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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, April 13, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Congress punishes the Postal Service If you walk into the lobby of The object of the RG’s scorn was DQ\RIRXUSRVWRI¿FHVDWFHUWDLQ WKHUDWHFXWLQÀLFWHGRQWKH3RVWDO times, you will see a Service. After years cross section of the of gaining ground, The U.S. Postal the rate cut will community doing the USPS business. They are Service remains throw picking up their EDFNLQWRGH¿FLW mail and sending It is no way to an essential cog envelopes and run a business. in American In fact, it is a parcels. stupid way to run Despite the commerce ascension of Federal a business. And and culture. Express and UPS Congress professes and the proliferation that the Postal of social media, Service should be the U.S. Postal Service remains an run as a business. essential cog in American commerce There was a time when members RI&RQJUHVVHQVXUHGWKDWSRVWRI¿FHV and culture. As The Register-Guard of Eugene took care of their constituents. But these days when — as former wrote Monday, “… (T)he Postal Congressman Brian Baird famously Service remains the only truly pointed out — Afghanistan universal delivery system in the FRXQWU\)RUFHQWVRUFHQWVDV matters more than a schoolhouse of today), it will deliver a letter from in Chinook,Washington, the any address to any address, whether needs of common Americans rank low. We also see it in the House it’s in Marcola or Manhattan. The and Senate’s inability to craft an availability of such a service binds infrastructure package — aimed at the nation, lubricates the channels the deterioration of highways, roads of communication and creates a and bridges. democratic equality among urban Congress has lost its way. and rural areas.” 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 End the ban on bikes in wilderness areas The (Bend) Bulletin B ring up the possibility of bicycles in wilderness areas and some people react as though vampires are coming to suck the wilderness dry. But bicycles don’t belong lumped into the same category as motorcycles and ATVs. Horses can do more damage to trails than bikes or hikers. And horses are allowed in wilderness areas. We don’t want bikes everywhere in wilderness. There should be, though, an end to the ban that says they can go nowhere. They should be allowed in some areas. That’s the idea behind a proposal from a group called the Sustainable Trails Coalition. It may become a bill in Congress. The idea deserves consideration and debate. Bicycles weren’t banned by name from wilderness areas in the legislation that created the areas. But they were EDQQHGLQEHFDXVHWKH\DUHDIRUP of “mechanical transport.” Many conservationists see bikes in wilderness as a nonstarter. They argue bikes are unnatural and shatter the feel they want in wilderness. You can’t dispute that. Allowing bicycles on some trails in wilderness areas would change the character of the experience. Bikes coming down the trail can be like being charged by Lycra-clad, neon cavalry. Mountain bikers would help their RZQFDVHLIWKH¿UVW thing that came to everyone’s mind when seeing them was: Oh, it’s another group of those polite people. There’s a slugfest over public lands: Hikers versus bikers versus ATVs versus equestrians versus skiers versus snowmobilers versus mining versus grazing versus whoever else we have left out. Don’t expect detente. Expect headaches. They all must learn better to share and how to play nice together. You don’t start by banning bikes from all wilderness areas. You start by letting bikes in on some of the trails. If trails are really so delicate, bikes don’t belong, but neither do horses or hikers. So end the bike ban in wilderness areas. It will create more support for wilderness areas if bicyclists know that they aren’t completely locked out. Bicycles don’t belong lumped into the same category as motorcycles and ATVs. OTHER VIEWS I +RZWR¿[SROLWLFV n the middle of this depressing argues, help people become skilled presidential campaign I sometimes at deliberation. The guy sitting next wonder, How could we make our WR\RXDWWKHYROXQWHHU¿UHFRPSDQ\ politics better? PD\KDYHSROLWLFDORSLQLRQV\RX¿QG It’s possible to imagine an elite abhorrent, but you still have to get stuff solution. The next president could done with him, week after week. Middle-ring relationships also get together with the leaders of both diversify the sources of identity. parties in Congress and say: “We’re You might be an O’Rourke, an Irish going to change the way we do David and a professor, but you business in Washington. We’re going Brooks Catholic are also a citizen, importantly, of the to deliberate and negotiate. We’ll Comment Montrose neighborhood in Houston. disagree and wrangle, but we will not With middle-ring memberships treat this as good-versus-evil blood deteriorating, Americans have become worse sport.” That kind of leadership might trickle DWSXEOLFGHOLEHUDWLRQ3HRSOH¿QGLWHDVLHU down. to ignore inconvenient viewpoints and facts. But it’s increasingly clear that the roots Partisanship becomes a preconscious lens of political dysfunction lie deep in society. through which people see If there’s truly going to be the world. improvement, there has They report being to be improvement in the optimistic or pessimistic social context politics is depending on whether their embedded in. team is in power. They In healthy societies, become unrealistic. Trump people live their lives voters don’t seem to realize within a galaxy of warm how unelectable their man is places. They are members because they hang out with of a family, neighborhood, people like themselves. school, civic organization, We’re good at bonding hobby group, company, with people like ourselves faith, regional culture, but worse at bridging nation, continent and world. with people unlike ourselves. (Have you Each layer of life is nestled in the others to noticed that most people who call themselves form a varied but coherent whole. “connectors” are actually excluders because But starting just after World War II, they create groups restricted to people with America’s community/membership mindset similar status levels?) gave way to an individualistic/autonomy With fewer sources of ethnic and local mindset. The idea was that individuals should LGHQWLW\SHRSOHDVNSROLWLFVWR¿OOWKHYRLG be liberated to live as they chose, so long as Being a Democrat or a Republican becomes they didn’t interfere with the rights of others. their ethnicity. People put politics at the center By 1981, the pollster Daniel Yankelovich of their psychological, emotional and even noticed the effects: “Throughout most of this spiritual life. century Americans believed that self-denial This is asking too much of politics. PDGHVHQVHVDFUL¿FLQJPDGHVHQVHREH\LQJ Once politics becomes your ethnic and the rules made sense, subordinating oneself moral identity, it becomes impossible to to the institution made sense. But now doubts compromise, because compromise becomes have set in, and Americans now believe that dishonor. If you put politics at the center of the old giving/getting compact needlessly identity, you end up asking the state to eclipse restricts the individual while advancing the every social authority but itself. Presidential power of large institutions ... who use the campaigns become these gargantuan two-year power to enhance their own interests at the national rituals that swallow everything else in expense of the public.” national life. The individualist turn had great effects If we’re going to salvage our politics, we but also accumulating downsides. By 2005, probably have to shrink politics, and nurture SHUFHQWRI$PHULFDQVUHSRUWHGWKDWWKH\ the thick local membership web that politics knew none or just a few of their neighbors by name. There’s been a sharp rise in the number rests within. We probably have to scale back the culture of autonomy that was appropriate of people who report that they have no close for the 1960s but that has since gone too far. IULHQGVWRFRQ¿GHLQ If we make this cultural shift, we may Civic life has suffered. As Marc J. even end up happier. For there is a paradox to Dunkelman writes in his compelling book “The Vanishing Neighbor,” people are good at ORQJLQJ,IHDFKRIXVIXO¿OODOORIRXUGLVFUHWH individual desires, we end up with a society tending their inner-ring relationships — their that is not what we want at all. family and friends. They’re pretty good at The highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of tending to outer-ring relationships — their needs, self-actualization, is actually connected hundreds of Facebook acquaintances, their to the lowest level, group survival. People fellow progressives, or their TED and Harley experience their highest joy in helping their fans. neighbors make it through the day. But Americans spend less time with Ŷ middle-ring township relationships — the David Brooks became a New York PTA, the neighborhood watch. Times Op-Ed columnist in 2003. Middle-ring relationships, Dunkelman With fewer sources of ethnic and local identity, people ask politics to fill the void. YOUR VIEWS Minimum wage hike good for Oregonians Concerning the current debate centered on the new minimum wage law, let me begin by stating that I am an employment case manager serving both businesses and job seekers at the state employment center here in Pendleton. I have been professionally active in social services for some time and I can assure you that a single person, even without the additional challenge of raising a family, attempting to get by on a full-time job paying even $10 an hour (currently 75 cents more than the state minimum wage of $9.25 DQKRXUKDVDGLI¿FXOWWLPHJHWWLQJ by. This is the situation with many of my clients: They are forced to take multiple jobs to meet survival expenses. At current costs of even modest living (which are always LQFUHDVLQJGXHWRLQÀDWLRQLWLV impossible to get by with a full- time job on the current minimum wage if your livelihood depends wholly on you. The problem is complex and requires a wide range of strategies, but punishing workers by guaranteeing they remain poor, impoverished and struggling is immoral. Keeping wages down while costs of living continue to spiral upward over time is not the answer. Everyone that I know who maintains the minimum wage is high enough and cannot afford to get higher has a job that pays much more than that. If you’re prone to complain about raising the minimum wage, before you do, take an honest inventory and ask yourself if you could get by in your current lifestyle costs on even $11.50 an hour, let alone $9.25. Otherwise, you come off sounding like, “I’ve got mine and the rest can go to hell.” Many say the new minimum wage law is “unrealistic.” What I call unrealistic is any billionaire presidential candidate who claims he can relate to the economic challenges of the lives of those consigned to make minimum wage. Rent, groceries and utilities (not to even mention day care, fuel and car maintenance and medical expenses — forget any entertainment and new clothes) eat up even $12 an hour real fast. Matt Henry Pendleton Lindsay the choice for Morrow County We are writing in support of Melissa Lindsay for Morrow County Judge. We feel that Melissa LVDKLJKO\TXDOL¿HGFDQGLGDWHIRU this leadership position in county government. Melissa has had a very successful business career as head of the mortgage loan department for the Bank of Eastern Oregon. In addition, she has served on several community boards and committees WKDWKDYHEHQH¿WHGIURPKHUZRUN in the schools, health care and various other groups. She has always been willing to donate her time and energy where needed. Melissa is a highly intelligent, motivated individual who has proven skills working with the public and her co-workers. Please join us in voting for Melissa Lindsay for Morrow County Judge. Larry and Betty Mills Heppner Support Milton- Freewater school bond As a Walla Walla Valley resident and a Milton-Freewater educator, I am writing to express my support for ballot measure 30-111. It has been over three decades since a capital bond measure passed and almost a century since a new school has been built in Milton- Freewater. It’s time to commence a new era. Passage of 30-111 will mean a $31 million jolt for the Milton-Freewater community and its schools. Almost half of that amount, $15 million, would come from a Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation grant. Another $12 million would come from the hard-working taxpayers of Milton- )UHHZDWHUDQGWKH¿QDOPLOOLRQ would be provided by matching funds from the state of Oregon. If 30-111 passes, a new kindergarten-through-third-grade facility that would house over 600 of our youngest learners and a new sports complex at the current Grove Elementary location would be built. Infrastructure needs, such as the replacement of deteriorating roofs and outdated HVAC systems, would be addressed at the Ferndale Elementary, Central Middle School, and McLoughlin High School locations. And district-wide technology capacity would increase. On May 17, say yes to the Milton-Freewater community, its schools, and its students. Vote yes on 30-111. Roy Elia Walla Walla 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. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
