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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2015)
Page 6A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, May 5, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Hanford has been ‘unlimited spigot’ If a massive amount of money is available for spending, at a minimum there will be waste, perhaps fraud and maybe theft. The larger the amount of money, WKHELJJHUWKHPDJQHW:H¶YHVHHQ that in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The same thing happens in the private sector. And it seems to be happening domestically at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The Richland- based journalist Anna King said Thursday that 14,000 Department of Energy employees are working on +DQIRUG¶VFOHDQXS And work is stalled, perhaps hopelessly, at the PXOWLVWRU\YLWUL¿FDWLRQSODQW Also last week, Sen. Ron Wyden decried the lack of progress in the Hanford cleanup. “Obama has no plan,” said Wyden. “It has been an unlimited spigot. It is astounding WKHDPRXQWRIPRQH\WKDW¶VEHHQ laid out.” Hanford was an enormously important, but secret, installation of World War II. Its B Reactor made radioactive material that became the ingredient for the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima DQG1DJDVDNLOHDGLQJWR-DSDQ¶V unconditional surrender. When things are done in secret, there is little skepticism and no cross-examination. From the start, +DQIRUGRI¿FLDOV failed to recognize they were creating a mess that would haunt our region for eons. Wyden raises the prospect that national willingness to clean up Hanford PLJKWZDQH³,¶P not sure the rest of the country will go along with this much longer,” he said. Mismanagement is the polite word IRUZKDW¶VJRLQJ on at Hanford. While Hanford is no longer off limits to the public, the vestige of secrecy lingers. Anna King described a situation that is long on massive reports and short on candor. She is also correct that Hanford is “the legacy that we were handed.” We must contain the damage that is sitting there, perilously close to the Columbia River. From the start, Hanford officials failed to recognize they were creating a mess that would haunt our region for eons OTHER VIEWS L 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. No standing still for BMCC At only 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, the Blue Mountain Community College bond proposal is both a great value for taxpayers in Morrow and Umatilla counties and a critically needed investment in the future of our regional economy. One third of the total project cost covers replacement of essential parts of the aging physical plant, including energy management systems, heating and cooling systems, and natural gas lines and regulators. The Energy Trust of Oregon estimates that these investments will save the college approximately $100,000 each year in energy expenses. About twelve percent of total project costs covers badly needed upgrades to outmoded information technology and communication infrastructure, improvements to the emergency access road on the Pendleton campus, and the correction of RWKHUVDIHW\DQGVHFXULW\GH¿FLHQFLHV Forty-eight percent of total project costs will VSHFL¿FDOO\DGGUHVVHPSOR\HUV¶VWDWHGQHHGV for high-priority workforce training programs in Pendleton, Hermiston and Boardman. These projects are supported by donations of land and other resources by partner organizations and by state matching and lottery funds. BMCC has done an excellent job of talking with and listening to voters LQERWKFRXQWLHVWRUH¿QHWKHOLVWRISURMHFWV to those receiving the greatest amount of support. Partners have stepped up to share the load, the expense, and the responsibility of offering critically important workforce training programs that will prepare students IRUORFDOMREVWKDWHPSOR\HUVKDYHGLI¿FXOW\ ¿OOLQJ If the college is not moving forward to DGGUHVVRXUUHJLRQ¶VFKDQJLQJHFRQRPLF educational, and training needs, then it is either frozen in time or sliding backward. Please join me in voting yes on the BMCC Restoring faith in justice DVWZHHN%DOWLPRUH¶VFKLHI Alabama history,” according to the prosecutor, Marilyn J. Mosby, Equal Justice Initiative, which won his FKDUJHGVL[RI¿FHUVLQWKHGHDWK release last month — for murders he of Freddie Gray. The