A4
V IEWPOINT
Hood River News,
Saturday, January 10, 2015
JOE PETSHOW
Publisher/President,
Eagle Newspapers, Inc.
CHELSEA MARR
General Manager
JODY THOMPSON
Advertising Manager
DICK NAFSINGER
Publisher, Emeritus (1933-2011)
TOM LANCTOT
Past President,
Eagle Newspapers, Inc.
KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
Editor
TONY METHVIN
Columbia Gorge Press Manager
DAVID MARVIN
Production Manager
Subscription $42 per year in Hood River trade area. $68 outside trade area.
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
Printed on
OREGON NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
recycled paper.
Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County
Published Every Wednesday & Saturday by Hood River News,
P.O. Box 390, Hood River, Oregon 97031 • (541) 386-1234 • FAX 386-6796
Member of the Associated Press
Je Suis Charlie
“What happened in Paris today is a devastating shock for France, and for the
freedom of the Press.”
These words are from French journalist Catherine Mondoy, former LeMonde
newspaper reporter, in Thursday’s British newspaper Independent, following
Tuesday’s Paris terrorist attack on the people of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
“Just as 9/11 was an attack on symbols of American economic might, the slaugh-
ter at the offices of Charlie Hebdo undermines the country that has long since
embodied the ideal of human rights. Charlie Hebdo’s staff has been threatened
over the years as a result of its famously provocative caricature of the Prophet
Mohammad in 2005 … but nobody expected that words would be translated into
deeds.”
“Je Suis Charlie,” people everywhere are saying. We join in that expression of
sympathy for our brother journalists in Paris. Routinely Charlie Hebdo is being
tagged “the satiric newspaper,” as if the distinction is somehow relevant within
the context of a brutal tragedy. Charlie Hebdo was a newspaper, and its employ-
ees paid the ultimate price for the principle of free expression.
Beyond that, we will let the community of journalists most affected, the car-
toonists, say what needs to be said. Clockwise, from top: Michael Ramirez, Tom
Stiglich, Gary Markstein, Natasha Markovitch of Hood River and John Dering.
O ur readers write
Time for
change
When tragedies like the deaths of
Michael Brown and Eric Garner
and the recent killings of NY police
officers occur, we often retreat to
our ideological corners to sift facts
to fit our preferred narratives.
It should come as no surprise that
police and prosecutors see recent
cases in Ferguson and New York dif-
ferently than minority communi-
ties subject to racial profiling, ag-
gressive policing practices and past
incidents of police brutality.
Policing is a necessary and diffi-
cult task, often performed under ex-
treme conditions. Police officers en-
force policies written by others and
sometimes make mistakes. Justly or
not, convictions of police officers
are likely to remain rare in all but
the most egregious cases.
Trials in ambiguous cases like
Michael Brown are unlikely to alter
feelings of injustice or lead to im-
proved relations between the minor-
ity communities and the police.
There is a desperate need for
more transparency and account-
ability for police interactions with
minority communities. Better
training, more minority officers,
body cameras and more community
policing will help, but will do little
to cure racism, reduce intergenera-
tional poverty, improve education or
increase the life expectancies of
young black men.
The average white male with a
college degree can expect to live 14
years longer than a black male with
less than a high school education.
These are problems not just of race,
but of class and culture. If we truly
belief that black lives matter, these
are the deeper challenges we need to
be talking about.
Government and business can
help make needed changes, but
progress will only come when indi-
viduals, communities, activists and
elected officials move beyond tired
narratives that place blame on oth-
ers and honestly talk about how our
own actions need to change.
Richard Davis
The Dalles
Rescuing our
food
The week before the election in
November, my husband asked me
how our life would change if the
GMO labeling measure passed. I
have been shopping and cooking in-
tentionally for decades. And still, it
was a very good question. Whether
it passed or not, I knew I needed to
continue in changing out our gro-
cery cart, expanding our garden,
and speaking to how our food is
grown and delivered. We know now
that it failed by a very small margin
on a recount. I actually call that a
win. When you consider the money
against the measure, and that it was
a first time to the ballot, it gives me
hope like little has these passing
years, as I watch Earth anguish.
Rick McBee was right when he
wrote that if we really want GMO
free food, we know how to find it.
The difference is those of us looking
for it are the choir. We already un-
derstand. The goal is that if GMO
foods were labeled, it might help
more of us become aware of how
prevalent modified food is. Food de-
signed to tolerate more pesticides,
negatively affecting our environ-
ment. It might raise more voices,
and change the market. Ah, yes,
change the market.
So, as a mother, grandmother,
neighbor, volunteer, coworker, lover
of beauty, I encourage you to think
about how you feed yourselves and
others. It’s not only good for you, it’s
good for our collective future.
