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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION (DVW2UHJRQLDQ :HGQHVGD\$SULO Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Allow phones to tune in FM radio You might not know it, but the U.S. have a plain old FM radio your smartphone is more than just receiver inside. But in many of a machine to stalk Facebook and the phones, the radio is disabled. watch YouTube videos of cats. In iPhones, for instance, the FM There are some old-school receivers are turned off, for no technologies in your pocket that EHQH¿WWRWKHFRQVXPHU can be preciously important in They are turned off for a simple an emergency. First, it’s a phone! reason: customers with a device That means you can dial a string of capable of receiving FM radio numbers and connect with another signals might stream less digital person. That other music and download person could be tunes. That Inside of most fewer an emergency translated into fewer dispatcher in the dollars for cell smartphones case that you are and app is an FM radio companies in danger, or your makers. mother in the case But those lost receiver, which pennies that you are not. in the short has been Secondly, your term may turn cellphone has a lost lives in disabled to no into built-in FM radio a time of tragedy. benefit of the receiver. As all emergency :KLOHWKDW responders know, consumer. might sound like communication outdated technology is key to timely as well, it won’t response and be in the event that a natural or effective use of resources. FM unnatural event severs our electronic signals can be an excellent way to infrastructure. reach citizens when electricity is It’s not a far-fetched possibility, sparse and Internet and television is especially here in the Cascadia knocked out. Using an FM signal is Subduction Zone. It happened just not nearly the battery suck as live last week in Nepal, when satellite streaming news and music via an and Internet-enabled phones were online application. rendered useless after a powerful Some of the largest radio HDUWKTXDNH0RUHWKDQ lobbyists, such as National Public SHRSOHKDYHEHHQFRQ¿UPHGNLOOHG Radio, have been campaigning to in the quake, a death toll that is get those radios switched on. They sure to rise considerably as rescue want Congress to require cellphone teams continue to work toward the FRPSDQLHVWRÀLSWKHVZLWFKRUDW epicenter. least give customers the option to do Sure, Nepal is one of the world’s so themselves. poorest countries and infrastructure The industry even created an app is of far lower quality than in called NextRadio that manages local America. But a quake that measures FM stations. It makes sense to have 7.8 on the Richter Scale will be that communication device at our terribly destructive wherever it hits. ¿QJHUWLSV That’s where cellphones can save Hopefully we won’t need to lives, and they don’t require any depend on our cellphones for radio expensive infrastructure upgrades signals in the case of a catastrophe. or wonky emergency management But someone, somewhere, will decrees. EHQH¿WIURPLW$WQRFRVWZHPLJKW Almost all smartphones sold in DVZHOOÀLSWKHVZLWFKDQGDOORZLW 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. YOUR VIEWS Two issues on May ballot is just the beginning Voters of Pendleton, don’t spend all of your fortune on the Pendleton School District special levy and Blue Mountain Community College bond election. The city of Pendleton needs your money also. In July the city council will raise your water and sewer rates without your vote. There is also a new utility (stormwater system) that needs to be funded. Last year the city proposed a $10 million bond issue that somehow missed the ballot. I think there will be a repeat of some kind of bond issue this fall. The next thing that needs your money LVWKH¿UHVWDWLRQDW6:&RXUW Avenue. The over $70,000 assessment by a Portland company is not good. I GRQRWNQRZKRZWKH¿UHVWDWLRQLVVWLOO standing up, according to the assessment. Maybe anyone who owns a home built EHIRUHVKRXOGEHFDUHIXOWKDWWKHLU house does not fall down when they are in bed. The city will probably be seeking PRQH\IRUDQHZ¿UHVWDWLRQQHDU0DLQ Street in November. The last thing is funding for street UHSDLU:DWFKZKHQWKHQHZEXGJHWLV released. See if the council has added any money from the general fund for street repair. This can be done but it will mean cuts in funding for parks, recreation and the aquatic center. Fees for use of city-owned property need to be raised so that the taxpayer is not paying the lion’s share of the cost of operating these facilities. Free stuff is good for some people, but not the taxpayers. Enough is enough. I am not telling you to vote no on school and college issues. Just remember more is on the way. Your vote counts. Rex J. Morehouse Pendleton BMCC helps industries at Port of Morrow The ability to obtain a quality post-high school education close to home made sense to Morrow and Umatilla county taxpayers when they voted overwhelmingly to establish Blue 0RXQWDLQ&RPPXQLW\&ROOHJHLQ That support has been rewarded as %0&&KDVHYROYHGRYHUWKHSDVW years into a respected provider of the classes and training needed to prepare RXUFLWL]HQVWR¿OOWKHPDQ\JRRGSD\LQJ jobs available in our region. Continuing on with that tradition of excellence, the college is working in partnership with key industries and the Port of Morrow to identify and establish the courses DQGFHUWL¿FDWLRQVQHHGHGE\WRGD\¶V workforce. A workforce training center dedicated to that effort paves a bright pathway to the future for our students and citizens. Please join us in voting yes for the BMCC bond levy. Gary and Kathy Neal Boardman OTHER VIEWS Goodness and power T here was an interesting poll internal voice. After a while they can’t result about Hillary Clinton last accurately perceive themselves or week. According to a Quinnipiac their situation. Sooner or later their SROOSHUFHQWRILQGHSHQGHQWYRWHUV :DWHUJDWHZLOOFRPH