Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, January 15, 2015 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Hunters spark local economy, but could do more We often praise hunting for its cultural value, but not as often for its value in dollars and cents. Hunting Works for Oregon is trying to change that. The newly created organization is based off similar ones in the Midwest, which gather local partners to spread the in the woods. Rules and regulations and paperwork have only grown, too, bureaucracy or take the chance of making a costly mistake, hunters are just packing up and going home. There are also access issues. Some of the best private hunting on rural areas. land, which used to require just a According to a study by handshake and maybe a little gift of the National Shooting Sports whiskey to secure access to, is now being sold at top dollar to guides and annually by hunters their richest clients. in Oregon — about The requirement Hunters spend to take hunter classes, a $248 million a education men, women and necessity in modern children who tote year in Oregon, times, may have much of it in the cut down on the our mountains and meadows. rural parts of the of learning hunting state. money, and money parent or mentor. mostly funneled to The increase in the rural parts of the predators is certainly state, where local economies have another factor, but one we feel often struggled for decades. That includes overshadows the root causes. places like John Day, Wallowa Because the main culprit is habitat County, Malheur County. And yes, degradation, and the urban sprawl here in our neck of the woods, too. that has put more space between us Richard Stapleman, a custom and the wild places where animals boot maker, has had just one local live. customer since he opened his shop Internet and video games and off Main Street in Pendleton. Every fewer young people familiar with the other client has been an out-of- towner, he said, many of whom But neither have hunters in were brought to the area because of some respects. Lewis said many nearby hunting. believe roughly 50 percent of big Stapleman is not alone. game animals killed in Oregon are Tradespeople, small business poached — an awful statistic that owners, retail and service industries shows the ethical hunters are paying just travel to different places than your average tourist and do it during what is often the slowest time of the year. Yet that economic shot in the arm for rural Oregon is in danger. Hunter participation is in steep decline, down more than 15 percent in the last decade alone. Gary Lewis, a member of Hunting Works for Oregon and a television show host, said myriad factors are to blame. Hunting has gotten much more purchasing tags to buying the gas to get to a trailhead has increased in cost. And since the state went to hunters often have to plan ahead secure a tag. No longer can you look out on a bright fall morning and just go hunting. But even with advance planning, the tag and lottery system means hunters many not be able to hunt the places they know best. That decreases their success rate, and later their rate of returning to the sport. The tag system has greatly increased game management, but it has greatly reducing participants and days spent follow the rules. Then there is the conservative political bent that has seeped into hunting — alienating half the country. Many of us know that hunters and anglers are among the most devout conservationists, yet they have pitted themselves against the green movement in many battles. political animosity for the greater good, they have no one to blame but themselves. hunting has just gotten harder. Lewis said success rates in some parts of Oregon have been cut in half or worse, from near 40 percent down into the teens. Hunting no guarantees — but the more successful hunters are the more they want to return. Hunting Works for Oregon has plenty of challenges ahead of it in order to stem the tide and see hunter participation go back on the upswing. We hope they stay out of the political morass and keep their eye We need another giant protest P resident Barack Obama was criticized for failing to attend, or send a proper surrogate to, the giant anti-terrorism march in Paris on Sunday. That criticism was right. But it is typical of American politics today that we focus on this and not what would have really made the world feel seriously confronted. And that would not be a march that our president rulers were not pious enough, Saudi Arabia has redoubled its commitment Thomas Friedman Comment not involved at all. That would be a million-person march against the jihadists across the Arab-Muslim world, organized by Arabs and Muslims for Arabs and Muslims, without anyone in the West asking for it — not just because of what happened in Paris but because of the scores of Muslims recently murdered by jihadists in Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria and Syria. Abdul Rahman al- Rashed, one of the most respected Arab journalists, wrote Monday in his column in Al-Sharq Al- Awsat recent terrorist attacks in France should have been held in Muslim capitals, rather than Paris, because, in this case, it is Muslims who are involved in this crisis and stand accused. begins in Muslim societies, and it is with their support are wearing veils. Look at them today. Many are wearing veils. The open, soft, embracing at night — has been hardened by this Wahhabi wind from Arabia. But U.S. presidents never confront Saudi Arabia about this because of our Jihadist zeal is easy to condemn, but will require multiple revolutions to stem — revolutions that will require a lot of people to shed their ambivilance. has grown into terrorism that is harming people. It is of no value that the French people, who are the victims here, take to the streets. ... What is required here is for Muslim communities to disown the Paris crime and addicts never tell the truth to their pushers. The Saudi government opposes the jihadists. Unfortunately, from Wahhabi Islam to the violent jihadism practiced by the Islamic State. The French terrorists were born in France but were thought through the Web and local mosques — not Voltaire. Also, the other civil war in Islam — between Sunnis and Shiites — has led many mainstream Sunni charities, mosques and regimes to support jihadist groups Shiites. Finally — yet more ambivalence — for 60 years there was a tacit alliance between Arab dictators and their Sunni religious clergy. The regimes funded these uninspired Muslim clerics, and these clergy blessed the uninspired Memri.org.) The truth is there is a huge amount of ambivalence toward this whole jihadist phenomenon — more than any of us would like to believe — in the Arab-Muslim world, Europe and America. This ambivalence starts in the Muslim community, where there is a deep cleavage over what constitutes authentic Islam today. We fool ourselves when we tell of any authentic, inspired, reformist Islam has no Vatican, no single source of religious authority, there are many Islams today. The which is programmed mainly by our schools, television and mosques — especially small one of them, and it has more support than we want to believe. Ambivalence runs through Europe today on the question of what a country should demand of new Muslim immigrants by way Egyptian intellectual Mamoun Fandy wrote in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. (Also translated by Memri. Friedman right when he argues that Europeans adopted multiculturalism precisely because immigrants, and many of those Muslim If so, that spells trouble. ties with Saudi Arabia. Ever since jihadists Because right now hunting means a lot to the Eastern Oregon economy, but it could mean much more. 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. most puritanical, anti-pluralistic and anti-women version of that faith. This Saudi right turn — combined with oil revenues used to build Wahhabi- inspired mosques, websites and madrassas across the Muslim world — has tilted the entire Sunni community to the right. Look at a picture of female though many Muslims wanted it. An authentic reformation requires a free space in the Arab- Muslim world. this system and rebuild it in a way that is In short, jihadist zeal is easy to condemn, but will require multiple revolutions to stem — revolutions that will require a lot of people in the Arab-Muslim world and West to shed their ambivalence and stop playing double games. Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for The New York Times. He became the paper’s foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. YOUR VIEWS Oregon’s systemic problems This governor raised the general fund for Oregon (2013-2015) 13.6 percent. When was the last time anyone received that large a pay raise? We are 42nd in education and he thinks we need more money. Funny thing, Oregon problem. It never happens here. Remember last year when the news was how education was in Oregon? We acquire from the mouthpieces in the valley that all is well and we have improved. Pendleton to pay 52.3 percent of their income to the enrolled in School District 16R. Pendleton is in the average of spending. Schools range is third in nation. The state of Oregon has one state worker for every 42 citizens. How can anyone think we need that many? The federal government only has 12 and they are top-heavy. Also, Oregon gets 36 percent of its money from the federal government. That makes it 12th in the nation for receiving federal dollars. LETTERS POLICY return was free money because there is no Sooner or later, even with state workers There are just too many on the government above states will also implode — does Detroit ring a bell? What we need is better managing. Roesch Kishpaugh Pendleton 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 Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
