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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Guestworker imSasse
shows need for reform
)or the second year in a row,
a comSuter failure has caused a
farmworker shortage in the West.
This renews legitimate comSlaints
that the government’s system for
aSSroving guestworker visas is
unnecessarily comSle[.
A hardware glitch Srevented the
State DeSartment from Srocessing
visas for H-2A guestworkers on
the Me[ican border for nine days,
Sreventing workers already hired
by fruit and vegetable growers
from entering the United States and
delaying the Sicking of Serishable
croSs.
According to the State
DeSartment, a hardware failure
in its Consular Consolidated
Database left it unable to Srocess
visas or SassSorts at embassies and
consulates worldwide.
The Sroblem left thousands of
foreign workers with Mobs waiting
in the United States, but who had
not yet had their visas issued, stuck
in Me[ico. And it left growers in
the U.S. scrambling to try, largely
unsuccessfully, to arrange their legal
crossing.
³We cannot bySass the legal
requirements necessary to screen
visa aSSlicants before we issue visas
for travel,´ the State DeSartment
said. ³Security measures Srevent
consular of¿cers from Srinting a
SassSort, reSort of birth abroad or
visa until the case comSletes the
required national security checks.´
While many emSloyers offered to
Say worker e[Senses as they waited
in Me[ico, many workers could not
afford to wait and returned home.
Dan )a]io, director of the
Washington )arm Labor Association
in OlymSia, is more than a little
frustrated. A similar glitch last
year caused delays in getting legal
workers into the ¿elds and orchards
of the West.
Though the hardware glitches
are unfortunate, )a]io says the
Sroblem does not lie with the State
DeSartment or its comSuters. The
Sroblem is that the system deSends
on the seamless coordination of si[
seSarate government agencies.
)ive years ago the Obama
Administration made the H-2A
Srogram less user friendly.
The Srogram requires emSloyers
to ¿rst advertise Mobs to U.S.
citi]ens, and to give Sreference
to any local aSSlications that
may come thereafter. Even when
unemSloyment is high, local workers
seldom take to the ¿elds. Growers
have to Srovide transSortation and
housing, and a guaranteed wage.
And even if a grower meets all
the requirements, any number of
glitches can keeS workers on the
wrong side of the border.
The answer is meaningful
immigration reform, Sassed by
Congress and not by administrative
¿at.
We continue to believe the
answer is to offer illegal immigrants
temSorary legal status and a Sath to
Sermanent residency after 10 years
if they meet strict requirements
— no Srior felony convictions, no
violations while awaiting residency,
learning to sSeak English and Say
a ¿ne and back ta[es. We think the
border should be secured. EmSloyers
must verify the work status of their
emSloyees.
And of course, a viable
guestworker Srogram must be
established without the Solitics and
the nonsensical requirements.
Whether taken Siecemeal or in a
comSrehensive measure, it’s time
Congress moved forward.
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
Court has no right to
overrule the people
I cannot believe how fast this country
has become so immoral and unethical;
¿ve SeoSle can dictate to the maMority
what is right.
The maMority voted no to same se[
marriage. If you don’t want to believe
in God it is your choice, but do not tell
us that it is O.. The maMority vote in
Oregon was no same se[ marriage, and
yet the attorney general would not stand
behind the SeoSle.
If they want to destroy themselves
then let it be on them — they have that
God-given right, but the government
does not have the right tell us to acceSt
it. 'o not give us cow Sie and say it’s an
aSSle.
William Douglas
Echo
Pot must be handled justly
The controversy over mariMuana
seems to get more comSlicated daily. In
a recent article in The New Yorker, May
8, 2015, a well-known surgeon, Dr. Atul
Gawande, commented that a Colorado
study found that the Sercentage of
fatal motor vehicle accidents involving
mariMuana had doubled since its
commercial distribution became legal.
In reading your Public Safety Log, I
note that daily there are many citations
for Sersons using or having mariMuana
in their Sossession. It is Srobably true,
some mariMuana is obtained by black
market, but if Colorado’s statistics are
correct, we must seriously decide how
we Slan to handle the use of mariMuana
in Oregon.
One only has to look north to
Washington to learn how much
mariMuana is brought across the border.
It causes a lot of Sroblems for the Solice
and courts, Sroblems that cost ta[Sayers
money. Most of those arrested are
reSeaters. )inding a way to deal with
this imSortant issue is not an easy task,
but dealing with it Mustly is imSortant.
I wish I had a solution, or even a
suggestion. I do not.
LETTERS POLICY
Dorys C. Grover
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 Man-
aging Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or
email editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
Gay conservatism and
straight liberation
B
at historic lows, with the millennial
efore there was a national debate
generation, the vanguard of suSSort for
about same-se[ marriage, there
same-se[ marriage, leading the retreat.
was a debate within the gay
Millennials may agree with Kennedy’s
community about whether it was a
ruling, but they’re making his view
worthwhile goal to chase at all.
of marriage as ³a keystone of the
This debate was tactical (since the
nation’s social order´ look antiTue. In
cause once seemed Tui[otic but also
their views and (lack of vows, they’re
ShilosoShical.
taking a more rela[ed SersSective,
One current of thought saw
Ross
the institution of marriage as
Douthat in which wedlock is malleable and
oStional, one way among many to love,
inherently oSSressive, Satriarchal or
Comment
live, rear kids — or not.
heteronormative, better reMected or
In this sense, the gay rights
radically transformed than simSly
movement has won twice over. Its conservative
Moined.
wing won the right to normalcy for gay
This liberationist SersSective endured in
academia, but mostly lost the Solitical argument. couSles, while raSid cultural change has made
the de¿nition of normalcy less binding than the
Gay couSles wanted the chance for normalcy,
gay left once feared.
