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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, October 7, 2016 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Ofice Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Tip of the hat; kick in the pants A tip of the hat to the people of Hermiston and Athena for their unabashed love for their cities. Civic pride is part of what makes small towns special, and we see it across Eastern Oregon every day. But two recent examples in Umatilla County deserve special commendation. In Hermiston, an “I Love My City” campaign on a Saturday in late September was coordinated by the Assembly of God church, and offered free car washes, water bottles and a neighborhood party. It was in direct response to a late summer murder-suicide in the city that took the lives of three people, including a 14-year-old member of the church. But the message was much broader. It was that Hermiston is a town worth loving, especially in its dark days. In Athena, citizens are rallying to pump a little more life into their downtown. One idea is to buy the shuttered Pendleton Grain Growers general store building and make it available to small businesses, whether that be a brewery, hardware store or multi-use space. The group gathered last week even committed $11,000 to the cause on the spot. Meanwhile, the Athena Mainstreet Association is looking to commission a mural for the blank canvas of a wall of the town’s grocery store. These are but two recent examples of spontaneously generated community spirit, but a good reminder to everyone that loving your town can take many forms and come from many places. It just takes intentional action by people willing to embrace positivity rather than settling for simple apathy or even negative derision. 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. OTHER VIEWS Measure 98 can help reduce Oregon dropouts to lose, holding themselves and Oregon back. n the struggle to ind what works Measure 98 stands a solid educationally, and to fund programs chance at turning this around. It that are winners, Oregon loses. The requires no new taxes but would state’s graduation rate, among the worst direct the Legislature to add to the in the nation, means about 10,000 K-12 budget revenue to be used young Oregonians drop out or fail to exclusively for career technical complete high school on time every year. Who are these students? And what training, dropout prevention efforts and access to college-level courses. becomes of them? It works out to $800 per student, They are young people who but local school districts would couldn’t quite ind their way and have to apply for the money and found high school to be fruitless then decide how to or overwhelming. fashion qualifying Upon dropping that meet out or inishing Young people programs local needs. The late, they typically made up 12 state’s Department struggle to ind of Education would home and a job percent of the be charged with and, perhaps, a state’s labor doling out the family. Engaged money and tracking citizenship? force, yet results. Survival comes Nothing’s a sure accounted for irst. Like the bet. Accountability education system 27 percent will be everything. that somehow failed The measure leans to engage them, of the state’s on the secretary these young people unemployed. of state to conduct lose: in their failure inancial and to ind work and, program audits if requiring social services down the line, in becoming of the spending and to gauge effectiveness of the effort. Good. society’s burden. But it will be essential that both the Few numbers are more chilling DOE and the secretary of state are than those furnished by the Oregon in sync in their attempts to clearly Employment Department. Young align student success or failure with people from 16 to 24 years of age the underwritten programs. The in 2015 made up 12 percent of the burden of reporting on participating state’s labor force yet accounted school districts, meanwhile, must for 27 percent of the state’s unemployed. On the lip side of the be to accurately track student attendance — again, with an equation, signiicantly, are Oregon industries that profess not to be able eye to correlating such data with participation in funded programs to ind the right skilled workers and, ultimately, graduation. when they have jobs available. Budgeting by ballot measure Oregon has tried to ix this, can be risky. It constrains the though the number of high school career technical education programs Legislature in balancing a budget entirely of its own devising. But the statewide plunged from 1,202 in fortunes of high schoolers statewide the academic year 1999-2000 to are too grim not to act. 690 in 2014-2015. Projections, Proponents of Measure 98, despite a hopping economy, are among them former Gov. Ted grim. The Portland research irm Kulongoski, cite short-term pilot ECONorthwest calculates that the projects in recent years that show state’s on-time graduation rate bolstered efforts by schools at will notch up only four percentage student retention and technical points between now and 2029. training to re-engage students That means 1 in 5 students starting who otherwise would slip away kindergarten in Oregon this year from school. That, among other will fail to graduate from high things, makes the promise — and school at all or on time. comparatively low price — of The Class of 2029 will deliver Measure 98 compelling. Voters to Oregon a swollen cohort of should accept the risk as low and undereducated, struggling citizens say yes. whose likely prospect will be The Oregonian/OregonLive I Who’s sorry now? The country I new ambassador to France gets drunk don’t know about you, but I’m and demands to know why Parisians totally exhausted by the public’s obsession with the vice-presidential aren’t friendly. Clinton’s own apology debate. Everywhere I go, people are record is mixed, although lately her babbling about Mike Pence and Tim comments on the emails have been Kaine! Who knew it would be so sounding less like expressions of regret electric? The world can’t stop talking for having been caught. about Veep Vitriole. On this point, like so very many OK, I made that up. I’m sorry. in the current campaign, Clinton’s Gail Nobody is talking about the vice- Collins failings tend to vanish when compared presidential