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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, June 28, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW International trade agreement will avert chaos Anyone who doubts the value of farmers around the world. Before long, trade would grind comprehensive international trade to a halt. Ultimately, food shortages agreements should go to France. would emerge, but not until That nation recently prohibited the importation of cherries from irreversible damage had been done any nation that allows the use of to farmers and ranchers. All because an agreement that the insecticide dimethoate. Mind sets the ground rules for trade does you, the insecticide doesn’t have not exist. to be used on cherries; just the fact It’s not just that it could be about the French used in the U.S. Many critics of the and cherries. U.S. is suficient for oil is slapped French oficials TTIP have emerged olive with a $1,680 per to block U.S. ton duty when cherries. in Europe and We won’t entering the elsewhere. They European Union. comment on French politics. that to prefer the current Compare All we know is the $34 a ton duty the French do not system, which ap- the U.S. charges allow their farmers for European olive pears to rely on oil entering this to use dimethoate, so they decided no country. sticking it to the one should. U.S. apples face The fact that U.S. whenever and a 7 percent duty going to U.S. cherry wherever possible. when Europe, while EU growers don’t use apples face no duty it is immaterial, when imported according to French reasoning. They igure that if into the U.S. French farmers can’t use it, nobody Now in the negotiation stage can. is the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Because only a relative handful Investment Partnership between the U.S. and the European Union. of U.S. cherries — about a half a million dollars worth last year Besides addressing market access — goes to France, the impact will and tariffs, it would harmonize likely be small. regulatory standards, such as those But what would happen if every related to food safety and the use of country started making up its own pesticides. trade rules, based on the vagaries of Many critics of the TTIP have local preferences? emerged in Europe and elsewhere. The answer is chaos. If Nation A They prefer the current system, won’t allow a crop because a certain which appears to rely on sticking it pesticide is allowed elsewhere, to the U.S. whenever and wherever what’s to stop Nations B, C and possible. D from doing the same — adding Like the Trans-Paciic Partnership pesticides or practices to the list? that was completed last winter, the Soon U.S. farmers who ship their TTIP will not be perfect. But it will crop overseas would face a gridlock be much better than the alternative, of prohibitions. So would other which is chaos. 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. Culture Corner School segregation was something we were supposed to have left behind. Along with Jim Crow laws and poll taxes, school segregation is supposed to be a vestige of America’s racist past, something that was tidily eradicated with Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act. New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones has made a career out of exploring the adverse effects of segregation, with two recent pieces providing a deep explorations into how a series of policy decisions and court rulings have largely re-segregated many of the country’s school systems. Hannah-Jones recently won the George Polk Award for “The Problem We All Live With,” a 2015 report she did for the public radio program This American Life. Hannah-Jones’ story is set in the Normandy School District, a school system that borders Ferguson, Missouri. Poorly funded, poor performing and largely black, Normandy lost its accreditation in 2012, giving its students the option to transfer to an accredited district. Following Missouri state law, Normandy provided busing to Francis Howell, a majority white school district 26 miles away. What followed was a massive resistance from Francis Howell administrators and parents. Although Hannah-Jones wrote about Normandy in 2014 for ProPublica, the audio telling of the story is rendered more powerful as clips from a Francis Howell public forum on the matter show parents angrily predicting that Normandy students will bring crime and ignorance to their community’s schools. Living in a liberal enclave of a liberal city doesn’t prevent segregation either, as Hannah-Jones details in the June New York Times Magazine article “Choosing a School for my Daughter in a Segregated City.” Hannah-Jones, who is African- American, deftly blends her personal experiences with segregation’s larger implications as she details her and her husband’s tough decision to send their daughter to Brooklyn’s Public School 307, a school heavily comprised of black and Latino students, only to see the same political lines drawn when New York City Public Schools considered sending some children from an afluent white school to P.S. 207. Hannah-Jones backs her story up with hard facts about the power of integration, citing research that shows that not only do black students perform better when attending a desegregated school, they’re healthier, wealthier, less likely to be in jail and more likely to attend college. Both stories tacitly ask the same question: Although we may approve of integrated schools in theory, what happens when it’s brought to our front door? — Antonio Sierra, Pendleton reporter 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 ed- itor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS Blood on Obama’s hands O years old. N THE GUATEMALAN- MEXICAN BORDER Two of Carlos’ classmates, both 14, — Cristóbal, a 16-year-old were also asked to join the gang but Honduran refugee leeing a drug gang refused. Their corpses were found with that wants to kill him, has never heard the number 13 carved in their chests, a of anyone named Barack Obama. reference to the gang’s name. Another Neither can he name the Mexican classmate, Alan, 13, was invited to president, Enrique Peña Nieto. join the gang and accepted. Carlos said But Cristóbal, along with many Nicholas Alan’s irst assignment was to murder others, could end up being murdered Kristof three men. because of these two presidents he is Here on the Mexican-Guatemalan Comment unaware of. Obama and Peña Nieto border I’ve heard many stories like have cooperated for two years to Carlos’ and Cristóbal’s. The details intercept desperate Central American refugees are typically impossible to conirm, but I in southern Mexico, long before they can approached the youths rather than the other reach the U.S. border. These refugees are then way around, and Carlos was initially reluctant typically deported