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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, January 26, 2017 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 OUR VIEW Getting Oregon a Real ID The mountain of bills the Oregon the lurch by 2020. The biggest impact will be on Legislature will consider this those hoping to board a plane, which session is certainly overwhelming. isn’t allowed without approved From minor rules to honorary identification. In other words, it proclamations to major policy, lawmakers will be asked to consider would take a passport for an Oregon resident to board a flight at PDX — thousands of pieces of legislation that add to the vast rulebook even a domestic one. Oregonians must play by. Sen. Bill Hansell and Rep. Greg We’d argue much — if not Barreto have presented a bill that would at least most — of put a bandage the legislation Without a REAL ID, it on the problem, comes from create a a place of would take a passport and path to solving political the future. posturing, to board a flight at it in Senate designed to Bill 374 appease a few PDX in 2020. would allow constituents but Oregonians not benefit the state as a whole. We trust our elected to pay extra to go through the additional steps and obtain a Real representatives are wise enough ID, while directing the Department to not spend too much time on the of Motor Vehicles to set up a extraneous and focus quickly on program to provide the enhanced problems that really matter. IDs. We have a suggestion for a good In short, it will give Oregonians place to start. who want to board a plane but not The federal Real ID Act, passed hassle with a passport the ability in 2005, increased the required to do so, and also push the state documentation for issuing driver’s closer to making the IDs available licenses and identification cards, with the goal of thwarting terrorism. to everyone. It’s not perfect — not all Oregonians will be informed But many states, including Oregon, and many will be furious when they balked at implementing changes arrive at security and cannot pass. because no federal funding was But it’s better than nothing, and available to cover the additional cost perhaps all our cash-strapped state for states to implement. Since then the federal government can afford right now. We hope this bill will be plucked from the has been issuing waivers to Oregon mountain of legislation piling up and other states, but has indicated at the Capitol and given thorough those waivers will soon expire and consideration. leave card-carrying Oregonians in 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 Rapist who got off in Oregon found guilty in Illinois Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat S ome would point to religion as the root of many evils, from massacres of those professing other faiths to rationale for the subjugation of women of your own tribe, plus everyone from other tribes. But when you get down to it, faith is usually less to blame than the individuals who interpret a tenet to rationalize their behavior. James Lopes and his “Rise Star Church” certainly fit that model. He argues that his attempts to have sex with prepubescent girls in public is a religious teaching entrusted to him by God, and that it isn’t rape because they were wearing green to signal their desire to have sex as his child bride on a mini date. He defended himself in front of a jury as Madison County prosecutors successfully argued that Lopes is sexually dangerous, a civil proceeding that will now put him away until he is no longer a threat to little girls. Until his sanity is determined and the threat to children is eliminated, there is a hold on the criminal felony counts stating he tried to have sex with multiple little girls in front of their parents at an ice cream parlor, gas station, grocery store, bowling alley and other public places. Lopes did the same thing in 2012 in Oregon, but essentially got away with it when the Oregon Supreme Court declared the state could not force him to take medications intended to get him sane enough to assist in his defense. They ruled that forced medication was not guaranteed to work and would not fulfill an important state interest because any sentence for soliciting the 8-year-old YMCA camper in a Portland park likely would be less than the 18 months he’d been in jail and a mental hospital. Charges were dropped. He’d say God was on his side. That’s what the Nazis said. Same for Al Qaeda and ISIS. The Madison County jury disagreed. They decided the high priest of the “Rise Star Church” needed an extended retreat for religious reflection. Our daughters are thankful. He’d say God was on his side. That’s what the Nazis said. Same for Al Qaeda and ISIS. Civility must endure Y ou know how Donald Trump of insults and insulters, and tune out, wins? I don’t mean a second when there’s a contest — over what term or major legislative this country stands for, over where victories. I’m talking about the battle it will go — that couldn’t be more between incivility and dignity. serious. He triumphs when opponents trade After Rich’s tweet, “Saturday Night righteous anger for crude tantrums. Live” suspended her, and she was When they lose sight of the line broadly condemned, by Democrats as between protest and catcalls. well as Republicans, for violating the Frank When a writer for “Saturday Night unofficial rule against attacks on the Bruni Live” jokes publicly that Trump’s young children of presidents. Chelsea Comment 10-year-old son has the mien and Clinton, on her Facebook page, urged people to give Barron space and peace makings of a killer. — something that wasn’t always done for her, “Barron will be this country’s first for George W. Bush’s