VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, July 30, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 5A
Democrats win the summer
P
HILADELPHIA — Donald
Trump has found an
ingenious way to save the
Democratic Party. Basically, he’s
abandoned the great patriotic
themes that used to ire up
the GOP and he’s allowed the
Democrats to seize that ground.
If you visited the two conventions
this year you would have come
away thinking that the Democrats
are the more patriotic of the two
parties — and the more culturally
conservative.
Trump has
abandoned the
Judeo-Christian
aspirations that
have always
represented
America’s
highest moral
ideals: toward
David
love, charity,
Brooks
humility,
Comment
goodness, faith,
temperance and
gentleness.
He left the ground open for Joe
Biden to remind us that decent
people don’t enjoy iring other
human beings.
Trump has abandoned the basic
modesty code that has always
ennobled the American middle
class: Don’t brag, don’t let your
life be deined by gilded luxuries.
He left the ground open for the
Democrats to seize middle-class
values with one quick passage
in a Tim Kaine video — about a
guy who goes to the same church
where he was married, who taught
carpentry as a Christian missionary
in Honduras, who has lived in the
same house for the last 24 years.
Trump has also abandoned
the American ideal of popular
self-rule.
He left the ground open
for Barack Obama to remind
us that our founders wanted
active engaged citizens, not a
government run by a solipsistic and
self-appointed savior who wants
everything his way.
Trump has abandoned the deep
and pervasive optimism that has
always energized the American
nation.
He left the ground open for
Michelle Obama to embrace the
underlying chorus of hope that
runs through the American story:
that our national history is an arc
toward justice; that evil rises for
a day but contains the seeds of
its own destruction; that beneath
the vicissitudes that darken our
days, we live in an orderly cosmos
governed by love.
For decades the Republican
Party has embraced America’s
open, future-oriented nationalism.
Quick takes
But
when you nominate a Silvio
Berlusconi you give up a piece
of that. When you nominate a
blood-and-soil nationalist you’re
no longer speaking in the voice of
Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and
every Republican nominee from
Reagan to McCain to Romney.
Democrats have often been
ambivalent about that ardent
nationalistic voice, but this week
they were happy to accept Trump’s
unintentional gift. There were
an unusually high number of
great speeches at the Democratic
convention this year: the Obamas,
Biden, Booker, Clinton, the
Mothers of the Movement and so
on.
These speakers found their
eloquence in
staving off this
demagogue.
They effectively
separated Trump
from America.
They separated
him from
conservatism.
They made
full use of the
deep nationalist
chords that touch
American hearts.
Trump has
allowed the
Democrats to mask
their deep problems.
A Democratic
administration has
presided over a time
of growing world
chaos, growing
violence and
growing anger. But
the Democrats seem
positively organized
and orderly compared
to Candidate Chaos
on the other side.
The Sanders people
have 90 percent of the
Democratic Party’s
passion and 95 percent of the
ideas. Most Sanders people are
kind- and open-hearted, but there
is a core that is corrupted by moral
preening, an uncompromising
absolutism and a paranoid
unwillingness to play by the rules
of civic life.
But the extremist fringe
that threatens to take over the
Democratic Party seems less
menacing than the lunatic fringe
that has already taken over the
Republican one.
This week I left the arena
here each night burning with
indignation at Mike Pence. I
almost don’t blame Trump. He is
a morally untethered, spiritually
The outdoors can be a life saver
Farmworker housing nixed
I’m really glad this article was written.
I had no idea that the federal gov. required
farmers to pay more than minimum wages
and give free housing to people from other
countries where the American dollar is
1,000 times their currency value. Puts a lot
more things into perspective!
Connie Hansen
I’m sure all the naysayers are going to
run out and apply for work there now.
Kate Chastain
Trespassing near butte
I used to cut through the south east side
of the butte everyday on my way to school
and walked my dog on the trail that is on his
property. In 18 years I never realized it was
private property.
Jessica Brown
I can see the property owners point of
view. Two reasons I would not want people
walking on my property is: 1) People
trash and disrespect others’ property. 2) If
someone were to get hurt on the property
the land owner is responsible. Sometimes
as property owners we have to be mean and
protect ourselves.
Jessica Oster
American Pickers are coming
They need to go up past Heppner and
take a good long look at Hardman.
