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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, August 27, 2015 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Trump-ward, Christian soldiers? L Contributed photo The Speth family survey the aftermath of the Canyon Creek Complex fire that destroyed their home south of Canyon City. +HDUWVDQGKRPHV RSHQWR¿UHYLFWLPV The stories around John Day will remain long after the destructive fires A V¿UHURDUHGWKURXJK Coast and Eastern Oregon, Canyon Creek and over however, is that the Cascadia the hills just south of John earthquake happens every Day, those who were ordered \HDUVDQG¿UHVDUHDUHDO to evacuate recall details they possibility here every 300 days. probably never will forget. We are constantly in the Dean Elliott, who lost his emergency planning mode on home of 53 years, remembers the the coast. We worry about where sound of the wind. It was like a we would evacuate to escape the Nancy locomotive, he said. McCarthy wall of water heading toward us His wife, Betty, recalls how 15 minutes after the earthquake Comment the oxygen was sucked out of the drops the ground out from air and she could hardly breathe. under us. We gather “go bags” Mike Mannell, who was woken by ²EDFNSDFNV¿OOHGZLWKHPHUJHQF\ a friend, tells how he ran through the supplies; we test out evacuation routes smoke to put a sprinkler on his Harley leading toward ground higher than Davidson and another sprinkler on his 80 feet; and we organize Community neighbor’s house. Emergency Response Teams to help If his friend hadn’t woken him that us deal with the immediate crises that morning, said Mannell, whose cabin that ZLOORFFXUZKHQSHRSOH¿QDOO\UHDFK he had been building for six years burned pre-established gathering spots. to the ground, “I probably would have After observing and reporting on how SHULVKHGLQWKDW¿UH´ John Day and Canyon City area residents And with tears in his eyes, the and emergency crews are responding to neighbor, Bryan Nelson, whose home this crisis, I have hope that we will do Mannell saved, called Mannell a “hero.” just as well when disaster hits us on the These stories abound in the canyon. coast. They are told and retold to friends, 7KHORFDO¿UHGHSDUWPHQWV86)RUHVW relatives, restaurant waitresses, store Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, clerks. They are told because people in *UDQW&RXQW\6KHULII¶V2I¿FHDQG5HG this community know each other, and Cross all began working together to fend most importantly, they care about one RIIWKH¿UHDQGNHHSXVLQIRUPHG,Q another. only a day or two, when it was obvious For two weeks, Blue Mountain WKH¿UHFRXOGQ¶WEHFRQWUROOHGORFDOO\ EagleVWDIIHUV&KHU\O+RHÀHUDQG$QJHO QHDUO\¿UH¿JKWHUVIURPWKURXJKRXW Carpenter have been keeping a running the region responded, and two incident list of all the donations, services, offers commanders trained to supervise massive of homes and other resources available ZLOG¿UHVWRRNFKDUJH WRWKRVHZKRZHUHDIIHFWHGE\WKH¿UH Meanwhile, local volunteers opened Response has been pouring into the their hearts, wallets and homes to those Eagle’s Facebook page from those both who needed immediate help. in the area and throughout the region, Where I live, they say not to count on asking how they can help. outside help being able to reach us for That’s what you do in a crisis. several weeks — or even months. We Where I live — on the North Oregon will be on our own to cope. Coast — we are a small community, This experience, in this small too. Most all of us have ties to each community, shows me that it can be other — through family, work, volunteer done. activities, civic duties or friendship. The details of our potential crisis We also have emergencies. Usually, will be different. We will have different LW¶VÀRRGLQJRUZLQGVWRUPVLQWKHZLQWHU VWRULHVWRWHOO,QVWHDGRIDZDOORI¿UHZH because it rains so much along the coast, PD\EHÀHHLQJDZDOORIZDWHU,QVWHDGRI where we live on a narrow strip of land ¿UHFRQVXPLQJRXUKRPHVLWZLOOEHDQ between forest and ocean. enormous ocean wave. Our largest, overriding concern, But I hope — and expect — the however, is the potential Cascadia community response will be the same. Subduction Zone earthquake that is We will take care of each other. expected to occur 50 to 75 miles offshore Because that’s what communities do and trigger a tsunami that would wipe in a crisis. our communities off the map. Ŷ It seems that, no matter where Nancy McCarthy has been working as you live, some sort of disaster looms, interim editor of the Blue Mountain Eagle threatening to destroy all we hold dear. in John Day, a sister paper of the East The difference between the North Oregonian, for the past four weeks. 