debate at all. This was with the behavior of her opponent. Comment really just a sneaky way to introduce If you’re having an argument about the subject of apologies. who does an apology It came up in the better, it’s not much of a debate, during an argument contest when one of the two over who had the most parties doesn’t seem to ever “insult-driven campaign.” admit he was wrong about Pence saw an opening anything. to mention that Hillary A Trumpian apology Clinton had once described would be the thing he did half of Donald Trump’s recently in Washington, followers as a racist, sexist, when he retracted years of homophobic “basket of birtherism by blurting out deplorables.” Kaine retorted “President Barack Obama that at least Clinton had was born in the United apologized. States. Period.” Then trying Which is true. Clinton said she regretted to claim he had done the president a favor by being “grossly generalistic, and that’s never pushing the matter so hard. Then blaming the a good idea.” It would have worked if she whole thing on Hillary at the end of a promo had not prefaced her original “deplorables” for his new hotel. remark — made at a private fundraising event People, we are being deprived of our — with, “To just be grossly generalistic …” God-given right to complain about both You can’t say you’re sorry for something presidential candidates. Every time someone you admitted was wrong when you were comes up with a Hillary law, someone else saying it. Clinton needs new material. A truly will do a comparison. Yeah, while Clinton sincere apology would probably have been was secretary of state the Clinton Foundation something along the lines of: “I deeply regret took money from foreign bigwigs to help fund having said something at an off-the-record its work with impoverished people overseas. fundraiser that I wouldn’t want taped and But the other guy spent his charity’s money broadcast to the world. You’d think everybody on a 6-foot portrait of himself. Any more would have learned that lesson by now.” questions? Still, certainly not the worst apology of For Trump surrogates like Pence, the best the era. That might have been the time a response is to deny the original offense ever radical rebel group in Syria put up a statement occurred. During the debate, Kaine pointed expressing regret for having beheaded the out that Trump had said women who seek an wrong person. abortion should be punished. Hard to deny, Also, possibly former Cincinnati Reds star given the fact that he made the comment on Pete Rose’s ongoing attempt to apologize for MSNBC. But Pence said Trump “would never his seamy past by selling balls on which he’d support legislation” along that line. written “I’m sorry I bet on baseball” for $300 And it’s true that hours after the MSNBC and up. taping, the Trump campaign issued a (Cincinnati still has a downtown street statement saying he only wanted to punish called Pete Rose Way, which illustrates the doctors, and adding a comment from The importance of not naming major pieces of Man himself: “My position has not changed infrastructure after people who are still alive. — like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with I always found it amusing until I ran across exceptions.” New York’s Donald J. Trump State Park.) We have here the perfect encapsulation of But about apologies: Other rules include the current Republican presidential campaign: not blaming the problem on the hearer (“I’m 1) Trump says something very strange. sorry if you guys were offended”). And not 2) The campaign says he didn’t really say using your apology to repeat the original it. infraction. Perhaps you remember the former 3) Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan. Ronald owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who Reagan. apologized for making racist statements Pence, cornered by Kaine, inally blurted about Magic Johnson in an interview during out, “Look, he’s not a polished politician like which he told Anderson Cooper “some of the you and Hillary Clinton.” African-Americans, they don’t want to help Well, that would be one way of putting it. anybody.” ■ We need a president who will know just Gail Collins joined The New York Times in the right thing to say if our drones accidentally 1995 as a member of the editorial board and hit somebody’s presidential palace, or the later as an Op-Ed columnist. You can’t say you’re sorry for something you admitted was wrong when you were saying it. YOUR VIEWS Lehnert will be a responsive and active sheriff Ryan Lehnert has my 100 percent support and I want you to know why I am supporting him. First the personal: Ryan is an honest man who wants to make a difference. He is genuinely concerned with helping Umatilla county residents. He has a huge heart and passion for helping others. I have had the honor to know Ryan and his family and I have to say he sets the bar pretty high when it comes to being a father, friend and a law enforcement oficer. Next the professional: Ryan will be a responsive and active sheriff. Have any of you applied to get your concealed handgun license through Umatilla County? If not, plan on waiting months for your appointment. This is obviously a very small piece to the job, but it’s always the little things that make the difference. Politics can be so ugly and I am proud of Ryan for running a clean campaign and not throwing mud like his opponent. It’s refreshing to know someone who won’t sink to that level, takes responsibility and is not afraid to face life head on. Please join me in voting for Ryan Lehnert as our sheriff. Jerod Broadfoot Pendleton Could old depot igloos be used as a homeless shelter? With the closing of Corps of Engineers parks for the season and the homeless situation, is there any possibility of using the abandoned storage igloos at the old Army Depot? This might be a short-term solution to house these people for the cold weather coming. There would be some expense to supply sanitation but could be better than what we’re experiencing right now. Plus they would be out of the public view, eliminating the eyesore in the community. It would take a lot of work on their part to make it work, but, there should be some responsible individuals in their community that could do it. Ray Anderson Hermiston 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.
