Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, June 16, 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 Pendleton air service is essential Commercial air service at that’s measuring from the center of Pendleton’s Eastern Oregon Pendleton to PDX airport property. Regional Airport is essential to the If you measure from Pendleton economy, infrastructure and future terminal to Portland terminal, of Eastern Oregon. however, the distance edges just past We think the U.S. Department of the 210-mile mark. Transportation should see it that way But we shouldn’t be arguing over too. inches when the real issues are much Right now, the airport’s federal bigger. subsidy is in danger of being axed Pendleton needs federal help to and along with it commercial lights keep the service, and to continue to between Pendleton and Portland. keep connections between rural and SeaPort Airlines urban Oregon. There currently operates are also private We shouldn’t the lights and sector possibilities has had a dificult be arguing over for strengthening year, declaring connections, inches when the those bankruptcy while and strengthening cutting nearly all of bottom line for real issues are the their other routes taxpayers. much bigger. nationwide. The Wildhorse Casino disruptions to the and SeaPort should company, and wider become stronger disruptions caused by a nationwide marketing partners. The trip to PDX pilot shortage, impacted local needs to be inancially competitive passengers. and competitive from an ease-of-use Employees of this newspaper got standpoint as well. SeaPort and the stuck once in Portland thanks to a airport must keep up with changing canceled light, and were wary to travel habits and have an increased count on SeaPort for some time until online presence. the company downsized and then We have been skeptical of rightsized its staff. continuing to funnel city money That single anecdote makes clear to the airport, which has provided that one of the DOT’s reasons for Pendleton a low return on eliminating the subsidy — that too investment for decades. few passengers use the service — But passenger services is would most likely be moot with absolutely necessary if the airport is more dependable service. going to be a factor going forward. The second reason to overturn the Losing federal support for it would decision is that the cap on cost per cause a collapse of local support passenger might be moot in and of and a harm to local businesses who itself. depend on reliable air transport. The cap wouldn’t be in play if But perhaps more importantly Pendleton was more than 210 miles it curbs future growth, and could from Portland, and depending on keep future investors from even your measurement technique, it just considering Pendleton in the may be. irst place. Reliable and viable The transportation department transportation is necessary and pegs it at about 203 miles, but essential. 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 Legislation rarely follows mass shootings The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle t is taking on a life of its own, this horror known as “the mass shooting.” How many of us, reeling from the massacre in Orlando, are left wondering if it is too late to stop this monster? It is too big. It is too contentious. It is too unpredictable. It has a cold-blooded indifference for American lives, preying on innocent school children, ambitious college students and devout churchgoers. It slithers into movie theaters, holiday parties and gay nightclubs, piling up victims of all ages and ethnicities. It feeds on prejudice, hate and hopelessness, and poisons us with prejudice, hate and hopelessness when it strikes. It breathes a dark cloud of fear, which has spread across our entire country. And, it has gained an imposing accomplice: the United States Congress. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have given this beast the freedom it needs to expand its deadly quest. As a whole, our lawmakers have shown virtually no leadership in addressing this horror. In other countries, such as the U.K., Australia, Japan and Germany, the shock, grief and anger that follows mass shootings has resulted in very effective legislation to reduce it. Not in America. Here, the legislators who could help reduce mass shootings hide behind the misrepresentation or misunderstanding of our constitutional rights. They are so afraid of upsetting powerful lobbyists, that they are failing to protect less mighty citizens. They ire off strong rhetoric as if I it has the force of a bullet, while refusing civil debate and productive compromise. This lack of bravery in our nation’s capital has left us with the feeling that there is nothing we can do but wait for the beast to strike again. So that is what we do. We wait for 49 people to be killed at a nightclub in Florida. We wait for 9 people to die in a South Carolina church. We wait for 9 people to die at a community college in Oregon. We wait for 14 people to be killed at a party in California. We wait for 12 people to be killed in a Navy yard in Washington, D.C. We wait for 12 people to be killed at a Colorado theater. We wait for 27 people, most of whom are young children, to be killed in an elementary school in Connecticut. We wait for 10 people, including a baby, to be killed during a shooting spree in Alabama. We wait for 13 people to be killed at an immigration center in Binghamton. We wait for 13 to be killed at an Army base in Texas. We wait for 32 college students to be killed in Virginia. We all know that there are many parts to this beast, including guns, mental health, terrorism, bullying and prejudice. We are becoming increasingly divided over which part should be controlled, to the point where even simple conversations at the ofice or around the dinner table easily become heated. Our leaders should be working together to examine the entire beast, and unite the nation around reasonable solutions. While you are waiting for the next mass shooting, let Congress know it must act now. It breathes a dark cloud of fear, which has spread across our entire country. And it has gained an imposing accomplice: the United States Congress. Ralph Reed, all in for Trump, urges Evangelicals to follow s Ralph Reed, the longtime evangelical leaders say about Trump. evangelical leader, sees it, I asked Reed about one, the Southern Donald Trump did two smart Baptist Convention’s Russell Moore, things in his appearance before Reed’s who has called Trump representative of the “reality television moral sewage Faith & Freedom Coalition Road to coming through all over our culture.” Majority conference in Washington (Moore’s shot earned a response from recently. Trump calling Moore “truly a terrible First, Trump showed up. “Showing representative of evangelicals” and “a up really matters, and we have not Byron nasty guy with no heart.”) Is Moore had, either at Faith & Freedom or my York wrong? I asked Reed. preceding work at Christian Coalition, Comment “I have a great deal of respect for a nominee show up, announced, with Russell, he’s a good friend,” Reed