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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Friday, June 1, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner 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 to the all our graduating seniors, some of whom have already crossed the stage with a diploma in hand, and others who will be doing so in the next week. High school is an important part of everyone’s life, where we learn the basic skills that put us on the road to our future. We make friends, we lose friends, we laugh and cry, and we become better for it. Hopefully all graduates commit to lifelong learning, be it next at a college or university of their choice, or in the military or in the job market. Either way, the lessons and discipline we hope were imparted in your high school classrooms are worth holding on to as you grow up and into the adult you’d like to be. Congrats to all who have earned their diploma, and best of luck to the Class of 2018. A kick in the pants to Donald Trump’s plan to pardon recent white collar criminals who have been found guilty of different types of corruption by the U.S. justice system. Trump announced Thursday that he had pardoned conservative commentator and writer Dinesh D’Souza of his felony campaign finance fraud convictions, in which D’Souza schemed to donate more than legally allowed to a Senate campaign by using proxy donors and repaying them. Carrie Cohen, the woman who prosecuted D’Souza’s case, said he “pled guilty because he was guilty” of knowingly breaking federal law. Trump also threw out trial balloons for pardoning former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was caught on EO file photo Hermiston graduation tape trying to sell a Senate seat and was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Martha Stewart, who served five months in federal prison for committing securities fraud and obstruction of justice. It does seem like Trump is using the pardons to further his narrative that people like him and his rich friends are mistreated by the justice system. But people like Blagojevich have not been treated unfairly. During both his criminal trials, it was clear that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. We supported Trump’s pardon of boxer Jack Johnson last week and supported commuting the sentence of the Hammonds, but we do not support these swampy moves. Using the pardon power to dole out transactional favors is an insult to the office of the presidency and a breach of faith. But it may be more than that: A message to witnesses in a criminal investigation into Trump’s campaign. That’s even more disturbing. OTHER VIEWS Right about Roseanne O YOUR VIEWS Striking the right balance with memo on marijuana Albany Democrat-Herald B illy Williams, the U.S. attorney for Oregon, recently announced his office’s guidelines for cannabis enforcement in the state, and you have to give the prosecutor credit for consistency. In a memo, Williams said his office would target the illicit marijuana mar- ket, work to protect minors, and “priori- tize enforcement of federal marijuana vio- lations that involve or pose a substantial risk of violence.” Williams issued the memo after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided to jettison an Obama-era policy that largely tolerated marijuana in states, like Oregon, where the drug is legal. Nothing in Williams’ memo should have come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following his reaction to Oregon’s continuing experiment with legal pot. And the memo strikes us as a canny attempt to find a response that balances the concerns of Sessions with Williams’ legitimate worries, all the while trying to leave space for the state’s nascent marijuana industry. The essential conflict here is this: Despite the decisions by Oregon vot- ers to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational use, it remains illegal at the federal level. The feds even continue to (ludicrously) classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the category reserved for substances with the highest potential for abuse and with no proven medical benefit. As Williams, his predecessors in Ore- gon and his colleagues across the United States dealt with efforts to legalize pot, the Cole memo gave them some guidance. The election of Donald Trump added uncertainty, since it wasn’t clear what Trump thought about the issue — but the appointment of Sessions, a longtime foe of legalization, seemed to tip the presi- dent’s hand. Sure enough, earlier this year, Sessions revoked the Cole memorandum. 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. Williams’ memo came as a response to Sessions’ decision. The Williams memo carried two over- all messages: First, he said, his office has serious concerns over how marijuana legalization is playing out in Oregon. But it also had this message: In gen- eral, legitimate marijuana businesses do not need to live in constant fear that fed- eral agents will be knocking at the doors, although he declined to give the pot industry the assurance that Gov. Kate Brown sought, that he never would go after a legitimate marijuana business: “I will not make broad proclamations of blanket immunity from prosecution to those who violate federal law,” he wrote. Still, it was enough to calm some of the fears of the state’s marijuana businesses: “I am not going to advise clients to shutter their businesses and I frankly don’t think this will change anyone’s view on invest- ment,” said Dave Kopilak, a Portland law- yer who advises cannabis businesses. With that said, though, it’s clear that marijuana overproduction continues to be a sore spot with Williams: He also hit on a relatively newer point, one that was highlighted during a February marijuana summit he convened: enforce- ment of federal marijuana violations that have “serious adverse effects on federal land or natural resources, including water, air, and listed