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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 10, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, May 10, 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 Pendleton schools at a precipice OTHER VIEWS enrollment is multifaceted, and not A decade ago, the graduating solely the fault of the district. A lack classes of Pendleton and Hermiston of opportunities and leadership has high schools were nearly equal in hampered the city of Pendleton for size. But this June, when the Class much longer than a decade. A lack of 2017 earns their diplomas, twice of jobs and housing, combined with as many hats will be thrown in the a culture resistant to change, are the air in Hermiston compared to their main culprits. neighbors down the road. Hermiston High will graduate But the school district has lost students to online offerings, and more than 400 while Pendleton others who live in High just half that, the district choosing according to our Hermiston to attend Helix or East Oregonian elsewhere, parents graduation section. will graduate who chose instead Those numbers more than 400 to homeschool, speak volumes about the growth students this year, others who have dropped out. and health of both Pendleton half that. simply Increasing the communities. number of students Hermiston’s A decade ago, the district was on school enrollment the schools were in the mind of school has soared while board members Pendleton is on a almost even. and the public precipitous decline as they peppered — down more than 30 graduates from last year alone. superintendent candidates last week. The winner of that four-man derby, Declining enrollment is a danger Chris Fritsch, will have to deal with for every aspect of community life, enrollment issues right away. from businesses to public safety to housing prices. But the effect is That means talking about felt most immediately within the development in Pendleton. Schools have largely been sidelined from this Pendleton School District itself. conversation, but they cannot afford Taxpayers forked over big bucks to be sidelined any longer. just two years ago to build three Creating a more stable district new schools, but a reduction in requires a stable, but preferably state funding combined with fewer increasing number of pupils. students may soon mean those new Achieving that will take a stronger buildings will not be adequately partnership with city government staffed. The district will lay off 10 and development organizations, an when it’s clear that more employees, improved classroom product, more not fewer, are needed to turn around the decline. Other important jobs will state funding and more programs likely go unfilled after people leave or that keep reduce dropouts. It should be among the new superintendent’s retire. highest priorities. The reasons for the decline 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. Letters regarding the May election will not be published in print after Saturday’s newspaper. To give your letter the best opportunity to be published, please email editor@eastoregonian.com by noon Thursday. A French lesson for the American media T he hacked emails from about the candidates. The answers Emmanuel Macron’s French about Donald Trump were all over the campaign appear to be place: immigration, his speeches and spectacularly mundane, according his criticism of Barack Obama, among to people who have read them. They other things. When people described include briefings on issues, personal what they were hearing about Clinton, exchanges and discussions of the by contrast, one subject towered over weather. No doubt they also include every other: email. some embarrassing thoughts, but so far That’s a pretty harsh indictment of David they are notably lacking in scandal. Leonhardt the coverage (and Gallup’s research Does this description remind you of was done well before James Comey Comment anything? wrote his infamous letter). It is a sign Ah, yes. Last year, Russian agents that Clinton’s private server and the stole thousands of emails from Hillary hacked emails crowded out everything else, Clinton’s campaign and published them via including her plans for reducing inequality, WikiLeaks. The dominant feature of the addressing climate change and conducting emails was their ordinariness. a more hawkish foreign policy than Obama. They contained no evidence of It’s a sign that the media failed to distinguish lawbreaking, major hypocrisy or tawdry a subject that sounded important — secret scandal. Even the worst revelation — a emails! — from subjects that were in reality Democratic official and CNN contributor more important. fed a town hall question to the campaign in Last weekend, France’s mainstream media advance — qualified as small beer. Ronald showed how to exercise better judgment. Reagan’s 1980 campaign engaged in much Late Friday, two days before the election, more consequential debate skulduggery. hackers released the Macron campaign emails. The Clinton emails were instead full of staff French media laws are stricter than American members jockeying for position, agonizing laws, and government officials argued against over strategy, complaining about their bosses publication of the hacked information. But and offering advice to those same bosses. only the campaigns themselves were legally Imagine for a moment that your inbox, barred from making statements during the or your boss’, was released to the world. final weekend. Publications could have I’ll guess that it would not be free of reported on the substance of the emails. embarrassment. They largely did not. “It was a Despite the mundane quality of the Clinton manipulation attempt — people trying to emails, the media covered them as a profound manipulate our voting process,” Gilles van revelation. The tone often suggested a big Kote, deputy chief editor of Le Monde, told investigative scoop. But this was no scoop. me. It was material stolen by a hostile foreign French journalists rightly did not focus government, posted for all to see, and it was on what seemed like big news, because the only occasionally revealing. It deserved some emails surely did. They evaluated what truly coverage, but far less. was major news. I say this as someone who likes journalism Material released by a hostile foreign so much that I’ve never had another full-time government, with the aim of confusing job. I also say it with reverence for the many voters and evidently without significant new journalists doing good, hard work that, information, failed to qualify. Van Kote said as Thomas Jefferson explained, is vital to reporters are continuing to read the emails to democracy. With a president who lies all see if they warrant future stories. the time, often about the media, journalism The two cases obviously are not identical. becomes all the more important. And because (And van Kote wasn’t criticizing American it’s so important, those of us practicing it need journalism; the criticisms are mine.) But they to be open to reflection and criticism. are similar enough to say that the French The overhyped coverage of the hacked media exercised better, more sober judgment emails was the media’s worst mistake in than the American media. 