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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2016)
3DJe A 23,1,21 East Oregonian Wednesday, March 2, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW 9oters should suSSort 0) sFhools Eond 0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHUYRWHUVKDYH all of which are contingent on local turned down opportunities to build voters agreeing to throw in their new schools more than once. But share. this May, voters would be foolish to 7KH9DOOH\)RXQGDWLRQFUHDWHG say no again. E\*ODG\V9DOOH\D0DF+L If they do, millions of dollars in graduate) has pledged $15 million grants and non-local funding sources to the effort. That foundation, which would disappear, leaving the large has supported numerous Milton- burden of constructing new facilities )UHHZDWHUSURMHFWVLQWKHSDVWZLOO and repairing aging sunset in 2018. This buildings entirely on is likely the last time Outside local taxpayers. this money will be %ULHÀ\KHUHLVZKDW investors want available. 0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHU addition, to throw $19 the In school 8QL¿HG6FKRRO district 'LVWULFWZRXOGGR would receive million in the million from the $4 were the bond to pass: school district’s Oregon School ƒ*LE2OLQJHU Elementary, a Capital Improvement account. 75,000-square-foot 0DWFKLQJ3URJUDP school teaching Those are two kindergarten through third grade, pretty good gifts, allowing Milton- will be built on school district land )UHHZDWHUYRWHUVWRJHWWKHLUVFKRROV locally known as “the cannery.” That upgraded at a 72 percent discount. old warehouse will be demolished And upgrading schools is and the school, which will include a LPSRUWDQW0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHULV J\PQDVLXPDQGRXWGRRUEDOO¿HOGV surrounded by districts who have will be built at the site. already done so: Walla Walla has. ƒ)UHHZDWHUDQG*URYHHOHPHQWDU\ 3HQGOHWRQLVEXLOGLQJQHZVFKRROV schools will be vacated. They ULJKWQRZ+HUPLVWRQLVFRQVWDQWO\ could be demolished, or possibly looking to expand facilities to keep one turned into community space, up with exploding enrollment. GHSHQGLQJRQ¿QDQFLDOYLDELOLW\ To compete for working families, ƒ)HUQGDOH6FKRROZLOOEH the residents that give small towns repurposed into a grade 4-5 facility. WKHLUYLWDOLW\0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHUPXVW $200,000 will be spent on upgrades invest in its schools. and repairs. Now is the time to do so. ƒ*URYH6SRUWV&RPSOH[ZLOOEH Outside investors want to throw built, consisting of soccer fields and $19 million into the school district’s a walking path, as well as bleachers, account. But in order to collect, the concession stand and restrooms. district needs an OK from voters. ƒPLOOLRQ+9$&XSJUDGHVWR The cost to those voters is not nil, 0F/RXJKOLQ+LJK6FKRRO EXWLWLVPLQLPDO+RPHRZQHUVZLWK ƒ%XVPDLQWHQDQFH\DUGZLOOEH a house valued at $100,000 would relocated from the high school to a see their taxes rise by roughly $110 a site still to be determined. year if the bond passes. That means It’s a long list, the cost of which that for less than $10 a month for comes in about $31.5 million. Yet PDQ\WD[SD\HUV0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHU taxpayers, if they vote for the bond voters would get a brand new in May, would only have to pick up school and close some of their most $12.5 million of the cost. LQHI¿FLHQWRXWGDWHGRQHV That’s because of grants and gifts It’s a good deal for voters, and for the school district has wrangled — 0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHUVWXGHQWV 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 The movement mentality I and James Burnham. I wanted to t feels like more people learn everything I could about that clumped themselves into tradition — what I accepted and what I intellectual movements 30 UHMHFWHG²DVDZD\WR¿JXUHRXWZKDW years ago than they do today. I believed. There were paleoconservatives When you join a movement and neoconservatives. There were — whether it is deconstructionist, modernists and postmodernists; feminist or Jungian — you join a liberals, realists, and neoliberals; community, which can sometimes communitarians and liberation David WKHRORJLDQV-XQJLDQVDQG)UHXGLDQV Brooks feel like family in ways good and bad. You have a common way of seeing the Straussians and deconstructionists; Comment world, which you want to share with feminists and post-feminists; Marxists everyone. When you join, people are and democratic socialists. Maybe always pressing