straight Americans were surSrisingly receStive,
In vain social conservatives have argued
and so a conservative case for same-se[
that this combination isn’t a coincidence,
marriage — the argument that marriage is
that suSSort for same-se[ marriage and the
essential to human dignity and Àourishing —
decline of straight marital norms e[ist in a
became the Sublic case for gay eTuality.
kind of feedback looS, that an idea can have
And now that case rings from every
conservative consequences for one community
SaragraSh of Anthony .ennedy’s marriage
and revolutionary imSlications overall.
ruling, from the ¿rst lines to the ³no union is
This argument was ruled out, irrationally,
more Srofound than marriage´ Seroration.
as irrational, but it Srobably wouldn’t have
But in one of the ironies in which the arc of
history sSeciali]es, while the conservative case mattered if the courts were willing to consider
it. Too many Americans clearly Must like the
for same-se[ marriage triumShed in Solitics,
more rela[ed view of marriage’s imSortance,
the liberationist case against marriage’s
centrality to human Àourishing was winning in and the fact that this rela[ation makes room for
our gay friends and neighbors is only Sart of its
the wider culture.
aSSeal. Straight America has its own reasons
You would not know this from Kennedy’s
for seeking liberation from the old rules, its
oSinion, which is relentlessly uSbeat about
own hoSes of Moy and haSSiness to chase.
how ³new insights have strengthened,
not weakened´ marriage, bringing ³new
Unfortunately I see little evidence that
dimensions of freedom´ to society.
SeoSle are actually haSSier in the emerging
But the central ³new dimension of freedom´ disSensation, or that their children are better
being claimed by straight America is a freedom off, or that the cause of social Mustice is
from marriage — from the institution as
well-served, or that declining marriage rates
traditionally understood, and from wedlock and and thinning family trees (Slus legal Sressure
family, Seriod.
on religious communities that are e[ceStions
The traditional understanding, which
to this rule Sromise anything save greater
rested on se[ difference, Srocreation, and real
loneliness for the maMority, and stagnation
Sermanence, went into crisis in the 10s and
overall.
10s. But in the 10s, when The Atlantic
The case for same-se[ marriage has been
informed readers that ³Dan 4uayle Was
Sressed in the name of the )uture. But the
5ight´ about unwed motherhood and today’s
vision of marriage and family that made its
Democratic front-runner fretted about the costs victory Sossible is deeSly Sresent-oriented,
of no-fault divorce, there were reasons to think reMecting not only lessons of a long human Sast
that a kind of neo-traditionalism might still
but also many of the moral claims that insSire
have Surchase in America.
adults to Srivilege the interests of their children,
1ot so today. Since the µ0s, aSSroval of
or indeed to bring children into e[istence at all.
divorce, Sremarital se[, and out-of-wedlock
PerhaSs, with same-se[ marriage an
childbearing have climbed steadily, and the
accomSlished fact, there will be cultural sSace
belief that children are ³very imSortant´ to
to consider these lessons and claims anew.
marriage has collaSsed. Kennedy’s ruling
PerhaSs.
argues that the right to marry is essential,
But seeing little such sSace, and little
in Sart, because the institution ³safeguards
recognition that anything might have been lost
children and families.´ But the changing
along the road we’ve taken to this ruling, in the
cultural attitudes that Mustify his MurisSrudence
name of the Sast and the future I resSectfully
increasingly treat this safeguard as inessential,
dissent.
a Sotentially nice but hardly necessary thing.
Ŷ
And the same is true of marriage itself.
Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as
an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. His column
America is not Tuite so ³advanced´ as certain
appears every Sunday.
EuroSean societies, but our marriage rate is
If the Saw doesn’t ¿t,
the state must acquit
The (Bend) Bulletin, June 28
1aturalists couldn’t be haSSier about the
growing number of wolves in Oregon. )or
them, the return of wolves restores a missing
Siece of the ecosystem. But almost in inverse
SroSortion, ranchers are not so Sleased.
We don’t want to make light of the serious
issues that divide naturalists and ranchers, but
there are great mystery stories in the state’s
wolf kill investigations.
The reSorts are how the state determines if
a wolf is guilty of killing livestock. They helS
measure the imSact of wolves in Oregon and
can earn ranchers comSensation for losses.
The reSorts aren’t great literature. But for a
bureaucratic reSort, there is fascinating intrigue
in the evidence, sleuthing and susSects.
The Oregon DeSartment of )ish and
Wildlife tries to get an investigator on site
within 2 hours of a reSort of a Sossible wolf
kill. There is measurement of bite marks and
location. Determinations are made about
what wounds were killing strikes and what
was Sostmortem feeding. There’s analysis
of tracks. There’s comSarison of tracking
locations of collared wolves. The ¿nal reSorts
are Sublished online at www.dfw.state.or.us
WolvesdeSredation—investigations.asS.
Sometimes, wolves are blamed. Sometimes,
it’s a mountain lion. Sometimes, OD)W
investigators are Must not sure.
5anchers comSlain about these investiga-
tions. Todd Nash, a Wallowa County rancher
and chairman of the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association wolf committee, doesn’t feel
OD)W is willing enough to con¿rm a wolf
kill. He told the East Oregonian it would be
easier to ¿nd O.J. SimSson guilty than a wolf.
He Sointed to an incident in Wallowa
County this year of the death of a calf. There
was evidence the calf had been attacked by a
wolf and a coyote. The investigation decision
was ³Srobable wolf´ instead of ³con¿rmed
wolf.´
Nash’s frustration is understandable. But
OD)W’s decision in that case seemed reason-
able given the evidence Sresented in the reSort.
The state does have a resSonsibility to get
rid of wolves that are chronically Sreying on
livestock. But if the Saw doesn’t ¿t, the state
must acquit.