Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
7hursday, October ,
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Red flags waving
on Pendleton
airport project
close to four years. So why the rush
7he champagne was uncorked
to spend money and dig up dirt?
after a million project was
7here are real questions about
announced for Pendleton’s long-
the feasibility of a data center at
empty airport industrial ground,
along the long-derided Airport Road the airport. But those questions are
magni¿ed because Makad is leading
extension.
the effort.
Pendleton city councilors gave
7his newspaper is doing its due
the developers from Washington-
diligence on Makad, a process that
based Makad Corporation a round
takes a lot of time and work. We
of applause after the company
will publish our ¿ndings when we
said the huge data center would
have the full story.
employ people.
Currently, we’re
Pendleton economic
through
development and
Real questions digging
¿les at the Secretary
airport director
remain about of State’s of¿ce,
Steve Chrisman said
talking to public
in a report that the
the feasibility
and private groups
project would raise
that have dealt with
, in tax
of the project
in the past.
revenue per year, as
—and the city Makad
7hus far, some have
well as rental fees
of roughly ,
shouldn’t spend good things to say
paid to the city
and some don’t.
more money
annually.
7he company’s
Champagne
development
history
until those
is surely apropos
is clearly checkered
questions are
if that’s the case.
in Eastern Oregon
Pendleton has seen
— one project was
answered.
revenues stagnate
built and Àourished,
for decades, so
another was built
the shot in the arm is desperately
but never operated, and a third
needed. And development begets
project — the most ambitious —
development, so a huge initial
never amounted to anything. And
project can spur more growth at the
Makad has never developed a data
airport industrial park. Offering two center, anywhere.
years of free rent and a reduction in
We understand there is some
development fees are things a city
con¿dentiality that needs to be
can and should do to attract large
involved in economic development.
investments.
You can’t give away your secrets
But there are real questions about to potential competitors. And we
the feasibility of this project. Mostly also understand that economic
because the developers are still
development is not for the meek.
doing their own feasibility studies.
Eventually you have to throw the
As we learned at 7uesday night’s
dice and take a risk. But we hope
city council meeting, Makad is not
that Pendleton city councilors had
yet sure how — and whether it is
more time to do their own due
possible — to get all the power
diligence on this company — and
they need to the site. 7hat’s kind of
the contract — they signed 7uesday
important; the success of the project night.
depends on it.
We’d be ecstatic if this project
But that kind of potential hurdle
goes forward. 7he city desperately
didn’t stop the city from spending
needs the revenue and the
money like the project is a sure
development. But consider us
thing. It will cost roughly ,
skeptical. Right now, Makad has no
to connect sewer and water to the
skin in the game — they just got the
site, and that construction is already
city of Pendleton to lay out ,
underway even though Makad says
on the off chance the stars align and
the data center would not operate for the project goes forward.
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 Managing
Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
Stuff happens
W
ith both China and India
state of the planet we know for sure
having just announced major
can support the modern world as we
plans to curb their carbon
know it.” It ¿nally gave us “a stable
emissions, the sound you hear is a
equilibrium of forests, savannahs,
tipping point tipping. Heading into
coral reefs, grasslands, ¿sh, mammals,
the United Nations climate summit
bacteria, air quality, ice cover,
meeting in Paris in December, all the
temperature, fresh water availability
world’s largest industrial economies
and productive soils.”
are now taking climate change more
It “is our Eden,” Rockstrom
Thomas
seriously. 7his includes the United
Friedman added, and now “we are threatening
States — except for some of the
to push Earth out of this sweet spot,”
Comment
knuckleheads running to be our
starting in the mid-s, when the
next president, which is not a small
Industrial Revolution reached most
problem.
of the rest of the globe and populations and
When, at CNN’s GOP presidential debate,
middle classes exploded. 7hat triggered
the moderator Jake 7apper read statements
“the great acceleration” of industrial and
from Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state
farming growth, which has put all of Earth’s
George Shultz (who drives an electric car
ecosystems under stress. 7he impacts now are
powered by solar panels on his home’s
obvious: “climate change, chemical pollution,
roof) about how Reagan urged industry to
air pollution, land and water degradation …
proactively address ozone depletion, and why
and the massive loss of species and habitats.”
