WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
More farmworkers get vaccinated
Pediatric COVID-19
cases spike
Dora Totoian Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
When Arismel Cardenas walked into
a Gervais vaccination clinic in July, her
nerves made her stomach turn. She’d
heard of some people’s COVID-19 vac-
cine symptoms and worried how she
would react.
But Cardenas also thought of how her
husband, a nursery worker, had been
hospitalized for COVID-19 in the spring
and how the two eldest of her ﬁve chil-
dren, ages 12 and 9, became sick, and are
eager to begin classes in person in the
Woodburn School District as the delta
variant rages.
In the end, a slight fever and sore arm
were worth it to keep her children safer
as they return to in-person learning, she
said.
“I’m not saying it’ll protect us 100%,
but it’ll help us be less likely to end up in
the hospital,” Cardenas, 35, said in
Spanish. “They made it for a reason.”
Cardenas is part of a rising number of
farmworker families getting vaccinated
in recent weeks, in part out of concern
for children amid the delta variant, ac-
cording to several community-based or-
ganizations that serve agricultural
workers.
The work of these organizations and
the Oregon Health Authority has stayed
largely consistent in the past month,
distributing PPE, encouraging vaccines
— often through personal stories and
connecting farmworkers to other re-
sources.
“We have to make sure we’re protect-
ing the parents in the worksite, but also
the children, and that we’re protecting
families as a whole,” Daysi Bedolla Sote-
lo, organizing director at PCUN, Ore-
gon’s farmworker union, said. “It’s
about having a generational approach
so we don’t forget anybody or leave any-
body behind.”
Earning farmworkers’ trust
Though the government declared
farmworkers “essential” at the begin-
ning of the pandemic, the Oregon
Health Authority did not open vaccina-
tions to them until the end of March, a
decision that some advocates said con-
tributed to disparities in vaccination
rates between people of color and white
people.
As of Friday, 51.8% of Hispanic/Lat-
inx people in Oregon have been vacci-
nated, compared to 67.1% of white peo-
ple.
The state’s vaccine database does
not track professions, so it’s diﬃcult to
know how many farmworkers have
been vaccinated.
Advocacy organizations face signiﬁ-
cant challenges when trying to convince
many agricultural workers to trust a
vaccine eﬀort pushed by the U.S. gov-
ernment.
The U.S. government has a history of
medical malpractice toward Latinos
and other communities of color. For ex-
ample, California targeted Mexican-
See FARMWORKERS, Page 4A
Oregon limits
‘love letters’
from home
buyers
Jessica Guynn
USA TODAY NETWORK
Mill City Volunteer Fire Department is recognized for its efforts in saving the town during the anniversary
memorial for the 2020 Labor Day wildﬁres in Mill City. PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
‘A lot of heroes that night’
Santiam Canyon residents share
stories from 2020 ﬁres
Virginia Barreda Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Dave Keasey was abruptly woken by ﬁreﬁghters
pounding on the front door of his Mill City home as
ﬂames reached his driveway on Labor Day last year.
With minutes to spare, they ﬂed the Santiam Can-
yon, forced to leave two of their cats and nearly all
their belongings behind.
When he and his wife, Dorothy, returned two days
later, they expected to ﬁnd only embers and ashes at
the top of the hill where they lived.
Instead, they discovered their house had survived,
and so had their cats.
During a recent memorial service to honor the ﬁve
people killed in the ﬁre and those who helped ﬁght the
historic blaze, Keasey thanked the ﬁreﬁghters who
were there to protect his house.
“Had the ﬁreﬁghters not arrived to awaken us at
midnight, I have no doubt we would’ve been trapped
by the ﬁre with nothing but a garden hose to ﬁght it,”
he said.
“There were a lot of heroes that night. Perhaps
foremost are those who stood on the ﬁreline to save
this town. Those volunteer ﬁreﬁghters not even from
Mill City or Gates who stayed behind when we left at
A community member signs a banner to thank unsung
heroes whose efforts aided the Santiam Canyon.
the risk of being trapped themselves doing what they
could to try and save our home. And they did save our
home. They saved us.”
About 150 people gathered at Kimmel Park in Mill
City Sunday for the Canyon Strong Wildﬁre Memorial
on the one-year anniversary of the Beachie Creek and
Lionshead ﬁres.
