VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Milton-Freewater oficer
arrested for assault
By ALLEN BEST
Writers on the Range
This cop is one of the nicest cops I
know of. He goes out of his way to make
a difference.
— Carson Chester
We’d have far fewer cases in this country
if other agencies held their own accountable
as well.
— J.J. Bell-Bronson
Hermiston considers
building bigger, new schools
No way I will vote for any more school
bonds. I can hardly pay my property taxes
now. There is a limit as to what the average
person can afford.
— Joyce Anderson
With more than 300 new students
enrolled, what do you all suggest be done?
Rocky Heights is 53 years old, unsecured
campus. The school is severely over-
crowded even with the modulars.
— Judy Hartley
They need to ind a different revenue for
funding. No more tax increases for home-
owners or small business.
— Debbie Pettey
This is the problem with today’s society.
Everybody wants more for our children yet
anytime someone suggests an increase in
taxes everyone is suddenly against it.
— Maegan Bennett
No more schools, period.
— Justin Clark
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.
A
s we stagger through this year’s
uninspiring presidential campaign,
it might help to look back at the
election of 1856, when, for the irst time, the
West yielded a presidential candidate. His
name was John Charles Frémont, and he
was a big name in his day. He still is: From
Colorado to California, we have rivers and
mountains named Fremont as well as towns,
counties, parks and streets.
Besides being famous, he was daring,
and not unlike today’s presidential
candidates, deeply lawed.
Frémont led four expeditions to the
West in the 1840s. He had married well,
partnering with Jessie Benton, the daughter
of Missouri Sen. Thomas Hart Benton, who
ballyhooed westward expansion. Boosted
by his father-in-law’s inluence, Frémont
in 1842 launched his irst expedition with
mountain man Kit Carson as a guide. It was
a partnership based on ambition: Carson
needed Frémont to make him famous, a
favor he returned by keeping the tenderfoot
mostly out of trouble as they explored the
region.
In a 2001 book called A Newer World,
the superb mountaineering author Michael
Roberts chronicled the lives of the two
men, principally through the lens of these
expeditions. Roberts says he admires Kit
Carson, but his praise for Frémont is more
reserved. You understand why after you’ve
read Roberts’ account of a climb in what is
now Wyoming — a mountain that Frémont
thought was the highest peak in the Wind
River Range. Fremont refused to share
the glory of that irst ascent with Carson;
instead, he permitted a lesser light of the
expedition, Charles Preuss, to accompany
him to the top.
And yet Frémont and Carson crossed the
continent together repeatedly. A pivotal year
Local government shouldn’t
compete with private business
S
hould the city of Pendleton
compete against established
private business within the city
of Pendleton? If so, should the city
have in place in advance, policies or
guidelines that regulate it so it does not
unfairly compete with its own citizens
and their private businesses?
I purchased 24 acres of farm land in
1978 on the west end of
Pendleton near the river
and the freeway. I put it
into the industrial zone.
In 1983, the state of
Oregon decided to close
the state hospital. Many
civic leaders, Mayor
Joe McLaughlin and a
liaison committee went
into action to have that
land become industrial
development land for
the city. In 1985, the
state deeded approximately 73 acres
of that land for use by the city for
manufacturing or industrial purposes.
Now, years later, all of that land
has been deeded to private industry
except what I call a “remnant” 8.58
acre parcel. The 1985 deed from the
state said: “In the event that the grantee
(city of Pendleton), its accessors or
assigns, shall cease to use the parcel
conveyed for such purposes, then the
ownership of the parcel conveyed
shall immediately revert to the state of
Oregon.”
Over the 40 years that I have
paid county taxes on my adjacent
industrial land, I have made costly
improvements to it, such as for sewer,
roads, power and fencing. From 2003
I made additional investments to
accommodate the needs of transport
companies so they could lease my
land. I did my leases at fair market
value as established by 13 years of my
leasing to them.
In fall 2015, city staff entered into a
lease agreement with one of my largest
customers, Horizon Transport Inc.,
seven months before their lease with
me expired. My land was leased at fair
market value, which achieved for me a
modest return on my investment.
The city undercut me by leasing
Page 5A
Past elections have also been messy
Quick takes
By GALE MARSHALL
East Oregonian
its 8.58 acre remnant parcel to my
customer at below fair market value.
This undermined my lease and ended
my ability to renew my lease with
Horizon Transport. I would like to
know why the city council approved
this lease, which I believe unfairly
competed with local private enterprise.
The lease permitted the city to compete
directly with me in an unfair way.
Further, the city’s lease with
Queen Bee allows the
company, a subsidiary
of Horizon, to rent
space to private parties
to store RVs and cars.
A parking lot like this
on city property is not
“incidental to industrial
and manufacturing.”
Yet city staff and the
city council took action
to lease this land in this
fashion anyway, for a
purpose other than what
it agreed it would be doing with the
state. I believe the 8.58 remnant parcel,
and perhaps the whole remnant parcel,
is now in danger of being lost back
to the state under what is called the
reverter clause in the deed.
I moved my family here 40
years ago. I liked the participating,
pioneering spirit that Pendleton had
to offer. I still like and enjoy living
here. The fact is that I love this town.
Like other merchants and taxpayers,
I want to see Pendleton continue to
have the reputation of being a fair and
transparent city.
Right now, while a lot of good
and prospective things are happening
in Pendleton, the city council has
the reputation of not being business
friendly and deals like this is
one reason why. The role of city
government should be to make policy
that encourages private industry, not
compete directly with it. All you have
to do is listen to the citizens on the
street to ind out. The transparency
cannot be achieved without
informing and listening to its citizens.
Constructive citizens such as Mike
Forrester have pointed this out, and it’s
true.
■
Gale Marshall lives in Pendleton.
