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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Friday, February 16, 2018 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 Tip of the hat, kick in the pants ■ A tip of the hat Emergency responders and volunteers answered the call last weekend to help Milton- Freewater area flood victims Ginger and Brian Afdahl. The North Fork Walla Walla River flooded the 10 acres of their homestead on Feb. 4. Ginger Afdahl said most of the water receded but left a big mess, with mud and gravel covering much of their land. That’s when the Northwest Region of Team Rubicon got involved Team Rubicon is an international nonprofit that unites military veterans with first responders to take on disasters. The organization has sent teams to hurricanes Maria and Harvey and the wildfires in Sonoma County, California. Coming to Umatilla County was a first, as was teaming up with Umatilla County emergency management. Ginger Afdahl said the flood buried irrigation lines, fencing and more under rocks and gravel, and the volunteers removed much of that from the muck. They also removed hay from the shed so it could dry and put up fences. “I couldn’t thank them enough,” she said. “If it wasn’t for their help, I don’t know what we would have done. It would have taken us forever. There was a lot of rock, a lot of tangled mess. They helped us a lot.” ■ A tip of the hat to a new bill speeding its way through the Oregon legislature that will benefit local farmers. Early organization has proved advantageous for supporters of a bill establishing minimum contract protections for all Oregon seed growers, which the House unanimously approved Tuesday. Under House Bill 4068, dealers must pay farmers market prices for seed by certain deadlines enforced by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Grass seed crops have received Photo contributed by Umatilla County Emergency Management Volunteers and members of the nonprofit disaster relief organization Team Rubicon work Saturday to clear fencing from flood debris on a home near Milton-Freewater. similar protections since 2011 under a statute aimed at preventing “slow pay, no pay” problems, but other types of seed were excluded from the legislation. Before the idea of expanding the contract protections was brought to the Oregon lawmakers, the specifics were hashed out by farmers, seed dealers and trade groups. By the time HB 4068 was introduced, all the details had been hammered out and the bill sailed through the House Agriculture Committee without any opposing testimony or even an amendment. It’s the kind of pre-planning that should be required of bills brought up during the short session. OTHER VIEWS The Trump stain spreads W YOUR VIEWS Pendleton projects moving forward without incentives The trend in housing starts in Pendleton appears to be moving in a positive direction as new single family homes under construction are built without a 25 percent or 40 percent grant from the city. Those are the amounts of assistance available to or requested by property owners from the city for projects downtown to create additional housing. I decided to sit in on the Pendleton Development Commission Advisory Committee meeting in an effort at getting up to speed on the city’s progress in their efforts to increase housing in the urban renewal district. The feeling of city officials is that boosting the available downtown housing will encourage tenants to shop downtown rather than the Melanie Square/Safeway/ Walmart area. I guess if you need a new custom cowboy hat, boots or perhaps a saddle, and have no desire or need to cook, or a convenient place to park, they believe this is the place for you. I questioned the absence of city-owned property in the urban renewal district on their list of available property considered keen for development. An example of an empty city-owned property, the old DMV/warming center, was given. It could easily be demolished, perhaps even giving the Fire Department some training, sold for residential development, and returned to the tax rolls, a win for both the city and taxpayers. The committee chairman indicated their emphasis should be on getting the most bang for the buck on each investment. This looked to me like the perfect project, all bang and no buck. The Ward 1 city councilor, also representing the Urban Renewal District, seemed uninterested, explaining that all investments needed to be in the downtown area. The Edwards Apartments building as well as others in the district beg for demolition. Perhaps it’s time for an ordinance rewrite allowing the city to act aggressively allowing seizure, demolition and redevelopment. Perhaps that $3-plus million in their war chest would be better spent on such projects, and loans versus grants made available to downtown building owners for remodeling. How about taking a page from the Hermiston High School? They build houses. Make some of that vacant city property available for housing projects, giving PHS students the same opportunity. The efforts by the city to promote new construction seem to be working. It makes the case that you don’t need a big giveaway for progress on the housing front. Rick Rohde Pendleton To be fair, all pollution should be taxed I see our neighbors in western Oregon are deeply concerned about greenhouse gases and how to tax the producers. The primary tax should be levied on the citizens of Oregon, as we pose a serious threat to the environment. A belch releases carbon dioxide, while flatulence releases a volume of methane. The tax should be three-tiered: 20 cents daily from birth to 20 years of age, 30 cents daily from 21 to 55 years of age, and 45 cents daily for ages 56 and older. Taxes using this structure would cost the most serious offenders a proportionate share of the burden. This tax could be the first step in returning Oregon to the pristine environment that existed prior to the arrival of humans. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. Mike Mehren Hermiston need becomes to protect oneself and inston Churchill is one’s boss. supposed to have said: Lack of integrity may also be the “With integrity, nothing best way to capture the morphing else counts. Without integrity, scandal of the pre-election $130,000 nothing else counts.” payoff to a porn star to apparently In fact, that seems to be one keep quiet about an affair with of those Churchillian epigrams Trump. It’s bad enough that Trump that Churchill never actually got around to saying. But it captures an Nicholas appears to have been cheating on important truth about politics, that Kristof Melania right after she had their baby (“Oh, don’t worry about her,” dishonor is like a cancer that spreads Comment he is said to have told the actress). inexorably as it feeds upon ambition, But with the payoff and reported protects itself with lies and doubles cover-up, Trump is betraying all of us. down with cover-ups. When The Wall Street Journal first Looking at the chaos in the White House reported the porn-star payout by Michael these days, I worry about inexperience, Cohen, Trump’s longtime lawyer, Cohen incompetence and lack of judgment. But maybe I worry most about an utter lack denounced the report as a “false narrative” of of integrity — and the way it is proving “outlandish allegations.” infectious. Oops. Take two. This week, Cohen The contagion of dishonor confirmed the payment in has spread irresistibly a statement saying that he through the White House “facilitated” the transfer with staff, turning aides into his own cash. It doesn’t seem con artists. Indifference to quite true, as some news ethics has spread through organizations reported, that the Cabinet and agencies, Cohen precisely denied that resulting in endless scandals. he had been reimbursed. And the epidemic has Cohen’s statement was artful. rippled through much He denied that he had been of the GOP (with some reimbursed by either the heroic exceptions), turning Trump Organization or the lawmakers into enablers and Trump presidential campaign hypocrites. but not that he had been The Rob Porter affair, for reimbursed by someone else example, isn’t just about Porter any more — say, by Trump himself. (The White House but about what seems to be a cover-up and did not respond to my inquiry about whether a dismissiveness toward domestic violence. Trump had personally paid the $130,000.) John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, Sometimes politicians, liberals and claimed that he had removed Porter within conservatives alike, are unprincipled in 40 minutes of learning of credible allegations pursuit of principles they are passionate of Porter’s domestic abuse; to listen to FBI about. But Trump aides don’t seem to believe testimony, it now seems it may have been in any cause larger than themselves or their seven months. leader. President Donald Trump said on That’s alarming because of the risks Wednesday that he is against domestic that even worse might lie ahead. When violence. But when you have to say that, self-absorbed people are caught in a growing something is wrong. scandal, they overreach. In this case, that We have a president who has himself might mean the firing of Robert Mueller been accused of domestic violence (an or Rod Rosenstein, or some military clash allegation of rape by his first wife that she that changes the subject. To be clear, I don’t later retracted), who has lost two aides to think officials would deliberately turn to accusations of domestic violence, whose war as a solution to political problems, but chief of staff (a retired four-star Marine we all have a remarkable ability to persuade general) in 2016 praised a colonel as a ourselves that what is good for us is also “superb Marine officer” after he had been good for the country. accused of sexually harassing two women. Every administration suffers More broadly, while I understand the embarrassments. But when there is a basic sorrow people feel for a colleague who is lack of integrity at the top, these do not self-immolating, the White House’s initial easily self-correct; rather, they build upon comments came across as discounting one themselves because of an impulse to cover of the most common kinds of violence in up and layer new deceptions on top of old America today. deceit. That seems to be what is happening Some 28,000 Americans are sent to in both the Rob Porter and porn-payoff emergency rooms each year because of scandals. domestic violence. Almost 20 people are The risk is that this stain continues to victimized each minute. This isn’t a fringe spread, metastasizing and bringing down issue: It claims far more American lives than everything around it. And to me, it looks terrorism. The White House would never be as if the Trump administration is now caught with a bank robbery suspect on its metastasizing. staff, so why tolerate someone alleged to be a ■ wife beater? Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and The answer has to do, I think, with a lack cherry farm in Yamhill. Kristof, a columnist of integrity, an absence of a moral compass, for The New York Times since 2001, won the a narcissism in which the all-consuming Pulitzer Prize two times. The contagion of dishonor has spread irresistibly through the White House staff. 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. 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.