Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, October 6, 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
A kick in the pants to U.S. Army’s Base Realignment and Closure
Division, which has once again failed to meet its deadline for handing
over land that was formerly home to the Umatilla Chemical Depot.
This latest postponement is six months — from December 2017 to May
2018 — but we’ve little faith that the Army bureaucracy will meet the latest
goal it set for itself either. Their history
speaks for itself: continuous missed
deadlines on the property, one after the
other, since 2013.
This government inaction is having
negative effects on the Eastern Oregon
economy. The land in question is prime
industrial real estate, and over the last
four years major investments have been
turned away because of the slow-footed
handover process. Instead of being in
government hands and off the tax rolls,
these 17,000 acres could be bringing significant revenue to Umatilla and
Morrow counties, the state of Oregon and the federal government.
But we’ve learned not to hold our breath. Five years of delays have taught
us that. That the Army can give no reason for the constant delays is just
added insult — an icing of contempt on a cake of ineptitude.
A tip of the hat to Elaine and Kevin Anderson, Pendleton residents
who were attending the country concert in Las Vegas last weekend
when tragedy struck.
We all know the story by now, and the
grisly aftermath of what happened: 59
people died in the worst mass shooting in
modern American history and hundreds
more were injured.
But people like the Andersons saved
lives, and there are countless stories
of others like them who behaved with
heroism.
Kevin Anderson has medical training
and has been a first responder for more
than 30 years. He made trip after trip into
the scene, putting his own life at risk to
help others. Elaine also helped others get to safety.
The couple is a reminder that when in the worst moments, some people
are at their best. We appreciate and tip our hat to those who are.
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
Enforce new distracted driving law
By Corvallis Gazette-Times
N
ationally, the number of fatal car
wrecks is on the rise, and that
trend also is true in Oregon. No
one knows for sure the reasons for the
increase, but everyone has a pretty good
guess: It’s because we’re distracted as
never before when we buckle ourselves
into the driver’s seat.
So the timing seems just right for
Oregon’s new distracted-driving law,
which went into effect on Sunday.
Under the new law, it’s illegal to hold
phones or other electronic devices while
driving. That means no texting and no
phone calls unless your vehicle has a
hands-free system in place.
The new law, House Bill 2597, also
closes loopholes in the current law
by addressing all types of electronic
devices, not just cellular phones.
Rep. Andy Olson of Albany was the
chief sponsor of the legislation. Olson,
a former Oregon State Police officer,
knows firsthand about the damage
caused by distracted drivers — damage
that simply doesn’t have to happen
if drivers stay focused on their first
responsibility.
“Nationally, one in four vehicle
accidents involve distracted driving,”
Olson said last week in a news story
about the new law. “It’s a major
concern.”
“The law doesn’t say you can’t use
them, you just can’t have them in your
hand,” Olson said. “You can still swipe
something on or off. We just don’t want
you holding the device. That’s the key.”
So, for example, you can still use
your smartphone as a navigation device,
but be sure to type in the address before
you start your vehicle. While you’re on
the road, it’s strictly hands-off.
It has been illegal to text or use a
cellphone without a hands-free device
while driving in Oregon since 2009.
(Drivers under the age of 18 cannot use
any cellular device while driving, even if
it is hands-free.) The new law adds some
teeth to all that.
Which is why area law-enforcement
officers say they aren’t interested in
giving drivers the benefit of a grace
period in enforcing the law: They’re
ready to write tickets when they catch
that tell-tale glow emanating from inside
your vehicle.
Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley
likely was speaking for many mid-valley
law officers when he said: “We are done
warning folks. Done educating folks
about this. We are going to enforce this
law.”
First-time offenders are looking at a
fine of $160. Why, that might cover a
month or two of data charges on your
smartphone, and that’s the point: The
fine is designed to catch your attention
and to leave a bit of a mark on your
pocketbook.
A third offense committed within
a 10-year span could end up costing
you $2,500 and could include up to six
months in jail.
The idea is to make people think
twice about driving with one eye on the
road and one eye on their smartphones.
