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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, June 25, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Minimum wage bill doesn’t work for Eastern Oregon After an initial derailment, a that to mom-and-pop business proposal to raise Oregon’s minimum owners who at times forgo their own wage is back on track in the waning paycheck in order to make payroll days of the state Legislature. That’s for their employees. an unfortunate development for Oregon’s economy is still businesses outside the Portland recovering from the brutal metropolitan area. recession. In May, the number of We previously editorialized jobs in the state declined for the against such legislation. Our ¿UVWWLPHLQWKUHH\HDUV$QGZKLOH opinion has not the Portland area is been changed by the rest Large Portland- humming, arguments recently of the state still is offered by Portland by high area employers hampered politicians and their unemployment and supporters. Their a lack of skilled can easily pitch ignores our workers. Raising state’s economic the minimum wage absorb such diversity and relies by 37 percent over on benevolent payroll increases. the next few years assumptions not will exacerbate the But most private- challenges facing supported by science or math. small businesses. sector jobs in House Speaker Rep. Kotek’s Tina Kotek proposal would Eastern Oregon rescind current law proposes to raise the minimum hourly to allow for some rate to $13 by 2018. and elsewhere in cities to approve It would be pegged increases in rural Oregon are larger at $11 in 2016 and the minimum wage. $12 in 2017. plays to the found in small That It does not matter good citizens of to Rep. Kotek that business — many Portland and Eugene, Oregon’s current but does nothing for rate of $9.25 per of them family- those in the small hour already is the communities of owned and run Eastern Oregon. second-highest in the nation. And Oregon’s on a shoestring. minimum wage she conveniently sidesteps questions is half the median about the potential hourly wage for impact of such increases beyond her all Oregon hourly workers. That DIÀXHQW3RUWODQGGLVWULFW is a reasonable level for a wage Large Portland-area employers meant for entry-level workers when like Nike and Intel can easily compared with those with years of absorb such payroll increases. But experience or specialized skills. most private-sector jobs in Eastern If there is good news for workers Oregon and elsewhere in rural in Oregon, it is this: “Real wages are Oregon are found in small business growing … Average hourly earnings — many of them family-owned increased 2.2 percent over the year and run on a shoestring. Such large for Oregon’s private-sector payroll increases will require them to cut employees. These wage gains were hours, reduce staff size or pass on above the rate of consumer price to customers those additional costs. LQÀDWLRQ´ Such outcomes would hurt the very That recent report from state people the minimum wage hike is government shows that the free designed to help. market is responding to economic A typical response to those likely conditions without interference scenarios is an activist rant: “The from Rep. Kotek and her Portland CEOs should take a pay cut!” Tell colleagues. 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. OTHER VIEWS Cold War without the fun L et’s see, America is now he’s just using the NATO threat prepositioning battle tanks to justify the militarization of Russian with our East European NATO society so he and his fellow kleptocrats allies to counterbalance Russia; U.S. can stay in power and paint their and Russian military planes recently opponents as lackeys of the West. ÀHZZLWKLQIHHWRIHDFKRWKHU NATO’s toppling of the Libyan Russia is building a new generation OHDGHU0RDPPDU*DGKD¿WKH$UDE of long-range ballistic missiles; and Spring and the Moscow street protests the U.S. and China are jostling in the Thomas that followed rattled