Page 4A
East Oregonian
Friday, July 6, 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
Tip of the hat to all of the
wonderful Fourth of July
celebrations in Eastern Oregon —
and the people who celebrated safely
and (mostly) fire-free.
From Ione to Hermiston and
Stanfield to Pendleton, Eastern
Oregon puts on a really good show
for America’s day of independence.
For most adults it includes fireworks,
barbecues and Budweisers aplenty —
and dips in pools and rivers to cool off
from the heat. But because that heat
always seems to coincide with the
Fourth, our love of fireworks, beers
and barbecues can be a dangerous
combination. It requires us to keep
our wits about us, burn only legal
fireworks, and keep all kinds off of
pubic lands.
We did pretty good this year.
There was a small fire on
Pendleton’s south hill Thursday night,
and another in Hermiston just after
the big show off the Butte. No major
property was damaged, and no major
injuries were reported. All in all, we
call that a success.
So we tip our hat to everyone who
tipped their hat to our great country,
and to those who did it in a safe and
respectful manner.
A tip of the hat to Rylee Palmer,
the Heppner fourth-grader who
won a national first-place prize in
the “Character Counts!” essay and
drawing contest.
Palmer’s win came with a $250
prize, a schoolwide assembly and
her work prominently displayed on
Heppner’s Main Street at Murray’s
Drug. While those are all wonderful
accomplishments, we hope Rylee’s
essay, which centered around how to
be a good citizen, has an even bigger
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Marina Jordan, left, and Christina Jones wear patriotic themed outfits while watch-
ing the Fourth of July Parade on Wednesday in Pendleton.
impact. May it inspire her family,
schoolmates and neighbors to pitch in
to help the community. We’ll let Rylee
make her pitch:
“Being a good citizen doesn’t just
mean you help yourself, it also means
you help your friends, family and
community. Look at the world around
you. You could probably look at the
first thing you saw and help it. Helping
clean the environment is an easy way
of being a good citizen. Helping the
elderly is a the next step in becoming a
good citizen.
But, the most important thing about
being a good citizen is that you are a
friend. In my picture, there are friends
playing, people picking up trash and
someone helping the elderly.”
We tip our hat to her.
OTHER VIEWS
To hackers, we’re Bambi in the woods
I
YOUR VIEWS
Old Emigrant Road
curls down Cabbage Hill
It was a pleasure to read the editorial
by Chris Rush on Eastern Oregon. My
bird-watching ladies and I go out every
Wednesday to seek birds, wild flowers,
and enjoy the fantastic scenery in Eastern
Oregon. I was also happy to notice Chris
included my hometown of Joseph in his
travels. When I grew up there, it was a
small ranching community but now is an
art center. My mother was an artist so I
believe she would approve of the “new
Joseph.”
I suppose it is the school teacher in me,
but I can’t help but make one correction to
Chris’s editorial. The area called Poverty
Flat is more south of Deadman Pass. The
old road that winds down the hill is “Old
Emigrant Road.” This road was known
locally by many and still is often called
Cabbage Hill.
I always thought it was because the
road wound around the hill like a cabbage,
but learned later it was named after the
wonderful cabbage raised near the top of
the hill. People in the valley often made
the trip up the mountain in late summer
to buy the excellent cabbage. Much of the
crisp cabbage was sliced into crocks for
sauerkraut for winter meals.
Eastern Oregon hasn’t changed that
much since the wagon trains trekked down
the mountain. My hope is it will retain its
wild beauty, with many birds and animals
to enhance it, for future generations to
enjoy.
June Whitten, Pendleton
An informal survey
on Pendleton’s problems
The following is based on conversations
in my daily travels around our city —
opinions expressed by local citizens.
Without citing any specific
accomplishments, the Pendleton City
Council met behind closed doors and
awarded our city manager an eight percent
salary increase based not on any notable
accomplishments, but on parity with other
city managers in our local area.
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.
At the same city council meeting, the
recreations director was introduced and
gave a brief summary of her education
and employment history prior to her
appointment to our Parks and Recreation
Dept. Her job performance as director has
been superb. This is that same individual
that was banished to an obscure office at
one time when the city manager attempted
to give away our Recreation Center.
This same city manager, acting as the
Pendleton Development Commission
executive director, approved a $10,000
grant to a new restaurant for job creation,
only to have it close shortly after receiving
the check. Again, acting as the PDC
director, he recommended a $100,000
grant to a business for construction of
a new facility whose owners admitted
after construction was complete that they
really didn’t need the money. Again, as
PDC director, he supported a $10,000
demolition grant to replace an old turn-
of-century house with a new duplex that
itself did not fit the architectural style
of the historic district, only to end up
with a doublewide trailer. That same city
manager continues to push for additional
financial support of the Pendleton Heights
contractor that left the city holding a bag
of unpaid debt.
Were these missteps all the fault of
the city manager? Perhaps not, but the
ultimate responsibility rests with his
position. This all sounds pretty negative
and I’ve been criticized more than once for
not mentioning the positive, so here goes.
The financial turnarounds of the airport
and the convention center could have
been mentioned by the mayor and council,
but weren’t. That credit had already been
given to those individual managers, so
the council’s decision to eliminate written
comments on his evaluation really makes
no sense.
