Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, September 28, 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 This is Jeopardy! “Jeopardy!,” the classic background noise of the TV dinner, last week featured a question that every East Oregonian reader would have known immediately. The category was “Not their first rodeo.” The answer: “‘Let ‘er buck’ is the slogan of the Round-Up in this Oregon town also famous for the plaid products of its woolen mills.” The contestant got the answer right, pocketed the dough and the game continued. But it got us thinking, why isn’t there a Umatilla County-centric Jeopardy! category? Certainly we locals would school the academic high-flyers in that subject, before the tables are turned against us with 16th Century Opera or something of the sort. Since Jeopardy! won’t do it, we decided to do it ourselves . The category is “Umatilla County towns.” Good luck, and remember: Your answers must always be in the form of a question. $100 $200 THIS TOWN IS HOME TO THE SMALLEST SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE STATE. SETTLED BY CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, THIS TOWN WAS NAMED AFTER A VICE PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL FROM OHIO $300 $400 THESE TWO TOWNS COMBINED IN 1951 TO FORM ONE CITY THIS FARMING COMMUNITY CELEBRATES ITS SCOTTISH HERITAGE WITH A KIRKIN O’ THE TARTAN $500 $600 THIS TOWN WAS NAMED FOR ITS PROMINENT BASALT FORMATION USED AS A LANDMARK ON THE OREGON TRAIL THIS FORMER COUNTY SEAT SOLD SUPPLIES TO MINERS ON THEIR WAY TO THE GOLD FIELDS OF OREGON AND IDAHO $700 $800 THIS TOWN WAS SETTLED BY PORTUGESE SHEEP HERDERS AND NAMED AFTER THE DAUGHTER OF TOWN FOUNDERS INCORPORATED IN 1907, THE NAME OF THIS TOWN WAS INSPIRED BY A ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON NOVEL $900 $1,000 ORIGINALLY CALLED “FOSTER,” THIS TOWN CHANGED ITS NAME IN 1909 TO HONOR A LOCAL ELECTED TO THE U.S. SENATE FORMER RESIDENT NARD JONES BASED HIS NOVEL “OREGON DETOUR” ON THIS TOWN, CAUSING A LOCAL FUROR IN 1930 $1,100 $1,200 THIS TINY TOWN WAS NAMED AFTER A PART OF THE EAR, BECAUSE OF A PROMINENT RESIDENT’S SURGERY IN 1880 THIS TOWN BECAME A WHEAT SHIPPING STATION IN THE 1890S WHEN THE RAILROAD CONNECTED PENDLETON AND WALLA WALLA Answers: $100, What is Ukiah? $200, What is Pendleton? $300, What are Milton and Freewater? $400, What is Athena? $500, What is Pilot Rock? $600, What is Umatilla? $700, What is Echo? $800, What is Hermiston? $900, What is Stanfield? $1,000, What is Weston? $1,100, What is Helix? $1,200, What is Adams? Looking for more local history? “Out of the Vault: Historical Vignettes from the East Oregonian” by Renee Struthers is available as a Kindle e-book at amazon.com. OTHER VIEWS The lecture that Trump needs ’m thrilled that Jeff Sessions is such petty, can prescribe what shall be an evangelist for free speech. orthodox in politics, nationalism, Now if only he could convert his religion or other matters of opinion.’” boss. Our highest official is also our On Tuesday afternoon, with much pettiest, and his attack on athletes fanfare, Sessions strode onto a stage smacks of such an attempted at Georgetown University and decried prescription. So did the statement of the rise of a creature with an insatiable his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee appetite for affirmation, a distressing Sanders, that the ESPN host Jemele Frank inability to respect the other side and Hill’s characterization of the president Bruni an ugly impulse to silence anyone who as a “white supremacist” constituted Comment dwells there. He meant today’s college a “fire-able offense.” That’s between student. He could have been describing ESPN and Hill. The government — today’s president. meaning the White House — shouldn’t be While decency and decorum are dying getting involved. in this administration, irony and hypocrisy And Trump’s onetime suggestion that thrive: Sessions’ defense of the flag burning be made a crime: First Amendment came just days How does that square with the after Donald Trump needlessly Constitution’s fixed star? went to war against professional “A shelter for fragile egos.” athletes who were exercising That’s how Sessions the very rights it protects. When portrayed the college campus. pressed on this dissonance in Make “egos” singular and the a question-and-answer period phrase defines the Oval Office after his remarks, Sessions now. This president has such simply refused to recognize it. an overweening investment in He fell unswervingly in line his own glory, or rather in the with Trump, contradictions illusion of it, that he distorts be damned. To serve in truth (the size of his inauguration this administration is a crowd) and invents facts (the transcendently speech-freeing voter fraud that supposedly gave thing. Hillary Clinton the popular vote) There’s no dispute that many to sustain it. campuses are illiberal enclaves As news organizations call of bluntly enforced groupthink, him