Putin, said Sergei South China Sea. Did someone restart Friedman Guriev, the noted Russian economist the Cold War while I was looking the now based in Paris. “Putin understood Comment other way? that he lost the Russian middle class If so, this time it seems and so he started to look like the Cold War without for legitimacy somewhere the fun — that is, without else” — in hypernationalism James Bond, SMERSH, and anti-Americanism. “Get Smart” Agent But Guriev makes an 86’s shoe phone, Nikita important point. “If not Khrushchev’s shoe-banging, for the Western sanctions a race to the moon or a on Russia, East Ukraine debate between American would already have been and Soviet leaders over part of Russia today,” he whose country has the best said, adding that there is kitchen appliances. And nothing Putin fears more I don’t think we’re going than Ukraine succeeding in to see President Barack diminishing corruption and Obama in Kiev declaring, à building a modern economy la President Kennedy, “ich that would be everything bin ein Ukrainian.” Also, the Putin’s Russia is not. Guriev lingo of our day — “reset is worried, though, that the with Russia” or “pivot to anti-Western propaganda Asia” — has none of the gravitas of — drum Putin has been pumping into the veins of the roll, please — “détente.” Russian public will have a lasting effect and No, this post-post-Cold War has more of make his successor even worse. Either way, a WWE — World Wrestling Entertainment “Russia will be a big challenge for your next — feel to it, and I don’t just mean President president.” Vladimir Putin of Russia’s riding horses The Chinese leadership is not as dumb bare-chested, although that is an apt metaphor. or desperate as Putin — and needs access to It’s just a raw jostling for power for power’s U.S. markets more — so, for now, China’s VDNH²QRWDFODVKRILQÀXHQWLDOLGHDVEXW leaders still behave with some restraint in UDWKHURIVSKHUHVRILQÀXHQFH³<RXFURVVWKDW asserting their claims in the South China Sea. line, I punch your nose.” “Why?” “Because I But the fact is, as the Asia expert Andrew VDLGVR´³<RXJRWDSUREOHPZLWKWKDW"´³<HV Browne noted in The Wall Street Journal, “the OHWPHVKRZ\RXP\GURQH<RXJRWDSUREOHP U.S.-China relationship has lost its strategic with that?” “Not at all. My cyber guys stole raison d’être: the Soviet Union, the common the guidance system last week from Northrop threat that brought the two countries together.” *UXPPDQ´³<RXJRWDSUREOHPZLWKWKDW"´ They have not forged a new one, like being The Cold War had a beginning, an end co-managers of global stability. and even a closing curtain, with the fall of the In short, the attraction of the U.S. economy Berlin Wall. But the post-post-Cold War has and the bite of U.S. sanctions are more vital brought us full circle back to the pre-Cold War than ever in managing the post-post-Cold and the game of nations. There was a moment War game of nations, including bringing when it seemed as though it would all be Iran to nuclear talks. We may be back to otherwise — when it seemed that Arabs and traditional geopolitics, but it’s in a much more Israelis would make peace, that China would interdependent world, where our economic evolve into a more consensual political system clout is still a source of restraint on Moscow and that Russia would become part of Europe and Beijing. Putin doesn’t disguise his and the G-8. That was a lifetime ago. military involvement in Ukraine for nothing; Now Western reporters struggle to get visas he’s afraid of more U.S. banking sanctions. to China, no American businessman with China doesn’t circumscribe its behavior in the a brain takes his laptop to Beijing, Chinese South China Sea for nothing; it can’t grow hackers have more of your personal data without exporting to America. It’s not just now than LinkedIn, Russia is still intent on our guns, it’s our butter. It’s why we should becoming part of Europe — by annexing a be expanding U.S.