That driving technique is a recipe for
disaster. It’s best just to set the device
aside while you’re driving; in fact, some
phones now have “do not disturb while
driving” features that drivers may want
to consider activating.
Just a second or two of inattentive
driving can be enough to trigger a
wreck: Lt. Brad Liles of the Albany
Police Department said distracted
driving is a common culprit in rear-end
accidents. “It’s especially noticeable at
stoplights, when they don’t see brake
lights for a second or two,” he said.
It’s not as if we don’t have enough
distractions while driving even without
our devices: Just last week, for example,
news stories reported about new
electronic billboards that will be able to
send personalized messages as vehicles
approach them. We are not convinced
that this constitutes a major advance for
civilization.
But may we suggest a message for
those new billboards? How about this:
“Eyes on the road, partner. Hands on the
wheel.”
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 211 S.E. Byers
Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
Why gun control loses, and why
Las Vegas might change that
fter mass shootings like the
from buying an assault rifle; he killed a
nightmare in Las Vegas,
dozen people at D.C.’s Navy Yard with
there are always complaints
a shotgun. In a free society, madmen
that we don’t talk enough about gun
and monsters find a way to kill — as
control in America, that we need to
the killer in Vegas, a man of means and
actually have the debate about guns
no significant criminal history, almost
and mass murder that the National
certainly would have even with tighter
Rifle Association and the Republicans
gun regulations and stiffer background
supposedly keep shutting down.
checks.
Ross
I don’t think this is right. We do
But there is one way in which the
Douthat
keep having a debate over guns in the
latest massacre could be different.
Comment
United States; it’s just that the side
If, as it seems right now, there was
that’s convinced that new regulations
a link between the sheer scale of the
will prevent another Newtown or Orlando or
Las Vegas killer’s spree and his apparent use
Las Vegas keeps on losing the argument.
of a “bump stock” that lets a semi-automatic
Twenty years ago, you could argue that
weapon fire at the rate of a machine gun, then
gun rights was a strictly minority cause that
gun-control advocates could make a more-
thrived because of its partisans’ intensity and
direct-than-usual case for making such stocks
its lobby’s clout and money. But that’s no
illegal in response.
longer true. Despite the best
Right now tight
efforts of Barack Obama,
regulations on fully
Democratic politicians and
automatic weapons are a
a raft of activists, celebrities
settled part of our gun laws,
and talk-show hosts, despite
and as restrictions go they
a dramatic leftward shift on
seem relatively effective;
many other social issues and
no recent mass killer has
despite wall-to-wall media
acquired or used a machine
coverage of mass shootings,
gun. A new law banning
gun control is substantially
“bump stocks” could still
less popular than it was in
be flouted, of course, but
the 1990s — and gun rights
it seems like a plausible
is one of the few issues
extension of the principle
where the Republican Party
that our machine-gun laws
is actually in touch with
already enshrine. If you
what many Americans seem to want.
can’t manufacture automatic weaponry and
Why is gun control losing? One answer
you can buy only an old automatic under strict
is structural. Gun ownership is a form of
conditions, you shouldn’t be able to make a
expressive individualism no less than the
nonautomatic weapon fire like a machine gun
liberties beloved in blue America, and it
by simply adding on a legal part.
makes sense that a culture that rejects erotic
Would this be a meaningless gesture, given
limits would reject limits on self-defense
that no recent mass killing before this one
as well. Especially since the appeal of gun
has involved automatic fire? Not necessarily:
ownership is also linked to individualism’s
Remember that mass killings are a form of
dark side — to distrust of your neighbor and
social contagion, whose perpetrators copy
your government, to the decay of communities their predecessors and seek to construct what
and families, to a sense of being unprotected
Ari Schulman, the editor of The New Atlantis,
and on your own.
has described as “a crafted public spectacle,
But the gun control cause also has a more
a theater of violence in which we are the
specific political problem. Anti-gun activists
unwitting yet compliant audience.”
