Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Friday, November 2, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor Founded October 16, 1875 Tip of the hat, kick in the pants A kick in the pants to anyone who has decided their vote in Eastern Oregon doesn’t matter and plans to skip this election. We realize that you, dear newspaper reader, have most likely already voted or have every intention to. Those who are engaged with the local news are generally more likely to take part in other civic responsibilities. (You make the best jurors, too). But Umatilla County is regularly the worst in the state about getting our ballots to the box before election day, and that’s a shame. If you’re on the fence about whether to vote, consider this your spur to action. It’s true, the greater Portland area will drive the statewide races and ballot measures. But the governor’s race in particular could come down to the wire, and Umatilla County can’t afford to leave 40 percent of its electoral power in the envelope on the kitchen counter. For one, lackluster voter turnout sends the message we’re not really paying attention. That’s not a good message to send to Salem or D.C. But it also discounts the fact that we’ve got plenty of local decisions to be made, and it’s not right to allow a minority of citizens to make them. That doesn’t mean we recommend voting simply for the sake of it. If your election guide arrived missing the Umatilla County section, you can find those pages online or pick up a hard copy at the county courthouse. We’ve made our endorsements, and if you missed them they’re on our website. It’s also OK to skip lines on your ballot, or write in a candidate if you don’t like the options presented. There are some measures or races that you may not care about, and it’s better to skip those than to skip everything. You’ve got four days until this is all over. Take a few minutes this weekend to go through the ballot and make your voice heard. A tip of the hat to the educators who go above and beyond for their students, investing their own lives in helping them succeed. This week we featured two such teachers, Amber Doremus and Dulcie Hays, who have been recognized with statewide awards for the efforts. Doremus, a middle school teacher in Weston, earned the Oregon Small School Association Teacher of the Year award. She has taught math, reading, social studies, science, and health in her career, and even does a period of physical education at the small school. Whatever class she’s in, Doremus’ focus is on the students. Hays earned the GED Educator of the Year award for her work with a different group of students — inmates at Two Rivers Correctional Institution. She spent many of her early years feeling abandoned and overlooked, and she uses that understanding to build up her students and help them prepare for a transition out of prison and back into the workforce. Education is the key to a better life, and every teacher strives to open those possibilities for their students. We applaud these two for setting the bar high. OTHER VIEWS Voters, you’re being manipulated W hen the bigot who shot up a Pittsburgh synagogue arrived at the local hospital emergency room to be treated for his injuries, he was shouting, “Kill all the Jews.” He was then promptly treated, very professionally, by three Jews. The hospital president, Jeffrey K. Cohen, a member of the congregation that had been attacked, met there with the suspect to ask respectfully how he was doing. (I try to avoid using the names of mass shooters, to avoid giving them attention they sometime crave.) “He asked me who I was,” Cohen told ABC News. “I said, ‘I’m Dr. Cohen, the Nicholas president of the hospital.’” Side by side with the worst of humanity Kristof we find the best. And in Pittsburgh, Comment there was more of the best. The Muslim community promptly raised $214,000 for the victims of the synagogue shooting and offered to provide security for Jews in the area. HIAS, the Jewish agency whose assistance for refugees infuriated the synagogue attacker (he blamed Jews for bringing in brown people in the caravan from Central America), has been flooded with donations, many from non- Jews. As my own feeble way to challenge hatred, I donated to HIAS on Saturday and suggested to my newsletter readers that they might as well. If we all find our own ways to light a candle, we can drive out the enveloping darkness. These expressions of our shared humanity are important in and of themselves, but also as a way of fighting back at the fear and loathing that are being weaponized in this election cycle. One example: the breathless fear-mongering about the caravan still almost 1,000 miles away in Mexico. Let’s be blunt: Voters, you are being manipulated. President Donald Trump has described the caravan as an “invasion of our country,” and Fox News referred to it as an invasion more than 60 times in October, along with 75 times on Fox Business Channel, according to CNN. This should be a nonstory. As I’ve written, most in the shrinking caravan will never enter the United States, and they would amount to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of immigrants this year. In just the period of the caravan’s journey, another 16,800 Americans may die from drugs — a real threat! Trump is deploying 5,200 U.S. troops to the southern border and said he may deploy 5,000 or 10,000 more. Even the smaller number is twice as many as are in Syria fighting the Islamic State, and they don’t have anything to do at the border, plus the 45-day deployment may end