OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
T HE
D AILY A STORIAN
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager
Our new governor’s
mixed messages
T
What did Kate Brown mean
and when did she mean it?
his may be the shortest honeymoon on record. One
week after her inauguration, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is
fouling her own nest.
Or she’s letting others foul it for
her. And if you are the state’s chief
executive, subordinates should not
be doing things you say you do not
want done.
In her inaugural address last
week, Gov. Brown said, “...
Throughout my 24 years in public
service, I have also sought to
promote transparency and trust in
government.” And she said, “We
also must strengthen laws to ensure
timely release of public documents.”
Nick Budnick of The Oregonian
reported on Monday that Brown’s
lieutenant, Michael Jordan, has
asked Oregon State Police to
conduct a criminal investigation
into the person who leaked
Gov. John Kitzhaber’s emails.
6HSDUDWHO\KHKDVSXWNH\RI¿FLDOV
of the Department of Administrative
Services on administrative leave.
They were the people who refused
to destroy Gov. John Kitzhaber’s
emails.
The Kitzhaber team, and perhaps
now the Brown team, argued that
Kitzhaber’s personal emails were
GLIIHUHQWWKDQKLVRI¿FLDOHPDLOV%XW
Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week
recently noted that when emails
are sent on government computers,
they are public business and subject
to public inspection.
James Moore, a politics professor
DW3DFL¿F8QLYHUVLW\WROG%XGQLFN
that a criminal investigation is
³RYHUNLOO´ DQG VDLG ³LW FRQÀLFWHG
with Brown’s public statements
embracing transparency.”
Was Gov. Brown’s inaugural
statement written in invisible ink
— designed to disappear within a
week?
In terms of the state’s business,
Kitzhaber’s personal and public
emails are intertwined. The window
those emails have opened into the
Kitzhaber administration tell us just
how the state’s business was being
done. On Wednesday, WW reported
that emails show that Kitzhaber
handed over operational control
of Cover Oregon to his re-election
campaign
manager,
Patricia
McCaig. That is a breathtaking
revelation of Kitzhaber admitting
his own incompetence to run the
state.
By allowing Jordan to conduct
this witch hunt, Gov. Brown appears
to be participating — wittingly or
unwittingly — in the attempt to
cleanse her predecessor’s record.
If she meant what she said at her
inauguration, Gov. Brown should
tell Michael Jordan to knock it off.
EO Media Group File
Cannon Beach Public Works employees Kirk Anderson, left, and Paul Phillips, right foreground, place the
NeCus’ Park sign atop its base near Fir Street in January.
Listening — really listening — is
the only way to learn the message
I MPRESSIONS
B Y
N ANCY
M C C ARTHY
‘W
e are the land. The
stories of our people —
we’re all about the land.’
And so, the tale of the Native
Americans who lived on the North
Coast hundreds — thousands — of
years before pioneer settlers ever
approached began.
It was a standing-room-only
crowd in the Seaside Public Library
community room during the “Listen-
ing to the Land” lecture sponsored
by the North Coast Land Conservan-
cy.
)RUWZRKRXUVZHOLVWHQHGWR'LFN
Basch, the vice chairman of the Clat-
sop-Nehalem tribes, and his wife,
Roberta, who calls herself a “Heinz
Courtesy of the Basch family
´RIWULEDODI¿OLDWLRQV
Through slides showing old pho- Richard and Roberta Basch of the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated
tographs, Dick introduced us to his Tribes spoke at the Listening to the Land talk recently in Seaside.
great-grandfather, Joe Duncan, “who
lived when the land was gone” and Clatsop village once stood.
learning their songs and sharing sto-
took up logging to “keep the family
“We lost a lot of our culture,” he ries. They trade information about
alive.”
said. “We sort of pushed it down be- ZLOG KHUEV DQG ÀRZHUV WKDW FDQ EH
applied as medicine or eaten for
There were other slides, of an- cause it wasn’t accepted.”
nourishment.
RWKHU WULEDO PHPEHU 6LPRQ ¿UVW
he loss of culture may have start-
And, they continue to listen to the
as a young boy in the 1800s, then
ed
as
long
ago
as
1851,
when
land.
as
a
young
man,
who
left
the
North
he Obama bureaucracy open-ended ‘detail’ causing him
Neahkahnie Mountain, Roberta
Coast for 10 years to attend school. Clatsop Chief Tostow signed a treaty
continues
to
sound to leave Austin for Albuquerque As a young lawyer, Simon returned with the federal government; he was said, is “one of the most powerful
a
peculiarly
sour
note for a position with no apparent home and saw how the settlers had clearly not happy about it.
places on Earth” and remains a sa-
When asked why he cred place. Saddle Mountain also is
when it comes to handling duties,” according to PEER, occupied the land of his
was days late arriving revered by the Clatsops.
whistleblowing and other forms an independent organization ancestors.
‘There’s a
“People don’t understand what
to sign the document,
The
settlers,
Dick
of dissent within the ranks of that provides outside oversight
Tostow told the gov- makes us different, why we are con-
said, saw that the land dance of
federal employees. Although federal environmental agencies. “provided everything
HUQPHQW RI¿FLDOV ³:H nected to the earth,” Roberta said.
claims by the president’s harshest “The reassignment followed his people needed.”
energy and were not so very anx-
“We’re sent out to listen,” she
detractors that he is a tyrant are reporting a number of scientific
ious to sell our homes added. “When we’re listening to the
³6LPRQ ZDV WKH ¿UVW
and be driven away like land, we’re forming a relationship
clearly absurd, some behavior integrity concerns, including WR ¿OH ODZVXLWV DJDLQVW color in
by political appointees certainly what he termed a blatantly the federal government every single so many birds as we with the land. … There’s a dance
have heard was to be of energy and color in every single
contradicts the administration’s SROLWLFDO GHFLVLRQ E\ WKH ):6 for return of the land,”
done as soon as we sold plant.”
