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OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
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MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
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MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
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OUR VIEW
Harsh winter cracks
thin ice that schools
are skating on
Eastern Oregonians have been
snowed in for much of the winter,
which means that local students have
been snowed out of their classrooms.
Schools from Ione to Elgin have
been hammered by ice and snow
and freezing fog, causing them to
cancel days of class time and shorten
others.
Teachers are scrambling to
figure out how to deal with the
issue, choosing between lopping
off chapters from this semester’s
curricula or loading their students
up with work they missed due to
weather. Administrators, school
boards, teachers’ unions and the
state education department are
scrambling, too.
There are no good options when
Mother Nature throws a wrench in
things. But the priority cannot be
anything other than education, and
everyone should keep that in mind
when discussing what steps to take
to get out of this hole.
A clear problem in Oregon is
how many school districts, when
laying out their schedule, skate on
dangerously thin ice just above
the minimum legal requirements
of instructional time — even
though Oregon’s instructional time
requirements are the lowest in the
country.
If anything goes wrong in the
school year — an unusually harsh
winter, a busted pipe, or a collapsed
roof — the district can quickly
drop below legal requirements.
This is bad planning, though of
course financial realities and union
negotiations can force that hand.
But padding some additional time
into the school year, right from the
get-go, would help most emergency
situations. Worst case scenario — no
school is missed and Oregon
children spend more time in a
classroom, though likely still below
the national average.
Once the schedule allows for
a few unforeseen circumstances,
we have to be smart should those
unforeseen circumstances occur.
It sure seems foolish for
Hermiston and Pendleton to both
have a day off this week for an
in-service day, wasting a chance
to make up a day of missed class
time. We support valuable teacher
development time, and know that
educators with better training add
value to each class hour, but many
parents are scratching their heads
about keeping their kids home on a
clear day after a winter riddled with
cancellations.
On Thursday, the Oregon
Department of Education approved
a temporary rule to allow schools
to opt out of 14 hours of state-
mandated instructional time. It won’t
make up all the hours lost at most
local districts, but it helps lessen the
hill most districts had to overcome
to arrive back at the minimum
instructional hours.
Some school districts, such as
Hermiston, have already taken
action, pushing their graduation back
a week. Sure, it causes problems
and will upset some parents and
students, but as we said above
there are no perfect options. And
we’re in favor of most options
that get class time back to legal
requirements, be it lengthening the
school day, adding days to the end
of the year or reducing in-session,
non-instructional time.
Pendleton School District has
yet to take action to make up
the missing time. The district
is surveying parents, staff and
community members as to how they
think the district should go about it.
Other school boards are considering
their options as well.
Oregon has to do better when
it comes to education. We’re
below average compared to most
states. And if we’re doing the bare
minimum right now we sure can’t
afford to go any lower, no matter the
weather.
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
Improving Oregon’s transparency
The (Corvallis) Gazette-Times
O
ne of the interesting sidelights in
this year’s legislative session will
be the fate of a proposal to create
a public records ombudsman. The idea is
that the ombudsman’s office would help
mediate disputes between state agencies
and members of the public requesting
public records.
Now, your first question might well
be this: Why would such an office
be necessary? Don’t public records
belong to, well, members of the public?
Shouldn’t state agencies consistently be
bending over backward to help citizens
access those records?
To be fair, there are agencies where
that occurs on a regular basis. But the
overall picture is not as bright as it
should be — and the number of instances
in which a government bureaucracy has
blocked legitimate requests for records
or has charged unrealistic fees is on the
rise, and has been for years.
The idea for the ombudsman is the
work of a public task force that has
been laboring for more than a year on
overhauling the state’s records laws. It’s
been challenging work; the task force
had hoped, for example, to examine
the 500 or so exemptions to the public
records law that have cropped up in
the decades since 1973, when Oregon
enacted a law that was at the time
considered among the best in the nation.
That’s no longer the case, a realization
that helped pave the way for Oregon
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum
to create the task force in the first
place. But it became clear to task force
members that the work of examining the
exemptions will take some time.
So, in the meantime, the task force
has recommended some smaller steps,
including the idea of creating the
ombudsman. A bill pending before the
2017 Legislature, Senate Bill 106, does
just that, creating a position that will be
called the “public records advocate.”
Let’s be clear: This isn’t the huge
breakthrough in access to public records
that Oregon citizens deserve. For
starters, the advocate position would not
have the authority to compel release of
records, but it potentially would have the
ability to work with citizens to mediate
solutions to records disputes.
After initially proposing that the
office be housed in the office of the
secretary of state, Gov. Kate Brown
recently suggested that the office
be placed in the Department of
Administrative Services. There’s a
critical problem there: The director of
that department reports to the governor.
Why would Brown, a Democrat,
change her tune about where the
advocate should be located? The
November elections may offer a clue:
Voters chose Republican Dennis
Richardson as secretary of state.
But Brown, who has talked about
the need to increase public confidence
in state government, needs to shrug off
whatever political concerns she might
have and stick with the original plan.
Let’s be blunt: It’s more effective
if the governor doesn’t have direct
authority over the position. In a
legislative session that increasingly
seems defined by hard partisan lines, it
will be interesting to watch this issue
play out.
OTHER VIEWS
The politics of cowardice
T
his is a column directed at high
Trump was not a coward in the
school and college students.
business or campaign worlds. He could
I’m going to try to convey to
take on enormous debt and had the
you how astoundingly different the
audacity to appear at televised national
Republican Party felt when I was your
debates with no clue what he was
age.
talking about. But as president his is a
The big guy then was Ronald
policy of cowardice. On every front, he
Reagan. Temperamentally, though
wants to shrink the country into a shell.
not politically, Reagan was heir to the
J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote, “A man
David
two Roosevelts. He inherited a love of
Brooks that flies from his fear may find that he
audacity from TR and optimism and
has only taken a shortcut to meet it.”