seize on the most horrifying acts of killing,
This reality has led Schulman to urge
understandably, and use them as calls to
media organizations to reduce their coverage
legislative action. But then the regulatory
of the killers’ personalities, plans and alleged
measures they propose, even when they poll
grievances. But it also suggests that when a
well, often lack any direct connection to the
mass murderer pioneers a new form of satanic
massacres themselves.
performance art, like the hail of automatic-
If you go back through the list of recent
seeming fire that fell on concertgoers in Las
mass atrocities, for instance, you don’t
Vegas, others will seek to imitate his methods.
see many killers buying guns through the
So moving pre-emptively to block a specific
supposed “gun show loophole” or without a
means of imitation isn’t necessarily fruitless;
background check. Instead you see examples
it might be an entirely reasonable precaution
of why, in a well-armed country, legal barriers against some dark ambition that’s just now
to gun ownership don’t necessarily prevent
taking shape.
lunatics and fanatics from getting them: Some
Seeking a modest precaution after such
of the killers passed background checks with
a monstrous bloodletting will no doubt
flying colors, some passed them because of
strike gun control advocates as a hopelessly
human and bureaucratic errors, and others
insufficient goal. But a cause that has been
simply used someone else to acquire their
losing ground for 20 years can’t be picky in
weaponry, circumventing legal and regulatory the victories that it seeks.
obstacles entirely.
Las Vegas seems to offer a clear case
The diversity of weapons used in the
for a particular kind of gun regulation. I’m
massacres, too, has made it hard to claim that
provisionally convinced. So let’s study the
reviving the Clinton-era assault weapons ban
facts, have the argument and see how it turns
(whose likely effect on murder rates was nil)
out.
would make deadly sprees much rarer. James
■
Holmes and Adam Lanza used high-powered
Ross Douthat joined The New York
rifles, but Nidal Hasan, Jiverly Wong and
Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.
Dylann Roof were all extremely deadly just
Previously, he was a senior editor at the
with handguns. Aaron Alexis was prevented
Atlantic and a blogger for theatlantic.com.
A
We do keep
having a debate
over guns in the
United States; it’s
just that one side
keeps losing the
argument.
YOUR VIEWS
Removing Confederate flags a
crusade on Pendleton history
Encouraged by their successful campaign
banning the sale of the “stars and bars” on city
property, local vigilantes vow to continue their
crusade to cleanse the city’s conscience of past
misdeeds. They hope to convince city officials
to stand aside as the Underground Tours
program is dismantled, filling the basements
with concrete, erasing any sign of the historic
oppression of the local Chinese population. An
additional program could remove those upper
floors of buildings formerly used as brothels
as well as that despicable Stella Darby statue
that glorifies the degradation of women forced
into a life of prostitution.
Once the transformation of the downtown
is complete, it’s off to the library to burn those
books, erasing any mention of the sordid
“Pendleton” name from the history of the city,
rodeo, wool products and whiskey. It seems
our city was named after a pro-slavery senator
from Ohio. Of course Lee Street will have to
be renamed.
Some, ashamed of the city’s past, will
then celebrate the beginning of a new era, a
clean slate, with a march down Main Street,
and then begin the process of abolishing the
First Amendment. You might know it as the
one that guarantees freedom of speech for
everyone, even people you don’t like or agree
with.
What’s next, the Stars and Stripes? How
does the story end? That’s the beauty of living
in the USA — you can write your own.
Now for the real news. Yup, it’s downtown
parking. After studies and surveys too
numerous to count, the parking problems are
apparently only perceived — perceived by
those pesky customers, you know the type,
those Walmart, Safeway and Melanie Square
shoppers.
The mayor, in fact, has “a hard time
seeing a sense of urgency or outrage on the
part of downtown residents or merchants.”
It looks like city hall definitely has a finger
on the parking issue, or do they? Apparently
that Pendleton Development Commission
administrator has a trick or two up his sleeve.
He’s contacted a consultant that’s worked on
parking studies for Portland and Bend, two
cities that mirror ours, to develop a “brand”
for our parking program. I’ve heard “Lot” and
“Place” are the two top favorites with “No” a
close third.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton