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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, September 8, 2017 OTHER VIEWS 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 Tip of the hat to Echo and Stanfield city governments for working together to find a solution to a long overdue wastewater problem. Their cooperation allows Echo to find a simpler, more economical and less painful way to solve that problem. Previously, city councilors had considered and recommended using eminent domain to build their own system, which would require 10 acres of property owned by Echo resident Michael Yunker. Luckily, Stanfield was alerted to the issues that their just-across-the-interstate neighbor was dealing with after it was reported in this newspaper. As luck would have it, Stanfield has a wastewater system that is far from being maxed out — and would welcome the additional discharge and resulting income. It’s a good reminder that entities of all kinds, who tend to be secretive with their problems, can benefit by putting those issues out in the open. The more people who are working on a problem, the more likely a solution will be found. Yes, it sometimes makes the path more circuitous. But more often than not, it leads in the right direction. It’s something other organizations — both public and private — should take to heart. A kick in the pants to those marauding turkeys in Pilot Rock. Yeah we’re talking to you, ya turkeys! With their constant pecking and pooping, the flock of more than 50 birds is making a mess of the little Umatilla County town. And the birds haven’t the least bit of respect for private property. Pilot Rock city councilors decided to bring in the professionals — Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife — to figure out how best to handle the birds. ODFWs advice kind of boils down to: kill ‘em, move ‘em or ignore ‘em. Or maybe a mix of all three. The EO story about the town’s turkey predicament was picked up by the Associated Press on Thursday and made it onto the homepage of the Drudge Report and its 37 million daily online visitors. So there’s no doubt that readers nationwide want to know more about them, and have their own ideas on how to handle the problem. (Most of those centered on Thanksgiving dinner.) So perhaps despite the trouble they’re causing, Pilot Rock might still be able to turn those turkeys into a positive —perhaps tasty — spectacle. 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 Hermiston’s Bounds a voice for rural Oregon on the Ninth Circuit T communities. The summer of he President’s nomination 2017 has once again choked of Ryan Bounds to serve Oregon with smoke from on the Ninth Circuit Court catastrophic fires, the risk of of Appeals is welcome news which could be prevented for rural Oregon. Born and through better management raised in Hermiston, Ryan has efforts that are often negatively never lost touch with his roots impacted by the courts. and understands well the way Rural Oregon deserves both of life in our communities. He Greg knows firsthand the dominant Walden a chance for a more balanced judicial approach and a role federal decisions can Comment talented legal practitioner who make in our region where a understands the impact these majority of land is managed by decisions have on our way of life. Ryan’s the federal government. Ryan is also deep roots in rural Oregon, respect for a highly talented and accomplished tradition, precedent, and deference to legal practitioner, with a breadth the political branches of the state and of experience before both trial and federal governments, will provide rural appellate courts. I was glad to offer my Oregon with that important voice on strong recommendation of Ryan earlier the bench. He is uniquely qualified for this year. this judgeship. His commitment to the Across our part of Oregon, federal court decisions have an outsized rule of law, liberty and self-government influence on many facets of our lives. are, in my mind, beyond question. I From operations of Columbia River strongly support his nomination and look hydropower and transportation systems forward to the Senate moving promptly to federal land management decisions, to confirm him for this seat on the Ninth the function of vital pieces of our Circuit. economy are often greatly hampered by ■ judicial and biological decisions issued Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River), from the bench. Litigation and judicial chairman of the House Energy and injunctions against forest management Commerce Committee, represents projects to reduce fuel loads and Oregon’s second congressional district, improve forest health have a real impact which includes 20 counties in central, on the health of our economies and our southern and eastern Oregon. Can we talk about Tom Brady’s brain? A nother pro football season study published in July suggested that has begun, and Tom Brady is the longer someone stays with football, again taking snaps for the New the more likely he is to show signs of England Patriots, and there’s chatter degenerative brain disease later. In that galore about how much longer that context, Brady’s stamina isn’t just an can last. He turned 40 on Aug. 3. In admirable testament to his will. It’s a quarterback years, he’s a fossil. chilling token of his risk. But isn’t he also above the laws There’s a dark irony here, because of nature? His performance in the his brain is probably the most crucial Frank Patriots’ Super Bowl victory over element of his record-breaking feats. Bruni the Atlanta Falcons early this year What makes a truly great quarterback Comment suggested as much, and his every — or, for that matter, a truly great painstakingly plotted hour is part of a running back or cornerback — is campaign not just to cheat Father Time but to mental keenness layered atop muscle and cackle at him. agility. I’ve read and heard scads about Brady’s My team is the