books into your hands. there were even some transcendentalists, %HOLHYLQJEHFRPHVDQDFWLYLW\3HRSOHLQ existentialists, pragmatists, agrarians and movements take stands, mobilize for common *QRVWLFVÀRDWLQJDURXQG causes, hold conferences, Now people seem ¿JKWDQGIDFWLRQDOL]H less likely to gather in and build solidarity. (I intellectual clumps. Now remember late night at one public thinkers seem conference dancing near WREHGH¿QHGPRUHE\ four generations of anti- their academic discipline communists.) (economist or evolutionary There are opportunity biologist) or by their topic structures for young people (race and gender), than by WRULVHDQGFRQWULEXWH)LUVW their philosophic school you set out the chairs for or a shared vision for the meetings; later you get transforming society. to lead the meetings. Young The forces of SHRSOH¿QGWKDWQRQHRIWKH individualism that are mentors is perfect, so they can’t be completely sweeping through so much of society are also loyal to any particular leader, but they can be leading to the atomization of intellectual life. loyal to the enterprise as a whole, because it Eighty years ago engaged students at City embodies some real truth and is stumbling College in New York sat in the cafeteria hour toward some real good. upon hour, debating. The Trotskyites sat in The whole process arouses the passions. one alcove and the Leninists sat in another, Today universities teach “critical thinking” and since the Trostkyites were smarter and — to be detached, skeptical and analytic. won the debates, the leaders of the Leninist Movements are marked by emotion — faction eventually forbade their cadres from division and solidarity, victory and defeat. ever talking to them. There are fervent new converts, and traitors But today we live in a startup culture. who “break ranks.” There are furious debates There’s great prestige in being the founder of over strategy; the future design of society is something, the lone entrepreneur who creates something new. Young people who frequently at stake. There are inevitably love affairs and EUHDNXSV3HRSOHOHDUQDUGHQWO\ZLWKWKHLU say they don’t want to work in some large hearts. organization are certainly not going to want As in any love, there’s an idealistic early to subsume themselves in some pre-existing phase, then a period of disillusionment, intellectual label. and then, hopefully, a period of longer and The Internet has changed things, too. more stable commitment to the ideas. The Writers used to cluster around magazines that movement shapes one’s inner landscape. It were the hubs of movements. On the Internet, offers a way to clarify the world; a bunch of individual posters and tweeters are more books to consult if you need to think through distinct, but collectives of thinkers are less some problem. common. Of course there is often rigidity and The odd thing is that it was easier to come groupthink, but people can also be smarter to maturity when there were more well- GH¿QHGSKLORVRSKLFDOJURXSV:KHQWKHUHZDV ZKHQWKLQNLQJLQJURXSV)RUH[DPSOH movements pool imagination. It’s very hard a choice of self-conscious social movements, a young person could try them on like clothing to come up with a vision so compelling that it can provide a unifying purpose to your at the mall: be an existentialist one year and life. But such visions emerge in a movement WKHQMRLQD)UDQNIXUW6FKRROFOLTXHWKHQH[W 7KLVZDVDVWUXFWXUHGZD\WR¿QGDSKLORVRSK\ collectively, and then get crystallized by a leader like Martin Luther King. of life, a way of looking at the world, an It all depends on taking steps that are less identity. in fashion today: committing to a collective, (YHQWXDOO\\RXIRXQGZKDW¿WPDGHD accepting a label, keeping faith, surrendering wager, joined a team and assented to a belief self to a tradition that stretches beyond you in system that was already latent within you. time. When I joined National Review at age 24 I Ŷ joined a very self-conscious tradition. I was David Brooks became a New York Times connected to a history of insight and belief; Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. to Edmund Burke and Whittaker Chambers The forces of individualism ... are also leading to the atomization of intellectual life. YOUR VIEWS Hermiston overdue for fundinJ ¿re distriFt I am proud to be a part of this amazing community. As a nurse, I care deeply about the health of our community. I feel our priorities have tragically shifted. In November 2014 our community voted against the reformation to combine 6WDQ¿HOGDQG+HUPLVWRQ¿UH districts. Whatever the reason for the reformation failing, you should know the hard facts: My life, your life, and your loved ones lives are worth much more. %HIRUH+HUPLVWRQ)LUH and Emergency Services had not proposed a tax increase in 66 years. In 1950, the price of a gallon of gas was 27 cents. You pay 142 percent more for gas, yet nothing more for WKH¿UHSURWHFWLRQDQGHPHUJHQF\ response of this community. 