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A4 East Oregonian Tuesday, January 8, 2019 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEWS Culture at Oregon Capitol needs review A scathing report about sexual harassment in the Oregon Capitol is both deeply dis- turbing and deeply flawed. Legislative leaders must take its concerns seriously, instead of focus- ing on its shortcomings so as to pro- tect their reputation. Regardless of what Senate President Peter Court- ney, Speaker Tina Kotek and others say, they failed to adequately address sexual harassment through meaning- ful training, effective monitoring and swift action against offenders. They are not alone. State archives show that lawmakers as far back as the 1990s struggled with how to address sexual harassment. The slight progress made since then is demoralizing. A state Bureau of Labor and Indus- tries’ Civil Rights Division report issued last week found substantial evidence of unlawful employment practices based on sex. Critics of the report will say that is no surprise, because the investigation was insti- gated through a complaint filed by the head of BOLI, Brad Avakian. Indeed, much of the report does read as if it were designed to reach a pre-ordained conclusion. Sen. Eliz- abeth Steiner Hayward, who like Sen. Sara Gelser had filed a sexual harassment complaint against Sen. Jeff Kruse, said she was not inter- AP Photo/Andrew Selsky, File This Jan. 11, 2018, file photo, shows dark clouds hovering over the Capitol in Salem. viewed by the BOLI investigators and disagreed with their conclusions. The failure to talk with Steiner Hay- ward and some other key figures is odd and diminishes the investigators’ findings. But the overall issues raised in the report remain valid. The report was released just days before Avakian’s term as BOLI com- missioner ended. That leaves it up to his successor, Val Hoyle, to rec- ommend any sanctions, includ- ing whether interns who were sex- ually harassed should receive compensation. A Capitol work environment can be toxic because of the overwhelm- ing imbalance of power. Every- one wants to gain the approval of elected officials and is expected to treat them deferentially. People have the valid fear they will be marginal- ized — politically, professionally and socially — if they complain. “I believe harassment is based on power,” lawyer P.K. Runkles-Pearson told Kotek, Courtney and other mem- bers of a legislative committee last month. “It starts with the power asso- ciated with privilege. … “Enhanced power relationships inherently make it difficult for any- one to make waves. And this includes victims of harassment, those who observe harassment and those who are charged with addressing harassment.” Courtney and Kotek had asked the Oregon Law Commission to rec- ommend improvements in how the Legislature dealt with sexual harass- ment. Runkles-Pearson chairs that work group. Its upcoming report — a draft was released last month — calls for a complete change in Cap- itol culture and offers a series of recommendations. There is no justification what- soever for sexual harassment of any form or in any place or against any person. Yet there are those in the Capitol, including some legis- lators, who still seem to believe in “Boys will be boys,” “Go along to get along” and “Quit your whining!” It will be difficult, but imperative, to help them understand what sex- ual harassment actually is and how it affects the victims. “The way you change culture is that you have people in power show that they want the environment to change,” Runkles-Pearson said. So true. Instead of arguing whether the Capitol was or was not a hos- tile workplace, legislative leaders must ensure it is not one. Update the rules, overhaul the training and start to change the culture so the Oregon Capitol truly is a harassment-free environment for everyone. OTHER VIEWS Why 2018 was the best year in human history he world is, as everyone blow any parent can, and she had knows, going to hell, but suffered it 10 times. there’s still the nervous Yet such child deaths are thrill of waiting to see precisely becoming far less common. Only which dark force will take us about 4 percent of children world- wide now die by the age of 5. down. Will the economy collapse That’s still horrifying, but it’s first, the ice sheets melt first, or down from 19 percent in 1960 and chaos and war envelop us first? N icholas So here’s my antidote to that 7 percent in 2003. K ristof gloom: Let me try to make the Indeed, children today in Mex- COMMENT ico or Brazil are less likely to die case that 2018 was actually the by the age of 5 than American best year in human history. Each day on average, about another children were as recently as 1970. 295,000 people around the world gained The big news that won’t make a head- line and won’t appear on television is that access to electricity for the first time, 15,000 children died around the world in according to Max Roser of Oxford Uni- versity and his Our World in Data web- the last 24 hours. But in the 1990s, it was site. Every day, another 305,000 were able 30,000 kids dying each day. to access clean drinking water for the first Perhaps it seems Pollyannish or taste- less to trumpet progress at a time when time. And each day an additional 620,000 there is so much butchery, misrule and people were able to get online for the first threat hanging over us. But I cover the time. Never before has such a large portion butchery and misrule every other day of of humanity been literate, enjoyed a mid- the year, and I do this annual column about dle-class cushion, lived such long lives, progress to try to place those tragedies in had access to family planning or been con- perspective. fident that their children would survive. One reason for this column is that jour- nalism is supposed to inform people about Let’s hit pause on our fears and frustra- tions and share a nanosecond of celebra- the world, and it turns out that most Amer- tion at this backdrop of progress. icans (and citizens of other countries, too) On a dirt road in rural Angola a few are spectacularly misinformed. years ago, I met a woman named Delfina For example, 9 out of 10 Americans say Fernandes who had lost 10 children, out of in polls that global poverty is worsening 15; she had endured perhaps the greatest or staying the same, when in fact the most T 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. important trend in the world is arguably a huge reduction in poverty. Until about the 1950s, a majority of humans had always lived in “extreme poverty,” defined as less than about $2 a person per day. When I was a university student in the early 1980s, 44 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Now, fewer than 10 percent of the world’s population lives in extreme pov- erty, as adjusted for inflation. Likewise, Americans estimate that 35 percent of the world’s children have been vaccinated. In fact, 86 percent of all 1-year-olds have been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. “Everyone seems to get the world dev- astatingly wrong,” Dr. Hans Rosling, a brilliant scholar of international health, wrote in “Factfulness,” published in 2018, after his death. “Every group of people I ask thinks the world is more frighten- ing, more violent and more hopeless — in short, more dramatic — than it really is.” I suspect that this misperception reflects in part how we in journalism cover news. We cover wars, massacres and famines, but are less focused on progress. In the last year, I’ve covered atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar, starva- tion in Yemen, climate change in Bangla- desh, refugees and child marriage at home, and some of the world’s worst poverty, in Central African Republic. All those sto- ries deserve more attention, not less. But I never wrote columns or newsletters about three nations that registered astounding progress against authoritarianism and poor governance in 2018, Armenia, Ethiopia and Malaysia. It is of course true that there are huge challenges ahead. The gains against global poverty and disease seem to be slow- ing, and climate change is an enormous threat to poor nations in particular. And the United States is an outlier, where life expectancy is falling, not rising as in most of the world. So there’s plenty to fret about. But a failure to acknowledge global progress can leave people feeling hopeless and ready to give up. In fact, the gains should show us what is possible and spur greater efforts to improve opportunity worldwide. Every other day of the year, go ahead and gnash your teeth about President Don- ald Trump or Nancy Pelosi, but take a break today (remember, just for a nano- second!) to recognize that arguably the most important thing in the world now is not Trumpian bombast. Rather, it may be the way the world’s poorest and most des- perate inhabitants are enjoying improved literacy and well-being, leading to a day when no mom will again lose 10 children. Nicholas Kristof, who grew up on a sheep and cherry farm in Yamhill, Oregon, is a columnist for the 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 9780, or email editor@eastoregonian.com.