Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, July 1, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Don’t do drugs As of Wednesday, marijuana is spectrum. legal to possess in Oregon without a But that doesn’t mean we’re in favor of using marijuana. prescription. The drug is helpful to some, For years now, personal use amounts were nearly decriminalized harmless to most, and a real drag to a few. But so are Big Macs, in this state, a poorly regulated whiskey, tobacco, video games medical program was put in place, and motorcycles, and an omnipresent black market which can be just allowed recreational Just because it’s as addicting and users avenues to debilitating. Those legal doesn’t access the drug. too raise issues of But this is real- personal choice and mean a Big deal legalization. No acceptance Mac-a-day habit personal more fake medical of danger. conditions. No more Just because it’s is a good one. legal hiding grow rooms doesn’t mean in moldy basements, a Big Mac-a-day or grow sites on out-of-the-way land. habit is a good one. It’s the same No more buying from a shady dealer with marijuana. Just because pot is down the street. If you are 21 years legal now doesn’t mean you should of age and on private property, you become a habitual, or even a casual can possess four marijuana plants user. or eight ounces of the ready-to-use Where and if marijuana shops portion. And you can toke up in front can open in our area remains up for of your mother, the mayor and the debate. The state legislature, which chief of police – just not in public. dragged its feet on making important Hooray? decisions on this matter until well We’re in favor of reducing the past the eleventh hour, is still trying black market, increasing state tax to decide. dollars and ending the wasteful, But that doesn’t mean we have hypocritical and often racist drug to put off those decisions about war. We also think this is a good our own habits. Spend your money FKDQFHIRUIUHHGRP¿JKWHUVDQG elsewhere. Pick up a book, go outside, bake an old-fashioned personal liberty supporters to put brownie. Don’t use marijuana. But their money where their mouth is, it’s nice to know we will no longer and maybe open their eyes to the EHQH¿WVWKDWVXFKIUHHGRPFDQEULQJ be wasting public money and energy to people on all sides of the political cracking the skulls of those who do. 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 Supreme Court is doing what it’s suppoed to Recently I’ve begun to feel sad for our East Oregonian editors. I know that they like letters from readers, but there have been precious few since the last election. Almost the only letters that I’ve seen in months have been from people out of our area about some pet issue. So I decided that, since it’s too hot to get out and garden, I’d write something so that our editors would know that one of their readers, in any case, is trying to help them. So let’s think about the Supreme Court. This last week the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act — for the second time — and also gay marriage. 1RZWKHULJKWZLQJLVRQ¿UH$FWLYLVW justices! Oh my! And Republican candidates for president are talking about making the coming election campaign about the role of the court in government. Boy, that’s going to be fun. I can just see it now. So the Congress passes a law that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over Congressional law; the President vetoes this law; the Congress overrides the veto; and the law lands before the Supreme Court. How is the court likely to decide such a case? I would say that it’s a simple 9–0 (spells no). Recall the Citizens United decision some months back that allowed unlimited sums of money to be used to support FDQGLGDWHVIRUQDWLRQDORI¿FH7KHQLW was the Democrats who were all upset. “This is a re-writing of basic constitutional rights.” So then the court was on the side of the right wing; now it is on the side of the left. How can we live with a court like that? Then I had a moment of enlightenment. You know what? The Supreme Court is GRLQJH[DFWO\ZKDWLWLVVXSSRVHGWRGR evaluate legal issues brought before it and decide what is the best determination. We call this our system of checks and balances. It represents the most brilliant part of this wonderful constitution that we have that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson created. So, I don’t like one of those three decisions, and you don’t like two. So, What the hell? That’s what’s called democracy, and praise God! It’s still alive and well in this country. So, let’s all go to the Fourth of July parade this Saturday and applaud that self- effacing WWII hero, Bob Stangier, and then retire to a local watering hole, order a glass of American whiskey, and raise a toast to the United States of America, the greatest country in the world, where