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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2018)
A4 East Oregonian Tuesday, December 18, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEWS Hanford cleanup must not be buried T he Trump administration’s environmental policies are the ultimate screw-you moment for the youngest Americans, as well as for generations unborn. Following on the Environmental Protection Agen- cy’s recent easing of rules on coal, the news of a proposal to reclassify waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is a jaw dropper. It is also a threat to our region. Hanford is the Pacific Northwest’s largest environmental challenge. Its mountain of nuclear waste was born in the secrecy and exigencies of World War II. Once that veil was lifted and Northwest states understood the impli- cations of radioactive waste in the ground and water adjacent to the Columbia River, Oregon and Wash- ington lawmakers pressed for federal responsibility and a seat at the table. Prominent among our advocates were Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield and Wash- ington Attorney General Christine Gregoire. That 20-year-old agreement set a 30-year timetable for cleaning up Hanford’s toxins. In view of the daunting complexity of the work and unforeseen problems, this timeline is now expected to continue well into the mid-21st century. Perhaps it is simply typical of Pres- ident Trump’s shallow understand- ing of longstanding agreements of all sorts, but the notion that the federal government could unilaterally redefine the situation at Hanford is both laugh- able and contemptible. The momen- tum at Hanford has been moving in the other direction. Washington and Oregon would not surrender their hard won roles in the oversight of Han- ford cleanup. Federal courts would certainly back Washington state in defending its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy and the EPA. This editorial page over decades has decried the pace of clean-up at Hanford. It is essential that all of us — certainly including we who live down- river from Hanford — pay attention to what’s going on. Oregon’s U.S. sena- tors — Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley — and Washington’s senators — Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell — must leave no doubt that this Trump pro- posal is indefensible and merits a swift burial. “Burial” was a policy theme for far too long at Hanford, and contin- ues in some senses today. Under- ground storage tanks which kept toxic AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File A sign warns of radioactive material stored underground on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash. sludge out of sight, if not out of mind, have been overly prone to leaks into the ground water and surrounding air. More recently, entire trainloads of diverse poisonous waste from the bomb-building era have been caus- ing problems in tunnels where they were secreted away. In a suspiciously impromptu decision, these nightmar- ish tunnels are being pumped full of grout. Nearby residents express doubts about whether this stopgap answer will come back to haunt us. “Burial” also comes to mind in the context of longstanding national fail- ures in how we internalize the human, environmental and monetary costs of war. For too long, Hanford as a facil- ity was treated with much the same lackadaisical attitude too many of our leaders display toward veterans — burying their suffering and needs in an underfunded and sometimes poorly run bureaucracy. Like the Veterans Administration, Hanford will benefit from continuing close oversight. The cleanup certainly must be financially accountable. But first and foremost, it must achieve its aims of making cer- tain its surroundings and the wider Columbia River region are kept safe for generations to come. The expedi- encies of war are no excuse for poten- tially deadly shortcuts in confronting the aftermath of those decisions. These commitments cannot and must not be hamstrung by political expediency — by this or any future presidential administration. OTHER VIEWS Who killed the Weekly Standard? I ’ve only been around Phil ees and their families. Anschutz a few times. My The closing of The Weekly impressions on those occasions Standard is being told as a Trump were that he was a run-of-the-mill story, as all stories must be these arrogant billionaire. He was used days. The magazine has been crit- ical of President Donald Trump, to people courting him, and he and so this is another example of addressed them condescendingly the gradual hegemony of Trump- from the lofty height of his own ism over the conservative world. wealth. D aviD B rooks I’ve never met Ryan McKibben, That is indeed the backdrop to COMMENT who runs part of Anschutz’s media what happened here. group. But stories about him have But that’s not the whole story. circulated around Washington over In reality, this is what happens the years. The stories suggest that he is an when corporate drones take over an opinion ordinary corporate bureaucrat — with all the magazine, try to drag it down to their level petty vanities and lack of interest in ideas and then grow angry and resentful when the that go with the type. people at