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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, October 18, 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 Mammograms save lives As more and more women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, one key statistic should encourage women to talk to their doctors about mammograms: Breast cancer survival rates have improved due to early detection. Mammograms in women 50 and older can reduce deaths due to breast cancer by 20-30 percent, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. For a 15-minute screening, that’s a staggering number. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend mammograms every two years for women 50 and older and recommend women 40-49 consult their doctor about mammograms. Yet, in Oregon, one in four women over 50 has not had a mammogram in the last two years. If more women were screened, more lives could be saved. It is a simple proposition. In Oregon, 75 percent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed at an early stage of the disease, which is easier to treat, according to the Oregon State Cancer Registry. While the recommended mammograms may not detect every case early, a higher screening rate improves the probability of early detection. Diagnostic imaging, including mammograms, is available at both St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton and Good Shepherd Medical Center, Hermiston. While there are other steps women can take, mammograms are a powerful tool in the ight against breast cancer. If you have not already, please make an appointment with your doctor today to help reduce the lives lost to this all-too-common disease. 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. 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. In defense of the religious right I rise to offer a defense — not a full- And that’s without getting into the throated defense, more of a limited legal and regulatory pressure that a one — of the beleaguered, battered, Clinton administration could bring all-but-broken religious right. to bear on conservative religious For the last two weeks we’ve institutions, the various means that watched various paladins of traditional liberal legal minds are entertaining values twist and squirm as they try to to clamp down on religious dissent square their Christian conservatism from social liberalism’s orthodoxies. with Donald Trump’s sexual Asking Christian conservatives to Ross attitudes and conduct. They sought a Douthat accept a Clinton presidency is asking remoralized politics, a less licentious them to cooperate not only with Comment culture, and now they’re making pro-abortion policymaking, but also lesser-of-two-evil arguments to protect their own legal-cultural isolation. a pagan demagogue from the consequences of If you can’t see why some people in that his own unbridled lust. situation might convince themselves that This is a grim endgame for a movement Trump would be the lesser evil, you need to that just a little over a decade ago had liberals work harder to imagine yourself in someone fearing its electoral strength and allegedly else’s shoes. theocratic ambitions. And for those liberals Third, religious conservatives are as divided today, the religious right’s crisis tastes like as any other conservative faction over Trump. victory and vindication both: Those theocrats Yes, evangelical voters have (up till now) are inally cracking up, and Trump has proved supported Trump at the rate you would expect that all their talk about virtue and character was for a normal Republican nominee. But the just partisanship, with no real moral substance religious right is an ecumenical movement: It underneath. includes Latter-day Saints rebelling against the In this year of general political misery, Republican nominee, Catholic voters drifting I don’t begrudge anyone their share of toward Clinton, and conservative Catholic schadenfreude. But here are four points to keep bishops advising the faithful that they need not in mind. vote for either Hillary or Trump. First, serious religious conservatives didn’t Moreover, within evangelicalism’s want Trump. Yes, he had hacks and heretics complicated leadership, anti-Trump sentiment on his side from early on: Jerry Falwell Jr., abounds. For every Carson, murmuring on Mike Huckabee, various prosperity preachers. cable about how “sometimes you put your But most churchgoing Republicans preferred Christian values on pause to get the work other candidates; only 15 percent of weekly done,” there is a Russell Moore or an Erick churchgoers were steady Trump supporters Erickson or a Beth Moore attacking their from the start. co-religionists for making a fatal moral The older culture warriors favored Ted compromise. Trump is exposing the folly of Cruz; younger Christians wanted Marco certain old-guard evangelicals, but he’s also Rubio (Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University voted exposing a major generational struggle over decisively for the Florida senator); the naive what the religious right should be — one wanted Ben Carson. Iowa, the evangelical that matters to the country and not just the stronghold whose irst-in-the-nation status participants, because ... makes every sophisticated GOP consultant America needs a religious right. Maybe groan, gave Trump one of his worst early-state not the religious right it has; certainly not the showings, while more secular Northeastern religious right of Carson and Falwell Jr. But states handed him landslide wins. And the the Trump era has revealed what you get when Mormons — well, you know about the you leach the Christianity out of conservatism: Mormons. The bottom line is that if it weren’t A right-of-center politics that cares less about for the religious right, the Trump takeover marriage and abortion, just as some liberals would have been far easier, the GOP’s would wish, but one that’s ultimately far more surrender that much more abject. divisive than the evangelical politics of George Second, religious conservatives have W. Bush. stronger reasons than other right-wing When religious conservatives were constituencies to fear a Clinton presidency. Tax ascendant, the GOP actually tried minority rates go up and down, regulations come and outreach, it sent billions to ight AIDS in go, but every abortion is a unique human life Africa, it pursued criminal justice reform in the snuffed out forever. Hillary Clinton’s support states. for legal abortion at every stage of pregnancy Some kind of religious conservatism may not be a suficient reason to hand the Oval must be rebuilt, because without the pull of Ofice to a man like Donald Trump; I