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.