Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 25, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, May 25, 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 News as a service, not a product News is a hot commodity, but it’s a buyer’s market. There are a number of places to ind out about things happening in the world or in your neighborhood. At the East Oregonian, we strive to be a valuable source. In fact, we aim to be the most valuable source in our area — not just trusted or well-liked, but essential. To reach for that goal, we pay a staff of journalists to spend every working day explaining the happenings of Eastern Oregon. We’re intrigued by a chorus of emergency sirens, but also by the silence when the public interest is being debated behind closed doors. We share the joy when the news is good and pain when it’s not. We are part of the community and have been for 140 years. While we put out a product ive days a week — a physical newspaper, from our Pendleton press to your doorstep — our value is not the ink and paper. It’s the content within, created by reporters and photographers and editors. It’s the time spent at meetings, at ires, in classrooms, at our desks poring over budgets, iling records requests and chasing down sources. And like all good services, we can’t do it for free. Because most of our news is now consumed digitally, we can’t sustain a model where only print subscribers like you pay for our work. Our online paywall is an attempt to continue to serve the community without undercutting ourselves. Though some content providers are using them, we know it’s rare and annoying to encounter one. But hopefully it’s a reminder of the resources expended to get you that information — much of which you won’t ind anywhere else. We’ve settled upon a structure we plan to test over the course of the summer. The East Oregonian website is open to everyone and includes many free features, such as obituaries, coming events calendars and other public notices. Visitors will get to see three free articles a month, plus one bonus article each day that they ind via social media. Our 20,000 Facebook friends make up a large portion of our daily online audience, and we hope they have a positive experience on our site. We also hope those online readers, especially residents who ind themselves returning again and again to our site, consider the work it takes to report the news and invest in that process — like print subscribers have done for generations. We also ask that our invested readers join the effort in serving the community. Tell us what we’re missing and which stories have an unexplored layer. You can send tips or ideas to editor@eastoregonian. com or call us directly: 541-966- 0835 connects you to the heart of the newsoom. 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 Opioids in Oregon The (Eugene) Register-Guard O regon is awash in opioids, with the second-highest rate of prescriptions in the country and a skyrocketing death rate from opioids. The death rate in Oregon from these drugs — which include Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet — surpasses any other type of drug poisoning, including alcohol, methamphetamines, heroin and cocaine. Physicians who are dealing with this are, unhappily, reaping a crop that was sown more than 25 years ago. There was a major movement in the 1990s to push doctors to do more to treat pain — or risk possible censure by medical boards for failing to do their job. Opioids were deemed a safe and effective option. One small company, Purdue Pharma, touted a new medication as not only effective in reducing pain, but also having a lower risk of abuse because of its time-release properties. The new drug, Oxycontin, quickly became popular. In 2007 Purdue admitted, after being hauled into federal court, that it had misled the public about OxyContin’s risk of addiction. That admission came too late. Health care professionals are now aware that opioids are not as safe — or even effective — as once believed. The same cannot be said for patients, particularly those who have become dependent on opioids and need them to feel normal. There are Oregon physicians who say they have been threatened with malpractice lawsuits, even physical violence, by some patients and their families when they try to wean a patient off opioids. These patients latly refuse to believe the opioids are, in fact, ineffective in treating many types of pain and may even make it worse in some cases, such as lower back pain. Research now shows that weight loss and exercise are the most effective ways to reduce pain in many cases, but that prescription can be a tough sell to many patients. Oregon has made some progress in recent years in dealing with opioid dependency. There is a statewide registry that allows allow doctors to see if a patient has additional opioid prescriptions from other physicians. Local emergency rooms no longer prescribe opioids for migraines and urgent care clinics won’t prescribe opioids for chronic pain. After peaking in 2006, prescription opioid deaths in Oregon had fallen by about 35 percent by 2012, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. But this was still 250 percent higher than in 2000 — and some physicians say they see use and abuse growing again. Opioids still account for 6.7 percent of all prescriptions written in Oregon today — about a third more than the national average. If Oregon is to win the battle against opioid addiction, more needs to be done. This includes looking at areas with the highest rate of opioid prescriptions to determine what’s going on and deal with it. It also means increasing connections and sharing more information among the different parties who deal with opioid addictions, including all types of health care providers and nonproits that deal with addiction. While there is a reporting system that allows doctors to see if a patient is obtaining multiple opioid prescriptions, there is no requirement to check the database, which does not include prescriptions written in emergency rooms. And physicians who have used the site complain that it is cumbersome and hard to use. Better partnerships and connections between health care providers, insurers and employers also is needed for a coordinated approach to attack opioid addiction. Some insurers, for example, may not cover alternative treatments for pain that would replace opioids. And programs to help a patient lose weight and exercise as part of a program to reduce pain may not be readily available. A system to identify and divert patients who are at high risk for opioid abuse to an agency that specializes in substance abuse also would be helpful. And speciic guidelines for prescribing opiates should be in place, focusing on such parameters as prescribing the lowest active dose for the minimum amount of time and considering offering other, non-addictive options if there are factors on record that show a possible disposition to abuse. There is room for, and a need for, innovative approaches in dealing with the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse is not just an issue for the people who are dependent on opioids, and their families, it is an issue for the community. It causes needless deaths, takes people from being productive members of society to non-productive and feeds into rising health care costs and crime. It will take a coordinated effort, with support from everyone from individual community members to health care providers, health insurers, counselors, employers and law enforcement. But it is an effort that is worth making, and that promises a signiicant payback. Why is Clinton