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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Think differently
about incarceration
Is incarceration meant for
punishment or rehabilitation?
It’s a simple question that garners
all sorts of responses. Most people
fall somewhere in the middle —
time behind bars should both satisfy
a civilization’s need for justice while
preparing the ex-con for a life back
in it.
So the questions of how long it
lasts, how it should be executed and
what happens when the sentence
ends are all pertinent.
In 2013 the Oregon legislature
took a hard look at incarceration
projections and realized hard times
were coming. An analysis showed an
increase from about 14,000 inmates
statewide in 2013 to about 16,000
in 2023 — and with each of those
the added housing, food and health
care costs that come with sustaining
a life.
In response, the legislature
passed HB3194 that both changed
sentencing practices and added
funding for better crime prevention.
According to a Pew study, those
changes will save the state $326
million over the next decade. Money
that can be used to decrease the
number of repeat offenders in our
communities.
Locally, we’ve been investing
in new things — more than just
locks and keys and steel bars. Take
Umatilla County’s drug court and
day program, for example. You
may have read some of our stories
in May about drug court graduates
and others who had overcome
obstacles to live a life free and clear
of substance abuse. And a life free
and clear of substance abuse often
translates into a life free and clear
from law enforcement, incarceration
and life in government custody.
Last week we featured the day
program, a strict post-prison course
that forces recently released parties
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to learn how to meld the structure
and accountability of prison life with
the freedom of the outside world.
Many of those feature stories
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lives of crime and addiction,
depression and suicide attempts. But
they were also tales of remarkable
bravery and toughness, that showed
human beings can overcome a lot if
given a chance, if given some hope,
and if given a structure in which
they can succeed.
Breaking the cycle of self-
destruction, addiction and criminal
acts is really hard. And one thing
we’ve learned is that county
lockup just doesn’t do it. But these
programs are making a difference,
and are crucial in turning costly
inmates into productive citizens.
While throwing away the key
may seem like a just response
when a person hurts, steals from
or otherwise damages the life of
a fellow human being, we must
remember not just the cost but also
our societal obligations. Sometimes,
providing a helping hand to an
offender can do both.
And it’s great — and
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responsibilities combine.
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
Family pets can become
killers in packs
Friday, June 12, about 5:30 p.m., dogs
that had come from somewhere south
of Alleluia Avenue swam the river onto
the small island that is a deer refuge
near my back yard, and tore to pieces a
four-day-old fawn.
Your dogs may be benign and friendly
and thought not to be destructive, but
when they “pack” they become ferocious
hunters and killers, hearkening back to
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time they’ve crossed the river and hunted
prey.
I understand the accidental escape
your pets undertake at times, but please
do not indiscriminately set them free
for a little exercise, to dump and cause
mayhem near and in our yards!
Janet Boyd
Hermiston
Don’t blur lines on illegal
immigration
to state scholarships.”
Illegal aliens aren’t the same as
immigrants, and your staffer’s attempt
to blur the distinction between the two is
intellectually dishonest. He ignores the
fact Oregon continually shortchanges
citizens to fund illegal immigrants.
For instance, the Talented and Gifted
Program has shrunk while we spend one
and a half times as much on bi-lingual
education as English education.
Taxpayers must subsidize the college
tuition of illegal aliens while citizens
from other states have to pay full price.
As if the burden isn’t enough,
legislative Democrats want us to also
give free scholarship money to illegally
present students from a limited program
that only awards help to 20 percent of
citizens who apply, and who must now
compete with illegal aliens.
Mexico doesn’t undermine its
population by awarding extravagant
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should we. Your headline writer is an
example of the manipulation citizens
undergo to tolerate mass illegal
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Your copy editor displayed his bias
when he titled the letter from David Olen
Cross “Immigrants shouldn’t have access
LETTERS POLICY
Lyneil Vandermolen
Tualatin
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.
OTHER VIEWS
Fracking and the Franciscans
P
ope Francis is one of the
environmental health of 150 countries.
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The nations with higher income per
There are passages in his new
capita had better environmental ratings.
encyclical on the environment that
As countries get richer they invest to
beautifully place human beings
tackle environmental problems that
within the seamless garment of life.
directly kill human beings (though they
And yet overall the encyclical is
don’t necessarily tackle problems that
surprisingly disappointing.
despoil the natural commons).
Legitimate warnings about the
You would never suspect, from this
David
perils of global warming morph into
Brooks encyclical, that over the last decade,
1970s-style doom-mongering about
one of the most castigated industries
Comment
technological civilization. There
has, ironically, produced some of the
are too many overdrawn
most important economic
statements like “The earth,
and environmental gains.
our home, is beginning to
I’m talking of course about
look more and more like
fracking.
