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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Friday, June 15, 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 Pendleton Round-Up’s plans for the old Albertsons building and surrounding property. No one wants to see an asset, such as a large building, meet the wrecking ball. But that bland and too-large former grocery store was never going to fit the bill for what the Round-Up wants and needs for the space. And it’s too close to the Round-Up, and therefore too valuable, to be anything but just right. That’s why we like the idea of moving on, tearing it down and seeing the immediate benefit of additional parking. Down the road, they can expand on the plaza created by the bucking horse statue and museum. And upgrading to a more digital-friendly ticketing system makes a lot of sense. We hope the longterm plan for the former Albertsons property includes more green space, more party space and more market space. If the westward expansion includes more space for rodeo participants and equestrians, it only seems natural to balance that with more space for the fans. Now we just need to fill the other major holes in downtown Pendleton, most notably Pendleton Grain Growers and the former JC Penney. Hopefully a wrecking ball isn’t necessary in either of those renovations. A tip of the hat to the international summit between the United States and North Korea, the first time the heads of those two countries have met in their history. We breathed a sigh of relief as it came to an end. After all, Trump and Kim are known for their bluster and bravado, and sometimes a room isn’t big enough for two men with that personality. But the summit came and went without a catastrophe, which makes us all feel better. No, we don’t think the United States got anything in return for climbing out on this limb, and we don’t trust the North Korean government will hold up their end of the bargain. But the fact that these two heads of state met and spoke and got to know one another is a helpful step toward peace. Staff photo by E.J. Harris The Pendleton Round-Up Association has purchased the old Albertson’s store across from the Pendleton Round-Up Grounds. The store has been vacant since 2014. Or at the very least, it will help deter their former plan of insults and threats that could have escalated into disaster. A tip of the hat to the successful if long-overdue plan to connect clean water to a Milton-Freewater trailer park. The Locust Mobile Village has been struggling through a dangerous water situation for years. State laws were enacted to make sure Milton- Freewater wouldn’t be forced to connect water to the park, which is inside the urban growth boundary but outside city limits. It would have been expensive to do, and it could have set an expensive precedent for other small cities. Then federal dollars were cobbled together to pay the cost, but the city council balked on doing the right thing. And this week, finally, they moved forward with a $457,000 forgivable loan to connect the trailer park to the city’s water system. It’s good for the city — both its future expansion and its current budget. And its good for the people at the Locust Mobile Village, who will soon again have clean, fresh water. OTHER VIEWS How to lose the midterms and re-elect President Trump D YOUR VIEWS Price of rents, mortgages is out of control I read the recent paper about the HUD proposal for rent hikes, “to move people out of poverty,” and had to laugh. I heard years ago, no more than 30 percent of your wages should go for housing. I still believe that should be true. Is holding to that 30 percent even possible these days? Housing (rents and mortgages) have gone nuts all over the country. That is why we are seeing more multi-generational families living under one roof, people living full-time in travel trailers, and people still working into their late 70s. We have lived in Portland, Long Beach, Washington, Pendleton, and now Milton-Freewater. In all those places we saw a large population of people young and old living in travel trailers, and in Long Beach I personally knew several people in their 70s working to supplement their income, and some of them were living full-time in travel trailers. It was how they got by. The people at the top are seriously out of touch with what is really going on. Lenore Moody Milton-Freewater Oregon, local rivers benefit from salmon recovery funds The Milton-Freewater region, and also much of Oregon, has benefited from the federal funding investment of the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Funds that have come to Oregon to restore salmon and steelhead populations in our rivers. Locally, in the Milton-Freewater area, the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council has competed for, and received, PCSRF dollars offered by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board through a competitive grants program. The Watershed Council matches these PCSRF funds with property owner 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. cost share dollars, Bonneville Power Administration funds, other state grants, and private foundation funds to enhance the Walla Walla River and its tributaries. Project improvements have included irrigation district water delivery efficiency, on farm water use efficiency, fish passage, fish habitat, and monitoring the improved stream flows and water quality. The Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council is a non-profit in the Milton- Freewater area that has been working with the local community for the last 23 years to implement locally acceptable watershed restoration projects. Competitive grants pay for designing and constructing projects that put Oregonians to work. As much as