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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, August 15, 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
What to read while
waiting on eclipse
By this point — one week from
the big day — you are likely at
the boiling point for excitement
for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse.
Or maybe you’ve evaded the bug
somehow and don’t get what the
fuss is about.
We’ll take one more opportunity
to enlighten and excite you before
the lights go out next week. And
who better to stoke the eclipse fire
than some wonderful writers?
First try Annie Dillard’s seminal
1982 essay in The Atlantic, which
the magazine republished last week
due to popular demand.
Dillard is the Pulitzer-prize
winning author of “Pilgrim at
Tinker Creek” as well as a plethora
of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
But the essay she penned after
witnessing a total eclipse from
Yakima, Wash., more than 30 years
ago remains one of her most beloved
works.
And she has advice for those
of you who have decided to stay
home and not travel to the zone of
totality: “Seeing a partial eclipse
bears the same relation to seeing a
total eclipse as kissing a man does
to marrying him.” Find the story by
searching “Annie Dillard + eclipse.”
For something more of-the-
moment, try Helen Macdonald’s
superb essay in the August 6 New
York Times special eclipse section.
Macdonald is the author of the
tremendous memoir “H is For
Hawk,” in which she describes
going a bit mad tending to her
trained, winged killing machine.
But Macdonald, a Brit, is also a
dedicated eclipse chaser.
“The sight of a hole above us
that was once the sun reduced me to
tears; I fell to my knees,” she wrote
of the first of three eclipses she
has seen. “It felt like the end of the
world, and when the sun reappeared,
the world seemed reborn.”
If short essays aren’t enough to
whet your appetite, try the book
“American Eclipse: A Nation’s
Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of
the Moon and Win the Glory of the
World.”
Author David Baron tells the tale
of the eclipse of 1878, which also
arced across the American West, and
helped move science, understanding
and the women’s movement forward
into a new age. A young Thomas
Edison is one of three protagonists,
and 19th century Oregon gets plenty
of mentions.
— Tim Trainor is opinion page
editor of the East Oregonian. He will
watch the eclipse outside of Baker
City.
OTHER VIEWS
Heaven with blisters
O
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
Welcome, Mr. Perry — take a look around
Tri-City Herald
T
o Department of Energy Secretary
Rick Perry: Welcome to the Tri-Cities
— we are pleased you could visit.
From the itinerary we received, you
will start today by touring our commu-
nity gem — the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory — and end your
day touring what’s considered to be the
nation’s most toxic quagmire — the
Hanford nuclear site.
Perhaps during the tour they and key
Tri-City leaders can help convince you
of the critical work being done at PNNL
and the Hanford site, and how imperative
it is that DOE funding is not slashed
— as was recommended by President
Donald Trump’s administration.
Last May, the president’s team
proposed cutting $3.5 billion from
DOE’s budget for the next fiscal year. A
month later, we understand you defended
those cuts at a Congressional hearing.
Since then, both the U.S. House and
the U.S. Senate have produced budgets
much more favorable to PNNL and the
cleanup mission at Hanford.
The House approved a package of
appropriation bills before members left
for the summer recess. It added $54
million to the Trump administration’s
proposal, which is helpful, but still leaves
Hanford spending next year about $60
million below the current spending of
about $2.4 billion.
Proposed cuts to PNNL and Hanford
cleanup were significantly restored by
the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Senate version adds $196 million to
the budget the Trump administration had
proposed for the nuclear reservation, and
would increase it to close to $2.5 billion
for the next fiscal year, if money for
security and cybersecurity is included —
which we believe it should be.
The Senate budget also helps protect
key research programs at PNNL. If those
numbers hold, the money would save
hundreds of jobs the community thought
might be lost.
The scare we had last May when
a tunnel used to enclose radioactive
materials left from the Cold War unex-
pectedly collapsed in central Hanford
was a shocking reminder that we live
very close to potential disaster.
Fortunately, no workers were hurt
or are known to be contaminated, and
efforts have been made to contain the
breached tunnel.
In the wake of the panic that ensued
from the tunnel collapse, we thought
the Trump administration would see
the crucial need to keep waste cleanup
funding as level as possible. Needless
to say, we were extremely disappointed
when the opposite turned out to be true.
