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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, August 8, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com MIKE FORRESTER Pendleton Chairman of the Board STEVE FORRESTER Astoria President TOM BROWN Bigfork, Mont. Director KATHRYN B. BROWN Pendleton Secretary/Treasurer JEFF ROGERS Indianapolis, Ind. Director OUR VIEW Students need online role models (YHU\RQHUHPHPEHUVWKH¿UVW because we are worried about the time they saw a teacher outside the appearance of impropriety. classroom — at say a grocery store Certainly, school districts are or the city pool. right to have strong, clear social Teachers eat food AND own media policies. There is no need for EDWKLQJVXLWV"0LQG2I¿FLDOO\ students and teachers to be texting Blown. into the wee hours of the morning, But students these days often nor for them to have private run into their teachers and coaches conversations traveling back and online before they forth on some of the run into them on the more suspicious new Like it or not, street. And that can messaging apps. put both students But it shouldn’t teens and and educators at be an iron curtain. pre-teens live risk. Teens must know In an article what responsible online. It’s a last week, this online sharing place they feel looks like. And newspaper spotlighted the like every teacher comfortable. horror stories: is taught, we must Teachers meet our students at who committed crimes and their level, not where we feel most used technology and online comfortable. communication to do so. But while Some teachers are using we should always be vigilant about something similar to a classroom what teens are doing on the Internet, Facebook page — Mrs. Anderson’s we cannot be scared away from Class Page, for instance — where technology by the horror stories. teens can go to get information, ask Like it or not, teens and pre-teens questions and form positive online live online. They feel comfortable relationships with classmates and there. It’s a place where they teachers. There are safer, better can express themselves and be online communities than Facebook, themselves. But it’s also a place of course, but there is still a niche where they can be taken advantage for age-appropriate social networks of and hurt. where education can be built right That makes it an arena where into our online worlds. good role models are needed, not Technology can be scary, but it’s a place where we should scatter best to face our fears. 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 Trying to boost rural Oregon The Oregonian D emographic trends are bleak for rural areas. More than 4,000 rural Oregonians moved into the Portland area between 2007 and 2010. 3RSXODWLRQLQPDQ\UXUDOFRXQWLHVLVÀDW or declining and some of the hardest hit counties, such as Coos, hit their peak more than 30 years ago. Nationally, fewer than 19 percent of U.S. residents lived in rural areas in 2013, down from 26 percent as recently as 1980. One-third of U.S. counties have fewer residents than they had in 2000, and almost all of those counties are rural. This depopulation of rural areas, coupled in many cases with economic declines, has implications for urban and rural residents alike. State economists have warned that if too many people, SDUWLFXODUO\\RXQJZRUNHUVÀHHOHVV populated towns and counties it could create a downward spiral that leaves the counties unable to support businesses and fund public services. Urban residents are affected as rural refugees seek jobs and housing in larger cities. Meanwhile, those left in rural Oregon need more taxpayer-funded services from the state. Other states have taken a more proactive approach. South Dakota, Idaho and Wyoming are among rural states that have launched marketing programs to try to convince young people to return. Arkansas has a Department of Rural Services, which oversees programs dedicated to everything from rural economic development to rural health. Minnesota launched the Intelligent Rural Communities Initiative in 2009 with the goal of helping rural areas keep pace technologically and economically in a technology-driven economy. Those are just a few of the more ambitious efforts across the country. It’s possible that none of the initiatives ZLOOVLJQL¿FDQWO\DOWHUWKHGHPRJUDSKLF trajectory of rural areas. But, at the least, those states are more likely to improve the living conditions of current rural residents than states, like Oregon, whose governments have been reluctant to FRPPLWVLJQL¿FDQWWLPHDQGUHVRXUFHVWR non-urban areas. The efforts that have been made in Oregon have been led mostly by QRQSUR¿WJURXSVDQGORFDOJRYHUQPHQWV The Ford Institute Leadership Program has trained more than 6,000 rural leaders, including about one-third of the state’s county commissioners, “in how to work together, build agreement, identify assets, leverage resources and take action to make measurable change,” said Craig Smith, executive director of Rural Development Initiatives, which developed the program. The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network has teamed up with Business Oregon, a state agency, to offer programs aimed at rural businesses. RDI has worked with some small Oregon towns on exploring ways to entice young residents to stay. Those programs, commendable as they are, will not be enough to halt rural Oregon’s slide, much less reverse it. Even increased logging on federal lands — the number one policy change on many rural leaders’ wish list — would fall short of the economic boost needed to stabilize downtrodden counties such as Josephine and Curry. Oregon’s non-urban counties, with the exception of those in the Columbia River Gorge, need help across a range of policy areas — from schools to economic development to infrastructure. That’s why the types of initiatives moving forward in other states are so important. Before Oregon’s