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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, July 12, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Another massacre, another set of clichés ‘Escalating cycle of violence” The highly publicized incidents last week initially appear unreasonable, has become a cliché — something but investigations are still far from we skip over on our way to more arriving at any formal allegations of novel news. Last week’s attack on wrongdoing by oficers. The gunman police in Dallas, close on the heels of who murdered ive innocent oficers video-recorded killings of civilians in Dallas, wounding seven more, by police, deserves to wrench our said his actions were vengeance for attention back to this complex issue. It has always police shootings of been true that the African-Americans. It would be the misdeeds of one There evil or reckless undoubtedly are worst possible man can unravel and trigger- outcome if hateful racist the carefully woven happy police, just norms crafted by actions by a few as there are lawed civilization. It was, in every lead to more lives individuals for example, one other profession. On assassination that being lost — either the other hand, few set off the terrible blame police civilian or police. citizens chain reaction that for being on edge. precipitated World Last Thursday’s War I, killing 17 million. events in Dallas bring the number of In the 21st century U.S., the American oficers killed in the line of growing cyclone of deadly shootings duty in 2016 to 58. In 2015, 130 died; is in no sense on the scale of warfare. in 2014, the death toll was 145. But it is nevertheless deeply shocking It would be the worst possible and worthy of action. outcome if hateful actions by a few Last week’s episode was all lead to more lives being lost — either the more troubling because it civilian or police. We expect calm and again involved slayings by and of mature policing. society’s defenders, the police. Fatal At the same time, this is yet shootings by police in Minnesota another in a seemingly endless and Louisiana added to the nearly sequence of mass murders, too often 500 U.S. civilians killed by police in committed with weapons originally the irst half of 2016, compared to designed for warfare. It verges on 465 in the irst six months of 2015. political insanity that we permit such A disproportionate number of those easy access to killing machines by killed are African-American. Even virtually any murderous crank who so, many of these killings by police desires one. occurred in circumstances that were When will enough rational citizens not considered controversial. stand up and say we’ve had enough? 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 Unions aim to answer PERS problem with IP 28 The Daily Astorian, July 7 P ublic employees unions run the statehouse,” said state Rep. Dennis Richardson, during a 2014 visit to Astoria. The unions assert broad inluence on the Democratic side of the state Legislature through candidate interviews and campaign funding. Now the public employees unions are asserting themselves grandly with Initiative Petition 28, the initiative to establish a corporate sales tax on corporations with gross receipts of more than $25 million annually. Paris Achen of our Capital Bureau reported Tuesday that the farm supplies and fuel cooperative Wilco would face a huge increase in its tax liability if IP 28 passes. Ballot measures are blunt instruments. They are seldom as simple as their proponents make them sound. So what is the reality check on Initiative Petition 28? The most correct title for the measure is the PERS Bailout Tax. Financial demands of the Public Employees Retirement System will soon increase the load on school districts and municipalities — causing schools to lay off teachers in order to fund retirement pensions. Legislative remedies to the PERS dilemma — brokered by former Gov. John Kitzhaber — were thrown out by the Oregon Supreme Court. In the face of the court’s judgment, there was a proposal to require new PERS enrollees to contribute to their retirement, in the manner that is common in the private sector. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown would not support that. Revenue raised by IP 28 is the unions’ answer to the PERS problem. Achen reported that the Legislative Revenue Ofice projects the measure’s effects as follows: a contraction of the private sector and an enlargement of the public sector. Another consequence will be price increases for consumers, as corporations cover their big new tax liability. Initiative Petition 28 is a reach too far. 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. OTHER VIEWS A week from hell L ast week was yet another week And then, too often the unimaginable that tore at the very iber of our happened and someone ended up dead nation. at the hands of the police. After two videos emerged showing Since people have camera phones, the gruesome killings of two black men we are actually seeing these deaths, live and in living color. Now a terrorist by police oficers, one in Baton Rouge, with a racist worldview has taken it Louisiana, and the other in Falcon upon himself to co-opt a cause and Heights, Minnesota, a black man shot and killed ive oficers, and wounded Charles mow down innocent oficers. This is a time when communities, nine more people, in a cowardly Blow institutions, movements and even ambush at an otherwise peaceful Comment nations are tested. Will the people protest. The Dallas police chief, David of moral clarity, good character and O. Brown, said, “He was upset about righteous cause be able to drown out the Black Lives Matter” and “about the recent chorus of voices that seek to use each dead police shootings” and “was upset at white body as a societal wedge? people” and “wanted to kill white people, Will the people who can see clearly especially white oficers.” that there is no such thing as selective, We seem caught in a cycle of escalating discriminatory, exclusionary atrocities without an easy outrage and grieving when way out, without enough lives are taken, be heard clear voices of calm, without above those who