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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.