possible, the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council, and other watershed councils and soil and water conservation districts in the region, use local contracting companies and locally sourced materials such as fencing, irrigation pipe, quarry rock, and trees to build projects. We appreciate our Oregon congressional delegation’s work (Senator Jeff Merkley, Senator Ron Wyden, and Representative Greg Walden) in past years to secure these funds for Oregon. Locally, the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council has used these dollars to implement river habitat restoration, fish passage, irrigation efficiency, managed aquifer recharge projects, and surface water and groundwater monitoring work in Northeast Umatilla County. Many of these projects have reduced Endangered Species Act (ESA) liabilities for people that live along, or use irrigation water from, the Walla Walla River where ESA listed aquatic species are present. The Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Funds received and used across Oregon have typically been $10-15 million a year. Hopefully this successful program that benefits Oregon will continue. John Zerba, chair Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council ear Robert De Niro, Washington paralysis. They’re not Samantha Bee and other frothing at the mouth about Trump. Trump haters: They understand that they don’t need to. He’s the most exhaustively I get that you’re angry. I’m chronicled and psychologically angry, too. But anger isn’t a transparent president in the strategy. Sometimes it’s a trap. lifetimes of most American voters, When you find yourself spewing who already know how they feel four-letter words, you’ve fallen Frank about him. What they’re less certain into it. You’ve chosen cheap Bruni about are their alternatives. If you theatrics over the long game, Comment want to make sure that at least one catharsis over cunning. You think chamber is a check on Trump, talk you’re raising your fist when to them about that. you’re really raising a white flag. And do so in a vocabulary that’s You’re right that Donald Trump is a measured, not hysterical. Enough with dangerous and deeply offensive man, and “idiot” and “moron.” They’re schoolyard that restraining and containing him are and splenetic. urgent business. You’re wrong about how Enough with Hitler, too. Has Trump to go about doing that, or at least you’re letting your emotions get the better of you. shown fascistic tendencies? Yes. Is he the second coming of the Third Reich? No. When you answer name-calling with Nor are the spineless Republicans who name-calling and tantrums with tantrums, have enabled him Nazi collaborators. you’re not resisting him. You’re mirroring I’m not urging complacency. But when him. You’re not diminishing him. You’re you invoke the darkest historical analogies, demeaning yourselves. Many voters don’t hear your arguments or the facts, which are you lose many of the very Americans you’re trying to win over. What you’re on your side. They just wince at the din. saying isn’t what they’re seeing. It’s You permit them to see you as you see Trump: deranged. Why would they choose overreach in their eyes. And when you make the direst a different path if it goes to another ugly predictions, you needlessly put your destination? credibility on the line. The stock market Of course this is broader than De Niro, didn’t go into free fall after Trump’s bigger than Bee and about more than election. We’re not at war with North profanity. It’s about maturity, pragmatism Korea. I’m not ignoring the grave flaws and plain old smarts — and the necessity and galling giveaways in his tax overhaul, of all three when the stakes are this high. and I’m not minimizing his disregard for Many Democrats get that. Maybe norms, including his unwarranted verbal even most do. In the primaries last week attacks on American allies. I’m noting and on Tuesday, Democratic voters by that when you extrapolate too wildly, you and large chose House candidates whose sometimes wind up distracting people appeals were tempered and whose profiles from what’s happening here and now. make them formidable general-election The more noise, the less discernment. contenders. They’re the best bets for The more fury, the less focus. Proportion wooing less partisan voters and snatching and triage are in order, and that means seats currently in Republican hands. The results in Virginia on Tuesday were an end, please, to the Melania madness. Floating the idea that she’s a victim of a perfect example. State Senator Jennifer domestic abuse merely supports Trump’s Wexton, a former federal prosecutor, contention that his critics are reflexive won, and will take on the Republican and unfettered in their contempt for him, incumbent, Barbara Comstock. That was and that all of their complaints should be precisely what Republican strategists viewed through that lens. didn’t want, and at the beginning of the “When they go low, we go high,” said year, they chattered hopefully about another first lady, Michelle Obama in Wexton’s being thwarted by Democratic 2016. It’s a fine set of marching orders, rivals to her left. But she beat the second- disobeyed ever since. place finisher by almost 20 points. De Niro wrested the spotlight from the I’m buoyed by that and by what I’ve Parkland, Florida, teenagers, so that his witnessed when I’ve met with candidates negative message, not their positive one, in potentially red-to-blue House districts. was the big story. He squandered a chance They’re not getting bogged down in to model a bearing more dignified than impeachment talk, which can sound to Trump’s. many voters like a promise of ceaseless — Frank Bruni, New York Times partisan rancor and never-ending 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.
