Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, July 26, 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 ‘Silent mass disaster’ demands attention Viewers of television crime suspicious circumstances. Viewed shows get the impression that over a 20-year period, the number of discovery of human remains sets off missing persons can be estimated in an intense response, complete with the hundreds of thousands.” FBI facial reconstruction experts, Some of these missing, which swift and accurate DNA tests and Ritter describes as “the nation’s vast electronic databases that match silent mass disaster,” are missing subtle clues with lists because they are of possible victims. More than “On any given dead. Reality is more 40,000 sets of like the situation the remains day, there are human EO Media Group await identiication reported last in as many as in evidence rooms. Wahkiakum County, Only 6,000 of these Washington. The 100,000 active are entered in the piece, titled “Mystery FBI’s National missing persons Crime Information on the Columbia” ran in Friday’s East Center database. cases in the Many remains are Oregonian. A body is without even United States.” buried discovered and local a DNA sample being oficials do what — Nancy Ritter, obtained. they can — with The NIJ makes National Institute of Justice few resources — to a variety of good determine whether a suggestions. All crime has been committed and who require federal or state funding. the person is. Ultimately, in a large They include providing free tests of nation, each new set of unidentiied unidentiied remains and collecting remains joins a large number of reference samples from the families others and is gradually forgotten. of the missing. “The facts are sobering,” Nancy It’s shocking to learn the scale Ritter of the National Institute of of this problem. An advanced Justice said in the NIJ Journal. “On nation should make the methodical any given day, there are as many as science available to us a reality, not 100,000 active missing persons cases a TV gimmick. We can be certain in the United States. Every year, tens murders are occurring that are never of thousands of people vanish under discovered, much less solved. 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 Revisit popular NBC political series Calling all binge watchers. “The West Wing” captivated viewers for seven seasons from 1999 to 2006 as President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his hard-driving staff faced foreign crises, internal strife and other issues in weekly adrenaline- illed episodes. The NBC series garnered three Golden Globes and 26 Emmy Awards and attracted 17 million viewers during early seasons. Why bring up a show that went off the air 10 years ago? A pop culture podcast, “The West Wing Weekly,” is giving the show second life. West Wing actor Josh Malina joins with co-host Hrishikesh Hirway to serve as guides as they re-watch each episode and then talk about it on the air. Malina played White House deputy communications director Will Bailey on the series. Hirway is a singer, composer and host of “Song Exploder,” a podcast where musicians reveal the origins and inner workings of their songs. Malina and Hirway plan to discuss all 156 episodes of the political series, likely inishing sometime in 2019. Americans mired in the current contentious election campaign have an opportunity to escape to go back and view politics (albeit a ictional version) through the lens of time. If you need an excuse to re-watch “The West Wing,” this is it. Find it at www.thewestwingweekly. com. — Kathy Aney, senior reporter OTHER VIEWS Fund gun violence research The (Medford) Mail Tribune O regon Gov. Kate Brown recently issued an executive order intended to strengthen existing state gun laws, and called on the Legislature to enact three new laws next session aimed at reducing gun violence. Gun rights groups say the measures won’t work; gun control supporters say they will. Here’s the truth: Nobody knows. Nobody knows because badly needed research at the federal level has been suppressed for decades by Congress, which has blocked funding for gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control. Starting in 1996, Congress prohibited any funding for CDC studies that would “advocate or promote gun control.” The public health agency, fearing its funding could be in jeopardy, ended all such research. In 2013, after the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., President Obama issued an executive order directing the CDC to draw up a plan to thoroughly study gun violence and potential remedies. The CDC, with the help of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, convened a committee of experts that developed a potential research agenda. But Congress never approved any funding for research. Now, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, along with 22 fellow Democratic senators, is asking Senate leaders to allow the CDC to conduct the research. None of that research needs to infringe on anyone’s rights. What it just might do is settle some debates over gun statistics, so that at least we can all start the debate with the same set of facts. For example, gun rights advocates are fond of claiming that gun owners successfully defend themselves with irearms far more often that is reported — 3 million times a year, according to one study. Another study says 500,000. Still another says 108,000. The CDC’s research agenda dryly notes “the variation in these numbers remains a controversy in the ield.” Clearly, more research is needed. While they’re at it, researchers could answer other basic questions: ▪ How many guns are there in the U.S.? ▪ How do criminals get guns? ▪ Does limiting magazine capacity work? ▪ Is there a relationship between gun ownership levels and crime levels? ▪ Do universal background checks work? Gun rights supporters and gun control advocates may say they know the answers to these questions. They don’t. But they could, if the CDC were allowed to conduct the research necessary to answer these and other questions. Unfortunately, the gun lobby and its congressional supporters steadfastly blocked that research — as though they are afraid of what research might reveal. The Senate should choose science over rhetoric and fund gun-violence research. More damned emails F ollowing last week’s Republican but instead she chose the safer route, calamity in Cleveland, the choosing the Democratic centrist Tim Democratic National Convention Kaine. rolled into Philadelphia on Monday with Kaine has his virtues — he is solid big opportunities and big