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OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, December 30, 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
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OUR VIEW
When the sky goes
dark, you take notice
As you surely noticed on today’s
amount of jobs associated with the
front page, the East Oregonian listed investment is low, there will still be
our top stories of 2017. They run the dozens of high-paying employment
gamut, from interstellar oddities to a opportunities coming into our
region.
new home for the county fair.
It’s easy to see 5, 10, or 20 years
In past years, the list has
from now, how that will be one of
unfortunately been well-populated
the most important local stories
with tragedies — from vehicle
of this decade, and the action of
accidents to fatal fires, murders
certainly 2017 played a big part in
and destruction. A loss of life
that.
understandably increases the
Other developments did make
long-lasting impact of any event.
the final list: Marijuana legally
Thankfully, Eastern Oregon was
sold in Pendleton is something that
spared from much of that in 2017.
we believe would have shocked
Sure, we noted some difficulties
readers just a decade
— ice storms that
A controversial
shut down roads
Data centers, ago.
mega-dairy built
and schools for an
extended period of
while under outside Boardman
was statewide news,
time last winter, and
the radar,
and carries with it
another summer of
production
fires and wolf kills.
may someday massive
possibilities as well
But a majority of
be seen as
as environmental
our top 10 (for a
dangers. Drone
change) was about
the biggest
developments at the
change. It was about
development airport in Pendleton
development, as well
brought some
as local reaction to a
in the area this have
investment and
dramatic shift in our
federal government.
year — maybe scientific advances,
helped the airport
Yet we can’t help
this decade. and
go from a money-
but think that the
loser to at least
many of the Top 10
sustainable.
stories (which were
And underneath it all was a
chosen by newsroom votes) miss
local response to Donald Trump’s
some of the deep, underlying issues
election. A majority of voters
that will eventually be seen as
supported the president in Umatilla
critically important to the region.
County, but he has undoubtedly
Take for example the massive
widened the gulf in political
investment in data centers in
disagreements. A relatively quiet,
Morrow County and west Umatilla
conservative area has seen more
County. Amazon alone has spent
political marches and protest in the
$2 billion on building data centers
past year than any time in recent
in Morrow County, though not all
memory. It goes to show just how
of that took place in 2017. But this
past year, the company built another much Trump’s election has spurred
many around the country into action.
center at the McNary Industrial
Still, political movements and
Park east of Umatilla, and a fifth
economic development cannot hold
is currently under construction.
Amazon this year also released plans a candle to our top pick.
The sun doesn’t get blotted out
to build four new data centers at a
by the moon in Eastern Oregon
site west of Hermiston.
every day, nor every year, nor every
The total market values of these
century. It’s understandable why that
centers is likely to approach $1
celestial event will stick with Eastern
billion — which once enterprise
Oregonians long into the future.
zone tax breaks age out, will be a
We hope every year that uplifting,
massive infusion of resources to
remarkable, fantastic events lead the
Hermiston and county governments
in Morrow and Umatilla. Though the top stories of the year.
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
Votes of no confidence against
Veterans Affairs Medical Center
The (Roseburg) News-Review
T
hree weeks ago, the Douglas
County Veterans Forum issued
a vote of no
confidence against
Dinesh Ranjan, the
chief of surgery at the
Roseburg Veterans
Affairs Medical Center.
We couldn’t agree
more with how that vote
ended up.
The vote, which ended up becoming
a unanimous call for Ranjan’s
resignation, removal or reassignment,
was the result of an overwhelming
number of complaints filed by VA
employees, issues with colonoscopies —
a pretty routine practice — and a steady
stream of retaliation complaints by
current and former VA employees.
The vote isn’t unprecedented.
In 2014, the forum called for the
resignation of three top VA officials,
including director Carol Bogedain.
About a month later, she stepped down.
But the vote is a powerful expression of
how the county’s veterans feel about the
current situation. The forum represents
21 veteran groups and about 5,000 local
veterans.
Over the past few months, The
News-Review has featured several
gut-wrenching, confusing and downright
strange situations involving alleged
mismanagement. The forum, it seems,
has been hearing the same stories.
