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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, June 14, 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 Make certain drinking water is safe Some believe lead contributed Many homes and commercial buildings in rural Oregon date from a to the fall of the Roman Empire. time before there was much concern Heavily used in ancient times for about lead. Even some relatively new many purposes including sweetening homes have the potential of exposing wine, it caused an array of illnesses residents to unacceptable levels of — everything from neurological lead and copper — the latter also can damage to sterility. Added to paint and gasoline in 20th century America, cause health problems. It wasn’t until it is thought lead’s corrosive effects on 1991 that the federal Safe Drinking brains and bodies contributed to youth Water Act began heightening awareness of the violence and poor issue. The federal school performance Testing and prompt Centers for Disease by inner-city kids. The quantity of Control and remediation of lead found in drinking Prevention suggests water in some Oregon “only cold plumbing systems using schools is far below water from the the astronomical that leach lead into tap for drinking, levels that once cooking, and making water is essential — baby formula. Hot caused devastating diseases. But parents, water is more likely children and oficials the sooner the better. to contain higher are right to exercise levels of lead. Most great caution when it comes to of the lead in household water lead. Even a cursory search on the usually comes from the plumbing in internet for information about lead your house, not from the local water exposure turns up literally millions supply.” of frightening references. Symptoms Lead paint was commonly used include everything from learning until 1978, and children can absorb dificulties and loss of appetite to it by eating cracked and peeling hearing loss and constipation. paint or playing in rooms or soil Modern-day Oregon parents aren’t contaminated with paint dust. Take inclined to take such news sitting precautions to avoid having children down, particularly after shocking spend time in pre-1978 houses that news of widespread lead exposure are in the midst of renovation, which and oficial indifference in Flint, can spread lead dust. In all pre-1978 Michigan. buildings, assume that the paint has Eastern Oregon schools are at lead unless tests show otherwise. The various stages of conducting tests of CDC advises, “Because household drinking water. Statewide, Gov. Kate dust is a major source of lead, you Brown has recommended tests by should wet-mop loors and wet-wipe school districts and licensed child care horizontal surfaces every 2-3 weeks.” facilities — the state doesn’t have None of this is panic-worthy. legal authority to insist on these tests. Rational precautions by families and It’s obvious that everyone who school oficials will substantially looks after children should make lower any risk that might stem certain drinking water is safe. Testing from low-level lead exposure. But and prompt remediation of plumbing it is worth paying attention to, and systems that leach lead into water is making certain authorities follow essential — the sooner the better. through on their promises. The scope of the Orlando carnage T 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. hese locations are never complaints on social media about random. These targets aren’t his own lack of support for issues accidental. They’re the very important to LGBT people. Those vocabulary in which assailants like complaints have merit. the Orlando gunman speak, and he But this isn’t a moment for identity politics, which could muddle chose a place where there’s drinking. the signiicance of the carnage.Yes, And dancing. And where LGBT that carnage exposed the special people congregate, feeling a sense of vulnerability of LGBT Americans to welcome, of belonging. Frank violent extremists, recommending That last detail is in the Bruni special levels of security. And there foreground of the deadliest mass Comment was a frightening coda to it on the shooting in American history — and opposite coast, in the Los Angeles rightly so. area, where a man with an arsenal of But let’s be clear: This was no more weapons was arrested en route to gay pride an attack just on LGBT people than the festivities. bloodshed at the ofices of Charlie Hebdo in But the threat isn’t only to LGBT Paris was an attack solely on satirists. Americans, as past acts of terror have shown Both were attacks on freedom itself. and as everyone today must recognize. Both took aim at societies that, at their best, All Americans are under attack, and not integrate and celebrate diverse points of view, diverse systems of belief, diverse ways exclusively because of whom we drink, dance or sleep with, but because of our to love. And to speak of either massacre bedrock belief that we should not be more narrowly than that is to miss the subservient to any one ideology or any greater message, the more pervasive danger one religion. That offends and inlames the and the truest stakes. zealots of the world. We don’t yet know all that much about Often our politicians can’t ind their Omar Mateen, who pulled the trigger, voices. Sometimes their words are again and again, in a nightclub whose name poignantly right. connotes life, not death: Pulse. We’ll be President Barack Obama, speaking about learning more in the hours and days to come, the victims Sunday afternoon, said: “The including just how potently homophobia place where they were attacked is more in particular factored into his actions, how than a nightclub. It is a place of solidarity much ideological inluence the Islamic and empowerment where people have come State or other extremists had, how extensive together to raise awareness, to speak their his planning was, how far back he began minds and to advocate for their civil rights. plotting this, and how much he knew about So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on Pulse itself and the speciic composition of any American, regardless of race, ethnicity, its crowd on different nights of the week. But we can assume — no, we can be sure religion or sexual orientation, is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values — that he was lashing out at an America of equality and dignity that deine us as a at odds with his darker, smaller, more country.” oppressive mindset. The people