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OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
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MIKE FORRESTER
STEVE FORRESTER
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Pendleton
Chairman of the Board
Astoria
President
Pendleton
Secretary/Treasurer
CORY BOLLINGER
JEFF ROGERS
Aberdeen, S.D.
Director
Indianapolis, Ind.
Director
OUR VIEW
OTHER VIEWS
Sanders helping Trump?
B
Who knows what
Kate Brown thinks
about Owyhee?
A group of ranchers, local business
owners and natural resource users came
to Salem last week in an attempt to get
legislators to weigh in against the creation
of a national monument in Malheur
County.
While they have the support of
Republicans from the state’s east side,
they didn’t get much from Gov. Kate
Brown, the person whose voice might
carry the most weight.
That’s a shame.
Backed by the Oregon Natural
Desert Association and the owner of
Portland’s Keen Footwear, the proposed
Owyhee Canyonlands wilderness and
conservation area would cover about 2.5
million acres of what is now controlled
by the Bureau of Land Management.
Critics say the area is bigger than the
Yellowstone, Yosemite or Grand Canyon
national parks and would include 40
percent of Malheur County.
Opponents in the region have objected
to the proposal, fearing the establishment
of a national monument will entail
new regulations severely complicating
grazing, mining, hunting and recreation
on the land while inviting additional
environmental lawsuits.
The people of Malheur County believe
they’ve been good stewards of the public
lands in their corner of the state since
they began caring for it more than a
century ago. It’s their home. Beyond it
being the right thing to do, their economic
self-interest depends that they do so.
Last March, Malheur County residents
voted 9-to-1 against the proposal.
No matter.
Supporters hold the edge. State
legislators and Congress have no say in
the process.
While the administration has
previously said it would work
collaboratively with Congress, local
interests and elected oficials in making
such designations, because the land in
question is already owned by the federal
government. The Antiquities Act of 1906
requires only that President Obama pick
up his pen and proclaim it so.
The administration points out that
there is no proposal before the president,
and won’t say how he would act if one
lands on his desk.
It’s no easier getting a straight answer
in Salem.
We asked Brown’s ofice whether the
governor supported the proposal, or stood
with the people of Malheur County who
are against it. Here’s what her people said
she said:
“While this is ultimately a federal
decision, I have heard from many
Oregonians with strong views about
the Owyhee. There’s agreement as
to the beauty and uniqueness of the
Canyonlands and disagreement over
whether a monument designation can
best ensure those characteristics will be
enjoyed for future generations. I have
communicated those viewpoints to
federal administration oficials and will
be closely following this issue in the
months ahead.”
Got that?
Brown — elevated to ofice and
seeking election in her own right in
November — has often proven unwilling
to make declarative statements on
controversial issues.
If the Democrat governor opposed the
plan she might help convince Obama to
maintain the status quo. If she’s for it, the
ix is in.
But we aren’t likely to know until
after the election — about the time the
president could make his controversial
proclamation.
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.
this year should inspire humility on
ernie Sanders has had a stunning
the part of all of us about predicting
impact this year, helping set the
election results. I agree with Nader
political agenda and winning the
that it’s almost unthinkable for Trump
passionate embrace of a demographic
to be elected. Then again, it once was
a quarter his age. A socialist, Jewish,
unthinkable that he would win the
non-pandering candidate who didn’t
Republican nomination.
kiss babies but lectured their parents
Sanders supporters should also
on social justice won 22 states. But
now he has lost. It’s time for him and
Nicholas remember that they agree at least
his followers to stop sniping and start
Kristof in part with Clinton on Wall Street
excesses, income inequality and
uniting.
Comment
college debt. Likewise, whatever their
Sanders has said he will ultimately
distaste for the Clintons, they probably
support the Democratic ticket, and
share her views on reproductive health, on
I’m sure he intends to. But for now he’s still
Supreme Court nominees, on inclusiveness
dividing more than coalescing.
toward Muslims and Mexican-Americans,
In a New York Times/CBS News poll last
month, nearly one-fourth of Sanders supporters on immigration reform, on early-childhood
investments, on a stronger social safety net,
said that in a Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump
on women’s rights around
matchup, they would either
the world, on reducing mass
vote for Trump (which
incarceration and on a global
suggests bipolar disorder!)
pact to confront climate
or stay home. That igure
change.
is inlated by bitterness and
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.,
resentment, but if some
who has been the only senator
Sandernistas sit on their hands
this fall they could help elect a
to back Sanders, acknowledges
man antithetical to everything
that now “we have a nominee.”
they stand for.
