Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 1, 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
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OUR VIEW
Stay safe this
Fourth of July
Although this Fourth of July will
when you are surrounded by a forest
full of kindling. Leave the fireworks
be greener and wetter than most in
Eastern Oregon’s recent history, it is behind, then, when you’re packing
the camper.
still a dangerous time to be setting
We do understand, however,
flame to flammable objects and then
sending them to burst in the sky in a that some people need to spend
shower of sparks and embers.
the Fourth of July in their back
yard with at least a sparkler in their
This is desert country after all.
Tall, brown grasses cover our fields
hand. If you’re that kind of person,
and back yards, just waiting for a
the American Red Cross has some
spark to cause trouble and damage.
advice for how to keep yourself,
Which means, as the holiday
your family and your property safe.
Keep fireworks
draws near, it’s a
away from children
good time for a
refresher, so we can
Fireworks start and — just in
— keep water
keep ourselves and
an average of case
nearby. Wear ear
our property safe.
and eye protection
First, remember that
18,500 fires
necessary.
all fireworks that
per year. And when
Light one firework
explode or fly into
a time and don’t
the air are illegal in
the risk of injury at attempt
to relight
Oregon. While that’s
is highest for
any that fizzle out
disappointing for our
firing. Never
American tradition
children ages before
make your own
of blowing things up
fireworks. And
into loud bangs and
five to nine.
don’t throw the
beautiful colors, it’s
darn things toward
necessary to keep
people or animals, structures or
our part of the world from turning
flammable materials.
into blackened ash.
It’s basic stuff, but statistics show
And you don’t have to let
a bunch of these common sense rules
Oregon’s fireworks laws rain
will be broken this holiday weekend,
down on your parade: You can
and it will cause at least a few costly
still get your fix with big shows
emergencies. According to the
in Hermiston, Stanfield, Ione and
National Fire Protection Association,
Condon, for instance, and leave the
fireworks start an average of 18,500
dangerous part to the professionals.
All you’ll need to do then is tip back fires per year and the risk of injury is
a cold one and don’t let that hot dog highest for children ages five to nine.
And for all the pet owners who
burn on the grill. While doing so,
find their furry friends freaking out
you’ll be doing your part keeping
with all the booms and bangs, keep
Eastern Oregon unengulfed.
those animals indoors in the quietest
It’s also worth mentioning, if
place in the house you can find.
you plan to leave the cities behind
Once we get all of this out of the
and spend your long weekend in
way, we can concentrate on the thing
the woods, that fireworks are illegal
we’re supposed to be celebrating:
on all public land — even sparklers
America turning the big 241. Happy
and smokebombs and the like. If
birthday, USA. We’ll do our part to
the stakes are high for in-town
keep you looking great.
fireworks, they may be even higher
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.
OTHER VIEWS
What’s wrong with Democrats?
The Republican (Springfield, Mass.)
T
he Democratic Party is a study in
frustration — at Donald Trump, at
the public’s unwillingness to see
problems they consider unmistakable,
and to make matters worse, at
themselves.
Central to their internal angst is
House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi, who
shows no inclination to
relinquish her power,
despite scattered calls
from party figures for her
to step down.
Pelosi, 77, is expected
to remain in her current
position of power until
after the 2018 midterm
elections. The opposition
to push her out is not organized. There
is certainly no consensus that the party’s
woes would be healed with an internal
conflict at a time its energies are aimed at
opposing Trump’s policies.
But Pelosi is not serving her party’s
needs by clutching the reins of power.
She is an easy target for Republicans and
an obstacle for Democrats who want the
party to represent a refashioned voice for
the future and for millions of Americans
who have tuned it out.
Pelosi represents the California
district that includes San Francisco. She
was once the voice of progressive liberal
thinking in the House, similar to what
the late Ann Richards represented as the
governor of Texas in the 1980s.
That voice is represented by Senator
Elizabeth Warren today. A Warren-
Trump race in 2020 would be a titanic
showdown of political opposites, and no
one should be sure of the outcome.
Positioning any Democrat to beat
Trump will require the party to reclaim at
least some of the large geography it has
lost, without sacrificing its fundamental
principles or unduly alienating its base.
That won’t be easy; with Pelosi, it will
be much more difficult.
To many voters, Pelosi represents
the previous generation. She also stands
for the constant anti-Republican and
anti-Trump rhetoric which, to many
citizens, does not provide solutions for
their biggest economic
concerns.
The party has fallen
into a reputation as
“bi-coastal,” popular in
the Northeast Corridor
and on the West Coast but
ceding too many states
and voters in between.
Trump won 30 states. The
Democrats cannot beat
him without getting some
of them back, and it’s hard to see Pelosi
serving as the resonant, relevant voice to
that goal.
The party’s more immediate goal
is to win 24 new Congressional seats
and reclaim House majority in the 2018
midterms. If that happens, Pelosi’s tenure
will be deemed a success.
That’s possible. Cries for Pelosi
to step down increased after the
expensive, much-publicized Democratic
Congressional loss in Georgia, but
the party came closer than usual in a
traditional GOP stronghold.
Results in 2018 will not be measured
by coming close, but by victory or
defeat. Regaining influence for the
Democrats will not occur until they
reconfigure their message.
Pelosi represents an old message that
many voters find irrelevant and stale.
Maybe that’s unfair, but her continued
presence as House Minority Leader will
tell voters that nothing has changed with
the Democrats, leaving less reason to
think election results will, either.
The party
must reclaim
the large
geography it
has lost.
