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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, April 8, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Upside-down on education Oregon’s education budget has passed the Democratic-dominated state Senate and House. It now travels to Democratic governor Kate Brown, who is likely to sign it. When one party dominates all three seats of power, it has the ability to craft such legislation exactly how it pleases. And Democrats have. Every single Democratic vote in the state Senate backed this budget, but not one Republican did. It was a party-line vote in the House, too. None of that should be surprising. People with power tend to use that power. People of another political party tend to vote against its opposition’s plans. But here is what may surprise you: the Republican education proposal would have put more money in the education budget than the Democratic one. Yes, you read that right. The stance of both parties would have surprised national political observers. Granted, there was some political grandstanding in those GOP votes. The Oregonian reported that Sen. Alan Olsen, R-Canby, said in DÀRRUVSHHFKRQ0RQGD\³7KH day after the resurrection of Christ, we will witness the death knell of our education system.” Olsen then paused for a moment of silence. So yes, there was a little bit of hyperbole involved. And plenty of attempts to tar the other side. But many of those votes weren’t grandstanding at all. Many were based on the needs of their districts, needs that would not be met by the Democratic-backed budget. That’s because most Oregon Republicans with seats in the Senate and House are from rural areas. Most of those places are not growing at the pace of the state’s urban core, and most are not seeing steady economic gain. That means a ³VWDWXVTXR´HGXFDWLRQEXGJHWZLOO harm their districts. Take an Eastern Oregon example: smaller Pendleton School District, with declining enrollment, will probably have to cut employees under the new budget if the governor signs it as is. Larger Hermiston 6FKRRO'LVWULFWZLWKTXLFNO\ expanding enrollment, will be able to keep all of their employees and their current programming. That’s what the big city Democrats see in the budget: enough PRQH\WRVWD\DÀRDWZKLOHWKH\ work to remake the system from preschool on up. And this is what rural Republicans see: not enough dollars to keep what is already one of the worst K-12 education systems in the nation from taking another step backward. We know money isn’t the sole answer to anything, and that just throwing dollars at a problem is no way to solve it. But when those dollars translate to reduced class sizes, more classroom instruction time and more teachers — you better believe they would be good for Oregon students, especially rural ones in economically-depressed areas. The governor will sign this budget and school districts around the state will make do with the dollars they get. But we have to say, it’s good to know that sometimes politicians are able to rise off the ÀRRURIWKHLUSDUW\SODWIRUPWRGR what is best for their constituents. 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 What should Oregon’s state book be? The Oregonian Maybe it’s the way in which Ken Kesey’s writing elevates Oregon’s rivers and rain into primal characters WKDWPDNHVKLVQRYHO³6RPHWLPHV a Great Notion” resonate with so many readers. Maybe it’s the similarity 2UHJRQLDQVVHHEHWZHHQWKH¿FWLRQDO 6WDPSHUIDPLO\¶V³1HYHUJLYHDLQFK´ mantra and the heroic stubbornness hardwired into the state’s culture. The reasons are as varied as the popular book’s fans. But based on comments to an Oregonian/OregonLive editorial last week, most readers appeared to agree that Kesey’s novel about a logging family bucking a union strike in a coastal Oregon town would EHVW¿OOWKHUROHRIDQ2UHJRQVWDWHERRN Not that anyone is actually pushing IRUDQRI¿FLDOVWDWHERRNWKHZD\WKDW legislators have anointed, for instance, an RI¿FLDOVWDWHPLFUREH7KHLGHDWRVROLFLW nominations stemmed from a recent discussion after Mississippi legislators introduced a bill to make the Bible their RI¿FLDOVWDWHERRN According to many readers, the idea was a bad one — how can you pick just one book from a state that has produced dozens of worthy contenders? A commenter under the name EHQGEULOOLDQFHDUJXHGWKDW³%RRNVDUH different than birds and rocks. So I say no to designating a state book. Just enjoy them all.” At the very least, readers’ contributions make for an impressive anthology of recommended reading on a wide range of topics. The titles and their VXEMHFWVUHÀHFWPDQ\FXOWXUHVWKHPHV and personalities of a state that cannot be GH¿QHGE\DVLQJOHERRN Readers highlighted the familiar and WKHREVFXUH&UDLJ/HVOH\¶V³:LQWHUNLOO´ %HYHUO\&OHDU\¶V³%HH]XVDQG5DPRQD´ DQG-RKQ4XLFN¶V³)RRO¶V+LOO´7KH\ QDPHG%HUQDUG0DODPXG¶V³$1HZ /LIH´WKH³-RXUQDOVRIWKH/HZLVDQG Clark Expedition,” and Ursula