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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, October 5, 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 In the year 2243 Imagine the year is 2243. The writers of those words were Now imagine the weapons. understandably unable to conceive of the America we know today. The Nuclear warheads will still be Second Amendment was written around, though we can hope they mostly to discourage a standing will be dusty from disuse. But more army, which Jefferson specifically than likely there will be even more thought was a threat to the peace damaging and terrifying weaponry of the nation. We’ve long since in circulation. Consider entire required one — and long since autonomous armies, high-energy made it the largest lasers, space- in the world — as based weaponry new technologies orbiting overhead, Imagine the made our country hypersonic aircraft weapons of more vulnerable to and electronic bombs. Perhaps 226 years from destructive attack. defenses you could program now. That is the Capable were necessary, and a drone from your sacrificed liberty Umatilla County same distance we basement and fly and tax dollars to from today as make it so. it straight into the White House. Those founders 1791 — the Perhaps you will be also did not foresee able to kill millions year the Second the technological advances of “arms,” with the click of a Amendment and the way mass mouse. Perhaps you violence has seeped will not even need a was ratified. into our country. mouse. It seems hard They could not imagine a world as interconnected, to imagine the technological as integrated and as immediately capabilities and how they could impacted. They couldn’t imagine be used, both for good and ill. It is tanks and missiles and automatic equally hard to imagine how future weapons. They couldn’t even governments and non-government imagine a place we now call Oregon. actors will keep Americans and It’s worth considering how long the world safe from the crazed ago the amendment was written, actor — be he or she a head of and what the goal of those writers state, the leader of a political or were, in light of Sunday’s mass religious movement or a lone shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest wolf interested only in death and in modern American history. It destruction. What laws and rules took place little over a year after will have to be enacted to govern autonomous armies? Will we outlaw the Orlando nightclub shooting, which at the time was the deadliest space weaponry, or will we all have in modern American history. And one missile pointed at one another, that took place just nine years allowing us to operate under a after the mass shooting in Virgina comfortable détente of mutually Tech, which set its own mark as assured destruction? the country’s deadliest in modern It’s impossible to answer with so much unknown about the year 2243. times. Interspersed are the 26 killed (mostly children) in Newtown Who knows what will be necessary, in 2012 and the 14 killed in San what technologies will exist, what Bernadino in 2014. defenses could be employed, and We’re setting records for all how violent or peaceful the world the wrong reasons, while our law will be? Who knows if nations and remains rooted in 1791. states will still exist? Who knows if It is optimistic — but also naive the planet will? — to imagine 2243 as a utopian Consider then that 2243 is 226 paradise where technology has years from now. That is the same brought only peace and prosperity. distance in the future as 1791 is in But with each technological the past. 1791 was the year the Bill advance, there has always been of Rights — including the Second someone — government or Amendment — was ratified and otherwise — who has found devious became the law of this land. uses. It is understandable then, Consider that the rules and laws that the language and foresight and societal norms we fight for in of our founding fathers may 2017 can not only help make our seem ill equipped to handle the world a less deadly place now, but technology and culture of today. could set the foundation for law The Amendment reads, as if we needed any reminder more than two hundreds of years from now. It may be necessary as the weapons of 2243 centuries later: “A well regulated will carry with them unimaginable Militia, being necessary to the consequences — total annihilation security of a free State, the right of at the click of a mouse instead of 58 the people to keep and bear Arms, Americans dead at a concert. shall not be infringed.” 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 Child care facilities need lead testing The Bend Bulletin he state of Oregon will not require day care centers to test for lead in their water. The tests, which can cost nearly $100, are simply too expensive, officials say. Lead in drinking water is damaging to humans, particularly very young ones. That’s been a problem, particularly in the Portland area where, in spring 2016, unacceptably high lead levels were found in several schools’ drinking water. The school district failed to make the information public in a timely manner. Central Oregon’s schools did fairly well when tests were ordered across the state in 2016, after Portland’s problems became public. Bend reported lead in a couple of the district’s oldest buildings, while one school in Crook County also had lead in one of its drinking water sources. All problems in both districts have since been taken care of. But while lawmakers have since required Oregon schools test for lead, the requirement does not extend to child care facilities. Deciding what to do about that was T left to the state’s Early Learning Council, which decided on Sept. 28 not to require testing in child care facilities here. The state of Washington recently decided to make such testing mandatory. Oregon officials cited the cost of testing faucets and other water sources, and noted that they neither could demand nor help pay for corrective measures. They could, instead, simply bar kids from facilities with lead problems. Officials were concerned about the potential for losing child care slots in a state with not enough child care to go around. Still, the decision leaves parents in a quandary. Unless facilities test voluntarily and make the results known, parents may worry about what their kids are ingesting. Providers can have the tests done on their own and then, assuming the results are good, advertising that fact. The state is also issuing new guidelines about letting water run for several minutes if a faucet hasn’t been used in several hours. If parents are concerned, they can pressure facilities to have the testing done. If only Stephen Paddock had been a Muslim f only Stephen Paddock had been them assault rifles — 23 in his hotel a Muslim ... If only he had shouted room and 19 at his home — as well as “Allahu akbar” before he opened thousands of rounds of ammunition fire on all those concertgoers in Las and some “electronic devices.” Just Vegas ... If only he had been a member another deer hunter, I guess. of ISIS ... If only we had a picture of On crushing ISIS, our president him posing with a Quran in one hand