before the migrants actually arrive. A plausible estimate for the cost of just the smaller deployment is $35 million, which if used more sensibly could instead get 1,600 Americans off opioid addictions. The reason for the talk about invasion is simple: Trump and Fox News are trying to manipulate white voters into supporting Republican candidates. There is considerable evidence from research experiments that scaring people makes them more conservative, at least temporarily. For example, a Yale professor, John Bargh, describes in his book, “Before You Know It,” a study in which liberal college students were asked to imagine their own deaths in detail. Afterward, their views shifted rightward. In another experiment, students were first cautioned about a flu going around, and then asked a series of questions. Simply reminding people about the flu led some to be more negative about immigration. So, no surprise, Fox News is worrying aloud about the caravan bringing disease for want of vaccination. One Fox News “expert” warned that the diseases might include smallpox. (The fact that smallpox was eradicated worldwide four decades ago suggests his level of expertise.) I checked childhood vaccination rates for Honduras, where the caravan began. They are 97 percent, compared with 92 to 95 percent in the United States, according to the World Health Organization. No wonder the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that “the children arriving at U.S. borders pose little risk of spreading infectious diseases.” So Republican candidates conjure monsters to terrify us on a predictable election cycle. In 2010, it was “death panels” and the “Ground Zero mosque.” Four years ago, it was Ebola and ISIS terrorists sneaking in from Mexico. Two years ago it was men using transgender rights to invade women’s bathrooms. Today it’s the caravan. The brilliance of the Trump fear strategy is that scholars find that simply raising identity issues turns whites more conservative. So while Trump’s nonsense about the caravan is easily rebutted, he arouses primal, unconscious fears in white voters that make them more likely to vote Republican. There’s a risk that in responding to the incitement, I am amplifying Trump’s message. But I believe in rationality and our capacity, if warned, to resist manipulation. In Pittsburgh, we saw that heroism could counter evil by relying on the very best instincts of our shared humanity. We need similar heroism from all of us voters, mustering the basic goodness and common sense to defeat the torrent of demagogy, hate and fear. ■ Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who grew up on a sheep farm in Yamhill, Oregon. LIMEY PASTOR Down the rabbit hole once again A loud explosion, then a I don’t remember what I had said, coming together in darkness. but Matt said that I announced that I I opened my eyes and I was was passing out. I turned and threw underneath a desk. I looked up and a my arms in front of me and slammed multitude of my doctor friends were them into the desk and it became around me. dark. “Do you remember what Since I had a heart bypass the happened?” they asked. “The fire previous year, everyone was on the Colin brigade is here, they’re coming.” lookout for an arrhythmia. It seemed Brown Men in uniforms added to the obvious, but it wasn’t. When I got Faith circle of doctors and portable to the hospital and had a flurry of equipment was attached to me. A tests, an x-ray technician rolled into heart monitor was wired to me and doctors my room and took x-rays of my chest. “Do peered at the green on black reporting. you want to see?” she said. “Sure thing,” I remembered having asked Matt if he I said — anything to get a sense of what wanted a coffee, and remember feeling was going on, get a little control. She rolled parched and glazed. I hadn’t had liquid since the machine over to my bed and I saw the the previous night. I hadn’t eaten either. The luminous imagery of my insides. air became yellow and a hiss filled my ears. “What is that?” I exclaimed — as I saw 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. what looked like a luminous jellyfish in the lower lobe of my left lung. “Mmmmm,” said the x-ray technician. I spent the next several days in the hospital, with a diagnosis of pneumonia. In the other lung also is a little dot known (apparently) as a lung nodule, most of which are not terrible. I also had a UTI, which began to bleed once the antibiotics began to be poured into my arteries. Nothing lethal yet. Things improving. But the very good news, that my heart was fine, was very welcome. So I returned to the everyday life with compassionate concern from those who knew me. I am mortified with the knowledge that I am not immortal, but I am loved. I thought of Oregon pastor Jody Becker from Our Savior’s Church in Salem, who the North American Lutheran Church had just sent to Ethiopia to evangelize and serve. How lucky we are to be in a country where our insides can be read like a magazine and medicines can be summoned like magical djinn from the Arabian nights to guard our systems and keep our breath in motion. We are blessed! So forgive me from some brevity in my writing. It will be stronger and longer next week, God willing. God keep us all in good health and peace. Amen. Oh yes, and when do you vote do it for God’s peace and concern. Vote for the Holy! ■ Colin Brown is the former pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Locust Road in Boardman. Email him at LimeyPastor@ usa.net. 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.
