent loyalty to Donald Trump isn't a recipe for electoral success here in Oregon.

Yet Republicans in this state are still stuck in the muck of what Trump spread during his four undistinguished years as president.

Their newest trick, which actually is an old maneuver for them, is demanding that bills be read aloud in the Oregon legislature before being voted on. I guess that made sense in the 1800's, which is why it's in the state constitution. 

However, as an Oregonian story says, times have changed. 

Oregonians who tune in to the state House’s Tuesday floor session will hear a new voice, enlisted by Democratic leaders in response to Republican delay tactics and COVID-19 cases at the Capitol.

A computer will take the place of state House clerks, who faced the task of reading bills — some of them hundreds of pages long — aloud because minority Republicans have insisted upon it.

None of the bills scheduled for a vote in the near term are hugely controversial, but refusing to waive the state Constitution’s bill reading requirement is one of the few power moves available to Republicans, who hold 23 seats in the 60-member House, as they try to change or block parts of Democrats’ agenda this session.

...The requirement to read bills aloud before final House and Senate votes comes from Oregon’s original 1859 Constitution but in practice Democrats and Republicans routinely waive the mandate in order to save time.

The full text of bills is available on the Legislature’s website, the Oregon Legislative Information System. People can also watch committee meetings and floor sessions on the website, as the Capitol is currently closed to the public.

It's amazing how hypocritical Oregon Republicans can be. The Oregonian story quotes Republican Leader Christine Drazan as saying that Democrats “do not get to control everything.” 

Well, actually they do. Or at least, should, since voters have given Democrats healthy majorities in both the state House and Senate.

In a democracy, the majority rules. So if you want to rule, you need to become a majority. Like I said, this takes work -- and Oregon Republicans aren't willing to do what it takes to accomplish that.

So political temper tantrums are the childish way the GOP is acting out in the state legislature. They're demanding that Democrats give up on progressive priorities, even though when Republicans controlled Congress, they made zero substantive efforts to reach out to Democrats. 

Likely Oregon Republicans will be walking out of one or both legislative chambers before too long. This is akin to my daughter turning over the Monopoly board and yelling "it's a tie" when I was about to bankrupt her.

It took her a while to completely let go of temper tantrums, but even so, she did much better than the Oregon GOP.

U.S. has most mass shootings because we have most guns

Atlanta, Georgia -- eight dead. Boulder, Colorado -- ten dead. 

It's an all-too-familiar ritual, counting how many have been killed in the latest round of mass shootings that are unique to the United States.

There's no doubt why our country has so many more mass shootings than comparable countries. We have way more guns than they do. 

A 2017 New York Times story tallied up the mass shooting death toll in various countries from 1966 to 2012.

When the world looks at the United States, it sees a land of exceptions: a time-tested if noisy democracy, a crusader in foreign policy, an exporter of beloved music and film.

But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America’s fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings?

Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.

These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion.

The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns.

So common-sense gun control is by far the best way to reduce both mass shootings and other types of shootings. 

President Biden is calling for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as an expansion of background checks. 

That's a good start, though Biden also needs to take a strong stand on doing away with the Senate filibuster if he wants any gun control legislation to get through Congress and arrive on his desk for signing.

Chris Hayes had some great observations about our country's over-the-top obsession with guns on his MSNBC show today. 

One was that gun sales skyrocketed in 2020, after being at a high level for many years. If guns keep people safe, as the NRA and other gun extremists wrongly claim, then gun deaths should have been dropping as gun sales increased.

But the opposite has happened. 

The more guns there are in the United States, the more gun deaths we suffer. Which makes perfect sense, since people rarely kill other people (or themselves) with their bare hands, a knife, or whatever. They kill with a gun.

Someday our country will embrace common-sense gun control.

Maybe this will require expanding the Supreme Court to add justices who understand that the Second Amendment doesn't forbid reasonable restrictions on gun ownership. Nothing should be off the table.

We owe the victims of gun violence nothing less than an all-out gun control effort to ensure that their lives haven't been lost in vain.

