Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, July 14, 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 quick-thinking teenagers who doused a porch
fire in Ukiah before it spread to the attached house.
The Umatilla and Union county teens Ben Combs,
Austin Kendall, Tovias Niel, Quinton Orr, Khai
Robertson and Colton Schock are part of the Youth
Conservation Corps crew working on environmental
projects in Eastern Oregon.
They spotted the fire while building a greenhouse
at the Ukiah school and rushed over to put it out with
a garden hose before it spread to the house. Inside
were a young child and babysitter.
The teens’ quick actions likely saved a building and possibly two lives.
We’re glad they kept their wits.
A tip of the hat to the renewed effort to launch a Pendleton fireworks
show in 2018.
It was a shame to leave the sky dark this year on our nation’s birthday,
and rather than waiting around for someone to make it happen, people are
stepping up all over town to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Age isn’t a factor. Devan Driskell, a 13-year-old
newspaper carrier, immediately put his money where
his patriotism is. He offered to put up $1,000 of his
hard-earned cash (schlepping papers around hilly
Pendleton is no small task) to be matched by local
businesses toward a new show.
Jerry Imsland, a local real estate agent and former
Jaycee, has also volunteered to coordinate the
fundraising and planning efforts, and has asked both
his Pendleton Rotary Club and former event coordinator Becky Marks for
help.
And there are others who have committed time and money to the cause.
The disappointment from a month back when we learned there would be no
show has given way to excitement that this community can do better next
year.
We hope to remember that these events don’t happen by themselves, and
each year it will take time, effort and money to make sure the Fourth of July
is spectacular.
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
The danger of leaving
children alone in cars
The (Maryville, Tenn.) Daily Times
Y
ou may have seen prints of
“The Scream.” It’s kind of
unforgettable, those compositions
of modern art by Norwegian
expressionist Edvard Munch. The
artwork displays a wavering human
being with open mouth, wide eyes,
hands placed to the side of the head —
all together a vision of a person seeing
an object of horror.
Just imagine the horrified face a
parent would see reflected in a car
window when returning to a parked
vehicle where they had left a child
behind in the hot sun. Heatstroke kills.
Charges levied against a Chattanooga
couple Sunday in the death of their
11-month-old daughter serve as a
reminder that such events do happen
and all too often — more than 800 times
since 1990.
KidsAndCars.org has made it
their mission to warn of the danger
of forgetting to look before you lock.
The site offers a few facts about the
greenhouse effect in vehicles:
▪ The inside of a vehicle can reach
125 degrees in minutes.
▪ Eighty percent of the increase in
temperature happens in the first 10
minutes.
▪ Cracking the windows does not
slow the heating process or decrease the
maximum temperature.
▪ Children have died from heatstroke
in cars in temperatures as low as 60
degrees.
▪ A child’s body overheats three to
five times faster than an adult’s.
In more than 55 percent of cases
when caregivers leave children in
vehicles where they later die, the adults
did it absolutely unawares. It can happen
to the most loving of parents. Nobody’s
perfect.
Prevention and safety tips are mainly
common sense. Here are a few:
▪ Get in the habit of always opening
the back door to check the back seat of
your vehicle.
▪ Create a reminder to do so, like
putting in the back something you’ll
need such as your cell phone, handbag,
employee ID or briefcase — even your
shoe.
▪ Another mental reminder is to keep
a large stuffed animal in the child’s car
seat. When placing the child in the seat,
move the stuffed animal to the front
passenger seat as a visual reminder that
the child is in the back seat.
There are devices of various sorts
on the market that are designed to alert
a caregiver about to leave a child in a
vehicle. A check of internet sites will
turn up several of those.
If you do see a child alone in a
vehicle, get involved. Call 911. If the
child seems hot or sick, get the kid out of
the vehicle as quickly as possible.
And always, always, always: Look
before you lock!
A conspiracy of dunces
H
ere is a good rule of thumb for
to subvert American democracy than
dealing with Donald Trump:
the average foreign government. So
Everyone who gives him the
taking their oppo has a gravity that
benefit of the doubt eventually regrets
should have stopped a more upright and
it.
patriotic campaign short.
This was true of clients and
Second, if the Russians had been
contractors and creditors throughout
dangling some of Hillary’s missing
his business career. It was true of
30,000 emails, those, too, would had to
the sycophants and opportunists
have been hacked — that is, stolen —
Ross
before whom he dangled Cabinet
Douthat to end up in Moscow’s hands. So Don
appointments during the campaign
Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner
Comment
and then, oh, never mind. It has
should have known going in that if the
been true of his Cabinet members
offer was genuine, the oppo useful, it
and spokesmen, whose attempts to defend
might involve stolen goods.
and explain their boss’ conduct are gleefully
But on the basis of the emails, the younger
undercut by the boss himself. And it should be Trump went in not skeptically but eagerly (“if
true — for the sake of their
it’s what you say I love it”),
souls, I sincerely hope it’s
ignoring or simply accepting
true — of the Republican
the weird formulation about
leaders whose reputations
Russian support for Trump’s
for probity and principle
campaign. And then of course
he has stomped all over
everybody lied about or
since winning their party’s
“forgot” about the meeting,
nomination.
repeatedly and consistently,
And now it’s true of me.
