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OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, January 8, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to Harney County Sheriff David Ward.
Ward has thus far admirably handled the standoff with armed protesters
at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, and has been a cautious and reasonable
voice amid a sea of partisan and hypocritical shouting from all sides. He has
galvanized his community, and earned the
respect of many nationwide.
We don’t know how many sheriffs in
Oregon, especially rural counties that have
complicated and antagonistic relationships
with the federal government, would be so
professional in such a stressful, dif¿cult
and dangerous situation. Ward put his own
politics aside for safety’s sake.
“I could walk around the room and ask
every person in here if everybody is happy
with the way things are going in our country
and I could probably get a thousand different
answers on that,” said Ward at a community meeting Jan. 6. “I have my own
frustrations. We’ve got visitors in town that have their own frustrations. But
there’s appropriate ways to work out our differences.”
Sheriff is a strange job in Oregon. It’s an elected position, and one that
often requires all the campaigning and political promises that other such
positions do. But then you get elected and are supposed to forget all that and
be an apolitical servant of the people. (Of course, we guess that’s the goal of
every political of¿ce, but Americans have long ago stopped demanding that
state and federal legislators put people before politics.)
There is still an awful lot that can go wrong in Burns. But Sheriff Ward
has done his best to defuse it. We hope the situation ends peacefully, and that
it spurs important conversations about federal lands.
A kick in the pants to drivers who break the rules of the road and put
the rest of us in danger.
The streets and highways are dangerous
enough with vehicles going safe speeds with
attentive drivers at the wheel.
What we don’t need are racers (like the
two who caused a wreck near the county
courthouse Tuesday), drunks (like the 29
who were cited during a three-week period
in December in Umatilla County), texters,
rubberneckers and other distracted, impaired
or unsafe drivers.
We’re still a few generations away from a
self-driving Àeet of vehicles on the road that
will take human error out of the equation. But
until then, take responsibility for yourself, your friends and your family.
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
Ballot measures will boost
campaign contributions
The (Corvallis) Gazette-Times
A
s we start the new year, it’s
always tempting to take a look
at what might be making news
across the state in 2016.
Here’s a good bet for the coming
year: Some statewide elections will be
attracting big money in
contributions.
But they might not
be the races that you’d
expect.
In fact, the races for
the state’s top elected
positions might turn
out to be low-wattage affairs. With
the possible exception of the crowded
¿eld vying for the secretary of state’s
of¿ce (recently, a stepping stone
to the governor’s of¿ce), it seems
unlikely that any of those races will be
generating much electricity, let alone
the big campaign contributions that
can Àow into hotly contested races. It’s
always possible that a legislative race
somewhere in the state will take off, the
way that the race between Sara Gelser
and Betsy Close for a state Senate seat
took off, and become a magnet for big
campaign contributions, but that doesn’t
seem likely to happen anywhere in the
mid-valley in 2016. (In fact, we’d guess
that few of the mid-valley’s legislative
seats up for election in 2016 will even
attract contested races, but we’ll see
about that.)
No, if you’re on the lookout for
big-money statewide races in 2016,
you’ll have to look elsewhere on the
ballot. In particular, keep an eye on
the statewide initiatives that end up
qualifying for the ballot.
One of those big-money races may
involve efforts to increase the minimum
wage in Oregon. Although this could
change depending on what happens in
the short legislative session scheduled to
begin in February, four separate efforts
are underway to collect the signatures
necessary to put a minimum wage
measure on the November ballot.
And, already, contributions are rolling
in. The Oregonian recently reported
that Service Employees International
Union Local 503 has
started a political
action committee, the
Oregonians Need a Raise
PAC, to prepare for a
ballot ¿ght.
That PAC already has
collected $363,464 in
a contribution that originates with the
union’s international of¿ce, a clear sign
that the issue is important to the union.