rural areas can make real progress, the state must move past the political polarization that was evident in the 2015 legislative session and re-establish bridges between urban and rural areas. Those ties must go beyond farmers markets, the only window some urban dwellers have into rural living. As Oregon Agriculture Department Director Katy Coba pointed out at a recent public meeting in Portland, people living in Oregon can’t consume everything Oregon farmers grow. The necessity of getting products to market makes the loss of container shipping service at the Port of Portland as disruptive in rural Oregon as in the Portland metro area. But perhaps the Port woes also will remind some urban resi- dents, including Portland-area legislators, that the entire state still is interconnected in many ways. OTHER VIEWS Three U.S. defeats: Vietnam, Iraq and now Iran T he purpose of war, military or )XUWKHUWKH,UDQLDQVZHUHFRQ¿GHQW economic, is to get your enemy in their power, while the Obama to do something it would rather administration emphasized the limits not do. Over the past several years RI$PHULFD¶VDELOLW\WRLQÀXHQFHRWKHU the United States and other Western nations. It’s striking how little Obama powers have engaged in an economic, thought of the tools at his disposal. He clandestine and political war against effectively took the military option off Iran to force it to give up its nuclear the table. He didn’t believe much in program. economic sanctions. David Over the course of this siege, “Nothing we know about the Brooks U.S. policymakers have been very Iranian government suggests that it Comment explicit about their goals. Foremost, to would simply capitulate under that prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear kind of pressure,” he argued. power. Second, as John Kerry has said, to The president concluded early on that force it to dismantle a large part of its nuclear Iran would simply not budge on fundamental infrastructure. Third, to take away its power to things. As he argued in his highhanded enrich uranium. and counterproductive speech Wednesday, Fourth, as President Barack Obama has Iran was never going to compromise its said, to close the Fordo enrichment facility. sovereignty (which is the whole point of Fifth, as the chief U.S. negotiator, Wendy military or economic warfare). Sherman, recently The president hoped WHVWL¿HGWRIRUFH,UDQWR that a deal would change come clean on all past the moral nature of nuclear activities by the the regime, so he had Iranian military. Sixth, to an extra incentive to shut down Iran’s ballistic reach a deal. And the missile program. Seventh, Western, Russian and to have “anywhere, anytime 24/7” access Chinese sanctions regime was fragile while to any nuclear facilities Iran retains. Eighth, the Iranians were able to hang together. as Kerry put it, to not phase down sanctions This administration has given us a until after Iran ends its nuclear bomb-making choice between two terrible options: accept capabilities. the partial-surrender agreement that was As a report from the Foreign Policy negotiated or reject it and slide immediately Initiative exhaustively details, the U.S. has into what is in effect our total surrender — a not fully achieved any of these objectives. collapsed sanctions regime and a booming The agreement delays but does not end Iran’s Iranian nuclear program. nuclear program. It legitimizes Iran’s status as Many members of Congress will be a nuclear state. Iran will mothball some of its tempted to accept the terms of our partial centrifuges, but it will not dismantle or close surrender as the least bad option in the wake any of its nuclear facilities. Nuclear research of our defeat. I get that. But in voting for this and development will continue. GHDOWKH\PD\EHDI¿[LQJWKHLUQDPHVWRDQ Iran wins the right to enrich uranium. arrangement that will increase the chance of The agreement does not include “anywhere, more comprehensive war further down the anytime” inspections; some inspections would road. require a 24-day waiting period, giving the ,UDQLVDIDQDWLFDOKHJHPRQLFKDWH¿OOHG Iranians plenty of time to clean things up. regime. If you think its radicalism is After eight years, all restrictions on ballistic going to be softened by a few global trade missiles are lifted. Sanctions are lifted once opportunities, you really haven’t been paying Iran has taken its initial actions. attention to the Middle East over the past four Wars, military or economic, are measured decades. by whether you achieved your stated Iran will use its $150 billion windfall to objectives. By this standard the U.S. and its spread terror around the region and exert its allies lost the war against Iran, but we were power. It will incrementally but dangerously able to negotiate terms that gave only our cheat on the accord. Armed with money, partial surrender, which forces Iran to at least ballistic weapons and an eventual nuclear delay its victory. There have now been three breakout, it will become more aggressive. As big U.S. strategic defeats over the past several the end of the nuclear delay comes into view, decades: Vietnam, Iraq and now Iran. the 45th or 46th president will decide that The big question is, Why did we lose? action must be taken. Why did the combined powers of the Western Economic and political defeats can be as world lose to a ragtag regime with a crippled bad as military ones. Sometimes when you economy and without much popular support? surrender to a tyranny you lay the groundwork 7KH¿UVWELJDQVZHULVWKDWWKH,UDQLDQVMXVW IRUDPRUHFDWDFO\VPLFFRQÀLFWWRFRPH wanted victory more than we did. They were Ŷ willing to withstand the kind of punishment David Brooks became a New York Times we were prepared to mete out. Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. The big question is: why did we lose? 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.
