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
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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
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keep out foreign university students?
persecution and war, but
Or the Islamic State could simply
American politicians —
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worried about security risks — refuse
Belgian citizens (like some of those
to accept them.
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That’s the situation today, but it’s
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also the shameful way we responded
are you planning to ban foreign
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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
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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,
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If Republican governors are concerned
assuage the xenophobia. “Judaism has nothing about security risks, maybe they should vet
in common with Communism.”
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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
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has opposed legislation to rectify this.
the United States turned away a ship, the St.
Although Donald Trump fulminates about
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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each year and many more injured responding
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I am the president of the AFSCME
what, the medical costs keep going up, which
Local 3361 at Eastern Oregion Correctional
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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
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thought opening Deer Ridge is unnecessary.
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For several years the population of Oregon’s
violence, injury or death. Another study found
prisons has swelled.
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The state already released inmates that
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had less severe crimes like possession of
military veterans. The suicide rate is twice as
marijuana. Although Deer Ridge minimum
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was opened in 2007, there were still 1,200
public. The National Institute of Corrections
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in 2008 found the life expectancy of a
medium side of the prison. The state has done
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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
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inmates. This means that most of our housing
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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
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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
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,QWKHUHZHUH¿JKWVZLWKSHRSOH reducing the prison population, then we need
to revisit Measure 11.
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Jeff Coffman
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Pendleton
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Overcrowded prisons put
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