Scott Swanson
The Alsea School District generally doesn’t make a big splash on the Oregon news frontier.
But it certainly has turned heads in the last couple of weeks after its School Board voted and its superintendent announced that when students returned to school Monday, Jan. 31, masks would be entirely optional.
This being Oregon, state education officials could not let that go without a vigorous response, which came in the form of a letter letting Alsea know it won’t be getting federal COVID money to which it was otherwise entitled.
COVID has created plenty of discomfort for Oregonians, on both sides of the political spectrum, who find themselves weighing the balance between personal responsibility and freedom, and government-imposed mandates that ostensibly are aimed at keeping us safe, secure and healthy.
What we’ve discovered, of course, is that we can’t have our cake and eat it too. Something has to give.
If we want the security politicians promise, we have to walk their walk and pay the piper. And in Oregon, a lot of residents are doing that, which makes it difficult to start drawing lines in the sand.
Further complicating the situation are the increasing parameters imposed by the judiciary. Courts have already squashed several Biden administration vaccine mandates and more are lined up for review.
On the other hand, people are getting sick. Temperatures are rising. Absenteeism is pandemic. Businesses, schools, churches, social institutions are hurting. Not to mention hospitals.
Hovering over all of this is a looming question: When does the rule of law overrule abuse of authority? That’s what those court cases really center on. And that’s the question that we should all be considering right now, particularly as we move into an election year that will either affirm or reverse the direction our state has been traveling.
COVID has stripped away pretense in our society. We consider ourselves civilized, but the way people have responded to those who don’t see eye to eye with them on this thing is telling. The finger- pointing, the guilt-tripping, the angry, almost desperate tones in otherwise self-confident, seemingly stable individuals as they search for answers and make choices that could significantly impact their lives, tells us we have room for growth here as a society.
The answers aren’t real clear, even now. But what is clear is that, whatever conclusions we’ve come to, there’s room for discussion, for responsibility and yes, even in Oregon, for action.
Which is the road – maybe a hard one – that Alsea has taken.