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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.