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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, November 16, 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
Control your gun
Perhaps no stories are more
every household, especially homes
with young children. The locks keep
difficult to write and read than
a gun from being fired as long as
those about young children harmed
they are affixed. A key is kept in
through no fault of their own.
a separate place. It’s unknown if a
Sometimes this is due to health
issues, other times accidents or
gun lock in this specific situation
crimes. No matter the cause, it’s
was used or would have stopped this
excruciating each and every time.
tragedy — but in general they are a
This week we
critical safety tool.
reported one such
Gun safes are
incident, in which a
critical,
too. Storing
It’s your
Hermiston toddler
ammunition in
responsibility
a safe place out
was shot and injured
the reach of
by a sibling, just 7
and your lawful of
children, and in a
years old, who got
duty to keep
separate place from
control of a loaded
weapons
gun and fired it.
your firearms where
It’s a devastating
are kept, should
safe and secure. go without saying.
story. The longterm
And it’s ridiculous
prognosis for the
that we even have
2-year-old boy is
unknown, the bullet from the Beretta to mention this, but guns should
never be left loaded, in the open for
handgun having struck him in his
anyone to grab. If doing so leads
head. No charges have been filed in
to serious injury or death, it should
the case thus far.
be prosecuted as a crime. We must
But it reminds us of the value
of actual gun control. Not some
also add responsible cleaning and
maintenance of firearms, as well as
government conspiracy to take
gun safety at the shooting range and
weapons away from American
in the field.
citizens, but the call for personal
At the base level, gun control
responsibility over your own
is predicated on self control —
firearms. In other words: Gun
control as controlling your guns and teaching the value and responsibility
not letting them get into the hands of of owning and using firearms.
“It goes without saying that this
children, those you don’t know, or
is an incredibly horrible incident
those who wish to do others harm.
for the involved family, and the
Control of your own guns, both
officers who responded, the medical
in your hand and in your home, is
professionals who treated the child,
critical to the fight against needless
and the community as a whole,” the
gun deaths and injuries.
Hermiston Police Department stated
Centers for Disease Control
in its initial press release. “If you
estimated 77 children died from
own firearms, we urge you to store
accidental gun discharges in 2015,
them in a safe manner to prevent
the latest data on record, but the
unauthorized access.”
Associated Press counted 141 cases
That means you. Do it now.
that year reported in the media.
Gun locks are available for free at
How do we reduce these
Hermiston PD and the Umatilla
unnecessary, tragic deaths? One
County Sheriff’s Office in
simple way is via gun locks —
simple devices that should be used in Pendleton.
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
Can counties assert local
control over federal land?
The Eugene Register-Guard
P
eople who supported the aims but
not the tactics of last year’s armed
takeover of the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge think they’ve found
a way to gain a greater degree of local
control over federal lands. Last week the
Crook County commissioners adopted
a Natural Resources Policy that asserts
a doctrine of “coordination” based on
federal law. The doctrine would give
the counties what
amounts to veto
power over federal
land management
decisions. Supporters
of this approach
are bound to be
disappointed.
Close to half the
land in Crook County
is managed by the
U.S. Forest Service
or the Bureau of Land
Management — and
if some of those
agencies’ decisions
were put to a local
vote they’d be soundly
defeated. Crook County’s economy
has historically depended on logging
and ranching, both of which have been
curtailed in recent decades by federal
environmental and land management
laws.
But there’s a reason the agencies’
decisions aren’t subject to local votes:
The Forest Service and BLM manage
public lands on behalf of all Americans,
not just those who live nearby. Crook
County can’t dictate how many cattle
can graze on BLM rangeland, or how
much timber should be logged in the
Ochoco National Forest, because
citizens in the nation’s 3,141 other
counties and parishes also have a right
to insist that their ownership interests are
protected.
Federal laws governing public lands
generally grant local communities a role
in decision-making, and federal agencies
are required to coordinate their policies
with state and local authorities. Crook
County has taken this requirement and
pushed it beyond the limit. Coordination,
the Natural Resources Policy claims,
essentially means that federal lands must
be managed in ways that reflect local
priorities.
