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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, October 19, 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
Oregon falls farther
behind in graduation
rate rankings
Another day, another bit of bad
programs to be funded and staffed
news for Oregon’s beleaguered
with enough consistency.
education system.
But another, larger reason
On Monday, the U.S. Department is cultural in nature. Chronic
of Education noted that Oregon’s
absenteeism is an ingrained,
graduation rate is at 74 percent. And systemic issue across the state, and
this at a time when the country has
it is no different here in Morrow and
never been better
Umatilla counties.
at graduating its
And the absenteeism
Graduation
students on time.
problem is
Nationwide, the
rates have never exacerbated by the
on-time graduation
short school
been higher in state’s
rate hit 83 percent
year, because every
for the class of 2015, the United States minute missed is of
the best mark in our
greater importance.
—83 percent
history.
Plenty is up for
Yet Oregon
debate in November,
of
the
class
of
continues to fall
but two Oregon
2015 graduated measures have the
behind the trend.
The state is
best opportunity at
on time.
now third-worst
addressing the state
in graduation rate,
education issue. One
having been leapfrogged by Alaska
is Measure 97 — you may have seen
and now only ahead of Nevada and
a billion ads for it while trying to
New Mexico. The graduation rate
watch your football game or favorite
for white students in Oregon is better sitcom. It taxes corporate sales and
than just one state — but that’s
feeds that money into the general
actually an improvement, up from
fund, where a percentage of it would
50th last year to now second from
then go to education. Measure 98
the bottom.
is a smaller, more precise measure
In Oregon, the problems with
that stipulates money to be used
graduating students on time are
speciically to address graduation
multi-faceted.
rates — strengthening CTE
One reason is surely inancial
programs and the like.
— Oregon students have one of the
Whatever your political outlook
shortest school years, and are below — and your faith in legislators and
average for state dollars spent per
state employees to direct and spend
student. Surely the helpful additions money wisely — it’s clear that
to basic offerings — CTE classes,
something is wrong with Oregon
for instance, along with school
education, and it stretches from
nurses and counselors — help keep
the top to the bottom, and from
students on the fringe in school and
homeroom into dining rooms. If
on track to graduation. Oregon’s
November’s measures aren’t your
luctuating education budget has not cup of tea, better ideas are needed
allowed those types of positions and and they’re needed now.
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
What we need next
K
joined City Year, the national service
athy Fletcher and David
organization.
Simpson have a son named
Poverty up close is so much more
Santi, who went to Washington,
intricate and unpredictable than the
D.C., public schools. Santi had a friend
picture of poverty you get from the
who sometimes went to school hungry.
grand national debates. The kids
So Santi invited him to occasionally
can project total self-conidence
eat and sleep at his house.
one minute and then slide into utter
That friend had a friend and that
lostness the next.
friend had a friend, and now when
David
The college application process
you go to dinner at Kathy and David’s
Brooks
often seems like a shapeless fog
house on Thursday night there might
Comment
to them; nobody’s taught them the
be 15 to 20 teenagers crammed around
concrete steps to move along the way.
the table, and later there will be groups
of them crashing in the basement or in the few One young woman lied on her inancial aid
forms because she didn’t want to admit that
small bedrooms upstairs.
The kids who show up
her father was dead, her mother
at Kathy and David’s have
was on drugs — how messed
endured the ordeals of modern
up her home life actually was.
poverty: homelessness,
There’s no margin for error
hunger, abuse, sexual assault.
for these kids, and she would
Almost all have seen death
have lost her college dreams if
irsthand — to a sibling, friend
not for a squad of adults ready
or parent.
to mobilize around her.
It’s anomalous for them
The adults in this
to have a bed at home. One
community give the kids the
21-year-old woman came to
chance to present their gifts.
dinner last week and said this
At my irst dinner, Edd read
was the irst time she’d been
a poem from his cracked
around a family table since she
lip phone that I irst thought
was 11.
was from Langston Hughes, but it turned
And yet by some miracle, hostile soil
out to be his own. Kesari has a voice that
has produced charismatic lowers. Thursday
somehow emerged from New Orleans jazz
dinner is the big social occasion of the week.
from the 1920s. Madeline and Thalya practice
Kids come from around the city. Spicy
friendship as if it were the highest art form.
chicken and black rice are served. Cellphones
Jamel loses self-consciousness when he talks
are banned (“Be in the now,” Kathy says).
of engine repair.
The kids call Kathy and David “Momma”
They give us a gift — complete intolerance
and “Dad,” are unfailingly polite, clear
of social distance. When I irst met Edd, I held
the dishes, turn toward one another’s love
out my hand to shake his. He looked at it and
like plants toward the sun and burst with
said, “We hug here,” and we’ve been hugging
big glowing personalities. Birthdays and
and hanging off each other since.
graduations are celebrated. Songs are
Bill Milliken, a veteran youth activist,
performed.
is often asked which programs turn around
I started going to dinner there about two
kids’ lives. “I still haven’t seen one program
years ago, hungry for something beyond
change one kid’s life,” he says. “What changes
food. Each meal we go around the table, and
people is relationships. Somebody willing
everybody has to say something nobody else
to walk through the shadow of the valley of
knows about them.
adolescence with them.”
