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East Oregonian
Thursday, March 8, 2018
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
See something,
say something
It doesn’t take a medical degree to
do CPR, and that’s the point.
If only surgeons and doctors knew
how to help the victim of a heart attack,
many more people would die of heart
attacks.
But because nearly one in five
Americans are trained to see the signs
of cardiac arrest, resuscitate the victim
and call in trained professionals to take
over care, everyone around them is
safer. Same goes for basic first aid and
the Heimlich maneuver.
But when it comes to mental health
care, we don’t have the same attitude.
Too many people feel unprepared to
step into someone else’s psychotic
breakdown or depression or capable of
administering life-saving measures that
don’t involve chest compressions. And
even if they’re willing, they may worry
they won’t have the right words.
But just like in a heart attack,
providing aid doesn’t mean solving the
problem. It means administering the
necessary help until the victim can get
complete treatment from a professional.
That’s the idea behind QPR training,
which the Umatilla County Health
Department and Good Shepherd
Who to call
•National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
1-800-273-8255
•Umatilla County Crisis Line:
541-240-8030
•Spanish Language National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline: 1-888-628-9454
•SafeOregon reporting line:
844-472-3367
•Crisis Text Line: 741741
•Military Helpline:
888-457-4838 or text MIL1 to 839863
•Alcohol and Drug Helpline:
800-923-4357 or text RecoveryNow to
839863
•OregonYouthLine.org: 1-877-968-
8491 or text “teen2teen” to 839863
•The Trevor Project (for LGBTQ youth):
1-866-4-U-TREVOR
•Native Youth Crisis Hotline:
1-877-209-1266
Medical Center hosted in February.
If more people take on the role of
“gatekeepers,” trained to recognize
and respond to those suffering a
mental health crisis or having suicidal
thoughts, we will create a network of
support that will decrease the number
of suicides.
It’s a three-step process of
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Prevention Education Specialist Amanda Walsborn, with Umatilla County
Public Health, teaches a QPR suicide prevention training Thursday at Good Shepherd
Medical Center in Hermiston.
questioning, persuading and referring.
The first step is to be frank and
direct, especially about suicide.
Amanda Wolsburn, the prevention
education specialist for Umatilla
County Health, explained during the
training that you can’t plant the idea of
suicide in someone’s mind by talking
about it. Either they are or they aren’t
considering it, and by bringing it to the
open you are bringing it out from the
dark.
The signs might not be obvious, but
if someone exhibits sudden shifts in
demeanor or mood, talks about what
life would be like if they were gone
or shows an interest in getting rid of
personal belongings, it’s a good time to
broach the subject.
The next step is to persuade, to
explain that help is available and that
their life is important to you and others.
It’s important to speak in positive
terms, and not demean the person for
considering suicide.
The last step is refer, knowing where
to get the person the help they need.
See the “Who to call” sidebar for some
numbers to call for immediate help.
For more information on upcoming
trainings on suicide prevention, contact
Walsborn at 541-278-5432.
OTHER VIEWS
The chaos after Trump
W
YOUR VIEWS
Walden is not conserving
Oregon’s best places
As a constituent of Oregon’s District
2, I care deeply about environmental
issues. I grew up at a time and in a part of
the country that had few environmental
safeguards. The landscape and the
environmental health of that state still show
it. It’s a big reason I moved to the Pacific
Northwest — that level of damage had
not yet been done here and politicians, for
the most part, represented the majority of
citizens who wanted to prevent it.
However, Congressman Greg
Walden cannot be included in that club,
as indicated by the recently released
League of Conservation Voters National
Environmental Scorecard. The scorecard,
established in 1970, represents the
consensus of experts from about 20
respected environmental and conservation
organizations who select the key votes on
which members of Congress should be
scored.
LCV tallies votes on the most important
issues of the year, including energy, climate
change, public health, public lands and
wildlife conservation, and spending for
environmental programs. By visiting
scorecard.lcv.org you can see every vote
your House and Senate representatives
made, with an explanation of the topic. It’s
also available in Spanish.
Walden voted in favor of the
environment a mere nine percent of the time
— his score for 2017 as well as over his
political lifetime (starting in 1999). That’s
nine percent of 411 votes.
Because many of these votes addressed
issues such as climate change, protecting
people from dirty energy, and toxins and the
public’s right to know if they are at risk, I
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.
have to surmise that Walden is a man who
doesn’t care much about his constituents,
the planet, or the future our children will
inherit.
Tracie Hornung
Mt. Hood/Parkdale
Listen to the students to
protect life and democracy
Nowhere in America today is there a
more impassioned, energetic and starkly
realistic response to dire tragedy than by
the students at Majorie Stoneman Douglas
High School. When the power of the NRA,
coupled with political cowardice, crashed
down upon their lives with the murder of
17 fellow students, they, alone, experienced
terrorism first hand. Their cries, as only
those so afflicted must cry, was “NEVER
AGAIN!” Sadly, some are patronized and
others vilified for their courage and actions.
