Letter to the Editor for Feb. 15, 2022

Published 2:00 pm Monday, February 14, 2022

Recent letters to the editor written in support of Baker County United (BCU), make me wonder if its supporters really know what their organization is all about. The following information is based on my considerable personal interaction with person(s), who purport to speak for BCU.

BCU first came to my attention on the morning of Oct. 4, 2021, when I received an email from a friend saying, “This was on our doorknob this morning.” Attached to the email was a very colorful flyer titled “Community Call to Action.” A sub-headline pleaded, “Operation Boston Tea Party, Withhold Your Property Taxes!” I ran right out and sure enough, the same flyer was hanging in a plastic sack from my doorknob.

The flyer informed readers, “Letters with over 300 signatures have been sent to Baker City Council, Attn. Mayor McQuisten, Sheriff Travis Ash, and the Baker County Commissioners.” Near the bottom of the flyer was another sub-headline, “Stand United For Medical Freedom!”

Ah, hah! I thought, this is all about opposition to Governor Brown’s vaccine mandate. That mandate requires that all persons working in health-related professions be vaccinated for COVID-19.

With my interest piqued, I set about trying to find out who the leaders of BCU are. The 8½ x 11 flyer had not one word about who composed the flyer and/or who paid for printing and distribution of the flyer. But the flyer says “the movement” has a website: BakerCountyUnited.org; and an email address: BakerCountyUnited@protonmail.com.

With that much information I thought surely I’ll be able to find out who the leaders are. But, nope. Checking out the website, I arrived at the home page, where there’s a paragraph declaring, “WHO WE ARE: Baker County United is a fast growing group of citizens making a concerted effort to ensure that our elected representatives are held to the expectations of their constituents.” The declaration continued, “It is the responsibility of all of us to reject and replace those who are neither willing nor able to do that.” Elsewhere on the website is this statement: “Desperate times call for what some may consider desperate measures.”

I wanted to find someone to talk to about those demands and especially what “desperate measures” the organization has in mind. But nowhere on the website is there the name of anyone who might answer my questions.

At least the website gave itself a name, “Operation Boston Tea Party,” defined as “a movement started by Baker County United wherein citizens of Baker County withhold their property taxes due in the fall of 2021, and set them aside.” The theory behind the movement appears to be that if enough citizens withhold paying property taxes, local officials will be forced to accede to the demands of the movement. (We all know now what a bust that campaign ignominiously suffered.)

Inquiring at the Courthouse, I obtained a copy of a letter from “We the People of Baker County” dated Sept. 17, 2021, addressed to all three Baker County Commissioners: Bill Harvey, Mark Bennett, and Bruce Nichols. The letter is not signed. Instead, attached are two pages of signatures and addresses of Baker County citizens totaling 56, all signed on 9-17-2021, presumably meaning that not one of all those signatories wanted to take responsibility for the content of what I refer to as a demand letter. (That’s like the Declaration of Independence being signed by “Anonymous.” But Thomas Jefferson and several other courageous patriots proudly made their authorship known.)

The BCU declaration continued, “We insist on your commitment to standing by our emergency responders affected by the mandate to receive the covid injections. We require of you … to retain the employment and services of these employees regardless of their decision to comply or not comply with Governor Brown’s injection demands.”

I find the movement’s intentions reminiscent of Baker City Council’s Resolution last year declaring Baker City a Sanctuary City, whereby City Council encouraged businesses not to abide by the state mask mandate (but with a footnote City Council would not pay their fines).

Having not yet found a person to query about Operation Boston Tea Party’s leadership, I sent an email. Thus began a series of correspondence with a person who — surprise, surprise — would not identify himself/herself. After several email exchanges with this anonymous person, I started addressing my emails to “KKK,” since he was hiding his identity under his pointy white hat, like Ku Klux Klan members did early in the 20th century. I told KKK that I consider anonymous correspondence as irresponsible and cowardly. But considering the content of his emails to me, one can readily understand why he did not want his or her identity known. Following is just one sample email from KKK to me.

“You apparently hate yourself because the KKK were democrats as well as Hitler. Those are your people, Gary, so if you hate them so much why act like them? This is typical radical communist behavior. You project onto others the very thing you are doing. Small minded little men troll others because they have too much time on their hands. Please get a few more boosters for us too. Natural selection works great on godless people.

“The jab has already affected your little brain. You are too insignificant to even think that your behavior has any affect on us. You and sleepy, commie, Joe can go back to your basement. You having your double N95 masks, gloves, and hoodie proves our point. If people don’t have your small communist mind then you and your Klan Democrats that hate liberty, god and country, have little snowflake meltdowns and go to the democrat Herald to air your little tamper tantrums when you don’t get your way. That mentality lost the civil war and WWII, so keep that in mind, comrade. God Bless, Signed 80 million Trump voting patriots who win elections while your Third Reich cheat, steal, and spit on everything that made America Great Again, party will always be losers. P.S. If you come on Private Property the owner can have you removed if you keep behaving like an ass. Your intentions have been made clear so everyone is watching you.”

I certainly hope that members of Baker County United would not want emails like that representing their movement. Especially concerning is KKK’s comment that the mentality of Democrats “lost the civil war and WWII.” Makes me wonder if we’ll soon see members of BCU parading down Main Street waving Confederate flags.

So, who wrote that email? I think he left a clue. Right after I sent an email addressed to KKK, thanking the organization for inviting the public to attend the upcoming rally to be held at 6 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2021, I expressed my intent to attend the event.

Shortly after hitting send, I got a phone call from Jake Brown, owner of the large building at 3325 K Street, the rally’s venue located across K Street from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office. Jake Brown told me I was not invited and was not to set foot on his property. So much for the organization’s invitation to the public to participate. Why does Jake Brown consider this 82-year-old Democrat so intimidating?

I encourage everyone to send an email to BakerCountyUnited@protonmail.com to see if you can find out who its leaders are. If anyone with the answer wishes to contact, my email address is tubingen@eoni.com and phone number is 541-523-6760.

Gary Dielman

Baker City

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