there is still hope for the hopeless, help for the helpless, and freedom and justice for all. Jack T. Sanders Pendleton A wonderful advance in culture and the world While it may not be right or traditional, we must all accept that change is a part of our lives and our culture. The last 100 years has seen some of the greatest advancements in our world’s history. But my focus today is to refute the Debbie Downers. With the Supreme Court’s recent decisions and our own state’s actions we must admit a few things. Firstly, love is intangible, immaterial, evolving and most important has no bounds. The court’s UHFHQWGHFLVLRQUHDI¿UPVWKDWDOOORYHLV valid between consenting adults. Second, the passage of the voter- approved legalization of marijuana for recreational use is telling both the citizens and themselves that as adults we have the right to consume whatever substance we want, as long as it is not causing undue harm to others. On my bigger issues, there has to be a polar shift in our lifestyles if we want to survive. I say this not as a pessimist or a cynical person but as a logical thinking person. Please hear my argument DQGLGHDV:HKDYHWRPRYHRQIURP consumerism and money-items lifestyles. Second, we have to learn to better use our water or we will face a time when water is rationed like pills. We are in the 21st century; we know how the world works, we know we cause climate change, but we still drive cars everywhere, waste beyond comprehension — it must all stop. My only viable option to save the world from ourselves is to shut the Internet and power completely off and start over from the 17th century. For the biggest problem we have today — and I promise many won’t like this, but freedom of speech and all — we must move on from the notion that this life is a test and the next will be paradise. How about we live to make tomorrow better than today, not just how do I get more things or more self importance? I would like to take my last few words to thank many people that approached me on my last letter to the editor about yielding to pedestrians — thank you. I welcome any response, or if you know me let me know. Thank you for the ink and may logic guide our lives. LETTERS POLICY Zac Wiseman 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 Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS A refuge for racists I drug lords and leeches in our fair land. n one of the little acts of Ha-ha. That Trump — what a straight- subversion that creeps into “The shooter. Simpsons” every now and then, a For his “insulting remarks about helicopter from Fox News was shown Mexican immigrants,” Univision, the in 2010 with a logo, “Not Racist, But Spanish-language broadcaster, just #1 With Racists.” dumped its relationship with Trump’s So it can be said of the Republican Miss Universe pageant. (He’s a Party, a shelter for the kind of dead- Great. Now where are the enders who used to be Democrats, Timothy part-owner.) Republican leaders — supposedly intent then Dixiecrats, but have found a Egan on trying to make the party something home of sorts in the attic of the Party Comment more than a collection of grievance- of Lincoln. It’s encouraging to see gorged old white some party leaders guys — giving trying to sweep Trump a similar these dark-hearted message? elements out, but Trump also they have work to has consistently do yet — starting challenged President with Donald Barack Obama’s Trump. legitimacy as an The accused American citizen, killer of nine making a clearly black churchgoers racist play in his in Charleston, questioning of the South Carolina, president’s place of Dylann Roof, birth, even after the appears to have release of a long- been moved to IRUPELUWKFHUWL¿FDWH mass murder by incendiary tracts turned out Money insulates Trump. But the same by a white supremacist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens. The leader of that same cannot be said of Mike Huckabee, who also questioned the president’s American group, Earl Holt III, has donated more than authenticity, concocting a lie about how “his WRYDULRXV5HSXEOLFDQRI¿FHKROGHUV childhood” in Kenya shaped his worldview. and candidates, including the presidential Huckabee sent a well-received video, in 1993, aspirants Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand to the supremacist Citizens Council, though he Paul. later condemned the group. The candidates, of course, are shocked Let’s yield to a British-born comedian, — shocked! — that an extremist hate group John Oliver, to set Lost Cause apologists would contribute to their cause, and most of VWUDLJKW³7KH&RQIHGHUDWHÀDJLVRQHRIWKRVH them have now returned the money or given symbols that should really only be seen on it to a fund for victims’ families. But it raises T-shirts, belt buckles and bumper stickers to DQREYLRXVTXHVWLRQ:K\ZRXOGVRPHRQH help the