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. et me get this straight. If I want glutton through and through. That the admiration and blessings of leaves envy and sloth. I’m betting that WKHPRVWÀDPER\DQWMXGJPHQWDO he harbors plenty of the former, though Christians in America, I should marry I’ll concede that he exhibits none of three times, do a queasy-making the latter. amount of sexual boasting, verbally In 2012, inexplicably, he was degrade women, talk trash about pretty invited to Liberty University, where he much everyone else while I’m at it, digressed during his remarks to extol encourage gamblers to hemorrhage the prudence of prenuptial agreements. Frank their savings in casinos bearing my But all was forgiven: His host, Jerry Bruni name and crow incessantly about how Falwell, told audience members that Comment much money I’ve amassed? Trump could be credited for “single- Seems to work for Donald Trump. handedly” forcing President Barack Polls show him to be the preferred 2EDPDWRUHOHDVHKLVELUWKFHUWL¿FDWH2KKRZ candidate among not just all Republican voters they cheered, as if ugly, groundless partisan but also the party’s vocal evangelical subset. rumor-mongering were on a saintly par with He’s more beloved than Mike Huckabee, washing lepers’ feet. a former evangelical pastor, or Ted Cruz, an Maybe it’s Trump’s jingoism they adore. evangelical pastor’s son, They venerated Ronald or Scott Walker, who said Reagan though he’d during the recent Republican divorced, remarried and debate: “It’s only by the spent much of his career blood of Jesus Christ that in the godless clutch of I’ve been redeemed.” Hollywood. When Trump mentions Maybe their fealty to blood, it’s less biblical, as Trump is payback for his Megyn Kelly can well attest. donations to conservative No matter. The holy religious groups. rollers are smiling upon Or maybe his pompadour the high roller. And they’re has mesmerized them. It proving, yet again, how could, in the right wind, be selective and incoherent the mistaken for a halo. religiosity of many in the I’m grasping at straws, party’s God squad is. because there’s no sense Usually the disconnect in the fact that many of the involves stern moralizing, people who most frequently especially on matters sexual, by showily espouse the Christian spirit then proceed to GHYRXWSXEOLF¿JXUHVZKRDUHWKHQH[SRVHGDV vilify immigrants, demonize minorities and adulterers or (gasp!) closet homosexuals. I’d line up behind a candidate who’s a one-man list all the names, starting with Josh Duggar master class in such misanthropy. and working backward, but my column From Trump’s Twitter account gushes doesn’t sprawl over an entire page of the an endless stream of un-Christian rudeness, newspaper. and he was at it again on Monday night, Or the disconnect is between evangelists’ retweeting someone else’s denigration of panegyrics about Christ’s penury and their Kelly as a “bimbo.” Shouldn’t he be turning hustle for funds to support less-than-penurious the other cheek? lifestyles. John Oliver, the host of HBO’s For politicians as for voters, devotion “Last Week Tonight,” has been making DQGJUDFHFDQEH¿FNOHFRQYHQLHQWWKLQJV brilliant satirical fun of this by promoting Courting the evangelical vote, Cruz used his his new tax-exempt church, Our Lady own Twitter account last week to say that of Perpetual Exemption. Last Sunday he his “thoughts and prayers are with President apologized to viewers that his wife, Wanda Jo, Jimmy Carter,” whose struggle with cancer “cannot be with us this evening.” was riveting the nation. But then Cruz “She’s at our summer parsonage in pressed on with a