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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, July 28, 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 Incoming Portland mayor offers hope for rural Oregon Portland Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler chronically understaffed, mistrusted could be one of agriculture’s best by many residents, plagued by poor friends in a city that has over-sized morale. There are miles of city streets inluence on Oregon’s vast rural that are still unpaved, and many expanses. more miles of paved streets that need We’ve written often on the divide repair. between urban and rural America. As people lock to Portland in The divide between Portland and costume and in character to become rural Oregon is a chasm. part of the city’s quirky, offbeat Farmers and ranchers may fabric, they ind rents are sky high not fully appreciate Portland’s and vacant housing hard to come by. importance as a market and a hub of Any development not nixed outright vital services. But by strict land-use there’s no mistaking policies will almost Portland’s willingness In Ted Wheeler, certainly be opposed to push its agenda on vocal activists. rural Oregon by Then farming practices, there are the labor, economic homeless — 4,000 may have a development and the largely substance- partner in environment on its addled or mentally rural neighbors. ill souls who have Portland. It’s a problem. overwhelmed both “What can the services available agriculture do,” the Oregon Farm to help them and the patience of a Bureau’s Dave Dillon asks, “to better town that prides itself on tolerance. connect with city government and Their situation is desperate and tragic. thought leaders who seem to have Portland’s situation is made more insularity and sometimes utopian dificult because solutions to these vision of food production that does and a host of lesser problems must not match the marketplace and be crafted, spun, bent and twisted the demands of a growing world — perhaps beyond recognition — population?” with care so as not to offend the In Wheeler, rural Oregon may sensibilities of a wide variety of have a partner in Portland. His progressive interests that will take to family made its money in the the streets at the drop of a hat. timber industry. He appreciates the Wheeler’s plate is full. If he could urban-rural divide and urban-rural get more of Portland’s activist class to interdependence. focus on the city’s problems instead “You can’t talk about success in of exporting their agenda to rural the agricultural industry without Oregon everyone would be better off. talking about the role urban areas From our distant vantage, Wheeler play,” he said. “Urban communities seems the best choice Portland has in America are increasingly clueless made in recent years. He’s a smart about the challenges facing rural guy, a sensible choice for voters who communities.” often prefer the unconventional. And though Wheeler is sincere Though we won’t know for sure and earnest on the subject of the until he takes ofice in January, urban-rural divide, it’s not the biggest Wheeler seems like someone problem he faces. Not by a long shot. agriculture can work with to advance The police bureau is in turmoil — both rural and urban interests. 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 Is summer vacation too long? The (Albany) Democrat-Herald A n interesting story in the Democrat-Herald recently examined the phenomenon that educators have termed the “summer slide” — the natural tendency for students to lose academic ground during the long, warm weeks of summer vacation. School districts around the mid-valley have started programs intended to help students keep an educational mindset during the summer months, and those are showing some signs of success. Engaged parents and guardians also have a role to play: Something as simple as frequent trips to a public library can keep kids reading during the summer, and libraries themselves increasingly are offering innovative programs intended to keep young brains buzzing in that stretch between the end of the last school year and the start of the next. Summer can be a good time to encourage children to follow their own passions and to explore them. If that means one of your kids spends a long afternoon taking a long, careful look at bugs, well, that’s probably for the best. And savvy parents often are on the lookout for opportunities during family vacation to sneak in some learning under the guise of fun (that is, until the parents collapse, exhausted, at the end of each vacation day). All that is worthwhile. But it seems that we continue to dance around a question that we should be asking more directly: Is the summer vacation too long? Jim Golden, the superintendent of the Greater Albany Public Schools district, is among the educators who’s been asking that question. (We should emphasize here that the district is nowhere near making any decision about summer vacation, and any decision along those lines will be made only after considerable opportunities for input from parents, students, teachers, administrators and school staff members.) The idea Golden was loating last year involved shortening the 10-week summer vacation and scattering what he called “mini-breaks” throughout the year. For example, schools could schedule mini-breaks around holidays such as Memorial Day to give families ive-day weekends. (The mini-breaks in the schedule also could offer stressed students a chance to catch up on their schoolwork, an opportunity students likely would embrace.) There’s nothing particularly new about the idea of trimming back summer vacations; the notion has been kicking around ever since it became apparent that most children were no longer required on the farm during the summer. In fact, some Oregon schools have experimented with the idea of doing away with extended summer vacations: Rosa Parks Elementary School in Portland, for example, has used what amounts to a year-round schedule. The school operates on a nine-weeks-on, three-weeks-off rotation. (Rosa Parks students do get ive weeks off at the end of the school year — and the school offers extra instruction during the three-week-off periods to students who need it.) No one is saying yet that this is the model that all Oregon schools should follow. And any plan to shorten summer vacations will require working through a long list of details. It likely will come with some increased costs. (Although Rosa Parks students have about the same number of school days as other Portland students, the extra instruction during the three-week-off periods costs about $60,000.) But it stands to reason that a student who stays sharp in the summer will be better equipped to attack the new school year with gusto. Would a different approach to vacation time improve the quality of education we provide our students? No one knows for sure, but it seems silly not to at least ask the question. In Cleveland, the GOP’s ‘Come to Trump” moment LEVELAND — There’s