Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, May 23, 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 ‘Buying the farm’ takes new meaning There’s more to an agricultural pool of grazing land shrink, but land sale than a willing buyer and a nearby towns have seen the number willing seller. of visitors increase. A farm or ranch changing hands Overall, the biggest impact is can impact neighbors and the local when land is taken out of production. economy almost as much as the Because agricultural land is more parties directly involved. than real estate, buyers and sellers That’s why when ag land goes up need to take the local economy into for sale it’s a big deal — far more account. important than just For example, dollars and cents. taking vast swaths Because agricultural of ranchland Last week, EO out land is more than of production will Media Group reporter other ranchers Eric Mortenson took real estate, buyers impact and their ability to a look at the sale and sellers need to graze livestock. If of agricultural land livestock is no longer across Oregon. What take the local raised, that will he found was the price economy into impact the economy. of exclusive farm use Equipment will no land — a designation account. long be bought or used by the state to serviced in nearby identify the best ag towns. Seed and fertilizer dealers will land — has skyrocketed in recent see the number of customers shrink. years as it changed hands. Some Cattle will no longer go to market, remained orchards, vineyards, farms impacting livestock auctions. or ranchland, but other tracts were Considering that the average age taken out of production for a variety of farmers across the West is about of purposes including conservation, 60, what happens when agricultural recreation and even a state park. land changes hands takes on added In each case, the sale can have a importance. profound impact. Some examples: Whether land stays in the family • Neighboring farmers and or is sold to absentee landowners, ranchers see the price of expansion how it is used profoundly impacts the increasing, potentially beyond region. their means. At the same time, the Overall, the best case scenario is comparable value of their land the land will remain in agriculture, continues to grow, impacting their supporting ranchers, farmers and the finances. economy. • The area where the state Whether, or how, that can be purchased ranchland for conversion mandated will remain a continuing to a state park has seen mixed debate across the West. impacts. Neighbors have seen the 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 A slave once lived in Umatilla, and not that long ago. Her name was Lola. She was a “gift” to the mother of Alex Tizon, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and professor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. to present day. It is clear in reading that Tizon struggled with the conflict after his family came to the United States, where they moved a number of times and lived for at least a short period in Umatilla. Readers Tizon died may also find March 23. His themselves final article wrestling with — selected as their conscience, the June cover alternating story for The between curious, Atlantic — tells sad, furious the story of Lola, and, perhaps, a Filipino woman empathetic. who was taken in Already, “My by Tizon’s family Family’s Slave” to cook, clean has garnered and take care of strong reaction the children. She on social media. was not paid, Some have berated for poor condemned Tizon work and not and his family allowed to return home after her The cover of The Atlantic, May 2017 as monsters, while others are own parents died. defending the In the words author and encouraging a deeper of Tizon, “No other word but slave understanding of Filipino culture. encompassed the life she lived.” Issues of The Atlantic are Tizon describes how Lola was available on newsstands, or the brought home by his grandfather as article can be read online at www. an utusan, or “helper,” and details theatlantic.com. the history of Spanish slavery in — Reporter George Plaven the Philippines that has persisted OTHER VIEWS Unfreeing American workers merican conservatives any other manufacturing firm, or in love to talk about freedom. any occupation that makes use of her Milton Friedman’s famous engineering skills. pro-capitalist book and TV series At this point, in other words, were titled “Free to Choose.” And the noncompete clauses are in many cases hard-liners in the House pushing for a less about protecting trade secrets than complete dismantling of Obamacare they are about tying workers to their call themselves the Freedom Caucus. current employers, unable to bargain Well, why not? After all, America for better wages or quit to take better Paul is an open society, in which everyone Krugman jobs. is free to make his or her own choices This shouldn’t be happening Comment about where to work and how to live. in America, and to be fair some Everyone, that is, except the 30 politicians in both parties have million workers now covered by noncompete been speaking up about the need for agreements, who may find themselves all but change (although few expect the Trump unemployable if they quit their current jobs; administration to follow up on the Obama the 52 million Americans with pre-existing administration’s reform push). But there’s conditions who will be effectively unable to another aspect of declining worker freedom buy individual health insurance, and hence that is very much a partisan issue: health care. stuck with their current employers, if the Until 2014, there was basically only one Freedom Caucus gets its way; and the millions way Americans under 65 with pre-existing of Americans burdened down by heavy conditions could get health