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