A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Eastern Oregon
University serves
as a rural rescue
I
n a nation that too often
looks down on its rural
residents, Eastern Oregon
University embraces them.
Its ties to rural America
are so strong that the just-
concluded 2018 Oregon
Legislature unanimously
declared EOU as “Oregon’s
Rural University.” State Sen.
Bill Hansell of Athena carried
House Bill 4153 on the Senate
floor, and Gov. Kate Brown last
week signed the bill into law.
The designation through HB
4153 is more than symbolism.
It is a recognition that EOU
has achieved a remarkable
niche in higher education. EOU
combines a sense of place —
the La Grande-based university
operates 11 centers throughout
rural Oregon — with a well-
regarded distance learning
program that enrolls students
from throughout Oregon, and
beyond.
Regional universities
such as EOU were cast adrift
when Oregon’s big research
universities convinced the
Legislature five years ago to
dissolve the State Board of
Higher Education in favor
of independence for each
institution. Meanwhile, EOU
had suffered such turnover in
leadership that state Rep. Greg
Smith of Heppner has worked
with seven EOU presidents
during his nearly 18 years in
the Legislature.
EOU has prospered under
the home-grown leadership of
Tom Insko, an Eastern Oregon
native and EOU graduate who
was plucked from the private
sector to become university
president in 2015.
Insko has been a consistent
advocate for EOU in the
Oregon Capitol. The 2018
Legislature approved $9.9
million in bonds for a new
EOU fieldhouse, which will
be constructed with cross-
laminated timber, and $390,000
for replacing the track and
related infrastructure.
Every Oregon university
has its niche. Western Oregon
University serves many first-
generation students, and
promotes itself as providing
a close-knit, private college-
style of education at a public
university price. The University
of Oregon is the state’s flagship
university and one of only 62
institutions in the prestigious
Association of American
Universities. Oregon State
University is a land, sea, space
and sun grant university — one
of only three U.S. universities
to obtain all four designations.
But Eastern Oregon
University is the first institution
to have its official designation
— “Oregon’s Rural University”
— incorporated into state law.
That status should enhance its
opportunities to promote rural
economic development and to
obtain grants that support its
rural mission.
Most of all, the designation
underscores the value of a rural
education and EOU as the right
place for that education.
G UEST C OMMENT
New NAFTA rules should stop
theft of intellectual property
By Peter J. Pitts
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
The seventh round of NAFTA
renegotiations just ended. As
American negotiators look ahead
to round eight, they should prepare
to demand stronger protection of
intellectual property rights. Robust
IP protections would prevent Cana-
da, Mexico and other trading part-
ners from freeloading off American
ingenuity — particularly our med-
icines.
Development of a new drug is
an expensive endeavor, requiring
top-tier scientists and equipment
and years of clinical trials. There
are many false starts and dead ends.
Altogether, it costs $2.6 billion to
bring a single drug to market.
Intellectual property rights,
such as patents, give inventors the
chance to recoup this enormous
investment. IP protections allow
companies to sell drugs exclusively
for a limited time.
The United States has some of
the strongest IP protections in the
world. As a result, it is the world
leader in drug development. U.S.
biopharmaceutical firms invest
more than $60 billion annually in
research and development, and
they received more than half of all
drug patents granted worldwide in
2014.
Unfortunately, however, other
countries embrace our inventions
while regularly undermining Amer-
ica’s IP. Take our NAFTA partner
Canada. Our northern neighbor im-
poses price controls on drugs. Be-
cause of these artificial price caps,
Canadians spend up to 55 percent
less on pharmaceuticals than Amer-
icans. That’s unfair — especially
when you consider that the average
Canadian’s family income is slight-
ly above the average American’s.
The Canadian price caps eat into
companies’ research and develop-
ment capabilities and shift more of
the costs onto American consum-
ers, who pay more as a result.
Canada also regularly under-
mines American manufacturers’
patents. Its courts revoke American
patents, enabling Canadian compa-
nies to create knockoff copies of
our patented drugs. The problem
is so bad that the U.S. Trade Rep-
resentative put Canada on its 2017
“watch list.”
This isn’t just a Canada problem,
or even just a NAFTA problem.
Australia, which has a trade agree-
ment with the United States, prom-
ised to notify U.S. patent owners if
Australian drug companies want to
make a generic version of a U.S.
medicine that is still under pat-
ent. The notice is designed to give
American companies a heads up, so
they can take proactive legal action
to prevent patent infringement. But
Australia hasn’t been giving U.S.
companies this advance notice. It
only alerts American firms after
Australian generic manufacturers
begin marketing knockoff copies of
the medicine.
In effect, the Australian govern-
ment is aiding and abetting patent
infringement. It’s helping domestic
firms rip off American companies.
Or consider India and Brazil.
These countries engage in “com-
pulsory licensing” schemes. Com-
pulsory licensing is legal under in-
ternational law, but only in limited
instances. It allows local companies
to produce generic versions of pat-
ented medicines in desperate times
— such as an infectious disease
outbreak. However, India, Brazil,
and other nations abuse this policy
and allow drug-makers to produce
just about any generic without any
urgent reason at all, and without the
patent owners’ permission.
When other countries steal our
intellectual property, American
manufacturers lose revenues need-
ed to invest in more research and
development. They’re forced to
scale back operations or postpone
new research projects — thereby
hurting American workers and pa-
tients.