K. /H*XLQ¶V³7KH/HIW+DQGRI'DUNQHVV´ The list includes Terence O’Donnell’s ³$Q$UURZ,Q7KH(DUWK*HQHUDO-RHO Palmer and the Indians of Oregon,” 'RQ%HUU\¶V³7UDVN´.DWKHULQH'XQQ¶V ³*HHN/RYH´DQG-RH%ODNHO\¶V ³%HOOIRXQWDLQ*LDQW.LOOHUV´ There were, of course, less-than- serious suggestions that commented more on the state of Oregon politics than on its literary tradition, such as -RKQ.HQQHG\7RROH¶V³$&RQIHGHUDF\ of Dunces” and Marx and Engels’ ³0DQLIHVWRRIWKH&RPPXQLVW3DUW\´ %XWLQWKHHQGDVÀDZHGDVWKH TXHVWPLJKWEHZHZHUHLQVHDUFKRID single book that conveyed something universal about Oregon. And commenter Christopher Lord, a native Oregonian from Astoria who is a local author as well, rose to the challenge with this bit of introspective lit crit: ³6RPHWLPHVD*UHDW1RWLRQLV LQDFODVVE\LWVHOIDJUDQGLORTXHQW impressionistic tour de force of its time with our prejudices, faults, and human limitations all on display. But WKHODQJXDJHLVPDJQL¿FHQWIURPLWV opening lines that beckon ‘come look:’ ³1RQOLQHDU"'LJUHVVLYH")ODZHG" Of course it is, in the same way that +XFNOHEHUU\)LQQDQG0RE\'LFNDUH ÀDZHG%XWLWLV7+(JUHDW2UHJRQ novel, still read widely and discussed ¿IW\\HDUVDIWHUSXEOLFDWLRQDQGDOPRVW certainly destined to be read a hundred years from now. Every great book shows its age and the limitations of its time but I will defend this great crazy novel, and I’m apparently one of the horrible gay tree-hugging progressives described below that leans so far to the left that it’s a wonder I can stand at all. ³:KDW.HVH\FDSWXUHVRIDZRUOG that has changed is in itself enough of a reason to read, debate, and fulminate at the horrors of Oregon’s past; that serves as a jumping off point for how we sustain the beauty of Oregon that no one has captured better than Kesey in this novel.” We would add one other reason to Lord’s compelling argument. The book apparently possesses a unifying force that draws impassioned fans from across the political spectrum and bridges the urban-rural divide often apparent in comments on news and opinion sites. When else would some of these commenters — who can’t even agree on their criticism of the editorial board as ultraconservative or hopelessly liberal — ¿QGFRPPRQJURXQG" And that is really what the humble goal of a state book — or state anything for that matter — should be: The ability to shine a light on the similarities that bind us, for a time, before our entrenched divisions and rivalries set in again. OTHER VIEWS What candidates need I have two presidential election personality that we need in all our traditions. I begin covering each leaders. He was involved in a bloody campaign by reading a book about civil war, but he was an exceptionally Abraham Lincoln, and I end each poor hater. He was deeply engaged, election night, usually after midnight, but also able to step back; a passionate at the statue of the Lincoln Memorial. advocate, but also able to see his I begin by reading a book about enemy’s point of view; aware of his Lincoln not because it’s fair to hold own power, but aware of when he any of the candidates to the Lincoln was helpless in the hands of fate; David standard, but because he gets you Brooks H[WUHPHO\VHOIFRQ¿GHQWEXWH[WUHPHO\ thinking about what sorts of things we humble. Candidates who don’t have Comment should be looking for in a presidential a contradictory temperament have no candidate. Any candidate worthy of way to check themselves and are thus support should at least have in rudiments what dangerous. Lincoln had in fullness: a fundamental vision, Lincoln’s skills as a political tactician seem a golden temperament and a shrewd strategy like the least of his gifts, but are among his for how to cope with the political realities of greatest. It’s easy to be a true believer, or to the moment. govern or campaign with your pedal to the Lincoln developed his metal all the time. It’s much fundamental vision in a harder to know when to tap way that seems to refute our on the brake and when to contemporary educational step on the gas. practices. Today we pile We study Lincoln’s on years of education. We tactical phase shifts in the assign hundreds of books Grand Strategy class I help over the years. We cluster with at Yale. There’s never our students on campuses enough time to cover them with people with similar all. grades and test scores. Most of Lincoln’s efforts Lincoln had very little were designed to tamp formal education. He was down passion for the sake not cloistered on a campus of sustainable, incremental but spent his formative progress. Others would years in daily contact with have delivered a heroic an astounding array of ¿UVW,QDXJXUDO$GGUHVV characters. If his social but Lincoln made his a dry experience was wide, his legal brief. Others would literary experience was narrow. He read fewer have stuffed the Emancipation Proclamation books over his entire formative life than many with ringing exclamations, but Lincoln’s