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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, November 21, 2015 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com MIKE FORRESTER STEVE FORRESTER KATHRYN B. BROWN Pendleton Chairman of the Board Astoria President Pendleton Secretary/Treasurer CORY BOLLINGER JEFF ROGERS Aberdeen, S.D. Director Indianapolis, Ind. Director OUR VIEW Betraying ourselves HVSHUDWHUHIXJHHVÀHH keep out foreign university students? persecution and war, but Or the Islamic State could simply American politicians — VHQG¿JKWHUVZKRDUH)UHQFKRU worried about security risks — refuse Belgian citizens (like some of those to accept them. EHKLQGWKH3DULVDWWDFNVWRWKH86DV That’s the situation today, but it’s WRXULVWVQRYLVDUHTXLUHG*RYHUQRUV also the shameful way we responded are you planning to ban foreign DV-HZVZHUHÀHHLQJ1D]L*HUPDQ\LQ tourists, too? WKHV,QWKHVKDGRZRIRQHZRUOG Nicholas Refugee vetting has an excellent Kristof record. Of 785,000 refugees admitted war, on the eve of another, Americans Comment feared that European Jews might be WRWKH8QLWHG6WDWHVVLQFHMXVW left-wing security threats. three have been arrested for terrorism- “Jews are not Communists,” related charges, according to the Rabbi Louis I. Newman of Manhattan noted, 0LJUDWLRQ3ROLF\,QVWLWXWHLQ:DVKLQJWRQ SOHDGLQJO\LQ'HFHPEHUWU\LQJWR If Republican governors are concerned assuage the xenophobia. “Judaism has nothing about security risks, maybe they should vet in common with Communism.” ZKRFDQEX\JXQV3HRSOHRQWHUURULVPZDWFK <HWLQ-DQXDU\$PHULFDQVSROOHG lists are legally allowed to buy guns in the said, by a 2-to-1 majority, that the United United States, and more than 2,000 have done States should not accept 10,000 mostly Jewish VRVLQFH7KH1DWLRQDO5LÀH$VVRFLDWLRQ UHIXJHHFKLOGUHQIURP*HUPDQ\7KDW\HDU has opposed legislation to rectify this. the United States turned away a ship, the St. Although Donald Trump fulminates about 3UHVLGHQW%DUDFN2EDPD Louis, with Jewish refugee supposedly wanting to children; the St. Louis bring in 250,000 or more returned to Europe, where Syrian refugees, that’s some of its passengers were preposterous: Obama murdered by the Nazis. proposes admitting 10,000 That is a stain on our Syrian refugees over a year. conscience that risks That’s tiny, just 1 percent being repeated. Some 26 of the number that Lebanon Republican governors are has accepted. trying to block entry of The Islamic State is Syrian refugees. All the trying to create a religious Republican presidential divide and an anti-refugee candidates say that we backlash, so that Muslims should bar Syrian refugees will feel alienated and or apply a religious test and turn to extremism. If so, accept only Christians. American and European *RY&KULV&KULVWLHRI politicians are following the Islamic State’s New Jersey says we shouldn’t accept Syrians script. even if they are toddlers and orphans. And Let’s be careful not to follow that script Democrats and Republicans voted this week to impede the resettlement of Syrian refugees. further and stigmatize all Muslims for ISIS terrorism. As a young British Muslim man, One Syrian family — a man who once ran Kash Ali, wrote in a post that went viral on DFORWKLQJVWRUHKLVZLIHDQGWKHLU\HDUROG Twitter: “I don’t understand why non Muslims child — were supposed to arrive in Indiana WKLVZHHN7KHQ*RY0LNH3HQFHDQQRXQFHG think we British Muslims can stop ISIS. Mate, I can’t even get a text back from the girl I that Syrians were unwelcome, and the family like, and you expect me to stop a terrorist is settling in Connecticut instead. organization?” Remember what a Syrian immigrant looks Look, accepting 10,000 refugees is not a like — the father of Steve Jobs. Thank goodness that when my father came solution. Indeed, there is a