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East Oregonian
Saturday, February 17, 2018
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Legislature is no longer
a safe space for harassers
State Sen. Jeff Kruse had to go.
His flouting of Oregon Senate
rules against sexual harassment was
egregious. His repentance, if any, was
short-lived. His resignation is a relief.
When it came to changing his
behavior, including his routinely
breaking state law by smoking in his
Oregon Capitol office, Kruse was
known for promising one thing and
doing another. That is why Senate
leaders initially were careful to say little
about his resignation, not wanting to
irritate him into rescinding it.
But Tuesday’s deadline passed and
Kruse’s Feb. 8 resignation now is
irrevocable.
It is unfortunate that the Roseburg
Republican set March 15 for his
departure, which enables him to still
draw his legislative pay until then while
leaving his constituents unrepresented
for the rest of the 2018 Legislature.
An immediate departure might have
enabled his successor, who will be a
Republican, to be selected and sworn
into office before the legislative session
ends. March 11 is the constitutional
deadline for the Legislature’s
adjournment.
At least Kruse is out the Capitol
door. His victims won’t be forced to
recount his shameful behavior and their
painful experiences before a special
Senate Committee on Conduct, which
would have included Sen. Bill Hansell
of Athena among its four members.
And the Senate won’t face a potentially
divisive vote on expelling him.
This ordeal demonstrates that Kruse
is not the only person with much to
learn.
An outside investigator found a
repeated pattern of sexual harassment
by Kruse toward female legislators and
female staff, including members of the
Senate Republican caucus staff. Yet the
caucus’ statement about that detailed
investigation report said, “The behavior
alleged in the report, if true, is obviously
not acceptable to the Senate Republican
caucus.”
… If true ...
Those two words underscore why
victims of harassment are reluctant
to speak up. Even when supported by
compelling evidence — like the Kruse
investigation report — they fear not
being believed.
A power imbalance exists in our
nation’s capitols and many other
institutions. Staff members, and
sometimes lawmakers, owe their jobs
and their political careers to the people
in power – people to whom they are
expected to be deferential.
When allegations arise, these
powerful people often close ranks.
They say the unwanted behavior
was simply misunderstood. They
Timothy J. Gonzalez/Statesman-Journal via AP, File
In this 2012 file photo, Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, speaks at the Capitol in Salem.
Kruse not only subjected two female senators to unwanted touching, he groped or
gave lingering hugs to many other women working at the Oregon Capitol, accord-
ing to a report released Feb. 6 by an independent investigator.
question how “supposed victims” can
remember incidents from long ago,
not comprehending that traumatic
memories can last a lifetime. They cast
the complainants as attention-seeking
whiners.
Some of that occurred among Kruse’s
defenders. They did not grasp the
gravity of his misconduct and its searing
impact on his victims.
But other senators did. On the
morning after the investigation report
was released, Senate President Peter
Courtney asked Kruse to keep out
of the Capitol. That afternoon, Sen.
Tim Knopp broke with his fellow
Republicans, said he believed the
women and called for Kruse to resign.
“For too long, there has been a
culture in the Oregon Capitol and some
places of public and private employment
that women need to put up with
harassing behavior to keep their jobs,”
Knopp said. “That culture must end
now.”
That is a moral imperative. For the
Oregon Legislature. For our state and
nation. For the world.
Everyone deserves to be treated
with respect. Harassment, even if
unintentional, is morally and ethically
wrong.
YOUR VIEWS
Enough study: Let’s start building
T
YOUR VIEWS
Doesn’t our right to life
outweigh right to bear arms?
Seriously? Is the right to own any kind
of weapon is more important than the safety
of our kids in schools across this nation?
The politicians under the thumb of the
National Rifle Association without a hint of
a backbone or decency using the tired old
“our hearts and prayers” line or “now is not
the time” line when responding to these all
too common atrocities is so discouraging.
What are we doing?
We’re always patting ourselves on the
back about being the greatest country in the
world and we refuse to directly confront
this huge problem plaguing our society on a
daily basis. Our gutless president and other
members of Congress on the take from the
NRA show their true colors. Their loyalty
to this all-too-powerful organization and the
money they receive from them is far more
important to them then is the safety of our
society.
Please remember to vote accordingly the
next time you have the opportunity. Let’s
get our priorities in order and try to truly
deserve the label as the greatest country in
the world.
