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OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, December 30, 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
Many rural Americans
seek less attention from
Washington, D.C.
In an interview earlier this
examples:
month with Capital Press reporter
• The Department of Labor has
Eric Mortenson, Secretary
tried to extort confessions from
of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
Oregon blueberry growers for
said Democrats deserved the
alleged violations and deprive them
shellacking they took in rural areas of due process. It tried to devise
in the past election because they
labor rules that would have made it
ignored rural issues.
all but impossible for kids growing
“We as a party have not spent
up on the farm to work on the farm.
enough time in rural areas,” he
• The Food and Drug
said.
Administration has devised food
With all due
safety rules that
respect to Vilsack,
do more to drive
many farmers and
producers out of
ranchers think
business than they
the Democrats, or
do to make food
more accurately
safer.
the Obama
• The
administration,
administration has
has spent all too
made it difficult to
much time on rural
get legal foreign
issues, to their
workers by creating
detriment.
more regulatory
Vilsack’s
hoops in the H-2A
guestworker visa
commitment to
programs.
agriculture can be
• In reworking
traced back to his
the “Waters of the
days as governor
U.S.” rule, the EPA
of Iowa. He’s a
and the Corps of
decent, honorable
Engineers greatly
guy in a town
Courtesy USDA
expanded their
with too many
Secretary of Agriculture Tom
jurisdiction over
disingenuous
Vilsack.
private lands.
politicians and
• The Forest
inflated egos.
Rural Americans
Service and BLM
But as the only
want a country
have policies
member of the
Obama cabinet
they’re proud of, they and rules that
discourage logging,
who has served
want to make a good building fuel loads
throughout both
terms, Vilsack has
living, give back and and facilitating
wildfires that
to be seen as a full-
take part in their
further endanger
fledged member of
rural communities
the administrative
communities.
and economies.
state. As many
It’s not a
farmers and
comprehensive list.
ranchers see it, the administrative
We think the Democrats err in
state is the problem.
The federal government holds
believing that they can win rural
more than half the land in the West. votes by offering more programs to
The economic and civic fabric
cure the ills bureaucrats perceive
of rural communities depends on
infect rural America.
trees cut from the forest, livestock
And here we come back to
grazed on the range and minerals
Vilsack, who correctly observed
gleaned from mining claims. All of that rural Americans want the
this has become increasingly more
same things urban and suburban
difficult over the last eight years,
Americans want. They want a
and many in the rural West believe
country they’re proud of, they want
their livelihoods, their very way of
to make a good living, give back
life, are in the hands of bureaucrats and take part in their communities.
controlled by interests outside their
In many instances, the best way
communities.
to help make that happen is to get
Here are some egregious
out of the way.
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.
YOUR VIEWS
The city newsletter: a test
or a joke?
Only way to curb energy
production is to cut usage
Have you read the December
newsletter from city hall? If you’re into
fiction, this may be for you. A quote
from the news: “A warm thank you to
our Public Works Road Department for
a job well done, in being ahead of the
weather and providing safe roads and
walking conditions as we welcomed the
first storm of the year.” Really? Were
they talking about Pendleton?
I’m curious about how you “get
ahead” preparing the streets and
sidewalks for a winter storm, and I
evidently missed the committee that
“welcomed” this first storm. I don’t
think the superintendent of schools was
appointed to that particular committee.
No doubt about it, this is really just a
test to see if anyone really reads the city
newsletter, or it could very well be an
attempt at standup comedy. Rumor has
it that the Screen Actors Guild may be
filing suit pending the outcome in their
investigation as to whether city hall had
obtained the proper licenses, although
this could not be independently verified.
I’m sitting down for those who
did not stand up for their rights and
allowed Big Oil to run through their
property to make gasoline for people
who are driving around standing up
for people standing up.
So if you don’t want the dams, turn
out the lights.
Why is it OK for oil and coal to
endanger someone else’s health and
backyard, but not mine? Funny thing,
no one seemed to notice how David
Close was discovering the source of
these troubles. Some day maybe Mr.
Close will be held in esteem as he
deserves to be for standing tall, face
to face with the man who claims to
rule the world. Could David Close
be the Martin Luther of the Indian
world?
So, first or second best: Stay home,
save your money, help your neighbor,
be content. If we start here, stop
buying oil, gas and electricity, and if
there is no market, there will be no
pipes and no coal cars.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
Cecil Sproed
Adams
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.
