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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 27, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, December 27, 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 Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Read columnists with experience and expertise For some, the editorial page is the first stop after reading the 1A headlines when picking up the newspaper. The candor of the letters to the editor, the biting satire of the political cartoons and, of course, the deep wisdom in the local editorial. Those readers look forward to the new thoughts and ideas expressed by their favorite columnists, and enjoy both the enrichment of finding their views articulated and the challenge of having their ideas tested. We hope to provide both experiences as often as we can, and in an effort to do so pick from a stable of columnists that range the ideological spectrum to analyze and opine on the world. We run their photo with each piece, but not much more about who these men and women are. What follows is a brief primer, written from each columnist’s biography, to show the wealth of experience and thought that is represented each day: • David Brooks became a columnist for The New York Times in September 2003, teaches at Yale University and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a conservative voice on the Times’ editorial page and a commentator on “PBS NewsHour,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” • Charles M. Blow joined The New York Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and has been a New York Times columnist since 2008. He left the paper in 2006 to become the art director of National Geographic magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, often writes about social justice and is the only black columnist to appear regularly in the paper. • Gail Collins joined The New York Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board and columnist and in 2001 she was appointed editorial page editor — the first woman to hold that post. She uses lighthearted humor in her columns, often writing in the form of pop quizzes. • Ross Douthat, previously a senior editor at The Atlantic, joined The New York Times as a columnist in 2009. He is the author of “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,” and a co-author, with Reihan Salam, of “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” (2008). He is the film critic for National Review and lives with his wife and daughters in Washington. • Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary and author of two New York Times best sellers, became a columnist in 1995. She began her journalism career in 1974 and has covered seven presidential campaigns. She turns her weekly editorial space over to her more conservative brother each year. • Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a writer for The New York Times, first as the Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a national enterprise reporter. He won the National Book Award for his history of people who lived through the Dust Bowl, “The Worst Hard Time,” and in 2001 he won the Pulitzer Prize as part of a team of reporters who wrote the series “How Race Is Lived in America.” He has done special projects on the West and the decline of rural America. • Thomas Friedman became the New York Times’ foreign affairs columnist in 1995. He joined the paper in 1981, after which he served as the Beirut bureau chief in 1982, Jerusalem bureau chief in 1984, and then in Washington as the diplomatic correspondent in 1989, and later the White House correspondent and economic correspondent. He was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting in Beirut and Israel and one for commentary. • Nicholas Kristof has been a columnist for The New York Times since 2001. He grew up on a farm in Yamhill, graduated from Harvard, studied law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and then studied Arabic in Cairo. He was a longtime foreign correspondent for The New York Times and speaks many languages, including Chinese and Japanese. Mr. Kristof has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of Tiananmen Square and the genocide in Darfur, along with humanitarian awards such as the Anne Frank Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. • Paul Krugman joined The New York Times in 1999 as a columnist and continues as professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. He received his B.A. from Yale in 1974 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1977. He has taught at Yale, MIT and Stanford. • David Leonhardt is the managing editor at The New York Times Company and served as its Washington bureau chief since 2011. He writes a weekly economics column for The Times’s business section and in 2011 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. • Byron York is a syndicated columnist and the chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. He has written for conservative publications including National Review, The Hill, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, and New York Post. He is a frequent guest on conservative television and radio, appearing on such programs as “Meet the Press,” “PBS NewsHour,” “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Special Report,” “The Laura Ingraham Show,” and “Hardball” with Chris Matthews. Culture Corner: Family-friendly fun at “Studio C” I f you like your comedy free of profanity and politics, Studio C is like a breath of fresh air. This sketch comedy series from BYUtv is family friendly, always goofy and often hilarious. Kids of any age can watch, but they’ll really start to get it around age 9. Studio C’s YouTube channel — with more than 650 short videos dating back to 2012 and a new video posted every few days — can be addictive. You can also watch episodes on the BYUtv cable television channel. A few of our family’s favorite episodes are The Restaurant of Life, The Walking Dead Survival Guide, Elf on the Shelf Gone Wrong, Kid’s School Photo Banned and Channel Surfing. The grammaticist in me enjoys Captain Literally and Captain Irony. Most sketches are just a couple of minutes long, perfect for binge watching whether you have five minutes or five hours. There are also some compilations, such as The Top Music Videos of Studio C, that run 45 minutes. If your New Year’s resolution is to laugh more, or if you just need a break from the news of the day, check out Studio C. — Kathryn B. Brown, publisher OTHER VIEWS Red state hope for Democratic blues F or the longest nights of the year, to his state — a literal lifesaver to there is no better place to be thousands, forcing Republicans to than on snow-crusted ground, defend the indefensible. He attacked staring up at Montana’s big empty Republican calls for tax cuts as budget sky. Democrats across rural America busters and community-killers. And must know the feeling, this Christmas in a