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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, August 26, 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 EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com OUR VIEW Health care the key to rural vibrancy We don’t have to look to Washington, D.C., to consider the uncertain future of the American health care system. For many in rural Oregon, access to and affordability of quality health care is as critical, local and personal an issue as they come. That’s certainly the case in Umatilla and Morrow counties. Last week we featured a Pendleton- raised doctor who returned to practice in Walla Walla, while many of his classmates remained in big cities and the large hospitals, clinics and private practices located there. We also noted that Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon’s only medical school, is recommitting themselves to producing doctors who are able and willing to practice in the state’s rural outposts. Now, someone in Fossil or Burns or elsewhere in frontier Oregon is sure to laugh at the bureaucrat who designated Walla Walla — home to 30,000 people and a French restaurant, for goodness sakes — as a rural hospital. But the relationship between frontier outposts, small and medium-sized cities (one of Walla Walla’s two hospitals closed this year) and large metropolitan areas is fundamental to how the health care system works today. And strengthening each step in that ladder is key to overcoming some of the hurdles faced nationwide. For those of us in rural Oregon, the first step is the most critical. And that starts with having qualified, dedicated medical professionals living and working in our small towns. And we’re not just talking about doctors. Nurses, physician’s assistants, pharmacists, radiologists, therapists, technicians, trainers, dietitians, psychologists and mental health professionals have long been critical cogs in any economy and community. But they are becoming more critical than ever as life expectancy increases, medical tech advances demand more and more human expertise, and the economic realities of health care impact life and death decisions everywhere on the globe. Eastern Oregon’s population is aging. Its doctors are, too. We’re living longer — which is great — but that puts added stress on a health care system turmoil. At the same time, our economic underpinnings are evolving — jobs in the health care field are expanding faster than manufacturing jobs are declining. High-quality local healthcare professionals save lives. That’s the most important argument. But they also save money for local families. They save homes. They save inheritances. They save heartache. They save long commutes and overnight stays far from home. Did we mention they save lives? They will also be the key to which rural areas survive and which ones thrive. With that in mind, health care must be atop every local economic development director’s priority list. And recruiting doctors is a job for local hospitals, chambers of commerce, and each and every rural resident. Health care will determine which rural areas survive and which ones thrive. 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 Black market weak link in Oregon’s legalization experiment Albany Democrat-Herald I f the Trump administration truly is serious about enforcing federal marijuana laws, even in states like Oregon that have legalized pot, their best argument revolves around the amount of the weed that’s hitting the black market. So Oregon officials have to be hoping that their increased efforts to track weed will pay off. Otherwise, this could be the Achilles’ heel for the state’s growing multibillion-dollar legal marijuana business. If you’ll allow a bit of understatement here, it’s fair to say that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn’t a fan of marijuana and no advocate for legalization. But it’s still not clear how vigorously the administration plans to push back against the tide of states that have legalized recreational pot. Sessions himself has offered mixed messages on this point: He has said he believes pot is “only slightly less awful” than heroin. But he also has said that he believes the so-called Cole memo, a document from the Obama administration that governs the relationship between the feds and states that have legalized marijuana, is “valid.” That’s where black market marijuana could give Sessions a card to play: The memo, crafted in 2013 by deputy attorney general James Cole, essentially said that marijuana would remain illegal under federal law, but that the feds would tolerate legalization on the state level — as long as those states worked hard on eight enforcement priorities. Among those priorities was one asking states to control the black market. Earlier this year, the U.S. attorney for Oregon, Billy Williams, met with the state’s top marijuana regulators. Williams requested the meeting in the wake of a draft report from the Oregon State Police that concluded that Oregon remains a leading black market exporter of pot to other states. An Associated Press story said the report used statistics from the legal industry and estimates of illicit grows to conclude that Oregon produces between 132 tons and 900 tons more marijuana than what state residents can conceivably consume. The report identified Oregon as an “epicenter of cannabis production.” The report has drawn barbs from critics who say the numbers in it are overstated. But it also has drawn attention from Sessions himself, who made reference to it in a July letter he sent to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. It’s not inconceivable that the federal government could attempt to make Oregon its first big target in a fight against legalized pot. Over the long run, the fight almost certainly would be a losing effort. But in the short run, it could easily devastate the state’s growing pot industry and blow a multimillion-dollar hole in the state’s budget as tax collections from sales of legal pot diminish. Oregon has some cards of its own to play: Brown recently signed into law a requirement that state regulators track from seed to store all marijuana grown for sale in Oregon’s legal market. So far, only recreational marijuana has been comprehensively tracked. These tracking systems, which increasingly are in use in other states that have legalized marijuana, aren’t foolproof in that they rely on the honesty of the users. But if Oregon is aggressive about identifying and citing violators early and often, the message might get out that the state means business on this front. That might be enough to convince the feds to keep their hands off of Oregon’s growing marijuana industry for the time being, instead of falling back on a heavy-handed and overly broad attack. Such an attack from federal officials would almost certainly devastate Oregon’s fascinating experiment with legalization. It also could end up, ironically, giving an unintended boost to the very same black market that Sessions and other federal officials want to shut down. Oregon has some of its own cards to play. OTHER VIEWS This American land W e’re living in the middle small yeoman farmer and craftsman of a national