OPINION
East Oregonian
Page 4A
Friday, July 15, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A kick in the pants to the city of Pendleton, whose poor communication
and decision making led to the cancellation of Yoga Round-Up.
Nearly everyone has been trying to get more use out of the Round-Up
Grounds, one of the jewels of the city. So
news that a Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
was coming to town, bringing a big name
band and thousands of people to the Grounds,
was universally well-received.
That is until we realized the stadium was
double-booked for July 15. The Zac Brown
Band was set to play on what the seventh
annual Yoga Round-Up thought would be the
second day of their weekend event.
It seems as if Pendleton Convention Center
staff, which divvies out 16 days of Round-Up
Grounds use, made an initial mistake and didn’t realize it until it was too
late. That’s a shame — Pendleton has plenty of weekends empty of big
events. Good communication and leadership can allow events to grow, not
just replace and cannibalize each other.
And while the music festival will certainly bring in a larger crowd than
the yoga event had planned to, Pendleton can’t afford to alienate events of
any size.
It’s unknown if the city is legally liable for losses, but a suit that taxpayers
would have to pay for would add another insult to a city that cannot afford
these unforced errors.
A tip of the hat to Pokémon Go, the latest tech craze that has swept the
nation and world.
The phone-based virtual reality game has attracted all age groups, from
tweens to those old enough to have been
fans of the 1990s cartoon to their parents.
Although it is probably just a passing
fad, the game is the irst step toward
melding the natural and virtual world into
an environment that is fun and social and
interesting. While that process will surely
be illed with pros and cons, it sure is neat
to be around to see it.
And though there are clear bugs in the
system, it is getting young people outside,
exploring their city and their world,
and lessening for at least a little while,
insistence on a 24/7 social media presence.
Even the most stalwart “kids these days” complainers should have trouble
inding fault in a video game that exercises more than just your thumbs or
swiping inger. And clever local businesses should be able to cash in on an
audience actively exploring their town.
Catch ‘em all, but watch where you’re walking.
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.
YOUR VIEWS
Planned depot development
would harm wildlife
I am among the many citizen
volunteers who have invested time,
energy and resources to the burrowing
owl project on the Umatilla Army Depot
since 2008. Volunteers have constructed
artiicial burrows, trapped, tagged,
recorded and released nesting owl pairs
and offspring, and assisted in breeding
bird surveys for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army.
The ongoing burrowing owl project
has been more than successful, creating
habitat for the largest continuous nesting
colony of owls in the western United
States.
The proposed solar projects blessed
by the Columbia Development Authority
will eliminate 900 acres of the most
important burrowing owl habitat
on the Depot Wildlife Refuge that
during the 2016 season saw 20 of the
29 successful nesting owl pairs. For
further consideration, this land is also
nesting habitat for long-billed curlews,
loggerhead shrikes, grasshopper
sparrows, horned larks, Western
meadowlarks, lark sparrows; wintering
habitat for migrating snowy owls and
white-crowned sparrows; and home to
badgers, coyote, redtail hawks, common
ravens, black-tailed jackrabbits and other
animals and birds.
An ordinance signed by Umatilla
County commissioners in 2014
designated the Umatilla Depot Wildlife
Refuge Zone to preserve the natural
shrub-steppe desert landscape, which is
disappearing at a rapid rate, for wildlife
habitat, environmental protection and
public education.
Although the ordinance does allow
for commercial solar power generation
for sale for public use within the
Wildlife Refuge Zone with an approved
conditional use permit, there are speciic
conditions that must be met for the
permit.
Removal and destruction of
burrowing owl burrows and placement
of solar power structures on the 900
acres of the land is contradictory to
the Wildlife Refuge Zone’s purpose.
The CDA, in backing these projects,
is in effect making a public land and
resources grab for the beneit of proiting
off the energy that would be sold to the
power grid. Education and low-impact
recreation by the public, shrub-steppe
habitat protection and preservation, and
the management and future uses of the
area have not been addressed.
The Department of Defense/Army
has not yet transferred the land to the
CDA. To further protect and manage
the land for the public and to comply
with federal environmental and cultural
laws, the DOD should instead laterally
transfer the land to another federal
entity or to the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation for
management, since they have cultural
and environmental interests and historic
ties to the land.
A history of white delusion
I
n 1962, 85 percent of white
other contexts he dreads the police:
He told The Associated Press that after
Americans told Gallup that black
one trafic stop he was stretched out
children had as good a chance as
spread-eagle on the hood of a police
white kids of getting a good education.
car.
The next year, in another Gallup
Williams shows his admiration for
survey, almost half of whites said that
police oficers by sometimes picking
blacks had just as good a chance as
up their tabs at restaurants, but he also
whites of getting a job.
In retrospect, we can see that these
Nicholas expressed his feelings for the police
white beliefs were delusional, and in
Kristof this way to The Washington Post: “I
other survey questions whites blithely
support you. I defend you. I will care
Comment
acknowledged racist attitudes. In 1963,
for you. That doesn’t mean I will not
45 percent said that they would object
fear you.”
That’s a narrative that many white
if a family member invited a black person
Americans are oblivious to. Half of white
home to dinner.
This complacency among us white
Americans today say that discrimination
Americans has been a historical constant.
against whites is as big a problem as
Even in the last decade, almost two-thirds
discrimination against blacks. Really? That
contradicts overwhelming
of white Americans have
research showing that
said that blacks are treated
blacks are more likely to be
fairly by the police, and 4
suspended from preschool, to
out of 5 whites have said
be prosecuted for drug use,
that black children have the
to receive longer sentences,
same chance as white kids
to be discriminated against
of getting a good education.
in housing, to be denied job
In short, the history of white
interviews, to be rejected by
Americans’ attitudes toward
doctors’ ofices, to suffer bias
race has always been one of
in almost every measurable
self-deception.
sector of daily life.
Just as in 1963, when
In my mind, an even
many well-meaning whites
bigger civil rights outrage
glanced about and couldn’t
in America than abuses by
see a problem, many well-
some police oficers may
meaning whites look around
be an education system that routinely sends
today, see a black president, and declare
the neediest black students to underfunded,
problem solved.
third-rate schools, while directing bountiful
That’s the backdrop for racial tensions
resources to afluent white schools.
roiling America today.
“If America is to be America, we have to
Of course, there have been advances. In
engage in a larger conversation than just the
1939, 83 percent of Americans believed that
criminal justice system,” notes Darren Walker,
blacks should be kept out of neighborhoods
the president of the Ford Foundation. “If you
where white people lived. But if one lesson
were to examine most of the institutions that
from that old igure is that we have made
underpin our democracy — higher education,
progress, another is how easy it is for a
K-12 education, the housing system, the
majority to “otherize” minorities in ways that
transportation system, the criminal justice
in hindsight strike us all as repugnant.
system — you will ind systemic racism
In fairness, the evidence shows black
embedded in those systems.”
delusions, too. But what is striking in looking
Yet Walker is an optimist, partly because
back at historical data is that blacks didn’t
of his own trajectory. In 1965, as an African-
exaggerate discrimination but downplayed it.
American child in rural Texas, he was able to
In 1962, for example, a majority of
enroll in Head Start soon after it was founded
blacks said that black children had the same
— and everything changed. “It transformed
educational opportunities as white children,
and nearly one-quarter of blacks said that they my life and created possibilities for me and a
had the same job opportunities as whites. That glide path,” he says. “It provided me with a
life I would never have imagined.”
was preposterous: History hasn’t discredited
As Walker’s journey suggests, we have
the complaints of blacks but rather has shown
tools that can help, although, of course,
that they were muted.
racial inequity is complex, involving not
My hunch is that we will likewise look
just discrimination but also jobs, education,
back and conclude that today’s calls for
family structure and more. A starting point is
racial justice, if anything, understate the
for us whites to wake from our ongoing mass
problem — and that white America, however
delusions, to recognize that in practice black
well meaning, is astonishingly oblivious to
lives have not mattered as much as white
pervasive inequity.
lives, and that this is an affront to values that
As it happens, the trauma surgeon running
we all profess to believe in.
the Dallas emergency room last Thursday
■
when seven police oficers were brought in
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep
with gunshot wounds is a black man, Brian
and cherry farm in Yamhill. A columnist for
Williams.
He fought to save the lives of those oficers The New York Times since 2001 he won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1990 and 2006.
and wept for those he couldn’t help. But in
Many well-
meaning whites
look around,
see a black
president,
and declare
problem solved.
Diana LaSarge
Pendleton
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. Representative
Senator
Greg Walden
Washington ofice:
185 Rayburn House Ofice Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande ofice:
541-624-2400
Governor
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
Representatives
Greg Barreto, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-38, Salem
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
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. Send letters to 211
S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.