Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Tuesday, April 3, 2018 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW The weak argument for newsprint tariffs American newspapers are under attack — from a Pacific Northwest paper company and the U.S. government. It’s an odd and unfortunate situation that will drive up costs for newspapers, including this one, unless the government reverses itself. As you probably know, newspapers already face strong economic headwinds. Online shopping via big-name websites has hurt local merchants, whose advertising is the financial foundation of this newspaper and others. Meanwhile, many readers have shifted from print newspapers to online versions, although both versions have their attributes. Like other newspapers, it’s our job to adapt to changing readership habits and advertising opportunities. We have no desire to reduce our services and our local community coverage. But a paper mill in Longview, Washington, is taking a different tack: It’s crying foul, claiming foreign competitors don’t play fairly. North Pacific Paper Co., which produces newsprint and other paper, claims the Canadian government subsidizes Canadian paper manufacturers, enabling them to “dump” — that is, sell — their products at below-market prices in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Commerce bought that argument and has imposed substantial newsprint tariffs on newsprint imported from Canada. The result has been a 20 to 30 percent jump in newsprint prices around the U.S. Newsprint already is the second- largest cost, next to personnel, for publishers. You can see that the price hike will have a big impact. It’s not only the economics that concern us. It’s mind-boggling that the Commerce Department accepted such EO file photo Newspapers come off the East Orego- nian press. a weak argument. Yes, paper mills have closed in Oregon and around the U.S. But Canadian competition is not the reason. The reality is that newsprint demand throughout North America has dropped 75 percent since 2000 as technology has replaced paper. Most folks understand that. The tariffs, or duties, are opposed by the majority of U.S. newsprint manufacturers; by their trade association, the American Forest and Paper Association; and by newspapers and their trade groups, including the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. The opponents also include a wide range of other groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, religious publications, book companies and chambers of commerce. By boosting costs, these tariffs will harm local businesses, including commercial printers, bookstores, directory publishers and newspapers. Unlike Wall Street and the hedge fund that owns North Pacific Paper, most local businesses survive on thin operating margins. Forced to spend more in one area, they must trim elsewhere — and the local economy suffers. That’s why we’d like your help. We’d be most appreciative if you could take a moment to contact members of Oregon’s congressional delegation, asking them to overturn the “countervailing” and “antidumping” duties being imposed by the Commerce Department on Canadian newsprint and similar paper. Your voice matters. So does the voice of community newspapers across this great nation. OTHER VIEWS Rhythms of tragedy S YOUR VIEWS Community colleges support communities April is National Community College Awareness Month, and on behalf of the Blue Mountain Community College Board of Education, I would like to take a moment to remind the community of the many opportunities BMCC has to offer. Remember, “community” is BMCC’s middle name. That means the college makes every effort to tailor its programs and services to the unique needs of our Eastern Oregon community. That’s why you’ll find one of the best agriculture programs in the country at BMCC, which has the largest on-campus working farm in the state. It’s also why you’ll find a nine-month certificate program for data center technicians, of which 100 percent of graduates have landed jobs that pay more than $50,000 per year to start right in our local area. And it’s why students from anywhere across our 18,000-square-mile district can earn an entire associate’s degree online or in one of our convenient regional centers. BMCC takes extreme pride in being an integral part of our Eastern Oregon community. The college has strong partnerships with local K-12 schools, industry partners, government entities and others to support the region’s efforts to thrive and grow. BMCC is honored to host a wide variety of speakers, presentations and cultural exhibits throughout the year, including the upcoming annual Arts and Culture Festival the week of April 16 in Pendleton and Hermiston. To top it all off, BMCC has very talented faculty and staff who work every day to put students first. Our students are the heart of BMCC, and are the reason the college exists. Our employees are committed to student success and to helping students achieve their goals. So stop by a BMCC location to see what Blue can do for you. Chris Brown, chair BMCC Board of Education Vote for new Hermiston-area livestock district In a few days, residents of Hat Rock and Salmon Point will receive ballots for a special election to change the designation of this area from “open range” to “livestock district.” With 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. the passage of this ballot, livestock would be contained within the livestock owner’s land and could no longer graze on other properties within the proposed district. With the development of housing in the Salmon Point area, open range is no longer a viable option. We are asking Hat Rock and Salmon Point residents to consider voting for this proposed change. Bob and Sue Keys Hermiston Mann Lake is in peril Your story about Mann Lake (March 31, Page 6C), and the cutthroat trout interested me as I recall catching brown trout there in the 1960s. Mann Lake today is in peril. It is all that is left of the once great Alvord Lake. The history of Mann Lake dates from about 1871 when Philip Mann founded Mann Lake Ranch and in 1875 formed a partnership with Captain Andrew Smith as Smith & Mann and the Bar G Iron. Around 1880, John Devine and W.B. Todhunter (Devine & Todhunter) had purchased the holdings of Abbott & Whiteside, which by then included Mann Lake, lying in the foothills on the east side of Steens