Salem Police performance audit has weaknesses

Tomorrow night, March 15, the Salem City Council will have a work session on the draft performance audit of the Salem Police Department (SPD) that was prepared by a consulting firm.

Here's the PDF file.
Download Hillard Heintze Report for the City of Salem Oregon - 03-08-21 copy

The consultants' report is nicely written and clearly laid out. But I've got some problems with it. 

My main concern is on page 9:

Although a formal, detailed staffing analysis was not part of the scope of our assessment, we noted the number of sworn officers and the total number of SPD employees has not kept up with the growth of the city's population.

Well, I'd argue that not only wasn't a "formal, detailed staffing analysis" what the consulting firm was asked to do, there's no evidence that any sort of staffing analysis was requested by the City of Salem. Here's what the report says in that regard.

The City of Salem identified several community concerns involving the Salem Police Department (SPD). The City and the community want to understand how the SPD prepares for and interacts with unsheltered individuals and individuals experiencing behavioral health crises. Additionally, the City sought more information about the SPD's plans and responses to assemblies, permitted protests and demonstrations, and impromptu crowds.

Yet in several places through the report there are mentions of how a supposed lack of police officers makes it difficult for the Salem Police Department to perform various functions. 

Logically, this makes no sense.

The report uses a very crude figure of police officers per 1,000 population as the basis for concluding that the SPD doesn't have enough officers.

This is akin to someone doing the same for dentists without asking some basic questions about the need for dentists in an area. Is the water supply fluoridated? What is the demand for various types of dental services? 

I'm also reminded of how the State of Oregon reacted when I used my own money to buy a personal computer (Apple II+)  in the 1980s to use in my work at the State Health Planning and Development Agency.

When I asked to have the agency purchase a personal computer, the State Information Technology folks said that centralized mainframe computers were what the state wanted agencies to use -- which turned out to be a stupendously shortsighted conclusion.

I mention this because determining how many police officers are needed in Salem depends on the desired future of the Salem Police Department, not the past. 

In a Facebook comment on a post about the performance audit, Levi Herrera-Lopez made some excellent points.

In my opinion, the major findings of this report are that the SPD doesn't have a strategic plan; data collection is also very poor; SPD is not representative of the community so it needs to be more diverse; needs to improve it's relations with communities of color and the LGBTQ community; needs to improve; that their response to the protests was poor, specially in the beginning; and that the SRO [school resource officer] program was not following the national model, and was harmful to the relationship with the community. That's HUGE. So, people should engage still with City Council to make sure the report doesn't get dumbed down to "more police officers".

The performance audit makes dozens of specific recommendations regarding needed improvements in how the Salem Police Department functions. 

So how is it that the consultants were able to conclude that the department needs more officers when so many inefficiencies and deficiencies are pointed out in their report?

Doesn't it make sense for the Salem Police Department to implement the report's recommendations, including development of a Strategic Plan, and only after that has been accomplished assess whether it has too few, too many, or just enough officers to carry out its mission?

Here's part of what the new Police Chief, Trevor Womack, said in a recent Salem City Club presentation -- an excerpt from my blog post about his talk. 

Womack said that his assessment of the Salem Police Department (he's only been chief for about 90 days) will be informed by the performance audit requested by the City Council last year.

The questions he'll be asking include: What are we doing well? What could we do better? What should we stop doing?

He said that while it is likely the performance audit won't contain any surprises, there's value in having outside eyes take a look at the police department. 

Womack will try to implement all of the performance audit recommendations. 

Oa a related note, he said that a strategic plan will be worked on during the second half of 2021, with a completion date of January 2022. 

He observed that sometimes process is more important than the outcome in such an effort. He'll be seeking input both from his officers and the community at large. Goals, objectives, and measurement metrics will be part of the strategic plan.

Lastly, I found it strange that the performance audit report was so vague about a central concern of many people: whether Salem Police Department officers showed favoritism toward armed "militia" members during a curfew when Black Lives Matter protests were occurring in the downtown area. 