OJ Rumilus
They need to hit up old rural farms..
trouble is with their popularity it will of
driven prices up.
Teresa Thorpe Long
One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is
that much can be summed up in just a few words.
Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours
@Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian.
com, and keep them to 140 characters.
By MELISSA HART
Writers on the Range
B
efore you can adopt a
child from Oregon’s
Department of Human
Services, social workers ask
you to spend several half-days
together. The irst time my
husband and I took the toddler
we hoped would be ours out
alone, her foster mother gave
me a green plastic rectangle.
“State parks special access
pass,” she said. “Waives the
parking fee.”
She directed us to a nearby
forest with sunny patches of
grass ideal for a family picnic.
We spread out our plaid blanket
with sandwiches and bananas.
My husband and I clasped
hands as our child-to-be — this
curly-haired baby born of
addiction and loss — stepped
onto the grass. Barefoot, blades
prickling her tender soles, she
burst into tears. This was a
problem we had to solve.
Almost 2,000 foster children
wait for permanent families
in Oregon, and over 100,000
do nationwide. They’ve been
relinquished by birth parents
suffering from addiction,
poverty and domestic violence.
Most go to foster parents who
are dedicated to giving kids a
decent start. A stipend provides
money for food, clothing, a few
toys and medical care. The cost
of pediatricians and therapists
leaves scant extra for trips to
waterfalls, sand dunes and
forests.
Enter Oregon’s special
access pass. Like similar
programs in some other states,
it offers foster and adoptive
parents free day-use parking
and overnight camping at state
parks. Our own green rectangle
arrived in the mail shortly after
our new daughter’s unhappy
encounter with grass. My
husband and I lived to spend
our free time outside: If our
daughter couldn’t
tolerate nature,
how would we
integrate her into
our world?
Overwhelmed
by diapers
and therapy
appointments
and our toddler’s
mirthless silence,
we told ourselves,
“We’ve got to
get outside.”
We showed our
daughter how to
pick blackberries
along the
meandering trails
of Elijah Bristow
State Park beside
the Willamette River. We
pointed out herons and deer.
She stared grimly, face smeared
berry-red.
We drove up to Silver Falls
State Park near Portland and
strapped her into a backpack
for a hike to the cave behind
South Falls. The roar of water
combined with mist on her face
undid her. She wailed until we
returned to the car. For a while,
the special access pass lay
abandoned. We restricted our
travels to the backyard until she
began, gradually, to trust us and
the wider world.
Years later, a learning
disability became so signiicant
that we pulled her from
second grade and began
home-schooling. I took a pay
cut and cooked rice and bean
dinners so we could afford
gymnastics lessons, Girl Scouts,
and museum trips. When our
special access pass expired,
we gratefully
applied for renewal.
We’ve used it to
explore Umpqua
Lighthouse State
Park, to dig quartz
at Agate Beach
State Recreation
Area, to gaze up
at red and orange
MonkeyFace Rock
at Smith Rock State
Park near Bend.
Our daughter began
to look forward to
those trips.
Over the years,
we’ve met families
for whom the
pass has been a
lifesaver. One
couple has fostered over 20
kids; they now have one who’s
undergone 13 heart surgeries.
On vacations, they head out to
one of Oregon’s 361 state parks.
Other friends adopted three
children. They pile everyone
into their van with the pass
dangling from their mirror, then
trot along trails with backpacks
and binoculars, their faces alive
with curiosity.
Some will argue that tax
dollars are better spent on more
pressing needs. But nature is
a need, too, and most children
— foster, adopted or otherwise
— too often plant themselves in
Some will
argue that
tax dollars
are better
spent
on more
pressing
needs. But
nature is a
need, too.
Protect nonproit tax exemptions
The Bend Bulletin, July 23
O
regon law has a fairly broad
property tax exemption for
nonproits. But there’s been a
push in the Legislature and from the
League of Oregon Cities to change
that.
It’s worth
exploring as long
as the Legislature
doesn’t rush in and
disrupt important
charitable organiza-
tions without careful
analysis.
Nonproits
use services, too.
