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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Thursday, August 2, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEWS Back to school W ednesday was my last day at the up and down the education ladder. And East Oregonian, after nearly six we must understand that other regions and years here as deputy managing countries are making those investments. editor and opinion page editor. Eventually, young people are going to After moving willy-nilly from Montana, want to put all that education into action. Pendleton turned out to be a wonderful place Creating the conditions where they can to live and do journalism. I learned succeed — and not choose to flee what a piggin’ string is and how to like me to a larger metropolis — is drive a manual transmission wheat the key question facing municipal truck. I hosted and partied with the officials and private citizens from Northwest musicians who invariably Umatilla to Ukiah. Surprising to no stop in Pendleton on their cross- one, young people think differently region trips, and I caught my first than the generations before them, steelhead and then my second and and they expect their communities third and fourth and fifth. And then to keep up with the times. I think Tim I lost count. I helped the newspaper the digital transformation of our Trainor economy, our social lives and our win nearly annual awards as the best Comment small daily in the state. And I go out world in general will be similar in with us still on top. scale to the industrial revolution. I mention this not to brag, but The way society functions and to remind communities about their role in is organized is changing quickly and creating and supporting successful, happy, dramatically. Those with the ideas and skills improving people. In some ways Eastern to compete in this new reality will thrive; Oregon is excellent at this — in small cities those who do not adapt will struggle. and companies there is no one holding you That is certainly the case in journalism, back from doing more, from doing something where the sea change is arriving quickly. new and different and making it your own. That is part of the reason my next stop We learn a lot in that kind of environment, is Portland to earn a master’s degree in even if our first go at something doesn’t work multimedia journalism from the University out exactly as we hoped. That sort of spirit of Oregon. My time at the EO has is the backbone of small town life, of people coincided with a time of nationwide layoffs filling niches that naturally arise in places in the newspaper industry, and the arrival where everything is a little spread out. of a president who berates the press and We can do better, of course. Supporting tries to convince his supporters not to trust education — from pre-K to college and their work. The technological and societal beyond — is a critical way for communities changes that are affecting the industry make to get the most out of their talented it clear we need a new approach — and fast, human capital. In Pendleton we’ve seen before the tsunami hits. real progress with an all-hands-on-deck Because the statistics are clear: When preschool and kindergarten program, which a local newspaper closes, tax rates rise, gives young students the skills to begin corruption increases, crime increases, their educational careers. That’s wonderful, government salaries increase. An academic though there are opportunities to do more study released in May showed that when EO Media Group photo Tim Trainor reels in a fish under the guidance of Drake Radditz on the North Fork Nehalem River. a local paper shuts down, the county increased wages by an average of $1.4 million and hired an average of four more government employees per 1,000 residents. The burden on taxpayers increased accordingly. That’s the average — and then there are the outliers. The California city of Bell’s only local paper closed in the early 1990s. In 1993 the city hired a town manager at a starting salary of about $70,000. By 2010, the same town manager was making more than $785,000 per year. These are problems that the vigilance of local journalists can help uncover, or even more efficiently we can help avoid them altogether. I’d like to be involved in doing so, which is one reason I’m headed back for additional education and introductions to the latest technology. I think we must do journalism differently than we have been doing it in order to remain viable and valuable. The East Oregonian is taking on that effort. Hopefully I will be doing that again soon. I’m convinced rural Oregon is where the most interesting stories in the state are right now, and will be for the foreseeable future. The environmental and cultural stresses that are tugging at Eastern Oregon are dramatic and interesting. Water and fire will play a major role. Recreational opportunities and commodity prices will, too. Its relationship with Salem and Washington, D.C., matters. And how Eastern Oregon supports its young people and its entrepreneurs is the bedrock upon which all other issues rest. Thanks to all who are making progress on these fronts, and to the people who have created the supportive environment that exists in Eastern Oregon. It has helped me, and it will help those who come after. ■ Tim Trainor was the opinion page and deputy managing editor of The East Orego- nian from 2012-2018. OTHER VIEWS The third-party option I YOUR VIEWS Nothing racist about trying to restrict immigration The cartoon on the editorial page of the weekend edition (July 28-29) attributing the desire to repeal Oregon’s sanctuary law with racism was interesting. So, wanting people to enter this coun- try legally is “racism?” Wanting your state to enforce federal law and stop aiding and abetting criminal behavior — i.e. illegal entry — is “racism?” Interesting. John Kaufman Pendleton Trump knows difference between good and bad I agree 100 percent of what Stuart Dick says about the media and Trump. Every thing I read about our President has been negative. No, I don’t believe all news reporters are brilliant — they just want to keep their jobs or sell advertising. Too bad the media doesn’t have an ethics standard. I just read an article regarding the real story of Beng- hazi. Nobody got it right. It’s almost nine years since the event and it is now defunct. God, the poor bastards who gave their lives. What about retaliation? Nah, throw the SEALs into a grave and press on. I believe President Trump is on the right course. He has guts, a normal amount of intelligence and a great idea of what is good and bad. The weenies of the country — unfortunately, a great majority of “us” — don’t really care. 