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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, January 22, 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 kick in the pants — and out the door — to the Bundy Bunch, the illegal occupiers of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge near Burns. We’ve all suffered fools a little too gladly over the past three weeks, curious about how the deep freeze standoff will play out. But as the new year starts to show signs of age, it’s time for this to end. We can’t abide blatant lawbreakers, no matter how righteous they believe their cause is, or how privileged their background. Ideally, the armed protesters should have followed leader Ammon %XQG\¶V¿UVWSURPLVHDQGOHIWRQFHWKHFRPPXQLW\ZDQWHGWKHPJRQH Apparently they misunderstood the chant of “Go, go, go, go, go” at a public forum in Burns this week where, once again, the county’s citizens by and large told them to hit the road. Now we’re into the next phase of the standoff, a time for direct action. We’re not encouraging the feds to raid the compound — this thing must end without bloodshed. But cutting the power would be a good start, as would controlling access to and from the refuge. How the lawbreakers have been allowed to come and go so easily is beyond us. The argument that they’re not doing any harm — hey look, they even cleaned up an old barn! — is a misdirect. They’re tearing down fences, building new roads and who knows what else. Plus, they’re emboldening the spirit of illegal protest by showing that angry, armed and land-owning white men can get away with anything in this country. It worked for them in 1HYDGDDQGQRZWKH\¶UH¿QGLQJLWZRUNVKHUHLQ2UHJRQWRR $VNLQJQLFHO\DQGGHPDQGLQJ¿UPO\KDYHQ¶WZRUNHG,W¶VWLPHIRUDFWLRQ not with bullets but with brains. “This occupation has caused tremendous disruption and hardship for the people of Harney County, and our response has been deliberate and measured as we seek a peaceful resolution,” said the FBI, responding to Gov. Kate Brown’s call for the resoluation to be “swift.” Law enforcement deserves kudos for their restraint, evading any accusations of a tyrannical response of a heavy-handed government. But when sustained inaction allows for an environment of threats and fear to pervade Harney County, where the rule of law has all but been eroded, it may be time to start pulling some plugs. Tip of the hat to the cooperation of Hill Meat and the city of Pendleton, which got infrastructure upgrades to the airport industrial park at an affordable price. Those upgrades should bring roughly 30 much-needed jobs to Pendleton, and the price tag was paid mostly by out-of-area grant funds. The city will have to kick in some dough (about $25,500), but that’s a great investment when the payoff is a high probability of new local jobs. It’s a good reminder that promoting and expanding local businesses that are already operating locally has a much better chance of success, when compared to trying to woo international drone companies or big box stores. The agreement a good example of government and industry working in tandem to solve problems, an example that we hope sets a precedent in Pendleton and elsewhere in Eastern Oregon. A tip of the hat to Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, better known as the MythBusters, who for the past 12 years have entertained while enlightening their Discovery Channel audience — usually with spectacular explosions. $VSDUWRIWKHLU¿QDOHVHDVRQWKHFUHZ spent a few days in Eastern Oregon last summer busting the myth that an oil tanker can spontaneously implode if conditions are just right. But, as the show usually goes, the duo found a way to force the implosion and the results are incredible to watch. The show was a valuable presence in an increasingly vapid cable lineup, offering real science instead of staged squabbling among D-list celebrities. Hopefully it has not only inspired a future generation of theorizers and tinkerers, but has shown television executives that educational programs can be fun if you give them a chance. 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. CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES U.S. Senators Governor Ron Wyden Senator Jeff Merkley Bill Hansell, District 29 U.S. Representative Greg Walden Washington office: 185 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6730 La Grande office: 541-624-2400 Z What could be URICH — Just get me talking homes in a trailer park — built about the world today and I can on slabs of concrete without real pretty well ruin any dinner party. foundations or basements — and ,GRQ¶WPHDQWREXW,¿QGLWKDUGQRW what you’re seeing today with the to look around and wonder whether acceleration of technology, climate the recent turmoil in international change stresses and globalization is the markets isn’t just the product of equivalent of a tornado going through tremors but rather of seismic shifts in a trailer park. Some of these states are the foundational pillars of the global Thomas just falling apart, and many of their system, with highly unpredictable Friedman people are now trying to cross the consequences. Mediterranean — to escape their world Comment What if a bunch of eras are ending of disorder and get into the world of all at once? order, particularly the European Union. What if we’re at the end of the 30-plus- But what if the EU era is over? Reuters year era of high growth in China — and reported this week