They beneit from roads, police and
ire protection and water and sewer
services. Should they not pay any
property taxes that support those
services? Should they be required
to meet some sort of beneit test to
see if they qualify for a full or partial
exemption? Everyone else arguably
vacuous man who appears haunted
by multiple personality disorders.
It is the “sane” and “reasonable”
Republicans who deserve the
shame — the ones who stood
silently by, or worse, while Donald
Trump gave away their party’s
sacred inheritance.
The Democrats had by far the
better of the conventions. But the
inal and shocking possibility is
this: In immediate political terms it
may not make a difference.
The Democratic speakers hit
doubles, triples and home runs. But
the normal rules may no longer
apply. The Democrats may have
just dominated a game we are no
longer playing.
Both conventions featured
one grieving parent after another.
The fear of violent death is on
everybody’s mind — from ISIS,
cops, lone sociopaths. The essential
contract of society — that if you
behave responsibly things will
work out — has been severed for
many people.
It could be that in this moment
of fear, cynicism, anxiety and
extreme pessimism, many voters
may have decided that civility is a
surrender to a rigged system, that
optimism is the opiate of the idiots
and that humility and gentleness
are simply surrendering to the
butchers of ISIS. If that’s the case
then the throes of a completely new
birth are upon us and Trump is a
man from the future.
If that’s true it’s not just politics
that has changed, but the country.
■
David Brooks’s column on
the Op-Ed page of The New
York Times started in September
2003. He has been a senior
editor at The Weekly Standard, a
contributing editor at Newsweek
and the Atlantic Monthly, and he is
currently a commentator on “The
Newshour with Jim Lehrer.”
pays more because nonproits don’t
pay. Is that worth it?
Those are valid questions to ask.
They are hard questions to answer.
There’s a good reason nonproits
got exemptions in the irst place.
Many of them improve lives. They
have beneited the community. They
have played a role
where government
sometimes does not.
Taxing them more
would mean they
could do less good
work. Just having
nonproit status,
though, does not
grant nonproits a
halo that entitles them to immunity
from closer examination.
There is a signiicant amount of
money at stake.
“Nonproit organizations that are
charitable, literary, benevolent or
scientiic are provided a property
tax exemption that will cost more
There’s a good
reason nonproits
got exemptions
in the irst place.
than $194 million in the 2015-17
biennium,” according to the League
of Oregon Cities. “In addition,
exemptions for the property of
nonproit religious organizations
costs more than $113 million for the
biennium.”
Oregon courts have used a test to
determine if organizations qualify for
a property tax exemption, according to
a report from the Legislative Revenue
Ofice. Is the organization charitable?
And is the property actually and
exclusively occupied or used in the
charitable work carried on by the
organization? There’s a deeper test for
hospitals to ensure they treat people
regardless of ability to pay, make a
special effort to help the needy and are
not operated for proit.
All states offer some level of
property tax exemption. And we aren’t
suggesting that Oregon get rid of all
exemptions. The Legislature is right to
take a look. Tax-exempt status should
be earned.
front of screens in sterile rooms
devoid of streams and grass and
wildlife. Plenty of studies have
linked time spent outdoors to
increased optimism and physical
wellbeing. The pass removes a
inancial barrier between kids
who’ve gotten a rough start in
life and the therapy that only
standing in a stream, gazing at
clouds or rolling down a sand
dune can provide.
Last year, my family drove
across Oregon. The pass got
us into Wallowa Lake State
Park, where our daughter swam
until her lips turned blue. We
drove to Pete French’s Round
Barn and toured Kam Wah
Chung Museum, an old Chinese
apothecary and opium den.
Travels like this have broadened
our daughter’s perspective and
captured her imagination. A
child born bereft and abandoned
now moves through the world
with conidence and excitement.
After Kam Wah Chung,
we spread out our blanket on
a sunny patch of grass and ate
sandwiches and tangerines.
Afterward, my daughter
practiced her gymnastics.
Hands clasped, my husband and
I watched as she ran barefoot
across the grass. Suddenly, she
sprang into a cartwheel, fell
over onto her back, then leaped
up and laughed.
■
Melissa Hart is a contributor
to Writers on the Range, the
opinion service of High Country
News. She lives in Eugene
and is the author of Avenging
the Owl and the memoir Wild
Within: How Rescuing Owls
Inspired a Family.