out on these and all of his and there’s no doubt that many — Jeff Sessions, other lies, he doesn’t merely students deserve the stern words push back at the stories one by U.S. Attorney General one. He tweets and bleats that that Sessions aimed at them. But they’re still green and still the media is an “enemy of the growing. What’s Trump’s excuse? American people,” trafficking in “fake news.” Given his office and capacity for He tries to intimidate given reporters and news destruction, he needs the lecture that Sessions organizations. delivered most of all. So let’s redirect it from He has called for changes in the law to its intended audience to its ideal one, from make it easier to sue news organizations for the ivory tower to Trump Tower, and look at libel. At rallies, he has encouraged crowds to Sessions’ remarks through the prism of his rant at reporters. On Twitter, he has shared ruler. violent imagery in regard to CNN. “There are those who will say that certain No president in my lifetime has so speech isn’t deserving of protection. They will thoroughly rejected the media’s role as a vital say that some speech is hurtful — even hateful pillar of democracy and so assertively sought … But the right of free speech does not exist to discredit it as an institution. Freedom of the only to protect the ideas upon which most of press is mentioned snug alongside freedom of us agree.” speech in Sessions’ beloved First Amendment, Bull’s-eye, bingo and hallelujah. The but you’d never know it from Trump’s right of free speech protects whatever Colin behavior. Kaepernick has to say and whatever he “The university is supposed to be the place intended to communicate by kneeling during where we train virtuous citizens.” the national anthem. Trump may not be fond The White House is supposed to be the of that particular gesture. I myself never was. place to which we elevate the most virtuous And as Sessions correctly noted, the president ones of all, at least in happy theory. But can is free to make those thoughts known. you show me the honor in a president who But he went so much further, exhorting warps reality itself to his advantage and team owners in the National Football League savages all who get in the way? And where to fire players who didn’t listen to the anthem in that ruthlessness is respect for the lofty and salute the flag in the manner that Trump principles that Sessions so disingenuously would like. The First Amendment says espoused? that the government mustn’t prohibit free Administration, heal thyself. expression, and his campaign against pro ■ athletes, threatening them with the loss of their Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for livelihoods, edges up to that territory. The New York Times since 2011, joined the “As Justice Robert Jackson once explained, newspaper in 1995. Over his years, he has ‘If there is a fixed star in our constitutional worn a wide variety of hats, including chief constellation, it is that no official, high or restaurant critic and Rome bureau chief. I “The right of free speech does not exist only to protect the ideas upon which most of us agree.” YOUR VIEWS Oregon prisons incapable of providing good medical care I wish to comment on the letter written by Ms. Engstrom. She is right in many ways. The prisons are incapable of providing the much needed medical care that is needed The last I knew, EOCI had one physician for approximately 1,700 inmates. Safe? I think not. They apparently allow nurses to make medical diagnoses, which is against the law, and most definitely outside their scope of practice, which might allow their license to be revoked. I do have examples of this. Many inmates live with the pain or disease rather than go to sick call, because they know that either nothing will be done, and or it will take forever to see a doctor, or when they do see the doctor nothing will be done. Many will say they don’t deserve medical care — well you know what, they do. I am not their judge and jury, I try to leave that to God. They are put there by a state that is controlled by the district attorneys and the legislature is to cowardly to do anything about the Measure 11 that has put many there for long-term sentences that probably could have been solved by a shorter prison term, probation, etc. I am not soft on crime; obviously repeat and violent offenders such as Measure 11 was meant for should be there. How many deaths at Two Rivers lately? Unexpected? How many more must suffer and/or die because of a cowardly legislature and DOC that refuses decent medical care to inmates? I have heard legislatures say that they don’t want to appear soft on crime or they won’t get re-elected. That tells me they are more worried about getting re-elected then doing the right thing. We are being made to pay for murdering babies by abortion, but heaven forbid we give medical care to people who are alive. Barbara Dickerson Milton-Freewater 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.
