Page 4A
East Oregonian
Friday, June 22, 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 quiet hero in
Molalla who gifted a fortune to local
students.
Don Slaughter worked hard and
led a frugal life. He lived alone in the
90-year-old farmhouse built by his
parents, and he never married nor had
children. But when he passed away, he
left in his will more than $2 million to a
scholarship endowment for students of
Mollalla High School.
What a guy, that Don. This year, 38
students received a total of $125,000
from the scholarship fund, which is
expected to continue in perpetuity.
Slaughter’s story is a wonderful one,
and a reminder that there are many
ways to do good and make a long-term
impact in the lives of others. Even after
we’re gone, our good and bad deeds
continue to ripple out into the world.
Don’s ripples will make it a better
place.
A tip of the hat to Hermiston’s
super siblings — Bailee and Wyatt
Noland — who each patrol the plate
for their high school’s respective
baseball and softball teams.
And they weren’t just starters, each
were team leaders. Bailee hit .443 on
the season, which was second best
on the softball team. She notched 39
hits, scored 25 runs and finished with
a team-best 42 RBIs. Bailee also had
one of the highest on base percentages
(.469) and slugging percentages (.830)
for the Bulldogs.
Wyatt really turned a corner this
Staff photo by Kathy AneySiblings Wyatt and Bailee Noland played the same posi-
tion this season for Hermiston High School, Wyatt on the baseball team and Bailee
for softball.
year. He led the baseball team with
.447 average, on base percentage of
.488 and slugging percentage of .645.
He tied for team-best 14 RBIs with
Ramirez and had the second-most runs
(14), one behind Ramirez with a team-
high 39 runs scored.
A successful season for a successful
pair of siblings. We tip our catcher’s
mask to them.
OTHER VIEWS
Trump wasn’t first to
separate families, but
policy was still evil
resident Donald Trump finally
like no other is an irremediable sense
caved to public pressure and
of loss, of parting. My mother and
promised to stop separating
my little sister left, and I never said
children from parents at the border.
goodbye. It all remains unreal.”
After long insisting that he couldn’t
— Elie Wiesel, “Memoirs,”
do anything about this, he snapped
describing how the Nazis separated
his fingers and changed the policy
his family during the Holocaust
that he had denied was a policy.
“‘I’m going to take your child to
nicholas
Yet the next steps remain unclear
Kristof get bathed.’ That’s one we see again
and of uncertain legality. Will there
and again. ... The child goes off, and
Comment
be internment camps? This hazy
in a half an hour, 20 minutes, the
juncture is a useful opportunity to
parent inquires, ‘Where is my 5-year-
draw lessons.
old?’ ... And they say, “You won’t be seeing
Trump is right that he didn’t begin the
your child again.’”
practice of wrenching
— Anne Chandler,
crying children from their
Tahirih Justice Center, in
parents.
Texas Monthly last week
This fits into a long and
“The children will be
shameful history:
taken care of — put into
“My brothers and sisters
foster care or whatever.”
were bid off first, and one
— John Kelly, White
by one, while my mother,
House Chief of Staff last
paralyzed by grief, held
month
me by the hand. Her turn came, and she
“All I can remember is how much my
was bought by Isaac Riley of Montgomery
son and I were both crying as they took him
County. Then I was offered to the assembled
away. ... It has been about six months since I
purchasers. My mother, half distracted with
last saw my son.”
the thought of parting forever from all her
— A detainee in an ACLU lawsuit filed in
children, pushed through the crowd while
April, describing the seizure of his 13-year-
the bidding for me was going on, to the spot
old son in October
where Riley was standing.
“Womp womp.”
“She fell at his feet and clung to his knees,
— Corey Lewandowski, a Trump
entreating him in tones that a mother only
surrogate, mocking family separations on
could command to buy her baby as well as
Tuesday
herself. ... I must have been then between 5
“My babies started crying when they
and 6 years old. I seem to see and hear my
found out we were going to be separated. It
poor weeping mother now.”
breaks my heart to remember my youngest
— Josiah Henson, a slave in Maryland,
wail: ‘Why do I have to leave? Mami, I
in his account of his life from 1858
want to stay with you!’ My youngest cried
“The Negroes at home are quite
and screamed in protest. ... In tears myself, I
disconsolate but this will soon blow over.
asked my boys to be brave, and I promised
They may see their children again in time.”
we would be together again soon. ... I do
— Thomas Chaplin, a slave owner,
not know where my sons are, and I am very
in 1845, quoted in “Help Me to Find My
worried about them.”
