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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
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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
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