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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Record ¿sh numbers
won’t last in this heat
The record salmon and steelhead
runs in the Columbia may give the
impression that everything is ¿ne
and dandy in our river, but warm
water and low stream Àows in the
basin at large are creating serious
problems.
The latest edition of Columbia
Basin Bulletin is a litany of
worrisome news about impacted
rivers and harmful effects on ¿sh. So
while coastal residents of the 3aci¿c
Northwest rejoice in experiencing
a genuine summer — unlike the
extended drizzly mid-year months
that plague us some years — the
news is not all good.
Here are some of the Bulletin’s
troubling stories:
• “The water temperature at the
Willamette Falls counting station
hit 80 degrees Fahrenheit ... July
3, and continue(d) to hover around
81 degrees (last) week. As a result,
hundreds of salmon and steelhead
have succumbed to a bacteria
exacerbated by warmer than normal
water in the Willamette River, as
well as in other Northwest rivers.”
• “Salmon and river managers of
the regional Technical Management
Team brieÀy lost their battle to keep
Snake River temperatures in the
Lower Granite Dam tailrace below
68 degrees Fahrenheit (last) week as
low water, higher river temperatures
from upstream and warmer than
normal weather continues to plague
the Northwest.”
• “Dead and distressed sockeye
salmon found this past weekend
(July 4-5) in the Deschutes River
appear to have been ¿sh from the
Columbia River bound for other
upriver locations that likely swam
into the Deschutes in search of
cooler water. Early pathology
results suggest the sockeye salmon
died from columnaris, a bacterial
infection typically associated with
high water temperatures and/or low
levels of dissolved oxygen.”
• “Rivers and streams throughout
the Columbia Basin, to varying
degrees, are now Àowing at levels
normally seen in late summer.
‘Everything pretty much south of the
Canadian border is looking pretty
pathetic, actually,’” a senior federal
hydrologist said.
All this is happening in the
context of salmon returns that
remain very strong, at least on
the Columbia. But we should be
prepared for delayed impacts on
salmon from current conditions.
Three years from now, we may be
looking at ¿shing seasons more
like those of a decade or two
ago, when some spoke of the end
of commercial and recreational
harvests. Even this year, state
¿sheries managers have discussed
but so far resisted imposing ¿shing
restrictions in the afternoons on
some rivers, when warming water
begins to stress ¿sh.
These conditions are, for now,
an anomaly that is expected to run
its course, but perhaps not until
after ongoing El Niño conditions
dissapate in a year or so. But what
we are experiencing now is a strong
foretaste of what it will be like more
or less every year by mid-century.
What can we do? Increasingly,
we’ll need to ¿nd ways to mitigate
temperatures in rivers and reservoirs,
maintaining shade and in-stream
Àows. As snow packs become a less
reliable method of natural water
storage, we will need to contemplate
trying to hold back more winter
rainfall for use in the summer and
autumn. As the climate we know
comes to an end, only fast adaptive
action stands much chance of
preserving vestiges of familiar life.
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
Drugs a bad way
to deal with reality
There was much publicity about the
legalization of marijuana recently. What
is not reported is that marijuana impairs
learning, judgment and memory, all vital
attributes for adolescents. It disrupts
normal development of the white matter
that brain cells need to communicate
with each other, thus hampering the
user’s ability to reason. It can also
damage the heart and lungs, increase the
incidence of anxiety and depression, and
trigger psychotic episodes.
Opioids are a class of drugs
made from opium. Some common
prescription opioids are oxycodone,
morphine, methadone, and so on. They
work by reducing the perception of pain
and stimulating the brain’s “reward
center.”
As time has gone on I am addicted
to pain pills and I have to deal with the
side effects which include constipation.
The emphasis on the projected increase
in use of marijuana brings on the need
to carefully administer these drugs with
competent medical administrators, such
as doctors.
There has been a dramatic rise in the
number of children and adults taking
prescribed psychotropic medications.
These drugs are prescribed to ameliorate
symptoms of schizophrenia, depression,
hyperactivity and other psychiatric
disorders, and they alter the chemistry
of the brain. After a long period of time
of using these drugs, they ultimately
end up with a different brain and thus
a different mind, and there has been
an astounding rise in the number of
disabled mentally ill in American
society.
