Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Wednesday, February 21, 2018 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW BLM should move west A bipartisan group of senators and congressmen say the headquarters for the Bureau of Land Management should move from Washington, D.C., and relocate in the West — where the agency manages 385,000 square miles of public lands. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who overseas the BLM, agrees. So do we. Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner introduced a bill to move the BLM to one of a dozen states in the West — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington or Wyoming. “You’re dealing with an agency that basically has no business in Washington, D.C.,” Gardner told The Associated Press. Colorado Republican Rep. Scott Tipton introduced a similar measure in the House, and three Democrats signed up as co-sponsors: Reps. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Jared Polis of Colorado and Ed Perlmutter of Colorado. The logic of this idea isn’t hard for people in the West to understand. BLM manages huge swaths of Western states. Its decisions impact the livelihoods of people who populate rural communities but those decisions are made far from the forests, grasslands and high deserts they call home. Not everyone is in love with the idea, particularly the special interests who court influence inside the Washington beltway. Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s public lands program, said the Bureau of Land Management is already decentralized, and moving the headquarters would waste money. “It’s a solution in search of a problem,” he told AP. Critics say the BLM and other agencies need to be headquartered in the capital to be included in budget and policy discussions. But having all those discussions in Washington is part of the problem. That’s better for K Street lobbyists and the environmental special interests, but not so good for the people those policies impact. While it’s true that less than 5 percent of the bureau’s 9,000 employees are stationed in D.C., they have more say and less access to the national treasures they administer than their colleagues in the field. Putting BLM headquarters in Denver, Boise or Seattle wouldn’t change its statutory mission. But it would give the agency bigwigs a different perspective and a better-than-nodding acquaintance with the territory they manage and the people who live there. OTHER VIEWS You’re wrong! I’m right! W YOUR VIEWS Different political backgrounds support Bounds for Ninth Circuit By FRIENDS OF RYAN BOUNDS To U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary e write to offer our unqualified and personal support of Ryan Bounds as a nominee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. We all have a long personal history with Ryan, as we grew up together in the same rural northeastern Oregon town of Hermiston. As members of Oregon’s legal, medical, corporate, and higher education communities and leaders and volunteers for a variety of progressive causes and organizations — including the Oregon Democratic Party, the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign, SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism), Oregon Women Lawyers, and Basic Rights Oregon — we are uniquely situated to critically assess Ryan’s growth and temperament over more than three decades. We have no doubts about Ryan’s capacity to serve as a judge by any criterion — be it personal, intellectual, professional, or temperamental. We urge your fair and thorough consideration of his nomination. A cursory review of Ryan’s record reveals his eminent qualification for this position, and we need not persuade you in that regard. Ryan possesses the academic experience (Stanford and Yale), professional path (U.S. Department of Justice, White House, judicial clerkship), and community engagement (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee of the Portland Bar, Court- Appointed Special Advocate for African- American foster children, environmental crimes prosecutor). Because we have known Ryan since our days in middle school, we think it far more valuable to your deliberations to express unequivocally our knowledge of Ryan’s empathy, capacity for self-reflection, and propensity to put himself in the shoes of others. We have never known him even to suggest — by word or deed — any personal animosity for anyone based on his or her race, gender, creed, ethnicity or sexual orientation. But he is happy W to argue with anyone without regard to those characteristics. Ryan does not view contentious debate as contrary to our shared humanity; rather, he lives his life celebrating both. We understand, with the examination of his record, the committee has reviewed a handful of articles Ryan penned as an editor on the staff of a conservative college newspaper, The Stanford Review, nearly a quarter-century ago. We have read the articles.Cautious not to apply the important progressive lens of today to impertinent words of youth, we — women, a gay man, a refugee, and members of Oregon’s communities of color — nonetheless agree the articles deserve an explanation. We know Ryan regrets and is embarrassed by the tone of his writings as a conservative college student. We would expect any reasonable person to understand how a student’s words designed to garner attention for an alternative college newspaper might not resonate with the person that student will become after 25 years of experiencing the world. Perhaps more importantly for your inquiry and examination, we can represent without hesitation that Ryan’s path has been one of growth, intellectual curiosity and rigor, love of his family, friends, and community, and respect for the humanity of others. If Ryan is incapable, in your eyes, of serving his country as a judge, we must share our worry as to who might be qualified and suited for the judiciary in the view of the committee and Senate. ■ Ryan James Hagemann is vice president and general counsel at Western Oregon University. Sally Anderson Hansell works for Anderson Hansell PC. Dr. Aloysius Fobi works in the emergency department at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital. Andrea Streedain is director of operations at Starbucks Coffee Company. Nhan Nguyen is chief financial officer at American Medical Concepts, Inc. We have no doubts about Ryan’s capacity to serve. 