The report says:

One stakeholder expressed concern that during a recent protest, some SPD officers told some protesters of color that they needed to leave the area but allowed protestors from alt-right movements to stay. They believe the police treated them differently because of their identity.

Latino community members echoed these concerns and expressed that SPD officers treat protesters from the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups differently than protesters of color. We did not investigate these claims as part of our assessment; however, even the perception of this being true should concern the SPD.

Wow.

The consultants didn't investigate the claims of Proud Boy/white supremacist favoritism by Salem Police Department officers even though a video of this appearing to occur made national news and led to a lot of outrage here in Salem.

This deliberate oversight calls into question how rigorous the consultants were in assessing the performance of the SPD. And that mention of "even the perception of this being true" seems to show that the consultants didn't take seriously the concerns of people of color.

Latinos Unidos Siempre wins school resource officer fight

Congratulations to Latinos Unidos Siempre (Latinos United Always) for succeeding in their battle to have School Resource Officers -- police -- removed from Salem-Keizer schools.

They're celebrating on their Facebook page.

We have won!! After 25 years of resisting the school to prison and deportation pipeline today we have made a huge stride into being closer to abolishing it. The School Resource Officer contract will not be renewed thanks to the work of youth leaders in Latinos Unidos Siempre and to the many community members who have supported and fought alongside us.

 

During the March 9th Salem-Keizer School Board Meeting, Superintendent Christy Perry announced her decision to not renew the School Resource Officer contracts between the school district and the Salem and Keizer Police Departments as well as the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, effectively removing all School Resource Officers (SROs) from schools.

 

Though historic, our work does not end with this win. Unfortunately, during the board hearing the superintendent and school board directors continuously emphasized that they believe there is still a role for police in schools. This is wrong.

 

Police traumatize, criminalize, and harm us. We will not stop our work until we have genuinely police free schools. We know that we are still far from realizing our vision for the types of schools our young people deserve. We seek the absolute abolishment of the school-to-prison-and-deportation pipelines.

 

In 1996, students of color came together in Salem to combat the racist profiling they were experiencing by their schools and local law enforcement. For 25 years, youth have fought through LUS. For 25 years, many have fallen victims to this system. Many of us have parents, siblings and friends who cannot get their lives back. Many of us are still being thrown into this system.

 

This victory is in honor of all of the youth who have fallen victim to the school to prison and deportation pipeline and in honor of today's youth who continue to resist. Our ancestors live through us!

It's inspiring to see these young people speaking truth to power with such persistence.

 

They've had to face a Salem-Keizer School Board with a majority of right-wing members who don't reflect the diversity of our community.

 

Yet in the end, police have been removed from schools, as the Latino students and others demanded. Hopefully this won't be a temporary victory, but a permanent one. 

 

Our local police departments now have more officers available for duties that are actually desired by the people they serve, which clearly wasn't the case with the School Resource Officer program.

 

The Salem Reporter has a story about this, "Salem's former school resource officers will be permanently reassigned after district declines to renew contracts." Excerpt:

Eight Salem police officers who used to patrol local schools will be permanently reassigned to patrol and emergency call response, Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack said Wednesday.

 

The officers haven't been at local schools for nearly a year because of the shift to online classes last spring.

 

Now, they won't be coming back as schools reopen. Superintendent Christy Perry said Tuesday night that the Salem-Keizer School District would not renew its contracts with local law enforcement agencies to station officers in schools.

 

The district previously had contracts with the Salem Police Department, Keizer Police Department and Marion County Sheriff's Office to station 11 officers in middle and high schools across the district. Eight of those officers were Salem police.

The Statesman Journal also has a story, "Salem-Keizer Superintendent Christy Perry ends school resource officer contracts." Excerpt:

School resource officers will not be stationed in Salem-Keizer Public Schools for the foreseeable future.

Superintendent Christy Perry announced Tuesday during the Salem-Keizer School Board meeting that she will not renew SRO contracts with local law enforcement for the remainder of this year or next.