right up until the emails
The benefit of the doubt
themselves made their way to
I extended to Trump was
the press.
limited, but on a rather
So while this is not direct
important subject: I thought
evidence that the president
that direct collusion between
of the United States was
his inner circle and Russian
complicit in a virtual burglary
officialdom during the 2016
perpetrated against the other
campaign was relatively
party during an election
unlikely and the odds of ever finding proof
season, it’s strong evidence that we should
of such a conspiracy vanishingly low. A lot
drop the presumption that such collusion is an
of weirdness around Trump and Russia, I
extreme or implausible scenario.
argued, had a more normal explanation — he
Instead, the mix of inexperience, incaution
had made business deals with Russians, he
and conspiratorial glee on display in the emails
still harbors a 1980s-era vision of superpower
suggests that people in Trump’s immediate
cooperation, and as a foreign-policy neophyte
family — not just satellites like Roger Stone
he clutched the idea of détente like a security
— would have been delighted to collude if
blanket even as the Russians separately made
the opportunity presented itself. Indeed, if the
moves to help him win.
Russians didn’t approach the Trump circle
My argument is no longer operative,
about how to handle the DNC email trove, it
because we know now that Donald Trump’s
was probably because they recognized that
son, his son-in-law and his campaign manager
anyone this naive, giddy and “Burn After
all took a meeting in which it was explicitly
Reading”-level stupid would make a rather
promised that damaging information on Hillary poor espionage partner.
Clinton would be supplied as “part of Russia
Then keep in mind, too, that all of this has
and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
come out (relatively) easily, thanks to digging
The meeting’s existence does not carry us
by New York Times reporters and leaks from
all the way to the maximal collusion scenario,
the various factions in and around the White
in which Trump himself was aware of Russia’s House, without the subpoenas and immunity
role in the hack of the Democratic National
deals that the formal investigations have at
Committee and ordered his aides to conspire
their disposal. That means there is probably
with WikiLeaks and Russian intelligence to
more and worse to come, and the more there
time the drip-drip-drip of hacked emails and
is, the worse the president’s dealings with
maximize their impact.
James Comey look. Even if the president
As the hapless Don Jr. — the Gob Bluth
himself is innocent of Russian collusion,
or Fredo Corleone of a family conspicuously
protecting your family from exposure is a
short on Michaels — protested in his own
pretty strong motive for obstruction.
defense, the Russian rendezvous we know
In the end, impeachment is political, not
about came before (though only slightly
legal, and House Republicans probably won’t
before) the WikiLeaks haul was announced.
impeach for anything short of a transcript of
So the Trump team presumably assumed that
a call between Trump and Putin in which the
it involved some other Hillary-related dirt
words “yes, I want you to hack their servers
— some of the missing Clinton server emails
big-league, Vladimir” appear in black-and-
that Trump himself jokingly (“jokingly”?)
white. And even then ...
urged Russian hackers to conjure and release,
But right now, the 2018 congressional
or direct evidence of Clinton Foundation
elections promise to be a de facto referendum
corruption in its Russian relationships.
on impeachment. There are enough sparks
With that semi-exculpatory explanation in
in the smoke; there will probably be fire for
hand, you can grope your way to the current
some of Trump’s intimates before another
anti-anti-Trump talking point — that Don
year is out.
Jr. and company were just hoping to “gather
And as for the president himself — well,
oppo” to which a foreign government might
to conclude where I began, anyone presuming
happen to be privy, much as Democratic
his innocence at this point should have all
operatives looked to Ukraine for evidence of
the confidence of Chris Christie awaiting his
the Trump campaign’s shady ties.
Cabinet appointment, or Sean Spicer reading
But even if accepting oppo from a
over the day’s talking points. Keep an eye on
foreign government is technically legal — it
that Trump-monogrammed rug under your
probably is, but I leave that question to
feet; it may not be there for long.
campaign finance lawyers to work out — this
■
talking point takes you only so far. I am not
Ross Douthat joined The New York
a particularly fierce Russia hawk, but the
Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.
Russians are still a more-hostile-than-not
Previously, he was a senior editor at the
power these days, with stronger incentives
Atlantic.
There is strong
evidence that
we should drop
the presumption
that collusion
is an extreme
or implausible
scenario.
YOUR VIEWS
Pendleton mayor should know,
support city’s businesses
Send letters to the editor to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.
Seems to me our mayor, John Turner, has a
bad case of foot in mouth.
On June 28 he made an announcement
that “Pendleton would once again have a car
rental service.” He had made arrangements
with Boutique Air at the airport — something
Pendleton has not had since Seaport Air left.
Well, newsflash, Mr. Mayor: My Own
Auto Sales has offered auto rental service
since 1989 when we opened our car lot on
Southgate. We have since moved to Westgate
and have been servicing the community with
rental cars. We have accommodated the airport
passengers when they have a late flight. We
make sure their car is there when they need it.
A few months back the city needed rental
cars for some “dignitaries” coming to town. A
lady representing the city came to us for rates
and to see if we could accommodate at least
11 people. We got the cars ready, called to let
her know and were told “someone else had
made arrangements.” They had gone to Walla
Walla for the car rentals. Now does that make
any sense?
Our mayor knew at that time we had car
rentals and now he says we need a car rental
service. Figure that out.
Ron, Don and Betty Dirkes
Pendleton