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. e live in two Americas. evidence that our biased approach In one America, to getting news actually makes a mentally unstable us dumb. For example, one president selected partly by Russia experiment asked 1,000 people to lies daily and stirs up bigotry that look at a simple data set and draw tears our social fabric. conclusions about a skin cream’s In another America, a can-do effectiveness. Not surprisingly, president tries to make America Democrats and Republicans were great again as lying journalists stir Nicholas about equally good at calculating up hatred that tears our social fabric. Kristof the math and determining how well The one thing we all agree on: it worked. Comment But when the experiment offered Our social fabric is torn. In each the very same data set and said it America, people who inhabit the referred to the effectiveness of a gun control other are often perceived as not just obtuse measure, Democrats and Republicans alike but also dangerous. Half of Democrats and went to pieces. Republicans alike say in polls that they are In one version, the numbers showed literally afraid of the other political party. that a gun control This is not to equate measure worked — and the two worldviews. I Republicans kept largely subscribe to the flubbing the math. In first, and I’m a villain another version, the gun in the second. But I do control measure was believe that all of us, on ineffective, and this time both sides, frequently the Democrats couldn’t spend more time manage the calculations. demonizing the other side The evidence on than trying to understand these biases is complex, it, and we all suffer a studies sometimes haven’t replicated well, cognitive bias that makes us inclined to and I don’t want to exhibit confirmation seek out news sources that confirm our bias in my warnings of confirmation bias. worldview. Researchers also caution that it’s too glib to A classic study offered free research to say we are all locked in our echo chambers, ordinary Democrats and Republicans. for most Americans still are regularly People on both sides were eager to challenged by dissonant information. get intelligent arguments reinforcing But what does seem clear is that rigid their views and somewhat interested in ideological beliefs impair our cognitive arguments for the other side that were so functions. For many years, Philip Tetlock silly they could be mocked and caricatured of the University of Pennsylvania has been (it’s very satisfying to dismiss rivals as running experiments measuring the ability libtards or bigots). Neither Democrats nor of thousands of people to make sound Republicans were interested in intelligent predictions. arguments challenging their own views. The best forecasters, Tetlock finds, are Decades ago, a media expert at MIT not experts or even intelligence officials named Nicholas Negroponte foresaw the with classified information, not liberals emergence of a news product that he called and not conservatives, but rather those “The Daily Me,” with information tailored instinctively empirical, nonideological and to a user’s needs. Negroponte was thinking willing to change their minds quite nimbly. of local weather, sports, particular interests The poorest marks go to those who are and so on, but what actually arrived with the internet was a highly political version of strongly loyal to a worldview. I wondered whether to write this column, “The Daily Me.” for there are so many urgent — and There’s not an exact parallel in the way progressive! — causes on the table that I the right and the left seek out like-minded want to thunder about: Dreamers, guns in news sources. The right has spawned conspiracy nuts like Alex Jones who believe American life, White House dismissiveness toward domestic violence, and so on. that the Sandy Hook school shooting was But the “Daily Me” problem also faked, and one study found that the more undermines the capacity of liberals to win people watched Fox News, the worse they these arguments. When we stay within our did on a current events test. own tribe, talking mostly to each other, it’s So I’m not advocating that you waste time on Breitbart propaganda any more than difficult to woo other tribes to achieve our aims. I’m saying that it was worth listening to The ideological blinders may worsen leftists in the 1970s who praised Chairman because of our tendency to seek out like- Mao. But wherever we stand on the minded people. A 2014 Pew survey found spectrum, there are sane, intelligent voices that half of consistent conservatives and who disagree with us — and too often we 35 percent of consistent liberals say, “It’s plug our ears to them. important to me to live in a place where On the left, there has been some outrage most people share my political views.” at conservative voices on the Times It should be possible both to believe op-ed pages. But as a progressive myself, deeply in the rightness of one’s own cause steeped in the liberal worldview, I must and to hear out the other side. Civility is not say that I often learn a lot — however a sign of weakness, but of civilization. painfully — from these conservatives with ■ whom I utterly disagree, partly because they Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and gleefully seize upon inconvenient facts that cherry farm in Yamhill. Kristof has been a my side tends to ignore because they don’t The New York Times columnist since 2001 fit our narrative. and won the Pulitzer Prize twice. Moreover, there’s some experimental Rigid ideological beliefs impair our cognitive functions. 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.
