Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Publisher
Managing Editor
Advertising Director
I
Opinion Page Editor
went Friday morning to see
“Selma” and found myself watching
it in a theater full of black teenagers.
Thanks to donations, D.C. public
school kids got free tickets to the
OUR VIEW
Martin Luther King Jr.
still holds us accountable
to Constitution’s promise
Slavery was the ticking time
bomb of America’s Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson knew it, when
in the night.” The bomb went off
in the 1860s with the Civil War.
Despite the Union victory and the
13th Amendment, America entered
a long period of Jim Crow laws
that made racial
segregation a fact
of life.
It is still hard
for us in 2015
to imagine an
America in which
blacks traveling in
many states could
life. Just as slavery did not ennoble
the slave owner, segregation
corrupted the white people who
enforced it.
stories about Eastern Oregonians
celebrating the life of King. It might
seem strange for a place that has so
few African-Americans to honor
the life and legacy
of a black man
born in inner-city
Atlanta, but that’s
overlooking King’s
most important
lesson: that every
person’s value is
intrinsic.
As King said
in his “I Have a
Dream” speech, the
U.S. Constitution
and Declaration
of Independence
were a promissory
note signed by our
founding fathers to
every future citizen of the United
States. As a nation we failed to
make good on that promise for
nearly two centuries. Even today
Dr. King’s
message was
not just for
black citizens. His
message was for
all Americans —
and all mankind.
accommodation,
restaurants or
restrooms. Part of
the lore of every
touring group of
black musicians
in the era was
sleeping in their
car. Widespread lynchings also
were a theme.
In a most damnable
manifestation, black World War II
veterans returned to a segregated
nation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
whose birth date we celebrated
Monday, played a pivotal role in
ending that era. His nonviolent
campaigns throughout the South
were captured on television. It led
to a Southern president, Lyndon B.
Johnson, moving a Civil Rights Act
through Congress in 1964. That was
followed by the Voting Rights Act.
King ended a debilitating way of
Truth in cinema
rights instead of putting those who
would withhold them on trial.
Dr. King’s message was not just
for black citizens. His message
was for all Americans — and all
mankind. It was a message about
the basic promise our country
makes to all kinds and classes of
people. That promise of equality is
the central promise of our republic.
King helped us remember it. We
must never forget it.
On the tape of a phone conversation
between Johnson and King the week of
LBJ’s 1965 inauguration, the president
said that he indicated the time was
yet ripe to ask Congress for it, and he
made it clear that they both needed to
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his
think of something that would move
birthday weekend — an effort that
public opinion more than a presidential
was duplicated for students around the
Maureen speech.
country.
“Johnson was probably thinking,
Dowd
The kids did plenty of talking and
at least in part, of the spring of ‘63,
Comment
when JFK was privately saying the
whether there was too much talking
public wasn’t yet politically ready for
and texting. Slowly but surely, though, the
a comprehensive civil rights bill,” Beschloss
crowd was drawn in by the Scheherazade
said. “Then came the May 1963 photograph
skills of the “Selma” director, Ava DuVernay.
of Birmingham police setting dogs against
African-American demonstrators, which
killed in the white supremacist bombing of
helped to move many white Americans who
a Birmingham, Alabama, church stunned
were on the fence about the issue.
the audience. One young man next to me
“Once Selma happened, LBJ was, of
unleashed a string of expletives and admitted
that he was scared. When civil rights leaders
would have an effect on white Americans
are clubbed, whipped
similar to Birmingham
and trampled by white
that would make it
lawmen as feral white
easier for him to get a
onlookers cheer, the
Voting Rights Act from
youngsters seemed
Congress.”
aghast.
In an interview with
In a delicately
wrought scene in which
DuVernay dismissed
Coretta Scott King calls
the criticism by Joseph
out her husband about his
Califano Jr. and other
LBJ loyalists, who said
teenage girls reacted with
that the president did not
a chorus of “oooohs.”
resist the Selma march or
DuVernay sets the
let J. Edgar Hoover send
tone for her portrayal
a sex tape of her husband
of Lyndon Johnson as
to Coretta King. (Bobby
patronizing and skittish
Kennedy, as JFK’s
attorney general, is the
scene between the president and King. LBJ
one who allowed Hoover to tap King.)
stands above a seated MLK, pats him on the
shoulder, and tells him “this voting thing is
DuVernay said. “I’m not a historian. I’m not a
just going to have to wait” while he works on
documentarian.”
“the eradication of poverty.”
The “Hey, it’s just a movie” excuse doesn’t
Many of the teenagers by me bristled at the wash. Filmmakers love to talk about their
power dynamic between the men. It was clear
artistic license to distort the truth, even as they
that a generation of young moviegoers would
now see LBJ’s role in civil rights through
them at awards season.
DuVernay’s lens.
John Lewis, the Georgia congressman
And that’s a shame. I loved the movie
who was badly beaten in Selma, has said that
bridge led to the Obama White House. And,
repugnant. But the director’s talent makes
on Friday night, the president offset the Oscar
her distortion of LBJ more egregious. Artful
dis by screening “Selma” at the White House.
falsehood is more dangerous than artless
Guests included DuVernay, Lewis and Oprah
falsehood, because fewer people see through
it.
its producers.
DuVernay told Rolling Stone that,
There was no need for DuVernay to
originally, the script was more centered on the diminish LBJ, given that the Civil Rights
LBJ-MLK relationship and was “much more
Movement would not have advanced without
slanted to Johnson.”
him. Vietnam is enough of a pox on his legacy.
“I wasn’t interested in making a white-
As I have written about “Lincoln,” “Zero
savior movie,” she said.
