Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
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MIKE FORRESTER
STEVE FORRESTER
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Pendleton
Chairman of the Board
Astoria
President
Pendleton
Secretary/Treasurer
CORY BOLLINGER
JEFF ROGERS
Aberdeen, S.D.
Director
Indianapolis, Ind.
Director
OUR VIEW
The village’s
response to
tragedy
It takes a village to raise
his endeavors, are equally
shattered.
a child, to teach and watch
Both teens were well-
over a child. And a village
loved and still are. And
mourns when it loses a
many who didn’t know
child.
them personally have
We’re reminded this
shared in their grief.
week that Hermiston and
We love living in close-
Stanield are irst and
knit communities, and it’s
foremost villages. And they
a comfort to know our
are in mourning after losing Campana
neighbors. That’s also why
two of their own. We’re all
it’s so painful, so deeply
mourning.
heartbreaking, to lose one.
Raychel Campana,
We’re also reminded by
a 17-year-old Stanield
this tragedy just how much
Secondary School graduate,
a part of our community
died Monday in the hospital
our police departments and
after a car crash on the
school districts are. The
highway near Walla Walla.
oficers and dispatchers
James “JJ” Hurtado,
and teachers and
a 14-year-old incoming
administrators are members
freshman at Hermiston
Hurtado
of the community, as are
High School, was killed
the nurses, doctors and surgeons
Thursday morning, apparently at
at the hospital, the co-workers at
the hands of a man who went on
beauty salons, the parishioners in
to shoot the boy’s mother and kill
the churches and
another man before
the reporters at the
turning the gun on
himself.
Both teens were newspaper. No one
home at the end
Raychel’s family
well-loved and goes
of the day and leaves
and friends held a
the pain behind.
candlelight vigil
still are.
But it is the love
Wednesday at the
of the community
Stanield track, a
that holds these families in times of
somber and powerful tribute to the
young woman who hoped to one day grief. That pain has a purpose. It’s
what makes a village better than a
become a pediatric nurse.
metropolis. We know, around every
JJ’s family is still reeling. The
dark corner, we have people who
teen was a wrestler and just on the
care for us.
verge of beginning his high school
We will miss Raychel and JJ and
career on one of the best teams in
help carry their families through this
the state. Those who cheered him
dark time.
on through middle school, in all
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
Country’s current troubles
due to anti-union policies
During the past few weeks political
rhetoric has ramped up to a nearly
unprecedented level. With hubris and
hyperbole lowing freely, the fact
checkers will be kept busy. There is
one thing, however, with which they
shouldn’t have any trouble: History
didn’t begin at 12:01 a.m. this morning,
nor last month, nor on January 20, 2009
(Obama’s inauguration).
After World War II, when I entered
the labor force full-time, jobs were
plentiful and the pay was decent, thanks
to passage of the Fair Labor Standards
Act of 1938. That, along with increasing
union membership and an expanding
economy, helped to built a pretty solid
and secure middle class in most of the
country. Over the next two or three
decades businesses made money, too,
especially some with cost-plus contracts
with the U.S. government that coasted
beyond the war years.
In that same period the ratio of
top business management pay was
20-30 times that of most rank-and-ile
employees. Today that ratio, according
to some sources, may range from
200-300 times as much.
Ironically, over the last 30-40 years,
many workers have voted to send people
to Washington, D.C., who have pretty
well succeeded in circumventing, if
not actually gutting, the Fair Labor
Standards Act.
In addition, half the state legislatures
(Wisconsin is the 25th) have passed laws
called “right to work.” How sweet to
have the right to work an unnecessary
schedule, or two, in Idaho or Mississippi.
This grand “right to work” movement
has been dubbed “right to scrounge.”
Locally, with regard to Ballot
Measure 97, it wasn’t too long ago
(within historical bounds) that corporate
taxes accounted for a considerably larger
share of the state’s revenue than they do
today.
The minimum wage increase that
took effect July 1 won’t be kind to some
small businesses. They will be squeezed
from below and above, as well as by
competition from across the street and
down the road, and especially from
businesses that employ a strip-mining
business model. Although the increase is
set to be implemented incrementally, still
it has drawn concerted local opposition.
As Matt Henry said in his letter of
a few weeks ago, those who oppose
minimum wages growing into living
wages aren’t themselves struggling to
make ends meet.
OTHER VIEWS
Is U.S. as great as U.S. athletes are?
essimism has lavored this
the world’s currency. The Food and
Drug Administration is the benchmark
election campaign. America is
for medical standards. The American
in decline. The country is on the
patent system is the most important in
wrong track. We’re getting our clocks
the world.
cleaned in global trade deals. We’re
Nine of Forbes’ 10 most valuable
still suffering from the humiliation of
brands are American (Apple, Google,
Iraq.
