Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 20, 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
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MIKE FORRESTER
Pendleton
Chairman of the Board
STEVE FORRESTER
Astoria
President
TOM BROWN
Bigfork, Mont.
Director
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Pendleton
Secretary/Treasurer
JEFF ROGERS
Indianapolis, Ind.
Director
OUR VIEW
Counties will say
no to marijuana,
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yes to leeching
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off taxpayers
OTHER VIEWS
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Umatilla and Morrow counties
voted resoundingly against Measure
91, which legalized recreational
marijuana in Oregon. In Umatilla
County, 12,122 people opposed the
measure while just 7,181 were in
favor.
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and the statewide issue easily passed
by more than 200,000 votes. That
made Oregon the third state in the
country to legalize the sale and
possession of marijuana and gave
legislators about seven months to get
regulations and taxes in place by the
time it became law.
Those legislators did nothing but
procrastinate for about six of those
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with overseeing regulation of the
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and shift personnel. But now, as the
deadline to legalization draws near,
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piece will directly affect us here:
the ability of local governments to
ban marijuana businesses in places
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There is little appetite among
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for allowing marijuana business.
If given the legal ability, bans are
certain to be put into place. While
Eastern Oregon has been a fertile
ground for new ideas in education,
agriculture and energy, there has
been no interest in experimenting
with drug reform.
But what do we gain from
refusing to participate? Maybe a few
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aged, in the short remaining period
when anti-marijuana voters are
the majority in our small slice of
America.
According to the Pew Research
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opposed marijuana legalization in
1969. That number has dropped
steadily in the decades since, and
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that same view. A majority — 53
percent — now favor legalization,
a 12 percent jump in just 10 years.
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District of Columbia, marijuana will
be an annual ballot measure across
the country, with legalization coming
out on top more often than not.
But despite the gradual
acceptance being won across the
country, that virtue still has not
penetrated the local brain trust — or
the citizens at large.
“How many deaths is it going
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chief Stuart Roberts of city council,
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fears about the destruction and death
brought by legalization.
Former Pendleton city councilor
and local businessman Keith May
continued with the hyperbole,
saying he would close his business
and move away if a marijuana shop
opened on Main Street.
Their cause is a lost one. It won’t
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life passing by as usual — until their
fears are found to be unsubstantiated.
In that time, some of those 12,122
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the ban will soon become a political
liability, not to mention an economic
one.
Marijuana is still legal here on
July 1. On that day, adult Oregonians
can own four marijuana plants and
give the drug away to their of-age
friends.
The county bans against
marijuana shops will not reduce
usage, but it will reduce the number
of jobs and tax dollars we get from
that usage.
Could you imagine the uproar
if Oregon instituted a sales tax and
Portland declined to participate?
Picture the metro area spending
taxes we raised out here in cowboy
country without adding their own
dollars to the pot. There would be an
outright revolt in Eastern Oregon,
and rightfully so.
What’s the difference with
marijuana? A county that bans it
will have to accept its title as a
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and spend taxpayer dollars without
putting their share into the pot.
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.
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.
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if they had discovered a purpose
open has become the driving force of
in life and, if so, how they had
my life in the years since my wife’s
discovered it. A few thousand wrote
death. It has become the purpose to my
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life is. Most people found their
Some people’s lives organize
purpose either through raising children
around a certain role or calling.
or confronting illness or death.
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Scott Addington writes, “As is
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David
often the case, my purpose became
Brooks After her brother suffered a brain
clearly evident after I had stopped
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through the maze of the health care
my daughter was born. Beginning with
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that moment, there has never been the slightest ¿QGZRUN
doubt regarding the purpose and source
But, for many people, the purpose of life is
of meaning in my life.
simply to live it fully. Many
Being a father is the most
people don’t necessarily
meaningful and rewarding
see their lives as pointing
pursuit a man could ever
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by some mission statement.