Baker County in Eastern Oregon and
Owyhee County in Idaho have approved
similar policies, and the idea seems
likely to spread. Its chief legal theorist is
Wyoming attorney Karen Budd-Falen,
who visited the Crook County seat of
Prineville last March.
“The federal statutes
are so broad that
it’s actually not that
hard to write a local
land use plan that is
completely in line with
federal statutes,” The
(Portland) Oregonian
quoted her as saying.
Budd-Falen was a
member of President
Trump’s transition
team, and her name
is mentioned as a
potential nominee to
lead the BLM.
Even as head of the
BLM, Budd-Falen would be stymied in
any attempt to surrender much of her
agency’s authority to local governments.
In a landmark 1987 decision,
Granite Rock vs. California Coastal
Commission, the Supreme Court upheld
federal supremacy in the management
of federal lands. Neither the White
House nor Congress is likely to pursue
an erosion of this supremacy — whether
they favor preservation or exploitation
of natural resources on public lands, the
executive and legislative branches don’t
want their priorities vetoed at the local
level.
Coordination can and does occur
in many forms of federal land-use
planning. Examples include the
collaborative plans developed for both
the Malheur refuge and the Ochoco
forest. These plans attempt to balance
competing interests — a difficult but
often fruitful effort that Crook and other
counties should continue to pursue.
Coordination
essentially
means that
federal lands
must be
managed in
ways that reflect
local priorities.
OTHER VIEWS
I believe Juanita
O
n Friday evening MSNBC
husband and then her cat killed. Must
host Chris Hayes sent out a
we believe that, too?
tweet that electrified online
Similarly, there are reasons to be
conservatives: “As gross and cynical
at least unsure about Paula Jones’
and hypocritical as the right’s ‘what
claim that Clinton exposed himself
about Bill Clinton’ stuff is, it’s also true
to her and demanded oral sex.
that Democrats and the center left are
Jones was championed by people
overdue for a real reckoning with the
engaged in what Ann Coulter once
allegations against him.” Hayes’ tweet
Michelle proudly called “a small, intricately
inspired stories on Glenn Beck’s The
Goldberg knit right-wing conspiracy” to bring
Blaze, Breitbart and The Daily Caller,
down the president. She described
Comment
all apparently eager to use the Clinton
“distinguishing characteristics” of
scandals to derail discussions about
Clinton’s penis that turned out to
Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for the
be inaccurate. Her sister insisted to Sidney
Blumenthal, then a New Yorker writer, that she
U.S. Senate in Alabama who is accused of
sexually assaulting minors.
was lying. Should feminists have backed her
Yet despite the right’s evident bad faith, I
anyway? I’m still not sure, but the evidence
agree with Hayes. In this #MeToo moment,
was less definitive than that against Harvey
when we’re reassessing
Weinstein, Trump or
decades of male
Moore.
misbehavior and turning
Of the Clinton
open secrets into exposés,
accusers, the one who
we should look clearly at
haunts me is Broaddrick.
the credible evidence that
The story she tells about
Juanita Broaddrick told
Clinton recalls those
the truth when she accused
we’ve heard about
Clinton of raping her.
Weinstein. She claimed
But revisiting the Clinton
they had plans to meet in
scandals in light of today’s
a hotel coffee shop, but at
politics is complicated
the last minute he asked
as well as painful. Democrats are guilty of
to come up to her hotel room instead, where he
apologizing for Clinton when they shouldn’t
raped her. Five witnesses said she confided in
have. At the same time, looking back at the
them about the assault right after it happened.
smear campaign against the Clintons shows we It’s true that she denied the rape in an affidavit
can’t treat the feminist injunction to “believe
to Paula Jones’ lawyers, before changing her
women” as absolute.
story when talking to federal investigators.