Denver Broncos. Its star is all-organic, caffeine-free, anti- the linebacker Von Miller. He inflammatory dietary regimen; has a fleet step and a fierce his techniques for enhanced grip. But what most separates him from his peers is his talent muscle pliability; and his for assessing the configuration injury-preventing, youth- of the players lined up preserving “body coach,” opposite him, divining the soft who’s apparently some Ponce spot and strategizing — in de León of the pectorals. mere seconds — how to snake Thanks to this sorcery, Brady or shimmy through it. That’s maintains the strength of arm to throw downfield and the — Malcolm Gladwell, intellectual. Brady’s preparation sturdiness of leg to sidestep a author involves more than the blitz. avocado ice cream and But what about Brady from soft-tissue massages that have become the stuff the neck up? Even if he has the brawn to press of incessantly rehashed myth. When a season on, what are the risks to his brain? finishes, he goes back and twice watches In a May appearance on “CBS This video of every play that he was involved in, to Morning,” his wife, Gisele Bündchen, either diagnose what went right or wrong. sent a message to her husband through the He has studied the Patriots’ offensive television camera or made a slip, telling the schemes well enough so that if the wide world something that Brady certainly hasn’t. receiver he intends to throw to isn’t free, he “He has concussions pretty much every year,” can, in an instant, turn his gaze and his arm she said. “We don’t talk about it, but he does toward another waiting target. That’s what have concussions.” She even claimed that he’d suffered one last Peyton Manning and so many of the sport’s season. If that’s true, neither he nor the Patriots other legendary quarterbacks were also expert at. And that, too, is intellectual. disclosed it. It’s funny, and sad, that for all the reverence Bündchen’s comments received only we accord athletes, we objectify them, casting a fraction of the attention they deserved, them as hunks and hulks. We do that in spades as Malcolm Gladwell, who has written with football players. Maybe that makes it extensively about head trauma in football, easier to treat them as disposable. Maybe that’s noted on a podcast in June. “Why isn’t there a stronger drumbeat for him to retire?” Gladwell why Patriots fans were worried more about how Brady would perform in Thursday night’s asked, adding, “I do not want to see Tom season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs Brady at 55 drooling into a cup.” than about what kind of father he’ll be to his Alarmist? I doubt that the recently retired college football analyst Ed Cunningham would children a decade from now, or about how intact his memories of his own glory will be. see it that way. In The New York Times last There isn’t a stronger drumbeat for him week, Cunningham, 48, told my colleague to retire mostly because he gives so many John Branch that he had quit his high-profile spectators so much pleasure — and seems to TV job because he could no longer sanction be having a blast himself. But there also isn’t such a dangerous sport. “I just don’t think the a stronger drumbeat because in the same way game is safe for the brain,” he said. that he and Bündchen don’t talk about his His frequent on-air partner, Mike Patrick, brain, the rest of us barely give it a thought. concurred, telling Branch that football “can ■ turn 40-, 50-year-old men into walking Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for vegetables.” Over recent years, more enthusiasts, former The New York Times since 2011, joined the newspaper in 1995. Over his years, he has players and scientists have been speaking out worn a wide variety of hats, including chief about the long-term wages of blow after blow restaurant critic and Rome bureau chief. and concussion upon concussion. A major “I do not want to see Tom Brady at 55 drooling into a cup,” YOUR VIEWS Boardman to Hemingway line negatively affects Oregon Trail When asked why an 81-year-old from Bend was concerned about the Oregon Trail and Idaho Power’s Boardman to Hemingway power line, it is difficult to give an adequate answer. Neither my wife nor I had anyone who came of the trail — well, one on my wife’s side came in 1849 to Utah. I don’t count myself an environmentalist; heck, I grew up in the oil fields of California. As a kid, I went to the mountains a lot: church groups, summer camps, and scouts. When our family arrived, we always fished, camped and hiked in the Sierra. All three continue to do that today. So now that I am 83-plus, it is easier to see that the B2H is in direct opposition to what I believe and have enjoyed all my life. I look at the existing power line next to Interstate 84 in Union County and the clear cut for the right- of-way in the forest, and in the Baker Valley near Flagstaff Hill and down through Durkee, over to Huntington and across the BLM Birch Creek Oregon Trail ruts, across farm fields of alfalfa in Willow Creek in Malheur County. I try to envision the B2H being twice as big in a brand new route. Idaho Power continues to press on. They have presented Oregon Public Utility Commission with 890 pages of their 20-year Integrated Resource Plan, which includes B2H, and they sent to Oregon Energy Facilities Siting Council 13,000 pages for their site application. They overwhelm individuals with massive data and statistics. Good folks are speaking up, Union County and the city have held public meetings, so has Baker County, and early on Malheur County folks got IPC to move the line off of agricultural lands. What if all these folks just said: “Stop?” I wonder what IPC could do if some effort was spent trying to determine how to provide 20 years of service without B2H. I believe there are some within Idaho Power who would like that challenge. Gail Carbiener Bend 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.
