East Oregonian : E.O., January 27, 2015, Image 4

Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, January 27, 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
Huge carbon load
is coming our way
:HLQWKH3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWKDYH export facility. Terminals create
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watched with some complacency
while making oodles of money
in recent years as oil trains have
for investors. This
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creates a bipartisan
faraway places
groundswell of
and ships have
Summing up
support in the
disgorged
north Oregon
corridors of power in
petroleum cargoes
and fuel on
and Washington Salem, Olympia and
Washington, D.C.
previously pristine
schemes to export
It is questionable
shores. Reporting
whether
ordinary
by the Seattle-
coal and natural citizens get
anything
based Sightline
gas, we could be out of these plans,
Institute reminds
the exception
us that we have
transporting five with
of eventual trickle-
already suffered
some serious oil
times more carbon GRZQEHQH¿WVIURP
general funds.
spills and had
than the Keystone state
We certainly face
numerous near
more risk, both
misses. We also
XL Pipeline.
from spills and from
face a future that
an increasingly
includes proposals
unpredictable climate and ocean.
for an astonishing amount of
It’s easy to lose track of just how
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often we’ve narrowly dodged what
Summing up north Oregon and
could have been catastrophic spills.
Washington schemes to export
Sightline reports an overall survey
coal and natural gas, we could be
WUDQVSRUWLQJ¿YHWLPHVPRUHFDUERQ here: tinyurl.com/pssvh23. In the
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than the Keystone XL Pipeline.
occasions when ships or barges got
• Two new oil pipelines would
into trouble in the Columbia estuary
be capable of carrying more than
or near enough that they could have
1.1 million barrels per day, enough
ended razor clamming, oystering and
to emit 199 million metric tons of
other key resource-based industries
carbon dioxide annually.
on the coast.
• Eleven oil-by-rail facilities at
There are limits on what we
UH¿QHULHVRUSRUWWHUPLQDOVFRXOG
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move 858,900 barrels per day,
proposals. But at a minimum, we
enough to emit 132 million metric
should be prepared to comment on
tons of carbon dioxide each year.
them and to exert pressure on elected
These fossil fuel plans win
political support, even here in
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the environmentally conscious
and accountability. Corporations that
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Northwest. Visible opposition can
be dangerous: Witness Catherine
risks. They must insure that avoiding
Mater’s summary dismissal from the VSLOOVLVWKHLU¿UVWSULRULW\DQGWKDW
Oregon Transportation Commission response plans are effective and
after she voted against a coal-
fully funded.
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.
A
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s the world contemplates
Obama has changed health care in a
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country that lags far behind the rest of
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the world in access. He’s overseen an
please allow me one last moment of
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undiluted sports delirium. I live in
apocalyptic predictions of his enemies,
Seattle, where, at least for a while,
and would be the envy of any European
the sky is always blue, trees are
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blossoming early, all children are not
Mitt Romney, who’d be taking a victory
only above average but get into the
Timothy lap with the kind of numbers Obama has
college of their choice, free. We are a
generated on his watch.
Egan
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Consider Idaho, arguably the reddest
Comment
after the most are-you-kidding-me
state in the union, where Republicans
experience my hometown
control everything but a
has ever been through.
handful of latte stands. After
He said it’s the
To recap: With a little
much bluster and protest,
more than three minutes to
Idaho politicians caved and
fourth quarter of
go in last Sunday’s NFC
set up a state health care
his presidency,
championship game, the
exchange under Obamacare.
Seattle Seahawks were
To the surprise of the experts,
“and I’m going
trailing Green Bay 19 to 7.
Idahoans have embraced the
At that point, according to
private coverage available
to
play
offense.”
the odds crunchers, the team
under the Affordable Care
He’s decided to
had a 1 percent chance of
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ZLQQLQJ²SHUFHQW
enrollments of
be Russell Wilson successful
The Seahawks promptly
any state,” as Kaiser Health
scored two touchdowns in
reported.
after throwing four News
44 seconds. They recovered
Obama was in Boise on
an onside kick, converted a
Wednesday, speaking to a
interceptions.
two-point Hail Mary, won
crowd of more than 6,000
the coin toss to get the ball
people at an event where all
¿UVWLQRYHUWLPHDQGVFRUHGWRSXWWKHPLQWKH tickets were gone within an hour. “Now there
Super Bowl.
are 10 black people in Idaho” was one of the
Sports metaphors crowd the language of
tweets from Boise.
politics, usually for the worse. John McCain’s
The president was fully energized, jocular,
pick of an uninformed demagogue, Sarah
SULPHGIRUDVWURQJ¿QLVK$KDQGIXORI
Palin, was supposed to be a “game changer.”
protesters held up the usual hate posters, one
Desperate campaigns look for a “knockout
comparing him to Hitler. But it did not escape
punch,” or make a “swing for the fences.”
