Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
No age limit
on volunteering
keep a group focused on a common
Everywhere around the country,
groups who rely on volunteers worry mission.
Volunteer groups are what makes
about their most committed workers
Eastern Oregon hum — from the
getting older.
well-oiled volunteer machine that
It is more pronounced here
produces the Pendleton Round-Up
in Eastern Oregon, where our
to the in-the-trenches crew that
population’s median hair color is
puts together the Umatilla County
more salt than pepper.
Fair. A cadre of volunteers takes
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
care of some of our most important
recently released their volunteer
needs, including
statistics report
our homeless
for 2014. Perhaps
Older volunteers population, domestic
surprisingly, adults
victims,
age 35-44 were
gave more hours violence
foster children
the most likely
to charitable
and those in need
to volunteer and
hospitals
the likelihood that
organizations in and our schools.
Their
you give freely of
your time begins
than any other VHOÀHVVQHVVPDNHV
this region a better
to steadily taper
age group.
place to live.
after turning 45.
Part of growing
However, though
up, unfortunately,
older volunteers
seems to be a nagging feeling that
were less likely to volunteer,
the next generation doesn’t quite
those that did gave more hours to
measure up. We’re not that cranky
charitable organizations than any
yet, and think today’s children
other age group.
and young adults are more than
And that seems obvious. Young
capable of picking up the mantle of
families are too busy just putting
volunteerism that their parents and
food on the table and getting
grandparents are bravely carrying
everyone dressed and out the door
— and returned safely every evening now.
— to have large chunks of hours free
As a community, we can help
to donate. They happily work a bake make that a smooth passing of the
sale or coach Little League when
baton. We can continue to appreciate
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and celebrate our volunteers who
adults, on the other hand, especially
go above and beyond the call of
those who have crossed into the
service. We can work to improve our
Eden known as retirement, have
communication and involvement
more time to spend on causes that
with all age groups. We can do as
are important to them.
much as we can with the time we
But older volunteers have more to have. And we don’t have to worry
offer than just their time. A lifetime
when a little salt appears in our hair
of experience can make them among — there are many decades of being
the most valuable volunteers, who
a good community member ahead
know how to get things done and
of us.
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
Brown’s transportation
bill gets moving
By The La Grande Observer
Even the most disinterested Oregon
voter should give credit to Gov. Kate
Brown in the wake of her state of the
state speech Friday before the City Club
of Portland at a Portland hotel.
Brown touted
a number of good
signs about Oregon’s
economy and spoke
in an encouraging
manner about
the future. A key
highlight, though, was
her insistence that
lawmakers put aside
partisanship and work
together to develop a
viable transportation
plan before the session
ends.
We applaud
Brown’s views on the transportation
package and believe she is correct to
draw a line in the sand, if you will, on
such an important topic.
The state’s roadways are in bad
shape. Individual counties, especially
in rural areas like Eastern Oregon, face
dwindling funding and a growing list of
needed repairs.
We are glad the governor is now
out in front of this issue, though her
leadership on this subject would have
been far more decisive weeks ago when
Democratic lawmakers rammed a bill
regarding carbon-based fuels through the
Legislature.
Still, better late than never. Brown’s
acknowledgement of the state’s ruined
road system is hopefully a good sign
that, through her leadership, both
Democrats and Republicans can sit
down and hash out their differences and
come up with a workable transportation
package.
Yet that won’t be an easy task. And
the governor should know that. The
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political covenant between Republican
and Democratic lawmakers that revolves
around the new low carbon fuel standard
pushed into law a few weeks ago.
Republicans opposed it, Democrats
favored the law. Democrats carry
a majority in the
Legislature so the
low carbon fuel
standard — seen by
many to be hopelessly
complicated at best
and a burden on
taxpayers at worst —
was passed.
Republicans are
willing to talk about
a transportation bill
if Democrats agree
to go back to the low
carbon fuel law and re-
evaluate it and make
some revisions. Otherwise, Republicans
probably are not going to sign off on a
transportation package.
The entire issue runs the risk of
falling into the by now familiar refrain of
political gridlock. Yet in this, as in many
other political battles of our time, there is
plenty of blame to go around.
In short, what needs to happen is
both Democrats and Republicans should
agree to make concessions regarding
the low carbon fuel standard. Is it a bad
law? Most likely. How the idea — and
then the law — wriggled its way into
the Legislature could be a good, albeit
tragic, story in and of itself. Yet that is
for another time.
Brown is doing what a governor
should do. She is sending out a call to
lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to
stop and re-evaluate and then sit down to
work out a deal. The question remains,
however, regarding whether too much
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the low carbon fuel battle to salvage a
transportation bill. We hope not.
Rural areas like
Eastern Oregon
face dwindling
funding and a
growing list of
needed road
repairs.
Be heard!
Comment online at eastoregonian.com
OTHER VIEWS
Hollywood trumps Harvard
C
all me an idealist, but I’d like
winnowed thighs, amulets against
to think that the halls of higher
cancer and breathless promises
education are less vulnerable to
of “magic” and “revolutionary”
the siren calls of fame and fortune than
breakthroughs.
other byways of American life are. I’d
Oz has morphed not just willingly
like to believe in a bold dividing line
but exuberantly into a carnival barker.
between academic virtues and celebrity
He’s a one-man morality play about
values, between intellectual and
the temptations of mammon and the
Frank
commercial concerns.
seduction of applause, a Faustian
Bruni
But Henry Louis Gates Jr., a
parable with a stethoscope.
