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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Wage hike will
help, hurt some
Who is getting a raise tomorrow? same people who call trickle-down
More than 100,000 Oregonians
economics a bunch of hooey think
that trickle-up economics will
are, as the state takes its irst
beneit us all. If a rising tide lifts
incremental step in increasing the
all boats, why should we care if the
minimum wage. In our area the
water comes from above or below?
increase is just a quarter, moving
from $9.25 an hour
We must also note
to $9.50. In the
that only about 5
The experiment percent of Oregonians
Portland metro area,
the increase jumps
make the minimum
begins
to $9.75. It’s just the
wage, according to
tomorrow.
irst step down the
the state Employment
road to a minimum
Department. Most are
young women who
wage of $12.50 in
rural areas and $14.75 in urban areas work part-time.
by 2022.
We have data on small increases
in the minimum wage, and note they
The effects of the increase will
have a relatively small impact on
be varied. It will beneit some
employees by giving them a spike in the economy. It sparks economic
growth in small ways, raises the cost
take-home pay, but cause others to
see their hours cut and still others to of goods a small amount and causes
lose their jobs entirely. It will beneit little harm.
But we don’t have good data on
some businesses — increasing the
reliability and the happiness of their major, consistent minimum wage
hikes. It just hasn’t occurred in this
employees and allowing them to
country. And that unknown worries
attract better workers. But it will
economists and business owners,
likely decimate others, especially
and it should worry employees.
labor-intensive ones who employ a
The experiment begins tomorrow.
lot of poor Americans, who will not
be able to keep pace with the steady Fingers crossed, it will make the
state a more equal and afluent place.
increase of labor costs.
But the risks are real, and Oregon
We’ve been lukewarm on the
businesses will be forced to adapt to
state’s minimum wage hike, noting
a quickly and continuously changing
it as a relatively ineffective way
labor market.
of beneiting the middle class. The
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
Government must insist on high
standards for nation’s railways
The (Salem) Statesman Journal
B
roken bolts in the railroad track
caused the frightening oil train
derailment in the
Columbia River Gorge.
Better brakes and other
improvements would have
made the train derailment
less severe.
Those are among
the Federal Railroad
Administration’s preliminary indings
into the June 3 derailment, in which a
Union Paciic train spilled oil and caught
ire near the town of Mosier.
Union Paciic, which is to blame for
the derailment, now seems overly eager
to resume oil trains through the Gorge.
But people have it wrong when they
cite the Gorge’s unique environment
as a rationale to make it permanently
off-limits to oil trains, such as this one
with 94 cars carrying Bakken crude
oil from New Town, North Dakota, to
Tacoma, Washington.
Scary, hazardous materials travel
every day on trains and trucks along
the interstate 84 and 5 corridors. Many
such trains go through Salem’s core, past
Willamette University and the Capitol
Mall area. Certainly the protection
of urban residents and property is as
important as protection of the rural
environment and the rural residents.
The greater issue is that
Oregon and especially the
federal government must
insist on much higher
standards for:
▪ Track maintenance.
▪ Structural
improvements in rail cars
carrying oil or other hazardous materials.
▪ Training and equipping of
emergency responders.
If people dislike oil trains, consider
the alternatives: pipelines or multiple
shipments by truck. In much of America,
well-built and -operated pipelines are
the best solution. But given the lack
of suficient pipelines in the Paciic
Northwest, trains are the best option.
As for ending the world’s reliance
on oil, and thus the need to ship oil, that
is a worthy goal but one that will not
happen soon. Even then, companies and
governments will continue shipping
other hazardous materials.
Safe, secure shipping always will be
needed, regardless of the route or cargo.
The government must ensure that safety.
Consider the
alternatives
to oil trains.
OTHER VIEWS
Revolt of the masses
A
nybody who spends time in
Conservatives argue that it has been
the working-class parts of
decimated by cosmopolitan cultural
America (and, one presumes,
elites who look down on rural rubes.
