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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
TIM TRAINOR
Business Ofice Manager
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Let’s get ready
to Round-Up
It’s here — time for another
go-round at the Pendleton
Round-Up.
For Umatilla County’s biggest
week, the streets are already illing
up, parking spaces are harder to
come by, and the checkout line at
Safeway is getting
longer every hour.
But the rodeo is
getting closer, too.
And the Pendleton
pride, hospitality,
Western culture
and hollering good
times are on ine
display already. The
Indian Village has
begun rising into
the cool September
sky. And slack got
underway Monday,
the beginning of the
long slog required to qualify for the
main events on Saturday.
There is a lot to see this year, for
visitors and locals alike. And for an
event that is 106 years old, there are
quite a few new narratives this time
around.
The big news is that back-to-
back-to-back-to-back title winner
Trevor Brazile will be a no-show
this year, after starting his own
cowboy circuit competing with
the PRCA. That means this year’s
Round-Up is a wide open affair,
and a new champion will surely
be crowned. It’s sad to miss one
of the all-time great cowboys, but
Brazile’s absence means this year
the East Oregonian trophy — given
to the best all-around cowboy
— could be claimed by anybody.
That will bring an excitement to
Saturday’s inals that hasn’t been
there the last few years, as Brazile’s
domination went
unchallenged.
But in addition
to events on the
grass, this is also
the year to visit (or
more likely, revisit)
Happy Canyon.
The venerable night
show celebrates its
centennial this year,
with a renewed
focus on its long
legacy.
It’s hard to
believe the event
has lasted for 100 years, through
the era of silent ilms, color
ilms, 3D ilms and IMAX ilms.
It requires a massive amount of
volunteer time and labor, and
it has been able to keep both
volunteers and audiences engaged
for generations, even as tastes and
politics changed.
Surviving is remarkable enough,
but as it inches over in the triple
digits, Happy Canyon is thriving.
Like the Round-Up went all out for
their centennial, Happy Canyon is
doing the same. Be sure to join the
party and watch the show sometime
during Pendleton’s busiest week.
Surviving is
remarkable
enough, but as
it inches over in
the triple digits,
Happy Canyon
is thriving.
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.
Culture Corner
or the past 100 years, Happy
Canyon has been telling the history
of Umatilla County
in a very non-textbook
sort of way.
Through song and
dance, narration and
mime, pyrotechnics
and pratfalls, the Indian
pageant and wild west
show entertains the
audience in town for the
Round-Up. You could
even argue that some
come for the night show
and then stick around for
the rodeo.
Rebeca Fletcher
Waggoner, a fourth-
generation participant in the show,
celebrates the history with her irst
book, “Happy Canyon: A History of the
World’s Most Unique Indian Pageant &
F
Wild West Show.”
The pages are full of inside stories
and rare photographs
of the pageant through
the years, creating a
well-organized archive
of all the people and
moments that deine
Happy Canyon.
The show is a
throwback to be sure,
and if someone set out
to write and stage it
today it would look far
different. Understanding
the show’s creators and
innovators will give
the performance some
valuable perspective. As
Doug Corey, a former Happy Canyon
director, says in the book, “The show
depicts history. It has nothing to do with
the present day and age.”
Be heard!
Comment online at eastoregonian.com
OTHER VIEWS
Our Russia problem
R
to protect the devils that it knows.
ussia’s place in American
But at the same time Putin has
politics used to be (relatively)
become opportunistically revisionist
simple. The further right you
in his own right, sensing American
stood, the more you feared Ivan and
weakness and looking for ways to
his Slavic wiles. The further left,
destabilize the Western order —
the more you likely thought the Red
including through tacit support for
Menace was mostly just a scare story.
Donald Trump.
Now things are more complicated.
Unless you’re Trump himself,
In just 15 years, the Republican Party
Ross
has had a president who famously
Douthat Putin’s destabilizing moves — the
Crimean anschluss, the Ukraine
claimed a soul-to-soul relationship
Comment
invasion, the shadow war against his
with Vladimir Putin … followed by
neighbors and Western governments
two consecutive nominees who took a
starkly hawkish stance on Russia … and now writ large — have made it much harder
to imagine Moscow as anything but an
a presidential candidate in Donald Trump
who has a palpable man-crush on Putin and
adversary to be checked, contained, opposed.
promises closer ties with his regime.
But the trajectory of events in the Middle
Over the same period, Democrats have
East, where American grand strategy has
gone from mocking George
mostly come to grief and
W. Bush’s naiveté about
we face a shifting array of
Our primary
Putin … to mocking Mitt
foes and rivals, suggests the
Romney for describing
of a “new Cold War”
interest in Syria and limits
Russia as America’s main
lens. Our primary interest
geopolitical foe … to
elsewhere is not, in Syria and elsewhere
spinning theories about
as it was decades
as it was decades is ago, not, containing
Trump being an agent of
Russian
Russian inluence that seem
expansion. It’s containing
ago,
containing
ripped from a right-wing
jihadi terrorism, ending
periodical circa 1955.
Russian expansion. the refugee crisis, restoring
The ideologues, too,
some kind of basic order
It’s containing jihadi — and in all these tasks we
have lost the plot. Sean
Hannity is hosting the
a way to work with
terrorism, ending need
Russian cat’s-paw Julian
Moscow if we hope to see
Assange because he might
through to any kind of
the refugee crisis, them
have dirt on Hillary. The
inish.