The Hanford site is dangerous.
Washington state was there for the entire
country when it produced the plutonium
used during World War II. Now, we need
the federal government’s help to clean up
the toxic waste left behind.
Mr. Perry, we are pleased you decided
to visit. We need your support, which
by the way, you pledged during your
confirmation hearing.
N THE PACIFIC CREST
trafficked spots like Yellowstone
TRAIL, NORTHWEST OF
or Yosemite, but the wilderness is
TRUCKEE, Calif. — This
mostly free to hikers.
will make me sound grouchy and
This is our collective patrimony,
misanthropic, but I sometimes
a tribute to the wisdom of Theodore
wonder if what makes America great
Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and other
isn’t so much its people as its trees
visionaries who preserved our wild
and mountains.
places for the future. Thank God for
In contrast to many advanced
Nicholas them. Otherwise, these lands might
countries, we have a vast and
Kristof have been carved up and sold off as
spectacular publicly owned
ranches for the rich.
Comment
wilderness, mostly free and available
Because of the foresight of past
to all. In an age of inequality, the
generations, the federal government
affluent have gated neighborhoods, private
owns 1 million square miles, an area three
schools, backup generators and greater
times the size of California, Oregon and
influence on elected officials. But our
Washington combined. Much of this is
most awe-inspiring wild
unspoiled, our inheritance
places have remained
and our shared playground.
largely a public good to be
Yet today, President
shared by all, a bastion of
Donald Trump sees this
equality.
heritage as an opportunity
My family and I have
for development. More
been backpacking on the
aggressively than past
Pacific Crest Trail through
administrations, Trump
the Sierras north of Donner
is systematically handing
Pass, enjoying magnificent
over the United States’
splendor that no billionaire
public lands for private
is allowed to fence off.
exploitation in ways that
We all have equal access,
will scar the land forever.
at no charge: If you can
The Trump
hold your own against
administration lifted a
mosquitoes and bears, the
moratorium on new coal
spot is yours for the night.
mining leases on public
Yet these public lands
land, it is drawing up
are at risk today. More on
plans to reduce wilderness
that in a moment, but first let me tell you
protected as national monuments and it is
about the Kristofs’ grand vacation. As we do rapidly opening up additional public lands to
each summer, we ran away from home to the coal mining and oil and gas drilling.
mountains. We escaped the tether of email
A second challenge comes from our
and cellphones, the tyranny of the inbox,
paralysis in the face of climate change,
and fled with everything we needed on our
compounded by the Trump administration,
backs.
and the risks this creates to our wilderness.
We’re yanked back to a simple life. We
A warmer climate has led to droughts
sleep under the stars rather than in a tent; if
and to the 20-year spread of the mountain
it rains we pull out a tarp to keep dry. Dawn
pine beetle, and a result is the death of
wakes us up, we roll up our sleeping bags
vast swaths of Western forests. Last year,
and plastic ground sheet, wolf down trail
62 million trees died in California alone,
mix or granola bars and start down the path.
the Forest Service says, and in Oregon
We fill our water bottles at passing streams,
and Washington I’ve watched forests turn
stop for rest and meals wherever we fancy,
brown and sickly. In parts of Wyoming and
chat as we walk, and when dusk comes we
Colorado, the pine beetle has killed almost
look for a flat spot, kick aside any rocks and
all the mature lodgepole pine trees, and it’s
branches and unroll our ground sheet and
arguably even worse in British Columbia.
sleeping bags again.
