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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, April 16, 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 Why we endorse It’s strange in this day and age, who we see on a regular basis in our when everyone has an opinion and MREVDQGRQRXUVLGHZDONV everyone else is going to hear about Yet we feel that we can offer it, that newspapers are rethinking the some helpful information to voters. endorsement. We have the opportunity to discuss Editorial opinion was the political issues with all of the SULPDU\GULYHURIPDQ\RIWKH¿UVW candidates running in local elections. newspapers, when This year is the people of means ¿UVWWLPHZHKDYH Your vote is sought to sway included audio the public toward recording of those powerful in their own interests which local elections. interviews, through the power will be published at of the press. That Our attempt is eastoregonian.com/ became big business podcasts and on not to influence iTunes by searching in the U.S. as citizens became East Oregonian. it as much as more literate. Some are published we’re trying to already. Then the humanitarian We also speak to empower it. people on both sides MRXUQDOLVWZDVERUQ of local bond and and they sought levy proposals, from to look out for the VFKRROSURMHFWVLQ0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHU common man and the taxpayer $WKHQD:HVWRQDQG(FKRWR¿UH instead of corporate interests. district proposals in Hermiston and And they had the perfect platform 6WDQ¿HOG — the only means of daily news )HGHUDODQGVWDWHUHSUHVHQWDWLYHV consumption and an industry in full county commissioners and the bloom. sheriff receive a healthy salary from But as the news options have become more varied, the newspaper taxpayers, so we hold them to higher standards. City councilors and business has withered. And in an mayors receive a pittance in return attempt to appeal to a wider range for the thankless tasks they take on. of readers, many newspapers have <HWZHNQRZWKRVHMREVDUH toned down or eliminated the HGLWRULDOSDJHDQGVSHFL¿FDOO\WKHLU important too. And those running for them require a critical eye to their endorsements of candidates and TXDOL¿FDWLRQVDQGWKHLUSROLFLHV measures come election season. Our endorsements will run Those endorsements can be over the next two weeks on this contentious. Almost every election page and will be peppered with season we hear from someone discussions about candidates in the who so heartily disagrees with our May elections, a primary election recommendation that they cancel for some partisan races, a binding their subscription. general election for others. And they can be especially Your vote is powerful in local fraught in local elections, when we’re not arguing about dense HOHFWLRQV:H¶UHQRWWU\LQJLQÀXHQFH economic policy or tax brackets. it as much as we’re trying to We’re talking about local people empower it. 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. YOUR VIEWS Wilderness areas should remain free of bicycles In reply to the Bend Bulletin’s “Other Views” editorial entitled “End the ban on bikes in wilderness areas,” I would like to point out that The Wilderness Act VSHFL¿FDOO\VWDWHVXQGHUWKHSURKLELWLRQ of certain uses section “there shall be no other form of mechanical transportation.” Mountain bikers are already allowed on other federal, state and private lands; they should not be allowed in wilderness areas. The idea of mountain bikes has already been considered and debated. In 1964, after eight years of discussions and compromises, the United States House of Representatives and Senate unanimously passed The Wilderness Act that offers outstanding outdoor recreation, watershed protection, ¿VKDQGZLOGOLIHKDELWDWHGXFDWLRQDO VFLHQWL¿FDQGKLVWRULFYDOXHLQD sanctuary of quiet, far from mechanical contrivances such as mountain bikes. The long history of this vital legislation must not be violated. Marilyn Cripe Pilot Rock Primmer has experience, dedication for council seat I am excited to see a great guy like Dale Primmer running for city council. ,¿UVWPHW3ULPPHURQDIDPLO\FDPSLQJ trip about eight years ago. ,GLGQ¶WNQRZKLPWKHQEXWP\¿UVW impression was that he was a bright, informed guy with a good sense of humor. I assumed he was successful at whatever it was he did and as I got to know him and his family better, I learned my assumptions were correct. Primmer brings an energetic combination of heart and mind that would make him an exceptional city council member. He has many things that make him DJUHDWFKRLFHLQFOXGLQJ¿QDQFLDOMRE experience, proven dedication to this community, and a knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing Pendleton. 