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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, August 25, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Back to school, back to work Nothing brings about such a wide instance, or the ‘D’ the state received UDQJHRIHPRWLRQVDVWKH¿UVWGD\RI from Education Week earlier this school. year for achievement in math and There’s excitement, dread, joy, reading. We also average among the anxiety, relief and sadness all mixed KLJKHVWFODVVVL]HVLQWKHFRXQWU\ up in the hallways, but the Legislature classrooms, the hold steady Every new year took bedrooms and buses approach on funding of our districts this biennium. is a fresh start K-12 as children, their The state has for students. It’s gone down a parents and their teachers prepare for path of late, also a fresh start new WKDW¿UVWEHOO beginning at Every year is for teachers and the start of Gov. a fresh start for -RKQ.LW]KDEHU¶V parents, too. students. The report third term, which card from last spring considers the has either fallen off educational life the fridge or was shredded long ago. of children from birth all the way The next grade has begun, with a to early adulthood. That sort of new teacher ready to impart not just comprehensive look is great in the facts, but the joy of learning. WKHRU\EXWLVGLI¿FXOWWRHYDOXDWHDV That’s what we’d like to believe, it develops. anyhow, those of us who pay In today’s paper there’s a front for the schools, the teachers, the page story about Pendleton’s foray administrators, the lunches and all into expanded early childhood the other pieces that are designed education, and throughout this week to make our future better. And even and next we’ll look at our local more so for those of us with children districts as they begin the new year. entering those doors each day, We enter the new year with the August through June. same outlook as a young student — There are signs that some of a little bit of trepidation, a little bit the pieces are not functioning of excitement — and hope to see properly — the dismal 69 percent signs that Oregon’s master plan is graduation rate in Oregon, for beginning to work. 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 Fires remind us that forests need protecting careful when enjoying our great scenic vistas. Now, with the summer full on and drought a constant companion for At this point in the summer — with the woodlands in our region, vigilance ZLOG¿UHVVHHPLQJO\UDJLQJDFURVVWKH is more than just a good idea. It should West and region — it would seem that FRPPRQVHQVHUHJDUGLQJ¿UHSUHFDXWLRQV EHDZDWFKZRUGDOZD\V$VORFDOEOD]HV have shown, it doesn’t among the public take much for a small would be second FDPS¿UHWRWXUQLQWRD nature. PDMRUEOD]H7KHSULFH At least it should tag isn’t just in dollars be. either. We’ve spent some :KHQDPDMRU¿UH time in this space and HUXSWV¿UH¿JKWHUV on this page in the from across the West past urging residents must deploy to battle to be careful out in the WKRVHEOD]HVDQGWKDW woods. Federal, state in turn, puts a great DQGHYHQORFDO¿UH number of people at agencies have spent risk. We can’t say time proclaiming a enough about the theme of safety over JUHDWMRE¿UH¿JKWHUV and over. have done in our area over the past Yet carelessness — really negligence IHZZHHNVEXWVXUHO\LIDEOD]HFDQEH — continues. A perfect case in point is prevented by simple precautions we the probe into the cause of the Phillips should all be able to help out. Creek Fire that was listed last week as Common sense shouldn’t be a VSDUNHGE\DQHVFDSHGFDPS¿UH$V GLI¿FXOWFRQFHSWWRHPEUDFH(VSHFLDOO\ Umatilla National Forest Supervisor during a time period when the woods Bill Gamble told a group at the Elgin are already dry and ready to erupt at the &RPPXQLW\&HQWHUODVWZHHNWKDW¿UH slightest misstep. was totally preventable. So please, use common sense and be It should never have happened. prudent and vigilant while enjoying our At the risk of overdoing it, we once forests. again urge everyone to be extremely The (La Grande) Observer As local blazes have shown, it doesn’t take much for a small campfire to turn into a major blaze. Teenage sex discussions should come from, include parents The Parents Rights presentation Aug. 18, at the ARC was quite energetic and clarifying. What both the school district and parents are up against can be found at www.healthoregon.org. It spells out the conundrum of how to deal with adolescent sexual issues. For instance, in the Adolescent Health Program publication it states, “Oregon law does not give individuals the ability to consent to sex until the age of 18; however, there