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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
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
Oregon takes risk
by defying Trump’s
immigration decree
From agriculture to medicine to
technology, Oregon thrives on the
work of immigrants.
Caught between state law and
Trump administration policy, Gov.
Kate Brown has acted responsibly
by upholding Oregon as a place that
“embraces, celebrates and welcomes
its immigrant and refugee residents.”
On Thursday, Brown signed
an executive order expanding a
1987 state law that prohibits law
enforcement agencies from using
taxpayer money to investigate or
arrest Oregonians due only to their
immigration status.
That prohibition will now apply
to all state agencies. They still must
follow state and federal laws; for
example, only citizens can become
voters or obtain certain welfare
benefits. But state employees
must not discriminate based on
immigration status or — because
Brown worries about a potential
“Muslim ban” — on religion.
Her point: Oregon agencies and
Oregon law enforcement should
focus on Oregon, and leave federal
immigration enforcement to the feds.
“I want to make it very clear that
here in Oregon, where thousands
have fought for and demanded
equality, where millions have put
down roots and become integral to
our economy, to our culture, and to
our way of life, we cannot retreat,”
Brown said. “As governor, it is my
duty to uphold the civil and human
rights of all who call Oregon home.”
President Donald Trump issued
executive orders that halted
resettlement of refugees from Syria
and temporarily blocked citizens
of seven predominantly Muslim
countries from entering the U.S.
That is his political prerogative,
although subsequent lawsuits are
challenging the constitutionality of
his orders. Brown wants Oregon to
join the litigation.
The Trump orders, which
canceled tens of thousands of visas
until a federal judge intervened,
directly affect Oregon. In one
high-profile case that incensed
politicians nationwide, an Iranian
infant was blocked from traveling to
Oregon Health & Science University
for life-saving heart surgery. The
federal government has now granted
a waiver allowing Fatemah Reshad
and her family to enter the U.S.
Oregon’s largest private employer,
Intel, has thousands of foreign-born
employees who are here on work
visas. So do many other employers,
from doctors who practice at clinics
and hospitals to IT contractors who
serve state government. Oregon
universities constantly have scholars
and students traveling from abroad
to collaborate on study and research.
And certainly, Oregon’s farm sector
is dependent on the agricultural
skills of thousands of immigrants.
Oregon’s 1987 law had national
influence but has not always been
followed locally. Clackamas County
ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution
for holding a woman on a federal
immigration detainer after her arrest
for allegedly violating a restraining
order. That 2014 federal court ruling
led many sheriff departments to
require that the feds have a warrant
or court order when they want a
foreign-born individual held for
immigration purposes.
That is reasonable, despite the
inflammatory rhetoric about Oregon
and other places being “sanctuaries”
for undocumented immigrants.
Oregon pursues, prosecutes and
punishes criminals regardless of
their immigration status. Oregon
law enforcement also honors federal
warrants.
Public safety is enhanced by
the legitimate separation between
state law enforcement and federal
immigration enforcement. Oregon’s
law encourages undocumented
immigrants to trust police instead
of fearing deportation for being a
victim or witness to a crime. The law
encourages immigrants to use the
court system to resolve child custody
and other issues. However, Oregon
judges say Trump’s orders already
have had a chilling effect in that
regard.
Oregon’s position carries risks.
One of Trump’s orders would
withdraw federal money from
“sanctuary” states and cities. A
greater risk, noted Republican
state Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas,
is that Oregon will simply be left
off the future recipient list when
federal money is doled out for road
construction and other projects.
It is a risky stance. It is the right
stance.
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.
Culture Corner
H
indsight is 20/20, and history
often reveals with clarity what is
obscured in a fog of uncertainty
as events unfold.
That’s why it’s so impressive to
read on-the-ground journalism and
commentary
that proves to
be downright
prescient long
before the
historians had
begun sorting
out the details.
Writing that
sails against the
prevailing winds
and sees through
propaganda is often lost in the noise
when it’s published, but stands out in the
years and decades that follow.
