Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Appointment of
Boardman farmer
adds to diversity
The Oregon Board of Agriculture
is a 10-person advisory body whose
job is to provide a sounding board
for state Agriculture Director Katy
Coba on the many issues facing
farmers and ranchers.
To do that requires a board with
expertise and a broad perspective.
Current members run family
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operations, ranches, urban farms
and have even administered the
state Department of Environmental
Quality. They come from across the
state — Klamath Falls, Portland and
Eastern Oregon.
It may be among the most
diverse boards the Department of
Agriculture has ever had. As such, it
aptly and ably represents the state’s
35,439 farmers and ranchers.
If we were asked our opinion
about adding a member of the board,
we would suggest someone who
was involved in dairy production,
organic crop production, alternative
energy, labor relations, conservation
set-asides and innovative cropping
systems. Such a person could offer
value to any agriculture-related
advisory board.
Gov. Kate Brown last week
appointed Marty Myers, general
manager of Threemile Canyon
Farms in Boardman, to the board.
The appointment was a master
stroke. Myers brings with him a
unique set of tools and experience
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state Department of Agriculture by
providing insight unavailable from
other sources.
Having worked on small farms
during high school and college,
Myers now manages one of the
most diverse farms in the West. The
farm’s 32,000-cow milking herd
produces 2 million pounds of milk
a day that is made into Tillamook
cheese. The farm converts the
manure into electricity using an
anaerobic digester that produces
a third of the farm’s power needs.
The byproduct of that power
production is used to fertilize the
crops, which include 7,450 acres of
organic vegetables and 6,100 acres
of potatoes. Crops include corn,
wheat, alfalfa, mint, peas, green
beans, carrots and onions on a total
of 39,500 acres.
The farm also raises its own
replacement heifers and 7,000 steers
in addition to a nursery for its calves.
It grows its own seed potatoes and
has a 23,000-acre conservation
set-aside.
It also employs 330 people
year-round — many of them
union members — and 400 people
seasonally with an annual payroll of
more than $10 million.
By any measure, Threemile
Canyon is a unique and cutting-edge
farm that has pioneered many
aspects of sustainable production.
Yet the appointment of Myers
to the board has been criticized in
some quarters as a sellout to “big
ag.” The Friends of Family Farmers
group was particularly vociferous in
its complaints that the state would
somehow “take agriculture in the
direction of industrialization.”
While we understand the group
sees itself as an advocate of small
farms, the appointment of a single
person who manages a large farm
cannot be characterized as pushing
one type of farming any more than
the appointment of an urban farmer
denotes a shift toward plowing up
the streets of Portland to plant crops.
Decisions about the size and
scope of individual farms are made
by farmers, not in the Capitol in
Salem or by the state board of
agriculture. What other groups think
of those decisions is beside the
point.
Large or small, organic or
conventional, livestock or crops,
farming is rapidly evolving. Many
farms, large and small, are adopting
cropping systems that involve a
combination of crops similar to how
Threemile Canyon operates.
The Board of Agriculture met
last week with Myers as its newest
member. He will provide a needed
voice on a diverse body that will
help the state navigate the many
issues facing agriculture in the 21st
century.
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.
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 211 S.E. Byers
Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
EO should appreciate,
not attack work of
EOTEC board
The East Oregonian’s Saturday
editorial excoriated the Eastern
Oregon Trade & Events Center
Authority Board members for
everything except supporting
ISIS — without a word of
encouragement or appreciation
for their years of work, or the
visionary endeavor itself.
While the project is short of
money, the EO editors totally
ignore what the project has and
eventually will accomplish:
garnered $8.5 million of state (not
local) grant money that would
never have come to Umatilla
County and Hermiston without
this project; saved the Hermiston
School District from having
to build a second high school
at an estimated $70 million
cost to its taxpayers; saved
Umatilla County from wasting
$8 million, which would have
been necessary to replace failing
underground infrastructure at the
old fairgrounds; will jump start
development on the south side
of Hermiston; and will remove a
27-acre chain link fenced blighted
area in the middle of Hermiston,
eventually to be replaced by new
high school buildings and grounds.
