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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, January 13, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Who wants to be a billionaire? Chances are good that you bought the lump sum payment, you’d a ticket for tonight’s Powerball. probably come away with close to Chances are much better than you’re PLOOLRQ$OLIHFKDQJLQJKDXO going to lose. no doubt, but a mere slice of the But that’s beside the point for $1.5 billion advertised. In addition, now, right? You’d be crazy not according to the Associated Press, to take the chance to become an more than 75 percent of all number overnight billionaire. Spending two combinations will be purchased bucks for a ticket is for Wednesday’s worth it, if only for drawing. And the pleasing brain the number The chances though exercise of deciding combinations are of winning what to do with all not evenly split that money. numbers are the Powerball (lower With the winnings covered with greater you could buy the jackpot are 1 regularity, because Playboy Mansion, like to pick in 292 million. people on the market right their birthdays, now for a cool $200 anniversaries, kids’ The payout million. You could etc.), that could even be birthdays, make Paul Allen a means the chances godfather offer for high that the pot less than that. are the Trail Blazers. will be split before You could buy taxes. If the jackpot is Umatilla County — all the land and divided even once, it would put the everything built on top of it. You ¿QDOSD\RXWEHORZPLOOLRQ could purchase your own Caribbean But none of us play the lottery island, a yacht roughly the same as a sound investment. It’s mostly a size, and enough margaritas to sink chance to dream of a life of leisure the whole ship. and luxury, and we wouldn’t dare Or, you could do some actual dash that dream. good with it: Blow minds at your Yet tonight, right before the favorite charity. Pay off all your winning numbers are revealed, friends’ mortgages. Pay the tuition take a moment to remember about for generations and generations of the lottery you have already won: your family. You could even stock You’ve been born! On top of that, up on a lifetime supply of monocles you’ve been born in the richest — got to look the part when you country in human history. You’ve become a billionaire. been born in a time of unfathomable But it’s important to remember wealth, entertainment opportunities that you’re not going to win the and absence from unnecessary pain Powerball. You best not plan to win, and suffering. You’ve been born nor risk any dollars you can’t afford in a world that includes sports, to lose. yachts, Playboy Magazine and The chances of winning the microwaveable popcorn. You will jackpot are roughly one in 292 live longer and healthier, on average, million. And while that may look than almost all prior human beings. like playing the lottery this week And best of all: You’re alive right is a decent gamble — the possible here, right now. You have the ability earnings outweigh the odds of to do millions of different things winning them — it really isn’t the today, and do them differently case. tomorrow. The $1.5 billion is cut roughly The chances of being that lucky in half if you take a lump sum are much higher than 1 in 292 payment. Oregon would take their million. You’ve already hit the taxes, the feds would take theirs. jackpot, and the winning ticket is In the Beaver State, if you took right there in your hand. Celebrate! 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. YOUR VIEWS issue within the communities of Pend- leton, Mission and the surrounding area. Despite adequate funding to more than pay for the current batch of new statues, ,DP\HDUVROGDQGWKLVLVP\¿UVW the Arts Commission has decided to letter to a newspaper. Why do we have fund only half the cost, and let the mayor to start the New Year with the headlines continue to beg for additional grants. It of DUlls in 2015, when there was a kind of reminds you of those panhan- story like the Hermiston High School band and all the awards that they won in dlers that are actually pulling down $50,000 a year and pleading poverty. San Diego that was on page three? Your choice of a headline made a statement to Now that’s a very effective fundraising technique. Evidently one unnamed me of what was important in your eyes. foundation has fallen for the ploy with a That statement was that the noting of pledge of $10,000. DUII stats was more important than the EOTEC: With its decision to partner accomplishment of our youth. up with city of Hermiston in this busi- Please think about giving the ness venture, the county commissioners deserved credit and space to the band, are now looking for a loophole in the the school, the teachers and the parents state law to put the rest of the county on to encourage other to do well in their school activities. The choice of headlines WKHKRRNIRUDORDQWRIXOO\¿QDQFHWKH WKDWZHUHXVHGHVSHFLDOO\RQWKH¿UVWGD\ project, as the amount poured into it so IDUE\FRXQW\WD[SD\HUVLVQRWVXI¿FLHQW of a new year, should have been a more to fund it. Loopholes? Must be some positive and celebrated choice. Mildred Baker political term. Good news should have headlined 2016 paper Boardman OTHER VIEWS The brutalism of Ted Cruz I million new jobs have been created in n 1997, Michael Wayne Haley ¿YH\HDUV was arrested after stealing a President Barack Obama has calculator from Wal-Mart. This championed a liberal agenda, was a crime that merited a maximum but he hasn’t made the country two-year prison term. But prosecutors unrecognizable. In 2008, federal incorrectly applied a habitual offender spending accounted for about 20.3 law. Neither the judge nor the defense percent of gross domestic product. lawyer caught the error and Haley was In 2015, it accounted for about 20.9 sentenced to 16 years. David percent. Eventually, the mistake came to Brooks But Cruz manufactures an OLJKWDQG+DOH\WULHGWR¿[LW7HG Comment atmosphere of menace in which Cruz was solicitor general of Texas at there is no room for compassion, for the time. Instead of just letting Haley