IBM and so on). The U.S. is the
The share of Americans who say
leading energy producer. We have
that democracy is a “fairly bad” or
David
“very bad” system of government
Brooks 15 (at least!) of the world’s top 20
universities, while Hollywood is as
is rising sharply. A quarter of young
Comment
dominant as ever.
Americans feel that way, according
America is also quite good at
to data drawn from the World Values
change. The median age in the U.S. is 37.8,
Survey. A majority of young Americans
compared with 46.5 for both Germany and
believe that the United States should stay out
Japan. The newer a technology
of world affairs, according to
is the more the U.S. is likely to
a Chicago Council on Global
dominate it — whether it’s the
Affairs report.
cloud or the sharing economy.
Yet when you watch
According to The Economist,
the Olympics, we don’t
91 percent of online searches
seem like some sad-sack
are done through American
country in terminal decline.
companies’ services, and 99
If anything, the coverage
percent of smartphones run
gets a little boring because
on American-made operating
we’re always winning!
systems.
And the winners have such
Some American industries
amazingly American stories
have declined, but others
and personality types (Biles,
are rising. American fund
Ledecky, and, yes, Lochte).
managers handle 55 percent of
American Olympic
the world’s assets. American
performance has been
businesses host 61 percent of
astoundingly consistent over
the world’s social media users.
the recent decades. With rare
On the campaign circuit, global trade is
exceptions, we can be counted on to win
portrayed as this great national disaster. We’re
between 101 and 110 medals Olympiad after
being destroyed by foreigners! The Trans-
Olympiad. The 2016 team seems on pace to
Paciic Partnership was the central dominating
win at least that many.
boogeyman at the Democratic National
We’re not great when measured by medals
Convention, especially among people who
per capita (New Zealand, Denmark, Hungary,
have no clue what’s in it.
Australia and Britain are the big winners
In fact, America succeeds in global trade
there), but America does have more medals
about as well as at the Olympics. We rank
than any other nation in history, and that lead
third, behind Switzerland and Singapore,
is widening.
Moreover, America doesn’t win because we in global competitive rankings put out by
have better athletes (talent must be distributed the World Economic Forum. When trade is
leveled by international agreements, American
equally). America does well because it has
irms take advantage and win customers.
such great systems for preparing athletes.
As Robert B. Zoellick noted recently in The
Medals are won by institutions as much as by
individuals. The Germans have a great system Wall Street Journal, in the irst ive years after
for training kayakers, equestrians and throwers the U.S. has concluded free-trade agreements,
— the discus or javelin. The U.S. has amazing the country’s exports to those places have
risen three times faster than overall export
institutions to prepare jumpers, swimmers,
growth.
basketball players, gymnasts, runners and
Over the past ive years, Zoellick wrote,
decathletes.
the U.S. has run a $320 billion trade surplus
The big question is: Is the greatness of
in manufactured goods with its free-trade
America’s sports institutions relective of the
partners. The country’s farmers and ranchers
country’s strong institutions generally, or is it
boosted exports to free-trade partners by 130
more like the Soviet Union’s sports greatness,
percent between 2003 and 2013.
a Potemkin show masking national rot?
In one important way sports is not like
Well, if you step outside the pall of
economics. In Rio there are only three medals
the angry campaign rhetoric, you see
in each event. Global trade is not zero-sum.
that America’s institutions are generally
It spreads vast beneits across societies, while
quite strong. Over the past decades, some
undeniably hurting some businesses in narrow
developing countries, like Brazil, India
ields along the way.
and China, posted glitzy economic growth
Of course, we have to take care of those
numbers. But those countries are now all
being hampered by institutional weakness and who are hurt, but the biggest threat now is
unmerited pessimism itself, and the stupid and
growth is plummeting.
fearful choices that inevitably low from it.
But America’s economic success is like
■
our Olympic success, writ large. The nation’s
David Brooks became a New York Times
troubles are evident, but our country has sound
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
fundamentals. The American dollar is by far
P
American
Olympic
performance
has been
astoundingly
consistent over
the recent
decades.
Harvey Foreman
Pendleton
Demand truth and honesty
from all our politicians
What has happened with our
politicians in America today? Every day,
when I turn on the TV, I ask myself,
“What will be the new scandal?”
Recently I ran across a quote I feel
its the questionable trust and honesty of
our politicians, both state and national.
It refers to men, but could just as readily
refer to women.
“The greatest want of the world is
the want of men — men who will not be
bought or sold, men who, in their inmost
souls, are true and honest, men who do
not fear to call sin by its right name,
men whose conscience is as true to duty
as the needle to the pole, men who will
stand for the right though the heavens
fall.” — Ellen G. White
Let’s strive to make this our standard,
at least here in Eastern Oregon, when
dealing with each other.
Al Olson, 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.