Dick said, raising his plant.’
public-relations persona as a hierarchy to reverse the staff chin and smiling ever so
This relationship — a way of
lands.”
— Roberta our Although
prime defender of democracy.
recommendation that the dune slightly.
the treaty “connecting with your soul” — she
Basch reassured the Clatsops calls “Indian science.” It’s what
Much attention already has sagebrush lizard, with habitat in
The slides showed
Native American on how
WKDW WKHLU ¿VKLQJ ULJKWV “European science,” which involves
his
grandfather
clam
been devoted to actions by high- the heart of Texas oil country,
they relate to the land
would be protected on experimentation, measurement, hy-
digging
and,
later,
with
ranking appointees designed to be listed under the Endangered
Neacoxie Creek and potheses and proofs, is missing.
family at Indian Beach.
silence workers who provide Species Act.”
“Imagine how powerful it would
)RU PDQ\ PDQ\ \HDUV ,QGLDQ that they would be free to walk along
reporters with information that is
86):' QDWLRQDO 'LUHFWRU children were raised on the beach, at the beach, later they found that new- be if they were matched together,”
“off message” or not in keeping Dan Ashe personally intervened Arch Cape or Hug Point, Dick said. ly constructed fences barred them Roberta Basch said.
“Indian Beach was one of the last from the land they had once occu-
with the administration’s preset to keep the manager in exile
s I left the lecture, I wondered
talking points. But a new report in New Mexico, even after the holdouts,” he said of the area now pied and had fed them.
why so many people had turned
“It’s
hard
to
understand
how
it
re-
part
of
Ecola
State
Park.
“It
was
one
from Public Employees for Whistleblower Ombudsman for
of the last places we had people liv- ally happened,” Dick told us. “How out on a Wednesday night to listen to
Environmental Responsibility Interior’s Office of Inspector ing in a village.”
Dick and Roberta, who are already
it happened here.”
(PEER) focuses on a different General found a pattern of
But with the Clatsop-Nehalem well known on the North Coast. Per-
Another slide showed Dick as a
variety of suppression: Punishing retaliation against the employee. child, at what is now called NeCus’ tribe’s recent participation in the haps it was curiosity. Maybe it was
government
scientists
and An administrative judge ruled Park, which once was the former Canoe Project, the tribe’s smolder- a genuine desire to learn more about
managers who don’t toe the line that “whistleblowing retaliation playground of Cannon Beach Ele- LQJ VSLULW FDXJKW ¿UH 7KH &DQRH the Indians’ history about the land
mentary School. The photo was tak- Project, which required the tribe we all share.
with regard to agency decisions. is tolerated or even condoned” en in 1955, the sesquicentennial cel- ¿UVWWR¿QGDFHGDUORJODUJHHQRXJK
But I hope, in any case, we all lis-
Current allegations surround LQWKH86):6
ebration of Lewis and Clark’s arrival to build a 36-foot-long canoe, then tened closely. And we keep listening.
actions within upper echelons
Whatever the underlying on this land.
That’s the only way healing will
to carve it, brought the Northwest
Even as he described the slide tribes together as they embarked on begin.
RI WKH 86 )LVK :LOGOLIH policy disputes may be, it’s
Nancy McCarthy covers South
Service, especially concerning ridiculous and unacceptable and how he had come dressed for his FDQRH WULSV DORQJ WKH 3DFL¿F &RDVW
Clatsop
County as a reporter for The
to
visit
each
other
and
attend
cele-
Indian
role,
Dick
couldn’t
mask
the
endangered species decisions to punish whistleblowers and
Daily Astorian. She also is the editor
excitement he still felt about that day brations.
in Texas. Actions against a 28- suppress scientific findings.
)URPWKRVHRQJRLQJH[SORUDWLRQV of the Seaside Signal and the Can-
60 years ago when he gathered with
year veteran employee of the
“It is hard to dispute that family and friends on land where a Roberta Basch said, the tribes are non Beach Gazette.
86):6 PDNH D PRFNHU\ RI WKH emerging safeguards against
agency’s Scientific Integrity politicized science are stillborn,”
Policy, which is supposed to Peer’s executive director said.
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici +DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ state.or.us
protect researchers and their ³8QWLO WKHVH DJHQFLHV DGPLW WKH (D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing- Washington, D.C. 20510. Phone:
• State Rep. Deborah Boone
findings from the heavy-handed problem exists, there will be no ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225- 202-224-3753. Web: www.merkley. (D): 900 Court St. N.E., H-375, Sa-
interference that corrupted progress. The first meaningful )D[ 'LVWULFW senate.gov
lem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D): 1432. Email: rep.deborah boone@
federal decisions during the step toward reform would be RI¿FH 6: 0LOOLNDQ :D\
Bush/Reagan years.
removing Dan Ashe as director.” Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., VWDWHRUXV'LVWULFWRI¿FH32%R[
7KH 7H[DVEDVHG 86):6 This recommendation appears 3KRQH)D[ H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 637, Cannon Beach, OR 97110.
5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/
503-986-1431. Web: www.leg.state. Phone: 503-986-1432. Web: www.
manager was placed “on an appropriate.
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@ leg.state.or.us/ boone/
Retaliation against federal
whistleblowers must end
T
T
A
Where to write