Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, May 12, 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 dedicated, caring and inspiring teachers in our
local school districts.
This is teacher appreciation week in the United States and a good chance
to offer our gratitude for the time spent educating and helping shepherd our
children through their formative years.
Teaching is often considered a calling,
and that’s a fair assessment. Who would take
responsibility for a roomful of someone else’s
kids every day if they didn’t feel some sort
of compulsion toward the duty? But it’s also
a serious profession that demands serious
professionals.
The challenges of education in 2017 are
far different from those of past decades, as
technology brings new dimensions nearly every
day and family dynamics have radically shifted. There’s a lot of talking and
planning that can be done at the 30,000 foot level, but as the bell rings each
morning it’s the teacher in the classroom who determines the quality of
education each student will receive.
From the kindergarten teacher giving the first reading, writing and
arithmetic lessons all the way up to the high school teacher instilling the
deep learning that will inform a pupil’s life and career, the K-12 experience
is filled with moments sparked by educators. We’re lucky to have so many
good ones in our communities.
On Monday the InterMountain ESD will recognize this year’s Crystal
Apple award winners, a prize reserved for the very best in the area’s school
districts. We will feature those teachers in Tuesday’s newspaper.
A kick in the pants to the city of Echo, where city councilors are
threatening to use eminent domain to condemn ten acres of a resident’s
riverside ranch.
We spotlighted the story of Michael Yunker in the paper earlier this week,
and most readers came to his defense. It’s easy to see eminent domain as a
tool for the powerful and government-aligned to take what they want from
us lowly peons in the way of progress.
Yes, sometimes eminent domain is necessary to complete the massive
infrastructure projects required to fuel our
modern world. In those rare cases, eminent
domain can be a reasonable use of taxpayer
dollars as government attempts to find the
most efficient way to build a highway or a
energy corridor, an airport or a railroad.
But the case in Echo is not that clear. The
city has known it has had a problem for a
decade off, that whole time running afoul
of state rules on effluents and in the process
fouling the Umatilla River that snakes
through town.
Yet the city kept kicking the can down the road, asking and receiving
extensions from the Department of Environmental Quality. But the
extensions have now likely run out, and the city is facing a problem that
needs fixing.
There is no easy choice and of course taxpayers will be on the hook either
way. They will be tasked with paying off a more expensive debt if the city
leaves Yunker’s property be and builds elsewhere. If they condemn and take
it, they will usurp the liberty of a longstanding resident and engender a loss
of neighborly virtue.
It’s poor planning and communication that got us to this position, and
that’s worth a pants-kicking.
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.
YOUR VIEWS
No fluff in the
Pendleton fire bond
In response to Kelly Temple’s
suggestion that the Pendleton’s proposed
fire station is inappropriate and
overpriced for our community, I invite
anyone to make the effort to visit with
our fire chief and review what is being
proposed. Chief Ciraulo will be happy to
answer any questions.
Mr. Temple suggests that because
Boise’s 2014 bond issue built new and
remodeled fire and training facilities for
$76 per resident, Pendleton should be
able to do the same in 2018. That would
get us a new fire station at about $1.3
million, a totally unrealistic figure to
design, build and furnish a new facility
at today’s prices in a location that will
improve response times for our citizens,
and provide the necessary lifesaving
equipment included in Pendleton’s fire
bond proposal.
There are numerous variables that go
into the cost of any new facility.
A few examples include whether land
acquisition is necessary for the project or
is there city-owned land available for the
project; does Boise’s facilities include
smaller stations like ours on Southgate,
or does it include larger facilities
such as what is proposed in our bond
issue that is the primary dispatch and
administrative center necessary to house
the majority of the men and women
firefighter/paramedics and reserves;
what are the site development and
modification to existing infrastructure
needs and regional construction cost
variables?
Boise’s $17 million bond in 2014
included the cost for the training facility
at $6.8 million. Current information on
their website lists the cost of this facility
at $11.5 million for Phase I.
The costs for the proposed Pendleton
fire station were developed over a year’s
time in a public process that included
input from citizens, city staff and elected
officials.
The information is public, posted
on the fire station web site, and has
been discussed in more than 30 public
meetings. There is no fluff in Pendleton’s
proposal. Improvements covered in the
fire bond issue are reasonable and totally
appropriate for our community. Please
vote yes for our fire bond.
Chuck Wood
Pendleton
The Comey canning’s easy tells
W
ith Donald Trump, the tells
his own FBI director, it meant
are always easy.
Rosenstein’s memo was a pro forma,
When the president says,
pretextual exercise.
“I’m, like, a smart person,” you know
Tell: When the president boasts
he nurses deep insecurities about his
about his great campaign, you know
intelligence. When he says, “I’m really
he’s less than sure about just how great
rich,” you know that he knows that
it really was.
you know that, really, he probably
Tell: When the president calls news
isn’t.
“fake”
or a story “phony,” you know
Bret
And when he writes, as he did in his Stephens the truth quotient is likely to be high.
letter to the now-former FBI director,
And, again, you know he knows you
Comment
James B. Comey, that “while I greatly
know it.
appreciate you informing me, on
All the more so thanks to reporting
three separate occasions, that I am not under
from The Times’ Matthew Rosenberg and
investigation,” you know what keeps him up
Matt Apuzzo, who revealed Wednesday that
at night, too.
