Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, February 5, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
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 Danny Bane, the new violence prevention coordinator
for Umatilla County.
We tip our hat not so much for what Bane has accomplished so far — it’s
a newly created job and he’s just getting started — but for the depth at which
he is looking at the issue of violence. Many view violence as an effect of
crooked and cruel thinking — a single or
series of acts that can be cured, or at least
vindicated, with punishment.
Bane and the Umatilla County Health
Department are looking to the Adverse
Childhood Experiences Study (ACES) done
by the Centers for Disease Control, which
points to links between childhood trauma
and violent acts later in life. By addressing
these roots and providing treatment before
the trauma turns into abuse and other life-
crippling crime, Bane is making a difference.
He understands the issue intimately. In a story written by Kathy Aney in
Thursday’s East Oregonian (“Cutting off violence at the root”), Bane talks
about growing up in the shadow of tragedy, which led to problems in school,
drug abuse and crime. For the last 16 years he has worked as a drug abuse
counselor and started the Lost & Found program in Pendleton.
His job is funded by St. Anthony Hospital, Umatilla County Public Health
and Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc., who all deserve a tip of the hat
for their forward-looking approach.
A kick in the pants to the Umatilla City Council, the second public
body in recent months to try to appoint a councilor in a secret and illegal
fashion.
We have to assume there was no ill intent,
just a misunderstanding of Oregon law, but
DVDJHQHUDOUXOHHOHFWHGRI¿FLDOVVKRXOG
be wary of making decisions on a secret
ballot. They’re elected so they can be held
accountable to their decisions, no matter how
minor.
On Tuesday each councilor jotted down
the name of who they thought should be
appointed to an open seat on the council,
ZKLFK¿YHFLWL]HQVKDGVKRZQDQLQWHUHVW
in: Mark Ribich, Graig Gunsolley, Craig
Simpson, Lyle Smith and Kristle Wyant. Mayor Dave Trott collected the
ballots and announced that Ribich was the winner.
Doesn’t sound like democracy, does it?
Pilot Rock selected a councilor in a nearly identical fashion in November,
and convened at the next meeting to take the vote in public. We hope to see
Umatilla make the same correction at the earliest opportunity, although it
would be even better if they followed the news and learned from nearby city
governments facing many of the same issues they are.
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
Oregon graduation rate
not worth crowing about yet
The (Bend) Bulletin
D
on’t break into your happy dance
just yet. While Oregon’s high
school graduation rate did go up
last year, it’s still certain to be near the
bottom of the national pack.
Moreover, if the current rate of
increase is sustained, we won’t reach
the laudable 100 percent graduation rate
until around 2029, well past the 2025
JRDOVHWE\IRUPHU*RY-RKQ.LW]KDEHU
Oregon, it seems, still hasn’t found
the keys to helping all students get
through the most basic education they’ll
receive.
The Oregon graduation rate was up
by slightly less than 2 percent. Even at
that, fewer than 80 percent of youngsters
in this state can expect to complete high
school within four years of starting it,
well below the national average. Thus,
in 2014, the last year for which complete
numbers are available, 72 percent of
Oregon high schoolers graduated on
time; nationally the number was 82
percent.
Meanwhile, in Central Oregon, the
two smallest school districts, Culver and
Sisters, continued to boast the strongest
graduation rates, and traditional high
schools in most communities also posted
above average rates.
It’s no doubt impossible to blame a
single thing, or even a handful of single
things, for Oregon’s inability to get kids
through school on time. We know that
up to a point, money plays a role, and
that keeping students connected with
teachers and with one another helps.
And, though the evidence isn’t crystal
clear, we suspect that more time in
school for all students — more days,
more hours — can help.
Too, we know that kids who routinely
miss school are less likely to graduate,
and Oregon’s children miss lots of
school. In fact, youngsters who are not
in class at least 90 percent of the time are
considered chronically absent. Oregon
has an epidemic of chronic absenteeism.
All that suggests that if Gov. Kate
Brown’s as-yet-unnamed education
innovator does one thing it should be
to concentrate on absenteeism. Help
Oregon schools keep kids coming day
after day, and all the state’s goals should
be easier to reach.
Social media:
Destroyer or creator?
O
ver the last few years we’ve
Ghonim, because “we failed to build
been treated to a number of
consensus, and the political struggle
“Facebook revolutions,” from
OHGWRLQWHQVHSRODUL]DWLRQ´6RFLDO
the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street
PHGLDKHQRWHG³RQO\DPSOL¿HG´
to the squares of Istanbul, Kiev and
WKHSRODUL]DWLRQ³E\IDFLOLWDWLQJWKH
Hong Kong, all fueled by social media.
spread of misinformation, rumors,
But once the smoke cleared, most of
echo chambers and hate speech. The
these revolutions failed to build any
environment was purely toxic. My
sustainable new political order, in
Thomas online world became a battleground
part because as so many voices got
Friedman ¿OOHGZLWKWUROOVOLHVKDWHVSHHFK´
DPSOL¿HGFRQVHQVXVEXLOGLQJEHFDPH
Supporters of the army and the
Comment
impossible.
Islamists used social media to smear
Question: Does it turn out that
each other, while the democratic
social media is better at breaking things than
center, which Ghonim and so many others
at making things?