Each meal we demonstrate our
Souls are not saved in bundles. Love is the
commitment to care for one another. I took my necessary force.
daughter once and on the way out she said,
The problems facing this country are
“That’s the warmest place I can ever imagine.” deeper than the labor participation rate and
During this election season of viciousness,
ISIS. It’s a crisis of solidarity, a crisis of
vulgarity and depravity, Thursdays at Kathy
segmentation, spiritual degradation and
and David’s has been a weekly uplift, and
intimacy.
their home a place to be reminded of what is
Throughout this ugly year, AOK has been
beautiful about our country and what we can
my visit to a better future, more powerful than
do to bring out its loveliness.
any political tract about what we need next.
The kids need what all adolescents need:
Sometimes Kathy and David are asked
bikes, laptops and a listening heart. “Thank
how they ended up with so many kids lowing
you for seeing the light in me,” one young
through their house. They look at how many
woman told Kathy after a cry on the couch.
kids are out there, and respond, “How is it
David and Kathy have set up a charitable
possible you don’t?”
organization called AOK, for All Our Kids, to
■
help each of the kids come into his or her own
David Brooks became a New York Times
fullness. Four started college this year, and one Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
Souls are
not saved
in bundles.
Love is the
necessary
force.
YOUR VIEWS
Forget Idaho: Eastern
Oregon better by itself
Why should Oregon join with
Washington and Idaho? Eastern
Oregon should secede by itself.
You then declare war on the U.S.A.
and quickly lose. At this point
we will then receive foreign aid
forever!
And by the way, the Electoral
College has long outlived its
purpose. Our crooked politicians
can control the outcome this way.
Please vote out all the incumbents.
John Redmond
La Pine
Google to know how
your rep votes
How much do you know about
your national congressmen and
the way they vote on the issues?
Instead of voting based on a TV
ad or on a single issue, one can
Google “On The Issues” followed
by the name of Representative
Greg Walden or Senator Ron
Wyden, and it will enter a web site
in which that person’s voting on 20
separate categories is listed.
Examples of categories are
economy, budget, corporations,
crime, energy, environment,
education, foreign, policy, gun
control, health care, jobs, social
security, tax reform, welfare and
others.
In each category it lists a
one-line summary of what bills
the congressperson voted on and
how he voted, yes or no. One can,
by doing this, decide if the person
is voting in the manner which
represents your preferences.
Bruce Graham
Sisters
Bond dollars needed
at Umatilla schools
I am writing in support of the
Umatilla School District bond
measure on the November ballot.
This bond will allow the district
to make needed improvements
at all three schools in Umatilla
— McNary Elementary, Clara
Brownell Middle School and
Umatilla High School.
I would like to address the
needs at Umatilla High School.
This school continues to be the
lagship building of the district.
Built in 1999, the high school is
a beautiful facility, serving our
students well. However, the roof
must be replaced, and updating
the HVAC systems and controls
will allow our high school to
remain in top condition for years
to come. If approved by voters, the
bond will complete these projects;
otherwise the school will have to
ind funds in the district budget.
Investing in these needed capital
improvements now will ensure that
our elementary and middle school
students will still get to enjoy a
wonderful high school building
when they are older.
The Umatilla school bond will
not increase taxes for Umatilla
citizens; the new bonds are
estimated to continue the same
tax rate of the current bonds, just
longer. Also, if voters approve
the bond, the Umatilla School
District will receive an additional
$4 million from the state of Oregon
for district projects.
I encourage the Umatilla
community to vote yes on
this school bond — to protect
our students, to protect our
educational investments and send
a clear message that the Umatilla
community is dedicated to quality
education.
Jon Lorence
Umatilla School District board
member
Nations must obey
the laws of god
Deuteronomy 28 promises
blessings for those nations that
obey God’s laws and curses for
those nations that forsake God’s
commandments.
America has been blessed as no
other nation save Israel precisely
because our leaders honored God’s
commandments and statutes.
The God of our forefathers is no
longer honored or observed by
our leaders, institutions or courts
and America is now suffering the
curses of disobedience.
America is no longer the lender
but rather the debtor to nations
that disdain America and global
bankers that inance the emerging
new world order. The present
corrupt Obama government
is a curse upon America. The
CIA, FBI, Homeland Security,
IRS, the courts, Republican
establishment, the national media
and press, and entertainment
industry are all controlled by
the globalist Democratic party.
The Constitution, Bill of Rights,
freedom of religion and the Second
Amendment will be abrogated if
Hillary Clinton is elected president.
The citizens of a nation built on the
blessings of God will be reduced to
bondage if that nation continues to
forsake the commandments of its
creator.
Can Donald Trump or any
constitutional conservative
Republican defeat the global
Democratic party? The liberal
press destroyed the reputation of
Sarah Palin, Herman Cain and
Mitt Romney, and now they are
relentlessly attacking Donald
Trump. The corrupt Clinton/
Obama regime will never allow
a constitutional conservative
to return America to our Godly
heritage and Bible-based
foundation. They have corrupted
the entire American system.
The Christian Church has been
silent, hiding and in some cases
supporting the desecration of
God’s standards, laws and statutes
beginning in middle of the 20th
century.
The corruption of our
government, the racial
hatred incited by the Obama
administration, and the
evisceration of our military is
the result of disobedience of
God’s commandments. God’s
intervention on behalf of obedient
and praying Christians is America’s
only hope and that will only
happen when America and the
Christian Church repents and
returns to proclaiming, honoring
and obeying the statutes, and laws
of God honored by our forefathers.
Stuart Dick
Irrigon
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 let-
ters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence
and a daytime phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave.
Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.