Page 4A
East Oregonian
Friday, June 29, 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 Association
of Oregon Rail and Transit Activists,
who are revamping the idea of
connecting rail service between
Portland and Boise. It would include
stops in Pendleton, Hinkle, La
Grande and Baker City as it traveled
between the growing metropolises to
the east and west of us.
The group is not making promises
at this point of the game. They know
it will be a long, hard slog to get train
service up and running once again in
Eastern Oregon — a smaller version of
the Amtrak Pioneer rail of yore. But it’s
good to know someone is working on
the project, and organizing people with a
shared interest in restoring train service.
As driverless cars become the norm,
and as car ownership percentages begin
to dip in coming generations, trains may
once again prove to be a preferred mode
of travel.
It’s worth thinking about that,
planning for future changes, and
keeping our options open. We only wish
previous generations would have kept
the infrastructure that allowed passenger
train travel to be a viable option for
traveling across our region for more
than a century.
A tip of the hat to the decision
by the Oregon Department of
Agriculture and Department of
Environmental Quality to revoke the
waste management permit for Lost
LIMEY PASTOR
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A Union Pacific freight train passes the Heritage Station Museum, which was origi-
nally constructed as Pendleton’s train depot in 1909.
Valley Farm outside Boardman.
This decision was a long time coming
and the right one to make. The public
had lost faith in Lost Valley, and the
large dairy was putting the environment
and human health at risk.
“Over the last year we have used
every regulatory tool available including
civil penalties to gain compliance,”
said ODA Director Alexis Taylor in a
statement. “We believe the owner is not
willing or unable to meet the conditions
of his permit that helps protect human
health and the environment.”
Owner Greg Te Velde may yet
appeal the decision, but in our opinion
what’s done is done. Let’s pack out the
ownership structure associated with Lost
Valley, and start again from scratch with
what is best for Oregon.
OTHER VIEWS
America is guilty of
The wars of the laws neglecting
children: our own
T
I
his has been a painful and
to enter life with one eye than to
fearful time when we have
have two eyes and be thrown into
seen terrible things happen
the fire of hell. See that you do not
to families in the name of the law
despise one of these little ones. For
— a new variant of immigration
I tell you that their angels in heaven
law demanding the separation of
always see the face of my Father in
parent and child, perhaps even
heaven.’”
permanently, as if the law must
This week, the President’s
Colin
be obeyed mindlessly, heartlessly
wife and daughter felt compelled
Brown
and soullessly by people acting as
to launch their own campaign
Faith
automatons and agents of a devilish
of persuasion on their family
operation — and used to terrorize
politician, which did affect the
God’s smallest citizens in his world,
president, for which I give thanks,
and their parents. The shocking sound
for it means that his heart is softened
of children crying and alone, bereft of
by compassion. That is very good. I am
human touch, echoes in our ears leading to
actually feeling quite sorry for him as I
nightmares.
don’t think he had this on his radar.
My friend Dennis reminded me that
And things have changed, and I expect
this is not new. Our native born children
they will continue to change. Nothing is
are also being taken from
more powerful than a child
families, gone never
in need of rescue and many
to return from Oregon
of us will come running
households too — at a rate
seeing a child in danger.
that is twice the national
That is also a very good
average, I understand.
thing. It is a hopeful thing.
Dumped in state facilities and deprived of
In regard to the rising anger of the
loving contact with their own. It is obvious
people, the Attorney General felt moved to
that this also is cruel for the child who is
quote the Apostle Paul and he misquoted
extracted from an Oregon family and kept
Romans 13, using a version with a modern
apart permanently from their parents. We
idiom that used the word “law” for the term
have heard no squeaks of dispute about
“governing authorities.” As if to rise up
these, mostly lower class children of the
against injustice is against God’s will. The
poor, from the media folk. We ignore this
consequence of this is that the Attorney
because it is uncomfortable to know. They
General Jeff Sessions is being called before
are the invisibles.
the ecclesiastic court of his own Methodist
Both of these cruelties must end.
church for teaching false things. (Don’t
A month ago I spent time consoling a
worry, he is not being burned at the stake).
young American woman who had three
Romans: 13 “Let everyone be subject
children pulled from her care, her eldest son to the governing authorities, for there is
being given psychotropic drugs to subdue
no authority except that which God has
him, creating permanent damage. She isn’t
established. The authorities that exist have
getting them back. A legal kidnapping has
been established by God. Consequently,
taken place for this family.
whoever rebels against the authority is
So let us not forget the horrible
rebelling against what God has instituted,
treatment also given to offspring of our
and those who do so will bring judgment on
own land, which I notice the press does not themselves.”
include in the focus of this week’s show of
This language of Paul was given by
horrors.
him to prevent an early bloodshed of his
Jesus said these things to us:
own flock by the Romans and local rulers.
