Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
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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
Big issues in
short session
Oregon getting a fair shake will be
Oregon’s third short session
through the legislature.
kicks off Monday, and it will be an
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important one for the state.
be pushed forward to restrict gun
It will also be just 35 days long,
sales, deal with the state’s housing
by voter mandate, so the important
crisis and — if there’s still time
work that needs to get done will be
— stop a little thing called global
under the gun right from the start.
So, too, will be the entire concept of warming.
Good luck with that, Salem.
the short session.
Sen. Bill Hansell (R-Athena) has
Oregon has only had these special
a narrower focus on
sessions biennially
bills he hopes
since 2010. That
In only 35 days, two
to get passed next
was the year that
Measure 71, a
legislators have month.
He told the
legislatively referred
a lot to discuss. editorial
board
constitutional
before he ventured
amendment, passed
cross state that
with 68 percent
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of the popular vote. The measure
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called for changing Oregon’s
delisting of the wolf. He said if the
every-other-year legislature into an
legislature renews its support for the
annual one, but with a short session
Oregon Wolf Plan and the decision
in even-numbered years.
of the citizen board to delist, it may
Proponents argued that the state
give it more weight in the courts,
was just too complex and too large
where it is sure to head because
an organization to leave unmoored
of environmentalists. Rep. Greg
for a full calendar year, and they
Barreto (R-Cove) will likely be
convinced the electorate on that
working through the house on the
issue.
But they also promised that these same issue.
Hansell’s other bill has to
short sessions would be limited in
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scope. They would just be used just
homeowner associations when
to check in on the economy and
a municipality is in a designated
emergencies, and make changes to
drought. When that’s the case,
the state budget — even cut checks
for residents in the case of a surplus. Hansell wants to allow state law to
This special session will be much supersede homeowner association
agreements, which could help reduce
more than that.
water usage during emergencies.
Legislators have the intensely
If issues big and small get dealt
controversial, economically and
with in a professional manner during
socially impactful discussion of the
this type of time crunch, maybe
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at the forefront. If nothing gets done the short session is working. If
legislation is rushed, debate hurried
this session, the blunt instrument of
and there is little to show for it, then
an initiative is sure to pass — long
Oregon may have to rethink the
term effects be damned.
purpose and usefulness of the short
Of course, that may happen
anyway. But the best chance of rural session.
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
Plute’s actions harm
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Well, the petition has not even been
approved yet, and already it is a “cheap
shot” and backed by “cowards and
bullies.”
Al Plute claims in so many words
I am a coward and a bully but doesn’t
know me. I suppose with that train of
thought anyone who signs the petition is
a coward because they did not go to the
city council meetings.
A few years ago I did attend council
meetings when there was the grand
plan to beautify downtown Pendleton.
I heard a lot of hindering of some real
import, as in the sidewalks were ten feet
wide when in reality they were 12 feet.
Typical of most politicians to attack and
marginalize because they believe they
are more intelligent than you and they
hold a position of power.
That power came from me,
Councilmen Plute. I helped vote
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disappointment because what I and
others see is what you have done is to
improve yourself and use the cliché of
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I did hear you say you wanted to turn
Pendleton into a retirement community.
Forty-nine percent of the people in
Pendleton are on some kind of assistance
that includes Social Security. So the
water rate goes up an extra $5 dollars a
month, for which no vote was needed by
the people.
I suspect the city council felt the gas
tax would not pass and knew that they
could approve the $5.
Councilman Plute, if the petition is
approved and the “cowards and bullies”
sign it with enough signatures will we
still be “cowards and bullies?”
If there are not enough signatures
then we lose nothing except time and
energy and you can crow how shrewd
and clever you are, that we are losers
and your superiority trumped us.
Roesch Kishpaugh
Pendleton
Ranchers deserve more
respect and gratitude
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Malheur Refuge standoff was excellent.
I’m not sure I’d be as conciliatory on
the subject of land management. On Jan.
5, just a few days after the occupation
commenced, Rep. Greg Walden made
utter mincemeat out of the BLM on the
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seen no discussion in the wider media
of anything he said. Anyone who hasn’t
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I mean.
There is a big problem: The people
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counties are resolutely ignored. And now
that the “standoff” looks like it’s over,
they’ll keep being ignored. That’s just
wrong. Something needs to change.
Something else: I might live in
Seattle but I breathe in Eastern Oregon,
which puts the beautiful in “America the
Beautiful.” I like to tell friends that the
high desert’s not for everyone, but if you
like it you will more than like it.
I love that land in ways that my
words cannot capture. I also have a great
affection and deep appreciation for the
ranchers, a group of people who I think
deserve a good deal more respect and
gratitude than they get.