The use of the drugs listed here
are an example of how young and old
are looking for utopia. It is important
to realize that there are good and bad
moments and these are all natural
events. The use of drugs will not bring
utopia but make it more dif¿cult to deal
with normal events. By allowing the
Holy Spirit to work it will help us. May
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be with
you all.
Donald Peterson
Pendleton
Even animal kingdom
understands God’s plan
From the beginning animals have
chosen their mate, and why? To breed
and have offspring. To this day it is still
the way the world will survive.
Look at any other animal on this
Earth. There is not one that would agree
with the gay lifestyle if they could
communicate. The rest of the animals
on this earth know because they are
God’s creatures and do not even go in
this direction.
It was not right for many lawmakers
and few judges to twist and turn the
laws of God in your favor.
As for ministers of God’s word, I can
only suggest that if I was in your shoes
and the law dictated to me when two of
these people come to get what they call
married and you are forced by that law,
let me please recommend: All church
symbols are covered and all books are
removed and let all words spoken not be
in the name of the lord.
I suggest you say: “In the name of
the lawmakers and the judges of the
country I pronounce you man and man
or woman and woman.”
Now remember, when you two
people are lawfully together, at
retirement one of you will have to give
up half your pension.
I am wishing you no luck in a no-go
future. I do feel sorry for all the children
that have to bear this. One good thing
out of this mess is that when I get to
heaven there will be a lot more room
without you all.
LETTERS POLICY
Larry Long
Irrigon
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 web-
site. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address con-
cerns 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
The laziness dogma
A
mericans work longer hours
numbers are all wrong, and more
than their counterparts in just
broadly disability claims have risen
about every other wealthy
no more than you would expect, given
country; we are known, among
the aging of the population. But no
those who study such things, as the
matter, an epidemic of laziness is their
“no-vacation nation.” According to a
story and they’re sticking with it.
2009 study, full-time U.S. workers put
Where does Jeb Bush ¿t into this
in almost 30 percent more hours over
story? Well before his “longer hours”
the course of a year than their German
gaffe, he had professed himself a
Paul
counterparts, largely because they had Krugman great admirer of the work of Charles
only half as many weeks of paid leave.
Murray, a conservative social analyst
Comment
Not surprisingly, work-life balance is
most famous for his 1994 book “The
a big problem for many people.
Bell Curve,” which claimed that
But Jeb Bush — who is still attempting to
blacks are genetically inferior to whites. What
justify his ludicrous claim that he can double
Bush seems to admire most, however, is a
our rate of economic growth — says that
more recent book, “Coming Apart,” which
Americans “need to work longer hours and
notes that over the past few decades working-
through their productivity gain more income
class white families have been changing in
for their families.”
much the same way that African-American
Bush’s aides have tried to spin away his
families changed in the 1950s and 1960s,
remark, claiming that he was only referring
with declining rates of marriage and labor
to workers trying to ¿nd full-time jobs who
force participation.
remain stuck in part-time employment. It’s
Some of us look at these changes and see
obvious from the context, however, that
them as consequences of an economy that no
this wasn’t what he was talking about. The
longer offers good jobs to ordinary workers.
real source of his remark was the “nation
This happened to African-Americans ¿rst,
of takers” dogma that has taken over
as blue-collar jobs disappeared from inner
conservative circles in recent years — the
cities, but has now become a much wider
insistence that a large number of Americans,
phenomenon thanks to soaring income
white as well as black, are choosing not to
inequality. Murray, however, sees the changes
work, because they can live lives of leisure
as the consequence of a mysterious decline
thanks to government programs.
in traditional values, enabled by government
You see this laziness dogma everywhere
programs which mean that men no longer
on the right. It was the hidden background
“need to work to survive.” And Bush
to Mitt Romney’s infamous 47 percent
presumably shares that view.
remark. It underlay the furious attacks on
The point is that Bush’s clumsy call for
unemployment bene¿ts at a time of mass
longer work hours wasn’t a mere verbal
unemployment and on food stamps when they stumble. It was, instead, an indication that
provided a vital lifeline for tens of millions of he stands ¿rmly on the right side of the great
Americans. It drives claims that many, if not
divide over what working American families
most, workers receiving disability payments
need.