are a few important points to consider. Sexual activity is a normal part of development ... Oregon law does not give minors a µULJKW¶WRFRQ¿GHQWLDOLW\RUSDUHQWV a ‘right’ to disclosure.” What do these writers call “normal” sexual activity for a teen? The “rights” granted by Oregon health law are redundant. Parents should come to the aid of their teen children and pre-teens, explain and protect their family values and ethics. This is the ultimate human right. This puts the whole issue of a wellness clinic into the lap of parents’ concerns and parents’ rights. These rights surely have been eroded, invaded and denied to the point of alarm. The breakdown of the family, the confusion of sexuality, marriage and procreation is taking the American culture into a perfect storm. The presenters on Tuesday night highlighted the word “access.” When anyone besides parents have “blank-check access” to children, there is room for alertness and concern. Some entities in our culture, such as Planned Parenthood, are continuously lobbying for “reproductive access” to our children aside from parental OTHER VIEWS Gay and marked for death A s he tried to concentrate on his Our own country can’t wholly ¿QDOFROOHJHH[DPVKHFRXOGQ¶W congratulate itself. Federal legislation erase the terrifying images in to outlaw employment discrimination his head, an endless replay of a video based on sexual orientation has he’d seen. It showed two men being languished for many years. killed — their necks noosed, their %XW$PHULFDQRI¿FLDOVZHUHDPRQJ bodies dragged through the streets and those who pushed back successfully VHWRQ¿UH earlier this year when Russia fought They had burned, he told me, WRRYHUWXUQDSROLF\WRJUDQWEHQH¿WV Frank because they were gay. to the same-sex spouses of U.N. Bruni Just like him. employees. Comment Islamic extremism was sweeping “L.G.B.T. rights have become through Iraq, and terror coursed one of the most controversial through his veins. It became unbearable when, dimensions — one of the most controversial LQPLGWKH,VODPLF6WDWHVHL]HGFRQWURO tests — of the universality of human rights,” RIWKHFLW\ZKHUHKHOLYHG+HÀHGWUDYHOLQJ noted Jessica Stern, the executive director of furtively across Iraq for nearly a month, the International Gay and Lesbian Human ORRNLQJIRUDSRLQWRIH[LW¿QDOO\¿QGLQJRQH Rights Commission. She, too, will speak at the meeting on Monday. DQGERDUGLQJDÀLJKWWRDFLW\LQWKH0LGGOH She shared with me her group’s timeline of East where he wouldn’t be in danger. killings of gay men that the Islamic State has “The greatest moment of my life was SXEOLFL]HGVRPHWLPHVZLWKJUXHVRPHSKRWRV stepping on that plane,” said the man, in his It’s a bloodcurdling document, recounting mid-20s, who asked that I not use his name 30 executions for sodomy, though the or any identifying details, lest harm come to commission is careful to stress that it cannot family members back in Iraq. “I was able to authenticate each incident and that the count is breathe again. I hadn’t been breathing.” almost certainly not comprehensive. On Monday, he told his story at a special Many men were reportedly thrown off United Nations Security Council meeting on /*%7ULJKWV$PHULFDQRI¿FLDOVLQYROYHGLQ roofs. Others were stoned. One was stoned after the fall from a roof didn’t kill him — to it arranged for me to talk with him in advance ¿QLVKWKHMRE by phone. The Iraqi refugee I interviewed told me Although Monday’s discussion wasn’t a that on social media earlier this year, he saw formal one that Security Council members DUHUHTXLUHGWRDWWHQGLW¶VQRQHWKHOHVVWKH¿UVW images of a rooftop execution and learned ODWHUWKDWWKHYLFWLP²XQUHFRJQL]DEOH time that the council has held a meeting of because he was blindfolded and shown mostly any kind that’s dedicated to the persecution from behind — was a friend of his who hadn’t of L.G.B.T. people, according to Samantha left Iraq. Power, the United States ambassador to the The Security Council meeting, which the United Nations. United States is co-hosting with Chile, will And it’s an example, she told me, of a focus on the Islamic State’s brutality against determined push by the United States and gays as a way of getting countries who might other countries to integrate L.G.B.T. rights not be sensitive to the plight of gays, but who into all discussions of human rights by have profound concerns about the Islamic international bodies like the U.N. State, to pay attention. There has been a commendable Power said that it’s vital that the Islamic acceleration of that effort since September State’s treatment of gays not be omitted from 2011, when Barack Obama, in an address