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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, February 27, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com 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 Go read a book Read Across America week kicks off Monday, followed by the birthday of Dr. Seuss. That makes this weekend as good a time as any to remind parents and grandparents, teachers and students about the importance of reading. In some respects, reading habits have changed for this generation. Instead of reading the comics on the back of a cereal box at the breakfast table, children are more likely to be poking at their screen of choice, watching videos or playing games or conversing with classmates. But text messaging has made reading and writing ever more critical, perhaps at the expense of inter-personal skills. Being able to express yourself through words is more important than ever. Use bae or fam or lol incorrectly and watch your bae or fam lol at u. 6WXG\DIWHUVWXG\VKRZVWKHEHQH¿WVRIUHDGLQJ,WLQFUHDVHV\RXU,4 \RXUYRFDEXODU\DQG\RXUNQRZOHGJH5HDGLQJ¿FWLRQLPSURYHVHPSDWK\ increases brain connectivity and function. The number of books in a home is strongly linked to academic achievement. 5HDGLQJDOVRJLYHV\RXPHPRULHVWKDWFDQODVWDOLIHWLPH+HUHDUHDIHZ W ell before I was an advanced enough reader to enjoy a good book on my own, my parents were reading out loud to me. We started with simple picture books, but the tradition of reading out loud lasted far beyond the age of curling up on mom or dad’s lap for a bedtime story. I was introduced to many of the classics in elementary or middle school while listening to one of my parents read out loud, stopping to explain complicated words or confusing plot points when needed. ,DOVRH[SHULHQFHGDOORIWKH+DUU\3RWWHUERRNVIRUWKH¿UVW time while listening to my mom read them out loud. I was eight ZKHQWKH¿UVWRQHFDPHRXWDQGZKHQWKHODVWRQHZDVSXEOLVKHG/LVWHQLQJWR her read the latest Harry Potter installment in the car during a two or three day drive on our family’s summer vacation became as much a childhood tradition for me as decorating the Christmas tree. We planned a few road trips around the release of a Harry Potter book, because there was no better way to pass the time on the road and guarantee that my brothers and I would not kill each other in the back seat before the trip was over. We even pulled over on the side of the road for 20 minutes so we could ¿QLVK³+DUU\3RWWHUDQGWKH'HDWKO\+DOORZV´EHIRUHDUULYLQJDWDIDPLO\UHXQLRQLQ Colorado. I read many books on my own over the years that had a great impact on me, but I don’t think anything cemented my love of reading as much as those trips to Hogwarts in the family minivan. — Jade McDowell, Hermiston reporter I f the point of learning how to read is to be able to absorb and contextualize information, then the highest pinnacle of literacy is baseball cards. I believed that when I was 10 years old and couldn’t argue against it today. The picture books, chapter books and young adult novels were a regular part of my formative years, but none held my attention the way a pack, or deck, or box of baseball cards could. From the basic biographical information to complex statistical analysis, each card carried all the argument you’d need for which player or team was better, along with tiny pieces of the history of the greatest game on earth. 7KH\ZHUHDJDWHZD\WRERRNVOLNH³0RQH\EDOO´³%DOO)RXU´DQGWKHDQQXDO Baseball Prospectus guide — but none of those are as pure as a pack of glossy Upper Deck cards. — Daniel Wattenburger, managing editor VDNLG,UHPHPEHUORYLQJ³+RUWRQ+DWFKHVWKH(JJ´E\ Dr. Seuss. My mom and I would read it daily for months on end. I’m still convinced that elephant-bird is out there somewhere. ‘I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred per cent.’ — George Plaven, natural resources reporter A R eading was a huge part of my life growing up. My parents read to me from the day I was born, and WKH¿UVWERRN,UHDOO\UHPHPEHUFRQQHFWLQJZLWKZDV³2QH +RUVH)DUP´E\'DKORY,SFDU Published in 1950, the picture book follows a boy and a horse in rural Maine as the years pass and technology changes around them. In kindergarten, I read the book so many times my teacher gave it to me at the end of the year. The book had been well used and was going to be retired, but because of my love for it, I took it home and still have it on one of my shelves — binding tape and all. These days, my children read Fancy Nancy and Pete the Cat and Little Green Peas, but there is always time for a family favorite like “One Horse Farm.” — Jennifer Colton, Hermiston education reporter W hen I moved past picture books, I read newspaper sports pages, as well as outdoor and adventure tales like ³+DWFKHW´E\*DU\3DXOVHQDQG5DQJHU5LFNPDJD]LQH 7KH¿UVWHOHPHQWDU\VFKRROQRYHOWKDWNLFNHGP\LPDJLQDWLRQ LQWRDQRWKHUJHDUZDV³,VODQGRIWKH%OXH'ROSKLQV´DVWRU\ about a young American Indian girl left alone on an island off the California coast. I must have spent hours and hours, day after day, in the world of that novel — remapping the island onto notebook pages, inventing new tools to catch clams and, somehow, picking and choosing the friends who would be join me in the next canoe. 7KDW¶VWKHWUXHJLIWRIOLWHUDWXUHDOORZLQJDQRWKHUFKDUDFWHUWRLQÀXHQFH\RXURZQ The reader grows, experiences, empathizes, imagines and wants to read again. — Tim Trainor, opinion page editor O ne of the best things you can do for your children (or nieces and nephews, or random neighbor kids) is read to and with them from infancy. One of my very favorite memories from my son’s childhood is reading with him every night before bed. Even when he got into trouble and had other things taken away as punishment, we left his books. My family went without TV for many years when I was growing up, so we’re all voracious readers, and the library is always like a second home. One of our family favorites is “Where WKH:LOG7KLQJV$UH´E\0DXULFH6HQGDN,UHPHPEHUUHDGLQJLWZLWKP\SDUHQWV when my three siblings and I were kids, and it was one of my son’s and nephews’ favorite books when they were young. I have a copy in a trunk with other favorites OLNH³+DUROGDQGWKH3XUSOH&UD\RQ´DQG³*RRGQLJKW0RRQ´LQDQWLFLSDWLRQRI grandchildren (maybe) someday. There are millions of books that I could recommend, but every kid is different. 7KHLPSRUWDQWWKLQJLVWR¿QGVRPHWKLQJWKDWJHWV\RXH[FLWHGDERXWUHDGLQJWKHQLW becomes a lifelong love affair. — Renée Struthers, community records editor OTHER VIEWS The secret side of Trump S ometimes in a particularly awful taxes are the ones who worked for the presidential race you’re forced to money. take the most bleak and cynical Trump said the poor people could view of the candidates running for be taken care of “through maybe the most powerful job in the world. concepts of Medicare. ... That’s called And then you discover you’re KHDUW´ overestimating. Fast forward three days. Trump is Today we will consider the upside back at CNN talking with Jake Tapper, of Donald Trump. denying that he wants any mandate. Gail OK, it was never huge. Possibly not Pop quiz. After Donald Trump said Collins he did even nugget-size. But people, wasn’t not want a health care mandate Comment there a moment when you thought after all, he added that he also did not that he could think outside the normal ZDQW conservative box? True, his riff against the A) Any more hard questions. power of big political donors was just another B) People dying in the streets. way to brag about being rich. And he was You’re right! The answer is B, and in case awful on ... so very many things. anyone missed his big-heartedness, Trump But once in a while, as added that people would not Trump ranted about the EH³G\LQJRQWKHVLGHZDONV´ Republican insiders, some either. actual outsider remarks did One of the most pop up. Don’t mess with universally popular Social Security. Planned parts of Obamacare is Parenthood is a good thing. the requirement that And everybody ought to insurance companies can’t have health care. discriminate against people Earlier in the campaign, who have pre-existing he seemed to support a conditions like diabetes or single-payer health care a prior bout with cancer. plan, sort of like Bernie The problem is how to keep Sanders. Wow. everybody from waiting “I am going to take care until they get sick to insure of everybody. I don’t care themselves. You can just if it costs me votes or not. create a kind of Medicare Everybody is going to be for all. Or you can require WDNHQFDUHRI´KHWROG6FRWW people to buy insurance, and Pelley on CBS. help the low-income pay the Now it was pretty