RFFXSLHGZDVPDUJLQDOL]HG7KHLUUHYROXWLRQ
Last month an important voice answered
was stolen by the Muslim Brotherhood
this question with a big “yes.” That voice was
and, when it failed, by the army, which then
Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian
arrested many of the secular
Google employee whose
\RXWKVZKR¿UVWSRZHUHG
anonymous Facebook page
the revolution. The army has
helped to launch the Tahrir
its own Facebook page to
Square revolution in early
defend itself.
2011 that toppled President
“It was a moment of
Hosni Mubarak — but then
defeat,” said Ghonim. “I
failed to give birth to a true
stayed silent for more than
democratic alternative.
two years, and I used the
In December, Ghonim,
WLPHWRUHÀHFWRQHYHU\WKLQJ
who has since moved to
that happened.”
Silicon Valley, posted a
Here is what he
TED talk about what went
concluded about social
wrong. It is worth watching
media today: “First, we
and begins like this: “I once
don’t know how to deal
said, ‘If you want to liberate
with rumors. Rumors that
a society, all you need is
FRQ¿UPSHRSOH¶VELDVHVDUH
the Internet.’ I was wrong.
now believed and spread
I said those words back in
among millions of people.”
2011, when a Facebook
Second, “We tend to only
page I anonymously created
communicate with people
helped spark the Egyptian
that we agree with, and
revolution. The Arab Spring
thanks to social media, we
revealed social media’s
can mute, unfollow and
greatest potential, but it
block everybody else. Third,
also exposed its greatest shortcomings. The
online discussions quickly descend into angry
same tool that united us to topple dictators
mobs. ... It’s as if we forget that the people
eventually tore us apart.”
behind screens are actually real people and not
,QWKHHDUO\V$UDEVZHUHÀRFNLQJ
just avatars.
to the Web, Ghonim explained: “Thirsty for
“And fourth, it became really hard to
knowledge, for opportunities, for connecting
change our opinions. Because of the speed
with the rest of the people around the globe,
and brevity of social media, we are forced to
we escaped our frustrating political realities
jump to conclusions and write sharp opinions
and lived a virtual, alternative life.”
in 140 characters about complex world affairs.
And then in June 2010, he noted, the
And once we do that, it lives forever on the
“Internet changed my life forever. While
Internet.”
browsing Facebook, I saw a photo ... of a
Fifth, and most crucial, he said, “today,
tortured, dead body of a young Egyptian
our social media experiences are designed
guy. His name was Khaled Said. Khaled
in a way that favors broadcasting over
was a 29-year-old Alexandrian who was
engagements, posts over discussions, shallow
killed by police. I saw myself in his picture.
comments over deep conversations. ... It’s as
... I anonymously created a Facebook page
if we agreed that we are here to talk at each
and called it ‘We Are All Khaled Said.’ In
other instead of talking with each other.”
just three days, the page had over 100,000
Ghonim has not given up. He and a few
people, fellow Egyptians who shared the same friends recently started a website, Parlio.com,
concern.”
to host intelligent, civil conversations about
Soon Ghonim and his friends used
controversial and often heated issues, with the
Facebook to crowdsource ideas, and “the page aim of narrowing gaps, not widening them. (I
became the most followed page in the Arab
participated in a debate on Parlio and found it
world. ... Social media was crucial for this
engaging and substantive.)
FDPSDLJQ,WKHOSHGDGHFHQWUDOL]HGPRYHPHQW
“Five years ago,” concluded Ghonim,
DULVH,WPDGHSHRSOHUHDOL]HWKDWWKH\ZHUH
“I said, ‘If you want to liberate society, all
not alone. And it made it impossible for the
you need is the Internet.’ Today I believe if
regime to stop it.” Ghonim was eventually
ZHZDQWWROLEHUDWHVRFLHW\ZH¿UVWQHHGWR
tracked down in Cairo by Egyptian security
liberate the Internet.”
services, beaten and then held incommunicado
Ŷ
for 11 days. But three days after he was freed,
Thomas Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer
the millions of protesters his Facebook posts
Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer
KHOSHGWRJDOYDQL]HEURXJKWGRZQ0XEDUDN¶V for The New York Times. He became the
regime.
paper’s foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in
Alas, the euphoria soon faded, said
1995.
The euphoria
soon faded.
Social media
had only
ampliied the
polarization
by facilitating
the spread of
misinformation,
rumors, echo
chambers and
hate speech.
YOUR VIEWS
Plute recall drive
irresponsible waste
Larry Anderson’s letter is
irresponsible. Accusing Pendleton
city councilor Al Plute of wrongfully
defending himself in a lawsuit, which
both sides resolved between themselves,
is no reason for a recall. Have you ever
been sued, Mr. Anderson?
Are you dropping the allegation of
Plute voting for the $5 monthly charge
for water service (as did several other
council members) or are you deferring
that to someone on your “committee” to
bring up again in a subsequent letter?
Mr. Plute not only saved the old
Temple Hotel from demolition, but fully
restored the hotel, adding a number of
living spaces to our downtown.
He also has been an enthusiastic
cheerleader for the future of Pendleton,
including writing several features in the
East Oregonian about funding of various
departments within city government.
It will be interesting to see the names
of those signing the recall petition, if it
is ever completed. I’d suggest you run
for one of the seats coming open on the
council, if you think you can do a better
job!
Bill Bridges
Pendleton
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.