A4
East Oregonian
Wednesday, November 13, 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
We can never forget their sacrifice
T
he local community came
out in force Monday to honor
area veterans, a clear sign
that Umatilla County hasn’t forgot-
ten those who made a sacrifice and a
commitment to our nation.
That says a lot about our area and
a lot more about the type of people
who live and work and play in our
great part of the state.
There are more than 18 million
veterans in the United States, and
Monday allowed the entire nation to
take a collective moment to recog-
nize their sacrifice and commitment.
For many of us, Monday was a
welcome day off or part of a three-
day weekend.
For millions of others, though, the
day carried a special significance and
marked one of the few times during
the year when the great nation they
defended stopped and tipped its hat.
Veterans Day is more than just
another day off. The day began as
Armistice Day, which recognized the
anniversary of the end of World War
I. Later, the day was made an annual
observance.
The day is rightly a celebration to
recognize our veterans for their patri-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Bob Daniel carries the American flag as a part of the honor guard during a Veterans Day
breakfast at the Hermiston Community Center on Monday morning.
otism and service, but it should also
serve as a reminder that we owe all of
those who participated in our Armed
Forces a debt we will probably never
be able to repay.
Men and women have gladly
stepped forward throughout our his-
tory to defend what is, in a real way,
a collection of concepts. The Consti-
tution and its Bill of Rights are words
supported by a philosophy of democ-
racy that remains an experiment. Yet
each year millions join our Armed
Forces, and they swear an oath. Not
an oath to the president. Not an oath
to Congress. They pledge their souls
to defend the Constitution.
That makes us unique in many
ways from nations across the globe.
Our men and women make a choice
to lay it all on the line for words. For
a philosophy.
Our veterans deserve to be rec-
ognized and lauded. Each one made
a conscious choice to sacrifice their
time — and in many cases their bod-
ies — for their nation. While many
of us built lives, raised children and
attended youth sports events, our
veterans were far away from home.
They were sometimes stationed on
foreign shores, in harm’s way, while
the rest of us went along with our
lives.
We can’t forget their sacrifice. So as
the 2019 Veterans Day recedes, we must
all collectively remember their sacrifice
and endeavor to ensure their needs —
mental and physical — are met.
OTHER VIEWS
Republicans remain
tethered to toxic Trump
T
Fallen journalists deserve a memorial
ournalists relentlessly pursue the truth
fice. Such a memorial would demonstrate to
in order to provide citizens with the
our citizens and to visitors from around the
information they need to be self-gov-
world that our country values a free press,
erning. And yet, for journalists, doing that
honors the sacrifices of journalists and sup-
ports the family, friends and colleagues of
work can be risky, dangerous and even cost
the fallen.
lives.
Just 15 months ago the deadliest attack
To make this memorial a reality, federal
on journalists in U.S. history took place at
legislation is needed but federal funds will
the office of the Capital Gazette, the local
not be used. The Fallen Journalists Memo-
rial Act of 2019 would authorize the Fallen
newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, when a
Journalists Memorial Foundation to lead the
gunman shot and killed five employees and
effort to design, develop, construct
wounded two others.
It is an all too frequent and
and maintain a memorial on fed-
eral land in Washington, D.C. The
unfortunate reality that report-
ers and photojournalists must face
memorial would be funded entirely
and even run toward danger when
by private donations and without
seeking the truth. That’s why so
the use of any taxpayer funds.
many have died while covering
Once completed, the Fallen
war and conflict, from Ernie Pyle
Journalists Memorial will serve
in World War II, to Francois Sully,
as a reminder of the sacrifices that
B arBara
Larry Burrows and Dana Stone in
have been made — and that will
c ochran
the Vietnam War, to David Bloom,
continue to be made — to preserve
COMMENT
Michael Kelly, Elizabeth Neuffer
a free press. It will also be a source
and Daniel Pearl in the wars in Iraq
of education, awareness and pride
and Afghanistan.
for our entire nation.
It is also why so many have died around
This important effort is only beginning.
the world when the powerful wanted to
We need the help of newspaper readers and
silence them. Jamal Khashoggi was mur-
others who value the role that journalists
dered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey just
play in our democratic society. We encour-
age you to contact your representatives and
over one year ago. Anna Politskaya was
killed after her reporting on the Russian war senators in Congress (202-224-3121) and ask
that they co-sponsor the Fallen Journalists
in Chechnya angered those in power.
