Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Move forward,
not backward
No one seems pleased with where engaged with the public, tweaking
the Blue Mountains Forest Plan
alternatives but pushing forward
is headed, but back to square one
toward completion.
seems like an even worse direction.
Not one of the current alternatives
It is admirable
makes everyone
that the U.S. Forest
happy, and we doubt
There should that a new one will
Service realizes
the gulf remains
a different
be no debate: bring
wide and that they
conclusion. There
are considering
will still be a burr
the Blue
restarting the process
under the saddle of
Mountains
and creating a new
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preferred alternative.
Forest Service’s
Forest Plan
Yet that moves
range of proposals —
must put the everyone from county
us backward, not
forward, in what
commissioners to
forest first.
has already been a
motorized use groups
decade-long slog
to environmentalists
toward creating a workable plan.
and the timber industry.
We’re usually reticent to move
All of the above squeaky wheels
backward, especially when so much have competing priorities and
time and energy has already been
legitimate concerns, and there is no
expended. And it is hard not to stay
magic plan that will appease them
principled in this instance, despite
all.
the pushback the USFS has received
The Forest Service should trust
to all of their proposed alternatives.
their work, tune out the haters and
At the pace the process was
try to satisfy as many demands as
moving, the Forest Service was
WKH\FDQZLWKRXWVDFUL¿FLQJWKH
hoping to have a plan in place by
health of the forest.
late 2016. Going backward would
And strangely, that is one truth
postpone that by at least a year,
that some interested parties just can’t
probably more.
seem to grasp: the forest plan must
Therefore, we recommend staying SXWWKHIRUHVW¿UVW
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.
OTHER VIEWS
Edible marijuana needs
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(Medford) Mail-Tribune
A Washington state woman who
suffered an apparent overdose after
eating candy containing marijuana has
police concerned, and a state legislator
who heads the committee charged with
implementing legal marijuana in Oregon
has vowed to move slowly when it
comes to approving
edible marijuana
products. Moving
slowly may not be
enough — legislators
should take steps to
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limits on the types of
marijuana “candies”
allowed to be sold in
the state.
Edible forms
of marijuana can
contain extremely
high concentrations of
the active ingredient
in marijuana, posing a hazard to users
inexperienced with ingesting marijuana
and unfamiliar with its effects. Several
incidents of overdoses have been
reported in Colorado, where voters
legalized recreational marijuana a year
ago.
Most concerning is the increase in
cases of children treated after ingesting
edible marijuana products, which
are indistinguishable from ordinary
candy and cookies. In Colorado, at
least 14 children ages 3 to 7 were sent
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for accidentally ingesting marijuana
products, compared with eight in all of
2013 and four between 2008 and 2011.
In the Oregon incident, a 37-year-old
Washington state woman ate three small
gummie candies provided by a friend
who had purchased them in Washington.
The woman was slumped over, pale and
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She refused transport to a hospital and
apparently suffered no lasting effects.
Drug specialists
warn that, while the
effects of smoking
marijuana are quickly
apparent, it takes
much longer for the
effects to be felt when
the drug is swallowed,
so users may eat more
while waiting.
This is an example
of the advantage
Oregon has by being
the third state to
legalize recreational
marijuana. The drug does not become
legal to possess here until July, and
won’t be available for retail purchase
until January 2016. That leaves plenty
of time to craft limits and regulations to
protect consumers.
In the case of “edibles,” lawmakers
should adopt strict rules for appearance
and packaging to keep the products out
of children’s hands, and require detailed
warnings for adults on how to avoid
ingesting too much. There is no need to
allow more than a bare minimum of the
edibles to be sold; the risks far outweigh
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Most concerning
is the increase
in cases of
children treated
after ingesting
marijuana
products.
OTHER VIEWS
Czar Putin’s next moves
Z
URICH — Last March, former
Monetary Fund. Ukrainians had dug
Secretary of State Hillary
themselves into a deep, deep hole
Clinton was quoted as saying
with their 20-plus years of industrial
that Russian President Vladimir
levels of corruption from a series of
Putin’s attack on Ukraine, supposedly
bad governments after Kiev became
in defense of Russian-speakers there,
independent of the Soviet Union. The
was just like “what Hitler did back in
reason for hope is that the revolution
the ’30s” — using ethnic Germans
and latest elections in Ukraine
to justify his invasion of neighboring
Thomas have brought in a new generation
lands. At the time, I thought such
Friedman of reformers, who are rapidly
a comparison was over the top. I
transforming ministries and passing
Comment
don’t think so anymore. I’d endorse
tax and transparency regulations. They
Clinton’s comparison purely for the
are actually welcoming hardheaded,
shock value: It draws attention to the awful
good-governance benchmarks as a condition
things Putin is doing to Ukraine, not to
for Western aid. But if they deliver, we must
mention his own country, whose credit rating
deliver.