Mountain. Devine’s Alvord Ranch lay east in the Steens Mountain foothills and west of Alvord Desert. In 1885, Devine & Todhunter were running four ranches: Island, Juniper, Mann Lake and White Horse. Apparently Smith & Mann became indebted to John Catlow, a gold miner who struck it rich and invested in cattle (he knew miners had to eat). There is evidence Catlow purchased the Smith & Mann Bar G Iron as Catlow’s ranch manager, David Shirk, is reported to have driven Smith & Mann cattle to Catlow’s ranch on Trout Creek before Catlow sold out. In the last years of the cattle baron’s success, Henry Miller’s Pacific Livestock Company owned them all; however, Roaring Springs Ranch (once headquarters for Peter French in the 1890s) today is a producing livestock industry and lies west of Mann Lake. According to Mike Hanley of Jordan Valley, who brings his restored stagecoach to the annual Round-Up Westward Ho! Parade, and other historians, Mann Lake is all that is left of the once great Alvord Lake. Dr. Dorys C. Grover Pendleton ACRAMENTO, Calif. — As court itself laid the groundwork for the California sun burned the extrajudicial killings by police away the haze on Easter Eve, officers that we keep seeing. This a few hundred people gathered at ruling has become scripture for law yet another rally for Stephon Clark enforcement. at the picturesque Cesar E. Chavez As Police Magazine wrote in Plaza across from City Hall. 2014: Clark is the unarmed black man, “A generation of officers has a young father of two boys, who Charles been trained in the case’s practical was shot to death two weeks ago in meaning and has spent decades Blow his grandmother’s backyard. applying it to every use-of-force Comment The police were investigating decision. So it has become part a vandalism complaint when they of law enforcement DNA, often encountered Clark, firing 20 shots at him. unnoticed as it works in the background to According to an independent autopsy determine our actions.” commissioned by Clark’s family, eight of What is “objectively reasonable” the bullets found their mark, six of them is clearly a subjective determination, entering his body through his back. No and when the assessment interacts with weapon was found on Clark — only his race, class, gender and the stereotypical cellphone. perception of criminality and propensity for People showed up with placards and violence surrounding those classifications, optimism for change and justice, but the “objectively reasonable” standard can dogged by the shadow of other such easily become corrupted and used more as shootings where legal accountability has a badge of permission and a shield against been thwarted. liability. I try to come to each of these moments In a utopian society where people with a fresh perspective, but I am did not discriminate — consciously undermined and betrayed by having or subconsciously — “objective covered too many of them. reasonableness” would be a perfectly I can’t escape the reality that there is a serviceable standard. But we don’t live in ritualization of these traumas in which the that world; we live in this one. shootings serve as catalysts, a lancing of We live in a world in which, as The New the boil, in which decades of oppression, York Times reported in 2016 about a study neglect, desperation and hopelessness issued by the Center for Policing Equality: finds a venting valve. And what starts “African-Americans are far more likely as white-hot rage slowly cools into a than whites and other groups to be the dispassionate disappointment in a system victims of use of force by the police, even that, it is revealed, is operating as designed. when racial disparities in crime are taken Each protest is undoubtedly about the into account.” case at hand, but collectively they are also The courts have given police officers about communities that feel abused and broad discretion, but they simply aren’t betrayed in a country that sees them as applying that discretion equitably. Certain expendable. It is not a “local matter,” as people, in certain communities, are viewed the White House suggested last week, but a as more of a threat more quickly. national disgrace. This ignoring of the racial realities on Efforts at policy reform — better the ground is not only an issue of police training, utilization of body cameras (which officers. The police are merely articulating the officers in Clark’s case suspiciously and enforcing American ideals. Not only muted after shooting him), changes in rules do police actions demonstrate inequity of pursuit — can have an effect, but they on the ground, but policymakers, and can’t fully remedy this problem. therefore policies, ignore that inequity, and These shootings keep happening and by extension we the public who elect those officers are rarely charged with crimes — policymakers ignore it. and even more rarely convicted — because These shootings keep happening what they are doing is legal. That is the true because, on some level, America finds American tragedy. them acceptable, finds them unfortunate In the 1989 case of Graham v. Connor, but unavoidable. We regard the dead as the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourth collateral damage in a quest for safety Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” and civility, not registering that the standard overrode the amendment’s countenancing of such killings exposes protections “against unreasonable in us a predisposition for racially skewed searches and seizures” and even the Fifth cruelty and brutality. Amendment’s admonition that no person Stephon Clark is not only a casualty shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or of this particular shooting, but he is also property, without due process of law.” a casualty of American moral paucity, By ruling that an officer’s use of race-hostile policies and corrosive force must only meet the “objectively jurisprudence. The sound of his body reasonable” standard while allowing that falling to the ground became just another “police officers are often forced to make beat in America’s rhythm of state- split-second judgments — in circumstances sanctioned tragedy. that are tense, uncertain and rapidly ■ evolving — about the amount of force that Charles M. Blow has been a New York is necessary in a particular situation,” the Times Op-Ed columnist since 2008. 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.