contemporary students do in a single year. In draft is as dull as possible. Others wanted an literary terms, he preferred depth to breadth; immediate end to slavery. Lincoln tried to grasp to reach. He intensely read Shakespeare, end it through unromantic, gradual economic WKH.LQJ-DPHV%LEOH³7KH3LOJULP¶V means. He hoped that if he limited the demand 3URJUHVV´DQG3DUVRQ:HHPV¶³7KH/LIHRI for slaves (by halting the spread of slavery and Washington.” by paying people not to keep them) he could This education gave him a moral vision drive down the price and render the whole that emerged from life, not from reading. HQWHUSULVHXQSUR¿WDEOH He saw America as a land where ambitious This year, Lincoln’s strategic restraint is poor boys and girls like himself could the most necessary of his traits. We live in transform themselves through hard, morally a partisan time, with movements who treat improving work. He believed in a government trimmers, compromisers and incrementalists that built canals and railroads and banks to harshly. But, to pass legislation, the next VWRNHWKH¿UHVRILQGXVWU\+HEHOLHYHGVODYHU\ president will have to perpetually disappoint was wrong in part because people should be the fervent and devise a legislative strategy free to control their own labor. He believed in that can consistently get a House majority and a providence that was active but unknowable. 60 Senate votes. This Whiggish vision was his north We will not get a Lincoln. A person with star. He could bob and weave as politics his face could not survive the TV age. A demanded, but his incremental means always person with his capacity for introspection pointed to the same transformational end. could not survive the 24/7 self-branding Any presidential candidate needs that sort of campaign environment. But we do need consistent animating vision — an image of someone with a portion of his gifts — an Ideal America baked so deeply into his or someone who is philosophically grounded, her bones as to be unconscious, useful as a emotionally mature and tactically cunning. compass when the distractions of Washington :HOODWOHDVWZHFDQ¿QGWKHFORVHVW OLIHFRPHLQDÀXUU\ possible approximation. Lincoln’s temperament surpasses Ŷ all explanation. His early experience of David Brooks became a New York Times depression and suffering gave him a radical Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. He has self-honesty. He had the double-minded been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard. We live in a partisan time, with movements who treat trimmers, compromisers and incrementalists harshly. YOUR VIEWS Gun background check bill manipulated the process Senate Bill 941 was passed out of committee Monday. If you are not familiar with this bill, it calls for increased background checks on private party gun sales, similar to Washington’s I594. No matter how you feel about guns, you should be disgusted at the way the sponsors of this bill have manipulated the legislative process to ram this through. Similar measures have been rejected in the past when put to a vote, so the sponsors have declared it an emergency. By declaring an emergency, it prevents a vote of the people or changes through the initiative process. Oregon already has one of the lowest gun murder rates in the USA ranking at 41st, so I fail to see how this is an emergency. Amendments proposed by Senator Kim Thatcher were rejected, even though they would have accomplished the stated goal of the bill sponsors, but would have been much less intrusive to the law abiding. It doesn’t take much analysis to realize that felons will not obey this law, just like they ignore the laws against murder, theft, etc. They will get their weapons they way they always have, through theft or the black market. Many law enforcement agencies have publicly come out against this bill and the county commissioners in several counties have come out with statements supporting the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, our county sheriff and county commission have been notably silent. It is hard for me to see how this passes a smell test when legislative tricks have to be used to enact this bill, especially with so many law enforcement agencies opposed to it. It is being driven by money from misguided outside interests like Michael Bloomberg. I reject the idea that someone from a state with one of the highest violent crime rates is relevant in Oregon with our already low and dropping rate. I urge you to email every senator (especially the Democrats, one or two swing votes will make a difference) in the Oregon Senate urging them to reject this bill. Before you say you don’t like guns so you are in favor of this bill, remember the same manipulation of the legislative process could be used on something you are passionate about next. LETTERS POLICY Mike Navratil 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.