7KHSRSXODWLRQRI+HUPLVWRQ in 1950 was 3,804. Today, the population is 17,107. +RZHYHU+HUPLVWRQ)LUH does not just cover emergencies LQ+HUPLVWRQ7KH\DOVRFRYHU DOODPEXODQFHFDOOVLQ6WDQ¿HOG Umatilla and Echo, as well as serving as the automatic mutual DLGIRUDOO¿UHVLQ8PDWLOODDQG 6WDQ¿HOG ,QWKHODVW\HDUV+HUPLVWRQ )LUHKDVJRQHIURPUHVSRQGLQJWR the emergencies of 3,804 citizens to the emergencies of 26,862 citizens. It is unrealistic to think they have survived this without consequences. There have been consequences due to their drastic need for more funding. There are approximately 104 delays a year. As an emergency department nurse in a busy Tri-Cities hospital, I have VHHQ¿UVWKDQGKRZHYHU\VHFRQG counts. Our heroes are stretched, short staffed and exhausted. They are working with a cardiac monitor WKDWLVROGHUWKDQWKH¿UVWL3KRQH Only one of the three available stations is staffed. 7KH1DWLRQDO)LUH3URWHFWLRQ Association recommends that a station be staffed with at least 13 SHUVRQQHO&RPSDUDEOH¿UHGLVWULFWV staff at least 17 personnel during DKRXUSHULRG+HUPLVWRQ)LUH currently is only able to staff seven personnel per 24-hour shift and RIWHQPXVWJRGRZQWR¿YH $WWKLVSRLQWWKH+HUPLVWRQ 6WDQ¿HOG)LUH'LVWULFWUHIRUPDWLRQ vote in May is no longer a political issue or an issue of opinion. It is an issue of ethics. It is time to let our actions speak louder than our words. Our words cannot save lives and provide desperately needed IXQGVWRRXUFRPPXQLW\+RZHYHU our actions can. As a nurse and fellow human being, I implore you to consider the repercussions of your vote this May. Ashley Smith Hermiston 5uEio un¿t 5eSuEliFDn SresidentiDl FDndidDte Republican presidential FDQGLGDWH)ORULGD6HQ0DUFR Rubio was a leading member of the “Gang of Eight,” which worked and voted for the passage of Senate Bill 744 (S.744) in 2013, a bill they termed “comprehensive immigration reform,” but which was actually a wide-sweeping amnesty to illegal immigrants that contained only weak promises for future law enforcement of the country’s immigration laws. The bill all but ignored the past and present illicit activities and criminal conduct of illegal immigrants currently in the country. Just three years ago, Sen. Rubio showed he was willing to overlook the criminal activities of 11.3 million illegal immigrants who may have committed crimes and misdemeanors like identity theft, Social Security fraud, overstaying visas and illegal employment. )RUWXQDWHO\IRUQDWLRQDO security and the public safety of all Americans, the Gang of Eight’s amnesty attempt went no further than the U.S. Senate because citizens across the country SUHVVXUHGWKH86+RXVHRI Representatives not to consider the bill. Last month, on January 17, presidential candidate Rubio reminded Americans of his support for amnesty for criminal immigrants while being interviewed by Chuck Todd on 1%&¶V³0HHWWKH3UHVV´ A politician to the core, Sen. Rubio said in the interview with Todd that illegal immigrants who were felons would not be granted amnesty while those immigrants who had committed only “immigration crimes” would not be excluded from receiving amnesty. What might be said of Rubio’s ³0HHWWKH3UHVV´LQWHUYLHZLVWKDW he purposely didn’t reveal there are some “immigration crimes,” like repeat illegal entry into the country and document fraud, that do constitute felony crimes. 5HFHQW86)HGHUDO%XUHDXRI 3ULVRQVLQPDWHVWDWLVWLFVLQGLFDWH there are 17,354 federal prisoners incarcerated for immigration offenses, 9.4 percent of the federal prison population. The federal prison system incarcerates at least 34,806 foreign national inmates; they are at a minimum 17.7 percent of the federal government’s prison inmates. As 2016 presidential primary elections occur across our nation, American voters who rejected Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2013 amnesty bill for illegal immigrants should reject his bid to become the Republican FDQGLGDWHIRU3UHVLGHQWRIWKH United States. 'Dvid 2len &ross SDlem 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 resi- dence 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.