to their home countries — to share the story; at one point he cried when which can be a death sentence. he spoke of the murder threat against his “If I’m sent back, brother. they will kill me,” says It’s unconscionable to In effect, we have Cristóbal, who is staying put refugees like Carlos temporarily at a shelter for pressured and bribed and Cristóbal back into unaccompanied migrant mortal peril, yet that’s what kids in Mexico. He says he Mexico to do our dirty is happening. In the last was forced to work for the years, Mexico and work, detaining and ive gang as a cocaine courier the U.S. have deported deporting people beginning at age 14 — a 800,000 people to Central gun was held to his head, America, including 40,000 leeing gangs in and he was told he would children, according to the be shot if he declined. He Honduras, El Salvador Migration Policy Institute. inally quit and led after he Last year, Mexico deported and Guatemala. witnessed gang members more than ive times as murder two of his friends. many unaccompanied Now the gang is looking children as it had ive years for him, he says, and it already sent a hit team earlier, and the Obama administration heralds to his home. this as a success. Yet he may well be sent back under a “It’s been a good thing, because it’s policy backed by Obama and Peña Nieto. I discouraging people from making a admire much about the Obama administration, very dangerous trip,” said a senior State including its ine words about refugees, but Department oficial who would speak only this policy is rank with deadly hypocrisy. anonymously. In effect, we have pressured and bribed It’s true that the old system, of refugees Mexico to do our dirty work, detaining and undertaking a dangerous journey across deporting people leeing gangs in Honduras, Mexico, was awful. But we took a deplorable El Salvador and Guatemala. This solved a situation and made it more appalling. political crisis Obama faced with refugees in So what should the U.S. do? Most 2014, but it betrays some of the world’s most important, it must work at the highest levels vulnerable people. with Honduras and El Salvador to address the The American-Mexican collusion began chaos in those countries, particularly because in 2014 after a surge of Central Americans the U.S. bears some responsibility for the crossed into the U.S., including 50,000 problems: The Central American street gangs unaccompanied children. Obama spoke with were born in the United States and traveled Peña Nieto “to develop concrete proposals” to with deportees to countries like El Salvador. address the low. This turned out to be a plan Instead, as with Syria, Obama has been to intercept Central Americans near Mexico’s disengaged. The U.S. could also do more southern border and send them home. to encourage Mexico to screen refugees Washington committed $86 million to rigorously and provide asylum to those who support the program. Although Obama deserve it; instead, according to Human Rights portrayed his action as an effort to address a Watch, less than 1 percent of Central American humanitarian crisis, he made the crisis worse. children in Mexico receive refugee status or The old routes minors took across Mexico formal protection. were perilous, but the new ones adopted to I asked Salva Lacruz, coordinator of a avoid checkpoints are even more dangerous. human rights center in Tapachula, about The victims of this policy, deported in some Obama’s eloquent speeches on refugees and cases to their deaths, are refugees like Carlos, immigration. “It’s just words,” he scoffed. “A a 13-year-old with a scar on his forehead from lot of hypocrisy.” the time a gang member threw him to the Carlos has no doubt what will happen if ground in the course of executing his uncle. I Mexico, encouraged by the U.S., returns him met Carlos in Mexico after he had led — on to Honduras: “They will kill me for sure.” his own — from Honduras to save his life. ■ “In my hometown, I was asked to join a Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The gang,” Carlos told me. “They wanted me to Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize be a lookout. They said if I didn’t, they would winner who writes op-ed columns that appear kill me and my brother.” His brother is just 6 twice a week. YOUR VIEWS Another about-face In a typical move, the Pendleton City Council went back on its word at (the June 7) council meeting. During WWII, the U.S. Army built Sergeant City and for the last 60-odd years, the city has done little to rid the community of the well-known public eyesore. Now, even though the council agreed to limit the Pendleton Heights development to 72 units, they have backtracked on this agreement and now have approved an increase to 140 units, adding ive 20-unit apartment buildings and essentially creating a new Sergeant City, another public eyesore. Check it out yourself. There is only one entrance/exit to the complex, but the city engineer states that the increased trafic should not be a factor on the already congested Southgate. This makes me wonder what kind of engineering degree the city engineer actually has. It certainly can’t be in trafic. Bob Patterson tried to quell some of the concerns stating that there is a plan for the north side of exit 209, however, a conversation with ODOT concluded that there was really no good plan as of yet for the south side of the freeway. I have to hand it to Neil Brown as the only one on the council that questioned the wisdom of continuing this project without a concrete plan. With the city bending over backwards to accommodate the contractor’s wishes, the brand new street has become a parking lot and the promise of a park seems to have slipped through the cracks. Though there were doubts expressed by other council members, it was pretty obvious that the mayor pulls their strings or they just plain don’t care because they don’t have to deal with the trafic situation on a daily basis. So far, though there have been many fender benders, we haven’t had a fatality. How long will our luck continue? The other council member representing Ward 2 is retiring and most likely leaving the area. No help there. The real astounding statement came from the mayor himself when he implied that we should welcome the trafic congestion as a sign of progress, and another statement by Chuck Woods that he thinks it shows progress when you have to hunt for a parking place downtown. With 64,000 square feet of empty space and probably half the parking we once had, I simply don’t see that as progress. With a growing credibility gap between the people and city hall that’s wider than the Grand Canyon, it’s no wonder people don’t lock to “Coffee with the City” or other city meetings. I noticed that “Ask the City Manager” has been also removed from the city web site. Hmmm ... . Rick Rohde Pendleton
