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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, August 7, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Tip of the hat; kick in the pants A kick in the pants to Umatilla County Commissioners for continuing their ban on medical and recreational marijuana in the county. It was clear from the beginning that their marijuana committee was created in bad faith, originally comprised of members who had all been outspoken in their opposition to the drug. (It was only after public pressure that a pro-marijuana committee member was named, though no one representing a marijuana business or even a medical marijuana patient was party to the discussion and the board remained far from balanced.) So the stacked committee told commissioners what they wanted to hear. And commissioners were glad to institute their recommendation. The only thing that recommendation will do, however, is force Umatilla County to miss out on tax revenue — possibly north of 100,000 this ¿scal year, according to estimates from the state. TopShelf, a nationwide marijuana delivery service, is already operating openly in Pendleton, giving away pot for a $25 “donation.” And you can bet they aren’t checking IDs like a state-sanctioned store would. And they sure as heck aren’t paying any taxes. The black market is alive and well in Umatilla County thanks to head-in-the-sand county leadership. Commissioner George Murdock even wrote out an argument for continuing the ban, derisively labeling marijuana as “weird” and not in line with Eastern Oregon values. It’s disappointing that none of the people who use medical marijuana to lighten their heavy medical ailments stood before commissioners and told their story. Although with the attitude of the three men, it’s understandable why those people were unwilling to come forward. The lack of compassion the commissioners have for those who bene¿t from marijuana is something we just can’t comprehend. What is gained from banning medical dispensaries? Still, we don’t think the ban will last long. Everything else the prohibitionists have said about marijuana has failed to come to fruition so far, and we imagine this one will soon be overturned too. Until then, it will cost the county dearly, as we fall behind on a growing industry while others forge ahead. But then again, that’s nothing new around here. A tip of the hat to Peggy Anderson, who is overseeing her last Umatilla County Fair. Anderson has done good work to make the fair a better product, and she has the additional dollars and visitors to show for it — and this year is shaping up to be another great party. The fair, though, is at a precipice. It is the last year it will take place at its current location, where it has lived for 80 years, and it will now move over to EOTEC in 2016 without its longtime director. Or any full-time director, for that matter. The board will stay in place, though its job may need to shift to ¿ll in some of the gaps left by Anderson. We hope all those changes don’t change the culture and charm of our beloved county celebration. We also wish Anderson the best of luck down in Southern Oregon, remaking another county fair. 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. OTHER VIEWS UO fundraising campaign a tall order for school used to raising money The (Eugene) Register-Guard The $2 billion goal for the University of Oregon’s fundraising campaign is as ambitious today as it was when it was announced last October. Donations from alumni and other supporters will have to increase from their current near-record amounts if the target is to be reached before the end of the decade. But there are encouraging signs of momentum that, if it can be sustained, would bring the target within reach. During the ¿scal year that ended July 30, the UO raised $214 million in donations. That record is eclipsed only by the $277 million raised in 2008, when Phil Knight established the $100 million UO Athletic Legacy Fund that helped ¿nance construction of the Matt Knight Arena. Last year’s total was an 86 percent increase over the amount raised the year before, and while it included several donations of substantial size — $50 million from UO Trustee Connie Ballmer and her husband, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and $10 million from Don and Willie Tykeson of Eugene — the money came from relatively diverse sources. The UO is showing that it can depend on more than one big donor. The UO is also showing that its academic programs can match and exceed its athletic program in fundraising ¿repower. More than $163 million of last year’s donations are for academics, a 127 percent increase from the year before. Donations to athletics rose as well, to nearly $51 million, an 18 percent increase. About half of the money, $96 million, will go into the UO Foundation’s endowment, where it will generate earnings for scholarships and professorships in perpetuity. Other funds, such as the Tykesons’ donation, will draw state matching funds to ¿nance construction. The best indication of future success may lie in a 10 percent increase in the number of donors — including a 19 percent increase in ¿rst-time donors. One of the best predictors of a positive response to a fundraising plea is whether the person being asked for a donation has given before. As the UO list of past donors grows longer, its pool of future donors becomes deeper. All this happened during a time of turmoil at the UO — the university was being led by an interim president, a new board of trustees had recently been given control, and ¿nancial support from the state ranked near the bottom nationally. But President Michael Schill moved into the president’s of¿ce on July 1, the trustees are ¿nding their footing after completing their ¿rst big hire, and the Oregon Legislature gave higher education one of its biggest general-fund budget increases in decades, including an 18 percent boost in operating funds for the UO. Donors who might have been hanging back to see whether the UO could enter a period of stability in its leadership, and whether the state would make a ¿nancial commitment parallel to their own, should be hearing an all-clear signal. The $2 billion goal was announced last October, but quietly began in 2010. A little more than 40 percent of the target amount has been raised. Though the UO has set itself no deadline, it hopes to ¿nish the campaign by 2018 — which would mean the pace of donations would have to double again. That’s a tall order, but for now the numbers are moving in the right direction. OTHER VIEWS Making life harder for pimps I Yiota Souras of the National Center for n the long struggle against sex traf¿cking, we ¿nally have a Missing and Exploited Children. breakthrough! So bravo to American Express, It didn’t come from Congress, or MasterCard and Visa — and to Dart the White House, from the courts or — for getting results where Congress the police. Rather, it came from credit failed. card companies: Pimps can no longer There will still be human easily use American Express, Visa or traf¿cking, of course, and pimps will MasterCard to pay for prostitution ads Nicholas ¿nd other ways to peddle kids. But it in which they sell 15-year-old girls as Kristof may not be quite so easy for traf¿ckers if they were pizzas. as it was. Comment That upended the business model “When on Backpage, I was of sex traf¿cking. Pimps all over the advertised in the same way as a car country are reduced to ¿guring out how to pay or a phone, but with even less value than a to promote their ads with, yes, bitcoin! bike,” one girl told me late last year. She said Human traf¿cking is one of the most she was advertised at the age of 15 and 16 and insidious human rights abuses in the United raped 1,000 times as a result. States — some 100,000 minors are traf¿cked My guess is that a majority of sex ads on into the sex trade each year in the U.S. So let Backpage are for consenting adults. But a me explain how we came to enjoy a triumph signi¿cant minority are for sex with children over traf¿ckers. or with women who are A website called coerced — representing Backpage.com has for some of the largest and years dominated the sex most mistreated classes of trade advertising business. human rights victims in In April alone it published America. We don’t have the more than 1.4 million ads moral authority to tell other in its adult services section countries to end modern in the United States. Almost forms of slavery when we every time a girl is rescued don’t clean up our own act. from traf¿ckers, it turns out There has also been that she was peddled on progress in other areas. The Backpage. police in the United States Last year I wrote about a missing are going after pimps more, and sometimes 15-year-old Boston girl whose parents johns, as well (that still needs to happen were beside themselves with worry. In their more). living room, I pulled out my laptop, opened The Nordic model to combat traf¿cking up Backpage and quickly found seminude and exploitation, pioneered in Sweden, has advertisements for the girl, who turned out to been gaining ground, too. It provides for the be in a hotel room with an armed pimp. arrest of johns while offering help rebuilding Backpage is allowed to operate because of the lives of women who were selling sex. a loophole in the Communications Decency Nothing works all that well in curbing sex Act. Attorneys general from 48 states traf¿cking, but this model has succeeded have pleaded with Backpage to stop this better than other approaches. exploitation, to no effect. Girls who have been Yet in some quarters, there’s still a myopia sold on Backpage when they were as young about the degree to which this is a human as 13 have sued the company, but haven’t rights issue. Amnesty International will succeeded because of the loophole. consider a proposal in the coming days that Then suddenly this summer, the miracle of would call for full decriminalization of the the market intervened. sex trade, including for johns, on the theory Sheriff Tom Dart of Cook County, Illinois, that this would bene¿t sex workers. Nice wrote tough letters to Visa and MasterCard, theory, but a failed one. It has been tried calling on them to stop allowing their cards to repeatedly and it invariably bene¿ted johns pay for sex ads on Backpage. Both companies while exacerbating abuse of women and girls: effectively agreed. To its great credit, A parallel underground market emerges for American Express in April stopped working underage girls. with Backpage for adult ads, so as of the Let’s hope Amnesty comes to its senses beginning of July pimps had no easy way to and, as Swanee Hunt of Harvard put it, avoids pay for advertisements. “endorsing one of the most exploitative Flummoxed, Backpage responded by human rights abuses of our time.” Then we making its basic sex ads free, but, even with a can go back to celebrating the struggles of fee to promote a free ad, that’s not a business America’s sex traf¿ckers as their business model that can sustain it. Backpage is suing model is upended. Dart, but my sense is that pimps won’t be Ŷ using their credit cards again on the site any Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and time soon. cherry farm in Yamhill. Kristof, a columnist “If it’s down for six months, that’s six for The New York Times since 2001, won the months of children who aren’t raped,” says Pulitzer Prize two times, in 1990 and 2006. Then suddenly this summer, the miracle of the market intervened. 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.