Read labels, and buy foods that
don’t come in packages. Love and
pray from your kitchens. When you
open your wallet, think about where
Chelsea Marr
General Manager
CMarr@hoodrivernews.com
Founded in 1905
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Phone: (541) 386-1234
Fax: (541) 386-6796
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Joe Petshow
Publisher
President, Eagle Newspapers
(541) 386-1234
JPetshow@hoodrivernews.com
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Bookkeeper
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Classified Advertising:
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Circulation:
Esther K. Smith
Circulation Manager
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ESmith@hoodrivernews.com
ANOTHER VOICE
your purchase dollars go, and how
they are serving this world. We will,
none of us, be perfect. We need only
think, each day, of the direction we
are going, and make the changes we
can, to steer it into the world we’d
like the following generations to in-
herit.
Beth Hartwell
Hood River
For shame
This past Sunday, while in down-
town Hood River, I parked at a cou-
ple of different locations and it was-
n’t until I got home that I realized
my “Army Mom” magnet from the
back of my car was gone. I would
have thought it had fallen off, but
the fact that my other magnet that
says, “Proud Parent of a United
States Solider” was there, but
turned completely upside down,
makes me think the first going miss-
ing was deliberate as well.
Nobody believes in peace more
than I, but I raised my children to
make their own decisions and do
what they believe they need to do.
So when my first son, and now my
second, joined the United States
Army, I chose to support them and
their choice.
At a time when people are demon-
strating their right to freedom of
speech in the streets of America, I’d
like to think that responsible adults
would be above stealing my freedom
of speech and being disrespectful to
those who would serve our country.
If this was done by a teenager/s,
I’d like to ask them if they enjoy liv-
ing in a country where they can be
free to enjoy a Sunday afternoon,
safe in the knowledge that soldiers
such as my 19-year-old son are a part
of the military force that protects
them.
Whomever did this should be dis-
appointed and ashamed of their be-
havior. I know I am.
Tamara Emler Ball
Parkdale
News:
Kirby Neumann-Rea
Editor
HRNews@hoodrivernews.com
Keystone XL and the
Sherbet Rainbow
L
By EVA BRYANT
ast Tuesday morning, I read
the news on Google. The
new crop of House Repre-
sentatives would be sworn
in that day. Republicans are
now the majority in both houses. I
read the transcript of the speech of
House Speaker John Boehner. He
wasted no time mentioning the im-
minent battle for passage of the
Keystone XL pipeline. He men-
tioned the 94,000 jobs that would be
created. An impressive number, if
you ignore that these would be
temporary jobs. He brought up the
“job killing” oppression of Oba-
macare. Much of the speech was
dedicated to American jobs.
Jobs are a good thing. And so is
health care. And so is a healthy en-
vironment. Doesn’t it seem odd to
you that politicians seem to think
that Americans are corporations?
They seem to forget the Americans
who are children, elderly or ani-
mals. These non-corporate crea-
tures don’t have a say. But they can
tell us a lot, by their mere existence,
and their circumstances. I haven’t
seen adequate analysis of the
cost/benefit equation of the Key-
stone pipeline on arboreal, amphib-
ian, avian, apian or aquatic Ameri-
cans. Have you?
Not to mention the risks, in the
event of a spill, to lands, fresh
water supplies, or the impacts on
the Gulf. Tar sand crude is the dirti-
est oil product there is, and mining
for it ruins vast tracts of country-
side. I don’t know how happy Cana-
dians are with that prospect. Pump-
ing that goo all the way to the Gulf
Coast seems like a ridiculous waste
of energy. This oil is not destined to
be consumed by Americans, by the
way, but sold overseas. How does
that increase our energy indepen-
dence? I won’t pretend expertise on
Trisha Walker
News/Features
TWalker@hoodrivernews.com
the pumping or refining processes,
but they seem expensive and risky,
considering the eventual profit.
What profit? You’d have to ask the
Kock brothers, and the Chinese gov-
ernment.
Later on Tuesday, I attended my
aerobics class. Toward the end of
class the instructor asked if we
wanted to do a little more aerobic
work, or a lot of stretching. I voiced
my desire for stretch, and another
student wanted more aerobics.
While the instructor was still delib-
erating, we agreed on splitting the
time between both activities.
Pleased that we had achieved so
agreeable a result, we high-fived
each other and the instructor
smiled. “See how we’d get things
done if women ran the world?” she
said. I don’t know if all women are
so gifted at compromise, but it does
seem easy to reach peaceful agree-
ment when both parties are clear in
their values, sincere in their mo-
tives.
Now it’s Thursday, and sure
enough, the House voted to approve
the pipeline. President Obama
promises to veto it. In my Aerobic
class, as usual, the bright sherbet
colors and dull industrial black and
grey of our workout wear are a
rainbow in motion to my aging
eyes. I can’t wear glasses in class;
they just fog up. Aerobics is a ca-
cophony of brilliant colors, boom-
ing music, shouted commands, and
hurried feet, each of us doing our
best, yet all of us doing it a little dif-
ferent. My country is like that: Bril-
liant ideas, vigorous activity, the
roar of information, all smeary
with sweat and haste, and every res-
ident, even frogs, doing our best to
keep up. Each one unique and pre-
cious.
■
Eva Bryant lives in Hood River.
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419 State Street
Hood River, OR 97031
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Phone: (541) 386-1234
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