moderation, for anything but dismantling go for time served, Cruz took the case to the Supreme Court to keep Haley in prison for the and counterattack. And that is what he offers. Cruz’s programmatic agenda, to the extent that full 16 years. it exists in his speeches, is to destroy things: Some justices were skeptical. “Is there destroy the IRS, crush the “jackals” of the some rule that you can’t confess error in EPA, end funding for Planned Parenthood, your state?” Justice Anthony Kennedy asked. reverse Obama’s executive orders, make the 7KHFRXUWV\VWHPGLG¿QDOO\OHW+DOH\RXWRI desert glow in Syria, destroy the Iran nuclear prison, after six years. accord. The case reveals something interesting Some of these positions I agree with, but about Cruz’s character. He is now running the lack of any positive emphasis, any hint strongly among evangelical voters, especially of reform conservatism, in Iowa. But in his career any aid for the working and public presentation class, or even any Cruz is a stranger to most humane gesture toward of what would generally cooperation is striking. be considered the Christian Cruz didn’t come up virtues: humility, mercy, with this hard, combative compassion and grace. and gladiatorial campaign Cruz’s behavior in the approach in isolation. Haley case is almost the He’s always demonstrated GLFWLRQDU\GH¿QLWLRQRI a tendency to bend his pharisaism: an overzealous position — whether application of the letter immigration or trade — to of the law in a way that what suits him politically. violates the spirit of the This approach works law, as well as fairness and because in the wake mercy. of the Obergefell v. Traditionally, candidates Hodges court decision on who have attracted strong same-sex marriage, many evangelical support have evangelicals feel they are being turned into in part emphasized the need to lend a helping hand to the economically stressed and the least pariahs in their own nation. Cruz exploits and exaggerates that fear. fortunate among us. Such candidates include But he reacts to Obergefell in exactly the George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee and Rick alienating and combative manner that is Santorum. destined to further marginalize evangelicals, But Cruz’s speeches are marked by what that is guaranteed to bring out fear-driven you might call pagan brutalism. There is not reactions and not the movement’s highest a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. ideals. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long The best conservatism balances support list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them. When he is speaking in a for free markets with a Judeo-Christian spirit church the contrast between the setting and the of charity, compassion and solidarity. Cruz emotional tone he sets is jarring. replaces this spirit with spartan belligerence. Cruz lays down an atmosphere of +HVRZVELWWHUQHVVLQÀXHQFHVKLVIROORZHUVWR apocalyptic fear. America is heading off “the lose all sense of proportion and teaches them cliff to oblivion.” After one Democratic debate to answer hate with hate. This Trump-Cruz he said, “We’re seeing our freedoms taken conservatism looks more like tribal, blood and away every day, and last night was an audition soil European conservatism than the pluralistic for who would wear the jackboot most American kind. vigorously.” Evangelicals and other conservatives As Republican strategist Curt Anderson KDYHKDGWKHLUEHVWLQÀXHQFHRQ$PHULFDQ observed in Politico, there’s no variation politics when they have proceeded in a spirit in Cruz’s rhetorical tone. As is the wont of of personalism — when they have answered inauthentic speakers, everything is described hostility with service and emphasized the as a maximum existential threat. LQ¿QLWHGLJQLW\RIHDFKSHUVRQ7KH\KDYH The fact is this apocalyptic diagnosis is won elections as happy and hopeful warriors. ridiculous. The Obama administration has Cruz’s brutal, fear-driven, apocalypse-based done things people like me strongly disagree approach is the antithesis of that. with. But America is in better economic shape Ŷ than any other major nation on earth. Crime David Brooks became a New York Times is down. Abortion rates are down. Fourteen Op-Ed columnist in 2003. Cruz sows bitterness, inluences his followers to lose all sense of proportion, and teaches them to answer hate with hate. Rick Rohde Pendleton Lack of returned ballots show lack of statue interest EOTEC has gone ahead, left fair and rodeo behind Local newsworthy news: The CTUIR continues to lead the way in energy development. The Tribes’ wind power effort is being followed up with a new solar energy project partially funded by the Blue Sky contributions of the city of Pendleton. Meanwhile our expert planner, Evan MacKenzie, is suggesting a reduction in our use of clean burning natural gas as a way of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. As a result, no natural gas will be made available to the new Sargent City housing development near Olney. An alternative source of electrical power, a bicycle-powered generator in every back yard, is a possible solution. Statue update: The selection of the new statues and their location have been determined with the massive turnout at the ballot box. Approximately 250 EDOORWVZHUHFRXQWHGZKLFKFRQ¿UPVWKH intense interest placed on this important Initially, the Umatilla County Fair/ rodeo grounds were job number one for relocation and I understand the reasons. Then, the “grand scheme” became EOTEC. Now the millions of dollars are gone and the fair/rodeo facilities are with “tin cup” in hand wanting to build the required structures for fair/rodeo. One example stands out. Vice chairman Dan Dorran stated Oct. 26, 2015, he “thought the barns were just that, barns.” Well, once codes and UHTXLUHPHQWVZHUH¿JXUHGLQWKH square foot construction cost became DVTXDUHIRRW$QGWKDW¶VMXVWWKH roof, no walls. However, the “trade center” is close to completion. I could expound from here, but just ponder the competency of our local leadership. Rod Triplett Hermiston 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.
