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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Wolf regulations
get reality check
The saga of reintroducing
to have developed. In northeast
wolves into the Paciic Northwest
Washington, for example, managers
appears to have entered a new
are having dificulty determining
chapter, as managers in Washington
which wolves — or packs of
announced their revised guidelines
wolves — are responsible for killing
for managing the
livestock. Two wolf
predators.
packs overlap in the
Formulated by
Oregon wildlife area of the attacks.
the Washington
Washington’s rules
managers
Department of
also call for state
Fish and Wildlife’s
and Wildlife
seem eager to Fish
Wolf Advisory
Department people
just shrug their on the ground to
Group, the
guidelines appear
with ranchers
shoulders and work
to be realistic
to assess damage
say a wolf kill and determine what
and much more
workable than the
and how
was ‘probable.’ happened
department’s irst
to avoid it from
rules, which were
happening again.
neither.
They have the ability
The advisory group played a
to help ranchers igure out ways to
key role in developing the new
keep hungry wolves at bay, which
regulations, and the participation of
is the true value of having state
ranchers, conservationists and others managers anyway.
shows in its work product. The
One quirk in Oregon’s rules for
outcome appears to be better than we managing wolves is the tendency
could have anticipated. Although the for managers to say a dead lamb or
initial proclivity for secrecy and the
cow is a “probable” wolf kill even
steep price tag of $800,000 caught
though evidence points to wolves.
the attention of our sister paper the
For example, near Mud Creek in
Capital Press, it’s good to see better northeast Oregon, a 150-pound calf
rules emerge.
was killed and partially eaten by a
Wolves are back in the Northwest. predator with large teeth, according
In Idaho, where the irst Canadian
to the state Department of Fish and
immigrants were dropped off in
Wildlife. The calf was consumed
the mid-1990s, the wolves have
in one night, another indication
long been past the point of needing
that it was killed by a wolf, yet the
protection.
department called it a “probable”
In Oregon and Washington, where wolf kill.
the wolves appeared within the
When police investigate a
past decade, the recent population
murder scene, they try to put all
growth curve has been steep, about
of the evidence together and make
36 percent a year. At that rate, the
some sort of conclusion about what
population will nearly double each
happened. Not so with Oregon
year for the foreseeable future.
wildlife managers. They seem eager
That growth means managers can to just shrug their shoulders and say
switch gears from protecting wolves a wolf kill was “probable” unless the
to managing them. Washington’s
wolf is caught in the act.
new rules are similar to Oregon’s
As the wolf management rules
rules, allowing for a set number of
become more realistic with the
depredations before removing the
burgeoning wolf populations, we
responsible wolves.
also hope investigations become
There are so many wolves that
more conclusive so problem wolves
in some areas a “wolf jam” appears
can be identiied and addressed.
OTHER VIEWS
A nation of healers
’ve been traveling around to the
I have no idea how a person this
most economically stressed parts of
beautiful can emerge from a past that
this country.
hard, and yet you meet people like this
all the time. Their portion of good luck
You see a lot of dislocation on a trip
may have been small, but their capacity
like this. In New Mexico, for example,
for gratitude is ininite.
I met some kids who lost their parents
Earlier in the day I’d met Jade
— to drugs, death, deportation or
Bock. When she was 17, Bock lost her
something else.
father to a workplace accident. Now
They get run through a bunch of
David
systems, including homeless shelter,
Brooks she’s found her calling directing the
Children’s Grief Center.
foster care, mental health and often
Comment
This is a center for kids who, given
juvenile justice. They’re like any
the stress and poverty all around, have
kids — they turn hungrily to any beam
of friendship. But for these kids, life has been a often lost their fathers to suicide, drugs or
series of temporary stops at impersonal places. accidents.
The young kids are anxious about who is
They sometimes have only the vaguest idea
going to die next. They don’t really understand
where they are going next month. “I’m going
what death is and wonder if
back into the foster care
their loved one is going to be
system,” one teenager told
wet and cold if it’s raining
me, without affect either
on his grave.
way.
The older kids are
You meet people who
sometimes trapped in
are uncomfortable with
magical thinking: Maybe
the basics of the modern
if I’d gotten better grades,
economy.
he wouldn’t be gone.
I met a woman in West
Sometimes they will start
Virginia who had just
dressing, talking and acting
learned, to great relief, that
like the deceased.
she didn’t have to give an
Many teenagers don’t
anticipated speech at church.
want the other kids in school
“We’re not word people,”
to know, so they go through life as if nothing is
she explained. Those words hang in the air.
wrong. Then three years later when they suffer
A lot of wonderful people speak through
some breakup or setback, it all comes barreling
acts of service, but it’s hard to thrive in the
out because it hasn’t been processed up until now.
information age if you don’t feel comfortable
Along with a hundred other volunteers and
with verbal communication.
staff members, Bock gets these kids to process
You see the ravages of drugs everywhere. I
their grief. She sits with them in group after
ran into a guy in Pittsburgh who hires people
group, tender but in a realistic no-nonsense
for his small plant. He has to give them
sort of way. She’ll cry and be present, but she
drug tests because they’re operating heavy
won’t let you escape the task of moving though
equipment. If he pulls in 100 possible hires,
it. If it’s mentionable it’s manageable. Pain that
most of them either fail the drug test or don’t
is not transformed is transmitted.
show up for it because they know they will
The social fabric is tearing across this
fail.
