Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2019)
A4 East Oregonian Wednesday, August 21, 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 Mr. President, Japan wants our wheat hen we first heard that President Trump had been dismissive of U.S. wheat sales to Japan, we thought perhaps his quotes were taken out of context. After all, it was only a month ago the president was touting the value of U.S. farmers and the need for our trading partners to buy more U.S. farm products. But then we got a transcript from the White House and found that, yes, the president had been dismissive of U.S. wheat exports. Last week Trump visited a Penn- sylvania chemical plant to tout energy production and domestic manufactur- ing. The official event took the tone of a campaign speech, and Trump launched into a standard riff about bad deals with various trading partners, including Japan. From the transcript: “I told Prime Minister Abe — great guy — I said, ‘Listen, we have a massive deficit with Japan.’ They send thousands and thousands — millions — of cars. We send them wheat. Wheat. (Laughter) That’s not a good deal. And they don’t even want our wheat. They do it because they want us to at least feel that we’re OK. You know, they do it to W AP Photo, File vPresident Donald Trump’s off-the-cuff comment about exporting wheat to Japan struck a nerve among many U.S. farmers who grow the crop. make us feel good.” Add U.S. wheat farmers to the list of Americans who feel zinged by an off-the-cuff presidential remark. They aren’t too happy about it either. In a statement, the Oregon Wheat Growers League said it was “pro- foundly disappointed” in Trump’s comments. “The President’s dismissive state- ments ... demonstrated that he doesn’t fully appreciate the 70 years of efforts by generations of wheat growers to build the great relationships we have with our customers in Japan,” the league stated in remarks that were reflective of other groups that responded to the Capital Press. Farm groups we spoke to want the president to know that Japanese buy- ers do want American wheat. Japan is the No. 1 market for U.S. OUR VIEW YOUR VIEWS Focusing on priorities Residents have made it pretty clear, our streets need to be fixed, and City Hall has a plan to do just that. How- ever, it looks like we’ll be treading water until they decide on a funding source, whether it be raising taxes, increasing current fees, instituting new fees or, heaven forbid, cutting or revising city programs to operate more efficiently. The Parks and Recreation Dept. has spent a great deal of time and resources to develop a new strate- gic plan, a wish list of future proj- ects. Each is assigned a priority, and the Priority 1 list includes, among other things, an additional dog park, a splash pad that replaces the wading pool at Til Taylor Park, and construc- tion of a river through Olney Ceme- tery. Another project, building new ramps for the bike trails to the tune of $25,000, is also on that Priority 1 list. Remember when the bike people wanted to establish the trails on city property at the airport? The city coun- cil reluctantly approved the project as long as there were no city resources or liability involved. The Parks Dept. now appears involved up to its eyebrows with a commitment of city resources to build new jump ramps. With the parks director backing the creation of the game refuge on the north side of the Umatilla River, you can expect city resources will eventually come into play in that area too, especially since the city council removed camping restrictions on all public property. None of these high priority items address the city’s backlog in mainte- nance. I think Parks and Rec’s “parks first” priority should be to get the play- grounds up to code. When they rebuild that Community Park playground, I would hope they’d relocate it to an area not so prone to flooding. Considering its history, I don’t take a lot of stock in that “never again” approach to McKay flooding. When it comes to another dog park, I guess the city council will have to decide which creates the biggest prob- lem, dogs or the homeless, and then act accordingly. Perhaps if each councilor spent a month working for Neighbor 2 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. Neighbor this winter, they’d gain a lit- tle perspective on what they’re dealing with. Then there’s always that recently purchased 6 acres in Riverside that’s available for a campsite. Rick Rohde Pendleton Treat addiction as a public health issue, not a crime The United States is 5% of the world’s population. Yet if we put all of the incarcerated people in the world altogether, one fourth would be Americans. Mass incarceration is destroying hundreds of communi- ties and millions of families across America as we lose the health and well-being of a swath of our society. Reform to end mass incarcera- tion will require sentencing reduc- tions across all categories of offend- ing that would take sentencing back to where it was in the 1980s. Amer- icans are increasingly willing to see drugs and addiction as a public health issue and not only as a crim- inal justice issue. The shifting atti- tudes likely in part reflect the reality that opioid addiction is as promi- nent in rural Eastern Oregon as it is in inner-city communities. Churning drug offenders into and out of pris- ons where treatment options are few and post-release outcomes are dismal has done little to address the under- lying problem of drug addiction and demand. It is time that we recognize the limits of the war on drugs and begin treating drug use and abuse as a public health problem that can- not be solved by a criminal justice response. However, if we released all currently incarcerated drug offend- ers, we would still boast an incarcer- ation rate among the highest in the world. Mandatory sentences need to be