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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Rural white women
face declining lifespans
Middle-aged white women in
places like Eastern Oregon are
dying long before they should — a
reversal in decades of improving life
expectancy in the U.S.
Delving into government and
academic data, The Washington
Post this Sunday published a deeply
troubling look at how addictions,
depression and other factors cut
decades from the lifespans of women,
especially in America’s countryside
and small towns.
“From 1990 through 2014, the
mortality rate for white women
rose in most parts of the country,
particularly around small cities and
in rural areas. Rates often went up by
more than 40 percent and, in some
places, doubled,” the Post reported.
Much of Eastern Oregon is in the
worst quartile of excess death rates
— above 40 percent. Umatilla and
Morrow counties are comparatively
much better off, with premature
mortality of up to 12.5 percent. But
east of the Cascades, only Deschutes
County has seen declining death rates
in the past two decades.
According to the Post, for every
100,000 women in their late 40s
living in U.S. rural areas, 228 died
in the year 2000. “Today, 296 are
dying,” the Post reports. “And in rural
areas, the uptick in mortality was
noticeable even earlier, as far back as
1990. Since then, death rates for rural
white women in midlife have risen by
nearly 50 percent.”
This “corrosion of American
health” is driven by several factors,
chief among these being rising rates
of opioid and heroin addiction,
alcoholism and related diseases like
cirrhosis of the liver, suicide, smoking
and obesity. The suicide rate has more
than doubled for rural white women
ages 50 to 54, for example.
These deaths of all varieties are an
end result of unique downward spirals
of illness, often tied to poverty and
absence of much to feel optimistic
about. “There are millions of people
underneath these (death statistics)
who are in pain,” one expert said.
Separate research published
Monday in The Journal of the
American Medical Association ¿nds
a stronger-than-ever connection
between low incomes and unhealthy
lifestyle choices when it comes
to living longer. This research
discovered that local attitudes and
policy choices can have a substantial
positive impact.
Last week Umatilla County
honored some of the people working
to make this county a healthier place
at the second public health fundraiser
and awareness dinner. Commissioner
George Murdock said he would like
to see the Umatilla County Health
Department become a “lighthouse”
for the state, not accepting the status
quo of mediocre-to-poor health.
Some results of that work are
being seen. Dr. Jonathan Hitzman,
who was picked as the county’s
Health Hero, shared that the smoking
rate in the county dropped from 22
percent to 17 percent in the last three
years, and the number of uninsured
people went from 23 to 20 percent.
However, our obesity rate is still
high (32 percent in county vs. 26
percent statewide) and we have
nearly half as many primary care
physicians per person as the rest of
the state.
The infamous “Rural-Urban
Divide” sometimes only seems like
a rhetorical tool ginned up by the
political hate-meisters of talk radio.
However, there is legitimate pain on
America’s back roads. Attention must
be paid.
OTHER VIEWS
Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary
O
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.
ne of the world’s great
focused on Ramona, one of the great
inventions, only a little behind
¿gures in children’s literature.
the light bulb, was Ramona
Cleary says Ramona is her favorite
Quimby, the strong-willed, lovable
character but isn’t directly modeled
and exasperating star of “Ramona the
on her. “I was a well-behaved girl,”
Pest” and other books. For decades the
she said, “but I often thought like
Ramona books have been a gateway
Ramona.”
drug luring young readers into the
Cleary’s works depict ordinary
spellbinding world of books.
Nichilas events drawn from her own childhood.
Ramona’s inventor, Beverly Cleary,
Kristif Her cousin once caught a salmon
has sold 85 million copies of her books
with his bare hands, so she had Henry
Comment
about Ramona, Henry Huggins, Ralph
Huggins spotting and tackling a
S. Mouse and other beloved ¿gures.
29-pound salmon in an ocean stream.
Cleary will turn 100 on Tuesday, so I asked
That left a deep impression on me as a boy,
her about her characters, her life and her
and ever since I’ve looked carefully in ocean
wisdom.
streams for monster salmon.
Now living in a
In telling these stories,
retirement home in
Cleary always refrains
Ramona drummed
Carmel, California, she
from inÀicting larger
immediately disclaimed
lessons.
harder to show
any grand thoughts about
“As a child, I very
everyone how bad she much objected to books
reaching a century.
“I didn’t plan on it,”
that tried to teach me
was. She would not
she explained dryly.
something,” she told me.
Cleary’s only long-
take off her shoes. She “I just wanted to read for
range plan is that when the
and I did. But if
was a terrible, wicked pleasure,
time comes, she’ll return
a book tried to teach me, I
to her hometown, Yamhill, girl! Being such a bad, returned it to the library.”
Oregon, to be buried
Cleary says that when
terrible, horrid, wicked she goes back to Yamhill,
beside her late husband
in the local cemetery. As
everything seems the same
girl made her feel
it happens, I’m also from
as ever — except that now
Yamhill, population about good! She brought both the kids aren’t playing in
1,000, and Cleary is our
the streets but are inside
heels against the wall at watching television.
hometown hero.
As a girl, Cleary was
something to
the same time. Thump! that. There’s
a late reader because she
On any given day,
Thump! Thump! She
didn’t ¿nd most children’s
U.S. children ages 8 to
books very interesting.