crisis of who lives close to the soil — self- solidarity — rising racial reliant, upright, humble before creation bitterness, pervasive distrust, political and bonded to his local community. dysfunction. So what are the resources “The name of our proper we can use to pull ourselves together? connection to the earth is ‘good What can we draw upon to tell a better work,’” Wendell Berry wrote, “for American story than the one Donald good work involves much giving Trump tells, one that will unite us of honor. It honors the source of its David instead of divide us, and yield hopeful Brooks materials; it honors the place where it answers instead of selfish ones? is done; it honors the art by which it is Comment One resource is the land. done; it honors the thing that it makes Throughout our history, the American and the user of the made thing. Good identity has been shaped by nature, by how work is always modestly scaled.” The second ideal was the Pioneer. This is our wilderness molds, inspires and binds the person who pushes against the wilderness us. Up until now, most U.S. presidents and develops skill, courage and virility. This have somehow been connected to nature. is the daring innovator who Washington surveyed, T.R. hunted, Reagan and Bush ushers progress by venturing cleared brush. Trump is to the edge of the known. unusual in that he seems “Life consists with untouched by wilderness, wildness,” Thoreau decreed. by the awe and humility that “The most alive is the comes from the encounter wildest. Not yet subdued to with nature. He only drives man, its presence refreshes around golf courses, which, him. One who pressed though sometimes lovely, forward incessantly and are dominated, artificial never rested from his labors, forms of nature. who grew fast and made From the nation’s founding, Americans had infinite demands on life, would always find a sense that their continent’s vast and beautiful himself in a new country or wilderness, and abundance gave their nation a unifying destiny surrounded by the raw material of life. He and mission. The land made them feel apart would be climbing over the prostrate stems of from Europe — their manners simpler, their primitive forest-trees.” admiration for practical work more fervent The third ideal was the Elevated Spirit. and their ambitions more epic: This is the person who slips off the conformist “A European, when he first arrives, seems materialism of commercial society and is both limited in his intentions as well as in his purified and enlarged by nature’s grandeur. views,” Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur wrote, This is John Muir in Yosemite, Ansel Adams “but he very suddenly alters his scale; two in the Grand Canyon. hundred miles formerly appeared a very great Such an awakened soul often comes distance, it is now but a trifle. He no sooner back singing with Walt Whitman, filled with breathes our air than he forms schemes and electric love for the enlarged individual, embarks on designs he never would have celebrating the infinite variety of life, thought of in his own country.” feeling part of an endless and ancient web The abundance mentality did not lead to of connections: “I will plant companionship decadence, but to optimism, a sense that there thick as trees along all the rivers of America,/ was room for all to spread out. It nurtured a and along the shores of the great lakes, and all future-minded mentality — seeing the present over the prairies,/I will make inseparable cities from the vantage point of the future. with their arms about each other’s necks,/By “It requires but a small portion of the gift the love of comrades.” of discernment for anyone to foresee that These days I often ask people what providence will erect a mighty empire in percentage of our nation’s problems can be America,” Samuel Adams wrote at a time solved through policy and politics. Most when America was 13 scraggly colonies people say that most of America’s problems hugging one coast. This job, constructing a are pre-political. What’s needed is a revival new order for the ages, gave generations of of values, fraternity and a binding American Americans a sense of purpose, something to story. devote their lives to. I don’t know all the ways that revival of The biggest thing nature did was offer spirit can come about, but even in the age of ideals. Different Americans came up with the driverless car and Reddit, I suspect some different character types for how to engage of the answers are to be found in reconnecting with nature. Each type offered a model for with our ancient ideals and reconnecting with how to live an admirable life. the land. According to one type, character was ■ forged by tilling the land; according to another David Brooks became a New York Times it was forged by being tested by the land; and Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. He in another it was formed by being cleansed by has been a senior editor at The Weekly the land. These types wove together to form Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek the American mythos. and the Atlantic Monthly, and is currently a The first ideal was the Steward. This is the commentator on PBS. Until now, most U.S. presidents have somehow been connected to nature. YOUR VIEWS Forest collaboratives need to welcome all input Forest Service collaboratives do not want to grant Eastern Oregon residents a vote at the table. They want people to participate, but not to ask for a vote in the process. That’s why now, finally, when residents of Grant County ask for voting status, the Blue Mountains Forest Partners come out with defamatory statements of residents being untrustworthy, hoping to marginalize those trying to participate in a meaningful manner. My mom had to sit through a shaming by the Blue Mountains Forest Partners because she was “untrustworthy” because I question the collaboratives, and how they use economic hardship to justify restricting motorized access to the mountains of Eastern Oregon. The collaboratives are supposed to be civil and open to diverse public input. But if that input does not align with the collaboratives stated goals, they become personal, nasty and petty. The question is, can we get logs to the mills without “rewilding” Eastern Oregon? We did it for decades, and grew some of the healthiest wildlife populations around. Unfortunately, the environmental community turned that on its head with their litigation strategy, and they now get to drive their message through these collaboratives, while excluding public input through voting membership. To paraphrase a collaborative board member, “My grandmother always told me, you are the company you keep.” The other lesson most of us learned from our grandparents was “the only thing you have is your word.” Unfortunately, collaboratives members never learned that lesson, because every time they give you their word, they backtrack from it. Eastern Oregonians should not be shamed upon requesting voting member status to “diverse and inclusive” groups, but unfortunately, that’s how Eastern Oregon collaboratives operate. John D. George Bates 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 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.