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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
OTHER VIEWS
Putting grit in its place
W
Opioid epidemic
needs action
As opioid abuse continues to grow,
politicians from both sides of the aisle
are trying to get their head around the
issue and igure out how best to ight
it.
Credit U.S. Rep. Greg Walden
for calling together a roundtable
discussion about the problem during
his recent visit in Hermiston. Opioid
addiction — and the sometimes fatal
consequences of it — is no longer
hidden from mainstream view. The
problem is real and solutions are
needed.
First, a few quick data points:
Heroin is an opioid, but so too are
legally prescribed formulations such
as morphine, codeine, demerol,
hydrocodone and oxycodone,
which have medical beneits. All
are chemically similar and highly
addictive.
According to the National Survey
of Drug Use and Health, about 2.1
million Americans are addicted to
prescription opioid pain relievers,
and another 467,000 are addicted to
heroin. Those numbers keep growing,
and unintentional deaths from opioids
have quadrupled in the last decade.
Nearly half of young heroin users irst
used and then abused prescription
opioids.
There are a number of bills
currently being debated in the House
of Representatives and the Senate
aimed at reversing the rising rates of
opioid addiction and overdose deaths.
One that is long overdue and should
have signiicant impact if enacted is
the Comprehensive Addiction and
Recovery Act of 2016, which passed
the Senate in March. There’s a similar
bill before the House. It directs a task
force to develop best practices for pain
management and a strategy for getting
this information to providers and the
public.
Several other bills aim to reduce
over-prescribing opioids. In speaking
with the editorial board, Walden noted
one that would allow pharmacists to
partially ill an opioid prescription,
thus reducing the number of unused
pills in bathroom cabinets and the
number of patients who take more
pills than necessary and become
addicted.
Another bill would direct the
Food and Drug Administration to
recommend educational programs
for providers who prescribe opioids.
Another would provide funding
to states to improve monitoring of
prescription drug abuse.
There are also two bills aimed at
improving access to treatment for
people addicted to opioids. There are
two more aimed at helping pregnant
women addicted to opioids as well as
their newborns who may suffer from
neonatal abstinence syndrome.
And another bill seeks to educate
teen-aged athletes about the dangers of
prescription opioids. And three more
focus on making naloxone — which
reverses the effects of opioids in
overdose cases — more available.
Education, research and access
to care has to be at the forefront of
government’s response to the opioid
epidemic right now. Naloxone
should have a presence in all user
communities. And prescribers should
take opioid abuse seriously and err
on the side of caution. Relieving
short-term pain may not be the best
decision for a patient’s long-term
health. Insurance companies must
understand that too, and change their
policies and plans to cover alternative
treatments that don’t rely so heavily
on prescription drugs.
This menace must be faced head-
on, and no longer be relegated to the
shadows.
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.
different set of questions and
e all know why it exists, but
approaches. How do we help students
the grade-point average is
decide what they want? How do we
one of the more destructive
improve the quality and ardor of their
elements in American education.
longing?
Success is about being passionately
The GPA mentality is based on
good at one or two things, but students
the supposition that we are thinking
who want to get close to that 4.0
creatures. Young minds have to be
have to be prudentially balanced
taught self-discipline so they can
about every subject. In life we want
David
knowledge. That’s partly true,
independent thinking and risk-taking,
Brooks acquire
but
as
James
K.A. Smith notes in his
but the GPA system encourages
Comment
students to be deferential and risk
own book “You Are What You Love,”
averse, giving their teachers what they
human beings are primarily deined by
want.
what we desire, not what we know. Our wants
Creative people are good at asking new
are at the core of our identity, the wellspring
questions, but the GPA rewards those who can whence our actions low.
answer other people’s questions. The modern
At the highest level, our lives are directed
economy rewards those who can think in ways toward some telos, or vision of the good
computers can’t, but the
life. Whether we are
GPA rewards people who
aware of it or not, we’re
can grind away at mental
all oriented around some
tasks they ind boring.
set of goals. As David
People are happiest when
Foster Wallace put it in his
motivated intrinsically, but
Kenyon commencement
the GPA is the mother of all
address, “In the day-to-day
extrinsic motivations.
trenches of adult life, there
The GPA ethos takes
is actually no such thing as
spirited children and pushes
atheism. There is no such
them to be hard-working
thing as not worshipping.
but complaisant. The GPA
Everybody worships.” Some
mentality means tremendous
worship money, or power or
emphasis has now been
popularity or nursing or art,
placed on grit, the ability to trudge through
but everybody’s life is organized around some
long stretches of dificulty. Inluenced by
longing. The heart is both a driving engine and
this culture, schools across America are busy
a compass.
teaching their students to be gritty and to have
I don’t know about you, but I’m really
“character” — by which they mean skills like
bad at being self-disciplined about things I
self-discipline and resilience that contribute to don’t care about. For me, and I suspect for
career success.
many, hard work and resilience can only
Angela Duckworth of the University of
happen when there is a strong desire. Grit is
Pennsylvania is the researcher most associated thus downstream from longing. People need
with the study and popularization of grit. And
a powerful why if they are going to be able to
yet what I like about her new book, “Grit,”
endure any how.
is the way she is pulling us away from the
Duckworth herself has a very clear telos.
narrow, joyless intonations of that word, and
As she deines it, “Use psychological science
pointing us beyond the way many schools are
to help kids thrive.” Throughout her book, you
now teaching it.
can feel her passion for her ield and see how
Sure, she starts the book by describing
gritty she has been in pursuing her end.
grit as persevering through unpleasantness.