The fact that the salary of the chief of
police, a position that requires putting
oneself in harm’s way, would exceed the
city manager’s holds no water when you
consider that the governor of Oregon’s
salary doesn’t make it into the top 20 of
state of Oregon employees. Parity? The
survey says hogwash.
Rick Rohde, Pendleton
f you’re worried about
Department and White House
computer systems in 2014, National
terrorism, here’s a bigger threat
Security Agency specialists tried
to lose sleep over: an all-out
to uproot them — and the hackers
cyberattack.
fought back. “It was basically hand-
Suddenly, the electricity goes out
to-hand combat in a network,” Rick
at the office. Cellphone networks
Ledgett, a senior NSA official, told
and the internet have also gone
Sanger.
black, along with subways and
Nicholas
Cyber is the “perfect weapon,”
trains.
Kristof in Sanger’s formulation, because
The roads are jammed because
Comment
attackers typically get off scot-free.
traffic lights aren’t working. Credit
If North Korea had responded to
cards are now just worthless bits of
plastic, and ATMs are nothing but hunks of the Sony Pictures movie “The Interview”
by blowing up cinemas, it might have faced
metal. Gas stations can’t pump gas.
a strong response. Instead, it hacked into
Banks have lost records of depositors’
Sony’s system, destroyed computers and
accounts. Dam floodgates mysteriously
paralyzed the company. In both the Sony
open. Water and sewage treatment plants
and Democratic Party attacks, the hackers
stop working.
enlisted the American news media to
People can’t reach loved ones. Phone
magnify the damage; we in the media were
systems are down, so 911 is useless.
used, and we should reflect on that.
Looters roam the streets. Food and water
Later, North Korean hackers pilfered
soon run out in the cities.
$81 million from the Bangladesh Central
And that’s just the first week.
Bank (they might have gotten away with
Security experts have nightmares like
almost $1 billion, but someone misspelled
that. Countries like Russia and China
“foundation”). For all this, North Korea
have implanted malicious software in the
faced no significant punishment.
American electrical grid, nuclear power
Sanger writes that U.S. officials debated
plants and water systems to have the
whether to punish Vladimir Putin for his
capacity to mount such attacks — and we
hacks by exposing his links to oligarchs,
have done the same to them. Indeed, the
or even by making some of his money
U.S. prepared an extensive plan, Nitro
disappear. But Barack Obama balked,
Zeus, to unplug Iran through cyberattacks,
fearful of what Putin might do next, and
but in the end we never implemented it.
Donald Trump has also dithered.
These are some of the issues explored
Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of the
in an important — and deeply sobering
U.S. Cyber Command, was asked in his
— new book about cyberwarfare, “The
confirmation hearings this year what our
Perfect Weapon,” by my Times colleague
adversaries think will happen if they attack
David Sanger. I’ve known Sanger since
us in cyberspace. “They do not think much
we joined our college newspaper together
will happen,” he replied. “They don’t fear
at the beginning of freshman year, and
us.”
he has spent the decades since exploring
As Sanger writes, “Deterrence is not
the intersections of technology and
working in the cyber realm.” Why wouldn’t
international security — and trying to alert
Putin interfere in our 2018 midterms since
us to our vulnerabilities.
we’re both vulnerable and not serious about
The risks aren’t just of a cyber-Pearl
responding?
Harbor but also of a full spectrum of
We need to establish a cost to
attacks. The Russian hack of Democratic
cyberattacks and help establish norms for
emails should have been a wake-up call.
cyber — a Geneva Convention for hacking.
A senior FBI official told Sanger: “These
The problem is that the U.S. also uses
DNC guys were like Bambi walking in the
cyberwarfare (to destroy Iranian centrifuges
woods, surrounded by hunters. They had
and, apparently, North Korean missiles),
zero chance of surviving an attack. Zero.”
and we don’t want to constrain ourselves.
Even after the attacks we didn’t learn,
Meanwhile, we are becoming ever more
and much of the U.S. is still like Bambi.
vulnerable, partly because daily life is
The Russian hack of the U.S. elections in
becoming more dependent on computers,
2016 should have us on our toes for 2018,
but the Trump administration has done little and partly because cyberoffense is far
ahead of cyberdefense. The U.S. started
to prepare to fight off new hacking.
with a huge advantage, but Russia and
Sanger describes a Russian cyberattack
China have nearly caught up, and Iran and
on the Ukrainian electrical grid shortly
North Korea don’t seem far behind.
before Christmas 2015. Operators of
In the 1990s, we were too complacent
the grid were bewildered: Nothing they
about the risks of terrorism; it took the
clicked on their computers had any effect,
twin towers collapsing to galvanize us. In
and cursors dashed across their screens
the world of cyberspace, we’re still too
to disconnect circuits and delete backup
complacent: Let’s stop playing Bambi!
systems. Finally, the hackers disconnected
■
the backup electrical system, so that the
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
operators in the control room were literally
cherry farm in Yamhill. A columnist for The
in the dark.
New York Times since 2001, he won the
Hackers are increasingly brazen.
Pulitzer Prize in 1990 and 2006.
When Russian hackers infiltrated State
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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Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.