challenges. and affable, a solid liberal from the Many Democrats came with crucial state of Virginia — but this is enthusiasm, but also reservations. not the sort of pick that taps into the Unlike the Republican Convention’s progressive populism sweeping the speaker lineup, which was backilled Charles party or the expansive diversity that with Donald Trump’s children because constitutes the party. Blow there were so few party heavyweights Kaine reinforces Clinton’s “steady Comment to anchor it, the Democratic Convention hand” message, but that is a message, will have a litany of A-listers: The however valid and necessary, that’s president, the irst lady, Bernie Sanders and completely devoid of sizzle. former President Bill Clinton among them. Trump is campaigning on fear, change and These speakers will paint a vastly different winning, all intense and even seductive ideas, picture of the country and its even though his proposals future than the unremittingly are insular, unrealistic or hollow. “Steady” just doesn’t dark and dangerous one have the same emotional portrayed by the Republicans. appeal. And although There will also likely be I hate to boil a historic less acrimony in Philadelphia, election, and monumental as the Democrats review the policy challenges, down to failed stagecraft of Cleveland emotions, I’ve been around and work hard not to replicate long enough to know that this it. sort of visceral sensibility can But, all is not roses for the swing elections. Democrats. The Democrats also have The presumptive to deal with the resurgent idea of a primary presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, has a process and party apparatus that favored Clinton battered image — partly due to a concerted and wasn’t completely fair to Sanders. effort by Republicans to batter it, and partly the This was reignited in the conversation last result of her own poor choices. Two-thirds of week when WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 registered voters don’t believe that she’s honest internal emails from the Democratic National and trustworthy, and trustworthiness is one Committee in which some oficers expressed of those attributes that tends to be dificult to antipathy and outright hostility to Sanders and quickly and easily alter. his candidacy. Clinton’s honesty numbers are even worse No matter whom one supported during the than Trump’s, but not by much. They both have primaries, or even what party one aligns with, some unbelievable negatives. As The New York this should turn the stomach. This kind of Times reported earlier this month: collusion is precisely what is poisoning faith in “In a development not seen in any modern our politics. presidential contest, more than half of all voters This reinforced the feeling of many that the hold unfavorable views of the two major party system was rigged from the beginning. candidates and large majorities say neither is CNN reported on Sunday that in the wake honest and trustworthy. Only half of voters say of the scandal, the tainted party chairwoman, Mrs. Clinton is prepared to be president, while Debbie Wasserman Schultz, agreed to step an astonishing two-thirds say that Mr. Trump down from her role at the conclusion of the is not ready for the job — including four in 10 convention. Republicans.” But the injury is already inlicted. But, being about as bad as Trump is hardly a These leaks further damage an already good thing. Trump is a horrible candidate who damaged faith in the Democratic nominating shouldn’t have a shot, but in this race he does. process. In March, the Pew Research Center Although Clinton remains the favorite to win found: in November, the race is too close for comfort. “Forty two percent of Republican voters There are paths to victory — uphill though they have a positive view of the primary process, may be — for Trump to win. (Just typing that sent shivers down my spine. compared with 30 percent of Democrats. The share of Democrats expressing a positive The idea that a man who used a racist attack view of the primary process has declined 22 on a judge in one of his own cases might get percentage points (from 52 percent) in February to pick the next one — or even two or three — Supreme Court justices is in itself unfathomable. 2008. Republicans views are little different than in 2000 or 2008.” The fact that he’s even competitive makes me What are those Democratic voters supposed question the electoral competency of America.) Too many voters ind themselves in the worst to do who don’t trust the candidate, the party or the process, even if they view The Donald possible position: They have a choice between as the Devil? This is one of the convention’s a Republican of whom they are frightened and conundrums. disgusted and a Democrat of whom they are ■ leery and unenthused. Charles M. Blow is The New York Times’s Last week Clinton had a chance to shake visual Op-Ed columnist. up the race with her vice-presidential pick, Two-thirds of registered voters don’t believe Hillary is honest and trustworthy. YOUR VIEWS Inaugural Whisky Fest a success, will be back and even better Congratulations to Doug Corey and Andy McAnally for bringing the Zach Brown concert to Pendleton. So many people in town: all the motels and hotels booked to full capacity, all restaurants very, very busy, gas stations and food marts full of cars and people, fans illing the downtown streets and stores. Even the Duck bus was in town with the ight song blaring from its speakers, which in turn caused Beaver fans to break out in their ight song. Fun was had by many. Out-of-town folks love coming to Round-Up Stadium for rodeo and music. Local groups were able to work and make money for their activities. Could some things have been done better? Sure. When you put on a big event, you are always learning how to do things better. And these two fellows have already igured out how to make next year’s concert even better. Congratulations, again, to Andy and Doug on a job well done. Dean Fouquette Pendleton CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES U.S. Senators State Senator Ron Wyden Washington ofice: 221 Dirksen Senate Ofice Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande ofice: 541-962-7691 Bill Hansell, District 29 900 Court St. NE, S-423 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us State Representatives Greg Barreto, District 58 Jeff Merkley Washington ofice: 313 Hart Senate Ofice Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton ofice: 541-278-1129 900 Court St. NE, H-38 Salem, OR 97301 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