The district's most recent contracts expired in June of 2020. With continued community conversations, unclear accountability between the school board and superintendent, and closures from the pandemic, the decision of whether to renew moving forward stayed in limbo for several months.

...Activists with Latinos Unidos Siempre, known as LUS, have been advocating locally against the "school-to-prison pipeline" for more than 25 years.

Since June of 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's death, dozens of people have spoken at Salem-Keizer School Board meetings, and hundreds have signed petitions to remove officers from area schools.

Testifiers have shared personal experiences or pointed to statistics showing how students of color, students who are low-income and students with disabilities are disproportionately likely to be given suspensions and expulsions, have school-related arrests or be put into juvenile detention. 

Jesse Lippold and Kathy Goss are school board hypocrites

Don't be fooled by what school board members Jesse Lippold and Kathy Goss said in today's front page Statesman Journal story, "Salem-Keizer School Board election process considered discriminatory by some."

The story is about a proposal to have school board members elected by people who live in one of seven zones, rather than by everyone in the Salem-Keizer school district. 

This would make school board elections similar to Salem City Council elections. The person running for office would have to live in the zone they are seeking to represent, and only residents of the zone could vote for that person.

Lippold, who is going by Jesse Lippold Peone now, favors that change to the election process. OK, good for him, as that change makes sense.

Not good is the hypocrisy shown by Lippold and another school board member, Kathy Goss. Here's quotes from the Statesman Journal story. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.

Lippold Peone said under this system, candidates would focus on campaigning to about 20,000-30,000 people from their own neighborhoods, instead of 200,000 across Salem and Keizer.

"You'd have better relationships with the schools in your area, with the parents in the area, because you can spend your time knocking on the doors of your neighbors and not on the doors of people most likely to vote off a list given by a political organization," he said.

...Member Goss argued in January that zone voting would create more special interest groups and go against the statewide directive for elected officials to work for the interests of the entire population they serve. 

Wow. Hypocrisy on display.

Lippold says he doesn't want a political organization involved in campaign door-knocking. Goss says she's worried that zone voting would lead to the involvement of more special interest groups.

Yet in 2017 the school board election campaigns of Lippold and Goss were backed by Oregon Right to Life, a highly political special interest group. 

Here's the evidence that I included in my April 2019 blog post, "Oregon Right to Life trying to take over Salem-Keizer school board."
That photo came from a July 2017 Oregon Right to Life blog post where this special interest anti-abortion, anti-Planned Parenthood organization celebrated the school board victories of Jesse Lippold and Kathy Goss (Marty Heyen already was on the board.)

Here's the rest of the Oregon Right to Life blog post. Keep it in mind when you've voting for Salem-Keizer school board members in the May 2021 special election. As before, I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.

Pro-life voices on school boards are important for several reasons. Not only do school board members affect education policy, they become community leaders with influence beyond their offices. Most importantly, their efforts keep Planned Parenthood away from our children.

On May 16, pro-lifers made a difference in several school board elections. Here are the highlights:

* In the past few years, the Salem-Keizer School District, Oregon’s second largest, allowed Planned Parenthood employees into children’s classrooms. The contract ended, but we’ve been concerned about it being reinstated. Apparently, voters were as well because they rejected a Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon board member who ran for school board. Instead, pro-life candidate Kathy Goss won this seat!

* Also in Salem-Keizer, 21-year-old pro-lifer Jesse Lippold beat a candidate with more experience.

* These victories were only possible due to the strong turnout of pro-life voters in both parties. In Salem-Keizer, pro-lifers returned close to one-third of all ballots, with over 20 percent of those coming from Democrats.

* Across Oregon, pro-life candidates were elected in other school districts. Several defeated incumbents, while others were reelected to continue their good work.

These victories prove that more are possible. Last year, Dennis Richardson shattered the myth that a staunch pro-lifer can’t win a statewide election in Oregon when he became Secretary of State. Pro-life victories in school board elections show the state that the pro-life vote matters on a local level.

The best way for you to help us expand on these victories is to identify pro-life school board members who need Oregon Right to Life PAC’s support and other members who need to be challenged. It’s never too early to prepare for future victories!

