OPINION
A4 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
A4 HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2015
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2015
EDITORIAL • COMMENTARY • LETTERS
HermistonHerald
VOLUME 109 ɿ NUMBER 11
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EDITOR
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A member of the EO Media Group Copyright ©2015
newsprint
The consequences
of your
vaccination decision
C
alifornia
is
experiencing
an entirely new
disturbance in the Force.
The Magic Kingdom
has become the Measles
Kingdom. Disneyland is
ground zero for the largest
outbreak of measles in the
last 15 years. So far, more
than 100 cases have been
reported since the initial
exposure, some from as
far away as Boston. (Rest
assured, Mickey and Goofy
DUHVWLOO¿QH
This makes last year’s
fear of an Ebola outbreak
spreading across the nation
look even more prescient
and the sleepy, lethargic
response of the CDC look
even worse.
Measles was so rare,
it was one of those
diseases that I feared
environmentalists would try
to put on the endangered
species list. When I was a
boy, mothers used to have an
informal measles network.
When one child came down
with it, the other mothers
would rush their kids over
to be exposed, so they could
get the illness and be done
with it. This was also the
procedure with chicken pox.
But with the
development of safe,
effective vaccines, measles
almost disappeared.
I was anticipating a
measles exhibition in
the Smithsonian to mark
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vanished, but I didn’t
anticipate Jenny McCarthy
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boobs and start preaching to
boobs.
McCarthy — a former
Playboy centerfold — and
a “doctor” whose medical
license has since been
revoked, began warning the
public about a non-existent
connection between
measles and autism. Most
of us simply ignored her
misinformation, but a
recent study showed the
two demographics where
McCarthy’s message made
inroads were Americans
with very little education
and those with advanced
degrees.
Presumably both
demographics include
Disneyland patrons.
As a result, gullible
parents have been refusing
Letters Policy
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MAKING SENSE
Cagle columnist
to have their children
vaccinated. For a while
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are parasites depending
on the good sense of those
that do vaccinate their
children to keep the disease
rare enough to protect the
unvaccinated. But now we
may be past the tipping
point where so many
children are unvaccinated
that epidemics can break
out.
This means there is more
to consider than the expense
when contemplating being
trapped inside a submarine
on the Finding Nemo ride.
Some in the medical
profession have taken note
and are taking sensible
steps.
The Associated Press
reports Dr. Charles
Goodman, a pediatrician in
Los Angeles, has banned
unvaccinated children from
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choose not to give measles
shots, they’re not just
putting their kids at risk, but
they’re also putting other
kids at risk — especially
kids in my waiting room.”
And Dr. Goodman is not
alone.
But there are complaints
from mothers unhappy
that little Typhoid Mary
can’t visit the doctor.
Dotty Hagmier, founder of
Moms in Charge, told AP
that mothers are feeling
“betrayed and upset.” Just
like the moms whose kids
become ill because of her
negligence.
The decision to vaccinate
or not vaccinate belongs to
the parents, but the parents
should also be responsible
enough to live with the
results of their decision and
demand the rest of us be put
at risk because they chose
to take their medical advice
from a Playboy bunny.
— ©2015 Michael Rea-
gan. Michael Reagan is the
son of President Ronald
Reagan, a political consul-
tant and author. Send com-
ments to Reagan@cagle-
cartoons.com. His column
is distributed exclusively
by Cagle Cartoons news-
paper syndicate
The Hermiston Herald welcomes original letters for
publication on public issues and public policies. Submitted
letters must be signed by the author and include the city of
residence and a daytime phone number. Phone numbers
will not be published. Letters may be mailed to the
Hermiston Herald, 333 E. Main, Hermiston, OR, 97838;
or emailed to editor@hermistonherald.com
Something to brag about?
I
f the Hermiston School
District’s plan to become
the premier district
in the state doesn’t work
out, perhaps it can go into
public relations instead.
The Oregon Department
of Education released the
graduation rate information
for districts in the state
last week, and, in short
order, the school district
had a press release on its
website hailing its success.
According to the school
district press release,
Hermiston High School’s
District’s four-year cohort
graduation rate was 85.04
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cohort rate — including
students who graduated in
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was also 85.04 percent.
While these numbers
and the fact that the
district out-performed the
state sound impressive
— especially if you’re
grading on a curve — it
was a clear example of an
agency manipulating data
to suit its own purposes.
What the district failed
to mention in its press
release was the overall
graduation rate with the
numbers for the Innovative
Learning Center, the
-(66,&$.(//(5
HERMISTON HERALD
Editor
district’s alternative high
school, factored in. While
the state includes the ILC’s
numbers when calculating
the overall graduation rate
in its report, the school
district apparently prefers
not to even mention the
ILC. Of course, factor
the ILC in and suddenly
the graduation rate drops
to 67.89 percent, which
actually is not as good as
the state’s average.
In his presentation
at the Hermiston
Chamber of Commerce
Distinguished Citizens
Banquet Wednesday,
during which teachers are
also honored, Hermiston
Superintendent Fred
Maiocco, with no trace
of irony, recited the high
school’s graduation rate
numbers as an example
of the progress the school
district is making in
its goal to become the
premier school district
in the state. Of course,
he only presented the
graduation rate numbers
from the main high school
— apparently the only
ones that matter — and
not the overall rate with
the ILC stats.
A word of caution to
the school district: Don’t
believe your own PR lest
you be forced to eat your
words in future.