think that transcendence, the future of the right promises it is not. But given pro-life premises, it is a far to be tribal, cruel, and very dark indeed. more compelling reason than the candidates’s ■ differences on tax policy or education or Ross Douthat joined The New York Times family leave. as an Op-Ed columnist in 2009. YOUR VIEWS Walden all talk on health care reform During an OPB Radio interview from the 2016 Republican National Convention, Oregon’s Second Congressional District Representative, Greg Walden, may have revealed more about his personal priorities than intended. Defending his long career in politics: “If I were to get some medical treatment, I would prefer to have an operation by somebody who has done it a long time.” Ignoring for now how this might apply to presidential candidate Donald Trump, what underlies Rep. Walden’s preference? Since he enjoys a taxpayer-supported “Cadillac” health plan, Rep. Walden takes his choice of providers for granted! What does he intend for the rest of us? Let’s look at the record. Despite a 2008 campaign pledge to make “health insurance more affordable and more available,” Rep. Walden voted — at least ive times — to deny health care coverage for Oregon’s low-income children. In 2009, the program that he opposed awarded more than $31 million to Oregon community health centers. These centers were thus able to provide health care to an additional 70,000 low-income kids. Because of these gains, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Oregon an additional bonus of more than $15 million in early 2011! Since then Rep. Walden’s only accomplishment has been more than 60 inane votes to repeal or defund The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As many as 400,000 Oregonians gained quality health care as a result of the ACA. In addition, Oregon’s Second Congressional District is one of the areas of the country with the largest increase in health care coverage. Meanwhile Rep. Walden continues working to reverse the ACA’s signiicant progress toward solving long-standing challenges facing the U.S. health care system; i.e., access, affordability, and quality of care! Before completing their 2016 ballots, Second Congressional District voters need to ask themselves: “Has Rep. Walden lived up to his promise to make ‘health insurance more affordable and more available?’” Larry Tibbles Heppner Vote ‘Yes’ on Pilot Rock ire district bond The Board of Directors of Pilot Rock Fire Protection District encourages a strong “YES” vote on the ive-year levy that will fund both the Fire and Quick Response Team (QRT). This is a continuation of the current ive-year levy and NOT a new added tax. The bottom line is that the QRT and ambulance service will disappear. We believe we all know and appreciate what that means to our community. It’s invaluable — and especially if you or a family member is the person in need. Please join us in voting “YES” for the ive-year continuation levy and keep our ambulance service and QRT. It could mean the difference between life and death for members of this community and the Rural Protection District. Tim Weinke, chairman Packy Doherty, Fred Wyatt, Keith Jones and Virginia Carnes, members Head scratching over basketball court plan It’s pretty apparent if you look at Hermiston’s topnotch athletic facilities that they are deinitely on the right road, attracting the events that bring nothing but gravy to the community. I guess I incorrectly assumed that the construction of the two new elementary schools with real gymnasiums would bring the city of Pendleton topnotch facilities to hold irst-class basketball tournaments rivaling those of Hermiston. It seems, however, that when the bleachers are extended, the basketball courts can’t be used for basketball. Am I missing something here? The Parks Department, I presumed, to take advantage of the renewed interest in outdoor basketball, has constructed at least two outdoor courts. However, to discourage those unruly crowds that Pendleton is famously known for attracting to city parks, the courts have only one basket. This is most likely due to the popularity of “Horse” tournaments currently sweeping the nation. I could be all wrong on this, and the construction plans are on the installment program — half now, half later. We’ll have to keep an eye on this new strategy. Rick Rohde Pendleton Rowan a good man, caring father With the upcoming election quickly approaching us, I imagine you have obtained a wealth of information about my dad, Terry Rowan, regarding his strategies for unremitting eficiency and betterment of the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Ofice if he is elected to serve another term as sheriff. What you may not know is there is an even greater man behind the uniform and badge that I am lucky enough to call my dad. Together, my parents did everything in their power to be the best parents they could be to my sister Megan and me. To say that my dad’s strengths as a husband, father and newly a grandfather have been the foundation of what makes him an exceptional sheriff would be an understatement. I am a self-proclaimed “daddy’s girl,” and quite proud of it. In my years growing up, my dad was actively involved in every activity/ sport I participated in. You see, while I could always count on him to be on the sidelines, in the stands and even standing outside of the show arena at county fair, it was never enough for him to just be a spectator; he strived to be a leader. He was a co-coach of my AAU basketball team, coached my HYBA teams, 4-H leader, helped to organize local AAU basketball tournaments such as Best of the West, my 3-on-3 basketball coach, and that is just to name a few. It was his utmost goal to ensure that I had the best of experiences to teach me how to be a stronger, more determined individual all while being with me every step of the way. He taught me to uphold my commitments, set the bar high and be a respectful teammate. What I admire most about him is his quiet and gentle nature. As a little girl, there was no greater feeling than falling into his arms for a big bear hug. The same is still true now, even at 26. Something about his soft-spoken nature and strong build always puts my mind and heart at ease. Those hugs that I cherish so much are a constant reminder of his unwavering love and commitment to our family. He never ceases to ensure that our family feels protected and safe. The citizens of Umatilla County are extremely fortunate to have such a kind natured, well-rounded and committed man as sheriff. My dad loves this county like he loves his family, and he will do everything in his power to protect it. Jessica Britt (Rowan) Hermiston