Nation is defending Donald restoring some kind
Which gets at the
Trump against what it calls
underlying question here,
of basic order.
the “neo-McCarthyism”
one that both parties ought
of mainstream liberalism.
to be debating: Just how
Team-player conservatives are tying
right was Romney? Russia certainly looks
themselves in knots explaining or defending
more like a more dangerous geopolitical
Trump’s Putin crush; liberal pundits are
rival today than it did four years ago. But is
trying to memory-hole everything they wrote Putin’s regime and its revanchist ambitions
about Romney and Russia in 2012.
the biggest potential danger that we face?
This confusion relects various partisan
Bigger than al-Qaida and ISIS and their
derangements, plus the destabilizing
epigones? Bigger than the far-richer,
inluence of Trump’s strongman shtick.
far-stronger, and equally authoritarian
But to some extent confusion is entirely
People’s Republic of China?
justiied. We should be uncertain about how
It is not enough to say that all of them are
to think about our relationship with Russia,
dangers; statesmen must prioritize, and our
and our parties should be trying on different
priorities are dangerously open-ended and
perspectives, because it isn’t clear at all
undeined.
where our national interest vis-à-vis the
If the last four years really are a Cold
Russians really lies.
War 2.0 overture, then our approach to
At the root of this uncertainty is the fact
the Middle East and Asia needs to be
that neither the United States nor Russia
refashioned with an eye toward winning a
seems certain exactly what kind of power it
new twilight war with Moscow.
intends to be. During the Cold War, we were
But if Beijing is, in the long run, a more
(mostly) a status quo power — practicing
important rival than Moscow — if China’s
containment, building intricate alliance
capacities and ambitions are more dangerous
networks, propping up bad actors for fear
than Putin’s bold play of a weak hand —
of something worse — and the Russians
then we may need a path to de-escalation
were the revisionists, promoting socialist
and wary cooperation with the Russian
revolution from Havana to Hanoi. Then in
regime.
the early 2000s we seemed to have changed
Donald Trump, with his grotesque
places: Under George W. Bush, America
embrace of Putin’s thuggishness, is not the
was a revolutionary power, preaching the
man for that task or any other. But as has
messianic faith of liberalism and democracy, often been true in this election, in the midst
while Moscow was a friend of strongmen,
of his folly you can see the questions that the
stability and the Saddam-era status quo.
next generation of leaders needs to ask.
But now it’s a muddle. In the Middle East,
■
throughout the Arab Spring and its aftermath,
Ross Douthat joined The New York Times
Washington has remained revisionist while
as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. Previ-
Moscow has labored at realpolitik, seeking
ously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic
YOUR VIEWS
Time to harvest puncture vine
Go forth now and start harvesting, prior to
a visitor picking up the seeds. Do be careful,
though, as the main or big seed will split into
ive when touched. Puncture vine is a very
tricky plant.
Already all those visitors, in the past, have
packed off enough seed across the West.
Besides, we could lose next year’s irst place
winner at the county fair!
Joe LaVerdure
Pendleton
Wolf explains calf
misunderstanding
The pack and I certainly agree about poor
communication from Fish and Game people.
They never tell us anything. We howl to
anyone who will listen. It would be nice to
know if the latest plan is lethal or non-lethal.
That makes a big difference in where we
hunt and what we eat.
There was an incident recently where we
were unjustly blamed for killing a calf in the
Blue Mountains. The calf was swimming
in a dugout and started to drown. Several of
our pack swam out to rescue him, but were
unsuccessful and somehow we were blamed
for his death.
A. Wolf, proud father of several new litters
(as told to Mike Mehren, the wolf listener,
Hermiston)
This is not your father’s
Republican Party candidate!
The candidate running for the highest
ofice in our land just last week at the
National Forum on National Security said
that Vladimer Putin is a great leader and
that our President Barack Obama was weak,
but not presenting any evidence to back
up this claim. This is the same person that
asked the Russians, in a rally, to ind/hack
Hillary Clinton’s emails. There has been
some assertions that they did just that and
hacked the Democratic party email as well.
The closeness of this candidate to Russian
political igures through his aides and
business dealings is quite troubling and then
to disparage our sitting president is hateful/
irresponsible and beyond the pale!
I have listened to the rhetoric on both
sides of the aisle concerning this presidential
campaign and concluded that Hillary Clinton
is the best person for this high ofice because
she has the knowledge of world affairs
throughout her life as irst lady of Arkansas,
First Lady of the United States and U. S.
senator from New York. Then she had the
great honor to be selected for Secretary of
State for President Obama’s cabinet. This
position is one of the most demanding jobs
in the cabinet; she worked with world leaders
in Europe and China as well as the Middle
East — our allies and our adversaries.
Numerous times she settled differences
and explained situations to straighten out
problems in her work as Secretary of State.
She is a calm, serious, steadfast person that
gets the job done and does it well. Her moral
compass points straight and true!
Hillary Clinton For President — We Are
Stronger Together
Jan Beitel
Umatilla
Restrooms needed for long
Dress-Up Parade
We had a great time at the Dress-Up Parade
in Pendleton on Saturday. The only thing
I was surprised about was the lack of any
port-a-potties this year. Thank goodness Up
With Donuts didn’t hassle us for using their
restroom. They offered great service and even
better donuts. Can’t wait for the Westward Ho!
Parade coming up on Friday. Let ’er buck!
Dan Trimble
Weston
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.