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There was recently a vogue
Hardest to accept,
for polemical antifracking
though, is the moral
documentaries like “Gasland”
premise implied
that purport to show that
throughout the encyclical:
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that the only legitimate
tap water and other horrors.
human relationships are
But a recent Environmental
based on compassion,
Protection Agency study
harmony and love, and
found that there was no
that arrangements based
evidence that fracking was
on self-interest and
causing widespread harm to
competition are inherently
the nation’s water supply. On
destructive.
the contrary, there’s some
The pope has a section on work in the
evidence that fracking is a net environmental
encyclical. The section’s heroes are St. Francis plus.
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That’s because cheap natural gas from
love who seek to return, the pope says, to a
fracking displaces coal. A study by the
state of “original innocence.”
Breakthrough Institute found coal-powered
He is relentlessly negative, on the other
electricity declined to 37 percent from 50
hand, when describing institutions in
percent of the generation mix between 2007
which people compete for political power
and 2012. Because natural gas has just half
or economic gain. At one point he links
as much global-warming potential as coal,
self-interest with violence. He comes out
energy-related carbon emissions have declined
against technological advances that will
more in the U.S. than in any other country
improve productivity by replacing human
over that time.
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Fracking has also been an enormous boon
mechanisms to solve environmental problems, to the nation’s wealth and the well-being of
even though these cap-and-trade programs are its people. In a new report called “America’s
up and running in places like California.
Unconventional Energy Opportunity,”
Moral realists, including Catholic ones,
Michael E. Porter, David S. Gee and Gregory
should be able to worship and emulate a
J. Pope conclude that gas and oil resources
God of perfect love and still appreciate
extracted through fracking have already
systems, like democracy and capitalism, that
added more than $430 billion to annual gross
harness self-interest. But Francis doesn’t
domestic product and supported more than 2.7
seem to have practical strategies for a fallen
million jobs that pay, on average, twice the
world. He neglects the obvious truth that
median U.S. salary.
the qualities that do harm can often, when
Pope Francis is a wonderful example of
carefully directed, do enormous good. Within
how to be a truly good person. But if we
marriage, lust can lead to childbearing.
had followed his line of analysis, neither the
Within a regulated market, greed can lead to
Asian economic miracle nor the technology-
entrepreneurship and economic innovation.
based American energy revolution would
Within a constitution, the desire for fame can
have happened. There’d be no awareness
lead to political greatness.
that though industrialization can lead to
You would never know from the encyclical catastrophic pollution in the short term
that we are living through the greatest
(China), over the long haul both people
reduction in poverty in human history. A
and nature are better off with technological
raw and rugged capitalism in Asia has led,
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ironically, to a great expansion of the middle
The innocence of the dove has to be
class and great gains in human dignity.
accompanied by the wisdom of the serpent
You would never know that in many parts
— the awareness that programs based on the
of the world, like the United States, the rivers
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and skies are getting cleaner. The race for
best social programs harvest the low but steady
riches, ironically, produces the wealth that can motivations of people as they actually are.
be used to clean the environment.
■
A few years ago, a team of researchers
David Brooks became a New York Times
led by Daniel Esty of Yale looked at the
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
He neglects
the obvious
truth that the
qualities that do
harm can often,
when carefully
directed, do
enormous good.
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The (Albany) Democrat Herald, June 17
While we wait to see what the next
front will be in the statewide battle over
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watching how a similar ban plays out in
Jackson County.
The ban in that southern Oregon county,
approved by voters more than a year ago,
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6, after a federal judge rejected a claim by
farmers that the ordinance violated their rights
under state law.
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potential violations of the ban.
Here’s what happened on that red-letter
day: Nothing.
And you can expect the same sort of action
in Jackson County in the immediate future.
According to a story in The Oregonian,
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plans to patrol the county searching for illegal
GMO crops. And they may never get around
to it.
Part of the reason is legal. Although the
judge rejected the “right to farm” claim being
pursued by lawyers for the farmers, an appeal
remains a possibility.
And a separate legal issue still is pending:
Whether the farmers should receive $4.2
million in compensation from the county.
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until that legal issue is settled.
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enforce the ban, or even if they should.
The ordinance doesn’t require the county
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authority to do so. And it seems relatively
clear that the county isn’t exactly eager to
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say the cost of enforcement could be as much
as $200,000 each year.
Proponents of the ban say, in general, that’s
OK. What’s really important, they say, is the
message that the measure sends to farmers
considering planting GMO crops. And, they
say, the measure is important to help protect
non-GMO crops.
Maybe. But that equanimity likely will be
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complaint that someone else is planting GMO
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how to respond. You can’t tell if a crop is
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tion requires sophisticated testing.
One of the most unfortunate side effects of
the Benton County debate over the proposed
GMO ban there was the way it pitted farmers
— in some cases, lifelong friends — against
each other. Depending on what happens next
in Jackson County (and across the state), that
nastiness might turn out to be just a taste of
what could come next.