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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.