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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, October 27, 2015 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Where urban/rural divide is widest We have often used this space to imagine why people in the country highlight aspects of the so-called keep guns, country people don’t rural/urban divide. understand why someone in the city, At least in broad terms, people where danger seems to lurk around in the country differ politically, every corner, would not. economically and culturally from That’s not to say there aren’t areas people in the city. No place is this on which rural and urban Americans divide probably wider agree. No one wants to than on the subject of see people slaughtered Guns are a in mass shootings. guns. People in rural and no one objects to part of life in And urban areas hold all keeping guns out of the kinds of opinions about the country. hands of criminals and guns. It would be all the mentally ill. too easy to reduce the We can all agree arguments to stereotypes. But there that “something” should be done to is clear research showing that there reduce violence. If only it were as are distinct differences in how rural simple as passing another gun law. and urban residents generally view In the wake of the recent shooting guns. at Umpqua Community College in A report released in August by Roseburg, President Obama and the Pew Research Center, based other politicians have suggested in Washington, D.C., documented increasing background checks the urban-rural differences. Of on gun buyers and tightening the people living in urban areas, 60 GH¿QLWLRQRIVHOOHUVZKRQHHGIHGHUDO percent believe it’s more important ¿UHDUPVOLFHQVHV to control gun ownership and 38 All well and good, but these percent believe gun rights should measures would not have prevented take priority. The results are reversed Christopher Harper-Mercer, the in rural areas, with 63 percent saying student who killed nine people and gun rights are more important. wounded nine others, from obtaining Guns are a part of life in the his guns. Nor would they have country. They are a common prevented other recent shootings. tool made familiar to many rural Rural sensibilities are wary residents years before they are old of actions that are expedient and enough to drive. They are used for designed to advance a broader policy sport — target shooting and hunting. on guns without addressing the They are used to dispatch predators problem of imbalanced, violence- and varmints that plague farms and prone perpetrators. ranches. The vast majority of gun In locales where police are few owners are responsible, peaceful and far between and help is not and law-abiding. They believe as readily available, guns are kept absolute the right for individual gun ready for self defense. ownership enshrined in the Second Guns are respected, but not Amendment and upheld by the feared. They are a part of rural Supreme Court. culture, but not the focus of it. Guns And when they understand that, are certainly not a distinct culture urban gun control advocates will onto themselves. know everything they need to know While many in the city can’t about guns in the country. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. Correction: Fred Bradbury’s op-ed “Reorganized downtown association has new priorities for Pendleton” (Page A5, Oct. 24) included a breakout box that was incorrect. Bradbury said the association is “supporting the Farmers Market plan to move” from its current location on Main Street, but the Pendleton Downtown Association does not necessarily want the Farmers Market to relocate. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. What family really means M y friend Elli has never given by social conservatives — as a drift birth, never adopted, never away from morality, a sad surrender to taken primary responsibility an anything-goes ethos. for an infant, a toddler or an But the truth is more complicated adolescent. and less somber than that. %XWRQWKHIDUVLGHRIVKH¿QGV The prevalence of divorce, herself playing the role of mother. unmarried cohabitation and single At the beginning of each school SDUHQWLQJLQSDUWUHÀHFWVODXGDEOH Frank year, she’s likely to be helping one of advances in the way we regard women. her college-age boys move into his Most of us no longer encourage them Bruni Comment freshman dorm. At the end, she’s at a to be economically dependent on men; commencement, beaming as another most of us no longer expect them to RIKHUER\V¿QLVKHVKLVIRXU\HDUVDQG suffer in subservience when husbands receives his diploma. are emotionally or physically abusive. The boys are from Zimbabwe, where That’s a change we should build on. It’s not Elli has spent extensive time over the past turpitude. It’s enlightenment. decade and where she met many poor, bright Most of us understand, in a way we once teenagers determined to study in America. didn’t, that there are men who will never She not only guided them through the know full romantic and sexual love with a DSSOLFDWLRQDQG¿QDQFLDODLGSURFHVVEXWDOVR woman, and there are women who will never UHPDLQHGRQHRIWKHFHQWUDO¿JXUHVLQWKHLU experience that with a man. lives. Was society better off when we denied And they became essential to her. They’re that and trapped gay and lesbian people in always calling and emailing. She’s always heterosexual marriages that brought joy to calling and emailing back. neither spouse and were They consult her about constructed on a lie? the summer internships 'LGVRFLHW\EHQH¿WIURP in their sights; they marginalizing gay and FRQ¿GHLQKHUDERXW lesbian people? new romances. And on Those are rhetorical holidays, they converge questions. Or at least they at her house to be fed and should be. fussed over. My own parents %\DQ\GH¿QLWLRQRIWKH remained married until word that matters, she and my mother’s death at 61, her kids are a family. and my three siblings and And they kept coming to mind as I read I are active, integral, cherished parts of one about a gathering of more than 250 Roman another’s lives. Whenever I write about that, a Catholic leaders in Rome over the past three few readers and a few friends will invariably weeks for what’s been called the Synod of compliment me on our closeness, rightly Bishops on the Family. recognizing that it requires time, generosity, The bishops have been examining such ÀH[LELOLW\IRUJLYHQHVV issues as whether the church should relax its But I’m more impressed by families who censure of divorce and remarriage, whether are bound by choice rather than blood. For all it should be more welcoming to unmarried that I’ve learned about family around my own couples, whether it should open its arms to Thanksgiving table, I’ve learned as much by the children of same-sex parents. A report is watching people without dependable parents, expected this weekend. caring siblings or nurturing spouses forge In The Times on Wednesday, my colleagues clans of a different kind. Laurie Goodstein and Elisabetta Povoledo I saw this happen time and again in the described the synod as “the most momentous, 1980s and early 1990s, when AIDS ravaged and contentious, meeting of bishops in the 50 gay America and many sufferers found years since the Second Vatican Council, which themselves abandoned by relatives, whose brought the church into the modern era.” religions prodded them toward judgment The church has made minimal progress LQVWHDGRIFRPSDVVLRQ)ULHQGV¿OOHGWKDWJDS since. If it’s still stuck on divorce, it’s still rushing in as saviors, stepping up as providers, stuck in the past. signing on as protectors. Where families were And if its discussion of virtue and rectitude absent, families were born. is rooted in the architecture of a family and And I see this throughout the unpredictable, the labels its members wear — married, XQWLG\ZRUOGEH\RQGWKHFRQ¿QHVRIWKH unmarried, straight, gay — it’s focused on the synod and the concerns of Catholic bishops, wrong things and missing the boat. It’s seeing who often seem more interested in dictating family in terms that are much too narrow and the parameters of sex than in celebrating the having a conversation that’s much too small. boundlessness of love. Are most Catholics even paying attention? Only sometimes is a family a mom and a We in the media are drawn to these dad under the same roof as biological children doctrinal wars and the hushed, cloaked produced without the assistance of in vitro deliberations inside the Vatican. fertilization (another Catholic no-no). People in the pews are less rapt. The Always a family is a troop that marches warmth and respect they feel for the current across the messy, majestic landscape of life pope doesn’t translate into any obeisance to with greater strength than any lone individual church edict. can muster. According to a survey by the Pew Research Only sometimes does a family share Center this year, only 1 in 3 American chromosomes. Catholics believes that it’s sinful to live with a Always it shares commitments. romantic partner outside of marriage. Only 1 Elli has made and maintained one to her in 5 believes that it’s sinful to get a divorce. boys, whose aspirations and accomplishments While 44 percent of the respondents in that she routinely relays to me, in a voice poll frowned on sexual relations between two brimming with a very familiar, poignant kind men or two women, 39 percent didn’t. of pride. And while respondents clearly viewed a I asked her once how strangers react to her family headed by a father and a mother who involvement with them. are married to each other as the ideal, most “They like to see me as Mother Teresa,” of them did not view it as the only acceptable she said. situation. More than 80 percent were OK with And she laughed, because she’s no nun and divorced parents, single parents or unmarried no saint. parents living together. More than 65 percent But to my mind, she’s a mother. were OK with gay or lesbian parents. Ŷ That openness to a variety of arrangements Frank Bruni has been op-ed columnist for is sometimes described — by religious leaders, The New York Times since June 2011. I’m more impressed by families who are bound by choice rather than blood. YOUR VIEWS News from Pendleton leaves onlooker feeling satirical Comparison to John Day and Coos Bay doesn’t bode well Late breaking news: In an expected move, the city council has voted to permanently ban all forms of marijuana sales within the city limits. Citing the inability of voters to make any rational decision, the inability of city staff to compose a simple enforceable city ordinance, and the abundant supply of opiates such as oxycodone available at local pharmacies, councilors felt that WKHPHGLFDOEHQH¿WVJDLQHGE\WKHVDOHRI PHGLFDOPDULMXDQDFRXOGQRWEHMXVWL¿HG The permanent ban puts medical marijuana sales right there with death and taxes. City manager feels this action will send a message to those darn recreational pot smokers to switch to alcohol, meth, or even WREDFFRRUPRYH&RXQFLOGHHPVSUR¿W sharing program offered by state not needed with expected windfall from utility fee and proposed gas tax. Rumors: Dedicated dog run planned under Bedford Bridge. The same unreliable source has uncovered an alleged plot to replace horse poop with dog poop under the bridge. Experts report poop produced with PDA-approved processed dog food produces a better aroma and is more pleasing to the eye, some resembling Tootsie Rolls. This is expected to be a major draw for tourism. This just in: The updated city transportation plan was presented to a standing room-only crowd by the Angelo Planning Group. The 29-page document now includes not only instructions on how to get from point A to point B in Pendleton, it includes points C, D, E, and F. These unsubstantiated stories provided by your on scene reporter. Robb Corbett: What you failed to mention in your letter to the editor (Other cities struggle with gas tax dollars too, EO, Oct. 24) is that you chose Coos Bay because it is one of the worst — or the worst town besides us — in Oregon for its city infrastructure problems. They are not willing to put their citizens at risk by putting heavy taxes on everything. Why don’t you give us a complete breakdown on Pendleton’s budget? Please remember that there are several other assets to our budget that maintain our roads, not just the gas tax revenue. Then look around Pendleton and tell me you’re spending that revenue money on curbs and sidewalks. I will use your comparison with Coos Bay but only opposite. Hermiston is growing by leaps and bounds, yet their water and sewer is far less than ours. Even their garbage bill is far less than ours. Their streets are better than ours DQGEXVLQHVVHVDUHÀRXULVKLQJ The city not only deserves but has a right to an accounting right down to the last nickel of where that $1.2 million in gas taxes are going. Until then you are just spewing rhetoric. There are a lot of towns in Oregon that are doing way better than us in every way with a balanced budget and reasonable taxes. Pendleton leaders need to quit passing the buck and quit riding the backs of our citizens. Excuses will not make Pendleton healthy and neither will heavy taxing. Proper money management and innovative thinking will. In addition I suggest everyone read the East Oregonian article titled “Lawsuit, unbuilt projects checker Makad’s past.” This should open peoples eyes to how Mayor Phil Houk, Corbett and city council are spending our money and making unwise decisions on businesses that should not come to Pendleton. Rick Rohde Pendleton Chris Hallos, Pendleton