Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2019)
A4 East Oregonian Thursday, June 6, 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 Summer fun shouldn’t mean summer crashes S ummer promises long days and great weather and often means vacations for area residents. That means taking to the highways and roads across the region and, almost inevitably, the summer fun is marred by a deadly vehicle crash. Focusing on safety while on the road seems so fundamental that the concept can be overlooked or dismissed by motorists. But they shouldn’t ignore road safety. The importance of safety while driving hit home just this week when U.S. Highway 20 — a major east- west link in Oregon — was closed in Malheur County because of a fatal accident. That crash left one man dead and sealed off the highway for more than three hours as emergency crews responded to the scene and then fought the fires that erupted in the wake of the accident. Last summer proved to be excep- tionally deadly for motorists. Over a span of five days in August last year, 11 people died in traffic accidents across Eastern Oregon, a deadly nexus that created mayhem and impacted dozens of families. Photo contributed by Oregon State Police The drivers of two commercial trucks were killed Sunday after a fiery crash on High- way 20 in Malheur County. In one of the crashes, eight people died, including children. It is no secret that speed kills on the highways but sheer carelessness also plays a role. Two years ago, for example, more than 37,000 people lost their lives on the nation’s roadways. Twenty-six percent of those crashes involved at least one speeding driver. At first glance a common miscon- ception is big city traffic furnishes most of the fatal accidents, but that isn’t exactly true. Rural areas — including highways that slice through remote portions of the nation — tend to have a higher fatality rate than vehicle accidents in urban areas. The other tragic aspect of vehicle accidents on rural roads and high- ways is that most can be avoided. The single best way to avoid a deadly crash is simple: slow down. It seems so simple, so basic, but we are a soci- ety that is now constantly in a hurry to get somewhere or do something. As such, we often become compla- cent and shed common sense and caution for speed. Summer should be about fun, should be about getting the family together and visiting interesting areas across our great region. That means our goal on our roads and highways should be to reach out destination safely. The responsibility for safety on our roadways resets with each of us. Once we climb behind the wheel we all have an obligation to be safe and to obey traffic laws. No one wants to end a summer with a tragedy. So be alert while driving and be careful out there. OTHER VIEWS Sign up for a better green deal for Oregonians Bend Bulletin T YOUR VIEWS America must stay ahead of the curve with China Three cheers for Harriet Isom’s column on “Standing up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.” China’s Belt & Road Initiative is an enormously ambitious plan with major implication for the global econ- omy the geopolitical future. With $3 trillion of hard currency reserves, China has a vision of a future led by China and inspired by China’s growth model. Isom provides a welcome call for America and American companies to 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. stay involved. Estimates suggest that Asia alone will need many trillions of dollars in infrastructure over the next decades. In the Build Act of 2018, the United States took a small step to compete by combining existing ele- ments of the government to support infrastructure spending in developing countries. Isom ends her essay with a reminder of how the United States responded when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artifi- cial satellite. Sputnik mobilized the country. America created NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Proj- ects Agency (parent of the Internet), invested heavily in scientific research, provided grants for post-graduate study in science, sparked the study of science and math in the nation’s high schools and created university level programs to study key languages. We need to embrace Isom’s call to maintain our global engagement. We also need to duplicate the kind of focus and commitment that we devel- oped in the wake of Sputnik. Kent Hughes Woodrow Wilson Center Washington, D.C. he cost of Oregon’s green goodness will come at the pump. To get Ore- gonians to use less fuel, House Bill 2020 raises its price. The carbon reduction bill — seemingly destined to become law — is expected to raise the price of gas in the state by about 21 cents in 2021. That won’t be the end of it. The bill will keep driving prices up, which in turn will increase the cost of living for Oregon families. Do the Democratic legislators behind HB 2020 believe average Oregonians have too much money? Of course not. But people on a mission to save the planet sometimes stop at nothing. Even logic. Given that this bill is going to pass, shouldn’t more of the clear benefit go directly to Oregonians? Oregonians may be all for the idea behind HB 2020 — clean energy and a cleaner Oregon. But when the price of fuel ratchets up and up, that’s going to be a harder and harder choice. HB 2020 could have been written to return those hundreds of millions of carbon tax rev- enue directly to Oregonians. But Democratic leaders wrote the bill so they would control the money themselves. If the Legislature isn’t going to do the right thing, Oregonians should. There may be no perfect mechanism, but state Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, has a way to send a mes- sage on the November 2020 ballot. His New Green Deal Tax Cut ballot initiative would reduce the state’s gas tax from 34 cents to 18 cents. Boquist’s initiative would, of course, undercut the green goals of HB 2020. But if the state isn’t going to return carbon taxes to Oregonians, Oregonians should take back some of the taxes themselves. 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