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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Remembering,
rewarding our
favorite teachers
To celebrate Teacher Appreciation there.
Teachers teach skills. Sometimes
Week, the East Oregonian is
spotlighting a number of educators in those skills are letters and numbers,
multiplication tables and vocabulary,
our neighborhood who are making a
laws of science and important
difference in the lives of students.
All of us who are able to read
historical dates.
this editorial can thank a teacher for
And sometimes those skills
that ability. (Or, at the very least, for
are passion, determination, thirst
for knowledge,
the ability to inish
social and group
reading this before
a sense
tomorrow’s paper
Teaching is a interaction,
of self-worth and
is already on the
job that deies esteem.
doorstep.)
It’s hard to ind
A good teacher
description,
anyone who doesn’t
marries both. They
have a soft spot for
because most impart and perfect
a beloved educator.
little building
of the educators the
Like ireighters and
blocks of knowledge
pediatricians, in this
allow us to
we remember that
partisan time they
master the basic
fondly stepped skills needed to
are one of the few
professions with high
successfully navigate
outsides the
approval ratings.
the world. But they
normal bounds also impart the
Yet we’re not very
good at pinpointing
ineffable traits that
of the job.
what makes a good
make us good human
teacher. It’s a job that
beings, and push us
deies description,
down the path that
because most of the educators we
will hopefully bring us happiness and
remember fondly stepped beyond the contentedness.
bounds of the professional deinition
A great, standout teacher is hard
of the job. They had so much joy
to ind — but those who have found
for Shakespeare that it seeped out of
them will never forget them. As we
them and into you. They were able
as a state and nation try continuously
to sneak hard-learning past you with
to improve our lagging education
enjoyable, understandable chunks.
system, one way that should not be
They stopped you on your way out
understated is identifying, honoring
of class to ask if you are OK. They
and rewarding great teachers.
complimented your work. They
Those rare souls leave tremendous
opened a window to the world of
legacies and prove indispensable
adulthood and all the knowledge,
to individuals, communities and
doubt, beauty and terror that reside
cultures.
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
Fairley has ability
to build up, not tear down
Our energy future may
reside in outer space
Scott Fairley has the aptitude and
drive to help Pendleton move forward.
Our city faces real challenges, short
and long term, and we should support
those local leaders that would try to
solve problems using all available
resources, including the tools of city
government.
Scott has served all of Pendleton
in various positions: Planning
and Airport commissions, Budget
Committee, Farmers Market, and
soccer coach. He has years of
economic development experience
right here in Eastern Oregon, and
he has partnered with other elected
and business leaders throughout the
Northwest. He has the right judgment
to balance the unique character of
Pendleton with the steps necessary to
promote growth.
Mr. Fairley’s opponent has been a
thorn in the side of city government
for a long time and if elected would
likely continue to be antagonistic.
It’s easy to be a critic, but it’s hard to
devise and implement actual, workable
solutions. Which candidate is most
likely to contribute to the good of the
citizens of Pendleton?
Scott sees the issues confronting
Pendleton, he has suficient experience
to know how to respond, and he is
committed to helping the citizens of
Pendleton prosper and move forward.
He has earned my vote.
There is a big plan to explore
interstellar space with minuscule craft.
Looking at this as a renewable energy
engineering student, this could be an
amazing step for today’s society. If this
works it has the potential to change
society. A low-cost exploration operation
will give us the option to discover
precious metals and minerals once
thought to be depleted.
Our society has become addicted to the
once-abundant resources the planet had.
Soon, or in the near future, I believe the
human race will panic realizing what we,
as a society, have done. That is when this
technology will be appreciated.
Will Perkinson
Pendleton
Jeffrey Wilson
Troutdale
Letters deadline Friday
Ballots have arrived and voters
across Oregon are considering
candidates and inalizing their choices.
The East Oregonian will institute
a deadline for letters to the editor, so
we can be fair with all the letters we
receive and allow for responses before
Election Day if necessary.
Please submit your endorsement
letters to the editor by Friday at
noon. You can email them to editor@
eastoregonian.com, drop them off at our
Hermiston or Pendleton locations, or
mail them to East Oregonian, 211 SE
Byers Ave., Pendleton OR 97801.
We will publish our last letters on
May 7. Election Day is May 17.
OTHER VIEWS
Donald the dove, Hillary the hawk
ASHINGTON — It seems
battle of the sexes, with its chest-
odd, in this era of gender
thumping versus maternal hugging,
luidity, that we are headed
there’s a more intriguing gender
toward the most stark X versus Y battle
dynamic.
since Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
On some foreign policy issues, the
Donald Trump exudes macho,
roles are reversed for the candidates
wearing his trucker hat, retweeting
and their parties. It’s Hillary the Hawk
bimbo cracks, swearing with abandon
against Donald the Quasi-Dove.
and bragging about the size of his
Just as Barack Obama seemed the
Maureen
manhood, his crowds, his hands,
more
feminized candidate in 2008
Dowd
his poll margins, his bank account,
because
of his talk-it-out management
Comment
his skyscrapers, his steaks and his
style, his antiwar platform and his
“beautiful” wall.
delicate eating habits, always watching
He and his pallies Paul Manafort and Roger
his igure, so now, in some ways, Trump seems
Stone seem like a latter-day Rat Pack, having
less macho than Hillary.
a gas with tomatoes, twirls and ring-a-ding-
He has a tender ego, pouty tweets, needy
temperament and obsession with hand sanitizer,
ding. The beauty pageant impresario’s coarse
whereas she is so tough and combat-hardened,
comments to Howard Stern, rating women
she’s known by her staff as “the Warrior.”
on their breasts, fading beauty and ability to
The prime example
take the kids off his hands,
of commander-in-chief
reverberate through the
judgment Trump offers is
campaign.
the fact that, like Obama, he
In Indiana, Trump boasted
thought the invasion of Iraq
that “Iron” Mike Tyson
was a stupid idea.
and “all the tough guys”
He can sound belligerent,
had endorsed him. The
of course, saying that he
chair-throwing Bobby Knight
would bomb the expletive-
backed Trump with the brass-
deleted out of ISIS and that
knuckles encomium that
he would think up new and
Trump, like Harry Truman,
imaginative ways to torture
would have the guts to drop
terrorists and kill their families.
the bomb. When his rallies become Fight Club,
But he says that in most cases he would
Trump boasts that it adds a little excitement.
rather do the art of the deal than shock and awe.
