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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Saturday, November 17, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW Code enforcement more than aesthetics L iving in the country can be heavenly — unless you’ve got problem neighbors. Then it can be pure hell. And as much as some would like law enforcement to solve their disputes large and small, that’s simply not a reasonable expectation. In weighing competing priorities, counties and other local governments understandably struggle with how to allocate funds. In the most clear-cut example, in a contest between hiring a sheriff’s deputy or a code officer, protecting the public against outright criminals is always likely to win. Hermiston did step up its code enforcement efforts this summer, adding a second part-time officer to help address problem properties. The police department now oversees the program, where parks and recreation used to be in charge. That is a smart move, as there can be a link between code violations and criminal activity. “Livability issues can have an impact on crime,” police chief Jason Edmiston said in an interview with the East Oregonian earlier this month. “A well-kept, well-lit property is less likely to be a victim of a crime.” And it’s essential to recognize that code disputes can also blow up into crimes. Tempers flare when dogs bark all day or chase other pets. Arguments about illegally burning smelly garbage can turn into escalating threats and even assault. Looming over all this are protections for private property rights. One person’s awful mess may be another’s cherished stockpile of old farm equipment and vehicles kept for parts. Even the most egregious violators deserve due process. But landowners who neglect basic management functions permit smaller issues to fester and grow into neighborhood-wrecking free-for-alls. Violators themselves may be rotten jerks, or simply overwhelmed by poverty, illness or substance abuse. The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office dealt with the worst of this issue last year when it forcefully closed the Rodeo City Inn west of Pendleton. The motel had become a dangerous place, and the owner proved unwilling to make necessary improvements, so the county shut it down and boarded it up. Carried to an extreme, such properties negatively affect the value of neighboring addresses. Lack of appropriate rule enforcement drags Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan Code Enforcement Officer Mike Marcum looks at a ditch where people have dumped trash behind the Hermiston movie theater. everyone down. Beyond admonishing everyone to be better neighbors, what’s the solution? While it will always contain some gray area, code enforcement should be addressed in black and white. It ought to include larger fees for problem properties and shorter time periods before action is taken. Facing the prospect of liens against their property to pay for cleanup and damages, most owners will step up efforts to avoid allowing problems to get out of control. From a broader public perspective, we all can help by letting elected and appointed officials know this is a high priority, and by supporting personnel doing their jobs. Area real estate brokers and agents should wield their considerable influence to make the point that the county’s future depends in part upon a reputation for protecting property values and quality of life. Chambers of commerce should be vigilant to the negative effects of neglected properties around businesses. As the 21st century moves forward, our region will have to accommodate more and more residents. It’s vital that we get along. Intelligent and diligent code enforcement is a key way to ensure this result. OTHER VIEWS The rise of the resentniks T here’s a powerful moment at the start around the world, in Britain, Italy, Germany of Anne Applebaum’s recent essay in and the U.S. The Atlantic. She’s recalling a party Some conservatives stayed on the she threw on Dec. 31, 1999, at her home in political trajectory they were on in 1999. Poland. Many of the hundred-odd guests Others embraced populist nativism. They were Polish, but others flew in from around wandered into territory that is xenophobic, the world for a weekend together, to greet anti-Semitic, authoritarian. Still others were the new millennium. driven leftward by the reactionary revival. Most of the guests were What happened? This is the story conservatives — which in those I would tell. days meant being anti-communist During the Cold War, being a and pro-market, but also believing conservative was a moral cause. You in international alliances like NATO. were fighting communist tyranny — The party was a great success, lasted aligned with Alexander Solzhenitsyn all night and continued into brunch and Lech Walesa. But you were the following day. Everybody felt a somewhat marginalized in your part of the same team. own society. Liberals controlled the David “Nearly two decades later,” Brooks universities, the news media, the Applebaum writes, “I would now Comment cultural high ground, so the right cross the street to avoid some of attracted many people with outsider the people who were at my New personalities. Year’s Eve party.” She estimates that half Then with the election of Reagan the people at that party are no longer on and Thatcher and in the years afterward, speaking terms