2016 — one sure to be repeated if not This issue isn’t going away. Our digital properly understood. Television was the world ensures that the private information of biggest offender, but print media was hardly public figures, and not-so-public ones, will be blameless. The sensationalism exacerbated released again in the future. a second problem with the coverage: the The media cannot always ignore that obsession with Clinton’s private email server. information, tempting as it may seem. But I disagree with people who say that the it also should not pretend that the only two server was a nonstory. Clinton violated options are neglect and sensationalism. There government policy and was not fully honest. is a middle ground, one where journalistic The FBI conducted an investigation, whatever judgment should prioritize news over the you think of it. All of that adds up to a real whiff of news. news story. ■ The question is scale. In the fall, Gallup David Leonhardt is an op-ed columnist for asked Americans what they were hearing The New York Times. YOUR VIEWS Pendleton fire station too big for small town I grew up in Pendleton but now live in Boise, Idaho. Boise recently passed a $17 million fire station bond that will build three new fire stations, remodel a fourth and also build a training facility on 17 acres. The detailed specifications and master plan can be found on the city website. I found information on Pendleton’s city website, but there are no specifications, no details or drawings of the project. It would be interesting to get similar information from Pendleton and lay them down side to side to compare what you are getting for your money. Boise is a fast-growing community that has high rise buildings, warehouses, various manufacturing facilities, multi- level residential condominiums and a wide assortment of diverse structures that our firefighters need to have a facility to train for. Boise also has a population of about 225,000, so the $17 million dollar bond is at a cost approximately $76 per person. Pendleton has a population of about 16,000, so the $10 million projection would cost around $625 per man, woman and child. Again, for our money, we are getting four new or remodeled stations and training center. I have no doubt Pendleton needs to update their fire facilities, but it appears you are paying for a Mercedes on a Ford pickup truck budget. Kelly Temple Boise Pendleton community supports its own My husband is a lieutenant/ paramedic at Pendleton Fire and Ambulance. Our family moved here just before our first daughter’s first birthday, over 19 years ago. We have had the opportunity to raise our family in the beautiful area among a community committed to rolling up their sleeves and working shoulder to shoulder to make sure needs within the community are fulfilled. It’s really incredible if one looks at all this community accomplishes by its members: The Pendleton Round-Up, Happy Canyon, Cattle Barons, Farmer’s Market, Doolittle Raiders Gala, Whiskey Music Festival, Oktoberfest, Movies in the Park, free classes at the Arts Center and library, etc. And just a few short years ago, we saw how this community rallied around repairing and painting an elderly man’s home. Now, as a community we are being asked to rally around a group of men and women who serve and protect this community 24/7, our firefighter/paramedics. Outside reports and assessments have been done, showing the fire station is insufficient for appropriate sleeping quarters, training capabilities, and also contains hazardous materials and carcinogens. When we are presented with a house too small for our family or it’s determined that our home contains toxins such as a gas leak or black mold that is known to cause health issues and diseases, we would do everything within our power to get our loved ones to a new home and a safe environment. The firefighters in our community chose their profession. Ask any one of them and they will tell you how much they love their job and are grateful for the opportunity to serve and help this community on their worst day. They did not choose and should not have to be made to live one-third of their lives in station that is compromising their health. On behalf of the men and women who proudly serve Pendleton, and their families, I ask that you would please rally together once again and vote yes for the fire station bond. Kristi Keene Pendleton Scientific research a bipartisan concern This week in a show of bipartisan commitment Congress voted to increase the National Institutes of Health budget by $2 billion. OHSU is deeply grateful to our entire Oregon Congressional delegation for recognizing that NIH funding allows for lifesaving scientific discoveries that improve the health and well-being of all Oregonians. OHSU scientists rely heavily on NIH funding to carry out life-saving scientific research, and to make that research available for the benefit of patients across the entire state of Oregon. More than 50 percent of OHSU’s patients come from outside the Portland metro region and many of these patients are receiving treatments and cures that would have not been possible without NIH funding of research discoveries that happen in the lab. NIH funding also helps OHSU train the next generation of research scientists, while working to ensure that scientific discoveries benefit urban and rural America equally. Cuts to NIH would also have an economic impact to the state of Oregon. Besides funding university research, these dollars create jobs and foster new businesses that spur economic growth. Simply put, cuts to NIH would have a ripple effect across the entire state. We know that the President’s budget has proposed cuts to NIH and we in Oregon are fortunate to have members of Congress like Rep. Greg Walden and Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden who stand up for science and the promise of cures. Joe Robertson President, OHSU