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became involved in this endeavor,
“It will change the face of
Hermiston forever.”
The EO editors completely
overlook the overwhelming
support this project has received
from the city of Hermiston,
Umatilla County, Hermiston
School District, Umatilla County
Fair Board, Farm City Pro Rodeo,
State Representative Greg Smith
and Senator Bill Hansell, and
all the other people who have
worked long and hard to make the
fair move and EOTEC a reality.
Only the EO editors seek to drag
it down — as they have from the
beginning.
As the EO editors savage
EOTEC and its visionary and
hard-working board, I remember
what Joe Burns once told me when
I was being attacked in a worthy
endeavor: “When an elephant
walks through the forest, does it
heed the chattering of monkeys in
the trees?”
George Anderson
Hermiston
Abortion videos were
doctored, are frauds
This is a response to a letter in
the weekend edition of the East
Oregonian last week. One seldom
reads a newspaper letter so well
crafted and written, and my hat is
off to the writer for using “whom”
OTHER VIEWS
Hillary Clinton’s pajama party
S
he had a law career, an ambitious
added, referring to progressive young
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women. “But if they’re not already
stint in the Senate, those years
getting Lena Dunham and her cohorts,
and miles as secretary of state.
they’re in even bigger trouble than I
And it has come to this: In a bid to
thought.”
seem less stuffy and turn the page on
I think that Clinton is actually
a beleaguered (yet again) presidential
in less trouble than we sometimes
campaign, Hillary Clinton is chatting
speculate. She remains the
with Lena Dunham about singer Lenny
overwhelming favorite for the
Frank
Kravitz’s penis.
Democratic nomination.
Bruni
You can watch the video yourself.
But her campaign so far is an
Comment
It’s a jokey promotion for an interview
unimpressive dress rehearsal for the
of Clinton just published in a new
general election. It’s devoid of soul
newsletter that Dunham is putting out. You
and sweep, a series of labored gestures and
can also see a comedic sketch of Dunham’s
precisely staked positions. Constituency by
arrival at Clinton’s campaign headquarters in
constituency, leftward adjustment by leftward
Brooklyn and the make-believe
adjustment, she and her aides
refusal of a Clinton gatekeeper
slog and muscle their way
to let her in. There’s even a
forward.
cameo by Amy Schumer.
And they contradict
The interview itself covers
the adage that a politician
Clinton’s biography and some
campaigns in poetry and
serious terrain, including
governs in prose. Clinton
feminism and the relationship
campaigns in something more
between African-Americans
like a PowerPoint presentation.
and the police.
Prose would be an upgrade.
But it’s in large part a
Poetry is light years away.
Dunham-Clinton love-in,
That’s what Democratic
a pajama party minus the
strategist David Axelrod was
pajamas, ostensibly in keeping
getting at when, about two
with the Clinton campaign’s
weeks ago, he tweeted: “It’s
recent pledge to roll out a
still HRC’s to lose, despite
warmer, funnier version of the candidate. I’ve
new polls. But it’s hard to inspire w/grinding,
lost count of which version we’re on.
tactical race. ‘Hillary: Live With It’ is no
In the promotional video, Clinton kids that
rallying cry!”
because Dunham’s newsletter and the website
No it isn’t, not even if Dunham and
associated with it are called Lenny, she half
Schumer put funny faces on it. It’s to
expected that the person coming to question
Dunham’s shrewd credit that she grabbed a
her might be Kravitz.
piece of the action. It serves her well.
Dunham then mentions some viral footage
But for Clinton? It’s a contrivance.
of a Kravitz wardrobe malfunction: “His stuff
Earlier this month, The New York Times’
fell out of his pants.”
Amy Chozick interviewed her aides and
Clinton feigns fascination. “I’ll look for
reported that there would be “new efforts
that,” she says.
to bring spontaneity to a candidacy that
I blame us in part. For years we’ve
sometimes seems wooden and overly
demanded that she show us something more
cautious.”
raw, that she weep or bleed or chirp or quip,
An effort at spontaneity: that’s the prompt
that a policy wonk isn’t enough, that a résumé for sitting down with Dunham — who assures
is only the start.