3OHDVHMRLQPHDQGP\IDPLO\LQ supporting Dale in his run for city council Ward 3. Genna Banica Pendleton What does Pendleton council have to hide? ,MXVW¿QLVKHGUHDGLQJDQDUWLFOHLQWKH East Oregonian about a communication person for Pendleton, and that the city manager thinks that the city council should not be able to respond to any criticisms. I would deduce that someone is afraid of truth. If the city has money for that WKH\KDYHPRQH\WR¿[VWUHHWV Al Plute has every right to voice his opinion. I may not agree with him, however, if he wants to defend a position and have his voice heard in the newspaper he certainly has that right. More and more government people believe they are above the people, that they know better how we should live and breathe, but they do not have to follow the rules that they made for us. If I want to make a fool of myself I have that right. If government wants to PDNHDMHVWHURIWKHPVHOYHVWKH\FDQDQG then pay the consequences. I wonder, what is our city afraid of? What the heck is all government afraid of? Could it be the people? I suppose so — they might lose the power. They’re not there for power, they are there for you. Remember it’s your money not theirs, and your vote. They are constitutionally bound to UHSUHVHQWWKHPDMRULW\QRWWKHLURZQ special interests or other special interest. Roesch Kishpaugh Pendleton Be heard! Submit your own letter to the editor OTHER VIEWS What is inspiration? ) or decades, Anders Ericsson Inspiration is not earned. Your has reminded us of the value of investment of time and effort prepares KDUGZRUN7KH)ORULGD6WDWH you for inspiration, but inspiration is psychologist did the research that led a gift that goes beyond anything you WRWKHVRFDOOHGKRXUUXOH,Q could have deserved. his informative new book, “Peak,” he Inspiration is not something you DQGFRDXWKRU5REHUW3RROGRZQSOD\ can control. People who are inspired WKHLPSRUWDQFHRIQDWLYHERUQJHQLXV have lost some agency. They often David (even in people like Mozart) and feel that something is working through emphasize the importance of deliberate Brooks them, some power greater than Comment practice — painstaking exercises to themselves. The Greeks said it was the perfect some skill. Muses. Believers might say it is God Anybody who has observed or the Holy Spirit. Others might say it excellence knows that Ericsson is basically is something mysterious bursting forth deep in right. Dogged work is the prerequisite of the unconscious, a new way of seeing. success. Yet there are some moments — after Inspiration does not happen to autonomous much steady work and after the technical individuals. It’s a beautiful contagion that skills have been mastered — passes through individuals. when the mind and spirit take The word itself comes from ÀLJKW:HFDOOWKHVHPRPHQWV the Latin inspirare, meaning of inspiration. They kind of “to breath into.” One inspiring steal upon you, longed for and achievement — say, the space unexpected. program — has a tendency to ,QVSLUDWLRQLVDPXFKXVHG raise the sense of possibility in domesticated, amorphous others — say, a little boy who and secular word for what is dreams of being an astronomer. actually a revolutionary, countercultural and Then the one who is inspired performs his spiritual phenomenon. But what exactly is own feats and inspires others, and so on down inspiration? What are we talking about when the line. we use that term? Inspiration is not permanent and solid. Well, moments of inspiration don’t quite It’s powerful but ephemeral, which is why make sense by normal logic. They feel so many people compare it to a gust of wind. transcendent, uncontrollable and irresistible. And when it is gone people long for its return. When one is inspired, time disappears or alters The poet Christian Wiman wrote that LWVSDFH7KHVHQVHVDUHDPSOL¿HG7KHUHPD\ inspiration is “intrusive, transcendent, be goose bumps or shivers down the spine, or transformative, but also evanescent and, a sense of being overawed by some beauty. all too often, anomalous. A poem can leave Inspiration is always more active than its maker at once more deeply seized by mere appreciation. There’s a thrilling feeling existence and, in a profound way, alienated of elevation, a burst of energy, an awareness from it, for as the act of making ends, as the of enlarged possibilities. The person in the world that seemed to overbrim its boundaries grip of inspiration has received, as if by becomes, once more, merely the world, it can magic, some new perception, some holistic EHYHU\GLI¿FXOWWRUHWDLQDQ\IDLWKDWDOOLQWKDW understanding, along with the feeling that she original moment of inspiration. That memory is capable of more than she thought. of that momentary blaze, in fact, and the art Vladimir Nabokov believed that inspiration that issued from it, can become a kind of FRPHVLQSKDVHV)LUVWKHZURWHWKHUH¶VWKH UHSURDFKWRWKH¿UHOHVVOLIHLQZKLFK\RX¿QG ³SUHIDWRU\JORZ´WKHIHHOLQJRI³WLFNO\ZHOO yourself most of the time.” being” that banishes all awareness of physical Most important, inspiration demands a discomfort. The feeling does not yield its certain posture, the sort of posture people feel VHFUHWMXVW\HWEXWDZLQGRZKDVEHHQRSHQHG when they are overawed by something large and some wind has blown in. and mysterious. Then, a few days later, Nabokov continued, 7KH\DUHERWKKXPEOHGDQGVHOIFRQ¿GHQW the writer “forefeels what he is going to tell.” surrendering and also powerful. When people There’s an instant vision, the lightning bolt of are inspired they are willing to take a daring inspiration, that turns into rapid speech, and lark toward something truly great. They’re a “tumble of merging words” that form the EUDYHHQRXJKWRHPEUDFHWKHFUDJJ\¿HUFHQHVV nucleus of a work that will grow from it over of the truth and to try to express it in some the ensuing months or years. new way. Inspired work stands apart from normal Yes, hard work is really important for OLIH,QWKH¿UVWSODFHLW¶VQRWDERXWVHOILQWHUHVW achievement. But life is more mysterious than as normally understood. It’s not driven by MXVWWKDW a desire for money or grades or status. The Ŷ inspired person is driven intrinsically by the David Brooks became a New York Times work itself. The work takes hold of a person. Op-Ed columnist in 2003. Inspiration is powerful but ephemeral. 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.