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. Just remember that every soldier (Marine, Navy, Army, Air Force) who has lost a limb in this ridiculous war won’t receive anywhere near the care they receive from hospitals too lacking in complete care to give them a new life. Ridiculous. Chuck McKee Pendleton SNAP dollars stretched at Pendleton Farmers Market Partnerships and cooperation are the key to successful communities. Pendleton Farmers Market (PFM) is elated to partner with the Umatilla County Public Health Department to help increase the ability of SNAP clients to make fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits part of their regular diet. The Public Health Department has provided PFM with a second $2,000 grant, the first was awarded at the start of the market season, to increase the buying power of individuals and families who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. PFM will provide up to a $15 match to SNAP clients who purchase PFM tokens at the Friday market. Thanks to the generosity of Public Health, PFM expects to continue the SNAP match through this market season. That’s good news for SNAP clients, PFM vendors and the greater Pendleton community. Hal McCune, president Pendleton Farmers Market s there room for a third party? disillusioned with federal action. If some independent mounted a Only 18 percent of Americans presidential bid in 2020, would say the federal government does the right thing most or nearly all of that person have a chance? the time. In July 2016, as Ronald Those are questions we won’t be Brownstein has pointed out, only able to answer for a few years. If 29 percent of Donald Trump the Democrats nominate somebody supporters and 23 percent of like Mitch Landrieu, the answer David Hillary Clinton supporters thought is no. Landrieu is a progressive Brooks that electing their candidate would former mayor of New Orleans Comment actually lead to progress. whose personal style would play In this new context, a third-party well with the white working class candidate might run on what Hais, and whose convictions and history Ross and Winograd call constitutional play well with African-Americans and localism. The constitutional part means other groups. A Democrat like Landrieu preserving the civil rights safeguards would occupy all the non-Trump space enshrined in the Constitution. The localism and make a meaningful third-party run part means a radical decentralization of impossible. other powers, to the levels of authority But suppose the Democrats nominate people have faith in. one of the senators who are now sprinting Part of the solution is devolving power leftward to catch up with what they to towns and cities, but as Bruce Katz and perceive to be the Democratic base. Jeremy Nowak write in their book, “The In that case, there would be room for New Localism,” “New Localism is not the a third party. But that bid would not work same as local government.” if it were trying to present a moderate or Across the country, power is being centrist or pragmatic alternative to the two party ideologies. There is no evidence that most effectively wielded by civic councils there are enough centrists or “pragmatists” — organically formed groups of local officials, business leaders, neighborhood to threaten the two-party duopoly. organizations. The members may have To have a chance, the third-party different racial, class and partisan candidate would have to emerge as the most radical person in the race. That person identities, but they have one shared identity — love of their community. My colleague would have to argue that the Republicans Thomas Friedman wrote about one such and Democrats are just two sides of a council in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If you Washington-centric power structure that want to see others you probably don’t has ground to a halt. That person would have to travel far — Winston-Salem, have to promise to radically redistribute Indianapolis, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Denver, power across American society. Grand Rapids. Power in these places is As Mike Hais, Doug Ross and Morley not just wielded at the ballot box; it is Winograd argue in their book, “Healing wielded by movements and collaboratives American Democracy,” the current in a thousand ways. According to a 2015 Washington-centric power structure Heartland Monitor poll, 66 percent of emerged during the New Deal. In those Americans believe that their local area is days and for decades after, the country moving in the right direction. was pretty homogeneous, trust in big These local efforts need a national institutions was high and the federal leader in part because while it’s easy to government worked more effectively than say, “devolve power,” actually doing it is state and local governments to build a complicated. For example, civil rights is safety net and break up local economic the area where the national government oligarchies. was once most clearly superior in many But today, the country is diverse, parts of the country. But these days, trust in big institutions is low, the national partisan divisions overlap with federal government is immobilized by partisanship and debt. Now, state and local our racial divisions, so it’s national demagogues like Trump who most inflame governments are more effective across racial animosity to gain political power. many overlapping domains. ■ It’s no wonder that so many, especially David Brooks became a New York Times millennials (the most diverse generation Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. of voters in our history), have become 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.
