Due to a shortage of agenda items, the Sept. 25 Board of Josephine County Commissioners’ weekly business session, held at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass, consisted mostly of requests and comments from citizens and the board’s responses. A common theme among these remarks was an acknowledgement of the great political divide playing out as the November election approaches and the need to turn down the temperature on divisive rhetoric.
After former library district board candidate Mike Pelphrey said it should be illegal for citizens to display yard signs supporting the Harris-Walz presidential ticket, JoCo Democratic Party Chair Eva Avery testified that she and other Democrats in the community have received threats of violence over their political views and some do not feel safe “to display their patriotism.”
“They’re loyal to their party, but they are afraid to put their signs out because somebody’s going to steal them, burn them, shoot them and harass the people that have those signs going in or out,” Avery said. “It’s not a good thing. So the climate and the fear mongering in my opinion, needs to stop.”
Avery also sounded the alarm on threatening messages that if Donald Trump wins the presidency in November, his supporters will enact “retribution” on Democrats.
“What are people going to do about those people who have their Harris sign in front of their house? Are they going to come to our houses? Are they going to beat us? … How can that be condoned in any community?” questioned Avery.
Citizens for Responsible Government organizer Dorothy Yetter, who filed an ethics complaint against Board Chair John West last December alleging he corruptly used his power to enrich himself, condemned the “movement of hate that is brewing in our county,” which she feels the commissioners have not properly “rejected.”
Yetter read a slew of insulting letters and emails she and other Democrats had recently received, coming them such terms as pedophiles, brainwashed, baby killers and twisted. One letter called for the execution of individuals by virtue of their political affiliation.
Former board candidate Mark Jones joined the voices calling for more civil discourse, saying, “We have a lot of churches here in Josephine County, a lot of people that claim to be Christian, yet hate and division is spewing. I mean, I have yet to find anywhere in the Bible where it says love thy neighbor only if they’re the same party as you.”
Meeting frequenter Catherine Austin pointed out her opinion that “discord and division” is being sowed by “rag mag” newspapers like The Daily Courier and Illinois Valley News. She went on to defend the board from their critics: “Many of us residents are keenly aware of the excessive and highly charged attacks upon this Board of Commissioners, primarily Commissioner West. I have come to take this on a personal level because I feel that my values are being attacked as Commissioner West is a representative of them.”
When it was their turn to deliver remarks, the commissioners shared their concerns about the inflammatory political environment that has consumed the nation in recent years.
“Political rhetoric in this country is out of control and it’s both sides,” Commissioner Herman Baertschiger argued. “When I first got into the Legislature, Republicans and Democrats had lunch, went out to dinner and worked together. We always seem to agree on the problem, but somewhat disagree on the solutions. But we came together to work, to find a solution at work. That’s all gone. It’s gone in this country.”
Baertschiger conveyed himself as someone who judges others based on their character rather than politics, recounting the friendship he had with the recently deceased former Oregon State Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat.
“About a year ago was the last time I personally sat down with Courtney, and we had breakfast up in Salem… Democrat and Republican. And the conversation for an hour and a half at that breakfast centered around the rhetoric, and I call it the level of angst in this country. And the only way to solve it is for people to sit down and have a conversation.”
West said he has observed a lot of anger, hurt and madness in the community recently.
“We need to try to come together more as a community and not fight, but the three of us can’t force anyone to do anything,” the board chair pointed out. “I’m almost to the point where I really hate to see elections come along because it divides us as a community. It divides us as a country. And some people take it so far. If you’re sending hate mail and accusing others or saying you want to burn their house down or whatever’s going on, that’s wrong. Totally wrong.”