Shultz believes we should be just as proactive
7he good news is that in this period many
today in dealing with climate change, he got
more of the world’s have-nots have escaped
the usual know-nothing responses.
from poverty. 7hey’ve joined the party. 7he
Sen. Marco Rubio said, “We’re not going
bad news, says Rockstrom, is that “the old
to destroy our economy the way the left-wing
party” cannot go on as it did. 7he Earth is very
government that we are under now wants
good at ¿nding ways to adapt to stress: oceans
to do,” while Gov. Chris Christie opined of
and forest absorb the extra CO; ecosystems
Shultz, “Listen, everybody makes a mistake
like the Amazon adapt to deforestation
every once in a while.”
and still provide rain and fresh water; the
7hey sure do, and it’s not Shultz, who
Arctic ice shrinks but does not disappear.
has been wisely and courageously telling
But eventually we can exhaust the planet’s
Republicans that the conservative thing to
adaptive capacities.
do now is to take out some insurance against
We’re sitting on these planetary boundaries
climate change, because if it really gets
right now, argues Rockstrom, and if these
rocking the results could be “catastrophic.”
systems Àip from one stable state to another
Hurricane Sandy — likely ampli¿ed by
— if the Amazon tips into a savannah, if
warmer ocean waters — caused over $36
the Arctic loses its ice cover and instead of
billion in damage to Christie’s own state, New reÀecting the sun’s rays starts absorbing them
Jersey, in .
in water, if the glaciers all melt and cannot
But hey, “stuff happens.”
feed the rivers — nature will be ¿ne, but we
7here was time when we could tolerate this will not be.
kind of dumb-as-we-wanna-be thinking. But
“7he planet has demonstrated an
it’s over. 7he next eight years will be critical
impressive capacity to maintain its balance,
for the world’s climate and ecosystems, and
using every trick in its bag to stay in the
if you vote for a climate skeptic for president,
current state,” explains Rockstrom. But there
you’d better talk to your kids ¿rst, because
are more and more signs that we may have
you will have to answer to them later.
reached a saturation point.
If you have time to read one book on this
Forests show the ¿rst signs of absorbing
subject, I highly recommend the new “Big
less carbon. 7he oceans are rapidly acidifying
World, Small Planet,” by Johan Rockstrom,
as they absorb more CO, harming ¿sh and
director of the Stockholm Resilience
coral. Global average temperatures keep
Center, and Mattias Klum, whose stunning
rising.
photographs of ecosystem disruptions
7his is what will greet the next president
reinforce the urgency of the moment.
— a resilient planet that could once absorb our
Rockstrom begins his argument with
excesses at seemingly no cost to us, suddenly
a reminder that for most of the Earth’s
tipping into a saturated planet, sending us
.-billion-year history its climate was
“daily invoices” that will get bigger each year.
not very hospitable to human beings, as it
When nature goes against you, watch out.
oscillated between “punishing ice ages and
“For the ¿rst time, we need to be clever,”
lush warm periods” that locked humanity into
says Rockstrom, “and rise to a crisis before
seminomadic lifestyles.
it happens,” before we cross nature’s tipping
It’s only been in the last , years that
points. Later will be too late. We elect a
we have enjoyed the stable climate conditions president who ignores this science at our peril.
allowing civilizations to develop based on
Ŷ
agriculture that could support towns and
Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer
cities. 7his period, known as the Holocene,
Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for
was an “almost miraculously stable and warm The New York Times. He became the paper’s
interglacial equilibrium, which is the only
foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995.
YOUR VIEWS
We can preserve gun
rights and innocent life
It is not political to see a tragedy
and work to prevent another one.
