KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TueSdAY, NOveMBeR 2, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Voters make
investment in
public safety
B
ack in May, residents of
Milton-Freewater made a big
sacrifice and followed through
on a good decision to pass a $7.7 million
bond for a new police department build-
ing.
Soon, the city police department will
move out of the cramped, obsolete space
into an upgraded, 7,200-square-foot new
station.
A new police station was way over-
due. The current one, used for nearly a
century for the police department, stuffed
20 employees into a small work area
where doing such basic police procedures
as interviewing witnesses was problem-
atic.
The new station will deliver a host of
new benefits for the police, including
more space to interview witnesses. The
station also will be furnished with new
technology and an automated fingerprint-
ing system.
Most of all, though, the station will be
new and the city’s police force will jump
from an office structure better fit for the
1950s to a modern facility.
The decision by city voters was not
an easy one. But once a city decides it
needs a police force then it also has an
obligation to ensure its police depart-
ment is resourced in an adequate manner.
Forking over more dollars for public
infrastructure can be a hard sell, but it
shouldn’t be when the subject involves
police or fire and rescue departments.
Investing in police and fire resources
is never, ever a bad idea. In fact, a solid
argument could be made that funding
police and fire through tax dollars is the
best way to use income derived from resi-
dents.
No one likes to pay taxes but when the
expenditure is for police or fire, the cost is
really an investment. An investment that
pays for itself with safe streets and a fire
department that is manned in an adequate
fashion with the newest and best equip-
ment and ready to respond to an emer-
gency.
The simple fact is we need police and
fire personnel. That means, though, that
we must always ensure they have the best
equipment and best facilities from which
to do their jobs. We may bemoan the
cost, but when there is an emergency no
one usually starts to ask questions about
costs. Instead, they want someone — a
cop or a fireman — to be on the scene
helping them.
We believe the votes in Milton-Free-
water made the best decision possible and
we also believe they will see that their
investment will pay off many times into
the future.
EDITORIALS
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.
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SEND LETTERS TO:
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or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801
Finding ways to give back
DANIEL
WATTENBURGER
HOMEGROWN
ike many families in our area, we
just wrapped up the annual ritual
of the fall youth soccer season.
It’s a mix of growth opportunity, spec-
tator entertainment, and community
building.
For the ultra-committed, the youth
soccer experience lasts a decade or
more. It starts with a mob of cleats
and shin guards swarming the ball
and culminates with year-round travel
teams and high school league play and
tournaments. For the rest, it’s a handful
of falls spent toting pop-up chairs and
fruit snacks each Saturday, crossing
our fingers for a late start to winter as
we watch our kids learn teamwork and
sportsmanship.
This fall was pristine. Almost
every Saturday was sunny and calm,
and Butte Park in Hermiston made an
outstanding venue for sharing comfort-
able space with other families of fans.
As a one-and-done youth soccer
player myself after a single campaign
that involved me waiting for the ball
to arrive at my feet so I could kick it (it
rarely did), I wasn’t sure whether our
similarly passive kids would have the
drive necessary to get into the game.
I also wondered what kind of coaches
L
they would have. I won’t go making
a retroactive assessment of my own
coach’s abilities, but I will say I remem-
ber the tone of her direction far clearer
than the directions themselves.
Both of our kids landed on teams
with coaches who very clearly under-
stood the principles of developmental
league soccer and offered equal parts
grace and opportunity to every player,
understanding their differing levels of
ability and intensity. And both our kids
truly enjoyed the experience.
Soccer’s simplicity is the reason
it’s the most widely played sport in the
world. But for it to work well you need
dedicated volunteer coaches and refs.
Youth sports can bring out both the best
and worst in people, and these volun-
teers often take the brunt of the darker
side.
It’s no wonder youth sports leagues
struggle to find enough referees and
umpires to fill out a full schedule.
Coaching a team with your own kid on
the roster is a time commitment; show-
ing up to try to impose structure on a
children’s game while being reviewed
by an audience of very partial observers
is something else.
For everything our kids learn on the
field, we can learn something from the
sidelines.
Among those lessons is gratitude, a
key part of sportsmanship. It’s fitting
that we’re entering November, a month
where we’re reminded of thankfulness
as a virtue.
