Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, April 3, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
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It feels like we unload this kick every year, but the county continues to
struggle in the bottom rungs of the state when it comes to health rankings.
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a quarter don’t exercise. Teen birth rates are almost double the state average
and the percentage of uninsured residents is high, too.
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has solvable problems that it still hasn’t overcome, including a smoking rate
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Why do we in northeast Oregon
struggle in these metrics?
We like to think of rural areas as more
active and in shape — we’re out building
and rebuilding fence until the sun
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weekends and eating tomatoes from the
garden all summer long. Unfortunately,
for many of us that is an outdated
stereotype.
Some of it has to do with a lack of
health care advisors and specialists, and
a lack of healthy food options when the watermelons and local greens aren’t
ripe. Also, it is no surprise that many of Oregon’s most unhealthy counties
have large American Indian populations — Klamath took the top spot. Large
percentages of tribal populations across the West have health issues that
have not been seriously tackled. Now is the time to do so.
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down on. So let’s make it a summer plan to walk more and drive less, throw
out those cigarettes for good, wear our seatbelts and cut down on red meat.
Then we’ll live up to our handsome cowboy and cowgirl mystique.
If a good percentage of the county takes up our challenge and Umatilla
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and let you return the kick next year. In fact, start training now (High
knees! High knees!) and we look forward to being on the receiving end of a
powerful wallop come next spring.
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doesn’t think those drummers and
woodwinders and brass blowers are
anything less than the optimal highlight
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They were making music on the
streets of Pendleton as early as 1911,
but disbanded for more than 50 years
in the middle of the century. They got
back in the swing in 1985 and have been
merrymaking every year since.
The dozens of bandmembers come
from all walks of life and from towns
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They even tour the region, playing at
rodeos and fairs and parades and spreading the good name of the Pendleton
Round-Up.
They deserve the grand marshal accolade as one of the authentic aspects
of Pendleton Round-Up week. Now, play yourselves out!
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
Public should have access
to police body cameras
(Medford) Mail Tribune
Oregon lawmakers are considering
a bill that would standardize the use of
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and strictly limit the public release of
the video recordings. Those limits are
reasonable for the most part, but when
a recording involves the use of force by
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release the video, not restrict it.
Police use of deadly force against
citizens, armed and unarmed, is an issue
of growing concern, and lawmakers
across the country are grappling with
how to respond to those concerns while
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their jobs and protecting the public at
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with body cameras that take video
recordings of their interactions with
suspects and others.
The Oregon measure, House
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departments to use the cameras, but
sets out guidelines if they choose to do
so. Among other things, departments
using cameras would have to require
the camera to be turned on as soon
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reasonable suspicion that a crime had
been committed and leave it on until the
police action was complete, and retain
the recordings for at least six months.
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recordings from disclosure under public
records laws except in two narrow
instances: If the recording was part of
a court proceeding or if it involved the
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interest required its release.
Elements of court proceedings
already are public records, and ought
to remain so. The desire to protect the
privacy of individuals who interact with
police is understandable, and most of
the recordings likely would be of little
interest to anyone not directly involved.
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especially when injury or death results,
releasing the recording should be
presumed to be in the public interest,
not subject to the discretion of the
department.
There is already an exemption
for records involving active police
investigations, and that would certainly
apply when the use of force is being
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concludes, the recording should be
released.
We would add a third instance when
a recording should be a public record:
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misconduct, even if the matter does not
become a court case. The public has a
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conduct themselves on the job, and
anyone questioning that conduct should
be able to request a video recording of it.
Just as trust in government is
strengthened when government records
are available to the public, trust in
law enforcement will be improved if
recordings of police conduct are not
hidden from public view.
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.
Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of
residence and a daytime phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave.
Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
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it counted on Obamacare
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against Obamacare has been
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was a lucrative seat on the board of
Obama’s years in the White House.
directors of the hospital giant Tenet
For them, and probably a majority
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against the passage of the Affordable
and was paid more than $2 million
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for his services between 2007 and
it have been so important because: A)
last year, when he resigned to run for
Byron
they strongly oppose the substance of
president. Tenet strongly supported the
York
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Comment
Obamacare as the best way to resist
enormously from it.
the president’s overall expansion of
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government.
near-silence on Obamacare was the result
That the struggle has so far been a losing
of his place on the Tenet board. “Absolutely
one has not changed the fact that conservatives QRW´0LOOHUVDLG³+HIRUFHIXOO\DGYRFDWHG
require their presidential candidates to have
against it in board meetings, to the point that it
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bubbled up in public. When asked about it, he
Recently a well-known conservative
was very clear that he was in opposition to it.”
activist, recalling the GOP effort to stop the
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article in 2014 — years
don’t remember him being
after Obamacare became
there when we were doing
law — which reported:
everything we could to
“Tenet’s chief executive,
derail Obamacare.
