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OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, June 10, 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
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A kick in the pants to the Oregon Republican Party, which tried to pull
a fast one at last week’s state convention.
The group of 10 prospective delegates — including House District
58 representative Greg Barreto — called
themselves a “unity” slate, but they certainly
didn’t unify the party by trying to change
convention rules to get each of them elected
while elbowing out all others.
Our Capital Bureau reporter Paris Achen
told the story earlier this week and the
complex rules ight is well-described in her
work.
To summarize, convention rules said that
the 10 candidates who got the most votes
would win seats. Pretty simple right? Yet the
ballot noted, and party chairman Bill Currier instructed, that party members
should vote separately for delegates and at-large delegates. That would have
made it easier for a slate to sweep and ill out the entire delegation.
It may seem like a silly ight over nothing, but it helped drive a wedge
through a state party that needs to be united if it is going to pull off the
statewide wins it hasn’t been able to do in recent years.
A kick in the pants to the city of Pendleton for closing and removing
playground equipment without properly notifying and engaging the public.
After a recent court decision, the city’s insurance policy required changes
be made to equipment in three parks where equipment was below current
safety standards. The city’s parks and rec department cordoned them off and
planned to remove them without explanation
nor discussion with the community as a
whole. It has upset park users and residents
citywide.
Certainly, dollars are hard to come by in
Pendleton. And the debate about whether to
risk them with uninsured equipment, or spend
them on new equipment, could be cut and dry.
But it’s still a discussion worth having — or
at the very least, an explanation of why
decades-old playgrounds were suddenly gone.
Thinking back to how the community
banded together to rebuild Pioneer Park after a tragic arson destroyed the
playground, it’s obvious this community can come together to rebuild and
improve things it cares about.
Instead of being the enemy in this situation, the city could have been a
partner. Consider it another missed opportunity.
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
Advice to the class of 2016
St. Cloud (Minn.) Times
C
ongratulations to all the high
school graduates in the Class of
2016.
As you move into the next stage of
your lives — be it college, a job, the
military or a “gap year” — let us offer
you some advice.
We are in a unique position to give
that advice. We aren’t your parents or
peers, but we also genuinely care about
you because you are our future.
— Find your inner happiness. Ask:
What really makes you happy? What do
you look forward to doing? What brings
you the most satisfaction? When you
have answered those questions, go for it.
— Set lofty goals. But don’t measure
your self-worth on whether you reach
those big goals. Success comes in the
lessons you learn along the way. But
without a road map to reaching those
goals you will wander. As you follow
that map, remember it takes small steps
to reach for big goals.
— Think of ways you can give back
to your community. You may move
to a new place. Learn about your new
home. Find ways you can contribute
to the community. It may be a college
community or a workplace community.
You will learn much from giving back.
Your community or workplace will
beneit from your talent.
— Step outside your comfort zone.
It is easy to settle into a routine in your
new stage of life. Avoid falling into a rut.
Challenge yourself to experience new
people, places and things. Experience
the diversity in cultures, ages, religions
and races. Perhaps it will be as simple
as dining at a true ethnic restaurant or
listening to a different style of music.
— Find a mentor. Find a person who
will invest time in you and guide you.
They will let you make mistakes. But
they will encourage and challenge you.
Most important, they will be there for
you.
— Step back to step ahead. Speaking
of taking a year off before starting post-
secondary education, the military or a
career, we offer this advice: Don’t waste
this “gap year.” Going to the beach to
learn to surf for a year or backpacking
around Europe to ind yourself may
sound good, but think again. Even
Steve Jobs took college classes after
he dropped out of school. Later in his
career, Jobs talked about how those
drop-in classes helped him in developing
the unique Apple products that have
changed much of our world.
Dump the GOP for
a Grand New Party
I
f a party could declare moral
and can do only limited damage given
our checks and balances.
bankruptcy, today’s Republican
Really? Mr. Speaker, your agenda
Party would be in Chapter 11.
is a mess, Trump will pay even less
This party needs to just shut
attention to you if he is president and,
itself down and start over — now.
as Sen. Lindsey Graham rightly put
Seriously, someone please start a New
it, there has to be a time “when the
Republican Party!
love of country will trump hatred of
America needs a healthy two-party
Hillary.”
system. America needs a healthy
Thomas
Will it ever be that time with this
center-right party to ensure that the
Friedman
version
of the GOP?