species.” Examples he gave include cultivating marijuana on federally managed lands, using unlawful pesticides or large amounts of water. The Williams memo won’t be the last word on this topic, of course: Legaliza- tion efforts may finally bear fruit in Con- gress. Or the next U.S. attorney for Oregon could take a harder line. But taken on its own, the memo is a nice piece of work: It doesn’t send a deep chill across the state’s growing marijuana industry, but it doesn’t shy away from the serious issues that have emerged in the wake of legalization. stack. It was the last straw. f course ABC and its parent What about the argument that company Disney were liberals — and, in this case, I — right to cancel the sitcom use another double standard when “Roseanne” after its eponymous we applaud Barr’s dismissal while star, Roseanne Barr, wrote a racist defending the rights of football tweet. There are necessary taboos players who take a knee to protest and essential decencies in every police brutality during the singing morally healthy society. Writing Bret of the national anthem? The play- that Obama administration aide Stephens ers, after all, also don’t have unre- Valerie Jarrett was the baby of Comment stricted First Amendment protec- “Muslim brotherhood & planet tions while wearing the jerseys and of the apes” violates these in the playing in the stadiums of the teams that foulest of ways. pay their salaries. This is not a First Amendment issue. It’s true the players don’t have the legal Constitutional rights are what you’re enti- right. But they have the moral one, espe- tled to in the public sphere, not as an cially when their gesture is dignified, con- employee of a private corporation. Barr’s speech has not been curtailed; she remains sidered and silent (even if I also think it’s mistaken); and when the NFL has aggres- free to opine (and mostly free to tweet) to sively blurred the lines between its com- her heart’s content. She’s just not free to do so while getting $250,000 a show from mercial interests and the totems of Amer- an employer whose reputation she stained ican patriotism. To love freedom is to exercise it. That’s not a function of stand- and whose values she traduced. ing for a song. This is not a “free speech” issue — Barr, too, has exercised her freedom to using “free speech” in the broader, less tell us what she thinks — without, how- legalistic sense of the term. The Univer- sity of Chicago president, Robert Zimmer, ever, the virtues of dignity and consider- ation, never mind silence. And Iger and has made the case that institutions like the ABC Entertainment president, Chan- his, though not strictly subject to the First ning Dungey, exercised their freedom in Amendment, should nonetheless encour- age the free and vigorous exchange of denouncing her tweet and canceling her ideas for the sake of fostering intellectual show. excellence. That’s right. But what Barr To their credit, Dungey and Iger tweeted wasn’t an idea. It was a slur. appeared to be acting on moral princi- ple, and not — as has too often been the This is not a “double standards” issue. case lately — merely surrendering to the With his trademark combination of puer- ile self-pity and fang-toothed nastiness, verdict of a social-media mob. That’s Donald Trump took to Twitter on Wednes- an important distinction. The intelligent day to denounce Disney’s chairman, Rob- defense of free speech should not rest on ert Iger, for not apologizing to him for the the notion that we must tolerate every “HORRIBLE statements made and said form of speech, no matter how offensive. about me on ABC.” But he’s the ultimate It’s that we should lean toward greater tol- erance for speech we dislike, and reserve public figure, whereas Jarrett is a private our harshest penalties only for the worst citizen subjected to unprovoked racial offenders. That requires considered adult attack by an ABC employee. That the judgment, not professional defenestration president fails or refuses to appreciate the via a bad Twitter ratio. distinction is the thousandth reminder of Also to their credit, Dungey and Iger his unfitness for office. acted despite “Roseanne” being a ratings This is not a “one bad tweet” issue. hit. Something mattered more than a bot- In March, I argued that Kevin William- son, the conservative writer briefly hired tom line. The show was supposed to help by The Atlantic, should be judged by the explain, and humanize, Trump’s base to a totality of his work, not by a vile tweet frequently unsympathetic and uncompre- (and, as it later turned out, a discussion on hending public. Through her tweet, Barr managed to do so all too well. Perhaps the a podcast) in which he seemed to suggest reason Trump voters are so frequently the that women who get abortions should be subject of caricature is that they so fre- hanged. quently conform to type. Williamson insists his comments were OK, that’s much too sweeping a state- misunderstood, but that’s another story. ment. I know Trump supporters who The relevant question here is: What’s the don’t conform to type, and many of them “totality” of Barr’s work, at least when it are writers or talking heads. Let’s hear comes to political and racial questions? John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary from them on this — presumably, some- thing other than the muttered excuses and magazine, summed it up perfectly when tendentious whataboutism of a political he described Barr as “a boor,” a “notori- ous believer and propagator of conspir- movement that is capable of saying and acy theories related to 9/11,” and, in all, doing anything except look itself in the “not merely a loose cannon but a MIRVed eye. ICBM ready to go off in all directions at ■ any time.” Bret Stephens won a Pulitzer Prize for Barr’s tweet about Jarrett, in other commentary in 2013. He is a columnist for words, wasn’t the odd needle in the hay- The New York Times. 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.
