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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, August 4, 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 Tip of the hat, kick in the pants A tip of the hat to the volunteers who spent Saturday preparing the new Umatilla County Fairgrounds for its first big show, and those putting in extra hours this week getting ready to welcome the crowds next week. Moving is never easy, even if it’s from a smaller place into a bigger one, and putting on a fair and rodeo is a monumental task in itself. We’re watching all the pieces come together this week and hoping the first year in the new home is a success. One thing to keep in mind: This will be a learning experience for everyone. With so many organizations getting used to the new fairgrounds at the same time, there will be plenty of bumping elbows and bouts of confusion. A good dose of patience and understanding will go a long way. We look forward to seeing the new facility put to use. Make sure to stop by and visit the East Oregonian booth in the air conditioned event center. A tip of the hat to the Pendleton Air Museum finding a home downtown. The Pendleton airport has a rich aeronautical history, including acting as training grounds for both the Doolittle Raiders during World War II and the all-black Triple Nickles smokejumping unit. A permanent home for the nearly 30-year-old museum is well warranted, and putting it in historic downtown near the Underground Tours and the Heritage Station Museum is a good move. At least until it gets some wind beneath its wings. We look forward to touring the WWII- centric exhibits in the coming months, and the possibility of a larger location telling the history of the National Guard Chinook training facility, agricultural crop spraying and, hopefully one day, the emergence of the drone industry. 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 Tell Walden not to sell the sky to the airlines By KRIS CRAIG Efficiency, compassion, timeliness, and integrity: These are all words that nobody in their right mind would ever associate with today’s airline industry. And yet, just recently, a House panel voted to put the major commercial airlines in charge of air traffic control nationwide. Here’s how this brilliant idea works: All air traffic control, both in terms of safety and the collection of fees, would be handed over to a private corporation that the major airlines largely control. This basically places the sky itself under the authority of the same geniuses who brought us such innovations as “non-internet booking fees” and dragging customers off of overbooked flights. Only an abject fool would entrust the people responsible for one of America’s most failed industries with such unchecked power. Privatizing might sound like a good conservative idea, but consider who the government wants to sell to: The airlines. You know, the people who needed government bailouts because of their ineptness. Who better to manage the sky over our heads than a bunch of buffoons who couldn’t even manage their own businesses without taxpayer- funded bailouts? Another problem is that the same airlines that brag about inventing new fees to compensate for a fundamentally broken business model would essentially have the power to collect from anyone who wants to fly, including licensed pilots in their own private planes, which groups like the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association strongly oppose. If you were to charter a private flight out of La Grande/Union County Airport, for example, either you or the pilot would still be on the hook for whatever fees the airlines demand. Unsurprisingly, the major airlines are willing to pay large sums of money to “persuade” members of Congress to let them have their way yet again. That’s why it’s important for voters to examine their representatives’ campaign contributions and make sure they’re held accountable. Whenever anyone criticizes our politicians for being on the take, the politicians always respond by insisting that campaign contributions don’t have any effect, whatsoever, on how they vote. The fact that they always seem to vote the way their biggest donors want is purely a coincidence. So here’s my preemptive response to that argument: Prove it, Mr. Walden. Prove it by voting against any legislation that would hand over our public skies to the airline industry. Prove it by standing up for your constituents instead of the special interests who so eagerly line your pockets. If you’re still not convinced, imagine what the world might look like with the airlines in charge of everything. To be fair, there are some things that the airline industry might do well. They would be uniquely qualified to oversee our nation’s prisons, for example. After all, if anyone knows how to herd people like cattle into a small, overcrowded space and make them wait an excruciatingly long period of time, it’s the airlines. On the other hand, even prisoners are allowed to use the bathroom … I could go on, but I believe I’ve made my point. Regardless of your ideological views on government and privatization, handing control of our skies over to the big airlines is about as bone-headed a move as Congress could make. That is why I urge you to call Congressman Walden at 202-225-6730 and tell him not to outsource our safety to the airline industry. ■ Kris Craig is a columnist who lives in College Place. Only an abject fool would entrust the people responsible for one of America’s most failed industries with such unchecked power. 