In a statement, representatives of
the forum said, “We believe permitting
the Chief of Surgery to continue in his
position will continue to degrade VA
employees’ morale and
thus affect their merciful
and diligent care giving.”
That’s about as strong
and as clear as a call for
removal can be.
We do, however, have
one disagreement with
the forum.
Representatives said the forum
remains confident in the work Director
Doug Paxton is doing to bring about
positive change at the VA. In a
statement, the forum’s representatives
said, “Paxton has fostered open and
honest communications with the veteran
community which is admired and
appreciated.”
While it may be true that Paxton
himself is capable of having healthy
conversations, his ability to hold other
managers accountable isn’t anything to
brag about.
Holding other managers accountable
is what directors are supposed to do.
Simply ask Laura Follett, a 15-year
Navy veteran, who alleged she was fired
from the VA for refusing to bend the
rules.
“Mr. Paxton is the captain of his
ship, and ultimately he is responsible for
what’s going on,” she said.
A unanimous
call for a
resignation.
OTHER VIEWS
Flying saucers and other fairy tales
I am completely in favor of federal
contact. But his arguments for the
spending on UFO research, an outlay
basic continuity between folklore and
whose existence was revealed to
flying saucers are quite compelling,
surprisingly little paranoid excitement
and I suspect he’s correct about the
by The New York Times earlier this
commonality of these experiences …
month. It is a sign of civilizational
… Which is not, of course, to say
health to devote excess dollars to
that they reflect the genuine existence
the scientific fringe, and to hope that
of some fifth-dimensional fairyland,
bizarre secrets still await discovery
from whence morally ambiguous
Ross
even in our satellite-surveilled world.
Douthat beings emerge to play tricks upon
So good for Harry Reid and his little-
our race. Certainly for most sensible
Comment
green-men-obsessed billionaire pal for
secular scientific-minded people, to
keeping the flame of weird curiosity
say that our era’s close encounters
alive.
are of the same type as encounters with
But I also doubt that such research will
the unseelie court of faerie is to say that
ever prove that the strange lights and vessels
they are all equally imaginary, proceeding
filmed by human pilots actually belong to a
from internalized fancies and hallucinatory
starfaring species that’s come to our planet
substances and late-night wrong turns, plus
to study, experiment and eventually offer us
some common evolved subconscious that
a hand up or else ruthlessly
fears shape-shifting tricksters
invade. Other sapient species
in modern Nevada no less
may indeed be out there,
than in the mists around Ben
but the most parsimonious
Bulben.
explanation for all the UFO
But if this rationalist
encounters since Roswell is
assumption seems natural
not that our nuclear testing
these days, it is not
or space program finally
necessarily permanent. The
inspired the galaxy to come
educated class of Victorian
see what humanity is all
England went wild for fairies
about.
and spirits in the heyday of
Rather, it’s that our alien
scientistic optimism, and
encounters, whether real
both Vallée and von Däniken
or imaginary, are the same
offered up their books amid
kind of thing as the fairy
the Age of Aquarius’ similar
encounters of the human
craze. (Just read Sally
past — part of an enduring
Quinn’s tales of murderous
phenomenon whose interpretations shift but
hexes in her recent memoir to recall how
whose essentials are consistent, featuring the
old-fashioned in their magical thinking the
same abductions and flying crafts and lights
New Age’s devotees could become.)
and tricks with crops and animals and time
Sometimes our own elite opinion seems
and space, the same shape-shifting humanoids to be shopping for a new religion: I have
and sexual experiments and dangerous gifts
read books in the last year pitching versions
and mysterious intentions.
of Buddhism, pantheism and paganism to
This was the argument of Jacques Vallée,
the post-Christian educated set. For such
a French-born scientist and a wonderful
shoppers, the striking overlap between UFOs
character in the annals of ufology, who
and fairy stories might eventually become
wrote a wild book in the heady year of 1969
an advertisement for an updated spiritualist
called “Passport to Magonia: From Folklore
cosmology, not a strike against it — especially
to Flying Saucers,” which The Times’ UFO
if woven together with multiverse and
scoop gave me an excuse to read.
