Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, February 3, 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
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to the distinguished citizens from Hermiston and
Pendleton, and dozens of other smaller cities in the region, who were
celebrated recently at awards banquets in their
respective towns.
Firefighters and librarians, mothers and
fathers, business owners and lifelong volunteers
were all feted, and deservedly so. They help
make all our little communities work. Without
them, each would be less prosperous and
personable.
As our reporter Jade McDowell noticed,
compassion was the thread that went through
this week’s festivities in Hermiston. If you
want to make a mark in your community and engender admiration and
appreciation, being compassionate to as many people as possible is the best
way to do it.
And it’s heartening to know compassion is something everyone is capable
of, no matter how much money or time or smarts or strength they have.
It’s about being conscious and sympathetic to the problems of others, and
desiring to alleviate it.
You distinguished citizens provide a great example.
A tip of a hat to the death of the House Bill 621, a disastrous provision
that would have sold 3.3 million acres of public land in the American West.
The outcry against it was fierce, and it came from all sides.
Conservationists, hunters and anglers, hikers
and ATVers were up in arms over the bill
sponsored by Sen. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
The pushback was so strong and so one-sided
that Chaffetz decided to quickly withdraw the
bill.
“I’m a proud gun owner, hunter and love our
public lands,” he said when doing so. “The bill
would have disposed of small parcels of lands
President Clinton identified as serving no public
purpose but groups I support and care about
fear it sends the wrong message. The bill was originally introduced several
years ago. I look forward to working with you. I hear you and HR 621 dies
tomorrow.”
It’s a good reminder that the American people can pull the strings of
power when they show up and speak up. Thousands of people did just that in
capitols from Utah to Montana to Nevada. And calling your legislator works,
too — Chaffetz said he heard from numerous organizations and many more
constituents and Americans from all corners of the country.
The West is better off because of it.
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
Clean Fuels Program will
affect transportation deal
The (Albany) Democrat-Herald
W
ill Oregon’s Clean Fuels
Program throw a wrench yet
again into the Legislature’s
ability to approve a transportation
package?
That’s how it played out during the
2015 session, when attempts to approve
a transportation deal to pay for badly
needed improvements to the state’s roads
and bridges foundered on Republican
objections regarding the
fuels program.
The program itself is
a well-meaning attempt
to reduce the carbon
intensity of Oregon’s
transportation fuels
by 10 percent over
the next decade. It’s not clear whether
the program will do much to reduce
emissions of greenhouse gases, but it’s
been estimated that it will increase the
price of fuel: Previous estimates say it
could cost consumers anywhere from 4
cents to $1 a gallon, although Gov. Kate
Brown said Thursday that, thus far, the
program has added less than a penny
(0.25 cents) to the cost of a gallon of fuel
in Oregon. (Remember that the Oregon
Environmental Commission has voted
to delay enforcement of the mandates
until 2018 to allow time to develop
cost-containment strategies and to work
on other tweaks to the program.)
Democrats went ahead and
renewed the fuel program during the
2015 session, despite warnings from
Republicans that they would be unable
to support any later transportation
package that relied on an increase in the
gas tax. Republicans said they didn’t
want to saddle their constituents with
what amounted to two separate price
increases at the pump. GOP legislators
stayed true to that promise, and since
the increase in the gas tax required at
least some Republican support, the
transportation package died.
The 2017 session is scheduled to
begin in earnest next week, and the
transportation package is at or near the
top on just about everyone’s “to do”
list. And, in fact, a joint committee of
legislators has been traveling the state
to gather information for the package,
including ways to pay for it. But if
the package requires tax increases,
it still will require some votes from
Republicans.
And it became clear on Thursday,
during a legislative preview session
sponsored by The Associated Press, that
Republican leaders still consider the
Clean Fuels Program to be an obstacle to
a transportation package.
In fact, “obstacle” was
the exact word used by
Ted Ferrioli, the GOP’s
minority leader in the
Senate.
What was not clear on
Thursday — and likely
will not be clear until later in the session
— was whether Democrats are willing
to consider changes to the fuels program.
Sen. Ginny Burdick, the Democratic
Senate leader, urged flexibility from both
sides but noted that she was gratified that
the focus was on finding the best ways
to reach the state’s overall goal of carbon
reduction and not on a debate over
whether the state should be reducing
emissions in the first place.
Gov. Brown said Thursday that she
was open to options, but has said in the
past that she’s not in favor of wholesale
changes to the program — and the
fact that she was ready with that new
estimate of increased fuel costs suggests
that she still feels that way.
But she, and other Democrats, might
need to set those feelings aside and
prepare to do some bargaining. The
logjam over the transportation package
was likely the signature failure of the
2015 session. In fact, you might recall,
Brown vowed early in the session that
she wouldn’t let legislators leave Salem
until that particular deal was done. Then
they left, with no deal in hand.
This session will be considerably
more difficult than its 2015 counterpart,
especially with a $1.8 billion budget
shortfall looming. Still, the Legislature
can’t afford to leave Salem this year
without a finished transportation deal.
Prepare to
do some
bargaining.
The extremist in our midst
W
henever an extremist in
Japanese-Americans in 1942. When
the Muslim world does
we’re fearful, we’re vulnerable to
something crazy, people
politicians who play on our fears
demand that moderate Muslims step
and scapegoat immigrants; in the
forward to condemn the extremism.
fullness of time, we come to regret our
So let’s take our own advice: We
xenophobic behavior and to appreciate
Americans should now condemn our
the immigrants.
own extremist.