New Salem police chief says right things in City Club talk

Trevor Womack is the new chief of police in Salem, succeeding Jerry Moore, who retired. Today Chief Womack talked about his plans for the police department in a Salem City Club Zoom meeting.

I came away impressed. 

There was little, if anything, that I could criticize abut what Womack said either in his initial presentation or in the following lengthy Q&A period.

And believe me, I'm not shy about criticizing City of Salem officials when I feel like they deserve it.

Right off the bat, I liked Womack's openness when he spoke about his background and family life. He said that he has a wife and five children, two biological children and three step-children.

His wife is still in Stockton since some, or maybe all, of the step-children are in high school. Womack said that they may decide to stay with their father, or they might decide to come to Salem.

I thought it was great to be so frank about some sensitive details of his life. Having been divorced myself, when my daughter was a senior at South High, I know how difficult it can be for step-children to adjust to a re-marriage of a parent. 

Turning to his policing philosophy. Womack shared this slide, which encapsulated how he sees his job.

He said that fighting crime while building trust is the core of his philosophy.

Smarter policing means using data and evidence-based approaches. Principled policing means character and community engagement.

Womack said that his assessment of the Salem Police Department (he's only been chief for about 90 days) will be informed by the performance audit requested by the City Council last year.

The questions he'll be asking include: What are we doing well? What could we do better? What should we stop doing?

He said that while it is likely the performance audit won't contain any surprises, there's value in having outside eyes take a look at the police department. 

Womack will try to implement all of the performance audit recommendations. 

Oa a related note, he said that a strategic plan will be worked on during the second half of 2021, with a completion date of January 2022. 

He observed that sometimes process is more important than the outcome in such an effort. He'll be seeking input both from his officers and the community at large. Goals, objectives, and measurement metrics will be part of the strategic plan.

A questioner suggested that the department could have two tracks, one less militarized, almost like counselors. Womack agreed that police should be removed from situations that don't need a traditional police response.

Asked about dealing with homeless people, he said that this is an extremely complex situation with no easy answers. The lack of a sobering center makes the job of police officers more difficult. 

I asked about how steadily declining crime rates nationally and in Salem affected how he looks at the role of police officers, suggesting that perhaps this points to the need for more crime prevention efforts and community policing.

Womack gave a pleasing response, not all of which I can remember since I was trying to listen to him while also scribbling in what turned out to be largely indecipherable handwriting of mine. 

One point he made is that crime rates have been dropping while citizen attitudes about the legitimacy of police have been declining. So fighting crime isn't the end-all of policing if it erodes trust in police.

In response to another question, he said that trust-building never ends for a police department, adding "Communities who need us the most often trust us the least."

Regarding Salem Police Department training, Womack said that it is high quality.

He went on to say that additional training areas could include racial healing, trust building, community engagement, and implicit bias -- a term that I was pleasantly surprised to hear a police chief use, though maybe I shouldn't have been all that surprised.

Asked what the most pressing crime is in Salem, Womack said "violent crime." More needs to be learned about the cause of it: drugs? gangs? domestic violence? other factors? He also mentioned serious property crimes such as break-ins.

Lastly, when asked if the department is making recruitment presentations in high schools, he replied "yes," noting that he looks forward to being able to do this in-person rather than via Zoom.

My overall impression was that Womack is a straight-shooter, though I probably should think of a different term to praise a police chief. 

He didn't shy away at all from probing questions, even seeming to welcome either implied or more explicit criticism of his department.

I got much the same feeling from his predecessor, Chief Moore, but I think Womack has a more modern and less institutional outlook on policing than Moore did, who sometimes could come across as defensive when people critiqued actions of his officers.

So good start, Chief Womack. 

Risky business: Salem companies that politicize Covid

The Salem Reporter has a story about the Glamour Salon owner deciding to call it quits.

Glamour Salon, owned by Lindsey Graham, has reached out to the city of Salem about terminating the lease at its current location at 195 Liberty St S.E., according to Clint Dameron, the city’s real property services manager.