the magazine try to maintain some Last week, Anschutz and McKibbin mur- sense of intellectual standards. This is what dered The Weekly Standard, the conserva- happens when people with a populist mind- tive opinion magazine that Anschutz owned. set decide that an uneducated opinion is of They didn’t merely close it because it was the same value as an educated opinion, that ignorance sells better than learning. losing money. They seemed to have mur- dered it out of greed and vengeance. In that sense, the closing of The Stan- John Podhoretz, one of the magazine’s dard resembles Chris Hughes’ destruction of founders, reports that they actively pre- the old New Republic. This is what happens vented potential buyers from coming in to when the commercial forces trying to dumb take it over and keep it alive. They appar- down the American media run into a pocket ently wanted to hurt the employees and har- of people trying to resist those forces. vest the subscription list so they could make I was on staff when The Standard was money off it. And Anschutz, being a profess- founded, by Bill Kristol, Podhoretz and Fred ing Christian, decided to close the magazine Barnes. They gathered the most concen- at the height of the Christmas season, and so trated collection of talent I have ever been around. The first masthead featured Charles cause maximum pain to his former employ- Krauthammer, P.J. O’Rourke, Robert Kagan, David Frum, Chris Caldwell, Matt Labash, Tucker Carlson and the greatest political writer of my generation, Andrew Ferguson. Early issues featured the writings of Tom Wolfe, Gertrude Himmelfarb, James Q. Wil- son and Harvey Mansfield. The person at the bottom of the editorial masthead, a young Neomi Rao, has just been nominated to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals. It was and remains a warm, fun and con- vivial group. The magazine’s tone was part high intellectualism, part street-level polit- ical reporting and part Hunter Thomp- son-style gonzo journalism. The Standard was conservative, but it frequently dissented from the Republi- can establishment and delighted in mod- ern pop culture. The staff was never unani- mous about anything. The many flavors of conservatism were hashed out in its pages. If it stood for anything, I would say it stood for this: that the good life consists of being an active citizen and caring passionately about politics; that it also consists of know- ing something about Latin American fic- tion, ancient Greek culture and social impact of modern genetics; that it also consists of delighting in the latest good movies and TV shows, the best new cocktails and the casual pleasures of life. During the past year, under the editorship OTHER VIEWS Merkely editorial misguided I believe the guest edi- torial of Dec. 13 discour- aging Senator Jeff Merk- ley from running for two offices at the same time is misguided. The pres- tige of our state would be advanced a great deal by having a president from Oregon. I am no historian but my limited research indicates there has never been a United States president from Oregon. 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. In the event we were fortunate enough to see Jeff Merkley in that office it would not rep- resent a loss to Ore- gon. Governor Brown would be free to appoint whomever she chooses and there is no reason to believe that the person appointed would be any less dedicated to our state than Senator Merkley is now. of Steve Hayes, the magazine was as good as it ever was. Adam Keiper did brilliant work with the back of the book. Amazingly talented young writers were recruited, like Adam Rubenstein, Alice Lloyd and Haley Byrd. If you look at the issue now online — the last that apparently will ever go online — there’s an article calling on Republicans to respect due process, a look at what can be done to bring down the suicide rate, an essay by literary critic Paul Cantor on “Franken- stein” at 200 and a piece on the sixth-cen- tury Roman poet Maximianus. Over the past few years, if all the sto- ries are correct, McKibbin tried to change the tone of the magazine. He tried to get The Standard to hire highly partisan shock- jock screamers. He tried to tilt it more in the direction of a Republican direct mail fundraising letter. When these efforts were blocked, resentment flared and the ax fell. The Standard is now gone, but the people and ideas The Standard nurtured will con- tinue to flourish. The talented young people who were fired last week will go on to have brilliant careers; the courage and integrity Hayes has shown during the Trump era will continue to inspire, while the drab corporate bureaucrats fade into the sand. David Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times and a former staff member of the Weekly Standard. CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES Arnold J. Theisen Irrigon 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. U.S. PRESIDENT Donald Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 whitehouse.gov/contact/ U.S. REPRESENTATIVE Greg Walden 185 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6730 La Grande office: 541-624-2400 Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 9780, or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