Comment
charm from FDR.
Desperate to be liked, Trump adopts
He had a sunny faith in America’s
a combative attitude that makes him
destiny and in America’s ability to bend global unlikable. Terrified of Mexican criminals, he
history toward freedom. He had a sunny faith
wants to build a wall that will actually lock in
in the free market to deliver prosperity to all.
more undocumented aliens than it will keep
He had a sunny faith in
out. Terrified of Muslim
the power of technology
terrorists, he embraces the
to deliver bounty and even
torture policies guaranteed
protect us from nuclear
to mobilize terrorists.
missiles.
Terrified that U.S. business
He could be very hard
can’t compete with Asian
on big government or
business, he closes off a
the Soviet Union, but he
trade deal that would have
generally saw the world as a
boosted annual real incomes
welcoming place; he looked
in the United States by $131
for the good news in others
billion, or 0.5 percent of
and saw the arc of history
GDP. Terrified of Mexican
bending toward progress.
competition, he considers
When he erred it was
slapping a 20 percent tariff
often on the utopian side of things, believing
on Mexican goods, even though U.S. exports
that tax cuts could pay for themselves,
to Mexico have increased 97 percent since
believing that he and Mikhail Gorbachev
2005.
could shed history and eliminate all nuclear
Trump has changed the way the Republican
weapons.
Party sees the world. Republicans used to have
The mood of the party is so different today. a basic faith in the dynamism and openness of
Donald Trump expressed the party’s new
the free market. Now the party fears openness
mood to David Muir of ABC, when asked
and competition.
about his decision to suspend immigration
In summer 2015, according to a Pew
from some Muslim countries: “The world is a
Research Center poll, Republicans said free
mess. The world is as angry as it gets. What,
trade deals had been good for the country
you think this is going to cause a little more
by 51 to 39 percent. By summer 2016,
anger? The world is an angry place.”
Republicans said those deals had been bad for
Consider the tenor of Trump’s first week
America by 61 percent to 32 percent.
in office. It’s all about threat perception. He
It’s not that the deals had changed, or
has made moves to build a wall against the
reality. It was that Donald Trump became the
Mexican threat, to build barriers against the
Republican nominee and his dark fearfulness
Muslim threat, to end a trade deal with Asia
became the party’s dark fearfulness. In this
to fight the foreign economic threat, to build
case fear is not a reaction to the world. It is
black site torture chambers against the terrorist a way of seeing the world. It propels your
threat.
reactions to the world.
Trump is on his political honeymoon,
As Reagan came to office he faced refugee
which should be a moment of joy and
crises, with suffering families coming in from
promise. But he seems to suffer from an angry Cuba, Vietnam and Cambodia. Filled with
form of anhedonia, the inability to experience
optimism and confidence, Reagan vowed,
happiness. Instead of savoring the moment,
“We shall seek new ways to integrate refugees
he’s spent the week in a series of nasty
into our society,” and he delivered on that
squabbles about his ratings and crowd sizes.
promise.
If Reagan’s dominant emotional note
Trump faces a refugee crisis from Syria.
was optimism, Trump’s is fear. If Reagan’s
And though no Syrian-American has ever
optimism was expansive, Trump’s fear
committed an act of terrorism on American
propels him to close in: Pull in from Asian
soil, Trump’s response is fear. Shut them out.
entanglements through rejection of the Trans-
Students, the party didn’t used to be this
Pacific Partnership. Pull in from European
way. A mean wind is blowing.
entanglements by disparaging NATO. It’s
■
not a cowering, timid fear; it’s more a dark,
David Brooks became a New York Times
resentful porcupine fear.
Op-Ed columnist in 2003. He has been a
We have a word for people who are
senior editor at The Weekly Standard and is
dominated by fear. We call them cowards.
currently a commentator on PBS.
Trump is on
his political
honeymoon,
which should be
a moment of joy
and promise.
YOUR VIEWS
Hammonds deserve pardons
and to be sent back home
The Hammonds should be home with their
families.
Seventy-four-year-old Dwight and son
Steven were/are respected ranchers in the
Burns area. They are presently serving a five
year mandatory sentence for arson on federal
land. They were labeled terrorists in order to
justify this grossly disproportionate sentence
for the destruction (burning) of approximately
130 acres of BLM pasture.
They stood trial once and served their time.
The DOJ came back in federal appeals court
and won reinstating the five year sentence.
Double jeopardy is mentioned often as I
have read the articles reporting the trial and
happenings that led to the final outcome,
which to me is a gross miscarriage of justice.
Mandatory five year sentencing is to
discourage terrorists and arsonists who
disregard the law. Was this a witch hunt used
to send a message to good solid Americans
that dissent? Could be; maybe yes.
The Hammonds have been described in
such terms as respected, great neighbor, salt
of the earth ag folks. If this father and son
fit the profile of arsonist or terrorist, we are
all in trouble. “Remember this is not about
me, this is about our country,” were Dwight
Hammond’s parting comments as he was
taken from home and family a year ago.
For goodness sakes, someone has the
leverage to get these men out of prison.
Unfortunately for the Hammonds, I think they
were caught up in what I refer to as “a virus
sweep.”
Easily labeled as such if you have issues
with the BLM and their land management
policies. I’m infuriated to see the pardons and
commutations being dished out at this time,
drug dealers and terrorists, but none seem to
be forthcoming for Dwight and Steven.
Bring the Hammonds home.
Wanda Ballard
Baker City
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.