Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, December 19, 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 Oregon, Alabama and the pains of one-party rule Oregonians would not usually U.S. senator in 40 years. Subsequent Democrats such as Vera Katz, John look to Alabama for an example. Kitzhaber and Barbara Roberts were But during his post-election press Neuberger’s beneficiaries. conference, Alabama’s Senator-elect More importantly, Gov. Tom Doug Jones said something that McCall credited Neuberger with applies to our state’s condition. Noting his historic win Tuesday being his inspiration. Neuberger was an environmentalist before that word — becoming the first Democratic became part of the lexicon. U.S. senator from Alabama in 25 Republicans today who excoriate years — Jones said that a state benefits when its two political parties Oregon’s statewide land use planning are competitive. Conversely, Jones statute forget that it was Republicans said, it is not healthy for a state to — McCall, Hector MacPherson be dominated by one and Hermiston’s own party. Stafford Hansell — As much as That observation who moved Senate Democrats like to Bill 100, Oregon’s fits Oregon, because we have become a legislation. preach the virtue landmark one-party state. Victor In other words, it was of diversity, you a time when Oregon Atiyeh was Oregon’s last Republican offered seldom see that Republicans big ideas. governor. He was coming out of The Democrats one of Oregon’s best who sway in governors of the the statehouse on Salem hold are also not postwar era, serving many urban-rural so inspirational, but from 1979 to 1987. perhaps for a different More significantly, issues. reason. Gov. Kate the state Legislature Brown’s tenure is dominated by the has been a disappointment mainly Democratic party. That has led to a very unhealthy outcome, with public because she fails to lead on the matter that is killing local governments employee unions carrying outsized across Oregon — the growing and unchecked power in the capitol. There is more than one reason why financial obligation of the Public we are in this fix. While it is true that Employees Retirement System. The public employees unions would metropolitan Portland’s phenomenal disown Brown if she went near a growth and its overwhelming courageous PERS solution. It may Democratic party registration is a be that Brown lacks imagination or factor, so is the Republican party’s it may be that she lacks the guts of a litmus test of abortion, which has governor such as McCall or Atiyeh. scared away good candidates. As a As much as Democrats like to result, the Oregon GOP has not much preach the virtue of diversity, you of a bench from which to call up seldom see that coming out of the candidates for statewide races. statehouse on many urban-rural It is worth remembering that until issues. 1954, Republicans were Oregon’s Alabama’s new senator wants to progressive party, in the Theodore reach across the aisle for bipartisan Roosevelt mode. In the words of compromise. He might discover that one historian, Oregon Democrats were “inarticulate” until the 1950s. A too many Senate Republicans lack the imagination or guts to let that state legislator from Portland named happen. In politics you never know Richard Neuberger appeared and where inspiration will come from. the Democrats gained a voice, who Doug Jones’ improbable election may happened to be one of America’s be one of those moments. Oregon is most prolific writers. Neuberger waiting for its improbable moment. became Oregon’s first Democratic OTHER VIEWS Our disrespect for elders N 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. ancy Root remembers when she “They destroyed all the evidence,” vanished. she said, “and they never told me.” Only Not the exact date, but the many decades after the fact did she occasion: She went shopping for a figure out the truth, and only in recent mattress. This was a few years ago. years did post-polio syndrome — a Because the mall was so big and her legs condition that afflicts many childhood were so weak, she used a wheelchair, survivors of the disease — degrade her which was new to her, and had a friend muscles to a point where was forced to push her. use a cane, then a wheelchair. Frank Their wait for service was Her health was good for most Bruni unusually long, and later, as she used of her life, as she attended Oberlin Comment the wheelchair more and more, she College, married, had a daughter understood why. In the chair she became and went to work for the National invisible. In the chair she turned radioactive. Science Foundation and then the Department People looked over her, around her, through of Agriculture, where she was an analyst. Her her. They withdrew. It was the craziest thing. career, she said, made her as conspicuous in her She had the same keen mind, the same quick suburban Washington neighborhood as she is wit. But most new acquaintances didn’t notice, invisible in other settings now. “It was frowned because most no longer bothered to. upon,” she told me, noting that most of the other She told me all of this recently not in anger mothers back then stayed home. “But I loved it.” but in bafflement. Could I explain why her She and her husband retired to the Phoenix infirmity and her age — she’s 82 — erase her? suburb of Litchfield Park, where she now lives She has her own theories. Maybe strangers alone in their three-bedroom apartment. About worry that she’ll need something from them. five years ago, he felt a twinge on the treadmill Maybe they see in her their worst fears about and was found to have pancreatic cancer. Three their own futures. months later, he was dead. Probably they extrapolate from her physical That sped her decline. Her arms grew feebler, diminishment. “They think I’m mentally her legs wobblier. Her pain intensified. Vanity be incapacitated,” she said. “I’m sure of that. I’d damned, she wore one of those pendants to be stake my life on it.” pressed if she fell. But she once forgot to put it “Doctors’ offices are the worst,” she added, on, tripped and lay on the living-room floor from describing how receptionists address whoever’s 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., when a housekeeper happened pushing her. “I’m not acknowledged. ‘Does this to arrive. She recounted the episode to me in a lady have an appointment?’ ‘Does this lady have tone of wonder at life’s freaky occurrences and her medical card?’ They don’t allow this lady to at our ability to get through them. There wasn’t a have a brain.” scintilla of self-pity in her voice. But it’s not just receptionists. It’s flight She considers herself lucky because her attendants. Movie-theater employees. They daughter is nearby. She has all the money that make dismissive assumptions about people she needs. “I have my mind,” she said, “and I see where others are losing theirs.” She reads for above a certain age or below a certain level of many hours every day. physical competence. Or they simply edit those Books were a big topic for us when I visited people out of the frame. I met Nancy on a Baltic cruise in September, her a few weeks ago. It frustrates her that she has never finished “Ulysses” or “Finnegans Wake.” and I couldn’t edit her out of the frame because We talked about politics, too. About Singapore, she was smack in the middle of it, right in front where she traveled — with a wheelchair and of me, asking smart questions and making helpers — about two years ago. About her even smarter observations. I was one of five job with the Agriculture Department and how speakers giving lectures to a group of about 60 ethical and underappreciated she always found passengers, including her, who’d signed up for farmers to be. them. She traveled with two younger friends Two nights in a row we went out for Italian who helped her negotiate the ship’s narrow food, and she insisted on using her cane instead corridors. of her chair. She can do that if she takes a But after chatting extensively with the three Percocet just beforehand and reconciles herself of them at an initial cocktail-hour reception in to a snail’s pace. Toward the end of the second one of the lounges, I didn’t spot them at our night, after two glasses of wine apiece, we group’s subsequent social gatherings there. An mulled the vocabulary of her lot. I confessed that email that she sent me the following month I cringed whenever she called herself “crippled,” solved that mystery. “On our cruise,” she wrote, which she does, because she values directness “I again experienced the uneasiness of people and has a streak of mischief in her. toward us ‘physically challenged’ types. Even “Well, ‘handicapped’ isn’t supposed to be among our educated group, people ignored me.” OK, and I’m not going to call myself ‘differently So she parceled out her exposure to them. She abled,’” she said. “You’re a writer. Give me a and her companions did their own thing. The more I thought about her experience, the word.” “What about ‘limited’?” I said. “We’re all more I realized how widespread it undoubtedly limited in ways. You’re limited in a particular is, and how cruel. way.” The Centers for Disease Control and I noticed that our server would stand closer Prevention estimate that more than 2 million to me than to Nancy and was more voluble with Americans use wheelchairs for their daily me, even though she could see, if she looked, activities and 6.5 million depend on canes, how vibrant Nancy was. crutches or walkers. Nancy increasingly makes peace with such And the country is getting grayer and grayer. There are roughly 50 million Americans age 65 neglect, but told me that an elderly, infirm friend and older, representing about 15 percent of the of hers has another approach. “She tells people population. According to projections, there will to go to hell,” Nancy said. “I need to take a be 98 million by 2060, representing nearly 25 course from her.” percent. I don’t know about that. But the rest of us Nancy’s infirmity is unusual and goes back have a lot to learn. to when she was a 2-year-old in the Pittsburgh ■ area in the late 1930s. She had polio, though her Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for parents, knowing how ostracized children with The New York Times since 2011, joined the the virus could be, kept that a secret. newspaper in 1995. YOUR VIEWS A case for President Trump’s great America The incessant attacks on the character of President Donald Trump by the national press and media and the constant mocking of his promise to Make America Great Again, by pundits (as evidenced in the East Oregonian) has divided and polarized our nation and antagonized those that support the president. America elected this president because they wanted their country back, their sovereignty restored, their borders protected, Americans first instead of a foreign global world order. In the face of 1) a biased politically motivated investigation that has uncovered nothing, 2) compounded by a recently documented corrupt FBI (check out the Bundy trial), 3) a gutless DOJ that mocks justice, and 4) a Republican-controlled Congress that essentially lacks the integrity to support the president, how has this so-called womanizer, uncouth, idiot, charlatan done? Here is the real news you won’t read in the EO or any national news outlet: Under Trump the stock market has grown 25 percent with 45 record highs, the economy is growing at a recent record of 3 percent, for a $5.2 trillion profit for America. Unemployment is at a 17-year low, including African Americans. Illegal immigration is at its lowest level since the Great Depression. Since inauguration there are one million new private sector jobs, manufacturing is at a 20-year high and consumer confidence is at a 13-year high. ISIS has been defeated, the military has been revitalized and our veterans services restored. How did this happen? Trump kept his promises. He renegotiated NAFTA, withdrew from the job killing Trans-Pacific Partnership, and pulled out of the global carbon tax Paris Climate Accord. Trump is making America great again. Imagine America with an honest national media, press, and the swamp that controls the FBI, DOJ, Congress, and the globalists eradicated! Stuart Dick Irrigon Christmas spirit returning to Pendleton Congratulations for the Christmas spirit, which seems to have been revived to our Pendleton community. The recent Christmas tree lighting was a wonderful addition to the Christmas Stroll. It was a warm and friendly feeling to see so many of our neighbors and friends out enjoying the afternoon and early evening. Thank you to the businesses who chose to remain open for shopping and visiting. So often we get into a fast-paced life, and it was just pleasant to take a break and enjoy a leisurely afternoon. It was heartwarming to see so many people come together with the addition of the Christmas tree decorating and lighting. I am looking forward to the possibility of the return of the Christmas Parade, especially if it would be in the evening and be lighted like the Round-Up parade was so long ago. There is something magical to me about a nighttime lighted parade! Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year Pendleton! Scot Jacobson Pendleton 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.