clear cost. Trump had not actually thought things through. “I don’t like the term mandate, personally, This happens so very frequently, you have to EHFDXVHWKDWVRUWRIPHDQVPDQGDWRU\´7UXPS wonder what he talks about on all those plane explained. rides. Schedules? Golf scores? Dinner plans? So what the heck does he want? Well, I This month, Trump still seemed to be checked with his campaign. He wants people moving in the same general health care to be able to establish health savings accounts. direction. In a CNN town hall, Anderson He is also looking into the possibility of letting Cooper mentioned the Obamacare mandate the states run Medicaid with federal block that everybody must have insurance. The grants, and making health insurance premiums Republicans hate this idea. They believe all tax-deductible. Americans have a God-given right to refuse to People will not die in the streets because get health coverage and throw themselves on there are, you know, emergency rooms. the mercies of extremely expensive hospital We will skip over the part where Trump is emergency rooms if they get ill. this far down the road and still working on a ³:HOO,OLNHWKHPDQGDWH´VDLG7UXPS basic plan. The more important point is that “OK, so here’s where I’m a little bit different. he’s coming down to a health care policy that I don’t want people dying on the streets and I is the same as Marco Rubio’s and Ted Cruz’s. VD\WKLVDOOWKHWLPH´ “If most Republicans didn’t agree on most This is how far we have fallen. The leading of the features of reform then you’d have a candidate for the Republican presidential story. The fact that they agree should not be nomination keeps bragging that he does not DVXUSULVHWRDQ\RQH´VDLG6DP&ORYLVWKH want people dying in the streets. campaign’s senior policy adviser, in a phone “Now some people would say, ‘That’s not a interview. YHU\5HSXEOLFDQWKLQJWRVD\¶´KHWROG&RRSHU The bottom line is that once you really Wow, Trump clearly has a very low pin him down, Donald Trump is a mail-order opinion of Republicans. As well as insurance conservative Republican, except more companies. Do you see why a desperate trash-talking about Muslims and Mexicans. citizen might think he’s the lesser of three Surrender hope and be careful not to die in the front-running evils? Remember, right now the streets. party’s sensible establishment candidate is a Ŷ person who does not want to allow abortions Gail Collins joined The New York Times in for rape victims and who basically believes 1995 as a member of the editorial board and that the only people who should have to pay later as an Op-Ed columnist. The leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination keeps bragging that he does not want people dying in the streets. YOUR VIEWS Pendleton, Hermiston rivalry doesn’t need a name I recall back in the 1990s when the Disney Corporation bought the California Angels. A few years prior to the acquisition they had brought out a movie called “Angels In the 2XW¿HOG´ZKLFKIHDWXUHGDFRQWULYHGPRPHQW ZKHQVRPHRIWKHIDQVVWDUWHGD³UDOO\´ WUDGLWLRQRIÀDSSLQJWKHLUDUPVLQLPLWDWLRQRI angel wings. Some genius in marketing thought it would be a great idea if the fans in Anaheim would adopt this as a tradition, so they planted VKLOOVLQWKHFURZGWRVWDUWWKHZLQJÀDSDW a predetermined moment. The fans, to their credit, weren’t having it. The shills were pelted with whatever overpriced concessions that people had on hand, and thus the ³WUDGLWLRQ´GLHG 6RLWLVZLWKWKH³:DURQ´7KLVLVD completely stupid name invented for murky reasons by the East Oregonian. (Never mind that Hermiston is not on I-84.) I cringe whenever I read it. Most great rivalries don’t need a name. Yankees/Redsox is simply Yankees/Redsox. Enough said. Manchester United/Liverpool — same deal. When the Packers play the Bears or WKH7UDLOEOD]HUVSOD\WKH/DNHUVQRDUWL¿FLDOO\ manufactured name is necessary. Sports fans know the history, emotion and rivalry inherent. I have never heard a sports fan in either Pendleton or Hermiston call it “The War on ´/LNHWKH'LVQH\VKDPLWKDVEHHQWULHG and rejected. Let it die quietly with or without WKHUHTXLUHG³NLFNLQWKHSDQWV´ John Scanlan 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 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. 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.