This wonderful youth, so hopeful, is
symbolic of what proactive American
attitudes could be. But it appears many
don’t give a damn, not just about guns, but
democracy itself. Why not? The economy
is excellent, unemployment low, stock
market bullish, and now, the temporary
tax reduction — a patronizing gift from
the wealthy and corporations. Many feel
comfortable — falsely.
Know there really is a destructive
“elephant in the room” — Trump. He is
consolidating dictatorial power evermore
unimpeded, while vastly increasing his
wealth. The rest of his act is smoke and
mirrors. So hear the students! “Never
again” is now! Get angry! Unite! There is
no meaning after it is too late.
Leif Hatletsad
Rogue River
hat happens to U.S.
constitutions but also on informal
politics after Donald
codes. You treat your opponents
Trump? Do we snap back
like legitimate adversaries, not
to normal, or do things spin ever
illegitimate enemies. You tell the
more widely out of control?
truth as best you can. You don’t
The best indicator we have so
make naked appeals to bigotry.
far is the example of Italy since the
Berlusconi, like Trump,
reign of Silvio Berlusconi. And the
undermined those norms. And
main lesson there is that once the
now Berlusconi’s rivals across the
David
norms of acceptable behavior are
Brooks political spectrum have waged
violated and once the institutions of
a campaign that was rife with
Comment
government are weakened, it is very
conspiracy theories, misinformation
hard to re-establish them. Instead,
and naked appeals to race.
you get this cycle of ever more extreme
Second, the loss of faith in the
behavior, as politicians compete to be the
democratic system. As Yascha Mounk
most radical outsider. The political center
writes in his book “The People vs.
collapses, the normal left/right political
Democracy,” faith in democratic regimes
categories cease to apply and you see the
is declining with every new generation.
rise of strange new political groups that
Seventy-one percent of Europeans and
are crazier than anything you could have
North Americans born in the 1930s think
imagined before.
it’s essential to live in a democracy, but
If the United States follows the Italian
only 29 percent of people born in the 1980s
example, by 2025 we’ll look back at
think that. In the U.S., nearly a quarter of
Trump nostalgically as some sort of beacon millennials think democracy is a bad way
of relative normalcy. And by the way,
to run a country. Nearly half would like a
if America follows the Italian example,
strongman leader. One in 6 Americans of all
Trump will never go away.
ages support military rule.
Silvio Berlusconi first came to power
In the Italian campaign, we see the
for the same reasons Trump and other
practical results of that kind of attitude.
populists have been coming to power
Voters are no longer particularly bothered
around the world: Voters were disgusted by
if a politician shows dictatorial tendencies.
a governing elite that seemed corrupt and
As one voter told Jason Horowitz of The
out of touch. They felt swamped by waves
Times: “Salvini is a good man. I like him
of immigrants, frustrated by economic
because he puts Italians first. And I guess
stagnation and disgusted by the cultural
he’s a fascist, too. What can you do?”
values of the cosmopolitan urbanites.
Third, the deterioration of debate caused
In office, Berlusconi did nothing to
by social media. At the dawn of the internet,
address Italy’s core problems, but he did
people hoped free communication would
degrade public discourse with his speech,
lead to an epoch of peace, understanding
weaken the structures of government with
and democratic communication. Instead,
his corruption and offend basic decency
we’re seeing polarization, alternative
with his Bunga Bunga sex parties and his
information and the rise of autocracy.
general priapic lewdness.
In Italy, the Five Star Movement began
In short, Berlusconi, like Trump, did
not so much as a party but as an online
nothing to address the sources of public
decision-making platform. It pretends
anger, but he did erase any restraints on the
to use the internet to create unmediated
way it could be expressed.
democracy, but as La Stampa’s journalist
This past weekend’s elections in Italy
Jacopo Iacoboni told David Broder of
were dominated by parties that took
Jacobin: “In reality, the members have no
Berlusconi’s excesses and turned them up.
real power. In reality, there is not any real
The big winner is the populist Five
direct democracy within M5S, but a totally
Star Movement, which was started by a
top-down orchestration of the movement.”
In Italy, as with Trump and his Facebook
comedian and is now led by a 31-year-old
who had never held a full-time job. Another campaign, the social media platform seems
winner is the League, led by Matteo Salvini, decentralizing, but it actually buttresses
authoritarian ends.
which declined to effectively distance itself
The underlying message is clear. As
from one of its former candidates who went
Mounk has argued, the populist wave is still
on a shooting rampage against African
rising. The younger generations are more
immigrants. Berlusconi, who vowed to
radical, on left and right. The rising political
expel 600,000 immigrants, is back and is
tendencies combine lavish spending from
now considered a moderating influence.
the left with racially charged immigrant
The respectable center-left party, like
center-left parties across Europe, collapsed. restrictions from the right.
Vladimir Putin’s admirers are surging.
Italy is now a poster child for the
The center is still hollowing out. Nothing
three big trends that are undermining
is inevitable in life, but liberal democracy
democracies around the world:
clearly ain’t going to fix itself.
First, the erasure of the informal norms
■
of behavior. As Steven Levitsky and Daniel
David Brooks became a New York Times
Ziblatt argue in “How Democracies Die,”
Op-Ed columnist in 2003.
democracies depend not just on formal
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the
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