Dark Thirty” and “Argo,” and as The New
York Review of Books makes clear about
“Mississippi Burning,” which cast white
“The Imitation Game,” the truth is dramatic
FBI agents as the heroes, or “Cry Freedom,”
and fascinating enough. Why twist it? On
which made a white journalist the focus rather matters of race — America’s original sin —
Denzel Washington’s anti-apartheid activist,
there is an even higher responsibility to be
Steve Biko.
accurate.
Instead of painting LBJ and MLK as allies,
DuVernay had plenty of vile white villains
employing different tactics but complementing — including one who kicks a priest to death in
each other, the director made Johnson an
the street — and they were no doubt shocking
obstacle.
to the D.C. school kids. There was no need to
Top Johnson aide Jack Valenti told Michael create a faux one.
Beschloss, the presidential historian, that LBJ
aspired to pass a Voting Rights Act from his
Maureen Dowd became a columnist on
The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995
boss talked to him about it the night of JFK’s
after having served as a correspondent in the
assassination in the bedroom of Johnson’s
paper’s Washington bureau since 1986. She
house in D.C., The Elms, before the newly
has covered four presidential campaigns and
sworn-in president went to sleep.
served as White House correspondent.
There was no need
for DuVernay to
diminish LBJ, given
that the Civil Rights
Movement would
not have advanced
without him.
Be heard!
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.
Comment online at eastoregonian.com
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YOUR VIEWS
Thank you, Hermiston
It has been my pleasure and my privilege
to have lived my life in Hermiston. I was
born here and grew up with this town. My
only time away was during college years and
my time in the military service. I watched
Hermiston grow and prosper beginning
with farming and irrigation, the locating
of the Umatilla Ordnance Depot and the
construction of McNary Dam being major
factors in its growth.
Easy access to highways and railways,
good schools and a medical community,
including a good hospital, a good city
manager type of government and most of
all good citizens involved in churches, civic
clubs, chamber of commerce, fraternal
organizations and volunteers stepping up
whenever needed have made Hermiston
become what is now, ‘”the largest city in
Eastern Oregon” and the only place I have
ever wanted to live.
Our farming community, our neighboring
and Umatilla, have worked well with us to
create a pleasant lifestyle. I have enjoyed and
take pride in having been involved with the
success and livability of this area of Eastern
Oregon. I will miss being “in the loop.”
Thank you everyone for the good wishes and
kind words.
Thank you Hermiston for just being
Hermiston. “Go Bulldogs!”
Frank Harkenrider (“Harkie”)
Hermiston
Community colleges more
than pay for themselves
The headline “College Won’t Pay for
Itself,” in the January 16 East Oregonian,
was both misleading and incorrect. It was
misleading because the focus of the article
was on the opportunities and challenges
posed by differing federal and state proposals
to make community college essentially
tuition-free for qualifying students. The
headline was incorrect because taxpayers,
students, and society at large have highly
favorable returns on their investments in
community colleges.
A September 2012 report, “The Economic
Contribution of Oregon Community
Colleges,” by Economic Modeling
Specialists, Inc., for the State of Oregon,
outlines these favorable returns. Among
them are higher earnings for students with
associate’s degrees, compared to students
with a high school diploma or equivalent:
the “average income at the career midpoint
of an associate’s degree graduate is $41,600,
36% more than a student with a high school
diploma.”
The report also notes that “higher earnings
that accrue to students of Oregon community
colleges and associated increases in state
income expand the tax base in Oregon by
about $692.9 million each year.” And as
students achieve higher education levels,
they are less likely to engage in behaviors
that cost the state money; the report states
that “Oregon will see avoided social costs
amounting to $32.7 million per year due
to Oregon community college students,
including savings associated with improved
health, reduced crime, and reduced welfare
and unemployment.” Overall, EMSI
reported that for every dollar of their support
“taxpayers see a cumulative return of
$2.30 over the course of students’ working
careers,” and “state and local governments
see a rate of return of 8.4 percent on their
support of Oregon community colleges. This
return compares very favorably with private-
sector rates of return on similar long-term
investments.”
Clearly, community colleges more than
pay for themselves, for individual students,
taxpayers, and society at large.
to counter the direction that our current
president has taken us towards ever larger
and more expensive government. We are
fortunate to have such a representative in
Congress with his background and interest to
represent us and help us to elect Republicans.
Walden a champion of the GOP
elect politicians that may bring us back to the
intentions of our original founders. We need
to encourage people of all ages to participate
Susan E. Plass
Pendleton
Congressman Greg Walden, R-Oregon,
made a stop in Pendleton on Saturday, where
he had a town hall meeting at Blue Mountain
Community College and a reception at
Hamley’s, which I was privileged to attend.
Over the years I have attended many
events where he also attended, which
includes the Dorchester conference, which
is held every March in Seaside. This
gathering of Republicans is attended by
legislators and people from around Oregon
that are discussing current issues. We were
all concerned about ways that the smallest
possible government would take care of our
political needs.
Congressman Walden with visits and
participation at such events over the years has
developed an understanding that government
can help Oregon with management of forests
and agricultural needs. He also is current and
has been chairman of the House committee
that helps elect Republicans, which we need,
process.
Donald Peterson
Pendleton
‘Honorable’ Kropf’s motives
questionable
I saw the paid political ad by the
“Honorable Jeff Kropf (Ret)” against Bill
Hansell. The same “Honorable Jeff Kropf”
who dropped out of his reelection campaign
for state representative in 2006 after learning
his on-air time as a radio host would require
his radio station to grant free air time to his
Democratic opponent.
It appears the “Honorable Jeff Kropf”
has a history of attempting to “buy” his will
locally through free radio time and now in
far off Eastern Oregon through a full page
political ad.
LETTERS POLICY
Carlisle Harrison
Hermiston
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 newspa-
per reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual ser-
vices 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.