charges included GLGQ¶WFRPPLW+HZDVDUUHVWHGDQG second-degree murder, manslaughter, charged based on the assertion that DVVDXOWPLVFRQGXFWLQRI¿FHDQGIDOVH DUHYROYHUWDNHQIURPKLVPRWKHU¶V imprisonment. home was used in two capital murders (These were only charges. There and a third uncharged crime. Even will be a defense and a trial. The Charles after experts found in 2002 that the RI¿FHUVUHPDLQLQQRFHQWXQWLODQG JXQGLGQ¶WPDWFKWKHFULPHHYLGHQFH Blow unless proven guilty.) prosecutors refused to revisit the case. Comment Mosby said at a news conference It took more than a decade of Friday as she laid out the case and additional litigation before a judge announced the charges: “To the people of WKUHZRXWWKHFDVH3URVHFXWRUV¿QDOO\ Baltimore and the demonstrators across FRQFHGHGWKDWWKHFULPHEXOOHWVFRXOGQ¶WEH America: I heard your call for ‘No justice, no matched to the Hinton weapon. SHDFH¶´6KHFRQWLQXHG³/DVWEXWFHUWDLQO\QRW “For all of us that say that we believe least, to the youth of the city. I will seek justice in justice, this is the case to start showing, on your behalf. This is a moment. This is your EHFDXVH,VKRXOGQ¶WKDYHVDWRQGHDWKURZ PRPHQW/HW¶VHQVXUHZHKDYHSHDFHIXODQG IRU\HDUV´+LQWRQVDLG³$OOWKH\KDGWRGR productive rallies that will develop structural was test the gun.” and systemic changes for generations to come. /DVW\HDU*OHQQ)RUG/RXLVLDQD¶VORQJHVW <RX¶UHDWWKHIRUHIURQWRIWKLVFDXVHDQGDV serving death row prisoner, was also set free young people, our time is now.” DIWHUQHDUO\\HDUVIDFLQJH[HFXWLRQIRUD Mosby seemed to recognize in that moment murder that he also did not commit. According that this case and others like it are now about to The New York Daily News: “A judge freed more than individual deaths and individual Ford from the Louisiana State Penitentiary incidents, but about restoration — or a a year ago when evidence, believed to have IRUPDWLRQ²RIIDLWKIRUDOORI$PHULFD¶V been suppressed during the trial, surfaced citizens in the American justice system itself. H[RQHUDWLQJKLPIURPWKHDOOZKLWHMXU\¶V Faith in the system is the bedrock of the decision in the murder of a nearly blind system. Without it, the system is drained of Shreveport watchmaker, Isadore Rozeman.” its inviolable authority. This is the danger The lead prosecutor in the Ford case, A.M. America now faces. Stroud III, apologized in a column published After George Zimmerman shot Trayvon by The Shreveport Times, saying: “In 1984, I Martin through the chest and walked free. ZDV\HDUVROG,ZDVDUURJDQWMXGJPHQWDO $IWHUWKHUHZDVQRLQGLFWPHQWRIWKHRI¿FHU narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not who choked the life out of Eric Garner on as interested in justice as I was in winning. YLGHR$IWHUDQRI¿FHUVKRWDQGNLOOHG-RKQ To borrow a phrase from Al Pacino in the Crawford in an Ohio Wal-Mart as he walked PRYLHµ$QG-XVWLFHIRU$OO¶µ:LQQLQJEHFDPH DURXQGWKHVWRUHZLWKDQDLUULÀHKH¶GSLFNHG HYHU\WKLQJ¶´+HFRQFOXGHG³+RZWRWDOO\ XSRIIWKHVWRUH¶VRZQVKHOYHVDQGDQRWKHU wrong was I.” RI¿FHUJULOOHGKLVJLUOIULHQGXQWLOVKHFULHG After last month, NPR reported that Mayor “accusing her of lying, threatening her with Rahm Emmanuel of Chicago was supporting jail time and suggesting she could be on a $5.5 million reparations package for victims drugs,” according to CNN. RIDIRUPHUSROLFHFRPPDQGHUDQGKLVRI¿FHUV After the city of Cleveland claimed — then LQWKDWFLW\$V061%&¶V7U\PDLQH/HHSXWLW apologized for claiming — that Tamir Rice they “for decades ran a torture ring that used was responsible for his own death when electrical shock, burning and beatings on more RI¿FHUVVKRWKLPLQWKHVWRPDFK²DQLQMXU\ than 100 black men.” he would later die from — in a park as he All of this and more eats away at public played with a toy gun. FRQ¿GHQFHLQHTXDOMXVWLFHXQGHUWKHODZDQG According to The Washington Post: “In UHDI¿UPVSHRSOH¶VZRUVWIHDUVWKDWWKHH\HVRI WKHFRXUW¿OLQJZKLFKZDVDIRUPDOUHVSRQVH MXVWLFHDUHQ¶WEOLQGEXWMDXQGLFHG from the city to a federal lawsuit by the Rice As Langston Hughes once wrote: “That family, city attorneys declare that Tamir and Justice is a blind goddess / Is a thing to which his family ‘were directly and proximately we black are wise: / Her bandage hides two FDXVHGE\WKHLURZQDFWV¶DQGDGGHGWKDW festering sores / That once perhaps were Tamir caused his own death ‘by the failure ... eyes.” WRH[HUFLVHGXHFDUHWRDYRLGLQMXU\¶´ Ŷ And after Anthony Ray Hinton sat on Charles M. Blow is The New York Times’s $ODEDPD¶VGHDWKURZIRU\HDUV²³RQH visual Op-Ed columnist. His column appears of the longest-serving death row prisoners in in The Times on Saturday. YOUR VIEWS ERQGLW¶VDYRWHIRUVWUHQJWKHQLQJWKH FROOHJH¶VVHUYLFHWRRXUVWXGHQWVDQGWRRXU communities. Susan Plass Pendleton BMCC reputation extends state-wide As a result of my time in Salem, I have become even more impressed with Blue Mountain Community College. BMCC and President Cam Preus have excellent reputations state-wide. For over 50 years BMCC has earned that reputation, and is an integral part of our communities throughout the region. I support the BMCC Bond and ask others to join with me in voting yes. Bill Hansell Athena Wyden made Medicare stronger Thank you, Senator Wyden, for strengthening Medicare! Until last week, access to health care for American seniors, military personnel and WKHLUIDPLOLHVZDVWKUHDWHQHGE\VLJQL¿FDQW cuts to Medicare reimbursement for physicians each year, sometimes more than RQFHD\HDUXQGHUWKHÀDZHG6XVWDLQDEOH Growth Rate (SGR) payment policy. As the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden played a critical role in securing passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act that was signed into law on April 16, HQGLQJDQHUDRIXQFHUWDLQW\IRU$PHULFD¶V patients and physicians. The new law stabilizes the Medicare program and makes it more sustainable for future generations by providing the support for physicians to adopt innovative health care models that will improve quality of care and reduce costs. ,WDOVRH[WHQGVIXQGLQJIRUWKH&KLOGUHQ¶V Health Insurance Program and community KHDOWKFHQWHUVWKDWVHUYHVRPHRIRXUQDWLRQ¶V most vulnerable populations. We applaud Sen. Wyden for his leadership in securing enactment of this important bipartisan legislation. On behalf of our patients, we thank you for addressing our QDWLRQ¶VKHDOWKFDUHQHHGV ,QDGGLWLRQWR6HQ:\GHQ¶VOHDGHUVKLS this success could not have happened ZLWKRXWWKHVXSSRUWRI2UHJRQ¶VHQWLUH Congressional delegation. Thank you to Sen. Jeff Merkley, Rep. Kurt Schrader, Rep. Greg Walden, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici and Rep. Peter DeFazio. OMA President Sylvia Emory, MD AMA President Robert Wah, MD Pendleton’s infrastructure answers aren’t easy I am appreciative of Robb Corbett spending time to meet with me recently. He FODUL¿HGWKHGLOHPPDWKHFLW\KDGWU\LQJWR PDLQWDLQWKHFLW\¶VGHFD\LQJLQIUDVWUXFWXUH with a limited amount of revenue that also has to be used to pay for other expenses. Mr. Corbett admitted that the city has a communication problem and he hopes that “listening” sessions will ameliorate this issue. As a result, the city reserved the newly expanded Pendleton Convention Center to hold a “listening” session. Unfortunately, only two dozen attended. The session started out with the grim news that the city takes in around $5 million in property taxes yet faces $7.4 million LQLQIUDVWUXFWXUHFRVWV$IWHUWKHFLW\¶V presentation, the audience quickly expressed LWVGLVPD\ZLWK3HQGOHWRQ¶VPDLQWHQDQFHRI its streets. Then, the East Oregonian reported, “Councilwoman Jane Hill asked the audience if they would like the city to dedicate more of its current funds toward neighborhood streets, but her question was left unanswered.” I guess no one was listening at the “listening” session. A gander at the new city budget reveals that the city is going to dedicate the grand sum of $25,000 for pothole repair. Perhaps they could offer special pricing to residents for bags of asphalt for DIY projects. City councilman Al Plute recently told me that Pendleton residents are going to have to pay more fees, taxes, and utility costs in order to repair the streets. The plans include a frontage tax, city- based income tax earmarked for streets and a rental tax, all reported by the EO. The city also wants to pass a bond to build DQHZ¿UHKRXVH&DQ¶WZHMXVWPDNHGRXQWLO the economy improves? How can the city expect residents to enthusiastically rally behind new taxes, fees, and utility costs yet have streets that look like they did when my great-grandparents arrived in Pendleton in 1882? Quit wasting our money on unsuccessful LQYHVWPHQWVWKDWDUHQ¶WSUR¿WDEOH 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.