are malingerers — “Over half of the people
There’s now an effective consensus among
on disability are either anxious or their back
Democrats — on display in Hillary Clinton’s
hurts,” says Sen. Rand Paul.
planned Monday speech on the economy —
It all adds up to a vision of the world in
that workers need more help, in the form of
which the biggest problem facing America is
guaranteed health insurance, higher minimum
that we’re too nice to fellow citizens facing
wages, enhanced bargaining power, and
hardship. And the appeal of this vision to
more. Republicans, however, believe that
conservatives is obvious: It gives them
American workers just aren’t trying hard
another reason to do what they want to do
enough to improve their situation, and that
anyway, namely slash aid to the less fortunate the way to change that is to strip away the
while cutting taxes on the rich.
safety net while cutting taxes on wealthy “job
Given how attractive the right ¿nds the
creators.”
image of laziness run wild, you wouldn’t
And while Jeb Bush may sometimes sound
expect contrary evidence to make much, if
like a moderate, he’s very much in line with
any, dent in the dogma. Federal spending
the party consensus. If he makes it to the
on “income security” — food stamps,
White House, the laziness dogma will rule
unemployment bene¿ts, and pretty much
public policy.
everything else you might call “welfare”
Ŷ
except Medicaid — has shown no upward
Paul Krugman joined The New York Times
trend as a share of GDP; it surged during the
in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page
Great Recession and aftermath but quickly
and continues as professor of Economics and
International Affairs at Princeton University.
dropped back to historical levels. Paul’s
A step forward against
food stamp fraud
The (Albany) Democrat-Herald, July 13
A
s citizens and lawmakers alike
continue to take stock of the
2015 legislative session, which
ended last week, it’s not unusual to run
across legislation that didn’t attract much
controversy or news coverage at the time but
likely still represents a step forward.
Into that broad category add House Bill
2392. Rep. Andy Olson (R-Albany) was one
of the primary sponsors of the bill, which
involves the Oregon Trail EBT cards used
mostly to provide food bene¿ts through the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
— food stamps, in other words.
The amended version of the bill, which
passed both houses of the Legislature by
wide margins and now awaits the signature
of Gov. Kate Brown, comes into play any
time an Oregon Trail recipient reports that
a card has been lost or stolen. Under the
terms of the amended bill, any replacement
card issued must display the name of the
individual to whom the card is issued.
This seems like a small bit of business,
and in fact, the bill that passed the
Legislature is watered down somewhat from
the original intent, which was to require
printed names on all Oregon Trial cards.
But even the watered-down version seems
likely to have a real impact on cutting down
on Oregon Trail card fraud and abuse.
The vast majority of Oregon Trail card
users, of course, follow state laws and
regulations to the letter. And the services
provided are obviously essential: In fact, as
we have noted before, better than one in four
residents of Linn County uses these services
to some extent.
The state has estimated in the past that
fraud in the program amounts to just about
half of 1 percent, so cutting back on fraud
may not seem like a big deal. That is, until
you realize that the state pays out roughly
1.2 billion a year in bene¿ts. (The program
is administered by the state, but the federal
government provides the money.) The math
suggests that fraud could amount to $5
million to $6 million each year in Oregon.
At least some of the fraud involves
traf¿cking in food stamp bene¿ts. A recent
case in Klamath Falls resulted in charges
being ¿led against 65 people. Most of the
charges accused defendants of illegally
taking cash instead of food by selling their
Oregon Trail cards to a Klamath Falls meat
market for 50 cents on the dollar. Defendants
presumably were able to sell cards more
than once because every time they reported
a card missing, a replacement card would be
issued.
Under the terms of House Bill 2392, the
replacement cards now will include the name
of the recipient — which will make the cards
much less attractive to anyone interested in
committing fraud. It’s a common-sense type
of reform, as evidenced by the big margins
by which the bill passed the Legislature.
This wasn’t the sort of bill that got hung up
in the partisan squabbling that dominated the
headlines during the course of the session.
And, best of all, House Bill 2392 won’t
take even one dollar of bene¿ts away from
anyone who legitimately needs a bit of help
to feed their families.