rest of us identify the worst people in whose ideas belong in the graveyard of history contribute, across the board, to leading the world.” The party label is meaningless. The white Republican conservatives? South was solidly Democratic after the Civil Guilt by association can be unfair, or at War, vowing never to vote for the party that least calls out for nuance. So let’s move on to liberated the slaves. A hundred years later, DPRUHRYHUWUDFLDO¿UHERPEHULQWKHSDUW\ the white South changed allegiances with the Trump, who is polling second — just behind advent of the civil rights movement. Richard Jeb Bush — in one recent survey of New Nixon then sealed the transformation Hampshire Republicans. with his Southern Strategy, which parked Trump does not use dog whistles or code 6RXWKHUQZKLWHV¿UPO\LQWKH5HSXEOLFDQ words. He’s blunt. And his wealth affords Party. him a halo of respect in some circles that a For the many Republicans who believe low-rent racist would not get. In the spasm in free markets, less government and the of surreal narcissism that was his presidential racial legacy of Lincoln, the question has to announcement earlier this month, Trump said some things you would expect to hear at a EHDVNHG:KDWGRVRPHRIVRFLHW\¶VZRUVW Klan rally — 20 years ago. elements see in their party? It’s the coded “When Mexico sends its people, they’re language, yes, the hard voices of its broadcast not sending their best. They’re not sending wing, but also actions. Of late, this is the you,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs. party that has been behind restrictive voting They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And measures aimed squarely at blacks. Don’t give some, I assume, are good people.” racists anything to root for, and they’ll crawl Because Trump is a buffoon, a punchline back under their rocks. and a fact-checker’s full-time project, he gets Ŷ away with things that more serious candidates Timothy Egan, a New York Times cannot. So Mexicans — and by extension, Contributing Op-Ed Writer, covers the all immigrants — are not “you,” but rapists, environment, the American West and politics. Police camera bill misses the mark The (Albany) Democrat-Herald, June 29 T he Legislature has passed, and Gov. Kate Brown has signed, a bill that spells out standards for police agencies that choose WRHTXLSWKHLURI¿FHUVZLWKERG\FDPHUDV +RXVH%LOOLVXVHIXOLQVRPHUHJDUGV For example, it offers guidance to police about when they should turn on their cameras and how long recordings should be retained. And the bill does not require police agencies to buy video systems, which could have been another substantial unfunded mandate from the state. But in terms of one of the primary reasons WRKDYHWKHELOOLQWKH¿UVWSODFH²KHOSLQJWR UHVWRUHSXEOLFFRQ¿GHQFHLQSROLFHDJHQFLHV — the bill misses its mark. The recordings will not be publicly disclosed, unless such release is deemed necessary to the public interest. It seems unlikely that prosecutors and judges will be racing to release these recordings to the public. And even if they do, the bill mandates that before anything is released, “all persons ZLWKLQWKHUHFRUGLQJ´PXVWEHXQLGHQWL¿DEOH which would seem to limit the usefulness of the recording for members of the public trying to make sense of a noteworthy encounter between citizens and police. There was a time, not so long ago, when URXWLQHO\HTXLSSLQJSROLFHRI¿FHUVZLWKWKHVH body cameras seemed like a natural prescrip- tion for helping to improve the transparency of police agencies across the nation. Unfortu- nately, it’s not too hard to think of any number of recent incidents in which having access to YLGHR¿OPHGIURPDQRI¿FHU¶VSRLQWRIYLHZ would have been helpful — and, in some cases, might have helped avert tragedy. But the version of the bill that now is law in Oregon has little to do with rebuilding trust between police agencies and the public and even less to do with increasing transparency. Instead, its primary focus is about protecting the police. Testimony to the Legislature on the bill IURPSROLFHRI¿FLDOVLQFOXGHVDUHYHDOLQJWXUQ RISKUDVH'DU\O7XUQHUD3RUWODQGRI¿FHU who serves as the president of the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs, noted in his written comments the importance of protecting the recordings from “wanton SXEOLFUHFRUGVUHTXHVWV´:HOORIFRXUVH:H wouldn’t want to burden a public agency with requests to access public records. Those crazy citizens! What will they ask for next? At least the Legislature managed to pass a related bill that does offer some protection to WKHSXEOLF7KHELOOFODUL¿HVWKDWLW¶VQRWLOOHJDO for members of the public to make their own videos of public encounters between police RI¿FHUVDQGFLWL]HQV That’s important, because one of the clear messages sent by the passage of House Bill WRRUGLQDU\FLWL]HQVLVWKLV%HWWHUNHHS your smartphones handy, just in case.