risk that Angela Merkel’s admirable compassion will lead to America as a refugee from Eastern Europe IDUODUJHUQXPEHUVWRXQGHUWDNHWKHGLI¿FXOW LQSROLWLFLDQVZHUHQ¶WIHDUPRQJHULQJ journey and die on the way. The top priority My dad sailed to New York, bought a copy of must be making Syria habitable so that the Sunday New York Times to teach himself UHIXJHHVQHHGQRWÀHH7KLVLVZKHUH,EHOLHYH English, and took the train across the country Obama has failed — Syria is his worst foreign to a welcoming Oregon. policy failure — but it’s good to see him push When Indiana today shuns desperate refugees, it is shunning people like my family. back at the hysteria about Syrian refugees. Helping Syrian refugees today doesn’t Yes, security is critical, but I’ve known solve the Middle East mess any more than people who have gone through the refugee KHOSLQJ-HZLVKUHIXJHHVLQZRXOGKDYH vetting process, and it’s a painstaking ordeal that lasts two years or more. It’s incomparably toppled Hitler. But it’s the right thing to do. Syrians, no less than those Jewish refugees, no more rigorous than other pathways to the less than my father, are human beings needing United States. KHOSQRWÀRWVDP If the Islamic State wanted to dispatch a Ŷ terrorist to America, it wouldn’t ask a mole to Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep apply for refugee status, but rather to apply and cherry farm in Yamhill. He has been a for a student visa to study at, say, Indiana columnist for The New York Times since 2001. University. Hey, governors, are you going to D Fix Oregon’s toothless public records laws For decades, Oregon’s public records laws have been systematically weakened as powerful interests carved out exemptions for data they do not want to share. It is hurting Oregon. It makes our government less transparent, it gives cover to lobbyists and state employees who are breaking the law or misusing money, and it makes LWPRUHGLI¿FXOWIRUQHZVSDSHUV and private citizens to hold their government accountable. Take, for instance, just one biased exemption. If you lobby the legislature on transportation issues promoting anything except single occupancy vehicles, your lobbying is exempt from public records laws. 3XEOLFWUDQVSRUWDWLRQOREE\LVWVHUJR are exempt because their close ties with the legislature allowed them to carve out their own special set of rules. Single occupancy vehicle lobbyists — while probably having plenty of power and funds behind them — haven’t greased the right wheels of power long enough to get themselves exempt. But it might not be that way for long. Each year, more and more exemptions are added onto the rolls and special interest lobbyists are always at the top of the list. Why does it matter? Knowledge of how our government is functioning is crucial for any democracy. It allows us to know how our representatives vote, how much we pay government employees and when someone in public employ screws up. Clearly, there are things that should be exempt from public purview: medical and health records, Social Security numbers and other personal information. But the government is our government. It works best when it works openly and works for us. Current Oregon governor Kate Brown got the job because John Kitzhaber was chased out by an ethics scandal. Record requests on Kitzhaber and the role of the Cylvia Hayes, made by multiple media outlets, were delayed for months. Those delays certainly helped Kitzhaber stay in the race and even win the election. It contributed to the state’s embarrassment of having a governor resign, and the undemocratic reality RIDQXQHOHFWHGRI¿FHKROGHUUXQQLQJ the state for more than two years. Brown said increased transparency would be a tenant of her administration, but has yet to make any real headway on the issue. Sure, we’ve