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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Friday, August 17, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor Founded October 16, 1875 Tip of the hat, kick in the pants A tip of the hat to the young musicians and their sage counselors at this week’s Rock & Roll Camp at the Pendleton Center for the Arts. It’s startling to note that most Americans were born after Elvis Presley’s death 41 years ago this week, and yet the rock ’n’ roll spirit he and so many of his forebearers brought into the mainstream lives on. It’s a musical form that often finds itself encumbered by excess and elitism, but is born anew each time a person picks up an instrument or microphone with the intention of sharing their vision with the world. The result may sound like Elvis Presley or Frank Zappa, Chubby Checker or Sleater-Kinney, Fugazi or Aretha Franklin, or maybe like nothing that’s come before it. And you’ve got a chance to get in on the ground floor. Friday at 7 p.m. on Main Street, the young bands and performers who have been working all week will share their songs from the stage. We encourage you to go support them and maybe hear the future of the genre. Long live rock ’n’ roll. A tip of the hat to the community supporters who make the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center a force for good in the world of agriculture. A new rock monument was dedicated in the entryway of the station this week, commemorating more than 100 businesses, organizations and individuals who have played instrumental roles at the station. Director Phil Hamm spoke about the Staff photo by E.J. Harris Counselor Gus Epstein, right, helps camper Justin Carey, 13, with a keyboard part to a song as camper Andi Bates, 16, looks on Wednesday at the Rock & Roll Camp in Pendleton. countless hours and substantial financial contribution spent making the center what he calls the best in the state. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden also applauded the station’s accomplishments. The average citizen may take for granted that improving yields, irrigation efficiency and treating crop disease have a real impact on the world, but the researchers on staff and those in the farming community sure don’t. Because of the research at the station and others like it, we’re able to share our bounty and feed the world. OTHER VIEWS This is your brain on Omarosa T YOUR VIEWS New fairgrounds aren’t living up to hype After two years in the new facility, it is glaringly obvious that the only things the Umatilla County Fair Board are interested in are the carnival and rodeo. I don’t have any acquaintance with the livestock show portion, so won’t comment on that. But stuffing exhibits formerly housed in Thompson, Price and Hoeft halls into the undersized “Event Center” shows exactly what the board thinks about these former mainstays of rural county fairs. They have shortchanged everyone who enters any non-animal displays. Fine arts, creative arts, photography, needlecraft, clothing, foods, and creative kids entries are all smashed together in hallways and corridors. Open class clothing is not so much displayed as just shelved. Neither the creators who entered their work nor the people who, once upon a time, came to the fair specifically to see these examples of fine craftsmanship can see anything beyond perhaps a square of folded fabric. The board’s attempts to kill these categories so that they don’t have to bother with them any more have pretty well succeeded. “Don’t worry about these displays — nobody enters them any more.” That’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. And when the makers go away, the lookers go away. But the board doesn’t care, obviously, because they’ve still got a carnival that blows into town, sucks thousands of dollars out of local pockets, and goes down the road to the next little village hungry for overpriced “thrill” rides and greasy food. Local food booths, by and large, are either in remote parts of the grounds (out by the livestock barns) or behind the fence around the rodeo grounds — so if you have mobility issues that make it difficult to get across the carnival area, or if you can’t afford the price of a rodeo ticket, that means you don’t get to support your local service organizations by buying a meal or beverage from them. The rodeo is a fine event and draws top- quality competitors and stock ... but the rodeo really doesn’t need the fair. (What it needs is a way to get attendees out of the parking lot at the end of the show in less than 45 minutes, but I digress.) The citizens of Umatilla County in general, and Hermiston in particular, have been royally hornswoggled by this white elephant of an Event Center, whose backers promised pie in the sky and delivered little more than a pocket full of crumbs. Lynda Carraher Umatilla CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES U.S. SENATORS Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande office: 541-962-7691 Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton office: 541-278-1129 U.S. REPRESENTATIVE Greg Walden 185 Rayburn House Office Building 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. Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6730 La Grande office: 541-624-2400 REPRESENTATIVES Greg Barreto, District 58 900 Court St. NE, H-38 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1458 Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us Greg Smith, District 57 900 Court St. NE, H-482 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1457 Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us here will be no mention of especially as it relates to issues of Omarosa in today’s column. race, gender, power, and media None. There are things that credibility. But — and I’m saying this only for the narrow purposes of matter — the parlous military this column — shouldn’t we care situation in Afghanistan, for that U.S. airpower had to be called example — and Omarosa and her in to dislodge the Taliban from explosive new tell-all, “Unhinged: Ghazni after elite Afghan army An Insider’s Account of the Trump Bret commandos were routed by the White House,” which is published Stephens insurgents? by Gallery Books, a division of Comment OK, we might as well admit Simon & Schuster, just isn’t one of we don’t care. Not now. Because, them. if what former campaign spokeswoman Period. Look, I’m not saying it wouldn’t matter Katrina Pierson says on the Omarosa recording from 2016 is true, then what if it turned out, as Omarosa alleges in Pierson said the other night on Fox isn’t “Unhinged,” that there could be a tape of true, which doesn’t necessarily mean there Donald Trump using an infamous racial is a tape, but does mean that he — that slur. That, indeed, would be newsworthy, is, Trump — said it. At the very least, it assuming it’s true. means that she, Pierson, said he said it, I’m also not saying that Omarosa’s even if she now says he didn’t. claim to NBC’s Chuck Todd that she And this should be of interest to all personally heard the tape of him using that slur after her book went to press should be Americans. Well, maybe not for the 14,000 or so dismissed out of hand. But so far it’s just U.S. troops currently sweating it out in hearsay and speculation, and hence not Afghanistan, with nary a notice from the worthy of a column. country that sent them there. But they’re I mean, at least it’s not worthy of one the ones who volunteered to be in Trump’s yet. This is why this column will stick Army. Who volunteered the rest of us? to Afghanistan, where hundreds are We’re stuck living in a nightmare dead after the Taliban nearly overran the in which the president spends his time strategic city of Ghazni. on Twitter saying terrible things about Granted, it is interesting that White all sorts of people, including Omarosa. House press secretary Sarah Huckabee And while we used to think of her as a Sanders “can’t guarantee” that the conniving celebrity-seeker who would president had never used the notorious scruple at nothing to get her way, we are epithet. Is this not a non-denial denial? prepared to forgive her. Because she is an If Sanders isn’t unwilling to give the eyewitness. A victim. A whistleblower. A president the benefit of the doubt on some weapon for our cause. of his other dubious claims, why would In a word: a Resister. she be willing to be less-than-categorical At some point in the future — give it a now? month or two — the Resistance will have But this, too, remains to be confirmed. to ask itself whether its interests were Meanwhile, Pakistan, with its expanding well-served by presenting, as a key witness nuclear arsenal, deteriorating economic for its side, perhaps the only person in the situation, and ever closer ties to China, White House with less credibility than appears set to get a prime minister with the president. The Resistance might also pronounced sympathies for the Taliban. wonder whether the obsessive focus on How should U.S. policymakers respond? which racial slur Trump might or might That’s a significant question, with not have uttered many years ago matters to serious implications for long-term U.S. the average American. If “grab them by the strategy in Afghanistan and throughout p—” didn’t sink Trump as a presidential South Asia. And the last thing anyone candidate, why should “n—” sink him this should want is to have it obscured by time? the still-unproven allegations from For now, however, the biggest single Omarosa. beneficiary of the Omarosa obsession is, I don’t mean to suggest that Omarosa hasn’t been able to corroborate some of her of course, the president. Carnival shows are his preferred form of politics, and claims with surreptitious audio recordings Omarosa (in her latest incarnation) is the of conversations with Trump, Chief of fresh new act. We elected Donald Trump Staff John Kelly, and assorted campaign to keep us jittery and entertained. He’s aides. Nor would I claim that doubts delivered. about Omarosa’s credibility shouldn’t be Afghanistan and other hard subjects weighed against graver doubts about the will have to wait for another column. credibility of the president and his senior Another administration, too. advisers. ■ On the contrary, I’ll be the first to Bret Stephens is a columnist for the acknowledge that we urgently need to have a national conversation about all this, New York Times. 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.
