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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, December 13, 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 Tourism needs to be taken seriously Tourism matters in Umatilla But the tax plan’s demise also County, and nowhere more than in shines an important spotlight on the Pendleton. county tourism department. The Round-Up City is Elfering said the tourism chockablock with hotels and motels coordinator — Karie Walchli — that fill for the annual rodeo, but doesn’t have funding to do “much stay busy throughout the year thanks of anything.” The tourism tax to the town’s stylish offerings would have been a way to give the for tourists, as well as interstate department some money to play travelers who just need an affordable with. place to rest. That’s the exact wrong way to Pendleton is run government, further ahead than course. Private Tourism is hard of other municipalities enterprise knows in Umatilla work — a crop that labor is County when it expensive, and you that must be comes to tourism don’t hire someone infrastructure, but without having the planted, watered it’s easy to see revenue to afford and continuously it and a belief that other cities have plenty to offer. your investment is tended. Milton-Freewater is going to more than a growing heart of pay for itself. wine country, and close to the perks That’s not the way government of downtown Walla Walla. Tollgate seems to operate in Oregon, and Ukiah can capture hunters and however. An ever-increasing number outdoors enthusiasts. And Hermiston of government employees are continues to grow as an important forcing private enterprise to keep up stop for business travelers, a with paying those significant salaries different type of tourism but heads in and benefits — cart before horse beds nonetheless. style. That Portland/Salem thinking There are opportunities to help has made its way to Eastern Oregon. create and promote a countywide There are lots of tourism groups tourism program, but county already operating — backed by both commissioner Bill Elfering’s plan public and private dollars. Travel was a nonstarter. He proposed Oregon has made good headway. adding a 2 percent tax to hotel The Eastern Oregon Visitors customers’ room bill within Umatilla Association also helps promote County. Umatilla County’s major events, to But without an idea of how the less success but on a much lower money would be used to increase budget. Travel Pendleton works hard tourism, the tax was destined to to keep the tourism dollars churning fall flat with hoteliers and tourism in that city year round. professionals not affiliated with the Tourism is hard work. It’s a crop county. And fall flat it did. By the that must be planted, watered and time Elfering arrived for a second tended for many years before it scheduled meeting on the issue, he begins to bear fruit. It’s irresponsible had already declared the tax “off the to treat it as an enterprise from table.” which money can be skimmed to fill And that’s the right thing to do. government coffers. 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. YOUR VIEWS City of Umatilla has not ‘sat dormant’ In the city of Umatilla’s November newsletter, some restatement of the facts needs to occur as it appears the author of “City of Umatilla welcomes new staff” is not very familiar with what has gone on in the city over the past 15 years, let alone the “several decades” of which the author seems to speak. It might be reasonable to suggest the author owes a few previous city managers, business owners, civic leaders, and the city residents a bit of an apology. Not taking away anything from the new staff, the article seems to imply it is the advent of the new staff that is going to miraculously turn things around. We should wish the new staff success, but the statement “after sitting somewhat dormant for the last several decades” couldn’t be further from the truth. Revitalization of downtown has been a goal of the Umatilla City Council and city management since the late 1990s. The issue has always been available money, and not putting citizens into heavy debt to make it happen. More than several city managers and city councilors have worked with economic factions of the state, and with philanthropic foundations, to bring about change. Countless volunteer hours have also been evident throughout the periods, and the citizenry have had generous outpourings of money — when they had money to spare and to give. The “somewhat dormant” statement of the newsletter article is a misrepresentation of the facts, and misrepresents the continuing energy of Umatilla citizens and recognition of former city management and city councils. More would have been done, and could have been done, had additional funding been available. Former city management and city councilors, beginning with former city manager Bonnie Parker, were positive in their look forward but always cautious not to overly-encumber the citizens of Umatilla with debt. The city has always attempted to live within its means and prided itself that it was able to operate in the black. It would not be out of hand for the author to reconsider this section of the November newsletter, and to proffer an apology to past councils, past city administration and Umatilla citizens. Because the city of Umatilla has not sat dormant — it has done its best with what it had to work with. And looking at what it has accomplished over the previous two decades, has every right to be proud of its accomplishments. OTHER VIEWS What’s wrong with radicalism T here was a striking moment in between the whites and the blacks, the the focus group that consultant Republicans and the Democrats, Islam Frank Luntz recently held with and the West. If you’re not willing to a group of Roy Moore supporters in treat life as an endless war you’re a Alabama. One of the voters said that cuck. the women who are accusing