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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, May 18, 2016 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW U.S. wheat industry listens to its customers around the globe It is a fundamental of business Associates has established a network of foreign ofices in such far-lung that it is important — make locations as Japan, Nigeria, the that crucial — to talk with your Philippines, South Africa, Russia, customers. And listen. the Netherlands, Egypt, China, Our sister paper the Capital Taiwan, Mexico, Morocco and Press recently took a close look at Chile. how the U.S. wheat In the Paciic industry does just The needs of Northwest, most of that. Breeders, wheat grown is farmers, elevators the customers the soft white and club and exporters are foremost wheat, a subclass of are all plugged soft white wheat. into the needs of in the minds In nations such overseas customers, of everyone as Japan, that wheat constantly communicating with along the supply is milled into the lour that goes into them. cakes, pastries and It is an impressive chain. Asian-style noodles. and ongoing effort. In the Middle East, From the time a soft white wheat is ideally suited for breeder irst begins work on a new lat breads. No other wheat works as wheat variety until that grain is ultimately delivered to customers in well in those products. It comes down to “understanding Asia or elsewhere, the needs of the customers are foremost in the minds what our customers want, what is best-suited for their products, of everyone along the supply chain. and then using our knowledge and In the Paciic Northwest, that experience to translate that into is illustrated by the actions of the discrete, technical, well-deined Washington, Oregon and Idaho criteria we can measure and commodity commissions. They communicate with wheat breeders,” work hand-in-glove with U.S. Wheat Associates, the export market said Craig Morris, director of the USDA Agricultural Research development organization for the Service Western Wheat Quality nation’s wheat industry, and others Laboratory. The quality — and to stay in constant communication suitability — of U.S. wheat is with overseas customers to make unquestioned by customers around sure they are getting exactly what the world. they want. Hats off to Paciic Northwest For the region’s wheat growers, wheat growers — and all the others that is crucial. Between 80 and 90 up and down the supply line who percent of the crop they grow each work so hard to provide their year is sold overseas. customers with exactly the wheat That did not happen by accident. they want. It happened by talking with It is a business model that can customers. be held up as an example to all From its ofices in Portland segments of agriculture. and Arlington, Va., U.S. Wheat 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 The know-nothing tide O n the evidence, ethnocentrism really, he said that. To deny it would be is a pretty basic human instinct. “absolutely a total lie.” Band together with your own. I suppose Trump was thinking of Keep the outsider down or out. In the Normandy landings, or perhaps the 1850s, at another moment of the Marshall Plan, or Ronald Reagan’s American unease, the Know-Nothings “tear down this wall,” or the freeing of swept Massachusetts and won hundreds of millions of people from mayoral elections in Philadelphia and the totalitarian Soviet imperium, or the Washington on a nativist platform to opening to China. Roger “purify” national politics by stopping American isolationism is an Cohen the inlux of Irish and German oxymoron because America is a Comment Catholics. universal idea. That does not change Papist inluence was then the however far short of its ideals the perceived scourge through which the nation may fall. Know-Nothing movement, as the Native On China, Trump has said: “We can American Party (later the American Party) both beneit or we can both go our separate was commonly known, built its following. ways.” Go our separate ways! Let’s unpack Today the supposed threat that. Right now America is Muslim and Mexican buys everything that China iniltration. Or so Donald makes, and China buys Trump, the de facto the U.S. debt incurred for Republican presidential all the spending sprees on candidate, would have us stuff from Guangzhou. believe in his “America Just because there may be First” program. separate ways into the gutter A know-nothing tide does not make the gutter is upon us. Tribal politics, any more alluring. Chinese- anchored in tribal media, American symbiosis is an has made knowing nothing existential issue. a badge of honor. Ignorance, As for Egypt, Trump loudly declaimed, is an believes America ousted attribute, especially if “a friendly regime” (of allied to celebrity. Facts the former dictator, Hosni are dispensable baggage. Mubarak) “that had a To display knowledge, the longstanding peace treaty acquisition of which takes time, is tantamount with Israel.” No, Egypt has a