David Gracia
Hermiston
U.S. is now getting beat
at the ‘soft power’ game
There used to be a lot of talk, during
the long years of the Cold War, about how
U.S. “soft power” attractiveness managed
in many ways to outshine and outweigh
the communist side’s prowess in the fields
of rocketry, missiles and tanks. Justifiable
indeed was America’s studied efforts to
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.
“put its best feet forward” at this time by
regaling the populations of communist bloc
countries with the best in U.S. popular and
high culture. These “people-to-people”
performances certainly did their thing in
helping the Western world to win the Cold
War.
Now, in a reversal, we’re being treated
to a bravura performance in the area of
soft power by the Democratic Republic of
Korea, or North Korea. Audiences in South
Korea have beheld a dance group, a bunch
of cheerleaders and even the younger sister
of Kim Jong-Un in a huge example of
North Korea “putting its best feet forward.”
This appears to have scared Seoul’s U.S.
and Japanese patrons. Official Washington,
D.C., and Tokyo cautioned South Korea
not to be taken in by Pyongyang’s “charm
offensive.”
Much talk is being tossed around about
Seoul’s “appeasement” and “naiveté.”
When the North’s “Sister Number One”
placed a blue folder on South Korean
President Moon Jae-In’s desk, there was
much speculating about what sort of
message it contained from the North’s
absolute ruler. It turns out that Sister
Number One invited Moon to visit the
North “at a time of his choosing.”
North Korea, it’s clear, knows a thing or
two about soft power public relations. Kim
Jong-Un’s sister truly did “steal the show”
at the PyeongChang Olympics — she, plus
the so-called “Army of Beauties” that Kim
Jong-Un sent south of the 38th Parallel.
Underestimate Kim Jong-Un’s
propaganda and PR skills? That will
probably happen a lot less frequently as we
go forward.
he city of Hermiston,
equitably between the Oregon National
by default, has been the
Guard, Confederated Tribes of the
beneficiary of the Umatilla
Umatilla Indian Reservation via the
Chemical Weapons Depot while
U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife,
having to manage the risk to public
and a local development authority for
health and safety. Fortunately, that
industrial development. Up to this
time has come and gone. Now it is
point, the National Guard is the only
time to return the property to the
user group to receive access and rights
region and allow the community to
to the property.
David
re-purpose the property.
Hermiston and the surrounding
Drotzmann regional municipalities have been
In 1941, the U.S. Department of
War commissioned the establishment
supportive, and provided aid when
Comment
of Umatilla Ordnance Depot in
possible in the development, growth
and closure of the depot with little to no
preparation for World War II, on
adverse response. Our communities developed
20,000 acres in a seemingly barren area of
an emergency response system for potentially
ground near a railroad in northeast Oregon.
catastrophic events and individually had to
The total population around the site in 1940
learn to shelter in place.
was approximately 2,000. Today, that number
However, that ended in 2012 when the final
is closer to 44,000.
remaining employees departed to other areas
Initially, conventional munitions and
of the country. Now, the property sits idle with
supplies were stored on the depot in 1,001
little to no development and the structures
igloos, until 1962 when the Army decided to
continue to age and become more dilapidated.
store chemical weapons there and changed its
With each new government department
name to Umatilla Army Depot and then finally
head, there seems to be an additional hurdle to
the Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot.
cross. This time, the Environmental Protection
In 1988, it was added to the Base
Agency is requiring a further study. With
Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list.
each new obstacle, a new delay and another
During the years of 1990-1994, conventional
community opportunity is lost.
munitions were removed in plans for its
As businesses look to locate, develop and
eventual closure. From 2004-2011, the
invest in our local community, the unknowns
chemical weapons were destroyed by
related to timeline for transition continues to
incineration according to the Chemical
hinder the development of this community
Weapons Convention and monitored by
asset.
OPCW.
For 30 years, it’s been on the BRAC
In 2012, the depot closed and the return
list and programmed for closure. The time
of the property to local control and re-use
has come for the federal government to
was scheduled to happen immediately and
return the land to the local community for
seamlessly.
redevelopment.
The Army was to turn over the 20,000
■
acres to the local community who went
David Drotzmann is mayor of Hermiston.
through a public process to distribute the land
Frank W. Goheen
Vancouver, Wash.
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
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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.