disliked? For example, her campaign recently I understand why Donald Trump released a biographical video called is so unpopular. He earned it the “Fighter.” It’s illed with charming old-fashioned way, by being obnoxious, and quirky old photos of her ighting insulting and offensive. But why is for various causes. But then when the Hillary Clinton so unpopular? video cuts to a current interview with She is, at the moment, just as Clinton herself, the lighting is perfect, unpopular as Trump. In the last the setting is perfect, her costume is three major national polls she had perfect. She looks less like a human unfavorability ratings in the same David ballpark as Trump’s. In the Washington Brooks being and more like an avatar from some corporate brand. Clinton’s Post/ABC News poll, they are both at Comment 57 percent disapproval. unpopularity is akin to the unpopularity In the New York Times/CBS of a workaholic. Workaholism is a form News poll, 60 percent of respondents said of emotional self-estrangement. Workaholics Clinton does not share their values. Sixty-four are so consumed by their professional activities percent said she is not honest or trustworthy. that their feelings don’t inform their most Clinton has plummeted fundamental decisions. The so completely down to professional role comes to Trump’s level that she is now dominate the personality and statistically tied with him encroaches on the normal in some of the presidential intimacies of the soul. As horse race polls. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once put There are two paradoxes it, whole cemeteries could be to her unpopularity. First, she illed with the sad tombstone: was popular not long ago. As “Born a man, died a doctor.” secretary of state she had a At least in her public 66 percent approval rating. persona, Clinton gives off Even as recently as March an exclusively professional 2015 her approval rating was vibe: industrious, calculated, at 50 and her disapproval goal-oriented, distrustful. It’s rating was at 39. hard from the outside to have It’s only since she a sense of her as a person; launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to she is a role. impress the American people that she has made This formal, career-oriented persona puts herself so strongly disliked. her in direct contrast with the mores of the The second paradox is that, agree with her social media age, which is intimate, personalist, or not, she’s dedicated herself to public service. revealing, trusting and vulnerable. It puts her From advocate for children to senator, she has in conlict with most people’s lived experience. pursued her vocation tirelessly. It’s not the Most Americans feel more vivid and alive “what” that explains her unpopularity; it’s the outside the work experience than within. So “how” — the manner in which she has done it. of course to many she seems Machiavellian, But what exactly do so many have against crafty, power-oriented, untrustworthy. her? There’s a larger lesson here, especially for I would begin my explanation with this people who have found a career and vocation question: Can you tell me what Hillary Clinton that feels fulilling. Even a socially good does for fun? We know what Obama does vocation can swallow you up and make you for fun — golf, basketball, etc. We know, lose a sense of your own voice. Maybe it’s unfortunately, what Trump does for fun. doubly important that people with fulilling But when people talk about Clinton, they vocations develop, and be seen to develop, tend to talk of her exclusively in professional sanctuaries outside them: in play, solitude, terms. For example, on Nov. 16, Peter D. Hart family, faith, hobbies and leisure. conducted a focus group on Clinton. Nearly Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that the every assessment had to do with on-the-job Sabbath is “a palace in time which we build.” performance. She was “multitask-oriented” or It’s not a day of rest before work; you work “organized” or “deceptive.” in order to experience this day of elevation. Clinton’s career appears, from the outside, Josef Pieper wrote that leisure is not an activity, to be all consuming. Her husband is her it’s an attitude of mind. It’s stepping outside co-politician. Her daughter works at the Clinton strenuous effort and creating enough stillness Foundation. Her friendships appear to have so that it becomes possible to contemplate and been formed at networking gatherings reserved enjoy things as they are. for the extremely successful. Even successful lives need these sanctuaries People who work closely with her adore her — in order to be a real person instead of just a and say she is warm and caring. But it’s hard productive one. It appears that we don’t really from the outside to think of any non-career or trust candidates who do not show us theirs. pre-career aspect to her life. Except for a few ■ grandma references, she presents herself as a David Brooks became a New York Times résumé and policy brief. Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. Her formal, career-oriented persona puts her in direct contrast with the mores of the social media age. YOUR VIEWS Playground equipment leaving Pendleton neighborhood parks I write this letter to draw attention of Pendleton residents to the quiet taking of playground equipment from Pendleton city parks currently in process, with hopes of discouraging or preventing its removal — at least without a full public discussion. In my area, the May Park playground equipment was fenced off about two weeks ago without explanation or notice. I believe the other two parks with scheduled removal of playground equipment are Aldrich and Rice. In conversation with a Pendleton Parks Department representative, I was told the removal is the result of an insurance audit regarding the danger of an uncushioned fall from monkey bars, yet the swings and seesaw are also scheduled for removal. The representative said notice was planned for area residents of the three parks affected but had not been mailed out. The schedule for this notice was not yet set. My concern is that the equipment will disappear with no discussion and then be too late for retrieval. We discussed the shortage of resources for the parks department and the costs of dealing with vandalism in May Park affecting the restroom there, forcing its closure during the school year. I’ve seen the vandalism to the playground equipment also, and repaired it where possible. However, I’ve also witnessed the use of playground most often by preschool children year-round and elementary school-age children during the summer. This is the only park in a neighborhood with many children. Removal of the equipment removes this resource for the youngest children in the area — there is no unaccompanied walking- distance alternative for younger children. This neighborhood, sadly, is under-funded. The park, even with the sad state of repair, is one of few city resources available close by. The loss of the playground would mean more than a terrible inconvenience, but would deprive the inhabitants of a rare resource. This becomes more stark while parks in distant, more afluent neighborhoods, with more alternative resources continue unaffected. The estimate for replacing wood chips to cushion falls from the monkey bars is $1,500 plus labor to install them. Perhaps we could trade the restroom, open only three months each year, to keep a year-round resource for local children? I’m grateful to the parks department for all they do and offer this in the spirit of consultation. Bill Young Pendleton LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.