to discussions of its atrocities against other the U.N. General Assembly, unsettled many vulnerable groups. in the audience by declaring: “We must And that’s partly because the terror felt by stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians gays in areas controlled by the Islamic State everywhere.” Power, who was present LVDQH[WUHPHIRUPRIWKHLUYLFWLPL]DWLRQLQ for those remarks, said that she was near far too many other places. It’s a summons to enough to Robert Mugabe, the president of action for enlightened countries that could Zimbabwe, to hear him mutter: “My God.” open their arms wider to L.G.B.T. refugees. There have also been enormous victories 7KH\QHHGWRUHFRJQL]HJD\SHRSOHOLNH for L.G.B.T. people in nations as different as Subhi Nahas, 28, who will also speak at the Nepal and Malta over the last few years. This meeting. \HDUDORQHDSRSXODUUHIHUHQGXPOHJDOL]HG A little over three years ago he was still same-sex marriage in Ireland and a Supreme living in Syria. His town was taken over by Court decision did so in the United States. WKH1XVUD)URQWD6\ULDQDI¿OLDWHRI$O4DHGD But, Power noted, “Unfortunately, It announced that it would cleanse the town of internationally, those trends are not being people who had engaged in sodomy, he said. paralleled in very large swaths of the world.” Men suspected of being gay were rounded up. This divide is becoming ever starker, creating He hid in his home. new diplomatic tensions, challenges and After a few months he escaped to an responsibilities for countries like the United L.G.B.T. safe house in Lebanon. He’s States. now in San Francisco, where he works for I can’t recall any foreign trip by a WKH2UJDQL]DWLRQIRU5HIXJH$V\OXPDQG president that prompted as much discussion Migration and struggles to make sense of the of gay rights as Obama’s to Kenya, where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years barbarism in Syria and why gay people should in prison. Obama confronted that harsh reality be special targets of it. “If I did not get out, I’d be dead by now,” head-on. he told me. Knowing that, he said: “Even “The state should not discriminate against here, in the safest place I can think of, I still people based on their sexual orientation,” he sometimes don’t feel safe.” said at a news conference with the Kenyan Ŷ president, going on to add: “The idea that they Frank Bruni has been an Op-Ed columnist are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong. Full stop.” for The New York Times since June 2011. YOUR VIEWS oversight. The majority of sex-ed materials used in public schools now for 30 years were spawned inside the attitudes and goals of Planned Parenthood. We continue in ignorance of what is “normal sexual activity for humans.” Be naive or be informed. Grandparents may be best situated to deal with this invasion. Elders have traditionally been the watchmen and protectors of the culture. Marge Rolen Hermiston Measure 11 laws a modern day witch hunt ,KDYH¿QDOO\UHDOL]HGZKDW Measure 11 is and I have recently discovered what the hearsay law is. We are in a modern day witch hunt. Measure 11 is used to put everyone and anyone in prison and the hearsay law is horrible. They need no proof, no evidence, just on somebody’s word they can accuse and convict you. The district attorneys can shove young people into prison like they are herding cattle, and they do the VDPHIRU¿UVWWLPHRIIHQGHUVZLWK no criminal background (except LIWKH¿UVWWLPHRIIHQVHLVUDSH murder, etc). Oregon is a one strike and you are out state. No second chances offered. You are slammed into prison like cattle to the slaughter. Where are the checks and balances? Where is the justice? Go to jail because of hearsay? Oh my word, how scary is that? Do you know there are 3,800 inmates in prison right now, under Measure 11, and they are the ones ZLWK¿UVWWLPHRIIHQVHVZLWKQR previous criminal background at DOO"'R\RXUHDOL]HWKHH[SHQVHWR WKHVWDWHE\WKHZD\WKRVH¿JXUHV are from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission)? It is almost $122 million per year that we are SXWWLQJRXWIRU¿UVWWLPHRIIHQGHUV 1RZ,GRUHDOL]HWKDWVRPH RIWKRVH¿UVWWLPHRIIHQGHUVPD\ have committed a violent crime, such as rape or murder, but what about those others? You take even half of that 3,800, and that is 1,900 inmates. If they could have gone on strict probation, instead of being put in under Measure 11, do you UHDOL]HWKDWZHFRXOGVKXWGRZQ three small prisons? Or one big one! What say you, the public? Barbara Dickerson Milton-Freewater 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. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian. com.