He tells me that Sanders will
At this point, Sanders has
continue his primary race
essentially zero chance of
through the Washington, D.C.,
becoming our next president.
vote next week but ultimately
Meanwhile, there is a modest
will focus on party unity.
risk that continued Democratic
“When I talked to Bernie
— Sen. Jeff Merkley,
warfare will cost Clinton the
D-Ore. when he was irst thinking
election. The upshot is that
about running, he made it
continuing to tilt at windmills
absolutely clear that he didn’t
is many, many times more likely to elect
want to do anything that would result in the
Trump than Sanders.
journey that we experienced with Ralph
We’ve seen this before. In 1968, liberal
Nader,” Merkley said. “He will do everything
disenchantment with the Democratic nominee, possible to make sure that Trump is not
Hubert Humphrey, assisted in the election of
in the Oval Ofice, and to do ‘everything
Richard Nixon. In 1980, Edward Kennedy’s
possible’ certainly means that we’ve got to
endless challenge to Jimmy Carter undermined come together not just as a formality but in an
Carter and probably gave Ronald Reagan a lift. inclusive, emphatic, uniied fashion.”
And in 2000, many liberals regarded Al
In 2008, at about this time, Clinton stepped
Gore the way some see Clinton today, as a lip- up and gave a powerful endorsement of Barack
lopper short on inspiration and convictions.
Obama. But she and Obama agreed on almost
So a small number voted for a third-party
everything, while Sanders disagrees with
candidate, Ralph Nader, probably helping put
Clinton on some issues and still exudes scorn
George W. Bush in ofice.
for the Clinton campaign.
Nader, whom I admire for his
“Our struggle continues,” Sanders said in a
transformational impact on consumer rights,
new fundraising email Wednesday. Speaking
disagrees: He tells me that it’s absurd to blame
in California on Tuesday evening, he did little
him for Bush’s election and that he wants
to discourage his audience as it booed mention
Sanders to continue his campaign.
of Clinton.
“Why would he want to lose his bargaining
That’s just irresponsible. And now that
power?” Nader asks, suggesting that by
Clinton has won a majority of pledged
staying in the race, Sanders can inluence the
delegates, it’s a violation of Sanders’ own
Democratic platform and Clinton’s choice of
principles to try to get superdelegates to vote
a running mate. Anyway, he says, “Trump’s
for him rather than for the people’s choice.
going to implode.”
“Defying history is what this campaign has
He’s probably right on that count. I would
been about,” Sanders said Tuesday, but at this
bet that Trump will lose, and I’d even give
point he’s also defying his own values — and,
2-to-1 odds. But I remember how my mother
just maybe, bolstering the prospects of the
in 1980, as a fan of Carter, was overjoyed
candidate who is the anti-Sanders.
when Reagan became the Republican nominee
I understand the passion and heartache of
since she igured that assured Carter’s
his followers, but I watched such idealism help
re-election. She wasn’t so happy a few months elect Nixon and George W. Bush, and I linch
later.
at the thought of similar idealists this year
Presidential campaigns are driven in part
helping to elect a President Trump.
by surprises: What if there is a new wave of
■
Central American refugees or a terror attack by
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
a Muslim recently admitted to the U.S.? Either cherry farm in Yamhill, Oregon. A columnist
would bolster Trump’s chances.
for The New York Times since 2001, he won the
The success of both Trump and Sanders
Pulitzer Prize two times.
“(Bernie) will
do everything
possible to
make sure that
Trump is not
in the Oval
Ofice.
OTHER VIEWS
An encounter with Ali
O
f the many aspects Muhammad Ali,
He was on a plane from Las Vegas where
a remarkable American, I loved
arrangements for a ight had fallen through.
Ali suggested we talk on the way to
to see his sense of humor. There
was nothing very light about his public
the main terminal where he was meeting
change of religion or his refusal to enter the
long time photographer friend Howard
military or his high drama title ights. But
Bingham. Anyway, as the three of us stood
his humor, limericks and pranks helped
in the terminal facing each other, I heard
ill out a whole and admirable — to me,
one of them say “Man, I really gotta go.”
anyway — man.
The reply was “Don’t go here, man, no,
Mike
When Ed Bradley of “60 Minutes”
Forrester no!” And then I felt something dropping
interviewed Ali at his home in 1996, the
on my shoe. The “drops” turned out to
Comment
boxer and his wife tricked the journalist.
be tiny pebbles which were part of Ali’s
While Muhammad sat in a deckchair with
entertainment arsenal.
eyes closed and head down, his wife said he was
The reminiscences on his life on television
pretty hard to communicate with because he slept
have moved me to read books by Ali and about
so much. As Bradley took notes, Ali suddenly
him. When he spoke about the military draft and
threw a left jab that fell short of the reporter’s chin. an individual’s conscience, he was eloquent and
Laughter all around. Ali also seemed always to be
powerful. His words were homespun, but he
ready with card tricks.
communicated with a capital C. He did not hold
I had the privilege of being in on Ali humor in
back a thing. I think he was great.
the late 1960s when I worked for the Associated
■
Press in Los Angeles. My editor asked me to go to
Mike Forrester is a member of the EO Media
the airport to interview the heavyweight champion. Group board.
Photo courtesy Mike Forrester
Muhammad Ali and Mike Forrester chat in the Los Angeles airport in 1967.