Gratitude is not something that
comes easy for me. Those who have
read this column in the past might
be quick to point out that in March I
spent the entire space grousing about
the month’s worthlessness. I spend too
much time thinking about the way I
wish things were, rather than appreciat-
ing the way the way they are.
But I do believe that genuine grati-
tude has the power to not only change
my internal perspective, but to spread
good vibes to others as well. Nobody
signs up to ref youth sports for the
applause, but a quick thank you after the
game goes a long way.
This translates to everywhere else in
life. Our individual acts of gratitude can
start to offset the selfishness and vitriol
that seeps into our lives. Rising above
simple good manners and sharing your
appreciation for the people around you
has a cascading effect. We can all pay
it forward while improving our own
outlooks.
Being grateful also helps me think
about the tremendous amount of time
and effort it takes to make a community
run. Rather than just enjoying the bene-
fits of others’ generosity, I’m inspired to
find ways to give back.
———
Daniel Wattenburger is the former
managing editor of the East Oregonian.
He lives in Hermiston with his wife and
children and is an account manager for
Pac/West Lobby Group. Contact him at
danielwattenburger@gmail.com.
Act. TROA is a bipartisan bill that
will allow registered dietitians and
other health experts to independently
provide IBT counseling services and
will provide access to Food and drug
Administration-approved anti-obesity
medications.
The rate of obesity among Medi-
care beneficiaries doubled from 1987 to
2002 and nearly doubled again by 2016.
Congress should work to pass TROA as
part of reconciliation to ensure Medicare
recipients have access to the treatments
and the health practitioners that can help
them effectively treat obesity.
Christine Guenther
Pendleton
industry — the most of any democrat.
Since Sen. Manchin seems to be
against any climate change initia-
tives, the negotiators are trying to
figure out which he dislikes least. He
seems to be seriously upset with the
program to encourage electrical util-
ities to reduce their use of fossil fuels
called the Clean electricity Payment
Program. Perhaps less so with a
carbon price, and he doesn’t seem
to have mentioned tax credits tied
to investment in renewable energy.
Significantly, a company called AeP
is running three coal fired electric-
ity plants in West virginia, and that
company has highlighted the impor-
tance of receiving those tax credits to
decarbonize.
despite all of the politics, a carbon
price is in the running because it is
cheap, effective, transformative and
can help pay for other programs.
Getting rid of carbon is a big tran-
sition, but because a carbon price
affects all uses of fossil fuel, it helps
inputs, products and markets to tran-
sition simultaneously. You can help
too by asking President Joe Biden to
support a carbon price at whitehouse.
gov/contact or citizensclimatelobby.
org/white-house.
Brenda Pace
Bend
YOUR VIEWS
We cannot ignore
the cost of obesity
The cost of obesity is an emergency
we cannot ignore. despite the conclu-
sive evidence that obesity is a treatable
disease, Medicare rules impede millions
of Americans from receiving clinically
effective and cost-effective obesity solu-
tions.
Medicare currently does not cover
safe, Food and drug Administration-ap-
proved anti-obesity medications, and
only covers obesity services and treat-
ments called Intensive Behavioral Ther-
apy if it is provided by a primary care
physician or other primary care prac-
titioner in a primary care setting. This
prevents registered dietitians like me and
other specialists from providing effec-
tive treatment to older Americans living
with obesity.
These laws are rooted in erroneous
views of obesity as the result of individ-
ual choices. In reality, obesity is a treat-
able disease, stemming from genetic,
biological and environmental factors.
For the nearly 100 million Americans
living with obesity, a lack of access to
affordable care means they are at high
risk for some of the leading causes of
death like heart disease and stroke.
Congress has a fix at its finger-
tips, the Treat and Reduce Obesity
The carbon price,
highs and lows
The Senate Finance Committee
chaired by Ron Wyden of Oregon is
working on several climate change
initiatives in the Reconciliation Bill,
even though Sen. Joe Manchin of West
virginia doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like
it despite the devastating floods and
droughts suffered by his constituents
that are causing emergency declarations.
He also doesn’t like it because he has a
blind trust for a coal trading company
that produces dividends. In addition, he
receives donations from the coal and gas