Matthew 18:1-10: “At that time the
He was a political man as well as a devout
disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who,
man. You know things are getting messed
then, is the greatest in the kingdom of
up when the Roman political arena is
heaven?’ He called a little child to him, and affecting our own modern day situation.
placed the child among them. And he said:
Martin Luther promulgated the doctrine
‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and
of “Two Kingdoms” to create some
become like little children, you will never
semblance of order between religious
enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore,
authorities and political authorities,
whoever takes the lowly position of this
between religious law and civil law:
child is the greatest in the kingdom of
compulsion being the hallmark of civil law,
heaven. And whoever welcomes one such
and voluntary obedience being the hallmark
child in my name welcomes me. If anyone
of the Gospel kingdom. It reflects Paul’s
causes one of these little ones — those who thinking.
believe in me — to stumble, it would be
But even in Luther’s 16th century world,
better for them to have a large millstone
the barbarism of removing children from
hung around their neck and to be drowned
their parents was not conceived of.
in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world
I have been thinking very hard of what
because of the things that cause people to
needs to be preached for the safety of
stumble! Such things must come, but woe
the people and out children. I will speak
to the person through whom they come!
of these things next. May you all be the
If your hand or your foot causes you to
protectors of God’s loving law.
stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It
Amen.
is better for you to enter life maimed or
■
crippled than to have two hands or two
Colin Brown is the former pastor
feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if
of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in
your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it
Boardman. You can reach him at colin.
out and throw it away. It is better for you
brown@usa.net.
These cruelties
must end.
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.
t’s not just the kids at the
advanced countries.
border.
Since about 1970, however, as
America systematically
other countries provided universal
shortchanges tens of millions of
health care and built up social safety
nets, American kids have been dying
children, including homegrown
at higher rates. A child is 57 percent
kids. The upshot is that American
more likely to die by the age of 19 in
kids are more likely to be poor, to
U.S. than in our peer countries,
drop out of high school and even to
Nicholas the
according to a study published this
die young than in other advanced
Kristof year in Health Affairs.
countries.
Comment
Half a million American kids still
We tear apart homegrown
suffer from lead poisoning each year.
families, too, through mass
And Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease
incarceration, excessive juvenile detention
specialist at Baylor’s College of Medicine,
and overuse of foster care. One black
warns that here in the United States,
child in 10 spends time in foster care —
“Millions of children living in poverty
and 61,000 foster kids have simply gone
may be affected by toxocariasis, a parasitic
missing since 2000.
roundworm infection.”
Like immigration, the mistreatment
Why do we stiff
of children is an old
kids? Why do we
problem that President
provide universal health
Donald Trump is
care for senior citizens
exacerbating. Here’s
(which is expensive)
a rule of thumb in
but not for children
America for any
(which would be
shortage of resources or
cheap)?
conflict over priorities:
The simple answer:
Kids get screwed.
Kids don’t vote. They
“A shockingly high
depend on us, and we
number of children
fail them.
in the U.S. live in poverty,” the United
If we can broaden the current outrage
Nations special rapporteur on extreme
to the plight of all children in America, we
poverty and human rights, Philip Alston,
could transform lives.
declared in a scathing report. Almost one-
In Arkansas, I once dropped in on the
fifth of American children live in poverty,
home of a struggling 13-year-old boy. It
he noted, and they account for more than
was a filthy flophouse for drug users in a
one-fifth of homeless people.
gang-ridden area. There were no books in
Alston told me that “there’s a very
the house, and no food; the only reason
direct link” between the mistreatment of
the power wasn’t cut off for nonpayment
immigrant children at the border and the
was the pit bull kept to scare off the utility
indifference toward low-income children
crew.
all across the country. The core reason, he
These are difficult problems but not
suggested, is a lack of compassion.
hopeless ones, and we know what works.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to
Early childhood programs in particular
the United Nations, protested the U.N.
make a huge difference: parent coaching,
report, saying, “It is patently ridiculous for
high-quality prekindergarten, lead
the United Nations to examine poverty in
poisoning interventions, social worker
America.”
visits, and mentoring.
Really, Ambassador Haley?
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim
Yes, it’s weird that a U.N. official
cites a study indicating that if the U.S.
tasked with poverty investigates the most
invested in effective early childhood
powerful country in the world — and
programs, the lifelong benefits would be
finds that kids here have worms. I’m
so transformative that American inequality
glad that the U.N. speaks up not only for
could be reduced to Canadian levels.
impoverished children in Congo, but also
We already have a model: When Tony
for those in, say, South Carolina (where
Blair was the British prime minister he
a newborn black child has a shorter life
undertook a major campaign against child
expectancy than a child born in China).
poverty and cut it nearly in half.
Two researchers, Kathryn Edin and
Unfortunately, Trump is moving in the
Luke Shaefer, have found that some 3
million American children live in “extreme opposite direction, cutting benefit programs
in ways that will hurt poor kids. Trump’s
poverty,” with a cash income of less than
$2 per person per day, the global metric for tax cuts add to the deficit — meaning that
we are partying and sticking children with
extreme poverty.
That’s not to say that poverty in America the bill.
A national, bipartisan outcry forced
is comparable to that in poor countries.
Trump to back down from tearing
American kids may go to bed hungry, but
immigrant children from their parents’
very few are stunted from malnutrition,
arms at the border; that was a shared
compared with 38 percent of children in
outpouring of compassion that represented
India.
our country’s best. Now we need a similar
The paradox is that the United States
outcry on behalf of all of America’s
historically was a safe and nurturing place
for children. America helped lead the world children.
■
in mass education, and in 1960 children
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
here died at lower rates than in most other
Why do we
provide universal
health care for
senior citizens, but
not for children?
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
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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.