OTHER VIEWS
Tie Congress’ paychecks
to our good health
M
embers of Congress are
public health. We’re lousy at getting
paid $174,000 a year, while
kids vaccinated, at reaching at-risk
members of Poland’s lower
young people with contraception,
house of Parliament are paid $32,300
at protecting citizens from lead and
a year.
endocrine-disrupting chemicals — and
Hmm. It looks as if we’re getting
simply at keeping people alive.
ripped off. Members of Congress seem
That leads to my second point: We
to underperform compared to members
need universal health care.
of Parliament in Poland and across the Nicholas
In Poland, Canada, Britain and
democratic world.
Kristof virtually every other advanced
Conservatives are right to worry
democracy, there is a national health
Comment
that feeding at the government trough
system, with single-payer coverage
breeds dependency and laziness. So
like Medicare for all.
I suggest we introduce pay for performance,
Analysts find that Canada’s rollout of
using metrics like, say, health.
single-payer coverage cut infant mortality by
I cite Poland because so many Poles
5 percent. Likewise, researchers have found
(including the Krzysztofowicz family, later
that cystic fibrosis patients live 10 years longer
renamed Kristof) came to
in Canada than in the U.S.,
America for a better life,
because of insurance gaps in
yet today American babies
America.
are one-third more likely
Granted, there are deep
to die in their first year of
underlying problems in the
life than Polish children
U.S. that complicate health
are (and twice as likely
care. Inequality is immense,
as Italian, Portuguese and
obesity is widespread, and
Czech babies!). Meanwhile,
American teenagers have
American women are four
babies at several times the
times as likely to die in
rate of European teens.
pregnancy and childbirth as
But one reason to
Polish women, according
think that universal health
to the World Health
coverage would make a
Organization.
difference is that when
If we had Italy’s child
Americans make it to
mortality rate, we would
age 65 — after they get
save 12,000 American
Medicare — life expectancy
babies’ lives each year — that’s 33 children’s
of 18 more years for men and 20 more for
lives saved every day.
women is roughly the same as in Europe.
Meanwhile, the U.S. spends far more on
When Americans finally get single-payer care,
health care — an average of nearly $10,000
we do fine.
per person — than other countries do. Poland
Likewise, a new study in Annals of Internal
spends just $1,680 per person.
Medicine finds that in the U.S., being insured
This is a stain on America. Choose almost
significantly reduces death rates for young and
any modern country, and its people pay less
middle-aged people.
for health care and its children are more likely
All health care reform efforts — whether
to survive; the CIA’s World Factbook ranks
Obamacare or Trumpcare — struggle with the
the U.S. 42nd in longevity, and we’ve had a
unwieldiness and inefficiency of the existing
smaller increase in life expectancy over 25
architecture, built on employer-provided
years than other industrialized countries have.
coverage. The basic problem is that we’re
In short, we as taxpayers are getting
spending almost $10,000 per person per year
cheated. Should we really be paying senators a on health care, and somebody has to pay for it
base rate of $174,000 — Mitch McConnell as or else we ration care and people die.
Senate majority leader gets more — to preside
Early research finds that Obamacare is
over such bad results?
helping: One study finds it saving the life of
It’s time to apply the discipline of markets.
one millennial a day.
For the sake of our senators’ own characters,
But ultimately the United States should
we should pay for work.
follow the example of every other advanced
If we now pay almost six times as much
country and ensure health coverage for
per capita on health care as Poles do, and get
all. “We’re going to have insurance for
outcomes that are far worse, hmm, what do
everybody,” President Donald Trump
you think? Maybe we pay our representatives
promised a week before taking office. Now
one-tenth what the Poles get? That would be
he backs plans that would lead to 22 million
$3,200 a year for a member of Congress.
fewer people having coverage. But if Taiwan,
Good thing Congress has resisted raising
Slovenia, Spain, Japan and just about every
the minimum wage!
other modern country can have coverage for
OK, I’m not really in favor of slashing
everyone, so can we.
congressional pay; we should pay officials
And, members of Congress, here’s the deal:
well to attract the best talent.
If you ever adopt Medicare for all, I’ll endorse
But I offer this absurd proposal for two
a pay-for-performance pay raise for all of
reasons. First, many Americans, including
you along with guaranteed, subsidized health
politicians, just don’t understand how poorly
insurance.
our health care system actually performs by
Oh, never mind. That, you already have.
international standards.
■
It’s true that American hospitals have
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a farm in
the finest diagnostic equipment and the best
Yamhill. A columnist for The New York Times,
specialists, but we falter at basics and at
he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 and 2006.
Choose almost
any modern
country and its
people pay less
for health care
and its children
are more likely
to survive.
YOUR VIEWS
Take care of your property —
stop spread of invasive weeds
As residents of rural Oregon, we love
our elbow room and having space to live
comfortably. That space can become a
detriment when it is not maintained and this
is the time of year when it is obvious that
the spread of noxious weeds is getting our of
hand.
As property owners, learn about weed
identification and control, then do it! If it
means hand pulling this time of year because
the yellow star is in the wrong stage for
spraying to control, then get yourselves some
gloves and start pulling. There are forests of
scotch thistle growing in some areas, with no
effort to contain them.
Public land managers deserve a taste of
this advice as well, the state, city and county
roadways are all conduits for the flood of
weeds allowed to grow unchecked on public
lands.
This is important and needs to be reminded
of each year. Take pride in land ownership and
get rid of your weeds.
Colleen Blackwood
Pendleton
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.