Writing at Crooked.com, Brian Beutler
But her explanation, that she didn’t want to go
warns that in future elections, right-wing
public but couldn’t lie to the FBI, makes sense.
propaganda will exploit the progressive
Put simply, I believe her.
commitment to always taking sexual abuse
What to do with that belief? Contemplating
charges seriously. It’s easy to imagine an outlet this history is excruciating in part because of
like Breitbart leveraging the “believe women”
the way it has been weaponized against Hillary
rallying cry to force mainstream media
Clinton. Broaddrick sees her as complicit,
coverage of dubious accusations.
interpreting something Hillary once said to
The Clinton years, in which epistemological her at a political event — “I want you to know
warfare emerged as a key part of the
that we appreciate everything you do for Bill”
Republican political arsenal, show us why
— as a veiled threat instead of a rote greeting.
we should be wary of allegations that bubble
This seems wildly unlikely; Broaddrick was
up from the right-wing press. At the time,
decades away from going public, and most
reactionary billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife
reporting about the Clinton marriage shows
was bankrolling the Arkansas Project, which
Bill going to great lengths to hide his betrayals.
David Brock, the former right-wing journalist
Nevertheless, one of the sick ironies of
who played a major role in it, described as
the 2016 campaign was that it was Hillary
a “multimillion-dollar dirty tricks operation
who had to pay the political price for Bill’s
against the Clintons.” Various figures in
misdeeds, as they were trotted out to deflect
conservative media accused Bill Clinton of
attention from Trump’s well-documented
murder, drug-running and using state troopers
transgressions.
as pimps. Brock alleges that right-wing figures
And now they’re being trotted out
funneled money to some of Clinton’s accusers. again. It’s fair to conclude that because of
In this environment, it would have been
Broaddrick’s allegations, Bill Clinton no
absurd to take accusations of assault and
longer has a place in decent society. But
harassment made against Clinton at face
we should remember that it’s not simply
value. On Monday, Caitlin Flanagan, perhaps
partisan tribalism that led liberals to doubt her.
taking up Hayes’ challenge, urged liberals
Discerning what might be true in a blizzard of
to remember some of what Clinton is said
lies isn’t easy, and the people who spread those
to have done. “Kathleen Willey said that she
lies don’t get to claim the moral high ground.
met him in the Oval Office for personal and
We should err on the side of believing women,
professional advice and that he groped her,
but sometimes, that belief will be used against
rubbed his erect penis on her, and pushed
us.
her hand to his crotch,” Flanagan wrote,
■
recalling the charges Willey first made in 1998.
Michelle Goldberg, a New York Times
It sounds both familiar and plausible. But
op-ed columnist, covers politics, gender,
Willey also accused the Clintons of having her religion and ideology.
The left is overdue
for a real
reckoning with the
allegations against
Bill Clinton.
YOUR VIEWS
Violation of pesticide law
a symbol of bigger problems
Imagine if our local political leadership
worked toward passing laws treating drug
dealers similar to noxious weeds. Drug
dealers are invasive, traveling county to
county, crossing state lines.
They distribute harmful poison in a
faulty, careless and negligent manner. Their
injurious poisons are changing and killing
our young adults by biologically impairing
rational thinking. Their contaminating poisons
develop a brain disease that makes you
too selfish to see the havoc you created or
care about the people whose lives you have
shattered.
The heartache drug dealers cultivate for
families is indescribable as someone they
love turns into someone they don’t know.
Methamphetamine and heroin addiction
grows criminal drug addicts.
Daniel Webster wrote: “Let us not forget
that the cultivation of the earth is the most
important labor of man. When tillage begins,
other arts will follow.” The farmers, therefore,
are the founders of civilization.
In the fall 2017 Oregon Department
of Agriculture Pesticide Bulletin, notices
of violations were announced. Part of the
responsibilities of the Oregon Department
of Agriculture’s pesticides program is to
investigate pesticide complaints, determine
compliance with the Oregon Pesticide Control
Act and initiate any administrative actions
deemed necessary.
Umatilla County Commissioner Larry
Givens was issued a violation for performing
pesticide applications activities in a faulty,
careless or negligent manner.
It reminds us that little duties neglected
bring great downfalls.
Sally Sundin
Walla Walla
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and pub-
lic 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 let-
ters 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 Dan-
iel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.