speech that bemoaned the Hawaii,” he continued, “for a week of spiritual “misery, stagnation and malaise” of Carter’s introspection and occasional parasailing.” presidency. He couldn’t have hit pause on the What’s different and fascinating about Carter bashing for a week or two? the Trump worship is that he doesn’t even Carter pressed on, too — with his usual try that hard for a righteous facade — for weekend routine of teaching Sunday school, Potemkin piety. Sure, he speaks of enthusiastic which he has long done with little fanfare. churchgoing, and he’s careful to curse Planned His own Christianity is not a bludgeon but a Parenthood and to insist that matrimony be bridge. reserved for heterosexuals as demonstrably As for Trump, I must not be watching the inept at it as he is. same campaign that his evangelical fans are, But beyond that? He just about runs the because I don’t see someone interested in WDEOHRQWKHVHYHQGHDGO\VLQV+HSHUVRQL¿HV serving God. I see someone interested in being greed, embodies pride, radiates lust. Wrath is God. covered by his anti-immigrant, anti-“losers” Ŷ rants, and if we interpret gluttony to include Frank Bruni has been an Op-Ed columnist big buildings and not just Big Macs, he’s a for The New York Times since June 2011. They’re proving, yet again, how selective and incoherent the religiosity of many in the party’s God squad is. YOUR VIEWS Cuts to parks, recreation not WKHZD\WR¿[URDGSUREOHP Rex Morehouse takes the easy road for street repair in his Aug. 17 letter to the East Oregonian by recommending cuts to the city park and recreation budget of 25 percent and eliminating over one-third of the chamber’s revenue to fund the city streets. The city budget is developed over several months by city staff then reviewed and acted upon by the budget committee (mayor, city council and nine private citizens). The meetings are open to the public. Mr. Morehouse attended many of these meetings and it’s a pity that he did not make this recommendation where there was opportunity for discussion and to invite input from the decision makers. Mr. Morehouse asserts that cutting the parks/recreation budget by 25 percent “puts us in line” with other cities of our size. I say: Show me. Where is the data to support this statement? I know of no resource giving guidelines for how much Oregon cities should spend on these types of activities. City budgets FDQEHGLI¿FXOWWRXQGHUVWDQGZLWKGLIIHULQJ methods and funds to account for income and expense. Trying to compare one city to another with differences in geography, history, and constituent base is like trying to compare one person to another — we are all different. We rely on the public to tell us what they want and I believe Pendletonians value our parks and recreation programs as they are. No new parks or programs have been added the past several years and now Mr. Morehouse is the only one saying we should reduce them by 25 percent. What services do you want to cut and what parks do you want closed? Established by ordinance, 14 percent of the city room tax is used to support the chamber. The city also collects a fee of $1.50 per night per hotel room and 50 cents per night per RV space to support tourism (Tourism Promotion $VVHVVPHQW&KDUJH)LIW\¿YHSHUFHQWRIWKH TPAC fee goes to the chamber as sole support for Travel Pendleton. The room tax and TPAC fee accounts for more than a third of the chamber budget. Mr. Morehouse recommends these revenues go to roads and let chamber members make up the difference. The result? Double the cost of membership for local businesses and shut down 7UDYHO3HQGOHWRQWKHFLW\¶VWRXULVPRI¿FHWKDW hired the “festival director” called for in Loree McKenna’s Aug. 11 letter to the EO to promote Pendleton as a tourist destination town. Tourism is a $1.3 billion industry in Oregon. Umatilla County sees $134 million of that, which supports 2,194 jobs. Mr. Morehouse’s recommendations would devastate our local business and economy. LETTERS POLICY &KXFN:RRG 3HQGOHWRQ 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. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pend- leton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