universe-as-simulation hypotheses that imply
Vallée’s conclusion is basically the reverse
a kind of metaphysics of caprice.
of Erich von Däniken’s thesis in “Chariots of
Meanwhile those of us who remain
the Gods,” published to better sales the prior
Christian can be agnostic about all these
year. Where von Däniken argued that old
strange stories, not reflexively dismissive,
myths and biblical tales alike contain evidence since Christianity does not require that all
of ancient alien visitations (an idea picked
paranormal experiences be either divinely sent
up, most recently, by Ridley Scott’s “Alien”
or demonic or imaginary.
prequels), Vallée suggested that contemporary
Rather the Christian idea is that whatever
UFO narratives are of piece with stories about capricious powers may exist, when the true
Northern European fairies and their worldwide God enters his creation, he does so honestly,
kith and kin — and that it’s more reasonable
straightforwardly, in a vulnerable and
to think that we’re reading our Space Age
fully human form — and exposes himself
preoccupations into a persistent phenomenon
publicly, whether in a crowded stable or on an
that might be much weirder than a simple
execution hill. So the glamour of UFOs, like
visitation from the stars.
the glamour of faerie, is an understandable
This quasi-magical thesis made Vallée, as
object of curiosity but a dangerous object for
he put it, a “heretic among heretics” — the
any kind of faith. The only kind of God worth
UFO believer who rejected the UFO
trusting is the kind who does not play tricks.
community’s hope that their efforts could
■
one day be incorporated into the normal
Ross Douthat joined The New York Times
sciences and lead us to some Spielbergian first as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.
The glamor
of UFOs is an
understandable
object of
curiosity, but
a dangerous
object for any
kind of faith.
YOUR VIEWS
Medicaid a federal program
that everyone pays into
I’m writing in regards to the front page
of the Dec. 27 edition of the East Oregonian
regarding upcoming state ballot measure 101
on funding for Oregon’s Medicaid program.
The reporter referenced Medicare which is
a healthcare plan for those aged 65 and over.
The article stated that Medicare is funded
“solely by the federal government.” I beg to
differ with that statement.
Medicare Part A is funded solely by
deductions from the paychecks of working
American citizens. Review your paycheck
stub — there is a line item showing a
dollar amount deducted for the employee
Medicare. This is not a program gifted by the
federal government, but rather it is (prepaid)
healthcare, paid for by every working
American citizen via payroll tax deductions.
Furthermore, while Medicare Part A begins
at age 65, Medicare Part B is paid for by the
individual, as is Medigap Plan (which covers
the 20 percent not paid by either Medicare
A or B) as well as a Medicare Part D plan
for prescription drug coverage. There is no
funding for any part of Medicare coming form
the federal government in any way, shape
or form. It is all paid for by the individual
Medicare recipient in one manner or another.
Medicare is not an entitlement benefit any
more than Social Security or unemployment
benefits. Our dollars paid out of our paychecks
or personal funds — no federal dollars. Plus,
where do any federal dollars for anything
come from? None other than us by way of our
tax contributions.
Pamela Johnson Duso, Pendleton
Approve Measure 101
Measure 101 is important to rural Oregon.
Where you live should not determine the
level of care you receive, or if you are able
to receive care. Families living in rural
communities deserve consistent access to
quality health care. In some rural counties,
more than a third of families rely on Medicaid.
This January, voters will be asked to vote
on Measure 101, which will provide direct
funding for Medicaid in Oregon, protecting
coverage for nearly 400,000 Oregonians and
reducing premiums. It will also allow Oregon
to receive nearly $5 billion in federal funding.
According to the Kaiser Family
Foundation, Oregon’s rural uninsured rate
fell by 51 percent between 2013 and 2015.
We need to build on that success to keep all
of us healthy and stabilize costs. We can’t
go back to a time when many people waited
too long to go the doctor and ended up in the
emergency room, or never even made it to the
hospital. Families should not be put in that
position.
Robert Duehmig
Oregon Rural Health Association President
Astoria