Britain) notices the contagions of drug
There’s some truth to this, as the
addiction and suicide, and the feelings
reactions of smug elites to the Brexit
of anomie, cynicism, pessimism and
vote demonstrate.
resentment.
But the honor code has also been
decimated by the culture of the modern
Part of this pain arises from
meritocracy, which awards status to
deindustrialization. Good jobs are hard
David
to ind. But hardship is not exactly
Brooks the individual who works with his
mind, and devalues the class of people
new to these places. Life in, say, a coal
Comment
who work with their hands.
valley was never a bouquet of roses.
Most of all, it has been undermined
What’s also been lost is the social
by rampant consumerism, by celebrity culture,
institutions and cultural values that made it
by reality-TV fantasies that tell people success
possible to have self-respect amid hardship
comes in a quick lash
— to say, “I may not make
of publicity, not through
a lot of money, but people
steady work. The sociologist
can count on me. I’m
Daniel Bell once argued that
loyal, tough, hardworking,
capitalism would undermine
resilient and part of a good
itself because it encouraged
community.”
hedonistic short-term
We all have a sense of
values for consumers while
what that working-class
requiring self-disciplined
honor code was, but if
long-term values in its
you want a refresher, I
workers. At least in one
recommend J.D. Vance’s
segment of society, Bell was
new book “Hillbilly Elegy.”
absolutely correct.
Vance’s family is from
There’s now a rift within
Kentucky and Ohio, and his
the working class between
description of the culture
mostly older people who are
he grew up in is essential
self-disciplined, respectable
reading for this moment in
and, often, bigoted, and
history.
parts of a younger cohort that are more
He describes a culture of intense group
disordered, less industrious, more celebrity-
loyalty. Families might be messed up in a
obsessed, but also more tolerant and open to
million ways, but any act of disloyalty — like
the world.
sharing personal secrets with outsiders — is
Trump (and probably Brexit) voters are
felt acutely. This loyalty culture helps people
in the irst group. They are not poor, making
take care of their own, but it also means
on average over $70,000 a year. But they
there can be hostility to those who want to
perceive that their grandchildren’s world is
move up and out. And there can be intense
quickly coming apart.
parochialism.
From 1945 to 1995, conservative and
“We do not like outsiders,” Vance writes,
liberal elites shared variations of the same
“or people who are different from us, whether
difference lies in how they look, how they act, vision of the future. Liberals emphasized
multilateral institutions and conservatives
or, most important, how they talk.”
emphasized free trade. Either way, the future
It’s also a culture that values physical
would be global, integrated and multiethnic.
toughness. It’s a culture that celebrates people
But the elites pushed too hard, and now
who are willing to ight to defend their honor.
history is moving in the opposite direction.
This is something that progressives never get
The less-educated masses have a different
about gun control. They see a debate about
conception of the future, a vision that is more
mass murder, but for many people guns are
about a family’s ability to stand up for itself in closed, collective, protective and segmented.
Their pain is indivisible: economic stress,
a dangerous world.
community breakdown, ethnic bigotry and
It’s also a culture with a lot of collective
a loss of social status and self-worth. When
pride. In my travels, you can’t go ive
people feel their world is vanishing, they are
minutes without having a conversation about
easy prey for fact-free magical thinking and
a local sports team. Sports has become the
demagogues who blame immigrants.
binding religion, offering identity, value, and
We need a better form of nationalism, a
solidarity.
vision of patriotism that gives dignity to those
Much of this pride is nationalistic. Vance’s
who have been disrespected, emphasizes that
grandparents, he writes, “taught me that we
we are one nation and is conident and open to
live in the best and greatest country on earth.
the world. I’m thinking we have a lot to learn
This fact gave meaning to my childhood.”
from Theodore Roosevelt, but that’s a topic
When I lived in Brussels, this sort of
intense personal patriotism was simply not felt for another day.
■
by the people who ran the EU, but it was felt
David Brooks became a New York Times
by a lot of people in the member states.
This honor code has been decimated lately. Op-Ed columnist in 2003.
What has been
lost is the social
institutions and
cultural values
that made it
possible to have
self-respect amid
hardship.
