Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, August 26, 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 Katy Coba, the Pendleton-born, longtime director of
the Department of Agriculture who this week was named the chief operating
oficer for the state of Oregon.
It’s a big promotion for Coba, who has
gone from wheat ields to executive suites.
We hope she holds onto her Eastern
Oregon roots and continues to be an
advocate for farmers and rural residents
from her new perch high atop state
government. And we expect she will.
Too often, people in rural Oregon
feel far removed from decisions made in
Salem. It’s enough to wonder if you can
see out of the valley from the state capitol.
We know Coba feels a connection here,
and hope she keeps us in mind from her
new, more powerful seat at the table of state government.
It’s a loss for the agriculture department, no doubt, but a gain for the state
as a whole.
A kick in the pants to U.S. Bank, which plans to close their branch in
Athena — the only remaining bank in town.
We all know banks are more interested in
money than community, but this is just one
more reminder. The branch was paying its
bills and providing services, but corporate
headquarters didn’t see any room for further
growth.
And they are probably right. Once you’ve
won over the thousand or so Athena residents
to be your customers, there aren’t many
others left to convince.
But even in a day and age when nearly all
banking can be done online and in-person
branches may soon be obsolete, it does leave a hole in a town when jobs and
businesses turn tail. And the smaller town, the bigger that hole.
The loss will be felt in Athena, and for that a kick is warranted.
A tip of the hat to a string of centennials we ind ourselves in the
midst of.
Thursday, the National Park Service
turned 100. Today, it’s Pendleton’s old
Carnegie Library building that now houses
the Pendleton Center for the Arts. In a
few weeks, Happy Canyon will tick over
into the triple digits. September will also
mark 100 years since Jackson Sundown
inally took home his overdue Pendleton
Round-Up championship.
1916 was one heckuva year.
It’s true that there were terrible things
happening then, too. No one needs a
reminder that World War I was killing
hundreds of thousands of soldiers and
civilians.
But there are plenty of things to celebrate, too, lasting things that we still
love 100 years later.
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
Trump has sacriiced
everything for America
The prophet Ezekiel was told to set a
mark on those that “sigh and cry for all
the abominations” (9:4). Americans that
love and cherish our land, our heritage,
our Constitution, and our liberty are
grieving over the rampant corruption and
high level treason (abominations) that
have infected our precious republic.
Confusion, deception, duplicity
and sophistry have replaced integrity,
justice and morality in America today.
The national press and media do not
objectively report the news — they
manipulate, censor and shield news to
promote their liberal agenda.
The Obama Justice Department
shields corruption, as evidenced by
Hillary Clinton’s lies and deceit. The
Supreme Court is now politically
controlled, as evidenced by Obamacare.
One more liberal (globalist) justice will
destroy the foundation of the American
republic and the liberty and freedom of
the American people.
The next presidential election will
determine the fate of the American
republic. What the national press and
media will not report is this election
is about globalism vs. the American
people.
Globalism means a one-world
government authority over American
national sovereignty. Globalism means
open borders and unlimited immigration,
especially Islamic.
Globalism means the shredding of
the Constitution and dismantling of the
Second Amendment. Globalism means
slavery for all except the elite.
Who are the globalists? Primarily the
Democratic Party under the Clintons and
Obamas, the Republican establishment,
and the national media (CNN,
MSCNBN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Time,
Newsweek, 90 percent of newspapers
and 90 percent of Hollywood). This is
the reason the Bush family, Paul Ryan,
Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mitch
McConnell, Glen Beck, Megyn Kelly
and other establishment Republicans
will not support Trump.
The vast majority of contemporary
politicians are globalists. Their
allegiance is to a global one-world
government, not the American republic.
This is the reason Donald Trump is so
hated, so maligned, and so ridiculed. His
presidency would destroy the globalist
conspiracy to ruin America. He is not a
politician. He is not politically correct.
He is not bought and paid for like
Hillary Clinton. He is not corrupt to the
core like Hillary Clinton.
Is Donald Trump without laws? No
man/woman is, but I will tell you what
the press will not. He has sacriiced
his wealth, his strength, his reputation,
his honor, and his family to save the
American republic. The least you can do
for your country and our liberty is vote
for him.
Stuart Dick
Irrigon
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.
Anne Frank today
is a Syrian girl
MSTERDAM — On April 30,
should look after Americans irst, we
1941, a Jewish man here in
can’t accept everybody, they’ll take
Amsterdam wrote a desperate
American jobs, they’re dangerous and
letter to an American friend, pleading
different.
