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.