Comment
renowned Harvard professor, and
Many Americans probably had no
Mehmet Oz, a surgeon on the faculty at
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Columbia, get in my way.
Columbia — he’s vice chairman of its surgery
I link the two because they’re both in the
department — until they read last week about
news, not because they’re equally in thrall to
an email sent to the university by 10 physicians
the television camera or identically unabashed
around the country. They accused him of
peddlers of something other than fact. Oz is by “promoting quack treatments” for “personal
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¿QDQFLDOJDLQ´DQGXUJHG&ROXPELDWRVHYHULWV
WRRH[HPSOL¿HVZKDWKDSSHQVZKHQDOHFWXUHU ties with him.
is bathed in bright lights and gets to hang with
He’s expected to defend himself on
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television later this week, and his publicity
Batman’s billowing cape.
machine has gone into overdrive, seeking to
$IÀHFNZDVDJXHVWODVW2FWREHURQWKH3%6 discredit the physicians and frame the issue as
documentary series “Finding Your Roots,”
one of free speech.
in which Gates takes luminaries — Sting,
But don’t forget that he was called before a
Stephen King, Angela Bassett — on journeys
U.S. Senate panel last year to explain his on-air
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gushing about green coffee extract, raspberry
But when he learned that he had a slave-
ketones and other faddish weight-loss
owning ancestor, he asked that the detail be
supplements. Admonishing him, Sen. Claire
excised, according to communications between 0F&DVNLOOQRWHGWKDW³WKHVFLHQWL¿FFRPPXQLW\
Gates and his friend Michael Lynton, the
is almost monolithic” in its rejection of
chief executive of Sony Entertainment. Their
“products you called ‘miracles.’”
exchange was part of the hacked Sony emails
Also remember that the British Medical
recently shared by WikiLeaks.
Journal published a study of scores of his
“We’ve never had anyone ever try to censor show’s medical recommendations, saying more
or edit what we found,” Gates wrote to Lynton, WKDQKDOIGLGQ¶WKDYHVRXQGVFLHQWL¿FEDFNLQJ
going on to fret over the “integrity” of the
And bear in mind that the Sony emails
series. “He’s a megastar. What do we do?”
included one that showed Oz to be eager, as
Gates left the detail out.
Vox reported, “to use his platform on the show
After the disclosure of this late last week, he WRKHOSH[SDQG6RQ\¶V¿WQHVVDQGKHDOWK
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tracking devices market.” Sony is one of the
nothing more than the need to make room for
producers of “Dr. Oz.”
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But well beyond Oz, there’s an unsettling
inclusion in the episode.
corruption of academia by celebrity culture.
Regardless, it exposed Gates, a trusted
Many professors do double duty as
authority on the African-American experience, television pundits, even though sound bites,
to accusations that he’d sold out. It diminished
which are inherently unsubtle, run counter
him.
to what scholarship exalts. And educational
But wasn’t that inevitable from the moment institutions choose speakers largely — and
he hitched scholarship to show business?
sometimes solely — for their star power.
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The University of Houston spent $155,000
academic work,” Carol Anderson, who teaches to schedule Matthew McConaughey for its
at Emory University, told Jamil Smith in The
commencement next month
New Republic. “We have to understand that
Maybe he’s more learned than we realize.
so much of what we see there is packaged for
Or maybe erudition counts for less than buzz,
a nonacademic audience that wants the picture
even in those enclaves that are supposed to be
of really deep, intellectual discussion but is not about deep, durable things.
Ŷ
quite ready for what that means.”
Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for The
What does the audience of “The Dr. Oz
New York Times since June 2011, joined the
Show” want?
New York Times in 1995.
To judge by what Oz gives them, it’s
YOUR VIEWS
BMCC opens the door to
academic, life opportunities
When I was growing up and playing
sports, I remember the motivational posters
in the locker rooms. One in particular was
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Determination”
I have witnessed disciples of this
philosophy with students I’ve met at BMCC.
I used to teach English as a Second Language
for the college. The students would work hard
at their jobs during the day and then come to
class two nights a week. Even though they
were exhausted, they were alert and eager
to learn English to get better jobs or become
citizens.
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a BMCC student with exceptional desire,
dedication, and determination was a young
woman I recently met. She came from
a background that would horrify most
people. Her family had seven children. Her
parents were alcoholics. When both of them
were thrown in jail, she had to take on the
responsibility of being a substitute parent.
Unfortunately, she had her own troubles.
She was frequently truant from school and
had brushes with the law as a result of the
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raised by her grandmother, who suffered from
arthritis and was not able to provide her with
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Imagine attending high school and having
to one day attend the funeral of an uncle
murdered by a gangbanger and then going to
her prom the next day.
She was able to escape that life by leaving
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circumstances and ending up at BMCC
in rural Pendleton. She had no money but
managed to survive with the help of the
faculty and staff members at the college.
Altrusa is known for its emphasis on
literacy but few people are aware of its other
role as a service organization. They gave her
a laptop and money to pay her rent and buy
food when she was desperate and almost had
to leave BMCC.
During the summer, the college gave her
a job performing janitorial duties, a job that
she was grateful for, and she managed to save
enough to continue at the college.
As a result of her desire, dedication, and
determination, Marshay Moore signed a
letter of intent this week and was given a
full ride scholarship to play basketball at the
University of Oregon.
Support the BMCC bond measure and
you will be help other students realize their
dreams.
LETTERS POLICY
Jerry Cronin
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.