and his party are all in. On asking the and his semiautomatic rifle in another NRA for even the tiniest moderation, ... Thomas they are AWOL. No matter how If all of that had happened, no one Friedman many innocents are fatally shot — no would be telling us not to dishonor matter even that one of their own Comment the victims and “politicize” Paddock’s congressional leaders was critically mass murder by talking about wounded playing baseball — it’s never preventive remedies. time to discuss any serious policy measures to No, no, no. Then we know what we’d mitigate gun violence. be doing. We’d be scheduling immediate And in the wake of last month’s hearings in Congress unprecedented hurricanes about the worst domestic in the Atlantic — that terrorism event since 9/11. wrought over $200 billion Then Donald Trump would of damage on Houston and be tweeting every hour “I Puerto Rico, not to mention told you so,” as he does smaller cities — Scott minutes after every terror Pruitt, Trump’s head of the attack in Europe, precisely Environmental Protection to immediately politicize Agency, also told us that it them. Then there would was not the time to discuss be immediate calls for a “the cause and effect” of commission of inquiry to these superstorms and how see what new laws we need to mitigate their damage. to put in place to make sure We need to focus on helping this doesn’t happen again. the victims, he said. But for Then we’d be “weighing all Pruitt, we know, it’s never options” against the country time to take climate change of origin. seriously. But what happens when the country of To take ISIS seriously abroad, but then to origin is us? do nothing to mitigate these other real threats What happens when the killer was only a to our backyards, concert venues and coastal disturbed American armed to the teeth with cities, is utter madness. military-style weapons that he bought legally It’s also corrupt. Because it’s driven by or acquired easily because of us and our crazy money and greed — by gunmakers and lax gun laws? gun-sellers and oil and coal companies, and Then we know what happens: The all the legislators and regulators they’ve president and the Republican Party go into bought and paid to keep silent. They know overdrive to ensure that nothing happens. full well most Americans don’t want to Then they insist — unlike with every ISIS- take away peoples’ rights to hunt or defend related terror attack — that the event must not themselves. All we want to take away is the be “politicized” by asking anyone, particularly right of someone to amass a military arsenal at themselves, to look in the mirror and rethink home and a hotel room and use it on innocent their opposition to common-sense gun laws. Americans when some crazy rage wells up So let’s review: We will turn the world inside him. But the NRA has these cowardly upside down to track down the last Islamic legislators in a choke hold. State fighter in Syria — deploying B-52s, What to do? cruise missiles, F-15s, F-22s, F-35s and Forget about persuading these legislators. U2s. We will ask our best young men and They are not confused or underinformed. They women to make the ultimate sacrifice to kill are either bought or intimidated. Because no or capture every last terrorist. And how many honest and decent American lawmaker would Americans has the Islamic State killed in the look at Las Vegas and Puerto Rico today and Middle East? I forget. Is it 15 or 20? And our say, “I think the smartest and most prudent president never stops telling us that when it thing to do for our kids is to just do nothing.” comes to ISIS, defeat is not an option, mercy So there is only one remedy: Get power. is not on the menu and he is so tough he even If you are as fed up as I am, then register has a defense secretary nicknamed “Mad someone to vote or run for office yourself or Dog.” donate money to someone running to replace But when fighting the NRA — the National these cowardly legislators with a majority for Rifle Association, which more than any common-sense gun laws. This is about raw other group has prevented the imposition of power, not persuasion. And the first chance common-sense gun-control laws — victory is we have to change the balance of power is the not an option, moderation is not on the menu 2018 midterm elections. Forget about trying and the president and the Republican Party to get anything done before then. Don’t waste have no mad dogs, only pussy cats. your breath. And they will not ask themselves to make Just get power. Start now. even the smallest sacrifice — one that might ■ risk their seats in Congress — to stand up Thomas Friedman, a New York Times for legislation that might make it just a little columnist, was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes harder for an American to stockpile an arsenal for international reporting in Beirut and Israel like Paddock did, including 42 guns, some of and one for commentary. I To take ISIS seriously abroad, but then do nothing to mitigate these threats to our backyards, is utter madness. YOUR VIEWS State budget is out of control, against desire of rural voters I cannot resist the fodder in a recent La Grande Observer: “Deficit climbs to $25.3 billion” by Ted Sickinger of The Oregonian. When politicians put a ‘B’ for billions and a ‘T’ for trillions behind dollar amounts it dilutes the subject. In this case folks, we are talking billions. Here in Oregon. The beast is PERS and the public employee unions that own Oregon because they own the Democrats that control Oregon, and the budgets under attack are any and all community-based, service-related entities in Oregon: schools, fire departments, etc. — any entity with a public employee. Here’s the insult to injury — Oregon’s revenue was up $200 million this year. And now, every household and small business in Oregon will also be tapped. I personally know retired public employees that are today making twice the amount they made while working, and four times what they made when they first started. Democrats tend to get riled over public land allotments that generate revenue as well as resource-based economies that support rural middle income families in Oregon but are mum over this assault of the taxpayer — all the while adding more public employees with each new piece of legislation as we watch billions of dollars of timber resources go up in smoke. One of the greatest economic fallacies of government, especially under progressive Democratic control, is that government creates wealth. It does not. People generate wealth. Union County residents as well as 31 other rural counties from here to Nevada, Idaho and Washington did not elect the people who control our destiny here in Oregon. There is no leadership in Salem; these people rule by decree and subjugate its rural residents. Oregon’s current leadership has failed to tame or control the beast. Why? Because the beast owns them, and through their myopic vision of Oregon, they only see what constitutes .04 percent of Oregon’s land mass. Oregon’s royalty has no desire nor the knights in their court with the fortitude to contain or slay the beast. Oregon is going bankrupt at the taxpayer’s expense. Grant Darrow Elgin