-shaped free-trade deals piece here and a piece there — and the G-8 is with Asia and Europe and it’s why the most now the G-1.5 (America and Germany). important source of stability in the world :KHQGLGLWDOOJRVRXU":H¿UHGWKH¿UVW today is the health of the U.S. economy. We shot when we expanded NATO toward the can walk softly only as long as we carry a big Russian border even though the Soviet Union stick — and a big wallet. KDGGLVDSSHDUHG0HVVDJHWR0RVFRZ<RX Ŷ are always an enemy, no matter what system Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer you have. When oil prices recovered, Putin Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer sought his revenge for this humiliation, but for The New York Times. This post-post- Cold War has more a WWE feel to it, and I don’t just mean Vladimir Putin riding horses bare-chested. OTHER VIEWS &RQIHGHUDWHÀDJV\PERORIKDWHVKRXOGEHORZHUHG Medford Mail Tribune, June 25 After decades of controversy, it took one racist young man with a handgun to galvanize public opinion around that ubiquitous symbol of misplaced Southern LGHQWLW\WKH&RQIHGHUDWHEDWWOHÀDJ South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, reeling in the aftermath of the massacre of nine worshipers at a historic black church in Charleston, on Monday called on KHUVWDWH¶V/HJLVODWXUHWRVWRSÀ\LQJ WKH&RQIHGHUDWHÀDJRQWKHVWDWH Capitol grounds. The nation’s largest retailer, :DOPDUWVXGGHQO\VDZ¿WWR declare it would no longer sell &RQIHGHUDWHÀDJPHUFKDQGLVH Sears, Target and eBay followed VXLWDQGWKHQ$PD]RQDIWHUÀDJ sales skyrocketed. Even Oregon has been swept up LQWKHDQWLÀDJIUHQ]\+RZ\RX ask? In Wilson Park, just outside the state Capitol building in Salem, is DQRXWGRRUGLVSOD\RIWKHÀDJVRI all 50 states. The Mississippi state ÀDJLVWKHODVWRQHLQWKHFRXQWU\WR LQFOXGHWKH&RQIHGHUDWHEDWWOHÀDJ in its design. State Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, has called for the 0LVVLVVLSSLÀDJWREHWDNHQGRZQ DQGUHSODFHGZLWKWKDWVWDWH¶V¿UVW RI¿FLDOVWDWHÀDJWKH³0DJQROLD Flag,” used from 1861 to 1894. There’s just one problem with that idea. Well, more than one. For starters, it makes little sense to single out Mississippi IRUVKDPLQJE\UHPRYLQJLWVÀDJ when several other Southern VWDWHV¶ÀDJVLQFRUSRUDWHHOHPHQWV of Confederate imagery, while stopping short of the familiar blue ;ZLWKZKLWHVWDUVRQD¿HOGRIUHG The Confederacy adopted a VXFFHVVLRQRIÀDJVDVWKH&LYLO:DU SURJUHVVHG7KHEDWWOHÀDJIDPLOLDU to most Americans, and the one VWLOOÀ\LQJLQ&KDUOHVWRQ6&ZDV QHYHUWKHRI¿FLDOV\PERORIWKH &RQIHGHUDF\,WZDVWKHEDWWOHÀDJ of the Army of Northern Virginia. 6RPHRIWKHRI¿FLDOQDWLRQDO ÀDJVRIWKH&RQIHGHUDF\LQFOXGHG WKDWEDWWOHÀDJGHVLJQEXWLQ WKHXSSHUOHIWFRUQHURQD¿HOG of white, or, later, white with a vertical red stripe. 7KHVWDWHÀDJVRI$ODEDPD and Florida use a red Cross of St. Andrew, and historical documents make it clear that design was intended to preserve some symbol of the Confederacy. The Arkansas ÀDJLQFOXGHVZKLWHVWDUVRQDEOXH diamond against a red background, an unmistakable nod to the battle ÀDJ Most problematic in Rep. Read’s proposal is that the “Magnolia Flag” incorporates a solid blue square with a single white star. That symbol echoes WKH³%RQQLH%OXH)ODJ´WKDWÀHZ over the Confederate batteries that RSHQHG¿UHRQ)RUW6XPWHUWRVWDUW the Civil War. <RXFDQGHQRXQFH&RQIHGHUDWH symbolism, but it would seem you cannot escape it — at least in the South. ,IWKH0LVVLVVLSSLÀDJVKRXOG be changed — and it should — Mississippi ought to do it, not the Oregon Legislature. Already, there are calls in that state to remove the offending Confederate imagery. If our legislators feel compelled to ZHLJKLQRQ0LVVLVVLSSL¶VÀDJWKH\ should send a letter encouraging that change. But a display of the QDWLRQ¶VVWDWHÀDJVVKRXOGLQFOXGH DOOWKHQDWLRQ¶VVWDWHÀDJV Meanwhile, no one should imagine that the racist hatred that prompted a dead-eyed 21-year-old to slaughter innocent worshipers will disappear just because a symbol of slavery and oppression is removed from government property. The stain of that massacre cannot be wiped away so easily.