see every tools for reduction, without tragedy as a plus or minus for resolutions that will satisfy. a cumulative argument? There is so much loss Will the people who and pain. There are so many see both the protests over families whose hearts hurt for police killings and the a loved one needlessly taken, killings of police oficers as never to be embraced again. fundamentally about the value There is so much of life rise above those who disintegrating trust, so much see political opportunity in animosity stirring. this arms race of atrocities? So many — too many — Americans now These are very serious questions — soul-of- seem to be living with an ambient terror that a-nation questions — that we dare not ignore. someone is somehow targeting them. We must see all unwarranted violence for Friday morning, after the Dallas shootings, what it is: A corrosion of culture. my college-student daughter entered my I know well that when people speak of love room before heading out to her summer job. and empathy and honor in the face of violence, She hugged me and said: “Dad, I’m scared. it can feel like meeting hard power with soft, Are you scared?” We talked about what had like there is inherent weakness in an approach happened in the preceding days, and I tried to that leans so heavily on things so ephemeral allay her fears and soothe her anxiety. and even clichéd. How does a father answer such a question? But that is simply an illusion fostered by I’m still not sure I got it precisely right. those of little faith. Truth is, I am afraid. Not so much for my Anger and vengeance and violence are own safety, which is what my daughter was exceedingly easy to access and almost fretting about, but more for the country I love. effortlessly unleashed. This is not a level of stress and strain that a The higher calling — the harder trial — is civil society can long endure. the belief in the ultimate moral justice and the I feel numb, and anguished and inevitable victory of righteousness over wrong. heartbroken, and I fear that I am far from This requires an almost religious faith in alone. fate, and that can be hard for some to accept, And yet, I also fear that time is a but accept it we must. requirement for remedy. We didn’t arrive at The moment any person comes to accept as this place overnight, and we won’t move on justiiable an act of violence upon another — from it overnight. whether physical, spiritual or otherwise — that Centuries of U.S. policy, culture and person has already lost the moral battle, even if tribalism are simply being revealed as the he is currently winning the somatic one. frothy tide of hagiographic history recedes. When we all can see clearly that the Our American “ghettos” were created by policy and design. These areas of concentrated ultimate goal is harmony and not hate, rectiication and not retribution, we have a poverty became fertile ground for crime chance to see our way forward. But we all and violence. Municipalities used heavy need to start here and now, by doing this police forces to try to cap that violence. Too simple thing: Seeing every person as fully often, aggressive policing began to feel like human, deserving every day to make it home oppressive policing. Relationships between to the people he loves. communities and cops became strained. A ■ small number of criminals poisoned police Charles M. Blow is The New York Times’s beliefs about whole communities, and a small visual Op-Ed columnist. His column appears number of dishonorable oficers poisoned communities’ beliefs about entire police forces. in The Times on Saturday. We must see all unwarranted violence for what it is: A corrosion of culture. YOUR VIEWS Air trafic control should not be privatized Your recent column (“Political Winds Shouldn’t Delay Air Travelers,” 7/1, by Drew Johnson) unfortunately missed some important points about proposals under consideration in Washington, D.C., for privatizing the nation’s air trafic control system. First and foremost, as much as proponents try to conlate privatization with ATC modernization, the two issues are not the same. Everyone agrees that ATC needs to be modernized with the latest satellite-based “NextGen” technology. To achieve that goal, the U.S. Senate recently passed overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation that would support funding for the continued deployment of NextGen technologies. Unfortunately, progress on ATC modernization, of the kind represented by the Senate legislation, is being tied up by a distracting debate over the question of whether airline interests should assume effective control over the aviation system, through the creation of a privatized entity. The answer to that question is no, and here’s why: Under a privatized system, the airlines would be left to handle decisions over consumer taxes and fees, availability of aviation access in small towns and rural areas, infrastructure investment and other important matters. Under such a scenario, the airlines will most likely decide to pursue not what is in the interest of the public — including the citizens and communities that rely on aviation services other than those provided by the airlines — but instead, what is in the airlines’ business interests. That means, for example, that available funding will be directed toward investments in the big hub airports, which are most proitable for the airlines, at the expense of rural communities throughout Oregon. This is why concerns over plans for ATC privatization have been raised by members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle, and also by state and local oficials around the country, and consumer and rural groups. It is also a key reason why Americans, by a two-to-one majority, oppose privatization of the nation’s ATC system. Here’s the bottom line: America has the world’s largest, safest and most diverse aviation system. That’s largely because it is operated with congressional oversight, which ensures the system is operated in the public interest — including Oregonians in towns large and small — not one stakeholder’s business interest. It’s important we keep it that way. Neal White, president Oregon Pilots Association Salem