It was one of three memorial gatherings held in the
canyon over Labor Day weekend.
Another in Detroit invited community members to
See FIRES, Page 4A
COVID-19: Is it safe
to eat at restaurants
right now?
Many restaurants
have returned to
indoor dining
following the
transition to the
"high risk"
category in Marion
and Polk counties.
Tirion Morris and Connor Radnovich
ABIGAIL DOLLINS /
Salem Statesman Journal
STATESMAN JOURNAL
DJ and Lauren Bowser had been hunting for a
home in the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Ange-
les for months when they bid on a 1920s Spanish
bungalow.
They oﬀered nearly $200,000 over the asking
price of $1.29 million with friendly terms.
To sweeten the deal, their agent advised them to
enclose a heartfelt letter and family snapshots. They
felt awkward about it – “you have a sense of being
judged” – so they mostly wrote about how much
Bear, their 11-pound, 5-year-old Chihuahua terrier
mix, would enjoy running around in the grassy back-
yard after living in an apartment her whole life.
They beat out multiple oﬀers, including one that
was higher than theirs.
“We were told Bear won us the house,” DJ Bowser
said.
In hot markets where multiple bidders are jockey-
ing for the same house, homebuyers will do just
about anything to get their oﬀer noticed – and that
includes writing “love letters” in hopes of making a
personal connection with a seller.
These ardent pitches often rave about a home’s
natural light or historic character. They also contain
deeply personal details about people’s lives along
with photographs, and even videos.
Increasingly, though, real estate agents are refus-
ing to accept or deliver these letters as concerns grow
that they violate fair housing laws.
Oregon is the ﬁrst state to ban the practice.
Starting in January, a real estate agent must reject
any communication that would reveal the buyer's
race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national
origin, marital status or familial status, according to
the new law.
“We are not impeding on their freedom of speech
or written communication. We are limiting transmis-
sion of communications that are not relevant and
could potentially be breaking fair housing laws,” Rep.
Mark Meek, D-ORegon City, who sponsored the leg-
islation, told USA TODAY.
While most people are familiar with racist prac-
tices like redlining, restrictive covenants and preda-
tory lending, love letters and their accompanying
photographs are “the dirty little secret of real estate,”
Meek said.
“Buyers send letters and photos of their family to
the seller in hopes of having a connection, and in
many cases they do,” he said. “I began wondering if
these letters were exacerbating disparities out there.”
Fair-housing experts say love letters can create bi-
as, even if it’s unintentional.
They tap into that desire “to sell your house to an-
other family that’s like my family,” University of Mis-
souri law professor Rigel Oliveri said.
Even though a love letter helped them buy a house,
DJ Bowser said he supports the new Oregon law.
"You wonder why sellers choose the families that
they choose or the individuals that they choose to
purchase their homes, and I hope it’s not based on
biases," he said. "However, in the end, these letters
create a bias no matter what.”
Fair housing violation or 'woke cancel
culture'?
USA TODAY NETWORK
Jonathan Jones says he is kept up at night worrying
about the possibility someone gets sent to the hospital
with COVID-19 after dining or working a shift at his restau-
rant.
It’s one of the biggest reasons why Jones decided to
voluntarily end indoor dining a few weeks ago at Epilogue
Kitchen and Cocktails in downtown Salem.
“If there’s a way to prevent that from happening as
much as possible, then I feel ethically responsible to take
those steps,” Jones said.
Since his decision, Epilogue’s sales are down 50%.
See RESTAURANTS, Page 3A
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The real estate industry is split on the practice.
Cambron Elsey, an agent in Charleston, South Car-
olina, who has been opposed to love letters for years,
says taking them out of the equation is a “huge ser-
vice” to the real estate profession.
But Ken Calhoon, a broker in El Dorado County,
California, says legislating against the letters is un-
necessary and just another example of “woke cancel
culture” run amok.
In the 45 years he has been selling real estate, Cal-
hoon says he has never seen a seller refuse to accept
an oﬀer or choose one oﬀer over another based on
skin color or a legally protected status.
“Will they have a letter-monitoring department to
See LETTERS, Page 3A