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“A big vulnerability
had made no secret of his
for the governor, when
objections to the health
the debates start, is to
care overhaul at company
remind us again, where
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were you during the battle
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over Obamacare?” noted
understood the difference
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between ‘personal views
of the conservative group
and what is best for the
American Values. “I don’t recall much (from
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him) during those years. I don’t think not
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being a veteran of those wars is a plus for Gov. million in new earnings for Tenet.”
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2010, as Obamacare made its troubled way
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WKURXJK&RQJUHVV%XVK²DUHVSHFWHGIRUPHU headed to the president’s desk for signature
two-term Republican governor of Florida with ²%XVKVSRNHRXWIRUFHIXOO\DJDLQVWWKH
solid conservative credentials — remained
new law. Appearing on Fox News, he called
mostly silent about the biggest public policy
Obamacare a “major overreach” and a “huge
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new entitlement” and a “massive tax increase”
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that would “play out in the future by giving
WRXFKHGRQWKH$IIRUGDEOH&DUH$FWZHUHIHZ up our own freedom and put it in the hands
DQGIDUEHWZHHQ,Q0DUFKIRUH[DPSOH of government.” With the 2010 elections
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an op-ed calling for conservatives to be the
uprising against this government takeover of
“loyal opposition” in the face of far-reaching
our lives.”
Democratic initiatives. He added: “Simply
It was a tough, far-ranging indictment —
opposing the massive encroachment of
delivered the day after the bill had been safely
government into health care won’t solve the
passed into law.
problem of affordability of health insurance
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for many Americans.”
money for, or endorsed several Republican
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candidates who advocated repealing
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2EDPDFDUH²DPRQJWKHP-LP'H0LQW
&DQWRUDQG0LWW5RPQH\RQD³OLVWHQLQJWRXU´ Pat Toomey, Rand Paul, Rob Portman, Raul
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learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little Fallin, Nikki Haley, Scott Walker, and others,
bit and to not be nostalgic about the past. You
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can’t beat something with nothing, and the
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other side has something. I don’t like it, but
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they have it and we have to be respectful and
Obamacare. In a late 2013 appearance on
mindful of that.”
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That’s pretty much it for 2009 and early
its core.” This month, in Iowa, he called it a
DVWKHKHDOWKFDUHEDWWOHUDJHGRQ&DSLWRO “monstrosity.”
Hill.
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³+HZDVQ¶WLQ&RQJUHVV´%XVKVSRNHVPDQ the line, and Republicans were gathering
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their forces in a desperate attempt to stop
former governor was doing in 2009 as far as
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Obamacare was concerned. “He did not have
Ŷ
a very big footprint as a guy on the cable news
Byron York is chief political correspondent
circuit in the years after he left the governor’s
for The Washington Examiner.
In a desperate
attempt to stop
Obamacare, Jeb
Bush mostly held
his tongue.
YOUR VIEWS
Still plenty of questions about
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A few days ago there was a letter to
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Partnership. Our own Senator Wyden is a key
vote on the fast track for this bill. I have a
couple of questions whose answers must be
considered before the vote on TPP.
If the TPP is going to be so good for the
regular people in Oregon and elsewhere, why
is the text of the bill a state secret? In my
experience, when government works in secret,
the voters better watch out.
Why should we put such a comprehensive
bill on the “fast track”? Seems to me that a
bill of this much impact should be considered
carefully, not just pushed through.
Why are the large corporations giving so
much money to get this bill passed if it is good
for you and me?
Why did Senator Wyden recently hold
a fundraiser where he took several very
large contributions from corporations while
considering TPP, a bill that looks like it will
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and it probably is.
Why is so little of the text of this bill
dedicated to the trade agreement while so
much is dedicated to its enforcement which,
by the way, sets up a separate judiciary that
trumps local, state and national laws passed by
the people?
It is logical and sensible to fully explore
the possibilities of new legislation, especially
when it is deemed as important as the
TPP. The above questions are some of the
thoughtful questions that should be answered
before this bill is passed and signed into law.
The discussion of this bill has been done
in secret and, except for the parts that have
thankfully leaked out, we have had little
opportunity to question it.
You wouldn’t buy a car behind a curtain
without examining it so why pass a bill that is
so secret we can’t know what is in it? A pig in
a poke is what you’ll get.
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Pendleton