with the other half. conservatives built their own counter- For example, in recent years Applebaum establishment — think tanks, publications, has not had a single conversation with a broadcasting outlets. As conservatism woman who was once one of her closest professionalized, it despiritualized. After friends and is godmother to one of her the Soviet Union collapsed, conservatism children. She tried to reach out to this no longer had a great moral cause to woman and suggested they get together, but rally around. It became a technocratic, the woman refused. “What would we talk economics-focused movement concerned about?” she texted. with small government and entitlement Those of us who came of age in reform. Compassionate conservatism and conservative circles know exactly what the dream of spreading global democracy Applebaum is talking about. The same kinds were efforts to anchor conservatism around of rifts have opened up among conservatives a moral ideal, but they did not work out. YOUR VIEWS Pardon a turkey, eat vegetarian this Thanksgiving While President Trump is pardoning two turkeys for Thanksgiving, every one of us can exercise that same presidential power by choosing a non-violent Thanksgiving observance. And here are some other good reasons: • You can brag about pardoning a turkey — like Trump (or not). • You will stay awake for your entire favorite football game. • Your sensible vegetarian kid won’t have to boycott the family dinner. • Plant-based holiday roasts don’t have to carry government warning labels. • You won’t have to call Poultry Hotline to keep your family out of the hospital. • Your body will appreciate a holiday from the fat, cholesterol, and hormones. • You won’t sweat the environment and food resources devastation guilt trip. • You won’t spend a sleepless night wondering how the turkey lived and died. Seriously, this Thanksgiving, let’s give thanks for our good fortune, health, and happiness with a life-affirming, cruelty- free feast of plant-based holiday roast, vegetables, fruits, and grains. Our own dinner will feature a store- bought, plant-based holiday roast, mashed potatoes, stuffed squash, candied yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. An internet search on “vegetarian Thanksgiving” is getting us more recipes than we could possibly use. Patrick Lawson Pendleton Yoncalla’s young mayor not the city’s only claim to fame This is not the first time that my hometown of Yoncalla has been in the news, because in the Nov. 2, 1920, election the mayor was named Mary, and the city council was Bernice, Jennie, Nettie and Edith, making Yoncalla the first city in America to have all those positions filled by women. Rodney Thompson Pendleton Many conservatives simply could not succeed in the new conservative counterestablishment. In any meritocracy, there are going to be a lot of people who lose out and do not get the glittering career they think they are due. Sooner or later those people are going to rise up to challenge the competition itself and to question its idea of excellence. “Resentment, envy, and above all the belief that the ‘system’ is unfair — these are important sentiments among the intellectuals of the Polish right,” Applebaum writes. At the same time, they resent how spiritually flat conservatism has become. “The principles of competition, even when they encourage talent and create upward mobility, don’t necessarily answer deeper questions about national identity, or satisfy the human desire to belong to a moral community,” Applebaum continues. In such a situation, you’re almost bound to get a return of blood-and-soil nationalism. The losers in the meritocratic competition, the permanent outsiders, seize on ethnic nationalism to give themselves a sense of belonging, to explain their failures, to rally the masses and to upend the meritocracy. In office, what the populist nationalists do is this: They replace the idea of excellence with the idea of “patriotism.” Loyalty to the tribe is more important than professional competence. In fact, a person’s very lack of creativity and talent becomes proof of his continued reliability to the cause, as we’ve seen in the continued fealty to King Trump. While there is a sprinkling of good professionals in the Trump administration, they are there by accident, not by intent. Many of those staffing the White House could not get a job in any normal Republican administration, which selected people according to any traditional criteria of excellence. And now, as Trump reshuffles his administration yet again, we see the remnants of the B and C teams replaced by members of the D team. Over the past few days, there’s been a lot of gossip over whether Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will keep his job. But it almost doesn’t matter, because from here on out, it’s Whitakers all the way down. If conservatism is ever to recover, it has to achieve two large tasks. First, it has to find a moral purpose large enough to displace the lure of blood-and-soil nationalism. Second, it has to restore standards of professional competence and reassert the importance of experience, integrity and political craftsmanship. When you take away excellence and integrity, loyalty to the great leader is the only currency that remains. ■ David Brooks has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and he is currently a commentator on “The New- shour with Jim Lehrer.”