a full-dress speech, since George H.W. began. (Reed, who has been in evangelical Bush in 1992,” Reed told a small group of reporters after Trump’s appearance. (Bob Dole politics for a long time, answers a lot of questions that way.) “I just think that it’s a did an unannounced drop-by in 1996, Reed binary choice between one of two candidates, said.) and given the fact that Second, Trump hit the Hillary Clinton is not only right notes, according to advancing, but I would Reed, focusing on the issues argue enthusiastically that resonated with the advancing, what we activists in the audience: consider to be great moral right to life, traditional evils — I just think you marriage, religious freedom, have to choose between support for Israel, opposition these two candidates.” to the Iran nuclear deal. During his speech to the Yes, Trump did indeed Road to Majority gathering say all the right things. a little earlier, Reed took an obvious shot at But Trump has often said the right things on those faith leaders who can’t accept Trump. Reed’s issues. The bigger question is whether there is suficient basis for conservative voters Describing the extensive voter contact effort his group will launch this fall, Reed said no to believe him. one should sit on the sidelines. As an example, I asked Reed about “There are some who counsel timidity and Trump’s list of possible Supreme Court retreat,” Reed said. “And they recommend justices. Most conservatives said it was a great list, of top-notch candidates. It’s just that that people of faith retreat to the cold comfort some of those same conservatives don’t trust a of a stained glass ghetto and decline to muddy our boots with the mire and the muck of President Trump to actually do what he says. politics. But that is not an option for followers Reed’s answer was both conident and of Christ. You see, we’re called to put away nuanced. I trust him, Reed said — and by the our my-way-or-the-highway pride.” way, what has trust gotten us in the past? Reed stayed publicly neutral during the Reed explained that he met Trump in long Republican primary ight. But now 2011 after he, Reed, saw Trump discuss he is touting plans for his group’s biggest- abortion with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. In a ever voter turnout operation. The Faith & later interview with a religious blogger, Reed Freedom Coalition will distribute 35 million praised Trump’s performance, and almost “nonpartisan” voter guides in 117,000 immediately after the post hit the internet, churches, Reed told the crowd. It will make Reed’s cellphone rang. It was Trump. Reed 15 million phone calls. Send 20 million invited Trump to that year’s Road to Majority gathering. Trump came, and the two have kept emails and texts to seven million evangelicals in the key swing states of Florida, Ohio, in touch ever since. Based on that experience, Reed said he has Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Colorado. Knock on a million doors in those states. faith in Trump to do what he says. “Trump All on behalf of Donald Trump. After all, and I developed a relationship,” Reed said. Trump showed up, which is more than a lot “And when he says that’s what he’s going to of presumptive nominees have done. In the do, based on my interaction with him, I don’t really have any questions about whether or not years before a big race — 2007, 2011, 2015, the primary candidates fall all over themselves he means it.” to speak before groups like Reed’s. In the But that wasn’t Reed’s entire answer. “The other thing I would say is, compared to what?” election year, after the nomination is in the bag — not so much. Trump, who after a miserable he continued. “Compared to whom? Reagan, week mired in controversy over his attacks on who told us those things, and then appointed the judge in the Trump University case, had Sandra Day O’Connor as his irst nominee? More than George H.W. Bush, who appointed reasons of his own for coming. But in return he got the message from Reed that there is at Souter? I mean who are we talking about?” “By that argument, you would never be for least one (large) part of the evangelical world that’s on his side. any candidate,” Reed concluded. “Because ■ you would just cross your arms and say, ‘I Byron York is chief political correspondent don’t trust them.’” for The Washington Examiner. Of course, that’s exactly what some A Reed said he has faith in Trump to do what he says. YOUR VIEWS CTUIR general council must meet about settlement fund On January 22, a petition for a special meeting was properly iled by members of the General Council of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The GC members called for the special meeting to provide input and have a voice on how a multi-million dollar federal settlement fund will be used. This petition process calling for a special meeting is authorized in our tribal Constitution. The elected General Council oficers should have quickly scheduled and convened the meeting. However, they failed to do so, thereby denying the tribal electorate/ constituency their Constitutional right to provide input on this important matter. In late March, the BOT voted to apply the entire settlement fund to education, although they knew the petitioners and GC members were denied their right to have a voice and input on how the funds should be used. As a grass-roots tribal member I was unaware of the petition until about three weeks ago. After I obtained a copy of the petition I met with General Council Chairman Alan Crawford and advised that the special meeting must be held. If the special meeting was never held there would be at least three serious issues to deal with. First, “the right of the people to peacefully assemble,” which is protected in the Indian Civil Rights Act, would be violated. Second, by not holding the meeting the people’s right to “free speech,” also in the ICRA, would also be violated. Third, included in the oath of ofice for all elected BOT members and GC oficers is the phrase “to uphold the Constitution.” It is clear the oath of ofice would clearly be compromised, if not violated, if the petition is completely ignored and the special meeting never held. The Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution is not applicable to the 565 federally recognized Indian tribes because of sovereignty. However, in 1968 Congress enacted the ICRA, which does apply to all federally recognized tribes. The ICRA is almost identical to the Bill of Rights as it protects the civil rights of its citizens. The special meeting petitioned for will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 22 in the tribal governance center. All General Council members will then have the opportunity to discuss and provide input and recommendations on how the settlement funds should be used. Prior BOT decisions and resolutions can be modiied and/or amended. Bob Shippentower 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 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 phone number. Send let- ters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