was just reduced to junk status.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has been
Putin’s use of Russian troops wearing
traveling across Europe this week in part to
uniforms without insignia
lock in the aid package
to invade Ukraine and to
for Kiev. The U.S. has
covertly buttress Ukrainian
committed its share, but
rebels bought and paid
the European Union is still
for by Moscow — all
balking a bit. Putin’s aim is
disguised by a web of lies
to sow enough instability
that would have made
that the West will hold back
Nazi propagandist Joseph
aid so the Ukraine reformers
Goebbels blush and all for
will fail to deliver and be
the purpose of destroying
discredited. That would be
Ukraine’s reform movement
a shame.
before it can create a
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democratic model that
Soros, who’s been helping
might appeal to Russians
foster Ukrainian reform,
more than Putin’s kleptocracy — is the ugliest told the Davos gathering that “there is a new
geopolitical mugging happening in the world
Ukraine that is determined to be different
today.
from the old Ukraine. ... What makes it
Ukraine matters — more than the war in
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Iraq against the Islamic State, aka ISIS. It is
but engage in executing a set of radical
still not clear that most of our allies in the war
reforms. It is up against the old Ukraine
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that has not disappeared ... and up against a
has a big tribal and sectarian element. It is
very determined design by President Putin
unmistakably clear, though, that Ukraine’s
to destabilize it and destroy it. But it is
reformers in its newly elected government
determined to assert the independence and
and Parliament — who are struggling to get
European orientation of the new Ukraine.”
free of Russia’s orbit and become part of the
Ukraine could also affect the price of oil.
European Union’s market and democratic
The two biggest actors who can shape that
community — do share our values. If Putin
price today are Saudi Arabia’s new king,
the Thug gets away with crushing Ukraine’s
Salman, and Russia’s czar, Putin. If the Saudis
new democratic experiment and unilaterally
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redrawing the borders of Europe, every pro-
price of oil will go up. And if Putin decides
Western country around Russia will be in
to fully invade Ukraine, or worse, one of the
danger.
Baltic states, and test whether NATO will
“Putin fears a Ukraine that demands to
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live and wants to live and insists on living on
will go up. With his economy in shambles,
European values — with a robust civil society Putin’s government is now almost entirely
and freedom of speech and religion (and)
dependent on oil and gas exports, so he’s
with a system of values the Ukrainian people
really hurting with the oil price collapse. The
have chosen and laid down their lives for,”
odds of Putin fully invading Ukraine or the
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Baltics are low, but do not rule out either.
told a Ukraine seminar at the World Economic
Triggering a big geopolitical crisis with
Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
NATO is an easy way for Putin to shock the
The U.S. and Germany have done a good
oil price back up. Putin’s covert Ukraine
job organizing the sanctions on Russia. While
interventions up to now have not succeeded
the Obama administration recently decided
in that. In sum: Today’s oil price will be most
to deploy some U.S. soldiers to Ukraine in
affected by two men — King Salman and how
the spring to train the Ukrainian National
he uses his spare capacity to produce oil and
Guard, I’d support increasing our military aid
Czar Putin and how he uses his spare capacity
to Ukraine’s army now so it can better defend
to produce trouble.
itself from the estimated 9,000 troops Putin
Ŷ
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Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer
Ukraine also needs $15 billion in loans and Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for
grants in the next year to stabilize its economy, The New York Times. He became the paper’s
in addition to its bailout from the International foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995.
Ukraine matters
— more than
the war in Iraq
against the
Islamic State,
aka ISIS.
YOUR VIEWS
Tear down Tamastslikt,
it’s a drain on tribal resources
City council made mistake in
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So Tamastslikt will be installing solar
carports, which will allegedly save lots of
money. I have a money-saving and waste
prevention recommendation: Let’s shut the
place down and raze it. It should not have
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The times I visited the place, it was about
80 percent devoted to the Pendleton Round-
Up. What connection does the rodeo have
with our culture and history? We’ve been here
for a few thousand years, the rodeo 105 years.
The museum is a tremendous drain on our
resources with nothing in return. Whenever
I choose to direct my daily walks in that
area, I see maybe three or four cars in the
visitors’ parking lot! Our endeavors should
have a positive effect on the lives of our tribal
members.
The question concerning bronzes placed on
Main Street should be what really represents
Pendleton’s unique and colorful past and what
bronzes will attract and be more apt to hold
visitors and tourists in downtown Pendleton
for the betterment of our economic health. The
Requa bronze is well deserved but it belongs
at the high school.
I believe the city council has made a
mistake in approving the placement of the
Requa bronze on the most historic site in
Pendleton, the Oregon Trail crossing the
Umatilla River at the present site of the Main
Street Bridge.
If I were on the city council I would rather
admit a mistake and correct it now instead
of trying to justify it over and over and over
again in the future as with the rusty stirrup
now sitting at Main and Dorion.
John Shippentower
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
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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.