believe that she has strong leadership Maybe once upon a time there qualities. But when these same voters was an environment in which ruthless were asked if she is honest and Machiavellians had room to work WUXVWZRUWK\WKHHYDOXDWLRQVÀLSSHG their dark arts, but we don’t live in Sixty-one percent said she is not 5HQDLVVDQFH,WDO\:HOLYHLQDZRUOG David honest and trustworthy. Apparently Brooks of universal media attention. Once there are a lot of Americans who there is a hint of scandal of any kind, Comment believe that Hillary Clinton is the political world goes into maximum dishonest and untrustworthy but also a frenzy and everything stops. strong leader. :HOLYHLQDZRUOGLQZKLFKSRZHULV /HW¶VVHWDVLGHKHUVSHFL¿FFDVHIRUD dispersed. You can’t intimidate people by second. These poll results raise a larger chopping your enemies to bits in the town question: Can you be a bad person but a strong square. Even the presidency isn’t a powerful leader? HQRXJKRI¿FHWRDOORZDOHDGHUWRUXOHE\IHDU The case for that proposition is reasonably You have to build coalitions by appealing to straightforward. Politics is a people’s self-interest and by tough, brutal arena. People luring them voluntarily to play by the rules of the your side. jungle. Sometimes to get Modern politics, like anything done, a leader has private morality, is about to push, bully, intimidate, building trust and enduring elide the truth. The qualities personal relationships. that make you a good person That means being fair, in private life — kindness, empathetic, honest and humility and a capacity trustworthy. If you stink at for introspection — can be establishing trust, you stink drawbacks on the public at politics. stage. Electing a president People with good private LVGLIIHUHQWWKDQ¿QGLQJD morality are better at friend or lover. It’s better to navigating for the long term. hire a ruthless person to do a They genuinely love causes hard job. EH\RQGWKHPVHOYHV:KHQ I get that argument, but the news cycle distracts outside the make-believe and the short-term passions world of “House of Cards,” it’s usually wrong. surge, they can still steer by that distant Voting for someone with bad private morals is star. They’re less likely to overreact and do like setting off on a battleship with awesome something stupid. guns and a rotting hull. There’s a good chance People with astute moral sentiments have you’re going to sink before the voyage is over. an early warning system. They don’t have People who are dishonest, unkind and to think through the dangers of tit-for-tat inconsiderate have trouble attracting and favor-exchanges with billionaires. They have retaining good people to their team. They an aesthetic revulsion against people who tend to have sleazy friends. They may be seem icky and situations that are distasteful, personally canny, but they are almost always which heads off a lot of trouble. surrounded by sycophants and second-raters Of course, private morality is not who kick up scandal and undermine the enough. You have to know how to react to leader’s effectiveness. unprincipled people who want to destroy you. Leaders who lack humility are fragile. But, historically, most effective leaders Their pride is bloated and sensitive. People ²OLNHVD\*HRUJH:DVKLQJWRQ7KHRGRUH are never treating them as respectfully as they 5RRVHYHOWDQG:LQVWRQ&KXUFKLOO²KDGD think they deserve. They become consumed dual consciousness. They had an earnest, inner with resentments. They treat politics as moral voice capable of radical self-awareness, battle, armor up and wall themselves off to rectitude and great compassion. They also information and feedback. had a pragmatic, canny outer voice. These You may think they are championing your two voices were in constant conversation, FDXVHRUDJHQGDEXWZKHQWKHIXULVÀ\LQJ checking each other, probing for synthesis, they are really only interested in defending wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove. themselves. They keep an enemies list and I don’t know if Hillary Clinton possesses life becomes a matter of settling scores and this double-mindedness. But I do know that imagining conspiracies. They jettison any if candidates don’t acquire a moral compass policy that might hurt their standing. outside of politics, they’re not going to get It is a paradox of politics that the people LWLQWKH:KLWH+RXVHDQGWKH\ZRQ¶WEH who set out obsessively to succeed in it effective there. usually end up sabotaging themselves. They Ŷ treat each relationship as a transaction and David Brooks became a New York Times don’t generate loyalty. They lose any honest Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. Voting for someone with bad private morals is like setting off on a battleship with awesome guns and a rotting hull. 3ODVVXQLTXHO\TXDOL¿HGIRU BMCC board post Do you want a person on the Blue Mountain Community College Board who is experienced, dedicated and LQIRUPHG":HNQRZWKDW6XVDQ3ODVVLV the person you will want to vote for. Susan is experienced. She has over \HDUVH[SHULHQFHLQKLJKHUHGXFDWLRQ including the last ten years of her career as director of grants for BMCC. She knows the strengths and challenges of a community college in a rural area. She understands that a community college provides students with opportunities while also supporting the economic growth of those communities which the college serves. Susan is dedicated. As director of grants for BMCC those ten years, she worked on special projects and was LQVWUXPHQWDOLQUDLVLQJPLOOLRQ of external revenue for BMCC. These revenues supported academic programs and student services as well as the physical plant. 6XVDQLVLQIRUPHG:LWKKHU experience in higher education, she understands the responsibilities of a board member. She sees that BMCC needs to look forward; she will continue to seek information to help determine the best course for the future of BMCC. Bob and Jill Heffner Pendleton 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.