daughters or for Barack home-school shooter,” the writer, Katie Rich, tweeted. Obama’s. I cringe at repeating it. But there’s no other But the treatment of presidential progeny way to take proper note of its isn’t the real story here. And ugliness. that’s a complicated saga That tweet ignited a anyway, because so many firestorm — and rightly presidents and candidates so — but it didn’t really try to have things both ways, surprise me. It was just putting family on display a matter of time. This is when it suits them and then the trajectory that we’re declaring them off limits traveling. This, increasingly, when it doesn’t. is what passes for The larger, more pressing impassioned advocacy. issues are how low we’re prepared to sink Look elsewhere on Twitter. Or on in our partisan back-and-forth and what’s Facebook. Or at Madonna, whose many accomplished by descending to Trump’s positive contributions don’t include her turn subterranean level. His behavior has been at the microphone at the Women’s March grotesque, and it’s human nature to want to in Washington, where she said that she’d repay him in kind. It feels good. It sometimes “thought an awful lot about blowing up the even feels right. White House,” erupted into profanity and Many people I know thrilled to the viral tweaked the lyrics to one of her songs so that footage a few days ago of the vile white they instructed Trump to perform a particular supremacist Richard Spencer being punched sex act. in the head during a television interview. But What a sure way to undercut the high- that attack does more to help him than to hurt mindedness of most of the women (and men) him. around her on that inspiring day. What a Many people I know thrilled to BuzzFeed’s wasted opportunity to try to reach the many publication of a dossier with unsubstantiated Americans who still haven’t decided how allegations about Trump. But that decision alarmed about Trump to be. I doubt that even bolstered his ludicrous insistence that one of them listened to her and thought: To the journalists are uniquely unfair to him. It gave barricades I go! If Madonna’s dropping the F him a fresh weapon in his war on the media. bomb, I must spring into action. If Trump’s presidency mirrors its dangerous All of this plays right into Trump’s prelude, one of the fundamental challenges hands. It pulls eyes and ears away from the will be to respond to him, his abettors and his unpreparedness, conflicts of interest and agenda in the most tactically prudent way and extreme views of so many of his Cabinet not just the most emotionally satisfying one. nominees; from the evolving explanations for To rant less and organize more. To resist taunts why he won’t release his tax returns; from and stick with facts. To answer invective with his latest delusion or falsehood, such as his intelligence. renewed insistence that illegally cast ballots And to show, in the process, that there are cost him the popular vote; from other evidence two very different sets of values here, manifest of an egomania so profound that it’s an in two very distinct modes of discourse. If that impediment to governing and an invitation to doesn’t happen, Trump may be victorious in national disaster. more than setting newly coarse terms for our There’s so much substantive ground on political debate. He may indeed win on many which to confront Trump. There are acres upon fronts, over many years. acres. Why swerve into the gutter? Why help ■ him dismiss his detractors as people in thrall to Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for The the theater of their outrage and no better than New York Times since 2011, joined the paper he is? in 1995. Over his years, he has worn a wide And why risk that disaffected Americans, variety of hats, including chief restaurant tuning in only occasionally, hear one big mash critic and Rome bureau chief. How low are we prepared to sink in our partisan back-and-forth? YOUR VIEWS Watching Walden when it comes to health care A representative is defined as a person chosen to act and speak on behalf of a wider group. I am part of that wider group. Rep Walden was elected to represent 798,161 people from Oregon. Eleven percent, or approximately 89,000 of those constituents currently have health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act (stats from the census.gov link on his website). Walden has promised to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare. He and his colleagues have said that their replacement will be better than the ACA. I say: Hooray! I am anxious to see him, or anyone, provide better healthcare to the uninsured and under- insured. But I am also warning our Representative: I Governor am watching. What does “better” mean in the context of healthcare? It could mean that 1) more people will get coverage; 2) those who are already covered will get better coverage; 3) recipients’ costs will go down, or, 4) the government’s costs will go down. Based on the hype, I expect all of these criteria to be met. If people who currently have healthcare through the ACA lose coverage, get worse coverage, or must pay more, then it is not better. Walden will have lied and failed. They should not repeal any parts of the ACA until he has the promised “better” replacement in place. Good luck to him. I truly hope he and his party can do it. I will be keeping a close eye on their progress. Nancy Noteboom Odell CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES State Representatives Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, OR 97301-4047 503-378-4582 State Senator Bill Hansell, District 29 900 Court St. NE, S-423 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us 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