YOUR VIEWS
Wilderness surveillance
will help everyone behave
A pound of water at 100 degrees contains
eight times as much heat as a pound of steel
at 100 degrees. This high “speciic heat”
enables water heated by geothermal activity
thousands of feet underground to pour
out of Cougar Hot Spring at 112 degrees.
Fortunately, a cool stream ten feet away
makes it possible for hotspringers to adjust
the pools to the perfect temperature, creating
a meditative paradise.
There occurred a problem however,
with wild nighttime parties, and the pools
were closed at night. So now, each evening,
soakers must hurry out to the parking lot or
have to deal with stone-faced police oficers
just for harmoniously meditating in magical
pools under gigantic trees standing witness
to the inevitabillity of time.
Conservatives argue that society must
keep strict control over these free spirits
because of their tendency to take off their
clothes and smoke marijuana. Conservatives
forget, however, that they have wild stallions
of their own.
And liberals in turn contend that
motocross race bikes emanate too much
machismo, causing peaceful forest users to
get worked up. And since they are “clearly
dangerous,” these mighty steeds simply
cannot be allowed on logging roads. Yet
there exists this wonderful possibility —
what if dirt bikes were actually allowed on
the dirt roads?
Fantastic adventure would become
possible, and video surveillance could make
that a reality.
The logging roads could be opened up
to dirt bikes and quads on the condition that
riders mount cameras on their front forks,
which transmit video to receivers on nearby
mountaintops, which then relay the video
to police headquarters. And perhaps Cougar
Hot Spring could be kept open, if not all
night, then at least until a reasonable hour
if hotspringers would become agreeable to
reasonable use of surveillance cameras at the
pools.
A little openness can provide a
huge amount of freedom. In fact, video
surveillance is as good at keeping the forests
safe as the high speciic heat of water is at
delivering geothermal energy to the surface.
Pat Hiatt
Ellensburg, Wash.
Owyhee Canyonlands
are worth protecting
Last week I lew 2,500 miles to
Washington, D.C., to urge our elected
oficials to protect something dear to my
heart: the Owyhee Canyonlands. Resting
in southeastern Oregon, the Owyhee is an
expansive backcountry with astonishing
scenery, abundant wildlife, and tons of elbow
room.
When I was in D.C., I thanked senators
Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley for introducing
legislation to preserve the Owyhee for future
generations. Their bill would safeguard the
Owyhee from future mining and oil and gas
development. It also supports federal grants
to ranchers, grazing associations, and local
ire protection districts. It is a start, but only
a start.
I know how special the Owyhee is. I grew
up hunting bobwhite quail in North Carolina,
but whenever I go back home I am saddened
that there are very few quail or places to hunt
birds left in the South — those treasured
pastimes of my teens are fading memories
for all but the very wealthy.
Today, the Owyhee Canyonlands is my
sacred place. I have a home in the Owyhee,
and spend many days behind bird dogs,
riding a horse, enjoying the howl of a coyote,
or the incredible brilliance of the Milky Way
— and dreading the next lat tire.
The Owyhee is home to over 200 species,
like pronghorn antelope, kit fox, greater
sage-grouse, and California bighorn sheep.
Its vastness makes it a rare and unique
treasure where wildlife is truly wild, unlike
the windshield fauna of many western parks.
I can hunt a different ridge or canyon every
day of chukar season and never see even
another human track.
My neighbors in Malheur County, many
of them ranchers, and I seem to share a
common goal: We want the Owyhee to stay
as it is, where freedom does not need to be
explained, and the Owyhee’s wild vastness
and remoteness stays downright scary to
most civilized folks.
It is time to safeguard the Owyhee and
preserve this special place as it is today. It
is certainly worthy of permanent protection.
Hunters, ranchers, boaters, campers and
hikers all have a stake in conserving the
Owyhee. There is simply nothing like it in
the lower 48 states.
How do we do this and preserve all its
current values? I don’t know, but I am quite
certain there is a way if we try, and in the
process, listen to each other.
Jim Hammett
John Day
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-
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Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.