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
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