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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, September 23, 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 The economic engine that needs the keys The most important developable bureaucracy, has stifled progress. Now a new deadline approaches: land in Eastern Oregon — the former Dec. 1, 2017. Greg Smith, hired home of the Umatilla Chemical to direct the CDA, said he and his Depot — sits just off Interstate 84 board will be there on site for a and the Columbia River. ceremonial securing of the deed that These 17,000-or-so acres had day, even if the other side doesn’t been used for decades to stockpile show. chemical weapons. But since the He’s requesting some closure of the military base in 2012 (and the loss of more than 1,500 jobs congressional muscle to get that done. U.S. Rep Greg Walden, who that went along with it) the land has been promised for private enterprise. stopped by our editorial board Wednesday, said Large corporations he has offered and major projects The former assistance multiple have drooled over times throughout the property, which Umatilla last years, and is not only along Chemical Depot the remains dedicated two interstates and to helping when he a river, but also near lands are the can. But he says the the railroad and best chance for CDA must have all good labor markets its internal issues in Hermiston and major economic of settled by Dec. 1 Tri-Cities. Yet, here we are, development in as well. No one a reminder of more than five years Eastern Oregon. needs the Coyote Island after closure, and Terminal near the land remains Arlington, where unchanged. It is still in the hands of the U.S. government, work started before all the Ts had been crossed — an expensive lesson despite multiple deadlines and learned for everyone. promises for handovers that have Deadlines are critical. In come and gone. With each missed newspapering, we have one every deadline, some major projects — night, and the paper goes out the next with jobs and taxes in tow — have morning no matter what. Has been come and gone, too. that way for more than 140 years The Columbia Development here at the East Oregonian. Authority was put in charge of Clearly, the future of the facilitating the handover, and depot land is a more complicated shepherding its transition into arrangement, with lots of different productive industrial lands. But the responsibilities in lots of different CDA still doesn’t have its hands on hands. And those hands are in D.C., the land. They’ve spent much of in Mission, in Hermiston, in Portland the last five years working to secure and the Pentagon, and they’re all water rights, environmental cleanup and a no-strings-attached deed. Now, operating with different amounts of urgency. after relics of religious significance But now is the time to break out to the Confederated Tribes of the all the clichés: we need all those Umatilla Indian Reservation were hands on deck, we need many of discovered on the site, additional them making light work, and we cultural studies are needed. As the clocks ticks on, those major need all those ducks to line up in their pretty little rows. investors remain on the sidelines. There is little that will bring a While the CDA works to corral their more clear, quick economic benefit own cats, the organization has also to Eastern Oregon than having these been working to get a myriad of lands in local control. This editorial far-flung government factions (from board will help as it can, and we the Pentagon to the EPA) on the same page. It hasn’t been easy. Little expect everyone else to do their part, too. problem after little problem, ground See you Dec. 1. even slower by the inefficiencies of 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. YOUR VIEWS Oregon’s prisons shouldn’t be nursing homes In Oregon we are holding geriatric seniors — ages 75 and older — in our prisons. They are being denied their earned Social Security benefits, causing hardships to families. This cost per family is a minimum of $200 per month, just to maintain contact. The access to adequate medical care is compromised by the shortage of medical staff and inmate overcrowding, due to excessive sentences handed down by prosecutors. The overwhelming cost to taxpayers to facilitate the medical needs is astronomical: $40,000 per inmate annually. More and more aging people are becoming seriously ill and dying in prison. These prisons are not equipped to be nursing homes. There is a zero to 0.1 percent recidivism rate in these older, first-time alleged offenders; much lower than that of the younger population of those there for the first time. An immediate first step would be for legislators to work with parole boards to give more weight to prison transformation. The longtime lockup of those who pose no security risk is an excusable waste of money, human potential and loss of life. Early release of these geriatric seniors is the sensible and humane way to relieve the expense, overcrowding and inadequate medical staffing. It is unfortunate that financial and occupational gain is more important than human life. Merrie Lee Cummings Engstrom Portland 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. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS In Rome, a visit with the Anti-Trump R OME — Walking to the Eternal children, had heretics executed or City, over stones worn down chained to a cell in the belly of Castel by the sandals of centurions, Sant’Angelo, the fortress that fronts on a pilgrim’s path nearly forgotten in Vatican City. The Vicar of Christ all the layers of Italian time, the mind cut deals with dictators, including a focuses as the muscles stiffen. devil’s bargain with Mussolini. With The Vatican is 62 miles away, its institutional cover-up of pedophile according to a Via Francigena clerics, the church showed the Mafia sign, and after another two-dozen Timothy a thing or two about organized crime. In matters of sex, it was medieval and gut-busting hills, past too much litter Egan hypocritical. It was afraid of science. in too many lovely places, now only Comment Now the pope uses science to 50 kilometers distant. At last you shame Trump, who stares down a come out sweaty