...In May last year, Graham publicly reopened her salon in violation of Gov. Kate Brown’s orders intended to slow the spread of Covid.

Following the move, Graham was lionized by business owners and others who’ve argued the governor’s orders went too far, making appearances on right-leaning media, including Fox News. She also created a Facebook page called “Lindsey Graham-Patriot Barbie” she’s used to lambaste the governor and pandemic restrictions placed on businesses. She also created a website to sell Patriot Barbie branded apparel.

But her brazen reopening caught the attention of the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Administration, which issued the business a $14,000 citation for putting workers at risk. Graham was also criticized after armed individuals showed up to protect her salon amid racial justice protests last summer.

The Glamour Salon isn't the only Salem business that has brazenly defied Governor Brown's Covid orders. 

John Miller, the owner of Courthouse Club Fitness gyms, kept his clubs open during a period when they were supposed to be closed. That stunt has cost Miller $126,000 in fines, though he is appealing the OSHA decision.

And recently Enlightened Theatrics broke Covid rules by holding in-person performances of Les Miserables that exceeded the allowed audience, along with serving indoor food and drinks, another no-no.

I guess these Salem businesses figure that doing their part to protect people from dying or becoming ill from COVID-19 is less important than making money. 

Sure, they couch their decision to flaunt Governor Brown's Covid orders as a matter of freedom and of giving their customers what they want. 

But it's difficult for me to see their actions as anything else but selfishness. Here's how I put it in my post about Enlightened Theatrics going its own way by ignoring Covid restrictions. 

Thus it sure looks like Enlightened Theatrics has decided to follow in the footsteps of Courthouse Club Fitness -- risking a fine in order to stay open. 

What's disturbing in both cases goes beyond the danger to patrons by ignoring Oregon Health Authority guidelines that are designed to prevent Covid infections.

When Enlightened Theatrics decided to put on the in-person performances, it essentially said to other theatre companies, movie theaters, and in-door entertainment venues, "Ha-ha, you're closed and we're open! We've got enough money to pay a fine and probably you don't! You're a goody-goody who complies with Covid regulations and we're an outlaw who goes our own way!"

Well, I don't think Enlightened Theatrics should be proud of that attitude, just as I don't think Courthouse Club Fitness should be proud of racking up over $100,000 in fines as it stays open while other gyms in extreme risk counties remain closed.

These businesses are willing to take the risk that people in Salem are willing to forgive and forget their decision to put money ahead of keeping their customers safe.

Maybe that's a risk worth taking. I don't know how much Salemians know or care about what those businesses did.

All I can say is that I'm not able to look upon Courthouse Club Fitness and Enlightened Theatrics in the same way. Which saddens me in a way, because I was a Courthouse member for many years and have enjoyed quite a few Enlightened Theatrics' shows.

Glamour Salon is different.

I had no idea they even existed until Lindsey Graham's antics came to light. It sounds like her plan is to move to a red state where her politics will be a better fit.

Goodbye, Ms. Graham. You won't be missed.

Oregon is failing seniors with flawed vaccine rollout

I'm 72. My wife is 71. We've fortunate to be fully vaccinated with two Pfizer shots owing to some unusually lucky circumstances. 

It irks me, big time, that Governor Brown and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) have decided to make our state a leader in failing to prioritize seniors for immunization. 

Oregon is one of only a few states that decided to vaccinate teachers before seniors. Back on January 16, I wrote about this stupid decision in "Outrage: Oregon seniors to get Covid vaccine after teachers."

This is a hugely irresponsible decision that is going to cause many old people to die. 

According to the Oregon Health Authority, those 60 and over comprise 17% of Covid cases in the state and a whopping 91% of the Covid deaths.

Yet Brown said at a press conference that I watched via You Tube that children are suffering from distance learning and need to get back into in-person instruction as soon as possible.

Hey, Governor, you know who else has been suffering?

The 1,600 Oregon seniors who have died from Covid, many of them isolated from loved ones in a hospital bed, unable to say goodbye other than, maybe, via an iPad held up by an ICU nurse.

