Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, November 9, 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 Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OTHER VIEWS
Wolves enter Klamath Basin
The (Medford) Mail-Tribune
delist the animals.
The move is controversial, because
our cattle confirmed killed by
there are still relatively few wolves
wolves last month in the Klamath
in the western two-thirds of the
Basin have ranchers on edge, but
state. And as dramatic as the wolf
it does not appear any drastic changes
kills are, they total just four animals.
in policy or wolf protection levels are
Ranchers lose cattle to
warranted.
a variety of hazards,
Oregon Department
including disease,
Ranching
of Fish and Wildlife
digestive problems,
biologists who
interests want birthing problems
examined the four
and predators other
to see the
carcasses said wolves
than wolves. Wildlife
were responsible,
wolf
delisted,
officials say wolves do
most likely the Rogue
pose a significant
Pack, established by
which requires not
threat
to humans.
celebrity wandering
The
ranchers who
congressional
wolf OR-7 and his
lost
cattle
are being
mate.
action.
compensated by the
Wolves are
Oregon Department of
gradually increasing
Agriculture after the
their presence in Oregon since the
Klamath
County
Wolf Depredation
first animals wandered into the state
Committee
approved
the payments.
from Idaho. They are numerous
ODFW
staff
also
are
working
with
enough in roughly the eastern third
ranchers
to
employ
non-lethal
of the state that they are no longer
methods to discourage wolves from
protected under the Endangered
attacking livestock.
Species Act, which means they fall
The immediate threat will diminish
under the state’s management plan
soon
in any case, because the herds
and can be killed legally in some
involved
will be moved to winter
circumstances. West of Highway 395,
pasture
in
California. Before the cattle
wolves are still on the endangered
return
in
the
spring, the Depredation
species list and are therefore protected
Committee
hopes
to have additional
from being hunted or killed, even if a
prevention
measures
in place, and
rancher sees them attacking livestock.
will apply for state and federal grant
Ranching interests want to see
funds to pay for them.
the wolf delisted, which requires
Meanwhile, ranchers need to
congressional action. The U.S. Fish
adjust
to the new reality of wolves
and Wildlife Service supports that
becoming
part of the ecosystem again
move as well, and the Klamath Falls
as
they
were
in the past.
office has proposed legislation to
F
Investigation of UO law
professor a teachable moment
The (Eugene) Register-Guard
illiteracy, not just in Shurtz but in
her social and academic milieu.
efenders of University of Oregon
UO President Michael Schill
law professor Nancy Shurtz
responded quickly and forcefully.
will point to the context of her
Law school colleagues and others
Halloween costume:
have signed letters
She attended a private
and petitions calling
party dressed as Dr.
UO
needs
more
for the professor’s
Damon Tweedy, author
understanding, resignation. Schurtz
of “Black Man in a
been placed
White Coat: A Doctor’s
not one fewer has
on administrative
Reflections on Race
and Medicine.” Plainly,
and the UO
law professor. leave,
Schurtz did not intend
Office of Affirmative
to make any kind
Action and Equal
of racist statement
Opportunity is investigating.
by donning blackface as part of her
Lesser reactions would condone
costume.
offensive actions and imagery,
But just as plainly, there’s another and invite worse ones. But what
context to consider: the context of
the UO needs is not one fewer law
a mainly white university that is
professor, but more understanding.
struggling to make black students
Shurtz’s experience offers an
and faculty feel welcome, and the
opportunity to explore the lines
context of a long history of racist
between self-expression and hurtful
stereotypes communicated by
messaging, between cluelessness
blackface. At some point in the
and consideration, between privilege
planning of her Halloween costume, and vulnerability.
Shurtz should have stopped to say,
A university exists to teach
“Wait a minute — this is not a
students how to think, not what to
good idea.” The fact that she didn’t
think — and here’s a chance to do
reveals a thickheaded cultural
just that.
D
YOUR VIEWS
Don’t let politics divide
neighbors and communities
As I write, it is one day until the
presidential election. There are other
issues on the ballot, but the main one
everyone is watching is the election of
our 45th president.
The battle has been intense, loud,
fractious, rude and ugly. It seems that
everyone has an opinion on who is the
best candidate ... and everyone believes
the other candidate will bring the End Of
The World. There are threats of anarchy
if the election goes “the wrong way.”
Suggestions of rigged elections have
been made. It’s scary.
In many ways I am no different from
those whom I’ve described. However,
I am different in one way: I am hoping
we can find a way through this in order
to live and work together in the future.
What kind of future this will be depends
on us. Not on the candidates, not on the
political parties, not on the press. It may
not seem so now, but we — the people
— as corny as it sounds, have the ability
to direct this future. How we chose to do
so is the question.
My husband and I have strong
political feelings. Lifelong beliefs. Our
neighbors have equally strong feelings.
The difference is that they support “the
other side.” They even have a sign
promoting their candidate. At first this
annoyed us. We discussed putting up our
own sign. We knew this would inflame
feelings, but what the heck. This is war.
Then we thought a bit further. These
are good neighbors. We are friendly; we
inform each other when we go away and
watch each others’ property. Outwardly
our lives are similar; we take pride in our
homes, mow the lawn, wash our cars,
pay our bills and obey the law. We love
our family, our country and God. I trust
them. I hope they trust us.