That’s just the opening salvo. It seems
a good bet that a minimum-wage ballot
measure also will collect substantial
contributions from opponents. So this is
a race that should cost many millions of
dollars, although it would have a ways to
go to beat the current record-holder, the
failed 2014 measure to require labeling
on genetically modi¿ed food products.
(The tab in that race: $32 million.)
But the minimum-wage ¿ght might
just be the undercard for the main
event, at least in terms of campaign
spending: A proposal to overhaul the
state’s corporate taxes by establishing a
gross receipts tax seems like a good bet
to make the ballot. That political ¿ght
could prove reminiscent of the battles
over Measure 66 and 67 back in 2010;
those measures attracted about $12.5
million in spending.
By contrast, spending for the 2014
gubernatorial race between John
Kitzhaber and Dennis Richardson
topped out at about $8.3 million.
But for now at least, the big-money
races in Oregon politics don’t seem to be
the ones with candidates attached.
Keep an eye
on statewide
initiatives.
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.
OTHER VIEWS
Guns, tears and Republicans
P
100,000 inhabitants.
resident Barack Obama shed
Republican presidential candidates
tears Tuesday as he called for
should look at the natural experiment
new gun safety measures, and
that occurred when Missouri eased
some critics perceived weakness or
restrictions on buying handguns. The
wimpishness. Really? On the contrary,
result was a 25 percent rise in the
we should all be in tears that 225,000
¿rearm homicide rate, according to a
Americans have already died of gun
study in the Journal of Urban Health.
violence in his seven years in of¿ce.
In contrast, Connecticut tightened
The shame is not a president
Nicholas
regulations
on buying handguns, and
weeping a bit, but that he has not
Kristof gun homicides
there fell by 40 percent,
been able to prevent roughly as many
Comment
according to the American Journal of
people dying from guns in America
Public Health.
on his watch as have been killed in the
This is not to say that regulations always
Syrian civil war (where estimates range from
work, or that ¿xing the problem is simple.
fewer than 200,000 to more than 300,000).
Daniel W. Webster of Johns Hopkins
Yes, the U.S. gun toll includes suicides and,
University cites research that keeping guns
yes, Syria is a smaller country, but it’s worth
from people with past
a cry that a “peaceful”
convictions for domestic
America during Obama’s
violence doesn’t make much
tenure has lost roughly as
of a difference. But blocking
many lives to gun¿re as
access to guns by people
Syria has in civil war.
subject to current domestic
Ted Cruz responded to
violence restraining orders
the president’s executive
does reduce killings of
actions with a Web page
intimate partners.
showing a scowling Obama
We need an evidence-
in a helmet, looking like
driven public health
a jackbooted thug staging
approach, modeled on
a home invasion, with
our highly successful
the warning, “Obama
regulation of cars to reduce
wants your guns.” Chris
auto deaths. That’s the approach the Obama
Christie protested that Obama was behaving
executive actions pursue. Republicans
like a “petulant child.” Jeb Bush decried
have said for years that we should focus on
Obama’s “gun-grabbing agenda.” Donald
enforcing existing laws. That’s what Obama
Trump warned that Obama was moving
is doing.
toward banning guns. The upshot of all this
Likewise, Obama is pushing to investigate
scaremongering will be more Americans
the feasibility of smart guns that operate with
rushing out to buy ¿rearms.
a ¿ngerprint or a PIN. This may or may not
Look, let’s acknowledge that liberals have
work, but it’s worth a try in a nation where
not handled gun issues well over the years.
perhaps 300,000 guns are stolen annually. A
Liberals often antagonize gun owners by
toddler in America shoots someone on average
coming across as patronizing or insulting —
once a week because guns are so easy to pick
as well as spectacularly unknowledgeable
up and ¿re. If our cellphones can be made to
about the guns they seek to regulate. But
work only with a PIN, it’s crazy that anyone
on the basic question of whether more guns
can use a stolen assault riÀe.