The Pulitzer Prizes, given annually
to the work that achieves those goals,
are an interesting read after the history
book has been published. In January the
organization published four Pulitzer-
winning articles written about the rise
of Adolph Hitler. They are found at
www.pulitzer.org/article/four-pulitzer-
winning-takes-rise-adolf-hitler.
Reading through the reporting,
with Holocaust Remembrance Day
fresh in mind and several generations
of history textbooks in our collective
consciousness, it’s difficult to imagine
how anyone was still uncertain about
the dangers of Hitler and the rise of the
Nazi Party. If only more had taken heed,
it seems, the painful chapter in world
history could have been avoided. But
there were certainly many opposing
pieces at the time extolling their virtues
and discrediting their detractors.
Edgar A.
Mowrer, who
reported on Hitler’s
election, was
forced to leave
Germany soon
after his reporting
was published
because Nazi
leadership told
him it couldn’t
protect him
against the backlash of the public.
Anne O’Hare McCormick wrote about
the militarization of Germany, which
takes on an especially ominous tone
in retrospect. Louis P. Lochner was an
embedded reporter with the German
army during the invasions of Poland,
The Netherlands, Belgium and France,
and was arrested after the U.S. and
Germany declared war on one another.
The Pulitzer Prizes are a celebration
of the best journalism and a reminder
of the difficult work of collecting
facts, finding their proper place and
significance and trying to make them
matter in a world of fear, anger and
complacency.
— Daniel Wattenburger, managing
editor
OTHER VIEWS
A lesson in Black History
ast week at a supposed Black
Douglass was a blistering critic
History Month “listening session”
of Lincoln from the beginning. In
at the White House, Donald
Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address,
Trump made this baffling statement:
he quoted from one of his previous
“I am very proud now that we have a
speeches in which he had said “I have
museum on the National Mall where
no purpose, directly or indirectly, to
people can learn about Reverend
interfere with the institution of slavery
King, so many other things. Frederick
in the states where it exists,” and he
Douglass is an example of somebody
Charles went on to defend the Fugitive Slave
who’s done an amazing job that is being
Act, promising the slave states full
Blow
recognized more and more, I notice.”
enforcement of it as long as it was on
Comment
It sounded a bit like he thought the
the books.
inimitable Douglass, who died in 1895,
This incensed Douglass, who said
was some lesser-known black leader who was
of the remarks: “Not content with the broadest
still alive.
recognition of the right of property in the souls
When press secretary Sean Spicer was asked and bodies of men in the slave states, Mr.
what Trump meant by his Douglass comments,
Lincoln next proceeds, with nerves of steel, to
Spicer responded:
tell the slaveholders what an excellent slave
“I think he wants to highlight the
hound he is.”
contributions that he has made. And I think
Although Douglass’ cutting critique
through a lot of the actions and statements that
of Lincoln began to soften after Lincoln
he’s going to make, I think the contributions
announced the preliminary Emancipation
of Frederick Douglass will become more and
Proclamation, Douglass continued to be
more.”
unhappy throughout the Civil War about the
Assuming that the “he” in that sentence
unequal treatment of black soldiers in the Union
refers to Douglass, these numbskulls are
Army. But even in the midst of this criticism,
actually referring to him as a living person and
Lincoln entertained Douglass at the White
have absolutely no clue who Douglass is and
House.
what he means to America.
Although Douglass wasn’t fully satisfied
Social media had a field day with this,
with Lincoln’s positions, Douglass remarked of
relentlessly mocking the team, but for me the
the meeting: “Mr. Lincoln listened with earnest
emotion was overwhelming sadness: How
attention and with very apparent sympathy,
could the American “president” or a White
and replied to each point in his own peculiar,
House press secretary, or any American citizen
forcible way.”
for that matter, not know who Douglass is?
