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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.