create more safety or more risk, the evidence
There’s no magic wand to solve gun
seems clear: Most gun owners use ¿rearms
violence in America, but neither is it
responsibly, but with more guns there are
immutable fate that 32,000 Americans die
more tragedies.
from ¿rearms each year. We know from the
Exclude guns and the U.S. has a rate for
experience of states like Connecticut and
many violent crimes similar to that of other
Missouri that sensible regulations save lives.
rich countries. But because we have 300
And why wouldn’t we want to keep guns from
million guns sloshing around, some in the
men subject to domestic violence restraining
hands of high-risk individuals, we have a gun
orders if the result is fewer women murdered
homicide rate that is about 20 times that of
Australia (which cracked down on guns after a by jilted boyfriends?
The Republican presidential candidates
mass shooting there).
are on the wrong side of history here. While
Gun advocates say criminals will always
even Republican voters overwhelmingly say
have guns, so regulations make no difference.
in polls that they favor sensible steps like
But increasingly we have evidence that this is
universal background checks, the Republican
wrong.
candidates are politicizing what should be
The states with the most restrictive
a public health issue, and they are scaring
gun laws have the lowest gun death rates
Americans into buying more guns, which
(including suicides). Take Massachusetts and
magni¿es the problem and causes more
New York, which have some of the tightest
carnage.
gun restrictions in America; they have 3 or 4
Ŷ
gun deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
At the other extreme, two of the states with the
cherry farm in Yamhill, Oregon. Kristof, a
most permissive gun regulations are Alaska
columnist for The New York Times since 2001,
and Louisiana, and both have gun death rates
won the Pulitzer Prize two times.
about ¿ve times as high: more than 19 per
There’s no magic
wand to solve
gun violence
in America,
but neither is it
immutable fate.
YOUR VIEWS
Burns standoff a media circus,
public relations event
Easy there, troops: Armageddon isn’t here.
These loony Rambo types who are
trespassing at the Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge compound will leave when they get
hungry. Tonya Harding and her merry crew
could have done better.
This is a media event. If I was a hardened
skeptic, I would believe Sheriff David Ward
coerced this out¿t to show up so he could
be center stage and do some grandstanding.
When you’ve got these 24-hour news giants
on hand and there is no news, they make
news.
/ast week there was Àooding in the
Midwest. The media grossly hackneyed the
word “historic.”
So settle down. The sun will rise tomorrow
at its allotted time.
John Shippentower
Pendleton
It takes a village,
not a police state
Recently, I came home from a friend’s
birthday party where there was Oreo ice cream
cake.
My son, who is four, understandably didn’t
want to leave the party. Who would? My
friend’s 18-year-old son had to help me get
his coat on him, carry him out to the car, and
strap him into his car seat. Many parents of
preschoolers know the drill of the child who
is too wiggly to put into the car or the child
throwing a tantrum.
When I got home, my son didn’t want to
get out of the car seat. He wanted me to carry
him into the house. I told him I had to carry
in two shopping bags, and that he is a big boy
and could walk himself in. The ¿t continued.
After I got my son into the house, he ran back
outdoors. He ran circles around our parked car
in the driveway, all fueled by Oreo ice cream
cake. I repeatedly told him to come inside,
tried to reason with him. Alas, reasoning with
a 4-year-old.
Eventually, he settled down and pouted
on the porch for a few minutes ¿ve, by my
count while I watched him while putting
the shopping bags down), then came inside
sobbing and apologizing, and got ready for
bed. This morning, I was informed that a
neighbor had called Child Protective Services
alleging I had locked my child out in the cold
for 15 minutes.
I understand that there is child abuse. I
understand the “If you see something, say
something,” philosophy. But why wouldn’t
someone offer to help? I’m always grateful
when another parent steps in and says, “You
should listen to your mom,” or offers to help
me push out a grocery cart when I have an
unruly child.
My neighbors might have been well-
meaning, but next time, if you’re really
concerned, I wish you would offer to help
rather than calling a government agency.
Shaindel Beers
Pendleton