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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, October 16, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Tip of the hat; kick in the pants We tip our hat to the generations of readers and subscribers who have helped the East Oregonian reach its 140th birthday today. Oct. 16, 1875: Ulysses S. Grant was well into his second term as U.S. president, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were tangling with the U.S. military and the Qing Dynasty was still ruling in China. Oh, and the East Oregonian started writing and delivering the news door-to-door in Eastern Oregon. Yeah, the Pendleton Woolen Mills has us beat by a few years. And we’ve documented some family farms that date back a VHVTXLFHQWHQQLDO%XWZH¶UHRQHRIWKHROGHVW continually operating business in Umatilla County, and all of Oregon for that matter. 140 years, and still delivering door-to-door (and 60 years after the milkman realized there were easier ways to make a buck.) We couldn’t have done it without generation after generation of reporters and editors, pressmen, advertising salespeople, designers, ink-stained wretches and wrenches, and slingers of newspapers. Ink, too. We needed a lot of that. And today we need our photographers and podcasters, website designers and network administrators that are part of a 21st century newspaper operation. And we never forget our readers. We appreciate your support, and welcome your ideas about how to stick around for another 140 years. Tip of the hat to the Oregon Cultural Trust who, on their annual road trip through the state, stopped Wednesday at Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, and later with the East Oregonian editorial board. You might not have the group at the tip of your tongue — so many QRQSUR¿WVZLWKVXFKVLPLODUQDPHV²EXWLW¶V best to think of the Oregon Cultural Trust as the umbrella over many of them. Oregon is rare — no other state has anything like what we have in the cultural trust. It promotes culture and preservation, and provides grants and funding throughout the state. Its dollars percolate through the state’s Arts Commission, Council for the Humanities, Heritage Commission, Historical 6RFLHW\DQG+LVWRULF3UHVHUYDWLRQ2I¿FH:H ZDUQHG\RXDERXWWKHQRQSUR¿WVDQGWKHQDPHV It’s mostly private donations that make the trust hum, trust manager Aili Schreiner told the editorial board. Last year, that meant more than $1.8 million in grants distributed to QRQSUR¿WVDFURVVWKHVWDWHDQGWD[GHGXFWLRQVIRUPDQ\RIUHVLGHQWVZKR made the donations. 7KH\DOVRKHOSIXQQHOPRQH\WRFXOWXUDOQRQSUR¿WVLQFOXGLQJ plenty of local members. Some you have heard of, and some you may have not. There are more than a dozen in Umatilla County alone, including: Happy Canyon Foundation in Pendleton, the Crow’s Shadow Institute in Mission, the Fort Henrietta Foundation in Echo, Inland Northwest Musicians in Hermiston, Milton-Freewater Friends of the Library and the Umatilla County Pioneer Association in Weston. ,I\RX¶YHJLYHQWRRQHRIWKRVHJURXSVRUEHQH¿WHGIURPRQH\RXFDQEHW the Cultural Trust helped make it a little easier, and a little better experience. 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 State, federal marijuana ODZVFRQWLQXHWRFRQÀLFW Albany Democrat-Herald T he private recreational use of marijuana by adults in Oregon has been legal for months, and last week, you could start buying recreational marijuana at medical dispensaries that elected to join in on early sales of pot. (Well, at least in those jurisdictions that allowed those early sales.) But Oregon’s grand experiment with legalized marijuana won’t have any effect on the state’s colleges and universities, including Oregon State University. College administrators last week emphasized that nothing has changed on campuses, even as people lined up to buy recreational marijuana. That hard line for higher education makes sense, especially at universities like OSU that attract millions of dollars of federal funding for research. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and no university is going to jeopardize one penny of its federal funding by rolling back its regulations on pot. (Besides, OSU’s campus is smoke-free, and that presumably includes marijuana smoke.) But this does underline the continuing silliness of the federal government’s hard-line stance against marijuana. The feds still continue to regard marijuana as a Schedule I substance, the category reserved in part for drugs that have no currently accepted medical use, a designation that will surprise the thousands of Oregonians who use medicinal pot. (The state of Oregon, by the way, moved marijuana off the Schedule I list back in 2010, but that doesn’t carry any water with the federal government.) That hard-line federal stance explains why OSU also bans its researchers from doing any sort of work that physically involves marijuana. The university’s policy is reasonably clear on this point: It prohibits research that “involves the possession, use or distribution of marijuana,” unless that research complies with guidelines established by federal agencies — and we already know what the feds think about marijuana. This, too, seems silly, and it gets sillier: The ban also prohibits OSU faculty members from performing research involving industrial hemp. There’s plenty of interest nationwide and in Oregon in growing industrial hemp, which has negligible amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the DFWLYHLQJUHGLHQWLQPDULMXDQD7KH¿EHU from industrial hemp can be used in paper, clothing, rope and for a variety of other uses. The United States is the world’s largest consumer of hemp, but it still is listed as a Schedule I controlled substance, which is ludicrous. Considering the potential industrial hemp offers to Oregon farmers, it would make sense for OSU researchers to wade right in and work on the crop. But until the federal government rolls back its stance on hemp, you won’t see that happen on campus. (The potential of hemp as an agricultural commodity, by the way, is one of the very few issues on which U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Rand Paul agree.) As states move ahead on their own regarding legalizing marijuana, the federal government’s stance on the drug increasingly seems like an outlier. In the case of the prohibition against industrial hemp, another word again comes into mind: It’s just silly. The feds should get out of the way, and that process starts by decriminalizing hemp. OTHER VIEWS Rock bottom? Things could get worse for House GOP Y es, the House Republican with Democrats in lockstep defense of conference is stunned and the White House, even a relatively small confused after the withdrawal group of Republican members — 30 of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., or 40 — could stop Boehner from from the speaker’s race. But is it any passing spending bills or other critical more stunned and confused than it legislation. was exactly two years ago, when the The partial shutdown was the result. government was partially shut down Boehner’s days were numbered after DPLGELWWHU+RXVH*23LQ¿JKWLQJ that. Byron over Obamacare? Or a year ago, when But Boehner’s retirement York House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announcement — like McCarthy, he Comment suffered a mind-blowing defeat in a sprung it on a surprised world — didn’t GOP primary election? UHVROYHDQ\RIWKHFRQÀLFWVLQVLGH The fact is, the chaos plaguing Republicans the GOP conference. Many of that core in the House has been building for a long 30-40 member group of the most assertive time. It’s no wonder some GOP lawmakers conservatives saw McCarthy as more of the were reportedly weeping in the Capitol after same. And they realized, again, that if they McCarthy’s announcement. voted as a bloc against leadership, McCarthy Not long after, McCarthy was asked by couldn’t become speaker. National Review Online whether House And why should he have asked the Republicans are, at the moment, ungovernable. conservative rebels, who like everyone else “I don’t know,” he said. “Sometimes you have watched as public approval of GOP leaders to hit rock bottom.” went down and down? The GOP’s problem is that there is no way to “When 72 percent of Republican voters know whether this is rock bottom or not. Things disapprove of the congressional leadership, could get worse. There’s certainly no reason to it’s hard to simply promote the next in line,” believe they will get better anytime soon. says one conservative member. “We are in a The fundamental cause of the disarray is representative business, and it is unsustainable ODZPDNHUV¶LQDELOLW\WRDQVZHUWRWKLVTXHVWLRQ to have the people who do so much work to What is the role of a Republican Congress send Republicans to Congress harbor such in opposing President Obama? Republicans dissatisfaction with the party’s leaders.” took over the House in 2011, and they haven’t On the other hand, among the large majority agreed on that yet. of House Republicans who aren’t part of After the GOP’s smashing victory in the rebel group — that would be about 200 2EDPD¶V¿UVWPLGWHUPLQ5HSXEOLFDQV members — there are some who are deeply came to Washington and immediately began DQJU\DWWKHFRQVHUYDWLYH¿UHEUDQGV