Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, May 30, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com MIKE FORRESTER STEVE FORRESTER Pendleton Chairman of the Board Astoria President TOM BROWN Bigfork, Mont. Director KATHRYN B. BROWN Pendleton Secretary/Treasurer JEFF ROGERS Indianapolis, Ind. Director OUR VIEW Don’t marginalize rural viewers Charter cable deal has the potential to bring the world closer It’s not often a familiar “local” technologies that have kicked off company makes as much national WKLVVWUDWHJLFJDPHFKLHÀ\:L)L news as Charter Communications networks that tie into the nation’s did this week by announcing its cellular phone grid, have the ability intention to buy larger rival Time to deliver content and interactive Warner Cable. features to anyone with a smart Cable television providers phone. This opens up new ways recently have found themselves in to make money, but also threatens the broad category the relevance of of information- companies that fail sector businesses up. When it comes to keep seeking fresh new News to the merger organizations like ways to survive, compete and East Oregonian between Charter The prosper. have been at the This task takes on forefront of this and Time increasing urgency realizing Warner Cable, wave, as customers that convenient discover novel what’s in it for and rapid access Internet-based content is a local customers? to consumer ways to access demand entertainment — in that isn’t going addition to shopping, away. doing our banking, researching When it comes to the Charter school projects and other activities merger, what’s in it for local of everyday life. On the supply customers? This is a key question side of this information pipeline, for regulators reviewing the it is costing cable companies more plan. Federal Communications to purchase rights to broadcast the Commission Chairman Tom popular sports, movies, programs Wheeler said the FCC will carefully and games that consumers demand. look at whether it’s in the public The travails of cable providers are interest. “An absence of harm is unlikely to keep ordinary Americans QRWVXI¿FLHQW´KHVDLG7KH)&& awake at night. Along with satellite “will look to see how American TV, cable companies are widely FRQVXPHUVZRXOGEHQH¿W´IURPWKH viewed as charging incrementally deal. more each year for something that Our congressional delegation we somehow simultaneously value should monitor this process, making EXW¿QGWULYLDO7KHIDFWWKDWWKH sure Charter’s moves do not further Internet now allows consumers to marginalize rural places. If FCC bypass the cable or satellite dish is does its job right, and if technology generating a great deal of excited continues advancing, this merger discussion in corporate boardrooms. can be a big step along the way to But beyond the challenges from making our comparative isolation far program-streaming services — less disadvantageous. VXFKDV1HWÀL[$PD]RQ3ULPH 7KHEHQH¿WHYHQLQSODFHVOLNH and Hulu — Charter and other Eastern Oregon, could be to shrink WUDGLWLRQDO³KDUGZLUH´¿UPVKDYH geography, making the choice to additional reasons for striving to go live and do business here even easier wire-free, or at least cut costs. The than it is today. 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 Hermiston rail museum a gem, not an eyesore Kitzhaber’s whereabouts leave the public wondering I would like to comment about the article in the May 23-24 East Oregonian on the Maxwell Siding Railroad Museum in Hermiston. I would like to thank Connie Maret and John Spinden for maintaining the Maxwell Siding Railroad Museum. I remember when John Bennett and others created the museum around a handful of donated railroad cars. I cannot believe the city’s Enhancement Committee criticizing the display as unattractive. The city’s “You Can Grow Here” motto will not ring true if the city does not recognize the growth that has taken place in the past. This type of history is what has made Hermiston the city it is today. The Hinkle Railroad facility has been and is today a large employer in this area. The Railroad Museum is adjacent to Hodge Park and the city’s park maintenance group could easily maintain the narrow strip in the museum area. The city government along with all of us should support the museum operation and its continued opening to the public. Many of us are wondering at the whereabouts of our recently resigned governor. You know, the one we elected. It seems unlikely that someone who returned for an unprecedented third term, even though under a deepening cloud, should resign from such an elevated RI¿FHRQO\WRGLVDSSHDUIURPSXEOLF view. To be allowed to disappear? We depend, as the Founding Fathers obviously intended, to remain informed about governors, their deviance and their paramours by means of the press, whatever and wherever that gentleman’s circumstances carry him. Perhaps we should be grateful for the little snippet on Cylvia Hayes’ travails in the courts that you provided in your May 25 edition. But it is with the governor that our concern lies, and I’ll begin with you and copy a few of your occupational compatriots. With the failure of the Fourth Estate to meet its responsibility to the electorate, as has been true more and more often in recent years, it does not VHHPXQUHDVRQDEOHWKDWRI¿FLDOVHOHFWHG to serve under the governor should make noise on the Internet in wonderment over his apparent disappearance from our beautiful state, if indeed that is the case. So I extend my appeal to those elected RI¿FLDOVZLWKLQP\YRWHU¶VVSKHUHRI LQÀXHQFHE\FRS\RIWKLVOHWWHU Where is John Kitzhaber, and what are his circumstances? Tom Harper Hermiston Be heard! Comment online at eastoregonian.com or our Facebook and Twitter sites. H.F. “Harry” Neuwirth Salem OTHER VIEWS Let’s do some railing J ust before Congress slunk away for a better chance of political survival the three-day weekend — which running through 46 states. It’s a theory it was, of course, planning to that works great for the Defense stretch into a week — senators from Department. the Northeast held a news conference Maybe the senators just had a to denounce Republicans for national vision of what national rail underfunding Amtrak passenger rail service is supposed to be. service. “It’s worth reminding our “Amtrak has some infrastructure colleagues the Northeast Corridor Gail that is so old it was built and put into Collins is the only part that makes money,” service when Jesse James and Butch said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in Comment Cassidy were still alive and robbing a phone interview. “But that doesn’t trains,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, mean I want to get rid of the rest of D-N.Y. the system. If we only kept the portions of “In Connecticut we have a bridge that was government that made money, there wouldn’t built when Grover Cleveland was president,” be any point to the state of Connecticut said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. running a Department of Children and Now you have to admit, this is pretty Families anymore.” compelling. Especially if you merge them and What’s your off-the-cuff verdict, people? envision Butch Cassidy and Grover Cleveland A) Save the railroad! robbing commuters on the Acela Express. B) Prioritize! Every train for itself! The Northeast corridor from Boston to C) They can do anything they want if Washington is the centerpiece of the nation’s WKH\¶OOMXVWJHWWRJHWKHUDQG¿[WKHSRWKROHRQ commuter rail system. It carries more people my corner. WKDQWKHDLUOLQHVPDNHVDSUR¿WDQGWDNHV Wow, I believe I see a majority for the an ungodly number of cars off extremely pothole. Remind me to tell you about how crowded highways. However, it needs $21 members of Congress just passed the 33rd billion of work on its bridges, tunnels, tracks super-short-term highway bill because they and equipment. haven’t been able to come up with any normal We’ve all been thinking about it since road repair funding since 2008. the terrible derailment in Philadelphia this Transportation unites the country, but month. In a moment of the crowded parts and the stupendously bad timing, empty parts have different House Republicans chose needs. Cities require mass the day after the accident transit, which is something to cut more than $1 billion that tends to irritate many from the $2.45 billion the rural conservatives. (It’s that Obama administration had vision of a whole bunch of requested for Amtrak. strangers stuck together, Speaker John Boehner stripped of even the illusion said any attempt to link the two things was of control.) Remote towns and cities need “stupid.” As only he can. connections to survive, even though the price Let’s take a middle road, people, and tag seems way out of proportion to those of us assume that while the Philadelphia crash who don’t live on, say, an Alaskan island. might not have been related to any funding Amtrak’s operating budget is about the cut, it’s a good reminder that running packed same as the Essential Air Service program, trains through 19th century tunnels and which subsidizes commercial air service to bridges is asking for trouble. UHPRWHFRPPXQLWLHV0RVWRIWKHÀLJKWVDUHDW Amtrak is a managerial mishmash, trapped least two-thirds empty. CBS News, in a report under the thumb of Congress and also WKLV\HDUIRXQGRQHÀLJKWEHWZHHQ.DQVDV responsible for long-distance service across City, Missouri, and Great Bend, Kansas, that the country, touching cities from Chicago to generally carried only a single passenger. New Orleans to Grand Rapids to Salt Lake Everybody knows that the government City on a series of routes that are never going can waste money. (If you have any doubts, to make money. Conservative groups that call I will refer you to a recent report by Pro for the privatization of Amtrak are basically Publica about a glorious new $25 million, envisioning a system where the Northeast 64,000-square-foot headquarters the military Corridor is left to fend for itself while the constructed for U.S. troops in Afghanistan money-losing routes fade into history. even though said troops were going home.) “Ideally, we would like to see all But making money-losing links between transportation spending and taxing devolve different parts of the theoretically United to the states,” said Michael Sargent of The States doesn’t seem to be in that category. Heritage Foundation. Fix Amtrak. Connect the country. None of the Northeastern senators at the Ŷ news conference complained about the cross- Gail Collins joined The New York Times country money-losers. Perhaps that was out in 1995 as a member of the editorial board of deference to their colleague, Dick Durbin, and later as an Op-Ed columnist. In 2001 she D-Ill. Perhaps they instinctively understood EHFDPHWKH¿UVWZRPDQHYHUDSSRLQWHGHGLWRU that no matter what the drain, Amtrak has of the Times’s editorial page. Fix Amtrak. Connect the country. 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.