got another committee to discuss it, but we’ve had committees before and they’ve come to the common sense conclusion: Our public records law stinks. Exemptions need to be chiseled away. State agencies need to be more responsive to requests, and held responsible if they aren’t. And a records request cannot be so expensive that a private citizen cannot afford it. We think the state’s creaky public records laws certainly allowed Kitzhaber to be re-elected, and to some extent contributed to the expensive failures of the Columbia River Crossing and Cover Oregon. Had more been known sooner, costly mistakes could have been avoided and state tax dollars saved. 7KH2UHJRQ5HSXEOLFDQ3DUW\ has made transparency a top priority of the party this year. We think it will resonate with voters, who feel shielded from the real decision making in Salem. But it will take bipartisan action to get anything done. The 2016 session is a short one. If legislators want to do something that costs little money but has an RXWVL]HGEHQH¿WWRWKHVWDWHWKH\ should simplify and strengthen Oregon’s public records laws. 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. Thank goodness that when my father came to America as a refugee in 1952, politicians weren’t fearmongering. YOUR VIEWS WKHVH¿JKWVKDYHEHHQEHWZHHQLQPDWHVEXW ZHKDYHWRFRUUHFWLRQDORI¿FHUVDVVDXOWHG each year and many more injured responding WRDQGEUHDNLQJXSWKHVH¿JKWV1RPDWWHU I am the president of the AFSCME what, the medical costs keep going up, which Local 3361 at Eastern Oregion Correctional LVGLUHFWO\UHODWHGWRWKHVH¿JKWV Institution and I would like to respond to A recent study showed that 1 in 3 some of the comments made about why it’s FRUUHFWLRQDORI¿FHUVVKRZVV\VWHPVRI376' thought opening Deer Ridge is unnecessary. DQGSHUFHQWKDYHUHSRUWHGZLWQHVVLQJ For several years the population of Oregon’s violence, injury or death. Another study found prisons has swelled. WKDWSHUFHQWRIFRUUHFWLRQDORI¿FHUVVXIIHU The state already released inmates that IURP376'7KLVFRPSDUHVWRSHUFHQWRI had less severe crimes like possession of military veterans. The suicide rate is twice as marijuana. Although Deer Ridge minimum KLJKDVERWKSROLFHRI¿FHUVDQGWKHJHQHUDO was opened in 2007, there were still 1,200 public. The National Institute of Corrections HPSW\EXQNVWKDWZHUHQRW¿OOHGRQWKH in 2008 found the life expectancy of a medium side of the prison. The state has done FRUUHFWLRQDORI¿FHUDIWHU\HDUVRIZRUNZDV all it could do to house additional inmates at 58, compared with a national average of 75. other prisons, so they did not have to open Safety of law-abiding citizens is a Deer Ridge. At EOCI, for example our capacity was set paramount, and we work hard to keep the citizens safe. We are often short-staffed and at 1,500 inmates before the downturn in the it is not uncommon for staff to be “stuck” economy and it now has a capacity of 1,767 KDYLQJWRZRUNDQRWKHUVKLIWDIWHUWKHLU¿UVW inmates. This means that most of our housing XQLWVKDYHDWOHDVWLQPDWHVZLWKRQHRI¿FHU HLJKWKRXUVKLIW,WLVGLI¿FXOWWRUHWDLQVWDII to work at prisons in Eastern Oregon. We supervising them. We have two dormitory units that now have 107 inmates and still only WUDLQPDQ\QHZFRUUHFWLRQDORI¿FHUVDQGDV VRRQDVWKH\JHWSDVWWKHLU¿UVWWUDLQLQJ\HDU RQHRI¿FHU most transfer back to the valley where they What does this overcrowding mean to can make much more money working for the safety? When you house that many felons WRJHWKHUWHPSHUVGRÀDUH,QWKHUHZHUH county. If Oregon wants to get serious about ¿JKWVDW(2&,ZLWKSHRSOHLQYROYHG ,QWKHUHZHUH¿JKWVZLWKSHRSOH reducing the prison population, then we need to revisit Measure 11. LQYROYHG,QWKHUHZHUH¿JKWVZLWK Jeff Coffman SHRSOHLQYROYHG,QWKHUHZHUH Pendleton ¿JKWVZLWKSHRSOHLQYROYHG0RVWRI Overcrowded prisons put FRUUHFWLRQDORI¿FHUVDWULVN