state where hate groups still pop week, of looking into a black void and up like poisonous mushrooms, he feeling so very alone. was a champion of Native American There is a chance for the pulse to Timothy sovereignty and gay and lesbian rights. quicken — a flash of the northern “It’s not about identity politics,” Egan lights, perhaps, the distant howl of a he said. “It’s about trying to bring Comment wolf — in that utter darkness. And everybody up.” there is hope for a party spurned in That’s the theme. Everybody. Not the wide-open spaces of the country, as well. just the “emerging demographics,” charted Meet Steve Bullock, the newly re-elected on many a Democratic PowerPoint. Vice Democratic governor of Montana. President Joe Biden, that son of Scranton, Donald Trump took Montana by 20 Pennsylvania, sounded much like Bullock, percentage points — a rare but his fellow Dems didn’t win for celebrity-infatuated listen. Perhaps they’re megalomaniacs in a state listening now. whose voters can usually “I mean these are good smell the type from a people, man!” Biden said on CNN this month. “These hundred miles out. But once again, Democrats won aren’t racists. These aren’t the governor’s office and sexists.” did it with votes to spare. A former Iowa governor, Bullock’s Mountain State Tom Vilsack, tried to secret sauce is something remind Democrats that rural national party leaders should America is about 15 percent sample during their solstice. of the population — larger A week after the than the Hispanic vote. election, Bullock went deer-hunting with his Democrats shouldn’t need a translator to 10-year-old son. This doesn’t mean Sen. Cory learn how to speak to these lost constituents. Booker of New Jersey should start shooting Franklin Roosevelt, a bit of a dandy from Bambi near the Meadowlands. But the cultural Hudson Valley wealth, knew the language. It’s thing is a wash for Bullock. As a Montana about lifting up those left behind. And taking it native and a graduate of Columbia Law directly to those who obstruct progress. School, he has a foot in both coastal elitism Bullock didn’t abandon people whose and prairie pragmatism. paycheck is dependent on coal. Nor did he “Every morning my wife and I drop our make false promises about coal roaring back. kids off at the same public schools that we Even coal plant owners acknowledge that went to,” he said. their days are numbered as the free market Public, that’s key. As in public land — the turns to cheap natural gas to generate power, great shared turf of the American West. Public and as the world turns away from it for health, which the governor expanded in this self-preservation. poor state. Simple stuff, grounded in the With the Trump presidency, truth will be nontoxic populism of the past. a commodity more precious than the gold So when the Trump administration starts lining his throne in Manhattan. He no sooner taking away people’s health care, trashing won the Electoral College than he started the public schools with a church-lady billionaire Trump era with a big lie, saying he’d achieved as education secretary or colluding with a “a historic electoral landslide.” For the record: Congress that wants to offload public land, His victory ranked near the bottom, 46th out Montana can offer a resistance playbook. of 58 presidential elections. I asked the governor to give some specific But it was historic — no president has advice to fellow Democrats. ever lost the popular vote by a larger number, “Show up,” he said, noting that Barack almost 3 million votes. And yet half of Obama was at the Fourth of July parade in the Republicans believe that he won the popular hardscrabble Montana mining town of Butte tally. in 2008. As we say goodbye to a dreadful year, one That year, the black community organizer that should be bound up in chains and dropped from Chicago came within 2 percentage points into the Missouri River, Democrats should not of winning a state with one of the smallest forget that they have the majority on their side black populations in the nation. To Hillary on almost every major issue. It’s time they got Clinton, on the way to fundraisers with tech reacquainted with the millions of other people millionaires, Montana was flyover country. who make up that majority. Had she gone to Great Falls or Glendive, ■ she would have seen that struggling white Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a people desire the same things that struggling writer for The New York Times, first as the people in diverse urban areas want. Bullock Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a brought Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion national enterprise reporter. Democrats shouldn’t need a translator to learn how to speak to lost constituents. YOUR VIEWS Show appreciation for those who keep us safe Umatilla County residents: I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude to all the men and women in Umatilla County who have had a part in ensuring the safety of individuals and families in our communities and along our highways and roadways the last few weeks, and who will likely be doing so through the remainder of the winter months. Often times, it is easy to forget that there are folks providing these vital services within our neighborhoods. These individuals include all our law enforcement officials, fire and emergency services personnel, 911 communications center staff, road department crews, search and rescue teams, warming station and shelter volunteers, tow truck drivers, air ambulance flight crews, utility company workers and many others who work long hours, often in cold and miserable conditions, to ensure our safety and comfort when the ice and snow makes an appearance. The people who dedicate themselves and sacrifice their time and comfort to assist the rest of us deserve our thanks. I encourage everyone to please take a moment if you see one of these individuals around your neighborhood to offer them your gratitude. They have mine, and will continue to have for a long time to come. Happy Holidays Umatilla County! Thomas Roberts, Umatilla County emergency manager Pendleton CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES U.S. Senators Ron Wyden Washington office: 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande office: 541-962-7691 Jeff Merkley Washington office: 313 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton office: 541-278-1129 Governor Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, OR 97301-4047 503-378-4582 Senator Bill Hansell, District 29 900 Court St. NE, S-423 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us Representatives Greg Barreto, District 58 900 Court St. NE, H-38 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1458 Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us Greg Smith, District 57 900 Court St. NE, H-482 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1457 Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