“The United States, if it continues to
for help emigrating to the United
be the world’s asylum and poorhouse,
States.
would soon wreck its present economic
“U.S.A. is the only country we
life,” the New York Chamber of
could go to,” he wrote. “It is for the
sake of the children mainly.”
Nicholas Commerce warned in 1934.
Some readers are objecting: But
A volunteer found that plea for
Kristof
Jews
weren’t a threat the way Syrian
help in 2005 when she was sorting old
Comment
refugees are! In the 1930s and 1940s,
World War II refugee iles in New York
though, a world war was underway
City. It looked like countless other iles,
and Jews were widely seen as potential
until she saw the children’s names.
Communists or even Nazis. There were
“Oh my God,” she said, “this is the Anne
widespread fears that Germany would iniltrate
Frank ile.”
the U.S. with spies and saboteurs under the
Along with the letter were many others
cover that they were Jewish
by Otto Frank, frantically
refugees.
seeking help to lee Nazi
“When the safety of
persecution and obtain a
the country is imperiled,
visa to America, Britain
it seems fully justiiable
or Cuba — but getting
to resolve any possible
nowhere because of global
doubts in favor of the
indifference to Jewish
country, rather than in favor
refugees.
of the aliens,” the State
We all know that the
Department instructed
Frank children were
in 1941. The New York
murdered by the Nazis, but
Times in 1938 quoted the
what is less known is the
granddaughter of President
way Anne’s fate was sealed
Ulysses S. Grant warning
by a callous fear of refugees,
about “so-called Jewish
among the world’s most
refugees” and hinting that
desperate people.
they were Communists
Sound familiar?
“coming to this country to
President Barack Obama
join the ranks of those who
vowed to admit 10,000
hate our institutions and
Syrian refugees — a tiny
want to overthrow them.”
number, just one-ifth of 1 percent of the total
News organizations didn’t do enough to
— and Hillary Clinton suggested taking more.
Donald Trump has repeatedly excoriated them humanize refugees and instead, tragically,
helped spread xenophobia. The Times
for a willingness to welcome Syrians and has
published a front-page article about the
called for barring Muslims. Fears of terrorism
risks of Jews becoming Nazi spies, and
have left Muslim refugees toxic in the West,
The Washington Post published an editorial
and almost no one wants them any more than
thanking the State Department for keeping out
anyone wanted a German-Dutch teenager
Nazis posing as refugees.
named Anne.
In this political environment, oficials and
“No one takes their family into hiding in the
heart of an occupied city unless they are out of politicians lost all humanity.
“Let Europe take care of its own,” argued
options,” notes Mattie J. Bekink, a consultant
Sen. Robert Reynolds, a North Carolina
at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. “No
Democrat who also denounced Jews. Rep.
one takes their child on a limsy boat to cross
Stephen Pace, a Georgia Democrat, went a
the Mediterranean unless they are desperate.”
step further, introducing legislation calling for
The son of a World War II refugee myself,
the deportation of “every alien in the United
I’ve been researching the anti-refugee hysteria
States.”
of the 1930s and 1940s. As Bekink suggests,
A State Department oficial, Breckinridge
the parallels to today are striking.
For the Frank family, a new life in America Long, systematically tightened rules on Jewish
refugees. In this climate, Otto Frank was
seemed feasible. Anne had studied English
unable to get visas for his family members,
shorthand, and her father spoke English, had
who were victims in part of American
lived on West 71st Street in Manhattan, and
paranoia, demagogy and indifference.
had been a longtime friend of Nathan Straus
History rhymes. As I’ve periodically
Jr., an oficial in the Franklin Roosevelt
argued, Obama’s reluctance to do more to try
administration.
to end the slaughter in Syria casts a shadow on
The obstacle was an American wariness
his legacy, and there’s simply no excuse for the
toward refugees that outweighed sympathy.
world’s collective failure to ensure that Syrian
After the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom
refugee children in neighboring countries at
against Jews, a poll found that 94 percent of
least get schooling.
Americans disapproved of Nazi treatment of
Today, to our shame, Anne Frank is a
Jews, but 72 percent still objected to admitting
Syrian girl.
large numbers of Jews.
■
The reasons for the opposition then were
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
the same as they are for rejecting Syrians
cherry farm in Yamhill.
or Hondurans today: We can’t afford it, we
A
We all know the
Frank children
were murdered
by the Nazis,
but what is less
known is the
way Anne’s fate
was sealed by
a callous fear of
refugees.