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. OTHER VIEWS I Can people change after middle age? sometimes read that people don’t Peter really care how low his handicap change much after middle age. But was? everyday experience contradicts this “In the dark recesses of my mind I on a weekly basis. didn’t trust people enough to let them For example, this week in know what was going on.” Then he Shreveport, Louisiana, I met two was handed a book called “The Master guys in their 60s named Bo Harris Plan of Evangelism” and by Page 5 his and Mike Leonard. Bo was a football life was altered. star at Captain Shreve High School. Shreveport saw a lot of ugliness David During his junior year, the school was Brooks during the civil rights era. But it is integrated, but in the worst possible fortunate today to have Community Comment way. Renewal, one of the nation’s most The black players, whose high impressive community-building school was closing, were told to watch the groups. Community Renewal builds existing team practice through a chain-link settlement houses for kids in crime-ridden fence. Words were exchanged and Bo went communities. It sponsors over 1,500 Haven out and pinned one guy, who had a broken Houses in neighborhoods rich and poor bottle in his hand, up against the wall before where volunteers sponsor activities and build administrators intervened. relationships. It’s one of the most successfully Racial tensions ripped through the school, integrated organizations I’ve seen. and for his own safety Mike pulled out of his Bo was told to come dental practice at age 49 to school only for the and works at Community classes he absolutely Renewal, often without needed for graduation. pay. Bo heard about He went on to play the organization from a linebacker at LSU and member of his breakfast wasn’t always a gentle group and is now a soul. “Anger was a volunteer and donor. resource I called upon When I sat with Bo and on the field” — and Mike after the staff and sometimes off it. volunteer meeting on Mike joined Bo on Monday, three things the LSU football team a struck me, which often few years later, though strike me about people they didn’t get along. who have transformed Mike’s father, who died their lives for the final lap. when he was 14, had the First, they’ve gone bigoted attitudes of the through a sort of moral time and place. Mike puberty, as if a switch was raised in that tough turned. They’ve lost most guy culture. Once, an of their interest in egoistic LSU fan threw a whiskey bottle at Mike and calculation and some sort of primal desire for hit him in the back. Mike charged the stands to generativity has kicked in. take revenge. Second, they have what Baylor’s Paul Both went on to lead successful lives. Bo Froese calls existential urgency, and obsessive played for the Cincinnati Bengals for eight connection to a social problem. When Gallup years before returning to Shreveport to work asked people around the world in 2007 if they as a financial adviser. Mike created one of the felt a sense of meaning in their lives, Liberia city’s most successful dental practices. came out as the nation where most people felt And things went on that way for a few they led meaningful lives and the Netherlands decades. Until they didn’t. came out last. It’s not that life is always easy Bo joined a group of 14 guys who had in Liberia, but people are gripped by an urgent breakfast together every week. The friendships and communal desire to address the problems opened his heart. Then in 2009 he was driving around them. with his preteen son with a .45 automatic Finally, they speak in the middle voice. rattling around on the dashboard. Bo heard an Sometimes we speak in the passive voice, explosion and felt a pain in his leg worse than when things are happening to us. Sometimes anything he’d experienced in the NFL. we speak in the active voice, when we’re His son called 911 and drove the car lecturing and taking charge. But mature to a place where they could be met by an activists speak in the middle voice, which ambulance. The EMT looked at Bo and said, is receiving and volleying, listening and “In all my years of doing this, I’ve never seen responding, the voice of equal and intimate a guy as lucky as you.” The emergency room relationship. doctor and nurse said the same thing. If the Mike says his younger self would have bullet had gone one way it would have hit an looked at his current self as some sort of crazy artery and killed him. If it had gone the other it person. “I was unused to crying all the time.” would have meant amputation. Bo was left in But leaving the practice “was the greatest his hospital room to think about life. decision I ever made.” People change all Meanwhile, Mike was prospering in the along the way. normal way, serving his patients, going to ■ church and playing golf. But internally, he was David Brooks has been a senior editor at troubled. He heard about Arnold Toynbee’s The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at theory of civilizational decline and worried Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and he is about America. Personally, he felt unfulfilled. currently a commentator on “The Newshour When he went to the Pearly Gates would St. with Jim Lehrer.” They’ve gone through a sort of moral puberty, as if a switch turned. They’ve lost most of their interest in egoistic calculation and some sort of primal desire for generativity has kicked in. YOUR VIEWS Economic growth doesn’t come to those who wait City officials have touted the savings in time and money by upgrading all their computer software in public works. Now we need $503,000 to gather data for our street, sewer and storm drain systems to establish a database of some sort. That includes counting and evaluating street signs and their reflective condition, and also counting trees. Looks like we’ll be sending most of that money to an engineering firm in La Grande. Now here’s the good news: It’s already in the budget except for about $95,000. They’ve come up with a simple solution. Rather than cut the giveaways like the Downtown Business Association or Rivoli Theater restoration, it’ll be coming out of the street maintenance fund so we can still pay for the more important stuff like moving the Eighth Street bridge to Main Street. Perhaps we could keep some of that money in Pend- leton if the city could get those people that are leading the charge to get listed in the Tree City USA program to volunteer to count all those trees. With the popularity and community support behind this program, getting those trees counted should be no problem. Have you heard of Project Pearson? It’s the code name for a high tech company looking to possibly locate in the area. According to Bill Elfering, it would bring 120 to 200 good paying jobs. However, don’t look for it here in Pendleton. It’s a high power consumer, which, due to the short-sighted leadership and lack of support from Pacific Power in the past, has left us holding the short end of the stick when it comes to sufficient power availability for industrial development. I guess it looks like we’ll just have to depend on the success of the drone program, and of course the Rivoli Theater restoration, for our economic future. The way we continue to source business outside the community for city projects will insure a steady outflow of capital needed for economic prosperity, and leave us with lousy streets. Rick Rohde Pendleton