Moore Fourth, there is the low view of of harassment are being paid to do human nature. so. Luntz asked the group how many Today’s radicals conduct people thought the women are being themselves on the presumption that David paid. A bunch of hands shot up and Brooks since life is battle, moral decency voices called out that all of the women is mostly a hypocritical fraud. To Comment are being paid. get anything done the radical has to That moment captures the commit evil acts for good causes. “The radicalism of the current moment — the ethics of means and ends is that in war the end loss of faith in institutions, the tendency to justifies almost any means,” Alinsky writes. see corrupt conspiracies, the desire for total “Ethical standards must be elastic to stretch change, the belief that sometimes you’ve got with the times,” he adds. to hire the biggest jerk available to get that “Ethics are determined by whether one is change, and you’ve got to losing or winning.” That be willing to ignore facts to sentence could have been justify it. uttered by Donald Trump, That attitude is evident but it was really written by on the pro-Trump right, Saul Alinsky. but also on the left. The What can we conclude about the radicals? woke activists, the angry Well, they are wrong Sanders socialists and social that our institutions are justice warriors are just as fundamentally corrupt. Most of our actual certain that the system is rigged, that rulers social and economic problems are the bad are corrupt and that the temple has to be torn byproducts of fundamentally good trends. down. The moderate left is being decimated Technological innovation has created across Europe and that will probably happen wonders but displaced millions of workers. here. The meritocracy has unleashed talent but We’re living in an age of radicalism. But today’s radicalism is unusual. First, we widened inequality. Immigration has made have radical anger without radical policies. America more dynamic but weakened national Stylistically and culturally, Trumpian cohesion. Globalization has lifted billions out populism screams “blow it up” and “drain the of poverty but pummeled the working classes swamp.” But Donald Trump’s actual policies in advanced nations. are run-of-the-mill corporatist. The left-wing What’s needed is reform of our core radicals talk a lot against the systems of institutions to address the bad byproducts, not oppression and an institutionalized injustice. fundamental dismantling. But they are nothing like the radicals of the That sort of renewal means doing the 1930s or the 1960s. opposite of everything the left/right radicals Today’s radicals do not want to upend the do. It means believing that life can be more meritocracy, which is creating a caste system like a conversation than a war if you open by of inherited inequality. They don’t want to starting a conversation. It means collectively stop technical innovation, which is displacing focusing on problems and not divisively millions of workers. They don’t have plans to destroying people. It means believing that love reverse individualism, which atomizes society is a genuine force in human affairs and that and destroys community. A $15 minimum you can be effective by appealing to the better wage may be left wing, but it’s not Marxist- angels of human nature. Leninism. Today’s radicalism is fundamentally Second, today’s radicalism is more about spiritual, even if it’s played out in the political identity than social problems. sphere. It’s driven by the radicals’ need for Both the Trumpian populists and the social more secure identity, to gain respect and justice warriors are more intent on denouncing dignity, to give life a sense of purpose and the people they hate than on addressing the meaning. concrete problems before them. Consider the The radicals are looking for meaning and angry commentary you hear during a given purpose in the wrong way and in the wrong day. How much of it is addressing a problem place, and they’re destroying our political we face, and how much of it is denouncing world in the process. But you’ve got to give people we dislike? them one thing: They are way ahead of the Third, today’s radicalism assumes that war rest of us. They are organized, self-confident, is the inherent state of things. aggressive and driving history. The rest of us The key influence here is Saul Alinsky. His are dispersed, confused and in retreat. 1971 book, “Rules for Radicals,” has always ■ been popular on the left and recently it has David Brooks became a New York Times become fashionable with the Tea Party and Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. He the alt-right. One of his first big assertions has been a senior editor at The Weekly is that life is warfare. It is inevitably a battle Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek between the people and the elites, the haves and the Atlantic Monthly, and is currently a and the have-nots, or, as his heirs would add, commentator on PBS. We have radical anger without radical policies. David P. Trott Umatilla CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES U.S. SENATORS Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande office: 541-962-7691 STATE SENATOR Bill Hansell, District 29 900 Court St. NE, S-423 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton office: 541-278-1129 STATE REPRESENTATIVES Greg Barreto, District 58 900 Court St. NE, H-38 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1458 Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us U.S. REPRESENTATIVE Greg Walden 185 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6730 La Grande office: 541-624-2400 Greg Smith, District 57 900 Court St. NE, H-482 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1457 Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us 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 managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.