Clinton that she’s a fashion icon and implores
We’ve reminded her of how nimbly her
her to wear dresses that show her shoulders
husband pivoted from noonday speech to
— and it’s the oxymoronic story of Clinton’s
late-night saxophone. We’ve insisted that our
political life.
presidents and would-be presidents not only
She is routinely reintroducing herself,
inspire but also divert us. And we’ve pumped
forever trumpeting the real Hillary this time,
up the scandals, ratcheting up the pressure on
constantly promising the unguarded Hillary.
her to feed us distractions.
But the real Hillary has always been there,
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to charges that she’s too packaged and
costumes and hairstyles and campaign events.
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calculating be this packaged and calculated?
defensive. She does her homework with
And to counter her image as entrenched
uncommon diligence and earnestness but can
political royalty, why would she enlist stars
be a dud on the stump. She’s impressively
whose presence merely emphasizes her pull
with, and membership in, the glittery world of controlled. She’s distressingly controlling.
There’s more than enough good in that
celebrity?
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“Insane,” said one Democratic operative
Clinton has to make peace with it herself.
when I sought his reaction.
Ŷ
“It’s a transparent and ham-handed
Frank Bruni joined the New York Times in
attempt to appeal to a niche audience that the
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YOUR VIEWS
correctly. Whom is nearly dead,
and I do enjoy seeing it used, and
especially used correctly.
The writer makes it clear that
she is a Republican, and she
manages to let us know that she
has little like for those liberal
Democrats.
She does, however, point out
that she agrees with Democrats on
global warming and on the need to
help refugees from the unrest in the
Islamic world.
But the real point of her letter is
her concern about the “calloused
brutality” related to abortion that
is shown in some videos; and I’d
like to clarify something about the
main video, which Carly Fiorina
discussed in the second Republican
presidential debate. It shows an
aborted live fetus on a table while
voices discuss keeping it alive in
order to harvest its brain.
Abortion, I realize, is a touchy
issue, and I have no intention of
taking either a pro or a con position
here. I can say that, in the course
of my life, I have known several
women who have had abortions,
but I have never known one who
had a second.
Abortion seems not to be
something that most women resort
to lightly or without anguish. It
seems normally to be the result of
some drastic situation, so I would
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to abortion would also keep in
Her campaign
so far is ...
devoid of soul
and sweep,
a series of
labored
gestures.
mind the needs of those women
who feel themselves forced
by circumstances into such a
procedure.
But the video under discussion
is a fraud. This has been laid out in
great detail by PolitiFact, and one
can read the entire discussion by
going to www.politifact.com.
The evidence is too voluminous
for me to attempt to present it
within the limits of a letter like
this, but one of the most telling
points is that there is no way to
know whether what one sees is an
aborted fetus, a miscarriage, or a
premature birth. The whole thing is
a pastiche of different images and
discussions.
Lest Republican readers of this
page think that PolitiFact is some
nefarious liberal lying blog, let me
point out that it regularly catches
President Obama expanding —
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amount of success that his various
policies have. The journalistic
undertaking is politically neutral
and seeks only the truth. I
recommend that people interested
in politics consult it regularly.
Jack T. Sanders
Pendleton
Next Speaker can
improve government
There was two opinions
published in a recent East
Oregonian that dealt with two
of the problems of our current
government.
One was about representative
Walden and how he might
deal with the labor problem of
agricultural operations that require
intensive seasonal help.
Since most of the help is
temporary and seasonal, it is
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that requires working through
immigration programs. This
requires much time and sometimes
the crops spoil before labor is
obtained.
The other opinion article by
Paul Krugman was about John
Boehner’s resignation of being
Speaker of the House.
It has been suggested that in
order for citizens to be properly
informed that they must be aware
of both opinions of Democrats
and Republicans. Paul Krugman
represents the liberal viewpoint,
which is big government with
much spending, and John
Boehner was the leader of the
opposing viewpoint. Many of the
Republicans became anxious about
the direction of government and
blamed Boehner for slowing things
down.
The election of the next speaker
of the house will hopefully
improve our government.
Don Peterson
Pendleton