and sunburned from parade of hurricanes and says, nothing to an urban forest to see a distant St. Peter’s see there. “Whoever denies it has to go to Basilica — the Oz of global Christianity. scientists and ask them,” said Francis last What awaits is — for now — the moral week. “They speak very clearly. Scientists center of the universe, and a very politically are precise.” Can a statue of adept pope. The collapse Galileo in St. Peter’s Square of honor and principle at a be far behind? White House led by a man On Wednesday, a with a pebble for a soul glorious Roman morning has allowed an enlightened with a bite of fall in the air, octogenarian to flourish. As the pope holds his general President Donald Trump audience. The goofy smile degrades his office by is electric. He’s buoyant. insults, lies and threats to The day before, Trump world peace and global spoke to the United Nations, health, Pope Francis throws a tweet dressed up as a ecclesiastical shade his way. speech. He made a very real “The more powerful threat to wipe out a nation you are,” the pope said of 25 million people. He earlier this year, “the more would, if he has to, “totally responsible you are to destroy North Korea.” act humbly.” Quick, Mr. This has always been the President, to the dictionary. implication of having more nukes than the Humble, humbly, humility. other guy. But diplomacy — another word for The pope waves from a window at his Trump to look up — is the art of war by other Sunday appearance. He still projects that means. Trump pushed America first, which lightness of being, wearing his soul on his sounded like “Me, me, me.” He played the sleeve. At almost the same time, Trump petulance card, the grievance card. forwards a tweet of the president of the As Trump went low, the pope went high. United States hitting a woman, his political A few days earlier, Francis was asked about opponent from last year, in the back with a a Trump decision that could break up the golf ball and knocking her down. Some very families of 800,000 Dreamers in the United funny stuff, believe me. States. “If he is a good pro-life believer, he The pope tells the crowd assembled in must understand that family is the cradle of the square to forgive, even if the person you life and one must defend its unity,” Francis cannot force yourself to forgive is, say, a answered. Trumpian monster, though he doesn’t name People who are hung up on doctrinal names. Those who cannot let things go, he changes — angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin says, “close our hearts to love for others.” arguments over whether divorced Catholics Yeah, well, what does he know? Much can receive communion or not — are missing more than Trump has yet to figure out. the big picture. Behold the Francis doctrine: One in four American voters is a Roman an expansion of “pro-life” to include help for Catholic. And a third of those Catholics are refugees, the poor, the powerless. Latino. They’re watching Trump, but they’re Trump doesn’t get it. His nominee to the listening to Francis — on climate change, Vatican is Callista Gingrich, wife of Newt immigration, refugees, war and peace. Gingrich. Newt, you must remember, carried The pope’s approval rating in the United on a six-year extramarital affair with her States was at 70 percent in a Pew survey at while impeaching a president for having an the start of this year, while Trump has been affair. Her appointment was something the at about half that for much of the last few months. Throughout the world, every country Vatican of old would do — a cynical ploy. The Vatican of today can marvel at how but Russia (and to a small degree, Israel) quickly history pivots on a single person. has a lesser view of the United States under ■ Trump. Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a For years at a time — make that decades writer for The New York Times, first as the — the home of the successor to St. Peter was Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a a house of nasty intrigue, deceit and power national enterprise reporter. put to awful use. Popes fathered wars, and Behold the Francis doctrine: An expansion of “pro-life” to include help for refugees, the poor, the powerless. OTHER VIEWS Lawmakers shouldn’t lose ability to hire relatives The Bend Bulletin O regon allows state lawmakers to hire their relatives, a practice called nepotism. The word itself has come to imply something shady is afoot, although that’s clearly not always the case. About a quarter of Oregon lawmakers, men and women in both chambers and from both parties, hire parents, children or spouses as office workers when they’re in Salem, according to The Oregonian. The relatives are paid out of the lawmakers’ budgets, as are unrelated staff members. No one, not the lawmakers or their family members, will get rich on what they earn serving the state of Oregon. Some also hire relatives for their campaigns. Nor is the practice particularly rare. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, more than half of the states have the same restrictions that Oregon does: While lawmakers may hire relatives to work for them, there are general ethical guidelines that must be followed when doing so. Oregon prides itself on its citizen Legislature. Sending the men and women who write our laws back to the communities where those laws will be enforced puts lawmakers in touch with their constituents in a way that would be difficult to duplicate with a full-time Legislature. The Oregon reliance on part-time lawmakers does have its problems. The vast majority of legislators come from someplace other than Salem, and because they’re in the capital only part of the time, they tend not to have houses or fancy apartments at their disposal. Theirs can be a lonely existence, which can be improved by the presence of a spouse or child in the office. Moreover, as more than one lawmaker told The Oregonian, no one understands a legislator’s constituents and issues as well as a close relative can. Then there’s this: Scandal as a result of nepotism has been something of a rarity. Oregon’s is not a broken system looking for a cure. Rather, it’s a system that has worked well for years, and as such, there’s no need to change it.