But this kind of tour is mostly uplifting, not country, but everywhere it seems healers are
rising up to repair their small piece of it. They
depressing. Let me just describe two people I
are going into hollow places and creating
met on Saturday in Albuquerque.
At the New Day Youth and Family Services community, building intimate relationships that
change lives one by one.
program I was introduced to an 18-year-old
I know everybody’s in a bad mood about
woman who’d been born to heroin and meth
the country. But the more time you spend
addicts. She’d spent her early girlhood riding
in the hardest places, the more amazed you
along as they traficked drugs from Mexico.
When they were unable to take care of her, she become. There’s some movement arising
that is suspicious of consumerism but is not
cycled through other homes where she was
socialist. It’s suspicious of impersonal state
physically abused. She fell into relationships
systems but is not libertarian. It believes in the
with men who mistreated her, was hounded in
small moments of connection.
school for being (supposedly) obese and was
I remember watching an after-school
sent to psych wards for depression.
counselor in Texas sitting in a circle of little girls
Yet this woman glows with joy and
who had nowhere else to go. She offered them
good cheer. She’d built a family out of her
a tongue twister: “OK,” she said chirpily, “who
friendships. She’d completed high school,
can say ‘Unique New York’ six times fast?”
learned to express her moods through poetry
■
and novellas, found a place to live through
David Brooks’s column on the Op-Ed page
New Day’s Transitional Living Program,
of The New York Times started in September
found a job and had plans to go to community
2003.
college.
I
The more time
you spend in
the hardest
places, the more
amazed you
become.
YOUR VIEWS
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.
Sugar police at your door
The Oregonian, June 10
Nanny in a can: Beware, anyone in
Multnomah County who likes to enjoy
a sweetened drink now and again.
The Cupboard Cops are on the prowl.
Erstwhile county commission candidate
Mel Rader of Upstream Public Health
recently iled a proposed initiative that
would impose a penny-per-ounce tax on
sweetened beverages, Willamette Week’s
Beth Slovic reported. It could go before
voters in November.
The money generated by the tax
would support educational and nutrition
programs for children. The measure isn’t
intended only to raise cash, though. It’s
also designed to reduce consumption
of beverages that, at least when used
in excess, can be bad for you. These
include not only carbonated soft drinks,
but also sweetened sports drinks, iced
teas, coffee drinks and so on.
Rest assured, budget-conscious
junk food junkies. Should the tax pass,
you’d still be able to chow down on
cake, cookies, chips, ice cream, double
cheeseburgers, french fries, onion rings
and various other kinds of sweetened,
fried and irresistibly processed diet-
busters without paying Multnomah
County’s gastronomic shame tax. For
now, anyway.
A similar effort izzled in 2012,
and this may well follow suit. If not,
Multnomah County residents should
start thinking seriously about hopping
in the family car and doing their weekly
shopping in Clackamas or Washington
counties. They’d avoid the sweetened-
drink tax, which if passed directly to
consumers would add 72 cents to the
cost of a typical six-pack. And if they
illed up the car at the same time, they’d
also avoid both Multnomah County’s gas
tax (3 cents per gallon) and Portland’s
(10 cents per gallon). (Washington
County has a penny-per-gallon gas tax.)
As an added bonus, Portland residents
shopping elsewhere also could enjoy the
thrill of carrying their groceries into the
house with single-use plastic bags, which
have been banned locally. They’re strong,
light, fully functional when wet (ahem,
paper bags) and can be repurposed in a
number of ways, from lining wastebaskets
to holding your lunch.
Yes, Multnomah County’s
consumption commuters might have
to endure disapproval from some
neighbors. But there is a perfect Portland
response: We’re just keeping it weird.
Transgender policy decisions
deserve careful review
The Oregon Department of Education
presented their policy interpretation allowing
men to enter women’s bathrooms and locker
rooms based on current gender feelings. This
asymmetrical approach results in a random
walk through relective life. When comforting
lights of popular expressions drive decisions, no
opportunity remains to consider insights such as
that from John Hopkins.
At one time their Sexual Behaviors
Consultation Unit conducted candidates through
a lengthy preparation process culminating with
gender reassignment surgery. Study caused
them to question whether any emotional
resolution was achieved and they eliminated
the practice in 1979. Dr. Paul R. McHugh says,
“that transgenderism is a mental disorder that
merits treatment ... These policy makers and the
media are doing no favors either to the public or
the transgendered by treating their confusions
as a right in need of defending rather than as a
mental disorder that deserves understanding,
treatment and prevention.”
Shouldn’t transgenderism irst be assessed
as a medical issue? Women are terribly
uncomfortable with a mercurial revelation
that they believe violates their inherent natural
right to feel safe and private in their persons.
This policy provides many the opportunities
to indulge in deviant impulses. The policy
thrusts a few into intimate political theater
where they portray a feeble caricature of a
woman, but without evidence of beneit to their
psychological condition. Considering John
Hopkins’ experience with reassignment surgery,
shouldn’t this radical transformation of society
await careful review?
Nolan Nelson
Eugene
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.
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Sen. Ron Wyden
Sen. Jeff Merkley
Rep. Greg Walden
Washington ofice:
221 Dirksen Senate Ofice
Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande ofice:
541-962-7691
Washington ofice:
313 Hart Senate Ofice
Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton ofice:
541-278-1129
Washington ofice:
185 Rayburn House Ofice
Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande ofice:
541-624-2400