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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, August 16, 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 OTHER VIEWS March to support Bundys planned Wednesday in Pendleton AP Photo/Steve Helber This August 8 photo shows members of the KKK escorted by police past a large group of protesters during a KKK rally in Charlottesville, Va. By HOLLY JO BEERS Nazi or America A — pick a side It was hard to dispassionately Confederate generals and members of the Confederate government, is watch and read the news last anti-American. weekend, as groups of neo-Nazis And to all those who think and counter-protesters clashed on the removing those flags from public streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. spaces and tearing down such statues One woman was murdered. Two is “erasing history” — don’t be so police officers died in a terrible obtuse. Germany accident. would not be stupid That much anger, Those enough to allow hate and violence and is hard to stomach, governments monuments statues to Nazis to and it surely left Americans across are opposites, remain standing — were long ago the country seething enemies. They they unceremoniously on their couches as Nazi and Confederate opposed and destroyed. Yet as we see, knowledge sympathizers warred against can of Nazis and their marched angrily history has not been through our public each other. erased — it has been space. so well studied and There were documented that most citizens are dozens of major issues at play in Charlottesville, and we could write a crystal clear on what the swastika stands for. And what it stands for tome on each and every one. is undergoing a resurgence here in But we would like to expand on just one small fact that can hopefully America. There is no reason a patriotic find universal agreement: You can American would tolerate or promote either be an American, or you can Nazi ideals. It’s the flag of a be a Nazi — you can’t be both. You government that declared war on the cannot call for the overthrow of United States, that killed hundreds America’s core principles and still of thousands of our brave soldiers call yourself a patriot. and millions of their own people. A Photos of protesters waving government that turned the world to American, Confederate and Nazi war, too. flags are incongruent. Those We have freedom of speech in governments — their principles this country — even for Nazis. It’s and their history — are opposites, one of the perversions that remind us enemies. They opposed each other, of our principles. But the allowance they warred against each other. should never be confused with Take just the historical facts: The acceptance. The Anti-American Confederacy waged war against ideas and speech that was on the United States, the bloodiest display in Charlottesville should be and deadliest war this country has challenged everywhere they raise ever fought. To wave those flags their ugly head. together, and to support and glorify 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. s Americans, we must stand together and stop the tide of corruption occurring in our courtrooms. The Constitution, the supreme law of the land, is no longer allowed in Judge Gloria Navarro’s U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada. But the problem is no longer just about the Bundys. It is about you and me. There are four men on trial there, charged with several crimes stemming from the protest in Nevada which occurred in April 2014. Judge Navarro is denying these men any of their constitutional rights. The judge and the prosecutors demanded that the defense witnesses present their testimonies out of the hearing of the jury to see if they had anything relative to say in front of the jury. Some of those people were at the Bunkerville protest and could have provided context to alleged allegations. There were more than 100 witnesses to be called to testify for the defense. She successfully stopped all of them from testifying on the defendants’ behalf. Two of the four defendants decided to testify on their own behalf. As the first one attempted to testify under the strict guidelines imposed upon the defense, the Judge ripped him off the witness stand, will not allow him to testify anymore and struck his entire testimony from the record in front of the jury. The judge ordered that the men be shackled in court, contrary to a higher court’s ruling that it would suggest that the defendants were guilty. Judge Navarro prohibited the mention of the First or Second Amendments or any Constitutional rights as it “might result in jury nullification.” Defendants could not mention the “First Amendment area” set up for protesters far from the site of the conflict. Those attending court were not allowed to carry pocket Constitutions in shirt pockets into the courtroom. The defense was not allowed to show Bureau of Land Management actions and conduct leading up to the confrontation. The prosecution introduced heavily redacted statements, changing the meaning and context, allegedly tying a defendant to Timothy McVeigh. The body cameras worn by the BLM showing exactly what happened were prohibited from being introduced as evidence. The judge restricted the defense to events occurring on only one day, while the prosecution took great liberty presenting evidence covering two years. The prosecution requested that they and the judge review the defense attorneys’ closing arguments prior to their presentation to the jury. Judge Navarro is allowing the jury to ask questions of all witnesses by writing her notes in open court. Some questions she herself answers, others she says are not relevant. Today the defense attorneys asked for the day off so they could retain attorneys of their own due to a motion for sanctions filed against them by the prosecutors for violating the judge’s gag order on the defense. It was denied. The gag rule on the defense has severely limited them from, presenting any defense whatsoever. Defendants may not state why they traveled to Nevada or what their state of mind was. Defendants have been told by the judge