Comey had only recently asked Rosenstein
That wasn’t the only tell in
“for a significant increase in
Trump’s Comey canning. First
resources for the bureau’s
there was its abruptness. Rod
investigation into Russia’s
Rosenstein, deputy attorney
interference in the presidential
general as of two weeks ago,
election.” For the record, the
delivered his memorandum
Justice Department denies the
detailing Comey’s misfeasance in
claim.
the Hillary Clinton email saga on
For the administration’s
Tuesday. Trump fired the director
apologists, the fallback line is
the same day.
that the Russia investigation will
Come again? This is the same
continue no matter who succeeds Comey. That
administration that waited 18 long days to
might be credible if, say, the former New York
fire a national security adviser profoundly
Police Department commissioner Ray Kelly
vulnerable to Russian blackmail. Why?
gets the job. And if Chris Christie or Rudy
Because, as press secretary Sean Spicer
Giuliani gets it?
explained earlier this week, the White House
In all this, the riddle wrapped in a mystery
felt it owed Michael Flynn an “element of due inside an enigma is Russia.
process.”
Golf courses: Russia. Mike Flynn’s lies
For Comey, not so much. He learned of his to the vice president: Russia. Jeff Sessions’
dismissal from a TV screen, while delivering a lies to the Senate: Russia. Paul Manafort,
speech to bureau employees. Firings on “The
Carter Page and Roger Stone: Russia.
Apprentice” had more class and ceremony
WikiLeaks: Russia. Donald Trump Jr.: Russia.
than this.
The Bayrock Group: Russia. Erik Prince’s
Then there is Rosenstein’s memo, which
diplomatic back channel: Russia.
makes a solid case that Comey bungled nearly
No one piece in this (partial) list is
every aspect of the Clinton investigation — a
incriminating. And with Trump, the line
revelation to nobody in Washington, left
between incompetence and nefariousness,
or right, except perhaps Comey himself.
misjudgment and misdirection, is usually a
Nor was there any mystery about any of
blurry one.
this when Trump gave the director his very
Still, Jim Comey’s firing now brings two
public blessing at a White House ceremony
points into high relief. First, the administration
in January, resisting the advice of prominent
is not being truthful when it claims the director
conservative voices to fire him back then.
was dismissed for what he did last summer.
But if the memo broke no new ground,
Second, Donald Trump is afraid. A president
there was something crassly novel about the
who seeks to hide a scandal may be willing to
political uses to which the administration was
risk an uproar.
willing to put Rosenstein and his reputation
■
for ethical behavior.
Bret Stephens won a Pulitzer Prize for
In a CNN interview Tuesday, Kellyanne
commentary in 2013. He began working as a
Conway stressed Rosenstein’s service as U.S.
columnist at The New York Times in April.
attorney in Maryland under Barack Obama,
along with the Senate’s 94-6 vote to confirm
Editor’s note: Bret Stephens has made
him. This is another tell, since the ordinary
quite a splash, jumping last month from the
practice of this White House is to impugn the
Wall Street Journal to the New York Times.
motives of anyone suspected of enjoying the
Known for his strong neoconservative
favor of Democrats. Just look at Sean Spicer’s views, Stephens helped shape the Journal
Tuesday denigration of the former acting
editorial page, where he was deputy editorial-
attorney general Sally Yates as an alleged
page editor and, for 11 years, aforeign affairs
Hillary hack for her prescient warnings to the
columnist.
White House about Flynn.
Before that, Stephens was editor in chief
In other words, the White House needed
of The Jerusalem Post. At The Post he
the cover of an honorable man making an
oversaw the paper’s news, editorial and digital
honest case against Comey to disguise its own operations and its international editions, and
case against him, which is neither honorable
also wrote a weekly column. He has reported
nor honest. How do we know? By following
from around the world and interviewed scores
@realDonaldTrump on Twitter.
of world leaders.
“F.B.I. Director Comey was the best thing
Mr. Stephens is the author of “America
that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that
in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the
he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!”
Coming Global Disorder,” released in
the president wrote May 2. “The phony
November 2014.
Trump/Russia story was an excuse used
He is the recipient of numerous awards
by the Democrats as justification for losing
and distinctions, including two honorary
the election. Perhaps Trump just ran a great
doctorates and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for
campaign?”
commentary. He will be a new addition to the
Tell: After the president publicly impugned East Oregonian editorial page.
The riddle
wrapped in
an enigma
is Russia.
Fire chief worked hard
to craft right-sized bond
There appears to be a general
consensus in our in our community
regarding the need for a new fire station,
but disagreement on the best location
and design.
Our Lions Club has worked with
Chief Mike Ciraulo and I have been
impressed with his professionalism
and dedication. After listening to him
talk about the various options for a
new fire station, I am also confident
that he has done an admirable job in
analyzing these options. Unfortunately,
there is no perfect answer to this
challenge; all options involve tradeoffs.
I am confident that Chief Ciraulo has
carefully considered current operational
requirements, welfare of our firefighters,
future needs of our community and
responsibility to the taxpayers in
recommending this option.
Please join me in voting yes for the
new fire station.
Dwight Johnson
Pendleton
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. Send letters to
managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.