VTXDEEOLQJDPRQJWKHPVHOYHV:K\KDG “Didn’t Jim DeMint say it very clearly?” they won the majority? Was it because they asks the GOP strategist, referring to the very promised to repeal Obamacare? Was it because conservative former senator. “DeMint said he they promised to reduce the size and scope of would rather have 30 true conservatives in the the federal government? Was it because, as Senate than 60 that don’t really have principles. the new Speaker John Boehner believed, they Of course, with that, you won’t have any say promised to create jobs? in how the government works. Now, what (the The argument became so intense that +RXVH¿UHEUDQGVDUHVD\LQJLVIRUJHWLIZH Republicans actually commissioned a private don’t have any say, forget if we can actually do poll, which found that by a large majority, anything, the key thing is to be able to say what Americans voted for Republicans to create we want.” jobs. Obama didn’t seem terribly interested in 7KDW¶VWKH¿JKWWKDWFDXVHGWKH0F&DUWK\ MREVGXULQJKLV¿UVWFRXSOHRI\HDUVLQRI¿FH melodrama. (Yes, his Benghazi comments and frustrated voters wanted Congress to take ZHUHDGLVDVWHUEXWWKHEDVLFFRQÀLFWLQVLGHWKH action. House GOP conference was a much bigger “There has been a misunderstanding factor.) over how we got our majority,” says a well- Yes, it is reasonable to ask whether connected GOP strategist who works closely Republican leaders — the experienced ones with Hill Republicans. “In 2010, what was the steeped in the ways of Washington and, in number-one issue? It was not health care. It particular, of K Street — did everything was jobs and the economy by a more than 60 they could to understand the priorities of the percent margin.” conservative militants. But it’s probably too late Nevertheless, a lot of newly elected GOP for understanding now. The speakership is up members were driven by opposition to Obama. for grabs, the conference is in disarray, and rock They had never served in the majority before bottom might not even be in sight. and did not come to Washington to get along Ŷ and go along. They pushed Boehner to be more Byron York is chief political correspondent and more confrontational. They realized that for The Washington Examiner. YOUR VIEWS Call people by their names, not their color or labels Just a comment to Mr. Shippentower’s response about the elderly women that was recently arrested here in Milton-Freewater for her verbiage toward her neighbor and then turning a hose on him. He was Hispanic and she referred to him as a “wetback.” I believe that she insulted and hosed down a SROLFHRI¿FHURIFRORUDVZHOOEHIRUHVKHZDV arrested. I am not sure exactly where you start and stop considering behavior racist. But I do know that 50 years ago, at our family dinner table, my parents said you call people by their names. You don’t call them by color, by geography, by gender, or anything else but their names. I believe that if you are comfortable calling RXUSROLFHIRUFHDEXQFKRIKLFNVDQG¿QG “wetback” just a slang terminology, then your sense of respect for people may be found, in my world, offensive. Pure and simple. So, I can tell you that I have found the police department to be particularly sensitive to our diverse community. They are a diverse force. And if you think “wetback” is OK, then SOHDVHGH¿QHZKDWLWDFWXDOO\PHDQV7KHQ we will once again decide if it is offensive, because I believe that my circle of friends would be stopped in their tracks — and some ZRXOGHYHQ¿QGWKRVH³¿JKWLQJ´ZRUGV I might also add, if small children are in the home, and we are using all of this terminology that really doesn’t mean anything and is just a “not-so-nice prank,” when they start calling their classmates “wetbacks,” perhaps we may understand perpetuating hate among ourselves due to labels. Mardi Hagerman Milton-Freewater Pendleton gas tax would be tied for highest in state Before election day, please consider the VLJQL¿FDQWFRQVHTXHQFHVRID3HQGOHWRQJDV tax. This local tax raises the overall cost of gas pumped within our city, and would in fact rank us as tied for the number one highest municipal gas tax in the state of Oregon. This is not an achievement to be proud of. Why doesn’t our city council see that the increased cost will hurt small businesses and local families who live and work in Pendleton while giving visitors an incentive to fuel XSGRZQWKHURDG"0DQ\RIXVDUHRQ¿[HG LQFRPHVDQGHYHU\SHQQ\RU¿YHSHQQLHVFRXQW 7KHUHDUHVLJQL¿FDQWFRQVHTXHQFHVWR a Pendleton gas tax and I am voting no on November 3. LETTERS POLICY Ross D. Taylor Pendleton 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. The phone number will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