inside Pulse And this was Eric Garcetti, the Los were citizens of it. More to the point, they Angeles mayor, at a news conference: were emblems of it. In Pulse they found a “Today we know that we are targeted as refuge. In Pulse they found joy. To him they deserved neither. And he communicated that Americans, because this is a society where we love broadly and openly, because we with an assault rile and bullets. have Jews and Christians and Muslims and The Islamic State and its ilk are atheists and Buddhists marching together, brutal to gay people, whom they treat in because we are white, black, brown, Asian, unthinkable ways. They throw gay people Native American. The whole spectrum and from rooftops. The footage is posted online. every hue and every culture is here.” It’s bloodcurdling, but it’s not unique. In It was a perfect description of the country countries throughout the world, to be gay is to be in mortal danger. To embrace love is to I love. And it was an equally perfect description court death. of what the Orlando gunman couldn’t bear. That’s crucial context for what ■ happened in Orlando, and Orlando is an Frank Bruni is a New York Times understandable prompt for questions about columnist and the author of the bestseller our own degrees of inclusion and fairness and whether we do all that we should to keep about George W. Bush called “Ambling into History” and the co-author of “A Gospel LGBT people safe. We don’t. of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse and the As Florida Gov. Rick Scott spoke Catholic Church.” publicly of his heartache Sunday, I saw YOUR VIEWS Trees a bane of Main Street The clean water act sets a standard for storm sewer wastewater, which evidently can no longer be dumped directly into rivers and streams. The city of Portland has run into a stumbling block attempting to comply. The culprit is leaves from the many trees throughout the city. Recently our sewer rates in Pendleton have been raised and more increases are expected to come as the city attempts to comply with the storm sewer requirements. Now we’ve been told by the public works director that the street sweeper is not intended to clean streets, but to clean debris from the gutters so as not to enter the storm drain system. That doesn’t seem to be working, since many of the gutters are being missed because of vehicle and RV parking. Down yonder in the Parks Department, we’ve formed a Tree Committee to ensure that we plant more trees and establish a street tree program so we can be listed as a “Tree Friendly Community” like Echo. It’s pretty evident that from the experience we’ve had with street trees on Main Street that one of the worst enemies of sidewalks and streets is in fact street trees. Now, our beloved Public Works Department, the one that has meticulously maintained our streets, is proposing to plant street trees along Southeast Eighth Street with the replacement of the bridge, street and sidewalks with no intention of maintaining the trees. Think 25 years down the road what those property owners will be left dealing with. I get the feeling the public works director simply doesn’t care because he’ll be long gone. Is being listed as a “Tree Friendly City” that important? Personally, I’d just like to drive down Main Street and see all those fancy street lights working for longer than a month. Last Thursday evening, nine of the lights were not working if you count the one in Brownield Park and one in front of the arts center. Rick Rohde Pendleton Birth defects a red herring in transgender debate The East Oregonian and Ron Gavette have both twisted my May 25 letter, which the EO mis-titled “When people switch gender, good becomes evil.” My words were: “To force a policy on our youth where boys who in their own eyes think they are girls are encouraged to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms is to call evil good.” The innocent kids are not evil but the policy is. In an effort to justify the genderless anti-God bathroom policy of the socialist progressives, Gavette documents those born with “ambiguous genitalia” claiming scripture “does not address this issue” and “a fundamentalist like Stuart Dick will not acknowledge (this) reality.” Fundamentalists like Stuart Dick do address scripture, the inerrant word of a loving Heavenly Father, to answer issues Ron Gavette cannot. Ambiguous genitalia is a birth defect that affects 1 of 4,500 births. Jesus was asked who caused these kinds of birth defects (in this case blindness). “Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” (John 9:3) All human beings are precious to God and even those with birth defects like ambiguous genitalia are created in His image and precious in His sight. With parental counseling, doctor support (including genetic and endocrinologist) support groups and proper counseling these children can have fulilling, productive and satisfying lives. Unfortunately, those that force genderless bathroom and locker room policies that put men in women’s bathrooms use rare birth defects like ambiguous genitalia as justiication to make confused kids believe they are transgender. This is unconscionable, Mr. Gavette. Presently three states, California, New Jersey and Massachusetts, have passed laws barring psychiatrists even with parental permission from striving to restore gender feeling to a transgender person. The only transgender counseling allowed in government schools today is sex change operations. Documented studies have discovered 70 to 80 percent of children that experience transgender feelings spontaneously lose those feelings over time. The truth is, those that would fundamentally change American moral values concerning gender, marriage between one man and one woman and sexual idelity could care less about ambiguous genitalia or other birth defects. Two thirds of women are screened for such birth defects and 70 to 80 percent will be persuaded to abort that precious baby made in God’s image. Doctors that fail to detect such birth defects can be sued. Stuart Dick Irrigon Gas tax debate lowers prices I feel the city of Pendleton should put the gas tax on the ballot again. At least while it is being debated locals could enjoy the lower gas prices surrounding communities do. Pendleton’s gas was cheaper than anyone’s back then. Robert Doherty Pendleton 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 newspa- per reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual ser- vices 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.