notice that his motorcade passed a Shell station
My favorite is President Barack Obama’s
selling regular gasoline for $1.77 a gallon.
description of Joe Biden’s endorsement of gay
To the west, in the eastern Washington
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district of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers,
little bit over his skis.”
people represented by this robotically
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doctrinaire leader of the Republican House
and the lesson beyond pro football: It’s not
have signed up for Obamacare coverage at a
DERXWWKHPLUDFOHLW¶VDERXWWKH¿QLVK2EDPD rate far beyond the national average.
has been sleepwalking through the middle part
To the east, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio told
of his presidency. The brutal midterm electoral a group of Montana Republicans last week
crushing, with Republicans gaining their
that they would be crazy not to embrace the
largest House majority since Herbert Hoover,
president’s program of health coverage for the
slapped him from his stupor.
poor. “I gotta tell you, turning down your money
No longer does he care about pleasing the
back to Montana on an ideological basis, when
insiders, or playing nice with the opposition, or people can lose their lives because they get no
conforming to the expectations of a lame duck. help, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” he said,
He said it’s the fourth quarter of his presidency, in remarks reported by the Great Falls Tribune.
“and I’m going to play offense.” He’s decided
Nearly every proposal in the State of the
to be Russell Wilson after throwing four
Union address polls with majority approval,
interceptions.
nationwide. The great issue of the early 21st
Many have written him off. The reliably
century is how to elevate a stagnant middle
dyspeptic Charles Krauthammer said the epitaph
class. When 80 people hold the same amount
of the Obama presidency would be: “He couldn’t of wealth as 3.6 billion of the world’s poorest,
govern, but he sure knew how to campaign.” And that equation of inequality can catch the
yes, little of what Obama proposed in his State
attention of even the most heartless.
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So, to the end game, in Idaho, Kansas and
dead zone of Congress. Just 5 percent of his 2013 beyond. “It’s amazing what you can bounce
SURSRVDOVEHFDPHODZ²DQGWKDWZDVEHIRUH
back from when you have to,” Obama said
Republicans gained the Senate.
last week. He was quoting from a Minneapolis
The president’s proposals “are so out of
woman, invited to the speech, but it sounded
touch you have to ask if there’s any point to the OLNHDPRWWRIRUKLVODVWWZR\HDUVLQRI¿FH
speech,” said Reince Priebus, chairman of the
The president is playing for a legacy. He
Republican National Committee.
won’t get much of it this year, or even next. But
But if you look beyond capital gasbags,
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and consider the big ideas in Obama’s speech,
of the last two months, the United States will
you can see the inevitability of his philosophy.
resemble the country he envisioned Tuesday
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night. Long odds make for better endings.
paid maternity leave, making college more
■
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Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a writ-
popular across the political divide. They’re
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mainstream anywhere but the fundraisers
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Reince Priebus presides over.
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YOUR VIEWS
There’s more to education
than preparing for a test
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 Managing
Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.
Very concerning to me is how my children
spend their time at school.
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of the amount of importance we place on
standardized testing. On Mondays, aside
from a 30-minute special, the children spend
the entire day on language arts and math. On
Tuesdays through Fridays, they have a total
of 30 minutes for social studies, science, art,
health, technology, etc.
The short time spent on science and social
studies becomes reading. There is no time for
exploration, no hands-on experimentation, no
engaging of children’s hearts and minds in the
sheer joy of learning.
Not only are the subjects laid out by
minutes, but teachers are told how to spend
WKRVHPLQXWHVVSHFL¿FDOO\²PLQXWHVRQ
this, 15 minutes on that, etc.
Pendleton students are not taught for the
enjoyment of learning. They read to take a
test; they do math to pass a test. Everything
they do, everything they experience is there
to help them pass a test. We have essentially
made childhood into a competitive race.
There is so much riding on the test; why
would a teacher feel safe teaching anything else?
What happens to the child who for whom
reading is a struggle, but would make a great
engineer or scientist? What happens to the
future artist who isn’t a good test taker? With
nothing at school to interest them, they begin
to hate school and want to quit. Nothing in
their schooling will endow them with a sense
that there is something bigger out there. They
learn in order to pass a test, not to use their
minds.
When the test is so important that
it changes the structure of the day, it’s
destructive for children. Two-thirds of
Pendleton students are going to fail the SBAC
this year. If the test was just taken one time
in their lives, and they spent enough of the
school year feeling successful at other things,
it probably wouldn’t matter. But when a child
is told year after year they are a failure, they
see themselves as failures. Where is the good
in that?
Together, we can let teachers get back
to the art of teaching. Let’s treat them like
the professionals they are, with degrees,
experience, and unique talents. Let’s give
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all of our children, and really do what’s best
for Pendleton students.
Suzanne Kennedy
Pendleton