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Page 6A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, March 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 OTHER VIEWS Mad Trump, happy W. Maad al-Zikry/Associate Press Udai Faisal, an infant suffering from acute malnutrition, is hospi- talized at Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, last year. The face of starvation A This is the face of hunger. It’s hard year, U.S. farmers grew 2.3 billion bushels. to look at, yet if you have a heart you The huge stockpile drags on wheat should not be able to look away. The little boy in the photo, Udai prices, which continue to hover at or below farmers’ cost of production, Faisal, died last year, and 1.4 million threatening their livelihoods and other children like him in far-away places such as Yemen, Somalia, South well-being. Economists estimate that Sudan and Nigeria face the same if nothing changes, wheat prices will awful fate. Some 20.4 million people remain low for up to five years. are caught up in famine across the In a silo, that wheat is helping no region. one. If the U.S. They need our Congress and help. Nobody, regardless the Trump We know the reasons — war, of race or religion, administration were to step drought, political buy that corruption — but deserves to die of forward, wheat and send none of the victims it to sub-Saharan were at fault. malnutrition. Africa and other In February, corners of the United Nations world gripped by hunger, it will save Secretary-General Antonio Guterres millions of lives. held out his hand and asked for Congress and the White House help. “We are already facing a need to recognize our nation’s tragedy; we must avoid it becoming obligation to help the millions of a catastrophe,” he said at a press people who are facing starvation. conference. He said the U.N. needs There is nothing we’d rather see than $4.4 billion by the end of March U.S. Marines delivering shiploads of to avoid that catastrophe. He has wheat directly to the hungry people of received $90 million. sub-Saharan Africa and Yemen. On In Ethiopia alone, 10.2 million each bag should be printed a U.S. flag people are in need and about 2.1 and the words: “From the People of million are acutely malnourished, Challiss McDonough, a spokeswoman the United States of America.” An additional outcome of feeding for the World Food Program, told The people is they will ultimately be Los Angeles Times. She estimates her able to fend for themselves and nonprofit has only 5 percent of the resources it needs in that nation alone. grow their own food, stemming the massive number of refugees The U.N. and charities such as the flooding neighboring countries and World Food Program are fighting a the rest of the world. losing battle. They need food, and they We have been at war 15 years. In need it now, to rescue men, women and children whose only mistake was to live Afghanistan and Iraq, we have sent our young men or women into harm’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. way and spent more than $4 trillion. The United States of America is uniquely able to step forward and help. We can certainly afford to spend a tiny fraction of that to save millions of The U.S. already buys some food for overseas aid programs, but it needs lives. Nobody, regardless of race to do more. According to USAID, or religion, deserves to die of the federal agency that provides food malnutrition, especially when we have aid, 795 million people worldwide the food and the resources readily suffer from chronic hunger. Although available to help them get through this USAID already sends $2.5 billion crisis. in food aid to those in need, we as a Our hope is that Congress and nation can and should do more. President Trump will work together It’s our obligation to humanity. to provide more food aid for those in We live in a land of plenty. Silos need. across the U.S. are bulging with It’s the right thing to do, but it needs excess wheat. According to the to be done now. Every minute, and USDA, 2.07 billion bushels of wheat every life, counts. were in storage as of December. Last 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. nd a huge sigh of relief went up But when he behaves more in the land. The mad king could normally, the guard comes down. stay on script long enough to It’s an optical delusion. People get fake normality. terrified by Crazy Trump. But really, The truculent sovereign could be that makes it easier to fight back, yanked away, for a blessed hour, from because we see the crazy right out there Twitter to a teleprompter. on Twitter. He could emerge from his dystopian, People were relieved at Calm carnivorous man cave, guarded by the Maureen Trump. But really, that’s more fanged two-headed Stephenbeast of potentially dangerous because if Dowd Bannon and Miller, and condemn the he learns how to behave in a more Comment hate he spent so long stirring up. measured, charming way on the Liberal pundits were nonplused by surface, he can put a disarming face on the shock of the president using his “indoor harsh policies or duplicitous practices. voice,” as he traded the cudgel of “American If he seems less like a mad man aiming to carnage” for “the torch of truth, liberty and rip everything apart, he can more easily rip justice” in his maiden speech to Congress. For a everything apart. moment, at least, the shrieking chorus dimmed, When I asked Silicon Valley mogul and the demands that Donald Trump be put in a Trump adviser Peter Thiel recently if he was straitjacket and that the 25th Amendment be worried about Trump appointing heads of invoked quieted down. agencies who wanted to blow up those agencies, Trump was at long last conforming, and the contrarian replied that I had it backward. following the norms of Washington. And that “If you actually want to change things always pleases Washington. in D.C., who should you appoint?” he