It is not pro-life to see a tragedy
and refuse to help prevent another
one. It is also not pro-death nor
shortsighted to worry about a loss
of freedom.
Surely the Second Amendment
can be interpreted in such a light as
to allow weapons for hunting and
self-defense while simultaneously
making mass shootings more
dif¿cult. 7here must be a way to
have a reasoned discussion on this
topic, not just at a national level,
but also here, among friends and
neighbors. Surely media coverage
can refuse to give the gunmen the
infamy they seek. Perhaps the main
stories can be about the people
who died, the people who were
injured and, particularly, the people
who risked life and limb to try and
stop further carnage. 7hose stories
are fascinating and can make it
easy for youth to study and want to
be like the heroes.
For many decades there was
nearly unfettered access to guns,
yet mass shootings were rare.
What has changed? What steps
can we take to strengthen family
and social ties, which can help
both prevent and treat isolation and
loneliness? Access to mental health
care is easier than ever before; how
can we make it easier to admit to a
problem without risking your own
future?
It is a favorite pastime to
complain about how partisan
Congress is and how they do
not work together to solve our
problems. Yet, as I listen to people
discuss these shootings, it sounds
like perhaps we may have the
leaders we deserve.
Just because someone disagrees
strongly with you does not mean
they are automatically stupid, evil,
ignorant, or even misinformed. We
all stand on common ground in
wanting these killings to end. We
have no room to complain about
our legislators when we ourselves
are throwing around insults and
casting blame instead of listening
to the other side and answering
politely. We must build up trust and
civility locally if we want to see it
nationally.
So please, the next time a
conservative tells you we must
put no restrictions of any kind on
any weapons, or the next time a
liberal tells you we must ban all
weapons including the common
jackknife, listen. Converse. 7hey
might learn something. You might
learn something. And perhaps
Eastern Oregon can help show how
to combine a positive gun culture
with a decrease in gun, and other,
violence.
Patricia Case
Helix
Obama using grief to
promote gun control
According to the East
Oregonian and President Obama
the “country has become numb
to gun violence.´ 7o declare that
the American people do not care
or feel the grief of those suffering
from these senseless murders is
callous and manipulative.
Barack Obama freely admits
“7his is something we should
politicize.” Obama will go to
Roseburg to press his gun control
agenda and newspapers like
the East Oregonian will help
sensationalize the grief of a
community in order to rede¿ne the
“broadest possible reading of the
second amendment.”
Fortunately, the civic leaders
of Roseburg still honor the
Constitution and adamantly
oppose politicizing the grief of the
suffering for political gain. “Our
Douglas County commissioners,
along with Douglas County elected
sheriff who is very popular, and
our chief of police all came to a
consensus language about him
(Obama) not being welcome
here to grandstand for political
purposes.” Roseburg newsletter
editor David Jacques expressed
the sentiments of those that abhor
politicizing grief. “So now he
wants to come to our community
and stand on the corpses of our
loved ones to make some kind of
political point.”
America has become numb,
not to senseless mass murders, but
rather to the sanctity of human life.
We routinely murder over a million
babies every year. Abortion on
demand for any reason at any time
is the leading cause of death in
America. We allow harvested baby
parts to be sold for pro¿t yet you
will never hear a word of outrage
from our local newspaper or our
President rushing to Roseburg to
capitalize on grief to promote gun
control.
A nation that will not protect the
sanctity of life in the womb will
create an environment where no
life is respected.
A nation that will remove all
values, morals and Godly standards
from schools and government
will reap a whirlwind of sick
individuals that have no respect for
human life.
Our forefathers recognized
the danger of such a government.
George Mason, a key author of our
constitution, warned “7o disarm
the people … is the most effective
way to enslave them.” Patrick
Henry said it best. “Guard with
jealous attention the public liberty.
Suspect anyone who approaches
that jewel. Unfortunately nothing
will preserve it but downright
force. Whenever you give up that
force you are ruined.”
Stuart Dick
Irrigon