insurance: by student and other debt. finding an employer willing to offer coverage. The reality is that Americans, especially Some employers were in fact willing to do American workers, don’t feel all that free. so. Why? Because there were major tax The Gallup World Survey asks residents of advantages — premiums aren’t counted as many countries whether they feel that they taxable income — but to get those advantages have “freedom to make life choices”; the U.S. employer plans must offer the same coverage doesn’t come out looking too good, especially to every employee, regardless of medical compared with the high freedom grades of history. European nations with strong social safety But what if you wanted to change jobs, or nets. start your own business? Too bad: you were And you can make a strong case that we’re basically stuck (and I knew quite a few people getting less free as time goes by. in that position). Let’s talk first about those noncompete Then Obamacare went into effect, agreements, which were recently the subject guaranteeing affordable care even to those of a stunning article in The New York Times with pre-existing medical conditions. This was (the latest in a series), plus a report from the a hugely liberating change for millions. Even Obama administration pushing for limits to if you didn’t immediately take advantage of the practice. the new program to strike out on your own, Noncompete agreements were originally the fact was that now you could. supposed to be about protecting trade secrets, But maybe not for much longer. and therefore helping to promote innovation Trumpcare — the American Health Care and investment in job training. Suppose that a Act — would drastically reduce protections company trying to build a better mousetrap hires for Americans with pre-existing conditions. a new mousetrap engineer. Her employment And even if that bill never becomes law, the contract might very well include a clause Trump administration is effectively sabotaging preventing her from leaving a few months later individual insurance markets, so that in many for a job with a rival pest-control firm, since she cases Americans who lose employer coverage could be taking crucial in-house information will have no place to turn — which will in with her. And that’s perfectly reasonable. turn tie those who do have such coverage to At this point, however, almost one in their current employers. five American employees is subject to some You might say, with only a bit of hyperbole, kind of noncompete clause. There can’t be that workers in America, supposedly the land that many workers in possession of valuable of the free, are actually creeping along the trade secrets, especially when many of these road to serfdom, yoked to corporate employers workers are in relatively low-paying jobs. For the way Russian peasants were once tied to example, one prominent case involved Jimmy their masters’ land. And the people pushing John’s, a sandwich chain, basically trying to them down that road are the very people who ban its former franchisees from working for cry “freedom” the loudest. other sandwich makers. ■ Furthermore, the terms of the clauses are Paul Krugman joined The New York Times often defined ridiculously widely. It’s as if in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page our hypothetical mousetrap engineer were and continues as professor of Economics and prohibited from seeking employment with International Affairs at Princeton University. A YOUR VIEWS Controlling invasive animals best way to maintain balance Many biological studies have been done showing how invasive species affect the natural species of an area. In Wyoming the mountain goats are gaining in population and the bighorns are declining in population. I believe that we as humans should take some measures to try and prevent the natural species from being wiped out. Some of the reasons that these animals are moving together are weather-related and just a lack of land. Both of these are consequences of human activity, and we need to take responsibility for this and try to keep these species from interacting. As the article said, the mountain goats carry pathogens that can kill the bighorns. We should try and keep the mountain goat population under control so the bighorns don’t go extinct. We also should not introduce any species that are not indigenous to an area. For example, the wolves that were released in Yellowstone National Park and have spread throughout most of the Northwest are not the native species of wolf and are causing a ton of damage. They are not being held in check and are diminishing deer and elk populations. They are also killing livestock and costing many farmers money and hurting their lifestyle. We need to take action and start controlling the species that we force to move and the species that we introduce into an area. Hunter Sater Athena Hermiston School District must go back to basics The recent Hermiston school bond issue reminds me of a professor I had in college. He was very smart but had no common sense. This is why I think the school board needs to change their thinking — you can’t keep building large campuses like schools with high maintenance. Hermiston is a small city, not a college-like atmosphere. You can not expect the taxpayers to keep funneling money for huge school projects. I suggest you stop looking for the moon and get down to basics. You can start with the fact that a lot of us were educated in buildings three or four stories high with reasonably sized playgrounds. And the fact that we had to climb stairs didn’t seem to bother us; perhaps it was good exercise. My suggestion is to learn to live within your means and use some common sense when planning for the future. Jim Tiede 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.