said. He didn’t let the usual barrage of petty “Maybe if you appoint someone who says, ‘I insults fly or indulge in his loony lovey-dovey want to shut down this whole agency,’ then that talk about the lethal Vladimir Putin. person will just have to deal with a staff revolt. Mike Pence and Paul Ryan beamed behind And everybody will ignore their orders for the president, like the proud parents of a hockey three or four years. goon who gets through the game without a trip “So I think, in theory, to probably change to the penalty box. things the most, it’s better if you appoint Liberal CNN commentator Van Jones was someone who sounds like they’re not that effusive in praising Trump for his paean to controversial but then will just really work at Ryan Owens, the Navy SEAL who died in the changing things.” first counterterrorism mission hastily authorized As W. ambled back on to the public stage by the new president. a few days ago, promoting his new book of “He became president of the United States paintings and stories, “Portraits of Courage: A in that moment, period,” Jones said, calling it Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s “one of the most extraordinary moments you Warriors,” we had a vivid illustration of how far have ever seen in American politics, period.” likability can get you. The emperor of chaos was able to muster When Jimmy Fallon ruffled Trump’s hair 60 minutes 14 seconds of non-embarrassing during the campaign, it was treated as a hideous behavior before we were all ensnared once breach, normalizing the invading vulgarian. more in the bizarre and venal Russian subplot But when Jimmy Kimmel joked with W. on of the Trump presidency and another Twitter Thursday night, the audience reacted warmly. onslaught against Chuck Schumer and Nancy Compared to Trump, it was like W. was the Pelosi for having met with Russians. soul of decency and self-deprecation, on his What is the moral of this? way to Mount Rushmore. That if you talk more like a Washington So does it really matter that his policies insider than a barbarian at the gate, you’re more helped contribute to the greatest economic likely to persuade people to raise the gate and collapse since the Great Depression and the let you do whatever you want, no matter how worst foreign policy blunder in U.S. history? alarming or perfidious. Asked by Willie Geist on “Sunday Today” Trump critics resist in real time, wide-awake about his decision to send soldiers into Iraq and to dangers. By contrast, the public and press Afghanistan, W. replied lamely: “I don’t regret belatedly woke up to Dick Cheney’s demented sending soldiers into battle. I regret they got fake news plot on Iraq because Cheney was hurt.” a known known, a Washington player with Chatting about the Oscar flub, Kimmel a capital boys’ club résumé and soothing noted that W. had also been “involved in many headmaster’s voice. notable faux pas,” as W. laughed. Ordinarily, Trump enjoys plots, gossip and “Mission accomplished,” W. replied, subterranean deals. But now he is frustrated by smirking. his rocky debut and increasingly paranoid about It’s still too soon to laugh about “Mission what he sees as the Vast Deep-State Conspiracy. Accomplished,” especially when peddling When he froths about crowd size like anguished portraits of wounded veterans. In a bus-and-truck “Caine Mutiny,” when he fact, it will always be too soon to laugh about compares the intelligence community to Nazi “Mission Accomplished.” Germany and labels the press “the enemy of the ■ American people,” when he insists that black is Maureen Dowd won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize white and night is day and makes up whoppers for distinguished commentary and served as about voter fraud, the body politic’s defenses go a correspondent in the paper’s Washington up on alert against the Trump virus. bureau since 1986. YOUR VIEWS Hermiston School District is bursting at the seams Hermiston is the largest town in Eastern Oregon and the second fastest growing school district in Oregon. Did you know that because we are growing at such a fast rate the Hermiston School District has had to utilize 34 modular classrooms across the district since our last school bond that passed in 2008? Most of those modular temporary classrooms serve 320 students and most of them are located on our elementary school campuses. The district is on track to grow another 24 percent, which equates to 1,100 additional students within the next seven years. If this bond does not pass there will be even more modular classrooms throughout the district. New and safe schools are good for Hermiston’s economy. When businesses, corporations or employee recruits are seeking information about Hermiston, schools and what they offer are typically at the top of the list for inquiries, which leads to visits and tours of the facilities. We have a lot to be proud of and, in order to continue to grow and provide for the needs of our students, we must think about building and expanding to adequately provide the classroom space needed. What is included in the bond? Replace the aging Rocky Heights Elementary School on the same site, build a new elementary school on district-owned property located on Theater Lane, expand Hermiston High School, replace Highland Hills Elementary School on the same site, and address deferred maintenance issues at Sandstone Middle School. We have been blessed with great leadership, administration and faculty taking us to new heights, and now is the time to back them up with the facility improvements, safe new schools, additions and space we need, all for the benefit for our children and our future leaders. I am asking you to vote with me and approve the Hermiston School District bond that will be on your ballot May 16, 2017. Debbie Pedro 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 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.