People,” by Heather Andrea Williams
— J.I.L., a Salvadoran woman, in the
“My mother then turned to [her owner]
ACLU suit
and cried, ‘Oh, master, do not take me from
“We have an orchestra here.”
my child!’ Without making any reply, he
— A Border Patrol agent joking last
gave her two or three heavy blows on the
week as children cried inconsolably after
shoulders with his raw hide, snatched me
being taken from their parents
from her arms, handed me to my master, and
So, Mr. President, you’re right that
seizing her by one arm, dragged her back. ...
you didn’t start family separation. Today’s
The cries of my poor parent became more
practice is not the same as slavery or Nazism,
and more indistinct. ... The horrors of that day but it still fits neatly into the annals of
sank deeply into my heart.”
barbarism.
— Charles Ball, whose 1837
I hope you will genuinely stop this
autobiography of a life in slavery included
cruelty. One lesson from this history is that
this discussion of his separation from his
while there are always apologists at the
mother at the age of 4
time, ultimately we come to appreciate that
The black family “suffers little by
to wrench shrieking children from the arms
separation.”
of their parents is not just cruel, not just
— Thomas R.R. Cobb, a proslavery
abhorrent, but truly evil.
■
legal scholar, in 1858
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
“I stared intently, trying desperately not to
cherry farm in Yamhill. Kristof, a colum-
lose sight of my mother, my little sister with
nist for The New York Times since 2001,
her hair of gold and sun, my grandmother,
writes op-ed columns that appear twice a
my older sisters. I see them always, for I am
still looking for them, trying to embrace them week. He won the Pulitzer Prize two times,
in 1990 and 2006.
one last time. ... What remains of that night
P
YOUR VIEWS
Separated families show
unbridgeable divide
Use TV white space to bridge
digital divide
How can a country claim to be great,
or aspire to be great, when we see and
continue to allow the mistreatment of
children on our border?
When we think this callous, thoughtless,
hypocritical administration has sunk to its
lowest level, they seem to be able surprise
us with yet another despicable example of
their disregard for basic decency. Family
values? Moral majority? Pro life?
Backed by the majority of the gullible
religious factions in this country, they are
hell bent on leading us into a position of
having to acquiesce on any notion as a
shining example in this world. Trumps
agenda, using children as pawns as a
negotiating strategy, his embrace of leaders
known to have caused immeasurable
suffering among their own people,
his alienation of our allies, his lust for
attention and constant need to boast,
continues to show that we as a country are
on a steep slippery slope to ruin.
The ever-growing divisions in this
country now seem to be unbridgeable.
Trump and his loyal minions have
managed to rip the thin fragile façade of
decency covering our country to reveal
an ugliness to its core. A once possibly
great country on a collision course with a
brutal reality. Hate, fear and ignorance are
unbeatable opponents.
As mayor of Pilot Rock, I firmly
believe that communities should be united
in working to ensure affordable, reliable
internet access in rural areas of Oregon and
throughout the country. About 34 million
Americans lack a broadband connection
and the vast majority — 23.4 million —
live in rural areas.
Of Oregon’s total population (roughly 4
million), 16.2 percent live in rural areas.
For education, business, health care,
agriculture and more, it is critical that we
close the digital divide in rural areas.
One fo the best ways to do this is by
utilizing TV white space, the unused
broadcast frequencies through which
television was traditionally transmitted.
This technology is expected to provide
the best approach to reach approximately
80 percent of the underserved rural
population, particularly in areas with lower
population density.
For this to work, the FCC needs to
set aside sufficient wireless spectrum in
each market of the country for broadband
coverage. Just like the spectrum used for
walkie talkies and garage door openers,
no single company would have exclusive
rights to use the channels, and anyone
offering consumers a better experience at a
lower price could compete.
We hope our elected officials, such as
Congressman Greg Walden, will lead this
effort to help our communities prosper.
David Gracia
Hermiston
Virginia Carnes
Mayor, Pilot Rock
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.
Trump fits into
a long and
shameful history.
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