Suppose you were designing a school to
She describes Beast Barracks, the physical
help students ind their own clear end — as
ordeal that irst-year West Point cadets have to clear as that one.
endure.
Say you were designing a school to elevate
She writes about high school students
and intensify longings. Wouldn’t you want to
who grind away at homework for hours and
provide examples of people who have intense
athletes capable of practicing in the most
longings? Wouldn’t you want to encourage
arduous way possible.
students to be obsessive about worthy things?
And yet Duckworth notes that moral
Wouldn’t you discuss which loves are higher
purpose also contributes to grit. People who
than others and practices that habituate them
are motivated more by altruism than personal
toward those desires? Wouldn’t you be all
pleasure score higher on grit scales. She also
about providing students with new subjects to
notes that having a hopeful temperament
love?
contributes to perseverance.
In such a school you might even
Most important, she notes that the quality
de-emphasize the GPA mentality, which puts
of our longing matters. Gritty people are
a tether on passionate interests and substitutes
resilient and hardworking, sure. But they also, other people’s longings for the student’s own.
she writes, know in a very, very deep way
■
what it is they want.
David Brooks became a New York Times
This is a crucial leap. It leads to a very
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
The GPA ethos
takes spirited
children and
pushes them to
be hard-working
but complaisant.
OTHER VIEWS
Pendleton must be run with more professionalism
ow about calling
Pendleton city government
a timeout on the
on a more professional,
Pendleton ire station
businesslike basis. Too
discussion and going back
often, city oficials have
to basics — basics in local
made decisions in shoot-
government and community
from-the-hip style. Drafting
development?
a gasoline tax proposal and
First, Pendleton’s ire
extending Barnhart Road
chief should not be going
were examples. Seemed
Mike
around town trying to ind
Forrester to me those community
a new site for the main ire
discussions were disjointed
Comment
station. In 40-plus years of
and spasmodic. I could not
covering local government
tell if city council members
for newspapers in Oregon, I think
were getting the help or analysis
the best way is for the ire chief to
from city staff that they needed to
recommend to the city manager
make informed decisions.
any major changes, such as a new
When such community dialogue
ire station, that the chief feels are
drags on, pressure grows to take
needed.
action of some kind. In that sort
If the city manager agrees with
of atmosphere, decisions can
the chief, the manager then makes
more easily be lawed. Potholes
recommendations to members of
really need attention, and utility
the city council. If the city council
lines really need to be expanded
agrees with the city manager’s
for more business, but follow
advice, then come things such as
businesslike procedures to address
a task force to identify available
such problems. Department
options, advise on inancing
managers report to and support the
capital projects, advise on siting
city manager, and the city manager
of projects, advise on when to put
reports to and supports the city
bond measure proposals on the
council. That way of doing the
ballot. Seeking voter approval is of
public’s business is more apt to
course the ultimate goal in all this.
result in a successful outcome.
With upbeat new people coming
To go from a ire station idea
into city council and mayor
all the way to completion of a new
positions, this is a good time to put
facility takes many steps, ending
H
in voter approval of a bond issue.
replacement building. Are there
Pendleton city government. I think
Voters are inclined to approve such
other things the report fails to
a good irst step in that is to adopt
measures only if they feel their
address? The number one question
businesslike procedures for dealing
public oficials are
on a proposed new
with things such as adequate ire
protection facilities. Clarify the role
honest and informed.
city facility: Is it
of department managers at City
If they think city
The would help really needed?
Hall and the role of the city council.
hall is disorganized,
If city council
themselves if members decide to Schedule public hearings. Get news
ignorant, lazy
releases out to old media and new.
or less than
a new
they reached recommend
Work for openness.
forthcoming, then
irehouse at another
My hometown here has a
they understandably
site, they could
out
to
those
practice on which I have mixed
tend to vote no. It’s a
schedule public
who may not hearings so residents feelings: the group of 8 to 12
matter of trust.
respected wise heads designated
So what now for
can weigh in.
be in “the
to tackle a task or solve a problem
Pendleton’s main
Finally, a campaign
ire station? The city
committee would be with limited input from outside.
establishment.”
Many such groups have been
has a consultant’s
needed to promote
successful. But I feel they would
recommendations
the ballot measure.
help themselves if they reached out
advising that the station at
Blue Mountain Community
Northwest 10th and Court be
College’s last bond issue drive did a more to those bright, innovative
replaced. It has been a while since
good job of informing voters on that Pendletonians who may not be in
“the establishment.”
the report was completed, so it
measure.
■
would make sense for city staff
One more point: City
Mike Forrester, of Pendleton,
and city council to read or re-read
oficials and others in town
is board chairman of EO Media
the report to see if it answers all
have been calling for improved
Group.
questions about the ire station.
communications regarding
One oficial told me he wishes
the report had looked more at
LETTERS POLICY
whether the 10th and Court
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less
irehouse could be satisfactorily
on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper
remodeled on its present site. As
and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold
letters that address concerns about individual services and products or
one Pendleton citizen said last
letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters
week, it could be the difference
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