peace treaty with to showing too much respect for the Israel. Mubarak did not. opposition tribe, who know nothing anyway. Speaking of Israel, Trump says, “President Any slogan can be reworked, I guess. Obama has not been a friend to Israel.” Right, America First has a long, unhappy history, he has not been a friend to the tune of more the America First Committee having pressed than $20.5 billion in foreign military inancing the view that the United States should stay since 2009. He has not been a friend by out of the war to defeat Fascism in World providing more than $1.3 billion for the Iron War II. Its most famous advocate was Charles Dome defense system alone since 2011. He Lindbergh, the aviator, who undermined the has not been a friend by, in 2014, opposing movement when he revealed that he blamed 18 resolutions in the U.N. General Assembly Jews for prodding America toward war. that were biased against Israel; by helping That was in 1941, not a good year for Jews to organize in 2015 the irst U.N. General anywhere, particularly in Europe, where, Assembly session on anti-Semitism in the while Lindbergh opined, the annihilation of history of the body; and by working tirelessly Jewry had begun. on a two-state peace, not least on the security Well, America First is back, tweaked as arrangements for Israel that are among its Trump’s we-won’t-be-suckers-anymore preconditions. He has not been a friend by ideology. In his favor, it cannot be said turning the other cheek in the face of what that Trump has a stranglehold on political Nancy Pelosi once called “the insult to the stupidity. Britain is seriously debating leaving intelligence of the United States” from Israel’s the European Union, the greatest force for prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. peace and stability in Europe since the carnage The know-nothings are on the march. But of the 1940s. of course they must know something. Millions One is put in mind of the remark of James of people who vote for Trump cannot be L. Petigru, a prominent jurist and politician, wrong. Perhaps their core idea, along with upon the secession of South Carolina from the unchanging appeal of ethnocentrism, is the Union in 1860: “South Carolina is too that politics no longer really matter. Celebrity small for a republic and too large for an insane matters. asylum.” Power centers are elsewhere — in inancial Britain’s pathologies resemble South systems, corporations, technology, networks Carolina’s. — that long since dispensed with borders. Now where was I? Ah, yes, Trump, That being the case, loudmouthed, isolationist naturally. Trump, who has declared — or trumpery may just be a sideshow, an American perhaps it was only a suggestion — that “Our exercise in après-moi-le-déluge escapism. moments of greatest strength came when ■ politics ended at water’s edge.” Totally, he Roger Cohen joined The New York Times said that. Absolutely, he said that. Really, in 1990. The know- nothings are on the march. But of course they must know something: Celebrity matters. Making sense of new minimum wage rules The (Bend) Bulletin O regon’s new three-tier minimum wage law is nothing if not confusing. If all goes well, however, rules on how the law will work, which are being created by the Bureau of Labor and Industry, should make things clearer. While the law raises the minimum wage across the state, it’s a tiered raise that changes depending on location, and it will take six years to be fully realized. That makes sense. If a person lives in Crook County, he’s living in the region where the minimum wage increase will eventually reach $12.50 in 2022. The increase will be higher in Deschutes County, $13.50 in 2022, and higher still in the Portland metropolitan area, $14.75 in 2022. It’s reasonable to pay according to where someone works. Otherwise, it could create odd situations of minimum wage pay disparity in a region. The rules are a bit trickier when a person actually spends time working in two different regions. Thus, if a person works for a single employer but spends part of his or her time in Deschutes County and part of it in Jefferson County, with its lower minimum wage, the employer has two choices. Without extra record keeping, wages can be paid at the rate set for the higher wage region. If the employer wants to pay based on where the employee is actually working, he or she must keep records on time spent in each region. In the end, the law might not bring the prosperity some expect. Only about 5 percent of the workforce makes the minimum, mostly women 25 or younger and working part time. Too, Oregon’s minimum wage today has the same buying power as 1980’s $3.10 per hour minimum did. While small increases apparently have a relatively small impact on the economy, no one knows for certain what happens with bigger increases. We’re about to ind out. Only about 5 percent of the workforce makes minimum wage. 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 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.