While it might be
uncomfortable for the
district to admit, especially
when spinning graduation
numbers into a pretty
package, the ILC is an
offshoot of Hermiston
High School. The
teenagers it serves are
high school students; if
and when they graduate,
they do it with their peers
at HHS; and the state no
doubt calculates the overall
graduation rate with the
ILC in mind because many
of its students started high
school at HHS.
An even more
indisputable inconvenient
truth — especially when
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tying graduation rates to
premier district examples
— is the ILC is part of
the district — even when
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to dissociate it from the
“regular” high school.
How many people
would associate a 67.89
percent district graduation
rate with a premier school
district or even evidence
the district is making
progress in its goal to
become a premier district.
How many people would
consider a 67.89 percent
graduation rate a bragging
point at all? District
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the school buildings
in their calculations,
but, really, they’re only
putting lipstick on a pig.
Even if it is a lovely
shade of magenta.
A better tack for the
district to take in future
is to leave the lipstick in
its tube and present the
graduation rates in their
pure form and then follow
up with all the things the
district is doing — or
going to do — to improve
those numbers. Because
the school district is
committed in its goal to
becoming the premier
district in the state —
where all its students
count and are counted.
— Jessica Keller is
the editor of the Herm-
iston Herald. She can
be reached at jkeller@
hermistonherald.com
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
‘The right thing to do’
men and women were in uniform,
with 292,000 being killed on the
Editor,
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In the past year I have attended from other causes. Many more were
several funerals of 90-year-old men wounded.
who were memorialized as being
Our military/industrial complex
members of “America’s Greatest went into overdrive. Many key jobs
Generation.” Tom Brokaw, in his were done by women. Folks at home
1998 book “The Greatest Genera- ZHQW³DOOLQ´VDFUL¿FLQJWRPDNHVXUH
tion,” said, “It is, I believe, the great- our troops and allies were supplied
est generation any society has ever with the best that was available. It
produced.” These men and women was “the right thing to do.”
did what they did because it was “the
As bad as our losses were, we
right thing to do.”
fared better than most of the rest of
They came of age during the Great the world. It is estimated that from
Depression and witnessed the anxi- 60 to 80 million people died as a re-
ety and hardship that was occurring sult of this war. When one things of
when unemployment of able-bod- the impact this carnage must have
ied men was about 25 percent. The had on these veterans, it is no won-
children of these unemployed were der they did not want to talk about it
often malnourished, ill and had to when they came home.
quit school to work alongside adults
When these veterans came home,
who resented their taking the job of we had become an industrial giant,
a man.
and these veterans needed the skills
When the government initiated WR¿WLQ7KH*,%LOOZDVSDVVHGSD\-
the New Deal with its WPA and CCC ing for school tuition and expenses,
programs giving the unemployed and low-cost loans for mortgages
jobs, there were many who resent- and businesses became available. We
ed the intrusion of government into also realized a good portion of the
their lives and the increase in taxes ZRUOG ZDV KXUWLQJ DQG ¿QDQFLDO DV-
this entailed. But, over time, they sistance would help them get “back
came to realize it was “the right thing on their feet,” so we made loans to
to do.”
them. This all cost money, but they
Things were still only margin- viewed it as “the right thing to do.”
ally better when World War II be-
Our highway system needed im-
gan. The timeline for the start of the provement to bring about a speedy
war was September 1939 to August evacuation of our cities in the case of
:H RI¿FLDOO\ HQWHUHG RQ 'HF a feared atomic bomb attack, and it
7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked was decided that we needed a nation-
Pearl Harbor. Over 16 million U.S. al system of interstate and defense
highways. The 41,000 miles devel-
oped gave our veterans employment
and made our country the envy of
much of the world.
With all of this happening, it is
obvious that we had incurred a mas-
sive debt, 112.7 percent of GDP
at the conclusion of the war, the
highest in our history. This “Great-
est Generation” paid it off in about
20 years. How did they accom-
plish this? By taxing incomes over
$200,000 with a tax rate of about 90
percent and being blessed with the
longest run of economic success in
our history. I only knew one per-
son who admitted to being in the
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me in 1947 that he made a lot of
money, probably more in the pre-
vious year than I ever would make
in my lifetime as a teacher. He told
me he could never be a teacher, but
he was good at making money. He
made a point of telling me that it
was his generation that had incurred
this debt, and he felt it was his gen-
eration’s obligation to pay the debt,
“the right thing to do.”
In the memorials I attended, little
was mentioned about what these men
had done while in the service. Had
they been asked, they would proba-
bly have said they did their duty. In
response to all the volunteers ser-
vice, they had done during their life-
time, they probably would have said,
“It was the right thing to do.”
CARLISLE HARRISON
HERMISTON
ELECTED OFFICIALS
STATE
District 29: Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Umatilla Co., 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-423, Salem, OR 97301, 503-986-
1729. 101 S.W. Third St., Pendleton,
OR 97801 (541) 278-1396. E-mail:
ssen.billhansell@state.or.us.
District 30: Sen. Ted Ferrio-
li, R-John Day; 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-223 Salem, OR 97301, 503-986-
1950. 750 W. Main, John Day, OR
97845, (541) 575-2321. E-mail: ferr-
ioli.sen@state.or.us.
District 58: Rep. Bob Jenson,
R-Pendleton; 900 Court St. N.E.,
H-480, Salem, OR 97301, 503-986-
1458. 2126 N.W. 21st., Pendleton,
OR 97801, (541) 276-2707. E-mail:
rep.bobjenson@state.or.us.