always Those conlicts oficially ended been a disconnect between what when the 1,237th delegate cast a vote pundits and political insiders for Trump, making him the party’s hear when Donald Trump speaks and nominee. Cruz tried to extend the ight. what rank-and-ile Republicans hear. It didn’t work. But when Trump gave his acceptance In conversation after conversation address on the last night of the GOP over four days, delegates and other convention here in Cleveland Thursday attendees said something like this: night, the opinion gap was absolutely “Donald Trump wasn’t my irst choice. Byron But he’s the nominee. The primaries are vast. York over. It’s time to get behind him.” To the critics offering irst opinions Comment Some added this: “I wasn’t all that on Twitter, Trump’s 75-minute happy about supporting John McCain, speech was dark, angry, bigoted, fear-mongering, deceitful and more. And to the but they told me to support the party’s nominee. I wasn’t all that happy about supporting Mitt thousands of Republicans in the room at the Romney, but they told me to support the party’s Quicken Loans Arena, it was ... great. nominee. Now it’s time to support the party’s Immediately after Trump inished, as the halls illed with delegates and activists on their nominee.” Trump’s speech generally followed the way to after-convention parties, I asked people for quick reactions to the speech. These are the themes his campaign mapped out for each night of the convention — make irst 20 reactions I got: America safe again, make “Awesome.” America work again, make “He rocked it.” America irst again and make “I loved it — it was America one again. But fabulous.” “Wonderful — everything — GOP delegates, Trump’s strongest moments — and by far the passages about law and order and the On Donald Trump’s speech that won the most enthusiastic military — it was huge.” response from the audience — “Oh my gosh, I was blown focused on safety and security. away.” Pointing to Dallas, Baton Rouge, Orlando, “Great — very presidential, actually.” San Bernardino and more, Trump said, “The “A grand slam.” attacks on our police, and the terrorism in “Fabulous — will go down in history as a our cities threaten our very way of life. Any great speech.” politician who does not grasp this danger is not “LGBTQ — I was so happy. He nailed that it to lead our country.” one.” The response was strong from an “A phenomenal job. I get how he speaks to overwhelmingly pro-police crowd. And later, people.” when a Code Pink demonstrator staged what “It was a total out-of-body experience. I’ve has become a traditional disruption of the GOP never been so illed with hope and gratitude gathering and was taken out by authorities, and excitement for our kids. He was John Trump ad-libbed, “How great are our police?” Wayne — the cavalry is on the way.” The ovation was thunderous. “Ronald Reagan on steroids.” If the applause meter were the only guide, “A home run, full of red meat for Trump should probably talk about police all the Republicans and conservatives.” time. “Incredible — touched all the bases.” It was just one part of Trump’s appeal “Superb — he hit every point. Just great.” to voters who believe something has gone “He’s going to make American great again, terribly wrong in the United States. “This is a and I believe him.” speech trying to speak to the seven out of 10 “He’s so articulate about his vision and his Americans who say we are on the wrong track plan, and he gives us conidence he can do it.” and the half who say we are less safe today,” “Entertaining and uplifting, with substance tweeted the Republican pollster and Washington too.” Examiner columnist Kristen Soltis Anderson. “Absolutely pitch perfect, full of details. There’s no doubt that for the Republicans There’s so much we have to ix.” who came to Cleveland, the convention, “I loved it. Four years ago it was one-man- occasionally troubled, ended on a high note. one-woman, and this year we actually heard (As such things go, the balloon drop at the end ‘LGBTQ.’ I teared up. It made me so happy.” Of course, those were the people in the hall, was epic.) This is impressionistic, but there seemed to committed Republicans all. They weren’t the be an unmistakable enthusiasm deicit in the millions of general-election voters watching convention’s irst three days. Of course there on TV. But their reactions, along with a lot of other signs, suggested at the least that whatever were moments, like Rudy Giuliani’s amped-up address on Monday night. But in general, the Republican disunity existed going into the excitement level seemed lower and signiicant convention had disappeared going out. numbers of seats remained empty, even during “Everybody has a come-to-Trump the prime-time parts of the program. moment,” a Southern politico who originally That changed with Trump’s appearance on did not support Trump explained not long Thursday. At the very least, the RNC inally had after Trump formally won the Republican a lot of happy customers. The (vastly) bigger nomination Tuesday night. The GOP’s get-on-board moment came later this year than question, of course, is what those millions watching on TV thought. in recent presidential elections, but it inally Did they see darkness and anger, as arrived at Quicken Loans on Thursday. the commentariat did? Or did they see an In a backhanded way, the previous night’s extraordinary political performer with the Ted Cruz debacle helped make it happen. potential to actually ix the nation’s problems? What the widely negative reaction to Cruz showed was that the delegates and Republican Now the campaign begins in earnest. ■ activists gathered here no longer have any Byron York is chief political correspondent appetite for the conlicts of the GOP primary for The Washington Examiner. season. C “Awesome.” “He rocked it.” YOUR VIEWS Sanders supporters should now back Clinton An open letter to the people who worked very diligently on Bernie Sanders’ campaign: Thank you for your efforts, be they in work, cash or both. Your work has not been trashed or forgotten. Now it is time to shift gears and think party, not personnel. On election day you can do a number of things: 1. Not ill out your ballot and not vote at all. 2. Write in Bernie’s name 3. Write in someone else’s name 4. Vote Republican 5. Vote for Hillary Clinton Numbers 1-4 will not provide any solace for your hard work and can only lead to a disastrous outcome. Number 5 will lead to fruition of your hard work and solidify Bernie and Hillary’s work of the past few weeks, since the agenda of both has been marginally similar throughout the campaign. If I heard Bernie’s speech correctly, he will continue to work legitimately on his agenda but will have very little success with a Republican president and will need a Democratic president. Think it over between now and November — attitude can only provide short term solace. John Gilson Pendleton 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 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.