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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