Pendleton city
council has
a reputation
of not being
business
friendly.
was 1846. U.S. troops were dispatched to
defeat Mexico and, in the process, secure
the Southwest for the expanding American
empire. Ulysses Grant, then a lieutenant
serving in the Mexican-American War,
described that conlict late in his life as “one
of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger
against a weaker nation.”
But while Grant
dodged bullets in Mexico,
Frémont deied orders
and lingered in California.
Finally, at Los Angeles,
he got in on the conquest.
The Mexicans had no wall
to protect them against
Northern invaders. There’s
a shameful asterisk in the
tale of Frémont’s bold
ambitions for American’s manifest destiny.
The Americans seized three Mexicans near
San Francisco Bay. None of them were
ighters; they just happened to live there. Kit
Carson inquired as to what should be done
with them.
“I have no use for prisoners,” Frémont
said, according to irst-hand accounts. “Do
your duty.”
Carson, who had recently wed his
beloved Josefa Jaramillo, a Mexican
resident of Taos, followed orders and shot
the three Mexicans. Later, in the 1856
presidential election, the executions became
an issue. Frémont, according to Roberts’
account, disavowed any part in the killings.
The worst was yet to come. Frémont’s
father-in-law had in mind a railroad that
would cross the West on the 38th parallel.
So Frémont set out in the winter of 1848 to
scout the route.
His timing could not have been worse.
The route was bewildering — across the
steepest, most rugged ranges in the Rocky
Mountains, now in today’s Colorado. After
crossing the Sangre de Cristos, Frémont
and his men then faced the huge San Juans.
They literally got in over their heads in
snow.
Reading Roberts’ book, the word “idiot”
comes to mind. Why didn’t Frémont’s men
mutiny instead of traveling ever deeper
into the range, which climbs above 12,000
feet? When Frémont inally turned back,
his men were left to crawl,
snowblind and starving,
driven irst to eat mules
and then each other. Ten
of them died. But once
again, Frémont ducked
responsibility. He blamed
his guide, the fur trapper
“Old” Bill Williams.
Unlike Harry Truman, the
buck never stopped with
Frémont.
Yet Frémont, by then living in San
Francisco, became the Republican Party’s
irst presidential candidate. He faced a
former president, Millard Fillmore of the
Know Nothings, a party that opposed the
immigration of people like my relatives,
Germans dodging the draft in Prussia who
came to America to clear forests in Illinois,
and Catholics, of any origin. The eventual
winner of the presidency was James
Buchanan, who favored expanding slavery
into the West. Frémont of the checkered
past condemned the expansion of slavery,
and because of that principled stand, lost the
election.
Frémont was an egotist, and he was
reckless with other people’s lives. But
here’s what perplexes me: From my safe
perch 160 years later, I think I might have
voted for the despicable scoundrel. If you
see parallels to this year’s election, here’s
something to keep in mind. Four years later,
we got Abraham Lincoln.
■
Allen Best is a contributor to Writers
on the Range, the opinion service of High
Country News.
The election of
1856 was even
more cruel and
reckless than
this one.
The price of pain in the U.S.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
T
here is big money in pain, which is why
the makers of prescription painkillers seem
so interested in ensuring that doctors keep
prescribing opioids despite an addiction crisis that
has claimed 165,000 lives in the United States
since 2000.
An investigation by The Associated Press and
the Center for Public Integrity, published last week
in the Journal Sentinel and other newspapers,
showed that even as drug makers claim to be
ighting the prescription drug epidemic, they are
using a 50-state strategy and handing out millions
of dollars in campaign donations to weaken or
outright kill legislation to limit the use of drugs
such as OxyContin, Vicodin and fentanyl.
The AP and the center found that between
2006 and 2015, Big Pharma spent more than $880
million nationwide on lobbying and campaign
contributions. That was far more than advocates
for a crackdown on prescription drugs could
spend; it dwarfed what the gun lobby doled out
over the same period.
The indings mirror reporting since 2011 by
the Journal Sentinel’s John Fauber and MedPage
Today, which found that money from drug makers
was a pervasive inluence.
The solution is for legislators and physicians
to show courage in the face of these pressures.
Legislators and Congress should take appropriate
action to ensure that the drugs are available to
those who need them but aren’t overprescribed.
And physicians, knowing the risk, should be more
reticent in prescribing these drugs.
There is plenty of evidence that doctors have
been overprescribing.
Sales of prescription opioids rose fourfold from
1999 to 2010, the investigation found. Purdue
Pharma, which makes OxyContin, had about $2.4
billion in sales from opioids last year alone, AP
and the center report. And, all the while, deaths by
overdose rose.
Opioids undoubtedly have a place in a
sensible medical landscape, especially for cancer
patients or end-of-life care. But studies show
little evidence that opioids are effective for
treating routine chronic pain. One study cited
by the AP and the center from a hospital system
in Pennsylvania found that about 40 percent of
chronic non-cancer pain patients who received
opioids showed signs of addiction.
“You can create an awful lot of harm with
seven days of opioid therapy,” David Juurlink, a
toxicology expert at the University of Toronto,
told reporters. “You can send people down the
pathway to addiction when they never would have
been sent there otherwise.”
Lawmakers and physicians need to confront
this scourge.
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. Senators
Governor
Ron Wyden
Kate Brown
Washington ofice:
221 Dirksen Senate Ofice Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande ofice:
541-962-7691
Senator
Jeff Merkley
Bill Hansell, District 29
Washington ofice:
313 Hart Senate Ofice Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton ofice:
541-278-1129
Representatives
U.S. Representative
Greg Walden
Washington ofice:
185 Rayburn House Ofice Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande ofice:
541-624-2400
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
Greg Barreto, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-38
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us