that Germany is telling therefore China’s ability to fuel global growth other EU countries that if they don’t prevent through its imports, exports and purchases WKHLQÀX[RIPRUHUHIXJHHVLQWR(XURSHIURP of commodities will be much less frothy and the Mediterranean and “relieve Berlin of the reliable in the future? lonely task of housing refugees, Germany could shut its doors.” “Now that this debt bubble Some Germans even want is unwinding, growth in China a border fence. One senior LVJRLQJRIÀLQH´0LFKDHO conservative was quoted as Pento, president of Pento saying, “If you build a fence, Portfolio Strategies, wrote it’s the end of Europe as we on CNBC.com last week. know it.” “The renminbi’s falling value, What if the era of Iranian cascading Shanghai equity isolation is over, just as the prices (down 40 percent since Arab system is collapsing and June 2014) and plummeting the two-state solution between rail freight volumes (down Israelis and Palestinians is 10.5 percent year over year) all history? How will all those clearly illustrate that China is molecules interact? not growing at the promulgated And what if all this is 7 percent, but rather isn’t happening when the two-party growing at all. The problem system in America seems to be is that China accounted for 34 getting most of its energy from percent of global growth, and the far left and the far right? the nation’s multiplier effect Bernie Sanders’ platform is on emerging markets takes that that we can solve our most onerous economic number to over 50 percent.” problems if we just tax “The Man” more. What if the $100-a-barrel oil price era is Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are running on over and all these countries whose economies the theme that they are “The Man” — the were directly or indirectly propped up by VWURQJPDQ²ZKRFDQPDJLFDOO\¿[ those prices will have to learn to grow the everything. old-fashioned way — by making goods What if our 2016 election ends up being and services others want to buy? Thanks to between a socialist and a borderline fascist — steady technological advances in America ideas that died in 1989 and 1945 respectively? for fracking, horizontal drilling and using And what if all of this is happening big data to identify deposits, OPEC’s pricing power has disappeared. Countries that have set at a time when our government’s ability to stimulate the economy through either their budgets based on $80- to $100-a-barrel PRQHWDU\RU¿VFDOSROLF\LVFRQVWUDLQHG" RLOZLOO¿QGWKHPVHOYHVYDVWO\XQGHUIXQGHG Unless we go to negative interest rates, the just when their populations — in places like best the Fed can do now is rescind the tiny Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Indonesia and rate increase made in December. Meanwhile, Venezuela — have surged. after all the vital government spending to What if average is over for countries? During the Cold War you could be an average, stimulate demand after the 2008 crisis, there QHZO\LQGHSHQGHQWVWDWHZLWKDUWL¿FLDOERUGHUV is no consensus in the country for another big round. drawn by colonial powers. There were two These what-ifs constitute the real policy superpowers ready to throw foreign aid at you, educate your kids in America or Moscow, landscape that will confront the next president. But here’s the worst “what if”: What if we’re build up your armed forces and security having a presidential election but no one is services and buy your crummy manufactured even asking these questions, let alone “what exports or commodities. if” all of these tectonic plates move at once? But what if the rise of robots, software and How will we generate growth, jobs, security automation mean that these countries can’t and resilience? rely on manufacturing to create mass labor There’s still an opportunity for someone anymore, that the products they can make and to lead by asking, and answering, all of these sell can’t compete with Chinese goods, that “what ifs,” but that time is quickly coming to climate change is pressuring their ecosystems an end, just like the last dinner party I ruined. and that neither Russia nor America wants Ŷ to have anything to do with them because all Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer either wins is a bill? Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for 0DQ\RIWKHVHIUDLODUWL¿FLDOVWDWHVGRQ¶W The New York Times. He became the paper’s correspond to any ethnic, cultural, linguistic foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. or demographic realities. They are caravan What if our 2016 election ends up between a socialist and a borderline fascist, ideas that died in 1989 and 1945? Kate Brown Washington office: 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande office: 541-962-7691 Washington office: 313 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton office: 541-278-1129 OTHER VIEWS 160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, OR 97301-4047 503-378-4582 900 Court St. NE, S-423 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us Representatives Greg Barreto, District 58 900 Court St. NE, H-38 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1458 Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us Greg Smith, District 57 900 Court St. NE, H-482 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1457 Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us 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 phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