OTHER VIEWS
Netanyahu makes
Trump his chump
F
or those of you confused over
he refuses to show any imagination or
the latest fight between President
desire to build workable alternatives
Barack Obama and Prime
that would create greater separation
Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, let
and win Israel global support, such
me make it simple: Barack Obama
as radical political and economic
and John Kerry admire and want
autonomy for Palestinians in the
to preserve Israel as a Jewish and
majority of the West Bank, free of
democratic state in the Land of Israel.
settlements, while Israel still controls
I have covered this issue my entire
Thomas the borders and the settlements close
adult life and have never met two U.S. Friedman to it.
leaders more committed to Israel as a
Bibi never lays down a credible
Comment
Jewish democracy.
peace plan that truly puts the ball in the
But they are convinced — rightly
Palestinians’ court. And when someone
— that Netanyahu is a leader who is forever
like Obama exposes that — and Bibi comes
dog paddling in the middle of the Rubicon,
under intense criticism from the liberal half
never ready to cross it. He is unwilling to make of Israel, which sees the country getting more
any big, hard decision to advance or preserve
and more isolated and less and less democratic
a two-state solution if that
— Bibi just calls Obama
decision in any way risks
enemy of Israel and
One day Trump will an
his leadership of Israel’s
caves to the settlers. U.S.
right-wing coalition or
“leaders” then parrot
wake up and discover Jewish
forces him to confront
whatever Bibi says. Sad.
that he was manipu-
the Jewish settlers, who
More worrisome is the
relentlessly push Israel
fact that President-elect
lated into becoming Donald Trump — who
deeper and deeper into the
West Bank.
the co-father of an could be a fresh change
That is what precipitated
agent — is letting himself
Israel that is either no get totally manipulated
this fight over Obama’s
decision not to block
right-wing extremists,
longer Jewish or no by
a U.N. resolution last
and I mean extreme. His
week criticizing Israeli
longer democratic. ambassador-designate to
settlements in the West
Israel, David Friedman, has
Bank. The settlers’ goal
compared Jews who favor
is very clear, as Kerry put it Wednesday: to
a two-state solution to Jews who collaborated
strategically place settlements “in locations
with the Nazis. I’ve never heard such a vile
that make two states impossible,” so that
slur from one Jew to another.
Israel will eventually annex all of the West
Trump also has no idea how much he is
Bank. Netanyahu knows this will bring huge
being manipulated into helping Iran and ISIS.
problems, but his heart is with the settlers,
What is Iran’s top goal when it comes to
and his passion is with holding power — at
Israel? That Israel never leaves the West Bank
any cost. So in any crunch, he sides with the
and that it implants Jewish settlers everywhere
settlers, and they keep pushing.
there.
Obama ordered the U.S. to abstain on the
That would keep Israel in permanent
U.N. resolution condemning the settlements
conflict with Palestinians and the Muslim
(three months after Obama forged a 10-year,
world, as well as many Western democracies
$38 billion military aid package for Israel —
and their college campuses. It would draw all
the largest for any U.S. ally ever) in hopes of
attention away from Iran’s own human rights
sparking a debate inside Israel and to prevent
abuses and enable Iran and ISIS to present
it from closing off any chance of a two-state
themselves as the leading Muslim protectors
solution.
of Jerusalem — and to present America’s
Friends don’t let friends drive drunk, and
Sunni Arab allies as lackeys of an extremist
right now Obama and Kerry rightly believe
Israel. This would create all kinds of problems
that Israel is driving drunk toward annexing
for these Arab regimes. A West Bank on fire
the West Bank and becoming either a
would become a recruitment tool for ISIS and
binational Arab-Jewish state or some Middle
Iran.
Eastern version of 1960s South Africa, where
One day Trump will wake up and discover
Israel has to systematically deprive large
that he was manipulated into becoming
elements of its population of democratic rights the co-father, with Netanyahu, of an Israel
to preserve the state’s Jewish character.
that is either no longer Jewish or no longer
Israel is clearly on a path toward absorbing
democratic. He will discover that he was Bibi’s
the West Bank’s 2.8 million Palestinians.
chump.
There are already 1.7 million Arabs living in
What a true friend of Israel and foe of
Israel, so putting these two Arab populations
Iran would do today is just what Obama
together would constitute a significant minority and Kerry tried — assure Israel long-term
with a higher birthrate than that of Israeli
military superiority to the tune of $38 billion,
Jews — who number 6.3 million — posing a
but, unlike Trump, who is just passing Israel
demographic and democratic challenge.
another bottle of wine, tell our dear ally that
I greatly sympathize with Israel’s security
it’s driving drunk, needs to stop the settlements
problems. If I were Israel, I would not
and apply that amazing Israeli imagination to
relinquish control of the West Bank borders
preserving Israel as a Jewish and democratic
— for now. The Arab world is far too unstable, state.
and Hamas, which controls another 1.8 million
■
Palestinians in Gaza, would likely take over
Thomas Friedman, a New York Times
the West Bank.
columnist, was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes
My criticism of Netanyahu is not that he
for international reporting in Beirut and Israel
won’t simply quit all the West Bank; it is that
and one for commentary.