This stands in stark contrast to Trump’s
Let’s be absolutely clear here: Frederick
avoidance of black intellectuals and even any
Douglass is a singular, towering figure of
real critics. Trump’s “listening session” seemed
American history. The entire legacy of black
to be populated only by his black appointees
intellectual thought and civil rights activism
and supporters.
flows in some way through Douglass, from
Lincoln and Douglass would go on to
W.E.B. DuBois to Booker T. Washington, to the develop a genuine friendship and Douglass
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to President
would become something of Lincoln’s
Barack Obama himself.
conscience on the slave issue. In fact, Lincoln
Douglass was one of the most brilliant
called Douglass “one of the most meritorious
thinkers, writers and orators America has
men, if not the most meritorious man, in the
ever produced. Furthermore, he harnessed
United States.”
and mastered the media of his day: Writing
That is what leadership and growth look
an acclaimed autobiography, establishing
like. Lincoln grew from the association with
his own newspaper and becoming the most
and counsel from his onetime critic, to become
photographed American of the 19th century.
one of the greatest presidents America has ever
Put another way: If modern social media
known.
existed during Douglass’ time, he would have
Indeed Black History Month began not as
been one of its kings.
a month but a week: Negro History week, the
Douglass also was a friend of Susan B.
second week of February. It was established
Anthony and an advocate for women’s civil
in 1926 by noted black historian Carter G.
rights as well as the civil rights of black people,
Woodson, and choosing February was no
understanding even then the intersectionality of
coincidence: It honored the birthdays of
oppressions. In fact, the motto of his newspaper, Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and Douglass,
The North Star, was “Right is of no Sex —
who helped direct his conscience.
Truth is of no Color — God is the Father of us
Trump would do well to study this history;
all, and we are all Brethren.”
he has much to learn from it. As historian
But perhaps one of the best reasons Trump
Woodson’s personal motto went: “It’s never too
and Spicer need to bone up on Douglass is
late to learn.”
to understand his relationship with Abraham
■
Lincoln and to get a better sense of what true
Charles M. Blow has been a New York Times
leadership looks like.
Op-Ed columnist since 2008.
L
YOUR VIEWS
Faults in green energy
arguments
I moved to Oregon in 1978-79 with a
Master Electrician license from Wyoming, and
began work on the Boardman coal-fired power
plant. At that time, my brother was the erection
engineer for Lodge Cottrell of the electro-
static precipitator at the plant. I also worked on
other co-generation (natural gas) plants within
Eastern Oregon. Later on I accepted a position
as a state electrical inspector in the Eastern
Oregon geographical area and it was within
my field to inspect the installations of wind
generators and solar panels.
I decided, after the continuous nonsensical
arguments that have appeared in the local
news, I would expose some fallacies toward
opposition to the proposed generation plants.
The articles written are expressly opposed
to all but wind and solar. For those who are
not familiar with power producing facilities,
let me say that wind generation units are
extremely expensive to build and almost
never last to pay the tax payers back for their
installation costs. Solar panels are usually
manufactured and brought in but the electrical
distribution is minimal and for the home
owner must be supported by other methods
such as gas or diesel generators and battery
packs. In comparison to those of us who have
access to the power grids and distribution to
our homes and businesses wind and solar is
cost-prohibitive.
Now as far as coal-fired power plants, the
American consumers have been led to believe
that the pollution from openly burning of a ton
of coal is the same result as what is given off
through the stack of a coal-fired plant. This
is not true, but society has been indoctrinated
and allowed to believe those fallacies even
though emissions are monitored and recorded
to prevent pollution.
Bias arguments of opposition are
expressed for political reasons and political
grandstanding. Power companies can and do
pass on the costs to the consumers, so they
will continue to build whatever the general
population and political rhetoric demand.
The one highly efficient and proven electrical
generation is from hydro-electric. But even
there, we have those who want to tear out the
dams even though their benefits are so much
more than just power generation.
One last thing I want to say is that those
who claim to be great saviors of our natural
resources are usually puppets of a political
machine and have no facts to back up
their rhetoric, and would starve the world
population to save a worthless snail darter.
Frank E. Vincent
Hermiston
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 pub-
lished. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing editor Daniel Watten-
burger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.