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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, October 10, 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 OUR VIEW Agriculture means opportunity for young people In the U.S., about 21 million jobs their own, even though the lifetime are involved in agriculture, food and earning potential far outweighs the related industries. That’s more than 1 cost. out of every 10 jobs in the nation. However, other educational and For today’s young people, that training options offer lucrative means opportunity, and lots of it. Jobs career opportunities without overly are readily available in every corner burdensome financial baggage. of the field — not just in the fields. It Last week we reported on some could involve cutting-edge research of the jobs available at the Port seeking a cure for a nettlesome of Morrow, both in and out of the animal or plant disease. Or it could agriculture sphere. The computers involve running the family farm or and equipment are the heartbeat of ranch. Or it could involve repairing these operations. and maintaining the equipment on In the same way, working on which farmers rely. tractors, combines Just as other heavy- It’s easy for young and important are the duty equipment support jobs in requires state- people to “freeze areas such as the of-the-art skills up” when it comes to and knowledge, sales, law and finance. ranging from Those many job considering careers. “turning wrenches” categories require In agriculture, there to electronics and widely varied computers. When a are many options piece of equipment backgrounds, experience, several that open doors to worth training and hundred thousand education. dollars goes down, well-paying jobs. The options are only a well-trained nearly limitless. technician can get The toughest question any high it back on the job. school graduate faces is this: What’s Many community colleges next? Often that question leads offer programs affiliated with down the path toward attendance manufacturers and dealers or similar at a four-year college or university. programs that allow students to Others choose to start their academic gain the knowledge and experience career at a community college before they need to walk out the door and transferring to a four-year school. into a well-paying job involved Still others go to vocational school, in agriculture. Blue Mountain take part in apprenticeship programs Community College has made or dive directly into the job market, it a focus in recent years, and learning as they earn. the recently opened Facility for All of the options have their pluses Agricultural Resource Management and minuses. — conveniently FARM — shows a For example, four-year universities long-term commitment. offer a lot of opportunities, but The college knows what we do they come with a price tag. About well in Eastern Oregon, and is laying two-thirds of all students borrow a path for future job-seekers. money for college, according to It’s easy for young people to Credit.org, a nonprofit that provides “freeze up” when it comes to financial counseling. A recent study considering careers. In agriculture, found that the average student loan there are many options that open debt is more than $35,000. doors to well-paying jobs. Not all Unless a student can attract a of them require a four-year college significant amount of scholarships degree. and grant help, the jump to a college If a student’s interests lead to degree will be accompanied by a college, good. But a fulfilling career hefty student loan balance. Those does not necessarily require a college loans will be a drag on any young degree. The right training can person as he or she sets out on guarantee that. OTHER VIEWS The pigs of liberalism I 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. Be heard! Comment online at www.eastoregonian.com f you are surprised by the struggles to find norms that check this news that Harvey Weinstein of kind of behavior, swinging between Miramax fame, a man well-known a facile sex-positivity and illiberal for profane tirades and physical attempts to police the hookup scene. altercations and scrounging M&Ms off Here it would be nice to say movie theater floors, is also the sort of that cultural conservatism offers an charmer who loafs around seminude alternative, one that welcomes female while asking subordinates for “back” advancement while retaining useful massages, then you can be surprised ideas about sexual difference and Ross by just about anything: the sun rising Douthat restraint. I might have argued as much in the east, the fact that movie stars once. But in the age of Donald Trump Comment employ plastic surgeons, the news that and Bill O’Reilly, “pro-life” hypocrites “The Artist” didn’t actually deserve to in Congress and the “alt-right” online win Best Picture. cesspool, the right is its own sort of cautionary Weinstein’s response to this paper’s tale. impressive investigatory work was to issue So I’ll say something more modest: If a statement promising to spend even more liberals want to restrain the ogres in their lavishly on liberal causes. Like a knight midst, a few conservative ideas might be promising a crusade against the Saracens as helpful. penance for raping and pillaging at home, the First: Some modest limits on how men mogul’s assumption seemed to be that the and women interact professionally are useful right political commitment can cover over checks on predation. Many liberals were piggishness and vice. horrified by the revelation that for a time Does it? Probably not; at the very least, Mike Pence avoided one-on-one meetings he faces an extended period of exile. But with women not his wife. But one can Weinstein is older now and not as influential find the Pence rules too sweeping and still as in his heyday. The whole “forgive me, I’m recognize that life is easier for women if their a liberal” thing won’t protect him now, but it male bosses don’t feel entitled to see them was part of his carapace for decades, during anywhere, anytime. It would not usher in the which time everyone who mattered clamored Republic of Gilead if it were understood that for his friendship and fundraising prowess inviting your female subordinate to your hotel despite all the stories there to hear. room, Weinstein-style, crosses a line in a way Maybe his overdue exposure shows that the that a restaurant lunch does not. world has changed, and progressive industries Second: Consent alone is not a sufficient are finally feminist enough to put their old guide to ethics. Caddishness and predation goats out to pasture. can be a continuum. If you cheat on your But it might just show that a certain wife, you may be more likely to harass kind of powerful liberal creep only gets his subordinates. Promiscuity can