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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, July 29, 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 tip of the hat to Jackie Jenkins of Hermiston, the chief deputy prosecutor for the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Ofice. The hard-working public servant recently received the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association’s Prosecutor of the Year award. The county board of commissioners acknowledged the recognition during its meeting Wednesday in front of District Attorney Dan Primus and Jenkins’s other colleagues. Primus said the honor was all the more signiicant because of who made the nomination. “It came from the actual oficers themselves that felt it appropriate for her to receive such an award for the work that she does,” Primus said. Jenkins has been with the district attorney’s ofice since 2009 and handles most of the Measure 11 cases. Primus named her as chief deputy prosecutor in 2015. She then helped deliver a guilty verdict in her irst murder trial and developed the legal strategy to bring down the United Aryan Empire, a Pendleton hate gang. We’re sure the award will be far from the last accolade Jenkins earns in her career. And speaking of awards, we tip our hat to the East Oregonian crew, who brought home another general excellence prize in last week’s Oregon Newspaper Publisher’s Association award. We are amassing quite a collection of such awards here at our headquarters on Byers in Pendleton — we’ve won ive of the last six ONPA general excellence prizes for newspapers of our size. That award is an honor for everyone here, from the advertising staff to the newsroom to the press and mailroom. Each aspect of three randomly selected papers is examined by a panel of judges from newspapers in another state, meaning we’ve got to be on our game every edition all year long to have a shot at winning. This year the EO also brought home four irst place individual awards and 11 overall, with every person in the newsroom playing a part in at least one. We thank our readers and subscribers for their support. While many newspapers across the country are cutting back and slimming down, we’re working to get better every day. Because climbing to the top is hard, but staying there is even harder. 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 BMCC pool an oasis of happiness, family As each day passes, my heart ills with more sorrow at the thought of the BMCC pool closing. Being a part the Pendleton Swim Association has helped me physically, academically and socially. My teammates have always made me feel better when I am overcome by stress or anxiety. PSA is literally my life. The fact that other kids might not get the chance to experience that pains me. I can’t bear the thought of other people not being able to feel the adrenaline rush that you get right when you dive off the blocks, the water splashing all around you as you’re racing to get to that wall, the fact that you can’t even breathe once it’s all over, but you’re still celebrating because you dropped one more second and got your Champs time. Honestly, I don’t know where I would be without my swim family, and I’m not just talking about all of the members of PSA. I am also referring to all of the people that I have met as I have traveled from city to city for meets. Before I got involved in competitive swim, I was one of the most shy people in the world. But now, when I tell people this, they generally don’t believe me. I don’t think that I would have ever crawled out of my shell had it not been for my amazing coaches and my supportive team. Swimming has also positively affected my family a great deal. When possible, my dad has his work scheduled around swimming, stays up late doing meet entries, and gives up about half of his day to coaching. He does this with pure joy. My mom is an active board member, she is constantly thinking of new ideas to improve the program, and she is very committed to all of our fundraising activities. My sister and I have met some of our lifelong friends and we have learned what it truly means to be an athlete. There are many families involved at this level creating an unmatched sense of community. At our last meet swimmers ranged from ages 5-18. This can truly be a family sport where all age levels of siblings can go to one competition. I lacked the coordination for ball sports. I am guessing my parents didn’t think I would ind a sport, but I did. Swimming is my sport and the pool is my ield. Please help support keeping us swimming. We desperately need time with the BMCC pool. We know, together, we can solve this issue for the long term, but for now we need that pool. Kyndra Nelson, Pendleton Get outdoors and take a break from politics Talk about the dregs of summer. If this non-stop political bashing doesn’t make you want to disconnect your TV permanently, then you have a strong constitution. All this name-calling is on a ifth grade level for which those erring students would be punished. Thankfully, most parents try to instill better scruples in their offspring. Perhaps you too got taken to task for using swearwords or having a “potty mouth.” No one deserves to be bad-mouthed, especially publicly. Errors in judgment, not following the laws or misrepresentation all deserve to be debated while assessing the merits of a presidential candidate — however, minus the name labeling. No wonder that Ted Cruz, a devout Christian, did not endorse Trump after having had his character trashed as well as that of his wife and his father. To make things worse, the mainstream media hash and rehash ever word spoken. And instead of giving a non-biased report and moving on, these spokespersons are programmed to give their own spin on things according to their liberal, political leanings Please spare me. All voters are not as dumb as a brain-dead slug. So we don’t need someone attempting to explain words or sway our thinking. What type of role models do these two presidential candidates present? How sad it is to have this kind of presence for younger people to model. Clinton seems to think she is above the law and doesn’t own any past mistakes. Trump is an egotist who begins every statement with “I”. Since we don’t have a monarchy government, seems to me that any candidate could bolster their image by acknowledging that it takes the combined minds of the brightest, most knowledgeable cabinet to be truly successful. Here’s to a long, very political summer. Take lots of breaks from the TV and enjoy the many outdoor treasures this country has to offer. Our great country will survive in spite of terrifying terrorists and tumultuous presidential candidates Merlyn Robinson, Heppner Hillary on the march the convention, the fact that our irst HILADELPHIA — Now, everybody wears the pants in the female presidential nominee is married family. to a former president is a bit of a While the Democrats have been downer for some people. celebrating the nomination of Hillary There’s a sense of cutting corners. Clinton, I’ve been thinking about But it was probably inevitable. The all the American women, from the annals of irst-ever female elected 1600s through World War II, who got oficials is pretty much a list of arrested for wearing trousers in public. wives of congressmen, senators and Gail You’d like to imagine them out there Collins governors who stepped in when their somewhere watching those Clinton husbands died — or, occasionally, got Comment pantsuits, exchanging high-ives. Ditto indicted. all the women who supported the Some, to be honest, were deeply uncomfortable bloomer movement, in embarrassing placeholders. But others were the name of a feminist future. tireless public servants. The idea of the The greatest, pre-Hillary, irst-woman-major-party- may have been Margaret nominee is a political event, Chase Smith, whose but it’s also a historical husband, Clyde, was a marker. Once everyone Republican representative leaves here and goes from Maine. (According home, we probably won’t to Ellen Fitzpatrick’s have much chance to talk book “The Highest Glass about that angle. Really, Ceiling,” he was also a there’s going to be a lot of chronic womanizer who other stuff on the agenda. died of advanced syphilis.) The Democrats hadn’t Margaret had been running even gotten to Clinton’s the congressman’s ofice acceptance speech before and meeting with his everyone was distracted by constituents for a long time, Donald Trump encouraging and made it clear she didn’t the Russians to spy on his intend to just sit in his seat. opponent. She moved up to It’s also becoming clear the Senate, took on Joe that the campaign is so McCarthy communist ixated on those ever-elusive hysteria, fought for women’s white males that many rights and bipartisanship. Democrats would prefer to Smith ran for president forget Susan B. Anthony and herself in 1964 — the talk about Babe Ruth. That’s irst woman regarded as political life. But just give us a genuine contestant by a little more time to dwell. either of the major parties. I’d like to think that At the time, commentators somewhere, all the women had little compunction who worked for this about suggesting she was, moment through American as one Los Angeles Times history are watching and writer contended, “beyond nodding happily. Like the the optimum years for the sisters Sarah and Angelina presidency.” Smith was 66 Grimke, who really don’t get enough mention. at the time. They were the daughters of a wealthy So Clinton, who is 68, has won one pre-Civil War South Carolina slave owner for Margaret Chase Smith. Also for the who igured out on their own, when they were generations of American women who were hardly more than babies, that the system was described, as one 18th-century visitor from wrong. (When Sarah was about 4 she went to France put it, as “charming and adorable at 15, the docks and asked a sea captain to take her faded at 23, old at 35, decrepit at 40.” to a place where whipping was prohibited.) The story keeps moving on. While Clinton They went north, became lecturers, and was the irst woman elected to the U.S. Senate there was something about their earnest, from New York, she was succeeded by Kirsten sweet, humorless determination that allowed Gillibrand, a young and wildly energetic them to get away with the political equivalent Democrat who came from a home where of murder. They trotted around the country, women were the family politicians. She had speaking for abolition and women’s rights already attracted national notice when she to audiences that — shockingly — included went into labor after sitting through a 13-hour men. meeting of the Armed Services Committee. You had your occasional torch-bearing But things still aren’t equal. We’ve made protesters, but for the most part, they it to a point where a woman who’s been irst triumphed by simply ignoring the possibility lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state can of bad outcomes. Angelina wound up win a presidential nomination. Now let’s see marrying a dashing fellow abolitionist, how long it takes for someone who’s a little Theodore Weld, to the amazement of less overqualiied to get the nod. Americans who had never conceived that an Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has made advocate of equal rights for women could ever history. So here she comes, wearing her pants, ind a husband. ready to run. Give the Grimkes a hand. And pick your ■ own nominees to go with them. Gail Collins joined The New York Times Even if Hillary wins the White House, in 1995 as a member of the editorial board there will still be political worlds for women and later as an Op-Ed columnist. In 2001 she to conquer. While Bill Clinton gave the most became the irst woman ever appointed editor supportive spousal speech conceivable at of the Times’s editorial page. P The idea of the irst-woman- major-party- nominee is a political event, but it’s also a historical marker ... I’d like to think that somewhere, all the women who worked for this moment through American history are watching and nodding happily. 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.