My point is that if politics were
removed from the picture, there would
be no issue. We have decided to not let
politics dictate our relationship.
When I think about the day after the
elections, I wonder how we will survive.
Can we return to normal? Will Congress
function? Will as we know it be replaced
with anger and tension and distrust in
all our dealings? Then I think about our
neighbors. Nothing has really changed.
They are still the people they were
before this started and so are we. The
power rests in all of us to make the hate
go away and move on.
Therefore, I am asking each of you
who reads this to reach out to someone
who is different, who voted for the
“wrong person.” I truly believe this is
the only way we will survive: If we
each — alone and together — resolve
to make the effort. Start small. Speak
or wave when you pass. Hold a door
open, ask about their kids. Resolve to
remember the 99 ways in which you are
alike rather than the one way you are
different. Make peace.
Nancy Rees Duff
Helix
Let’s not do this again
I
f I had to sum up the election of
even his primitive primate dominance
2016 in one clause, I would say it
displays, he has shredded the accepted
has been a sociological revolution,
understandings of personal morality
a moral warning and a political
that prevent the strong from preying on
summons.
the weak.
Sociologically, this campaign has
Most disturbing, all this has been
been an education in how societies
greeted with moral numbness. The
come apart. The Trump campaign has
truest thing Trump said all year is
been like a flash flood that sweeps
that he could shoot someone on Fifth
David
away the topsoil and both reveals
Brooks Avenue and not lose any votes. We
and widens the chasms, crevices and
learned this year that millions of
Comment
cracks below.
Americans are incapable of being
We are a far more divided society
morally offended, or of putting virtue
than we realized. The
above partisanship.
educated and less educated
And that brings us to the
increasingly see the world
summons. The events of
and vote in different ways.
2016 represent a watershed
So do men and women,
and a call to do politics
blacks and whites, natives
differently.
and immigrants, young and
Personally I’ve always
old, urban and rural.
disdained talk of a third
We like to think of
party, mostly because the
democracy as a battle of
structural barriers against
ideas and a process of
such parties are so high, no
individual deliberation, but
matter how scintillatingly
this year demography has
attractive they seem in
been destiny. The campaigns
theory. But it’s becoming
have pushed us back into our tribal bunkers.
clear that the need for a third party outweighs
Americans now seem more clannish, and
even the very real barriers.
more incomprehensible to one another.
The Republican Party will probably remain
This year a legitimate social uprising has
the white working-class party, favoring
been twisted to serve destructive means.
closed trade, closed borders and American
During the past 50 years, most of us have
withdrawal abroad. The Democratic Party,
benefited from feminism, the civil rights
meanwhile, is increasingly dominated by
movement, mass immigration, the information its left/Sanders wing, which offers its own
age and the sexual revolution. But as Charles
populism of the left.
Murray points out, one class has been buffeted
There has to be a party for those who are
by each of these trends: white workers.
now homeless. There has to be a party as
The white working class once sat
confidently opposed to populism as populists
comfortably at the core of the American idea,
are in favor of it.
but now its members have seen their skills
There has to be a compassionate globalist
devalued, their neighborhoods transformed,
party, one that embraces free trade while
their masculinity delegitimized, their family
looking after those who suffer from trade;
structures decimated, their dignity erased and
that embraces continued skilled immigration
their basic decency questioned. Marginalized,
while listening to those hurt by immigration;
they commonly feel invisible, alienated and
that embraces widening ethnic diversity while
culturally pessimistic. This year the workers
understanding that diversity can weaken social
overthrew their corporate masters and grabbed trust.
control of the Republican Party.
There has to be a patriotic party that
That would be progress and even inspiring, understands that the world benefits when
but — maybe because of the candidate who is America serves as the leading and energetic
leading it — the working-class revolt has been superpower.
laced with bigotry, anti-Semitism, class hatred,
There has to be a party that
misogyny and authoritarianism that has further unapologetically emphasizes public character
rent the American fabric.
formation. It’s not clear that our political
Our partisan divides now menacingly
culture is producing individuals capable of
overlap with our racial and class divides,
exercising freedom wisely. But citizenship
threatening to form a trinity of discord with
is a skill that can be nurtured — by a party
horrendous consequences.
that insists on basic standards of decency
The moral health of the polity is in even
in its candidates; that practices politics in
scarier shape. Any decent society rests on
humble, honest ways; that strengthens trust
codes of etiquette and a shared moral ecology
and institutions by playing by the rules, by
to make cooperation possible, to prevent
confirming appointees and the like.
economic and political life from descending
The problems go deeper than the jobless
into a savage war of all against all.
rate and the threat of ISIS. The underlying
But this year Donald Trump has decimated social and moral foundations of the nation
the codes of basic decency without paying
have been weakened. Yesterday a rancid
a price. With his constant, flagrant and
chapter ended. Let’s start with fresh ground
unapologetic lying, he has shredded the
and a new party.
standards of intellectual virtue — the
■
normal respect for facts and truth that makes
David Brooks became a New York Times
conversation possible. With his penchant for
Op-Ed columnist in 2003. He is currently also
cruelty, bigotry, narcissism, selfishness and
a commentator on PBS.
This year a
legitimate social
uprising has
been twisted to
serve destructive
means.
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
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or email editor@eastoregonian.com.