B4 Monday, August 23, 2010 • THE BULLETIN
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A model athlete
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ot all athletes are like Roger Clemens, doped-up guys whose careers defy the laws of nature. Think instead of guys like D.J. Gregory, in Central Oregon last week for
the Jeld-Wen Tradition golf tournament. If ever there was athletic role model material, Gregory surely is it. Clemens is what The New York Times describes as a larger-than-life pitcher, a man whose career is phenomenal, at least on paper. Let go in 1996 by the Boston Red Sox at age 33, he spent the next few years just getting better and better, even as he got older and older, well beyond the age most baseball players are forced into retirement. In fact, over the next decade he earned four Cy Young Awards and helped the Yankees win two World Series. Problem is, much of what he accomplished apparently came about because of his willingness to pump himself up with performance-enhancing drugs. Now he’s been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of lying to Congress about his drug use. Contrast that with Mr. Gregory, who at age 32 has never won a golf tournament, who uses a cane and who actually isn’t playing golf this week. Rather, Gregory is walking the Crosswater course with pro Olin Browne in part to raise money for Gregory’s foundation, Walking for Kids. Gregory suffers from cerebral palsy, which is caused by an injury to the brain shortly before, during or shortly
after birth. The injury deprives its victims of full motor function, leaving them with such things as muscle spasms, involuntary movement and disturbances of gait and mobility, among other things. None of that has slowed Gregory down, however. A self-described sports nut who loves golf, he spent 2008 logging nearly 1,000 miles on foot as he walked every event on the PGA Tour that year. Now he walks for charity — and because he still loves golf. His foundation supports children’s charities and the pro golfers he follows support it by donating the proceeds from a round of golf. So who is the better role model? It depends on how you define the word, surely. Clemens has talent, clearly, and drive. He also has been willing both to break the rules and to deny he has done so for a huge chunk of his career. Gregory has a disability, meanwhile, but he’s never let it stand in the way of his leading a purposeful life. He, too, has drive, and he channels his efforts into helping others. When it comes to setting a good example, Gregory stands head and shoulders above Roger Clemens.
Open records review J
ohn Kroger, Oregon’s attorney general, is not one to let things be simple because they seem to be going fairly well. Thus his office has spent considerable time this year in preparing to overhaul the state’s open records law as a part of his pledge to make government open and transparent. The open records law is designed to let Oregonians, from news folks to the neighbor next door, ask for and receive copies of many of the records government agencies keep. Need minutes from a city council meeting last year? Ask, and Oregon cities must cough them up. The same is true for such things as e-mails between public officials and for a slew of other things. Still, the law is not without its problems, and Kroger knows that. He’s currently touring the state, holding public meetings on the open records law and on the one that governs open meetings. While he may suggest changes to both, it’s the open records law that is likely to get the bulk of his attention, says his spokesman, Tony Green. In fact, Green said Kroger is focusing on three problem areas in the law. One is that it establishes no deadlines by which records must be denied or handed over. That can be a real problem if timely release of such information is critical, as you might expect. Green expects some sort of deadline or deadlines will be
included among any changes Kroger proposes. Second, Kroger is expected to propose more uniform fees that can be charged by government agencies for retrieving and copying public records. There is no uniform fee schedule now, and agencies from the local rural fire protection district to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission are pretty much free to charge what the traffic will bear, sometimes close to $100 per hour. Such high charges are a clear deterrent to anyone demanding records that every Oregonian is entitled to see. Finally, the some 450 exemptions currently written into the law will be given a going over, Green said. Here, he notes, it’s not so much a matter of removing exemptions — though we hope some of that will be suggested — as organizing and simplifying them. As an example, Green cites a variety of exemptions covering employment records that are scattered and disorganized. Oregon’s open records law was enacted in 1973, and it hasn’t had a thorough review in the intervening 37 years. Meanwhile, the Internet, e-mail and other electronic wonders have changed records and recordkeeping almost beyond recognition. That alone justifies Kroger’s mission, though a more user-friendly open records law is surely worth the effort as well.
My Nickel’s Worth In Stiegler’s debt As November approaches, I recall past election seasons. I can remember Judy Stiegler’s last campaign, when she ran against former Rep. Chuck Burley. Elections are infamous for the negative campaigning, but from this campaign in particular, I remember Stiegler targeted Burley for his missed votes in the Legislature. Obviously, I am not condoning Burley’s missed votes, but after two years of Judy Stiegler in office, I ask myself, “Would it be better for us if she didn’t show up to vote?” In only two short years, we have lost over 115,000 private sector jobs, unemployment has basically doubled, government spending is increasing at an unsustainable rate, we have higher taxes and fees, our state has accumulated even more debt and there are no signs of improvement. Judy did not accomplish this single-handedly, but she has certainly supported it with her votes in the Legislature. Serving as just one example, Stiegler’s support for measures 66 and 67 is fairly well known, but you may not know that the state Legislature enacted the largest tax and fee increase in Oregon’s history last session, totaling about $1.6 billion. Of the 38 tax increases last session, Judy voted for 37 of them, 66 and 67 being the largest. These taxes only serve to burden the already struggling residents and small businesses of Oregon. Undoubtedly, we would be better off if she just didn’t vote at all. In closing I would like to thank Judy. We shall
forever be in her debt. James Bird Bend
pedo the innocent actions of others. Jeff Gakstatter Bend
Waste of resources
Inappropriate mosque
I read the Aug. 14 article “Farm owner broke code by renting out land for a wedding” with disgust. Two things came to mind: 1) In this age of tight budgets, why would Deschutes County spend resources pursuing this issue? 2) Why would people raise a complaint because someone holds a mere six events a year on their own property? The property owner tried to do the right thing by sending a letter to Deschutes County letting the county know the dates of six scheduled weddings. What does the county do? Send out a “code enforcement technician” to four of those events for the purpose of photographing cars and people visiting the property. Following those visits, the “technician” issued a citation, which in turn generated a trial and who knows how many unproductive meetings. Oregon doesn’t provide guidance on the issue at the state level, instead leaving the issue up to individual counties. Unfortunately, Deschutes County chose to waste taxpayer dollars on this issue for a potential $720 fine. How many other issues does Deschutes County waste resources on? I hate to guess! As to any complaints lodged, I’m afraid our society has too many of these individuals who can’t seem to mind their own business and would rather do what they can to try and tor-
Yes, in the United States, religious freedom is a right. But the right to do as you wish with your property is not. There are many properties across the country that cannot be used for pornography shops, liquor stores or even parks. Some property can even be seized via eminent domain statutes. Also, Christian churches, over the years, have been limited to certain areas in this country. In some parts of our country, church “bell ringing” has been banned. Now, Manhattan and surrounding areas must be subjected to numerous calls to prayer by the Muslims every day. Not just Sunday! It is outrageous! What is also outrageous is President Obama had the audacity to say, at the U.N., for millions of people to hear, that the United States of America is no longer a Christian nation. It is! More so than ever. Now the president supports the building of a mosque near where the Twin Towers once stood. Of course, Muslims have a right in America to build a mosque anywhere it is allowed, but that does not mean they should. Sensibilities dictate that a few more blocks away should be considered. Interestingly, a church would never be allowed to be built anywhere in Saudi Arabia, let alone near the Ka’bah. President Barak Obama is the best president that the Muslim nations ever had! Virginia Gulbrandsen Bend
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What the U.S. must do to recapture its competitiveness BERLIN — ver the past few weeks, I’ve had a chance to speak with senior economic policymakers in America and Germany, and I think I’ve figured out where we are. It’s like this: Things are getting better, except where they aren’t. The bailouts are working, except where they’re not. Things will slowly get better, unless they slowly get worse. We should know soon, unless we don’t. It is no wonder that businesses are reluctant to hire with such “unusual uncertainty,” as Fed chief Ben Bernanke put it. One reason it is so unusual is that we are not just trying to recover from a financial crisis triggered by crazy mortgage lending. We’re also having to deal with three huge structural problems that built up over several decades and have reached a point of criticality at the same time. And as Mohamed El-Erian, the CEO of Pimco, has been repeating, “Structural problems need structural solutions.” There are no quick fixes. In America and Europe, we are going to need some big structural fixes to get back on a sustained growth path — changes that will require a level of political consensus and
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sacrifice that has been sorely lacking in most countries up to now. The first big structural problem is America’s. We’ve just ended more than a decade of debt-fueled growth during which we borrowed money from China to give ourselves a tax cut and more entitlements but did nothing to curtail spending or make long-term investments in new growth engines. Now our government owes more than ever and has more future obligations than ever — like expanded Medicare prescription drug benefits, expanded health care, an expanded war in Afghanistan and expanded Social Security payments (because the baby boomers are about to retire) — and less real growth to pay for it all. America will probably need some added stimulus to kick-start employment, but any stimulus right now must be in growth-enabling investments that will yield more than their costs, or they just increase debt. That means investments in skill building and infrastructure plus tax incentives for starting new businesses and export promotion. To get a stimulus through Congress, it must be paired
THOMAS FRIEDMAN with spending cuts and/or tax increases timed for when the economy improves. Second, America’s solvency inflection point is coinciding with a technological one. Thanks to Internet diffusion, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and the shift from laptops and desktops to hand-held iPads and iPhones, technology is destroying older, less skilled jobs that paid a decent wage at a faster pace than ever while spinning off more new skilled jobs that pay a decent wage but require more education than ever. There is only one way to deal with this challenge: more innovation to stimulate new industries and jobs that can pay workers $40 an hour, coupled with a huge initiative to train more Americans to win these jobs over their global competitors. There is no other way. But the global economy needs a
healthy Europe as well, and the third structural challenge we face is that the European Union, a huge market, is facing what former U.S. Ambassador to Germany John Kornblum calls its first “existential crisis.” For the first time, he noted, the EU “saw the possibility of collapse.” Germany has made clear that if the eurozone is to continue, it will be on the German work ethic, not the Greek one. Will its euro-partners be able to raise their games? Uncertain. Keeping up with Germany won’t be easy. A decade ago, Germany was the “sick man of Europe.” No more. The Germans pulled together. Labor gave up wage hikes and allowed businesses to improve competitiveness and worker flexibility, while the government subsidized firms to keep skilled workers on the job in the downturn. Germany is now on the rise, but also not free of structural challenges. Its growth depends on exports to China, and it is the biggest financier of Greece. Still, “Germany is no longer the country with the oldest students and youngest retirees,” said Kornblum. By contrast, America’s two big parties
still cling to their core religious beliefs as if nothing has changed. Republicans try to undermine the president at every turn and offer their nostrum of tax-cuts-willsolve-everything — without ever specifying what services they’ll give up to pay for them. President Barack Obama gave us expanded health care before expanding the economic pie to sustain it. You still don’t sense our politicians are saying, “Wait a minute, stop everything, we have got to work together.” Don’t these people have 401(k) plans of their own and kids worried about jobs? The president needs to take America’s labor, business and congressional leadership up to Camp David and not come back without a grand bargain for taxes, trade promotion, energy, stimulus and budget cutting that offers the market some certainty that we are moving together — not just on a bailout, but on an economic rebirth for the 21st century. “Fat chance,” you say. Well, then I say get ready for a long phase of stubborn unemployment and anemic growth. Thomas Friedman is a columnist for The New York Times.