Democrats remain a healthy center-left
Comment
Et tu, John McCain? You didn’t
party. America needs a center-right
break under torture from the North
party ready to offer market-based
Vietnamese, but your hunger for re-election is
solutions to issues like climate change.
so great that you don’t dare raise your voice
America needs a center-right party that will
against Trump? I hope you lose. You deserve
support common-sense gun laws. America
to. Marco Rubio? You called Trump “a con
needs a center-right party that will support
man,” he insults your very being and you
common-sense iscal policy. America needs a
still endorse him? Good
center-right party to support
riddance.
both free trade and aid to
Chris Christie, have
workers impacted by it.
you not an ounce of
America needs a center-right
self-respect? You’re serving
party that appreciates how
as the valet to a man who
much more complicated
claimed, falsely, that on
foreign policy is today, when
9/11, in Jersey City, home
you have to manage weak
to many Arab-Americans,
and collapsing nations, not
“thousands and thousands
just muscle strong ones.
of people were cheering as
But this Republican Party
that building was coming
is none of those things.
down.” Christie is backing a man who made
Today’s Republican Party is to governing
up a baldfaced lie about residents of his
what Trump University is to education — an
own state so that maybe he can be his vice
ethically challenged enterprise that enriches
and perpetuates itself by shedding all pretense president. Contemptible.
This is exactly why so many Republican
of standing for real principles, or a truly
voters opted for Trump in the irst place. They
relevant value proposition, and instead plays
intuited that the only thing these Republican
on the ignorance and fears of the public.
politicians were interested in was holding
It is just an empty shell, selling pieces
onto their seats in ofice — and they were
of itself to the highest bidders — policy by
right. It made voters so utterly cynical that
policy — a little to the Tea Party over here, a
many igured, Why not inlict Trump on
little to Big Oil over there, a little to the gun
them? It’s all just a con game anyway. And at
lobby, to anti-tax zealots, to climate-change
least Trump sticks it to all of those politically
deniers. And before you know it, the party
correct liberals. And anyway, governing
stands for an incoherent mess of ideas
doesn’t matter — only attitude.
unrelated to any theory of where the world is
And who taught them that?
going or how America actually becomes great
But it does matter. I know so many
again in the 21st century.
thoughtful conservatives who know it matters.
It becomes instead a coalition of men
One of them has got to start the NRP — New
and women who sell pieces of their brand to
whoever can most energize their base in order Republican Party — a center-right party
liberated from all the Trump birthers, the
for them to get re-elected in order for them to
Sarah Palins, the Grover Norquists, the Sean
sell more of their brand to get re-elected.
Hannitys, the Rush Limbaughs, the gun lobby,
And we know just how little they are
the oil lobby and every other narrow-interest
attached to any principles, because today’s
group, a party that redeines a principled
Republican Party’s elders have told us so
conservatism. Raise your money for it on the
by (with a few notable exceptions) being
internet. If Bernie Sanders can, you can.
so willing to throw their support behind a
This is such a pivotal moment; the world
presidential candidate whom they know
we shaped after World War II is going wobbly.
is utterly ignorant of policy, has done no
This is a time for America to be at its best,
homework, has engaged in racist attacks on a
defending its best values, which are now
sitting judge, has mocked a disabled reporter,
under assault in so many places — pluralism,
has impugned an entire religious community,
immigration, democracy, trade, the rule of law
and has tossed off ignorant proposals for
and the virtue of open societies. Trump will
walls, for letting allies go it alone and go
nuclear and for overturning trade treaties, rules never be a credible messenger, or a messenger
at all, for those values. A New Republican
of war and nuclear agreements in ways that
would be wildly destabilizing if he took ofice. Party can be.
If you build it, they will come.
Despite that, all top Republican leaders say
■
they will still support Donald Trump — even
Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer
if he’s dabbled in a “textbook deinition” of
racism, as House Speaker Paul Ryan described Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for
The New York Times.
it — because he will sign off on their agenda
The GOP is just
an empty shell,
selling pieces
to itself to the
highest bidders.
YOUR VIEWS
Vulnerable train towns must
consider oil train dangers
My father was the manger of the old Hinkle
depot so, like many others, I’ve beneited from
family members being employed by the Union
Paciic Railroad.
Because of my upbringing, I respect the
UPRR and have no quarrel with the many
people employed by the UP.
But I do wonder what my dad would say
about the UPRR’s decision to run oil trains
consisting of 96 tanker cars through Hinkle.
Would he breath a sigh of relief when a oil
train pulled out of the Hinkle yard?
Last Friday the residents of Mosier’s luck
ran out. It could have happened at Pendleton,
Stanield, Echo, Boardman or Hinkle. Now if
the reader chooses to think I’m a alarmist, let’s
look at this another way.
Every oil train that leaves the Hinkle
yard has to pass through many towns before
it reaches it destination. The derailment at
Mosier is an example of how vulnerable
communities along the mainline are.
We don’t often think of ourselves as part of
the global community, but it’s a fact that what
happens here affects others elsewhere. Just
because an oil train has left our region doesn’t
mean we should have an “out of sight, out of
mind” attitude.
This isn’t about the many freight trains
that safely pass through Hinkle every day. I’m
simply asking the residents of Umatilla and
Morrow counties to think about our role in
this.
Is it right for us to condone the UPRR’s
decision to continue running oil trains through
other communities located on the mainline?
Eileen Laramore, executive director
Tour of Knowledge
Hermiston
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.