Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, October 11, 2016 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 It is time to take another look at drug charges It’s a notable and important to housing and employment and a disparate impact on minority development that Oregon communities.” In essence, sheriffs and police chiefs are conviction on a drug-possession recommending simple drug- charge can condemn a person possession charges be treated as to circumstances that make life misdemeanors instead of felonies permanently more dificult. This in certain circumstances. It’s also can have the contradictory result crucial that such a step — if taken of paving the way — doesn’t lead to an for future drug use anything-goes attitude Convicted by hopeless and to illicit drugs. citizens. As denoted by our users should marginalized Convicted users state’s enthusiastic should instead be legalization of be given given individualized, recreational individualized, mandated treatment. marijuana, Oregon Such a consequence is inclined to be a mandated isn’t a slap on the leader when it comes wrist, carrying with to re-examining legal treatment. it the likelihood and social strategies of inancial cost, for dealing with loss of personal time and the drugs. Along with Washington, embarrassment that accompanies Colorado, Alaska and a growing being required to get help. But the rank of other states that have cost to offenders and to taxpayers abandoned a losing struggle would be far less than prosecuting against a substance many regard a felony case, imprisonment and as less harmful than alcohol, years of follow-up. Oregon police now are ready to Legislators must weigh the scrap the century-old orthodoxy options carefully before any change that punishment is the best way to is made. It seems likely, however, discourage possession and use of in a time of severely strained law other drugs. enforcement and criminal justice The law enforcement groups budgets that some degree of note that felony convictions experimentation is both desirable “include unintended and collateral and inevitable. consequences including barriers 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 Bond not getting it right the irst time We can protect ourselves from climate change A logical step in a public safety program would grow facilities as the city grows, and follow a pattern that was successful in the past. That would be to at least attempt to collocate the police, ire, and city management in a single central location such as we had at one time in the old city hall, and relocate if necessary, in the direction of growth. Our city planners, on the other hand, have relocated the police department at the airport in an apparent effort to accelerate wear and tear on police cars and give oficers much needed training in high-speed pursuits as they race into town on Westgate and down Dorion. Now comes the decision to locate the new ire station at the opposite end of town and away from growth. It will, however, include a small satellite police operation at an added expense to compensate for the distance between the two facilities. Perhaps this is meant to justify the added lieutenant’s position at the police department. At a recent city council meeting, I learned a new term which I was previously unfamiliar with: “Contingency Fund.” In the latest proposal for the nearly $10 million bond proposal, presented by the ire chief, it was noted that the request for the new ire trucks was dropped to keep the bond under $10 million, as that was deemed the maximum amount acceptable to voters. Remember when it was around $6 million? It was later explained to me that the “Contingency Fund” included in the bond request would be ample to cover the cost of the new engines. I guess it is true, there is more than one way to skin a cat. So where does that leave us? Have we not learned anything from past mistakes? Will we build the new ire station in the wrong place and not plan for collocating the police in the same central location sometime in the future? Since they have decided not to include the demolition of the old ire station, will the city end up with another empty building that does not it their vision of the “River Walk” plan? Tune in again in November to hear the next episode of the continuing saga of “Decision 2016 and Beyond, The Future of the Pendleton Public Safety Program,” and at election time, let the city planners know this bond is not getting it right the irst time. The landmark Paris Agreement on climate change will go into effect November 1 by a coalition of the world’s largest polluters and small island nations threatened by rising seas. Citizens of these nations and all of us need to pay closer attention to the issues that concern us. We, the people, need to keep an eye open as trackers. What is really going on in our universe? A lot. Let’s take global warming. It relects partisan division throughout the universe but within our nation, a democracy that still leads the world. Lawmakers fuss and discuss but there has never been a deinitively majority opinion. Environmental protection is mandatory. The Environmental Protection Agency has warned us to combat climate change; whether you raise livestock, drive a car, own a factory, grow grapes or cut trees, almost everything a person does affects our environment. We need to be more careful. It has been almost ten months since world leaders met in Paris and formed an agreement on climate change. It’s the largest step the world has ever taken toward combating global climate change. The leaders agreed we need to reduce global carbon emissions and commit to a low carbon future. America (the United States) was a leader at the Paris accords, and the agreement sets the framework of less carbon pollution that threatens our planet, employment and economic growth driven by low carbon investment. The United States Global Change Research program is a government-wide effort to help us understand what’s happening now so we can better protect the future. We have skeptics, but our warmest year was 2015. We have seen more dangerous wildires and devastating droughts. In Alaska and as far south as Miami, coastal towns are being lost to high tides and the seas. We, the people, can protect ourselves from climate change and we have been the global leaders by setting new environmental standards. We need to enforce these standards for future generations. This is one of the most signiicant missions we have on earth. We must pursue measures that implement our state’s goals. Rick Rohde Pendleton Dorys Grover Pendleton OTHER VIEWS Hillary’s spoiled prize P erhaps something extraordinary It would also be encouraged by the will happen in the third debate. promises that Clinton has made. She Maybe there’s some other has not tempered her primary-season surprise in the ofing. Barring that, it proposals and moved to the center really does look and feel as if Hillary in the way that sometimes happens Clinton is wrapping this thing up. I during the general election; her expect that on Nov. 9, the morning contest with Trump hasn’t been a after the vote, we’ll be talking typical one with the usual fault lines about the election of the irst female and pressures. Frank president of the world’s most powerful “I noticed, during the primary Bruni nation. season, that the progressives in the Comment And we’ll be breathing an epic Senate were getting quite bold, sigh of relief: that Donald Trump isn’t pushing their issues harder,” said bound for the White House; that the ugliness Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor who analyzes of the campaign is at last behind us. Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook But, oh, the ugliness still ahead. Political Report. Trump isn’t going anywhere, nor They could be a voting bloc of 14, by are his provocations. It was the birther Duffy’s estimate, and she told me, “They’re conspiracy yesterday; it will be something not so much into compromise.” At the else tomorrow. And same time, many of the Clinton isn’t trading war Democratic senators who Many of the votes for peace. Her presidency, are up for re-election in should it indeed happen, (Clinton) gets on 2018 are from states — will be a battle royal. The Missouri, North Dakota, circumstances surrounding Nov. 8 will come West Virginia, Indiana, it are as politically daunting Montana, Pennsylvania, from people more Ohio, Florida — in which too and inhospitable to accomplishment as those liberal a voting record could committed to facing any of her predecessors be a liability. That’s a recipe over the last half-century. for signiicant tension among suppressing Let’s start with Congress, Senate Democrats. which can play partner Clinton wouldn’t have Trump than to it easy or spoiler in a president’s with Congress. legislative agenda. As much elevating her. Would she have it any easier of a drag as Trump may be with the American public? on some House Republicans Many of the votes she gets seeking a new term, the GOP is still on Nov. 8 will come from people more predicted to retain its majority in the House, committed to suppressing Trump than to because that majority is its largest in more elevating her; in a Gallup poll following than eight decades. her strong performance in the irst debate, “Democrats are likely to gain seats, just the percentage of voters who viewed her not the 30 they need for the majority,” said unfavorably (54 percent) was still 12 points Nathan Gonzales, the editor and publisher higher than the percentage who viewed her of the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political favorably (42 percent). Report, a nonpartisan newsletter that tracks That spread was 15 points in a CNN congressional races, among others. poll over the same period. No president in And nearly all of the seats that modern history has taken ofice after such Republicans are projected to lose, he said, sustained unpopularity in the runup to the are those of relatively moderate lawmakers. election. It’s not the hyper-conservative members of And no president in my lifetime has the Freedom Caucus who are on the run. confronted what Clinton surely will: They’re from safely Republican districts. an opponent who is vanquished but not They’re ine. They’ll be back — and, remotely humbled. Trump can no more proportionally, they’ll be a bigger, more surrender the spotlight than an aardvark forceful presence among the Republicans can swear off ants. And at no point in this remaining in the House. campaign — or in his life, for that matter — But wouldn’t they be cowed by their has he demonstrated an interest in the public party’s shrunken majority and failure to win good that approaches his interest in his own the White House? Mightn’t they sand down celebrity. their edges in an effort to repair the party’s Mitt Romney, John McCain, John Kerry, image, improve its fortunes and make certain Al Gore: All of them lowered their voices that it didn’t lose yet more seats in 2018? and ceded the stage to the men who got the Gonzales chuckled. “The short answer trophy they sought. Trump has made clear is no,” he told me when we spoke late that he won’t extend the same courtesy to the last week. “What’s often missed about the woman poised to beat him. Freedom Caucus is that the majority is less He has been wailing without shame or of a priority for them than having a pure cause about a “rigged” election, and after ideology.” saying in the irst debate that he would Comity isn’t their thing. Already, some accept Americans’ verdict if they chose House conservatives have called for hearings Clinton, he suggested in an interview with about Clinton’s emails after any Clinton The Times’ Patrick Healy and Maggie inauguration; one of them has already raised Haberman that he wouldn’t. Better to the specter of impeachment. At this stage, it’s undermine and try to delegitimize her in the very DNA of the relationship between administration. It’ll keep the television Clintons and Republicans for there to be dire cameras around. threats, special investigations, public grilling. If Election Day saves us from a Trump It’s a relex, a tic. Not even a landslide on presidency, it won’t rescue us from the forces Nov. 8 would change that. that have given him such currency: crippling If a Clinton administration and a partisanship, intense polarization, aversion Senate with a Democratic majority drafted to compromise. Disaster will be averted; legislation with genuinely bipartisan appeal, dysfunction will carry on. it’s always possible that Paul Ryan or some And after as much toil and turbulence as other House speaker could pass it over the just about anyone en route to the presidency truculent objections of the most conservative has weathered, Clinton will clutch her prize House members, with a combination of less and turn to an ambitious agenda, some strident Republicans and Democrats. of which shouldn’t be all that divisive. But there would be enormous political (Infrastructure, anyone?) But to enact much peril in that for the speaker, and that of it, she’ll need more than brains, skill and assumes a mindset in the Senate that may tenacity. not exist. Let’s say the Democrats get a very The way things look now, it’s going to narrow Senate majority, which is my best take a miracle. guess. It would include a progressive wing ■ emboldened by how well the Bernie Sanders Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for The insurgency did and how large Elizabeth New York Times since June 2011, joined the Warren has come to loom. newspaper in 1995. 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.