The third risk is from gradual degradation
Granted, we also moan about blisters.
and chronic underfunding. Even before
And marauding mosquitoes. And the heat — Trump took office, wilderness trails
or, sometimes, the cold. We whine a lot, but
and campgrounds were in embarrassing
that builds family solidarity.
disrepair. How is it that we could afford to
This is also a spiritual experience: It’s a
construct these trails 80 years ago in the
chance to share a reverence for the ethereal
Great Depression but cannot manage even to
scenery of America’s wild places. The
maintain them today?
wilderness is nature’s cathedral, and it’s a
When public lands are lost — or mined in
thrill to worship here.
ways that scar the landscape — something
The march of civilization has been about
has been lost forever on our watch. A
distancing ourselves from the raw power of
public good has been privatized, and our
nature. At home, we move the thermostat up or descendants have been robbed.
down by a degree, and we absorb the idea that
To promote an understanding of what is
we are lords of the universe. On the trail, we
being lost, I encourage everyone to run away
are either sweating or freezing, and it always
from home as well. Flee to the mountains,
feels as if the path is mainly uphill. Nature
deserts and babbling brooks to get in touch
mocks us, usefully reminding us who’s boss.
with wild spaces, to find perspective and
If your kids are suffering from what
humility. The wilderness nourishes our
souls, if we let it.
writer Richard Louv calls nature-deficit
■
disorder, I recommend that you all run away
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
from home together. Flee to the mountains.
cherry farm in Yamhill. He won the Pulitzer
It’s heaven with blisters.
Prize two times, in 1990 and 2006.
There are often charges to enter much-
This is a chance
to share a
reverence for the
ethereal scenery
of America’s
wild places.
The wilderness
is nature’s
cathedral.
YOUR VIEWS
Not a breakfast of champions
My mother is 96 now but still likes to do
some of the grocery shopping. Of course,
she is like many women who consider
shopping recreation instead of drudgery and
punishment that many men consider it to be.
So while I do some of the shopping, I am
done in a jiffy and have to find a way to take
up the time so mother can meander through
the aisles at Safeway as she searches for
coupon items and things she really doesn’t
need.
I happened upon the cereal aisle and
decided to take a closer look. There were
about 32 different cereals on the top shelf
alone, and there were four shelves of cereals
going from one end of the store to the
next. Mother wanted a breakfast cereal that
“wasn’t too sweet,” so I began searching for
a non-sugary cereal. To my shock, I could
only find about four (this was boxed cereals
not the hot variety). This would be about
four out of approximately 120 different kinds
offered by Safeway.
Some of the more interesting varieties
included such nutritious and delicious
wonders as Cinnamon Scary Apple
Clones, Chocolate Peanut Butter Corn
Pops, Cinnamon Marshmallow Scooby
Doo, and Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp.
An interesting fact: The Environmental
Working Group discovered that cereals
with cartoon characters had the highest
sugar content.
Is this really what we are feeding our
children now? Can parents really justify
calling these sugary products “breakfast?”
Dr. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at
New York University, states, “Kids should
not be eating sugar for breakfast. They
should be eating real food.” One of the worst
on the shelf is Kellogg’s Honey Smacks,
which is about 56 percent sugar. But there are
literally dozens that are close behind. Five of
the worst cereals for kids are from Kelloggs.
According to most nutritionists, kids
need fuel in the mornings to get a good
start. Sugary cereals spike the sugar in the
blood, but once it is digested the blood sugar
quickly drops again. This tells the brain more
sugar is needed, thus making kids hungry
again quickly, which then leads to other
forms of sugar like candy or pop. Sugar that
doesn’t break down also eventually turns
to fat. That is a good part of the reason our
population is so grossly (and unhealthily)
overweight now.
I used to think the drug companies were
the most corrupt in the nation, but I am
beginning to think it might be the cereal
companies now.
David Burns
Pendleton
Could Chamber manage
EOTEC?
With the Hermiston Chamber of
Commerce having to move from the
Hermiston Conference Center by the end of
2017, why can’t the chamber be the manager
of the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event
Center? The chamber is very well managed
by Debbie Pedro and her crew.
When business leaders or other groups
wants to hold an event in Hermiston, who
do they call? The Hermiston Chamber of
Commerce, to see what is available. The
chamber has a very strong board of directors,
comprised of citizens and business leaders
from the community.
I realize that an intergovernmental
agreement between the city and county
would have to be negotiated for the
Hermiston Chamber of Commerce to be
the general manager of EOTEC. I do not
know if the chamber would be willing to
manage EOTEC. I do know if the Hermiston
Chamber of Commerce were to be the
general manager of EOTEC, it would be a
win for both city and county.
Glenn Youngman
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 newspa-
per reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual ser-
vices 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.