Washington, D.C., has many monuments
Memorial Act of 2019 and help us make this
honoring those who have sacrificed their
memorial a reality.
lives to protect our freedoms; yet, there is
———
no memorial on public land to recognize the
Barbara Cochran is the president of the
journalists who have made the same sacri-
Fallen Journalist Memorial Foundation.
J
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.
since the Civil War, captured a governing
he lesson of the 2019 state elections
confirmed the lesson of the 2018 con- majority in suburban Chester County, and
gressional midterms: Donald Trump
did the same in suburban Bucks County for
can stage all the demagogic rallies he wants, the first time in 36 years. Those results may
well foreshadow a titanic blue turnout when
but he’s powerless to reverse the GOP’s
Trump is (presumably) back on the ballot,
hemorrhaging in the populous suburbs.
where his rural and small-town fans may not
Let’s borrow one of his favorite meta-
phors. On Tuesday night, his captive Repub- be numerous enough to hold back the wave.
licans died like dogs. Or, as party strate-
And that’s the Trump team’s core quan-
gist Alex Conant told the Associated Press,
dary. It aims to maximize rural and small-
“Republican support in the suburbs has basi- town turnout (especially among non-col-
cally collapsed under Trump.”
lege white men) in the handful of
Today’s suburbs, once typi-
states that will sway the Electoral
cally lily white, are racially and
College, in order to offset massive
losses in suburbia and, of course,
ethnically diverse, and bursting
in the cities. But that math may not
with people (especially women)
work, because suburbia is where
who have college educations. This
the most votes are. Tom Davis, a
means they’re bright enough to read
former national Republican leader,
the news, see Trump for what he
warns: “What’s happening is that
is, and be rightly repulsed by a cra-
D ick
ven Republican party that abets and
the fast-growing areas (are) where
P olman
the Democrats are doing better.
excuses his serial abuses of power.
COMMENT
There aren’t enough white rural
And now we’re seeing the pay-
off. One year ago, Democrats recap-
voters to make up the difference.”
tured the House in an historic blue wave that
Dennis Bonnen, the speaker of the Texas
House of Representatives, recently put it
subsumed Republican suburban seats even
more bluntly. In an audio recording obtained
in red redoubts like South Carolina, Kan-
sas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Utah.
by The Washington Post, Bonnen was heard
And in this week’s 2019 elections, Virginia
whining to an ally: “I just think we’ve got to
Democrats snatched both legislative cham-
get through 2020. … With all due respect to
bers for the first time in a generation, wiping Trump, who I love by the way, he’s killing
out every last Republican (including a state
us in the urban-suburban districts.”
House GOP leader) in the Washington, D.C.,
True that. Spiking Democratic turn-
out in the Texas suburbs — and the defeat
suburbs. A Muslim woman even won in the
of two GOP House incumbents in the
Richmond suburbs, ousting a Republican
2018 midterms — have prompted at least
state senator who’d long sought to weaken
five House Republicans to announce their
Obamacare.
Most of Virginia’s Republican candidates “retirements.”
Reality-based Republicans are well aware
tried to distance themselves from Trump,
but the voters punished them anyway. Down that they need to reconnect with educated
white-collar suburban voters, especially
in ruby-red Kentucky, incumbent Repub-
lican Gov. Matt Bevins tried the opposite
women. But, alas, they’re tethered to a font
of intolerance who becomes more toxic with
tack, embracing Trump and stumping with
each Orwellian lie. And they’re tragically
an anti-impeachment banner, but voters in
too timid to revolt.
the Louisville and Lexington suburbs pun-
ished him anyway. Most notably, in the vote-
Twice now, in successive years, the sub-
rich suburbs across the river from Cincinnati urbs have sent Trump a message, but he’s
— the same suburbs he’d won easily back in too pig-headed to hear it. And I’m reminded
of a scene in “Citizen Kane,” when a politi-
2015 — he was wiped out.
cal boss warns the megalomaniacal mogul:
Kentucky will surely vote for Trump in
“If it was anybody else, I’d say what’s going
2020, but it’s far less certain that pivotal
Pennsylvania will do so for the second time. to happen to you would be a lesson to you.
Only you’re going to need more than one
Republicans have long been losing clout in
the Philadelphia suburbs, but Trump’s toxic- lesson. And you’re going to get more than
ity has greatly accelerated that trend, espe-
one lesson.”
cially at the grassroots level. In the 2019
———
elections, Democrats took control of sub-
Dick Polman is a nationally syndicated
urban Delaware County for the first time
columnist.
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