A4 East Oregonian Friday, May 17, 2019 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner ANDREW CUTLER Editor WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor JADE McDOWELL Hermiston Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW Would open public meeting better fit the bill? t first glance, it is a bit diffi- cult to aptly describe the lat- est initiative by the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners. Readers may recall that the com- missioners plan to hold a series of pri- vate meetings with property own- ers regarding a controversial plan to rebuild East Airport Road in Hermis- ton. Some residents assert the project will mean the loss of sections of their property in the county right-of-way. The county decided recently to spearhead a series of private one-on- one meetings with individual residents in the area to provide more informa- tion about the plan and to help allevi- ate concerns. A county commissioner, an engi- neer, a county road employee and oth- ers will be at each meeting with each individual resident. The meetings appear to be a good- faith effort by elected leaders to reach out to community members with concerns. They are not public meet- ings — exactly — but they are not expressly private either. We under- stand that notes will be taken during the meetings and a summary provided A Staff photo by Kathy Aney A car drives on East Airport Road on Friday near EOTEC. The county decided recently to spearhead a series of private one-on-one meetings with individual residents in the area to provide more information about the plan and to help alleviate concerns. to the board. As far as the idea itself, we applaud the commission for tackling a sensi- tive issue in a constructive manner. Any interaction between elected lead- ers and voters is a good thing. Democ- racy wins when residents believe and know they have access to the politi- cians that represent them. Yet we can’t help but wonder why the individual meetings are necessary in the first place when a larger, more open public meeting would fit the bill. Individual sessions between voters and elected leaders are — or should be — a commonplace element to our democracy. All of us — within reason — should expect to be able to walk into the courthouse after making an appointment and chat with one of the commissioners about an issue. The East Airport Road issue is an important one, especially to the res- idents who live on that road and are affected by decisions concerning the road and right-of-way. But in a larger sense it is also a crucial subject for the entire community, not just those directly affected by the proposal. That’s because the problems that sur- round the proposal tend to crop up from time to time across the area. The road and residents will have different names and live in a different location, but the issue will arise in the future. That’s why we believe that while the individual meeting plan shows the commissioners have their hearts in the right place, the fact is there should be larger, open public meetings on the issue. More than one if necessary. YOUR VIEWS Women’s bodies are their business Several states are passing legislation to tightly control women’s reproductive health and choices. Our own legislature has periodic rumblings along these lines. How arrogant. It is absurd that white male politi- cians try to control and legislate wom- en’s reproductive health, contraception, and family planning. Women face numer- ous and complex individual situations every day. They should be able to manage their own bodies with the advice of those they respect. They should be able to do so without Big Brother looking over their shoulders. No one has ever gotten pregnant with- out the participation of a man; therefore, men should share in the responsibilities. If these efforts to curtail a woman’s choice continue, we should demand legislation putting sideboards on men’s reproductive health and activities. It would only be fair. Jeff Blackwood Pendleton OTHER VIEWS Joe Biden and restoring the old (pre-Trump) order T here was a school of thought that can society, but to restore things to the way said former Vice President Joe Biden they used to be. And “the way they used to would begin to sink in the polls the be” means before Donald Trump. moment he announced his candidacy for Obviously, Democratic voters want to the Democratic presidential nom- replace a Republican president ination. Biden’s first day in the with a Democratic president. But race, the thinking went, would be they are especially dismayed by his best day. Trump — and some, driven by In fact, the opposite has hap- increasingly strident news cov- erage, seem to have gone nearly pened. Since formally becoming a ‘round the bend about him. candidate on April 25, Biden has But for some center-left Dem- shot up in the polls. On announce- ocrats, the solution to the Trump ment day, Biden held a 6.3-point Problem — that is, the fact that lead over second-place Sen. Ber- B yron nie Sanders in the RealClearPol- Trump is president — might not y ork itics average of polls. Today, that COMMENT be the Green New Deal or Medi- care for All. It is to restore the pre- lead is 23.5 points. That is a big 2017 order in American politics. change. Polls do not tell us who will win an elec- And Biden, Barack Obama’s vice president tion months from now. But they do tell us from 2009 to 2017, is the physical embodi- ment of that old order. what is happening at this moment. And at That is what Biden promises. Nearly this moment, Democratic voters, who are every day, he repeats some version of his sometimes said to be moving left and itch- ing to transform the United States with a core campaign pledge: “I want to restore Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and the soul of this country.” through-the-roof taxes on the rich, are in Biden’s unexpected choice of the 2017 fact responding to a decidedly more centrist events in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the appeal. theme of his announcement was a way That appeal, from Biden, is a prom- of saying that something has gone terri- bly wrong in the United States and that ise not to fundamentally remake Ameri- 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. he wants to return to the pre-Trump past. Addressing a real or imagined moral crisis is one way for an opposition candidate to run against an incumbent president whose term has brought solid economic growth, low unemployment and higher wages. How long will Biden’s lead last? Who knows? There is simply no telling how the Democratic race will play out. In the last two Republican nomination contests, we saw one race, in 2012, in which several can- didates alternated holding the lead before Mitt Romney finally won. In the other, in 2016, we saw Trump lead a big field virtu- ally the entire time. Now, with an even big- ger Democratic field, the race dynamics are not yet clear. Plus, for Biden specifically, there will always be the issue of age. Biden will be 78 years old on Inauguration Day 2021. That is the same age Trump would be upon leav- ing office, should he serve eight years. But Biden would be just beginning his presi- dency nearing the age of 80. That is totally uncharted territory in United States history. (By the way, one other candidate, Sanders, is even older.) Even if Democrats want to restore the old order, they might decide a younger can- didate should do the job. They might also want a candidate without Biden’s record of fizzling out in presidential campaigns. In his first run for president, in 1988, Biden with- drew amid a plagiarism scandal before any votes were cast. In his second run, in 2008, he quit after finishing fifth in the Iowa caucuses. So he has run twice and never even made it to the New Hampshire primary. Now, though, Biden stands ahead of the field. Democrats know how old he is, they know he has lost in the past, and they still like him. There’s a truism that elections are always about the future, not the past. That’s often the case. But what if it isn’t this time? A lot of political truisms did not hold up in the 2016 election, which was won by a man with another promise of restoration, to Make America Great Again. Now, many Democrats seem happy to support a candidate who pledges to take them back a few years. Again, that could change, but for the moment it shows how many Democrats yearn to return to a time before Trump. ——— Byron York is chief political correspon- dent for The Washington Examiner. 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 the editor to editor@eastoregonian.com, or via mail to Andrew Cutler, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801