eliminated, and not just for drug offenses, but for most offenses. It is time that we renew our faith in the judiciary to achieve the punishments objective without compromising pub- lic safety. Sally Sundin Walla Walla wheat, and the No. 2 market for soft white wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest. U.S. wheat has a 50% mar- ket share in Japan. “Our customers in Japan don’t buy our wheat because they are doing us a favor or to make us feel good, they buy our wheat because we have built a relationship with them, earned their trust, listened to their needs, and pro- vided great customer service,” the league stated. The Japanese buy a lot of U.S. prod- ucts, not just wheat. At about $700 million in sales, wheat accounts for just 1% of the dollar volume of exports to Japan, according to Politifacts. com. The Japanese bought $2.8 billion worth of corn last year. We hope the president has bet- ter command of the facts and was trying to make a bigger point about trade imbalances. But in using wheat exports as a laugh line, Trump was dismissive of U.S. wheat producers — people who have generally been supportive. It doesn’t seem to us that tearing away at a successful venture is the way to build better trade relations. But maybe that’s a tactic from the “Art of the Deal” that we’ve overlooked. Bend newspaper buy is an opportunity W hen Heidi Wright called me June 3 minimum increments of $50,000, begin- ning at $2.55 million. After the initial round to suggest that our company should of bidding drove the price to $3.05 million, take a look at bidding on Bend’s the Adams group left the room to confer pri- daily newspaper, The Bulletin, I was at once vately. There was a second conference at the startled, skeptical and intrigued. $3.45 million mark, after which Mark Adams We hired Heidi as our chief operating offi- cer in June 2017 — away from The Bulletin, jumped the bid to $3.6 million. Heidi hesi- tated for what seemed to me 20 seconds. But where she had been the chief financial offi- cer of its parent company, Western Communi- Rick clocked it at 15 seconds. Even though we cations. At that point, we had just bid on two were below our ceiling, her hesitation seemed other newspapers out of Wescom’s bankruptcy an eternity. Instead of raising our bid, Mark in Baker City and La Grande. Adams graciously congratulated us on our Pursuing the Bulletin prospect, the board acquisition. of EO Media Group convened two In taking ownership of The Bulle- tin, our company is not simply buy- impromptu meetings. For the first of ing another property. It is taking hold these sessions, at the Sheraton Port- land Airport Hotel, we invited Daily of a journalistic opportunity that Astorian Publisher Kari Borgen, will become immensely significant who had also worked within West- to all of Oregon. With the decline of ern Communications. Asked what formerly influential daily newspa- pers such as The Register-Guard of she thought of the opportunity, Kari Eugene and others, The Bulletin will said: “It’s exciting and it’s scary.” become a beacon in a part of Oregon That typified our deliberations, that is gaining economic, cultural and during which we probed the risks S teve political significance. The Bulletin and assessed the promise. F orreSter will become a heavyweight partner My daughter, Susan Forrester COMMENT for our Eastern Oregon newspapers in Rana, flew up from Oakland for our Umatilla, Union, Baker, Wallowa and second board meeting, during which Grant counties — and for our papers we set our top bid for The Bulletin. on the Oregon and Washington coast and the By this time my cousin, Kathryn Brown, had Capital Press as well. made contact with a longtime family associ- ate who is an executive of the Bank of Eastern Our newspaper group fosters a culture of Oregon. In addition to that bank financing, collaboration. That has allowed us to punch Heidi was speaking with prospective investors well above our weight. In collaboration with in Bend who were eager to have our pursuit of the Pamplin Media Group, we have formed a ownership succeed. statehouse bureau that reverses the decline in The auction on July 29 occurred in the coverage of the Oregon Legislature and state office of the Portland law firm Tonkon Torp. agencies. In 2006 our papers collaborated on Our group — including my cousin Kathryn, a series of articles about climate change. In Heidi, our CFO Rick Hansen and our lawyers addition to pieces that were informed by sci- ence, each newspaper developed cameos of — were placed in one room while the three- man team from Adams Publishing Group was scientists, naturalists, farmers and fishers who spoke about what they were noticing in in another. Rhode Island Suburban Newspa- pers, the party that made the initial bid on The their region’s natural environment. That series Bulletin, did not show up for the auction. To won an award of Special Merit in the national honor our family’s ambitions and the grav- Grantham Prize competition. ity of the moment, Kathryn wore a Pendle- The environment and climate change are ton jacket that had belonged to my mother, the primary issues of the 21st century. Our series — 12 years old — is ripe for an update. Eleanor. And The Bulletin‘s participation in such a At 10 a.m. we moved to another confer- ence room — the bidding site. When the venture would give a new series even more Adams trio entered, we stood to greet them. impact. Mark Adams, the company’s CEO, sat two ——— seats away from me; Heidi was to my left. In Steve Forrester, the former editor and pub- lisher of The Daily Astorian, is the president a thrilling auction that would last 15 minutes, and CEO of EO Media Group. Contact him at Adams would be their bidder, Heidi ours. sforrester@eomediagroup.com. The bidding requirement was to raise by 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