Children have their lives ahead of them. Seniors are nearing the end of their lives. Children can recover from learning problems during this pandemic. Seniors who die from Covid are gone forever, no second chances.

It's now March 1. Time to check on how many seniors 60+ have died since Governor Brown and the OHA told them to get in line behind teachers for their Covid shot. 

Answer: 414, given that a OHA web page now shows 2,014 deaths in the 60+ age group.

As noted above, in mid January 91% of Covid deaths were of people 60+. Today the pecentage is exactly the same, 91%. The Governor's misguided policy has resulted in no benefit to the age group most at risk of dying from Covid-19.

Here's more evidence that the decision to make seniors wait to be vaccinated is appallingly bad, research reported in "Prioritizing oldest for COVID-19 vaccines saves more lives, years of life."

Challenging the idea that older people with shorter life expectancies should rank lower in coronavirus immunization efforts, new UC Berkeley research shows that giving vaccine priority to those most at risk of dying from COVID-19 will save the maximum number of lives, and their potential or future years of life.

The findings, published Feb. 25 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, address the ethical dilemma of who should be first in line for a limited supply of vaccine shots amid a contagion that so far has killed 500,000 in the United States and 2.4 million globally.

“Since older age is accompanied by falling life expectancy, it is widely assumed that means we’re saving fewer years of life,” said study lead author Joshua Goldstein, a UC Berkeley professor of demography.

“We show this to be mistaken,” he added. “The age patterns of COVID-19 mortality are such that vaccinating the oldest first saves the most lives and, surprisingly, also maximizes years of remaining life expectancy.”

Recently the Portland Oregonian editorial board referred to seniors being subjected to a "Hunger Games" competition for scarce vaccines.

If seniors aren't skilled at using a computer to search for immunization sites with openings to get a shot, they're at a big disadvantage. 

Today the 65-69 age group became eligible for a Covid vaccine, joining older seniors in Oregon. Yesterday a neighbor told me she was going to stay up until 12:01 am in an attempt to sign up on the Salem Health My Chart system. 

(She's a Salem Health patient.)

Here's what she told me this afternoon in a text message, after I asked if she was successful in getting an immunization appointment.

Nope, not yet! I went into Walgreens and talked to the pharmacist and he said that our group is more savvy on searching online for appointments than the older ones before us and we are a large group as well so it might be hard to get appointments at first. (Not you!) He said go on several times a day and there should be some appointments soon. So I am doing My Chart and Walgreens at this point. 

Follow-up texts from her: The last 3 times I logged into the Walgreens site, the scheduling segment said, this site is not available at this time. I think it has been overloaded and has crashed, because before it just said no appointments are available... It has changed again on Walgreens site I just checked. Now it just says appointments unavailable without even getting into the sign in area.

Perusing Facebook today, quite a few newly eligible seniors were saying that they struck out on finding a vaccine appointment. 

For example, here's a exchange between two people that popped up on my Facebook feed today.

Comment: Ones ability to game the system should not be part of healthcare... but it is. I was on an unrelated site when I saw two strangers talking about going over to the Fairgrounds and winding up vaccinated. I went there the next morning and I am now two weeks post-2nd shot.

Reply: You're not alone, many others got walk-in shots. I made the mistake of believing them when they said vaccines were by appointment only. Silly me. I also thought there would be at least a county-wide appointment calendar where you could look and see where appointments were available.

The good news is, more vaccines are coming to Oregon and the nation as a whole, thanks to the competency of the Biden administration and vaccine producers.

The bad news is, it shouldn't be so damn difficult for seniors, or anybody, to figure out how to get a shot. Every state is handling vaccinations differently. And within each state, counties often have different procedures.

In an ideal world, seniors would have been the next priority for immunization after front line health care workers. And those seniors should have been able to schedule a shot appointment easily and quickly.

I realize that we don't live in an idea world. It just bothers me a lot that Oregon has done such a poor job of vaccinating seniors so far.