American trade negotiators
ought to make strengthening IP
rights their top priority. The status
quo hurts American workers and
undermines the creation of lifesav-
ing drugs.
Peter J. Pitts, a former FDA as-
sociate commissioner, is president
of the Center for Medicine in the
Public Interest.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
W HERE TO W RITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541-
575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax:
541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@centu-
rylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day,
97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541-
575-1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax:
541-421-3075. Email: info@cityoflong-
creek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument
97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025.
Email: cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt.
Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax:
541-932-4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie
City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax:
820-3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State
Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-
3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website: www.
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State Capitol,
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180.
Website: www. leg.state.or.us (includes
Oregon Constitution and Oregon Revised
Statutes).
• Oregon Legislative Information —
(For updates on bills, services, capitol or
messages for legislators) — 800-332-2313.
• Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario – 900
Court St. NE, S-301, Salem 97301. Phone:
503-986-1730. Website: www.oregonlegis-
lature.gov/Bentz. Email: Sen.CliffBentz@
oregonlegislature.gov.
• Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale – 900 Court
St. NE, H-475, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-
986-1460. Website: www.oregonlegislature.
gov/findley. Email: Rep.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600 Pennsylva-
nia Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500;
Phone-comments: 202-456-1111; Switch-
board: 202-456-1414.
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516 Hart
Senate Office Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Email:
wayne_kinney@wyden.senate.gov Website:
http://wyden.senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313 Hart
Senate Office Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. Email:
senator@merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-
228-3997. Oregon offices include One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St.,
Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; and 310
S.E. Second St., Suite 105, Pendleton, OR
97801. Phone: 503-326-3386; 541-278-
1129. Fax: 503-326-2990.
You don’t fight guns
with new regulations
To the Editor:
Sometimes the solutions to a
problem are the simplest ones and
the least expensive ones. Banning
guns in public places like schools
leaves it wide open for an invasion
or massacre.
If the teachers and employees of
schools would be willing to carry a
concealed weapon, a gunman could
be stopped before he killed so many
people, if any. I would be willing
to bet, if the gunman knew that the
people in school were armed, he
wouldn’t try these mass shootings
in most cases.
The personnel of the schools that
would be willing to carry a con-
cealed weapon would be trained
in gun safety and marksmanship.
There wouldn’t have to be any need
for security guards to be hired. By
the guns being concealed, a gunman
wouldn’t know who was going to
shoot back!
In addition, much more needs to
be done to keep the firearms out of
the hands of the mentally disturbed
and terrorist-related individuals.
There is the old saying, you fight
fire with fire! You fight guns with
guns. You don’t fight guns with a
bunch of new regulations!
Kenneth R. Moore
Mt. Vernon
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
P UBLISHER ............................... M ARISSA W ILLIAMS , MARISSA @ BMEAGLE . COM
E DITOR .................................... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ BMEAGLE . COM
R EPORTER ............................... R ICHARD H ANNERS , RICK @ BMEAGLE . COM
C OMMUNITY N EWS .................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
S PORTS ................................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
M ARKETING R EP ....................... K IM K ELL , ADS @ BMEAGLE . COM
O FFICE M ANAGER ..................... L INDSAY B ULLOCK , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
O FFICE A SSISTANT .................... A LIXANDRA P ERKINS , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
Prairie City Panthers
make us proud
To the Editor:
I am so proud of our Prairie City
basketball team! The Panthers did
great. Sam Workman, coach, and
Ty, Bo and Mike assisting put in a
huge handful of time, energy and
patience with these boys. I am proud
of all the coaches, teachers, fans
and all the players. We are lucky to
live in a place where everyone has
a chance to play and learn how to
interact with people. The coaches
and players deserve credit. You did
good. See you next basketball sea-
son.
Rosalie Averett
Austin
Resources should be
managed better
To the Editor:
The resources of this county are
water, grass, timber, gold and some
coal. It seems for some reason ev-
erything goes full circle. Well, it
is time to put this county back to
work. For the past some 30 years,
our state and federal agencies have
poorly taken care of the county re-
sources. In 1990, over 200 million
board feet of timber laid to rot in the
forest. A few years ago, 47 homes
were burned up Canyon Creek
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and one side of Canyon Mountain.
Many more homes, timber and
grasses were lost due to this horrible
fire. Due to government regulations
and environment rules, these results
are a disgrace to society. I suggest
that the agencies do a 60/40 man-
agement lease and let the ranchers
and loggers manage the land.
All junipers in this county should
be cleared. Build a gin factory and
create a bark dust factory. Build a
dam. One juniper tree drinks 200
gallons of water a day, what a
waste. Building a dam would create
power, energy and tourism. Let the
cattle graze on the forest like they
used to. This would cut down a lot
of fuel for fire. Clear your mountain
streams so that your fish and water
can do what they are supposed to
do.
If all of the above were done, it
would create jobs and money, and
we could be proud of our beautiful
resources. I have written letters be-
fore, but nothing seems to get ac-
complished. So I hope you reading
this will make some of my sugges-
tions possible. My great-grandfa-
ther came here with the miners and
built the first homestead in Grant
County in 1862. So I can’t help but
be concerned about land, timber,
water, gold and coal.
Austene Lee Trowbridge
Hendrix
John Day
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send address changes to:
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195 N. Canyon Blvd.
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