Hillary Clinton’s rallies, by contrast, can
“Unlike other candidates for the presidency,
seem like a sorority rush reception hosted
war and aggression will not be my irst instinct,”
by Lena Dunham, or an endless episode of
he said in his maiden foreign policy speech in
“The View,” with a girl-power soundtrack by
Washington last week, adding, “A superpower
Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato.
understands that caution and restraint are really
The ultimate insider is portraying herself as
truly signs of strength.”
an outsider because she’s a woman, and the
These Kumbaya lines had the neocons
candidate who is considered steely is casting
leaping into Hillary’s muscular embrace.
herself as cozy because she’s a doting granny.
If the neocons get neophyte Republicans
Her website is chockablock with
on the presidential ticket, they prefer ones
empowerment gear, from a hot pink “woman’s
like Dan Quayle, W. and Sarah Palin, who are
card” to a “Make Herstory” T-shirt to a “Girls
“educable,” as Bill Kristol, the editor of The
Just Wanna Have Fun-damental Rights” tote
Weekly Standard, once said of Quayle.
bag to “A Woman’s Place Is in the White
Trump may have a lot to learn about the
House” throw pillow. She says her favorite
issues, but he’s not malleable.
shows are “The Good Wife,” “Madam
In his new book, “Alter Egos,” New York
Secretary” and “Downton Abbey,” and she did a
Times White House correspondent Mark
guest shot on “Broad City.”
Landler makes the case that the former
Trump’s most ardent supporters, white
Goldwater Girl, the daughter of a Navy petty
men, are facing off against Hillary’s most loyal
oficer and a staunch Republican, has long had
supporters, black women.
hawkish tendencies, relected in her support for
Clinton and Trump have moved on to their
military action in Iraq and Libya and a no-ly
mano a womano ight, leaving behind “the
zone in Syria.
leftovers,” as Trump labels delated rivals.
“It’s bred in the bone,” Landler told me.
Already, it’s unlovely.
“There’s no doubt that Hillary Clinton’s
“It’s going to be nasty, isn’t it?” says Obama
more muscular brand of American foreign
Pygmalion David Axelrod. “Put the small
policy is better matched to 2016 than it was
children away until November.”
to 2008,” Jake Sullivan, Hillary’s policy
A peeved Jane Sanders called on the FBI
adviser both at the State Department and in her
to hurry up with the Hillary classiied email
campaign, told Landler.
investigation. A desperate Ted Cruz cut a
But Hillary never expected to meet this mix
deal with John Kasich, who then put a bag
of dove, hawk and isolationist. She thought she
over his head and acted as if he didn’t know
would face Marco Rubio, a more traditional
Cruz. Then Cruz latched onto Cruella Fiorina,
conservative who would out-hawk her. Instead,
accomplishing the impossible: inding a
she’s meeting Trump, who is “a sheep in
Potemkin running mate who’s even more
odious. We can only hope that Cruz, who croons wolf’s clothing,” as Axelrod put it. Like a
free-swinging asymmetric boxer, Trump can
Broadway show tunes, and Carly, who breaks
keep Hillary off balance by punching from both
into song at the lectern, will start doing duets
the left and the right.
from “Hamilton.”
You can actually envision a foreign policy
In one of the most gratifying moments of
debate between Trump and Clinton that sounds
an unhinged campaign, former Speaker of the
oddly like the one Obama and Clinton had in
House John Boehner told Stanford University
2008, with Trump playing Obama, preening
students that Cruz was “Lucifer in the lesh.”
about his good judgment on Iraq, wanting an
Satanists immediately objected, saying it was
end to nation-building and thinking he could
unfair to their deity.
have a reset with Russia.
Even though Trump is the one who has
Despite gossip when she was irst lady that
no governing experience, he will suggest that
she did not like people in uniform, the truth is
the irst woman at the top of a major party
the reverse: She gravitates toward “nail-eaters,”
ticket is unqualiied by charging that she lacks
her aides told Landler, and loves the gruff, Irish,
“strength” and “stamina” and claiming that
bearlike demeanor of Jack Keane, a retired
if she were a man, she would not get even 5
four-star general and the resident hawk on Fox
percent of the vote.
During his unburdening at Stanford, Boehner News who helped deine her views on military
issues and is still in touch.
imitated Clinton, saying, “Oh, I’m a woman,
As secretary of state, she hit it off with Gen.
vote for me.”
Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus. And
But such mockery merely plays into
Clinton’s hands. As former Jeb Bush super PAC she loved to have a stiff drink with Bob Gates
strategist Mike Murphy told MSNBC, “Her big and John McCain.
She has a weakness for big, swaggering,
judo move is playing the victim.” And as former
rascally he-men. Like Donald Trump.
Jeb aide Tim Miller noted to CNN, Trump’s
■
numbers with women are so bad that the only
Maureen Dowd, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
way he can win is if he manages to repeal
for distinguished commentary, became a New
women’s suffrage before November.
Once you get beyond the surface of the 2016 York Times columnist in 1995.
W
Clinton and
Trump have
moved on to
their mano a
womano ight.
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 re-
serves 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.