12 consume almost six
was not the least bit
In her ¿rst-grade class,
hours of entertainment,
she was assigned to the
sorry for what she was such as television, video
lowest reading group,
games and social media,
doing. She would never according to polling by
the Backbirds, and her
teacher, Miss Falb, beat
Common Sense Media.
be sorry. Never!
her on the palms for
Aside from schoolwork,
daydreaming.
57 percent of those kids
Never! Never!
So Cleary tried to
typically don’t read at all.
drop out of school in
We measure child
the ¿rst grade. But her parents forced her to
poverty by household income, but a better
keep going, and Cleary eventually excelled
metric might be how often a child hears stories
in school and in college and found a job as a
read aloud. To honor Cleary’s birthday, school
librarian in Yakima, Washington. A boy there
organizations are calling on kids and parents to
complained that there weren’t any books about “drop everything and read.”
kids like him.
So it’s time to take a break from sordid
In response, Cleary sat down and wrote
politics to celebrate authors like Cleary who
about Henry Huggins and his dog, Spareribs.
inspire us to read. Let’s make what Ramona
She thought her characters needed siblings,
would call “a great big noisy fuss” about her
so she decided to torment Henry’s friend
creator’s 100th birthday — for as they invent
Beezus with a pesky little sister — “and at that new worlds, great writers enrich our own.
moment someone called out ‘Ramona,’ so I
Ŷ
named her Ramona.”
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
An editor suggested a few changes — such cherry farm in Yamhill. Kristof, a columnist for
as turning “Spareribs” into “Ribsy” — and
The New York Times since 2001, writes op-ed
the book was published to immediate acclaim. columns that appear twice a week. He won the
Later volumes followed, including a series
Pulitzer Prize two times, in 1990 and 2006.
YOUR VIEWS
School bond a display of
community pride
Please vote “Yes” to approve the Athena-
Weston safety and maintenance bond;
inclusive of a $4 million state matching
grant.
It is not unusual to read in the newspaper
or hear on the news about communities
that have not invested in their schools. My
experience as the incoming superintendent
for Athena-Weston public schools is just the
opposite. In touring the local schools and
talking to staff, students, and community
members; community pride is easily
recognized. Many individuals have shared
stories of growing up in the community,
moving away and then returning with fond
memories of the education they received. It
is critical that we maintain this tradition of
excellence for our community’s children.
The most exciting aspect of this bond
initiative is that the state will provide an
equal match to the local contribution.
Oregon State has awarded only six matching
grants and Athena-Weston was one of the
six communities selected. The cost for
taxpayers is an increase of $0.44 per $1000
of assessed property value. If the local bond
does not pass, the state matching dollars will
be awarded to another school district. This is
a unique opportunity to impact overall safety
and general maintenance with the state
matching the community investment dollar
for dollar.
Staff and students in Athena-Weston
deserve buildings that are safe and
functional. A “Yes” vote on May 17 speaks
volumes about a community that values
safety, maintenance of educational facilities
and ultimately the education of our future
leaders. For more information go to the
district website for a bond fact sheet and
video presentation.
Laure Quaresma
Walla Walla
Forest access keeps getting
the ax
We have been working since 2009 to
have our voices heard on the Forest Service
plan and access to our public lands. It has
not gained any headway other than the
government holds meetings then does what
it pleases and advises that more roads are
going to be closed and citizens’ access are
going to be further reduced.
It is important to have checks and
balances to protect our wildlife and we see
those seasonal closures in place, which
allows the animals a period where they are
not to be “harassed.”
We have plenty of wilderness area where
people must walk in if they want to obtain
access to any of the grounds. By the USFS
statistics, these wilderness areas are not
accessed or used as greatly as the public
lands that one has access to by vehicles.
There is a reason for that. People get older
and cannot walk as far as younger people,
but that does not stop their use of the forest
and streams.
Recently we noticed near Ukiah a road
closure. We asked a friend who works for
the USFS about the closure and was told
that it was on the 1989 list to be closed. This
closure was before any of our citizen groups
were established. This road had previously
been closed seasonally only, but now this
road is permanently closed.
Many of the roads being closed were
pioneer roads paid for by tax dollars and
taxpayers. The USFS doesn’t do a great deal
of road maintenance and we truly aren’t
asking them to do any, but we are asking
that they stop closing roads so historically
we can continue some of our heritage events
the same as the Native Americans do with
their hunting elk at other times when our
elk seasons aren’t open. This statement isn’t
said with meanness or racial overtones;
we are all human, even though we are not
Native Americans we too have a right to our
heritage.
We have taken Scout Troops in to teach
the young about forest and fauna, how to
catch ¿sh and cook them, search for animal
tracks and identify them, and enjoy a dark
night with stars shining bright. We take
our grandkids in swimming and rafting,
picnicking, horn hunting, mushroom
hunting, wood cutting and gathering, and
hunting deer, elk and turkey.
Our interest is having public lands for our
great-grandchildren and their children even
if they are in a wheelchair or a veteran who
has given part of his body for our country
and cannot walk. This public land does not
belong to the USFS or the BLM, it belongs
to all of us; they are only the managers and
their customer service doesn’t smell very
good.
Patricia Maier
Hermiston
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.