encourage comeuppance when he’s weakened or old or in predatory entitlement. Older rules of moral the grave. The awfulness of Ted Kennedy, at restraint were broader for a reason. If your Chappaquiddick and after hours in D.C., can culture’s code is libertine, don’t be surprised be acknowledged only now that he’s no longer that worse things than libertinism flourish. a liberal lion in the Senate. The possibility that Third: You can’t ignore moral character Bill Clinton might be not just an adulterer but when you make decisions about whom to also a rapist can be entertained now that he’s vote for or work with or support. This was no longer protecting abortion from the White something conservatives used to argue in House. The sins of Woody Allen ... well, I’m the Clinton years; under Trump, many have sure Hollywood will start ostracizing him any conveniently forgotten it. But it remains true. day now. Yes, sometimes you have to work with a bad Last Sunday, I wrote a harsh obituary for person or vote for a bad person or hold a Hugh Hefner, which noted that he represented fundraiser with a bad person for the greater a certain style of liberalism — progressive and good. But not nearly as often as you think. yet chauvinist, liberationist and exploitative — The truth is that while not everyone knew that perdures in our society to this day. Some exactly how Harvey Weinstein treated women, readers were skeptical: Didn’t Hef’s feminist everyone knew what kind of man he was. The critics win the fight for liberalism, while his women he harassed didn’t have the power to Playboy philosophy became something of a restrain him, but plenty of powerful people joke? did. The answer is yes, at the level of They didn’t use it. They should have. But ideological commitment — but not so much Hollywood and human nature being what they in practice. In the real life of liberalism, are, they will have plenty of opportunities to Hefnerism endures as the effective philosophy do better. of many liberal men, for whom sexual ■ individualism justifies using women because Ross Douthat joined The New York hey, we’re all cool consenting adults here, and Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. caddishness blurs into predation when power Previously, he was a senior editor at The differentials permit. Meanwhile, feminism Atlantic. YOUR VIEWS Wolf toll will soon expand to hunting economy Not unlike the traffic from former eclipse seekers, Heppner’s thoroughfare saw a parade of hunter regalia pass during deer season opening. Expensive recreation vehicles outfitted with generators and pulling four wheelers seemed to be the norm. Evidently, modern hunters can no longer survive in just a tent. It is a “back to nature” vacation and regardless whether persons actually hunt or not it is an outing enjoyed by many. The spin-off is that though these modern hunters are self-contained, they subsidize the local economy with the purchase of fuel, groceries and supplies. The same scene is repeated in other Eastern Oregon communities during both deer and elk seasons. Now let’s talk about when that boost to the local economy will dry up. Likewise, the game commission will no longer be able to sell lots of tags to help fund their budget. How so? It is simply because wolf huggers prefer wolves to other wildlife. Wolves are prolific, often raising more than one litter a year. They have no known predators. Ignore the rancher’s plight of the loss of cows or sheep; some with genetics that has been bred into them for years. Wolf lovers seem to think domestic animals are expendable. In their absence young elk calves or fawns are an easy take for tasty wolf fare. The harassment of mature game animals, just like in livestock, increases infertility, consequently fewer offspring means that numbers will continue to decline. So much for the balance of nature. And so much for an editor’s comment that “wolves are just part of Oregon’s woods!” Adding to a sorry situation is the amount of taxpayer dollars spent through the Fish and Wildlife Game Commission on wolf management. Wildlife biologists who spend days tracking, tagging or engaging in wolf studies earn hefty salaries, up to $100,000. What a waste of resources and all because a few individuals thought it was a good idea to introduce wolves in areas that never had wolves in the first place. Too bad they didn’t place these creatures in New York City’s Central Park so city dwellers could enjoy the view. Merlyn Robinson Heppner Forefathers knew exactly what they were doing The East Oregonian editorial of Oct. 5, 2017, once again advanced the worn out anti-Second Amendment argument that the framers of our Constitution lacked the “foresight” and were “ill equipped to handle the technology and culture” of the present world. Even the EO editors had to admit why our forefathers in their wisdom established the Second Amendment: “But with each technological advance, there has always been someone — government or otherwise — who has found devious uses.” Hitler used gun control and gun confiscation to murder tens of millions of innocent. In like manner Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Kim Jong Un and countless evil dictators have disarmed the populace to perpetrate unthinkable evil upon the world. Technology and culture may change but the essential nature of man does not. Evil was evil in the beginning and evil has never changed and never will. When a disarmed populace fears their government, history is replete with instances of governments that “have found devious uses” of evil to institute tyranny, dictatorships and mass murders of innocent. When the government fears the people because they are armed, we will have liberty and freedom. That will never change no matter what technology or culture advances. The framers of the constitution fully understood this principle. Thomas Jefferson coined it well: “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.” James Madison, the father of the Constitution, wrote, “[The Constitution] preserves the advantage of being armed which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation.” George Mason wrote, “To disarm the people — that was the best and most effectual was to enslave them.” Madmen murder innocents. The use their hands, knives, guns, cars, bombs, poison and lies. You can not outlaw everything that kills, but we can restore our Godly Christian heritage to re-establish our moral compass. When we removed the Bible, prayer, Ten Commandments, and our Christian heritage from our American way of life, evil produced its offspring: murder, madness and misinformation. Stuart Dick Irrigon 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 newspa- per reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual ser- vices 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.