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but also in teaching. The
full volume, to experience
essays from teachers ring
and help others richly.
with special clarity and
Jae Brown was driving
force. Many of them see
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clearly how their day-to-day
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activities are in line with
pulled over. He confessed
their ultimate end. This has
everything to the cop,
its downside after people
who saw that Brown was
leave teaching.
in college and whispered,
Carolyn from Michigan
“Don’t let your friends get
writes, “Before class, I
you in trouble you can’t get
sometimes would sit in
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the chair of a student who
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was having a lot of trouble
Brown writes, “is to mentor,
and pray that I might be a
provide that whisper in
blessing to him that day.
someone’s ear that changes
Yes, for 37 years I was a
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teacher, the last 25 as a high school special
The great struggle in essay after essay is
education teacher. That was my purpose;
to remain emotionally vital and intellectually
that was my calling. But now I am retired,
alive.
and I am adrift. What is my purpose now?
Zachary Krowitz, 21, read the essays
I struggle with it every day. When I was
written in response to the column and
teaching, I would bound out of bed at 6:15
concluded that “this desire for something
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that is surely true is present in all of us, and
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of anxiety. It might have been better had I died want. ... Unfortunately, based both on the
while trying to teach students with learning
essays written in response to your column
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and common experience, such meaning is
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often lost as one travels through life, emotions
loss. Greg Sunter from Brisbane, Australia,
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writes: “Four years ago, my wife of 21 years
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passed away as the result of a brain tumor.
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Her passage from diagnosis to death was less
love of my family I wouldn’t be who I am
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single time. It means I cry when I listen to
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come from the experience for me through
ridiculously sentimental because I choose to
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remain open to this vast, messy thing we call
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own growth has been as a result of my wife’s
For many people, the purpose of life is to
death.
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Palmer writes about the two ways in which
have had more to do with the next life, or
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the heart as shattered and scattered; the second live with hearts wide open.
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capacity, holding more of both our own and
David Brooks became a New York Times
the world’s suffering and joy, despair and
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
For many
people, the
purpose of life
is simply to live
it fully. Many
people don’t
necessarily see
their lives as
defined by some
sort of mission
statement.
YOUR VIEWS
Immigrants shouldn’t have
access to state scholarships
Sponsors of Senate Bill 932, legislation that
would grant access to Oregon Opportunity
Grants to illegal immigrants, seem tone deaf
to the will of nearly one million Oregon voters
who less than eight months ago rejected
Measure 88, legislation that would have
granted state issued driver cards to illegal
immigrants.
By a 2-to-1 margin, voters defeated
Measure 88 indicating that Oregon voters are
very opposed to the idea of providing illegal
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state issued identity that would validate their
presence in the state.
Senate Bill 932 in a very clear way
validates the presence of illegal immigrants in
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access to Oregon Opportunity Grants.
This school year, only 30 percent of the 120
thousand Oregon students eligible obtained a
taxpayer funded Oregon Opportunity Grant.
Currently there are not enough state monies
available to fund Oregon Opportunity Grants
for all American citizen Oregon students, let
alone for persons illegally in the state.
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2016 school years to each illegal immigrant
who applies and is accepted to receive a
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a traditional four-year college education, an
individual illegal immigrant could receive as
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Earlier this year, Rep. Jessica Vega
Peterson estimated that 76 illegal immigrants
living in the state could be eligible to receive
opportunity grants.
Doing the math on 76 illegal immigrants
receiving Oregon Opportunity Grants for a
period of from one to four years could cost
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The state government administrative costs
for giving illegal immigrants opportunity
grants are estimated to be, over the next four
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sponsors of the legislation have placed an
emergency clause on the Senate Bill, which
means Oregonians’ opposing this legislation
would be prevented from using the state’s
referendum process to put this issue of
whether or not illegal immigrants should get
access opportunity grants before the state’s
voters.
Oregon voters who reject the idea of
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Grants to illegal immigrants, a legislative
action that validates their presence in the
state, should contact their state senator and
representative and tell them to vote no on SB
932.
David Olen Cross
Salem