As far as I’m concerned, we are all
in this together. Damn close to the top
my list are the hard-working cattlemen
and their families. Someone ought to
say it, so I will: Thank you for feeding
us so well. Beef is what’s for dinner, and
ranchers’ lives matter.
Charles Pluckhahn
Seattle
OTHER VIEWS
What Republicans should say
F
or a few decades, American and
modules” for schools, so that there
British conservatism marched
are intentional programs that teach
in tandem. Thatcher was
resilience, curiosity, honesty and
philosophically akin to Reagan. John
service. He would expand the National
Major was akin to George Bush.
Citizen Service so that by 2021 60
But now the two conservatisms have
percent of the nation’s 16-year-olds
split. The key divide is over what to
are performing national service, and
do about the slow-motion devastation
meeting others from across society. He
being felt by the less educated, the
wants to create a program to recruit
David
working class and the poor.
Brooks 25,000 mentors to work with young
Ted Cruz and Donald Trump have
teenagers.
Comment
appealed to working-class voters
To address concentrated poverty, he
mostly by blaming outsiders. If
would replace or revamp 100 public
we could kick out all the immigrants there
housing projects across the country. He would
wouldn’t be lawbreakers driving down wages.
invest big sums in mental health programs and
If we could dismantle the
create a social impact fund to
Washington cartel the
unlock millions for new drug
economy would rise.
and alcohol treatment.
In Britain David Cameron
It’s an agenda that covers
is going down another path.
the entire life cycle, aiming
This month he gave a speech
to give people the strength
called “Life Chances.” Not
and social resources to stand
to give away the ending
on their own. In the U.S. we
or anything, but I’d give a
could use exactly this sort of
lung to have a Republican
agenda. There is an epidemic
politician give a speech like
of isolation, addiction and
that in this country.
trauma.
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According to an AARP
role of government: basic
survey, one-third of adults
security. In a world full of
over 45 report being
risks, government can help
chronically lonely. Drug
furnish a secure base from which people can
overdose deaths of people ages 45 to 64
work, dream and rise.
increased elevenfold between 1990 and 2010.
Cameron argued that both sides in the
More than half the American births to women
debate over poverty suffered real limitations
under 30 are outside marriage. Poorer parents
because they still used 20th-century thinking.
are too strained and stressed to spend as much
The left has traditionally wanted to use the state TXDOLW\WLPHUDLVLQJWKHLUNLGV$FFRUGLQJWRWKH
to redistribute money downward. The right has sociologist Robert Putnam, college-educated
traditionally relied on the market to generate
parents spend 50 percent more “Goodnight
the growth that lifts all boats.
Moon” time with their kids than less-educated
The welfare state and the market are
parents.
important, but, he argues, “talk to a single mum
Meanwhile social support systems are
on a poverty-stricken estate, someone who
fraying, especially for those without a college
suffers from chronic depression, someone who
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perhaps drinks all day to numb the pain of the
Since 1990 the number of people who declare
sexual abuse she suffered as a child. Tell her
no religious preference has tripled. Social trust
WKDWEHFDXVHKHUEHQH¿WVKDYHULVHQE\DFRXSOH is declining. Only 18 percent of high school
of pounds a week, she and her children have
seniors say that most people can be trusted.
been magically lifted out of poverty. Or on
There are two natural approaches to help
the other hand, if you told her about the great
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opportunities created by our market economy,
call the Bernie Sanders approach. Focus on
I expect she’ll ask you what planet you’re
economics. Provide people with money and
actually on.”
jobs and their lifestyles will become more
Cameron called for a more social approach.
stable. Marriage rates will rise. Depression
He believes government can play a role in
rates will drop.
rebuilding social capital and in healing some
The second should be the conservative
of the traumas fueled by scarcity and family
approach. Focus on social norms, community
breakdown.
bonds and a nurturing civic fabric. People need
He laid out a broad agenda: Strengthen
relationships and basic security before they can
family bonds with shared parental leave and
respond to economic incentives.
a tax code that rewards marriage. Widen
But Republicans have walked away from
opportunities for free marital counseling. Speed their traditional Burkean turf. The two leading
up the adoption process. Create a voucher
Republican presidential candidates offer little
program for parenting classes. Expand the
more than nativism and demagogy.
Troubled Families program by 400,000 slots.
Ŷ
This program spends 4,000 pounds (about
David Brooks became a New York Times
$5,700) per family over three years and uses
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. He has
family coaches to help heal the most disrupted
been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard,
households.
and a contributing editor at Newsweek and the
Cameron would also create “character
Atlantic Monthly.
Conservatism is
split over what
to do about the
slow-motion
devastation
being felt by the
working class.
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. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton,
OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.