So I apologize to Muslims. I have
In that spirit, I hereby apologize
Nicholas seen the worst of Islam, but also the
to Muslims. The mindlessness and
Kristof best.
heartlessness of the travel ban should
The newly chosen Rhodes scholars
Comment
humiliate us, not you. Understand
include a Somali refugee, Ahmed
this: President Donald Trump is not
Ahmed, who was born in a Kenya
America!
refugee camp and was admitted to the U.S.
I apologize to Nadia Murad, the brave
as a 1-year-old. Raised by a struggling single
young Yazidi woman from Iraq who was
mom, sometimes showing up at high school
made a sex slave — but since escaping, has
at 5:30 a.m. to study, he attended Cornell
campaigned around the world against ISIS and and won the university’s outstanding student
sexual slavery. She has been nominated for
award. Such people don’t threaten us, but
a Nobel Peace Prize yet is
enrich us.
now barred from the United
If we need an inspiring
States.
example of how moderates
I apologize to Edna
can successfully challenge
Adan, a heroic Somali
extremists, consider an
woman who has battled
extraordinary Somali
for decades for women’s
gynecologist, Dr. Hawa
health and led the fight
Abdi, who ran a displaced
against female genital
persons camp in Somalia,
mutilation. Edna speaks at
including a 400-bed hospital
U.S, universities, champions girls’ education
(and a jail for men who beat their wives).
and defies extremists — and she’s one of those Islamic militants, enraged that a woman
inspiring me to do the same.
was running such an important enterprise,
I don’t want to take Trump-as-an-extremist ordered her to hand it over. When she refused,
too far: He’s not beheading anyone, and
750 armed militants from the Party of Islam
the security challenge is real. Nobody has a
attacked the camp and ordered Abdi to run it
problem with improving safety, and Presidents under their direction. She refused.
George W. Bush and Barack Obama both
Yet Abdi’s camp, serving 90,000 people,
oversaw improvements in vetting. Yet Trump
was just about the only thing working properly
tackled the issue in a way that bolsters the
in Somalia, and Somalis at home and around
ISIS narrative and thus makes us less safe.
the world united to denounce the militants and
In effect, Trump took a real problem,
speak up for her. The pressure on the gunmen
inflated it with hysteria, handled it with
grew. Finally, they slunk off.
incompetence and created an unjust policy that
If Somalis can stand up to extremists, we
targets seven mostly impoverished Muslim
can, too.
countries that haven’t produced a single
Indeed, that is happening. When Japanese-
person involved in a lethal terrorist attack
Americans were rounded up, other Americans
in America since before 9/11. Islamophobia
were silent. Today, it is heartwarming to see
swirls through the order, and Rudy Giuliani
Americans of all creeds standing up against
has helpfully explained that Trump asked him
similar bigotry. In Victoria, Texas, after a
to devise a way to create a Muslim ban and
mysterious fire destroyed the only mosque just
“do it legally.”
hours after Trump announced his travel ban,
There’s a certain symmetry here.
local Jewish leaders gave Muslims a key to
I’ve sat down in mosques in Pakistan,
their synagogue. Four churches also offered
Afghanistan and Yemen and heard jihadis
their space for as long as needed, and in just
justify intolerance. Those men (always men!)
a few days, people of all faiths contributed $1
“otherize” infidels as fundamentally different,
million to build a new mosque.
as threats who must be confronted; Trump
At an airport protest, one much-shared
“otherizes” Muslims in a similar way.
photo showed a Jewish man and a Muslim
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike
man protesting side by side, each with a child
Flynn, has referred to Islam as a “cancer”
on his shoulders.
and has shared a video asserting that Islam
My dream is of the day when Jews
“wants 80 percent of humanity enslaved or
protest Islamophobia, Muslims denounce
exterminated.” That’s the mirror image of the
the persecution of Christians and Christians
bigotry I hear from jihadis who tell me that
stand against anti-Semitism. That’s why I
Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks.
apologize to Muslims, and it’s why ALL of us,
The real chasm is not between Muslims
not just Muslims, should stand up to condemn
and others, but between the moderates and the extremism in our midst.
extremists of whatever religion.
■
A Reuters poll found that many Americans
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
approve of Trump’s travel ban, but that’s
cherry farm in Yamhill. Kristoff, a columnist
not surprising. The same was true of barring
for The New York Times since 2001, twice won
Jewish refugees in the 1930s, and of interning
the Pulitzer Prize.
If Somalis can
stand up to
extremists, then
we can, too.
YOUR VIEWS
Trump’s immigration policy
void of moral leadership
President Trump’s immigration travel
ban violates the spirit and principles of
our Constitution on at least two fronts: It
discriminates against people of color (racial
discrimination) and it discriminates against
Muslims (religious discrimination). Many
would-be travelers are already green card
holders with certain rights.
Does anyone really think any white
Anglo-Saxon Protestants will be applying for
travel from any of the seven countries the ban
applies to? No, and this clearly makes the ban
both racial and religious discrimination.
All but one of the Twin Towers attackers on
September 11, 2001, in New York City were
from Saudi Arabia. So why is Saudi Arabia
not included in Trump’s ban? The reason is
the Trump Organization has many current
business deals and interests in Saudi Arabia.
If the ban applied to Saudi Arabians, it might
upset their political and business leaders, and
they could retaliate with leverage of their own
against the Trump Organization and this could
threaten The Donald’s business profits. And
that is the last thing Trump wants.
So this is what we get when the country
elects a television showman and celebrity to
our presidency. Trump is also a con man, but
a not-so-slick con man who got caught by the
courts at least twice.
Trump University had to settle with
students who sued him for fraud, and one of
his exclusive golf courses in Florida had to
recently reimburse former members millions
of dollars for some bad deal or another that
went sour.
The President of the United States is
supposed to provide moral leadership for the
entire nation and country, but where is the
moral leadership of the president in these
situations?
Bob Shippentower
Pendleton
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.