in open court that if they talk to a law enforcement officer of any kind while in possession of a weapon they could be charged with “assault upon an officer.” Nevada open carry laws are not recognized. When a precedence is set in a court of law, it becomes as law. Judges rely heavily on what has occurred in previous cases. That means if precedence is set here and these men are found guilty, you and I can look forward to more of the same in courts across the nation. It is a now a concern of every American citizen. I am calling on all of you to attend a rally/ march in support of American’s Constitutional Rights on Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Museum Park behind the Chamber of Commerce in Pendleton. ■ Holly Jo Beers, of Athena, is a member of the Oregon Three Percenters, an American “patriot movement” that pledges resistance against the United States government regarding infringement of the Constitution. A March is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Museum Park, behind the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce. 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. YOUR VIEWS EO Group looks foolish, silly after first EOTEC fair With this year’s Umatilla County Fair and Farm-City Pro Rodeo, EOTEC hit a home run with its amazing new $16 million fair and rodeo grounds built with no bonded debt. What does the East Oregonian do? Writes an editorial with no praise for EOTEC, the city of Hermiston or Umatilla County, but with dire warnings about the future, including crying that now the facilities will now start to deteriorate — so look out! Trouble ahead! Get real, EO. It’s all state-of-the art steel and aluminum. Brand new. As to the future, EOTEC is just getting started and will succeed just like this year’s fair and rodeo. Throughout the 10-year push to build EOTEC, the EO hasn’t written one positive editorial about this visionary project to replace a decrepit and dangerous facility. Everything was negative. Their billboards of criticism were long, but some especially laughable. The “EO” Media Group oddly did not like using the acronym “EOTEC.” When more money was needed to complete the project, EO editor Daniel Wattenburger went to the first fundraiser, and then wrote a long and incredibly negative editorial. Called it “begging for charity.” Hilariously, in spite of Mr. Wattenburger’s opinion, $2.5 million was raised in six months. Last week, the EO ran a long and snarky “Other Views” of a private citizen saying how she did not like the new facility. The events hadn’t even started. I can only guess that the EO Group would have liked to keep the fair in the middle of Hermiston on a 23-acre parcel with no parking, with decrepit and dangerous facilities, which the county commissioners found would cost $8 million to simply bring up to building, electrical and plumbing code — with no new facilities. Eight million dollars the county did not have. The EO has tried to kill this project from the beginning. It has failed. As I said in one of my many letters to the EO editor defending EOTEC, “In August 2017 the EO will look very foolish.” With the amazing facilities and great 2017 fair and rodeo, the EO was foolish. And now, just while the 2017 fair and rodeo are a rousing success, it whimpers about this stout steel and aluminum giant deteriorating and its future being dim. The EO Group not only looks foolish, but silly. George Anderson Hermiston Trying to make sense of Russian investigation For the past year or so many questions have arisen regarding our national politics and government that have me overwhelmed. There may be many more U.S. citizens that feel like I do. Most of the questions have gone unanswered. I’m asking some of those questions again. Why is our government seeking information from Russia regarding whether it interfered with the U.S. presidential elections? The one person that has the answer is an American citizen and now the president. He knows what happened. He is the one that should be answering the questions. If nothing untoward was done he would certainly be the one with the information. Next question: Why did he need to seek input from an adversary of the U.S.A. and all the free world regarding how to win an election? Recently it was reported he gave that reason for his meeting with Putin. Putin is not known for allowing his Russian citizens much freedom and their elections have been in question. Therefore, why would an American citizen seeking the office of president think it appropriate to gather information from the source if the candidate desired democratic, honest, appropriate advice? I want the leaders of my country to stick to our ideology, our standards, our democratic values. Also, surely our government and the investigating committee aren’t expecting Putin to give any pertinent information to shed light on whether there was involvement with our presidential elections. The investigation needs to be pursued until there is an answer. Until our nation has a credible answer one way or the other I don’t see how we can proceed. If no fraud was done we have a president. If fraud did occur, do we still have that person as our president? The president reportedly recently stated that we will never probably know. Now how is that possible? Those involved do know if it did or did not occur. They can provide the information to clear up the matter. Why do they choose to withhold that information? If there was no wrongdoing I’d expect then to go out of their way to prove innocence. In my 80-plus years I’ve never been so troubled by our presidential elections. I truly hope my fears are unfounded as I have complete respect for my country, my government and the presidential office. I do not want to have my country abused or disrespected by anyone. That applies to the citizens, the private sector, or those elected to serve and preserve our democratic nation. Darlene Abney Pendleton Be heard! Tell us if you’re excited about Monday’s total solar eclipse, or you think all the hubbub is overblown. Email your thoughts to editor@eas- toregonian.com and we’ll run some of them in the Saturday edition.
