Opinion
4A
Thursday, June 4, 2020
The Observer
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
A few reflections on Tuesday’s protest
D
emocracy was on
slung over his body tried to
full view Tuesday
hijack the protest for his own
in downtown La
purpose, whatever that may
Grande. The good, the bad
have been. He had not loaded
and the ugly of it.
the magazine in the weapon,
Protesters and demon-
so it was more of a prop than
strators starting gathering at
anything else (although one
4 p.m. in
person said
front of La
the mag
Grande City
was in his
PHIL WRIGHT
OBSERVER EDITOR
Hall, part of
pocket), but
the move-
it nonethe-
ment stem-
less sent a
ming from the May 25 police message.
killing of George Floyd in
The vocal dissenter met
Minneapolis. We have a full
with some success in dis-
account of the event on the
tracting the crowd. But then,
front page of today’s edition
he didn’t have to try too hard.
of The Observer.
Most of the protesters were
I’ll start with the bad, or
college students who have
in our local case, at least the
spent a few years now in
impolite.
classes learning to argue and
One protester displayed a
are keen to make their point.
two-word insult putting down
The final confrontation
President Donald Trump, and between the man and rem-
the group on several occa-
nants of the crowd turned
sions chanted the slogan. Most physical, and police busted
through to break up the
residents in Union County
melee, disarm the man and
would find that offensive
whether or not they supported put him on the hard sur-
Trump. But that was about as face of the road. Police also
physically blocked and held
vulgar as the crowd got, and
back several protesters from
free speech is about the right
any further clashes with the
to say what others don’t want
man. When the fracas ended,
to hear.
The ugly was more intense. police let the protesters go
One man with an AR-15
and led the man away.
The actions of local law
enforcement were commend-
able for how they handled that
scene as well the entire pro-
test. Police had to warn pro-
testers from straying too far
into the road, but members of
the La Grande Police Depart-
ment and Union County Sher-
iff’s Office were constant
professionals, and numerous
members of the protests and
the officers talked with each
other.
That was part of the good,
and the good was abundant.
For one, the crowd con-
sisted of locals, primarily
Eastern Oregon University
students who had to stick
around even though spring
term went online due to the
coronavirus pandemic. But
parents and their children
were there, and a share of
older folks. During a span
of about two hours, I spoke
with about 10 people, and
they were all local, living
in La Grande or Elgin or
Summerville.
The protesters chanted,
sang some and waved at
passing drivers — and plenty
signaled their approval and
support. They were enthu-
siastic, excited, even angry,
and they knew why they
were there. One young man
said he grew up in Mitchell,
where people tossed racial
slurs his way, and he does not
want his children growing
up in a world where the
color of someone’s skin dic-
tates their treatment, or, such
as with George Floyd, their
mistreatment.
The protest was loud,
sometimes disorganized and
a bit unruly, but overall was
peaceful. Those who gathered
did not disrespect police nor
destroy property — though
someone did spray paint graf-
fiti on the Island Avenue
underpass that seems related
to the protest. They did not
give off the vibe they were
ever going to riot. They even
talked to other locals who
showed up out of concern
they would need to protect the
town should the crowd get out
of control. (That’a a topic for
another day.)
A final note on rioting.
This quote from the Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is
popping up in response to
protest and riots: “A riot is the
language of the unheard.”
Most people using this
mean well, but these eight
OUR VIEW
Governor, legislators are meeting in secret
G
ov. Kate Brown
and Oregon legis-
lators are meeting
behind your back. They are
more interested in expedi-
ency than the public’s right to
know.
Brown has held more than
50 daily meetings by phone
for all the legislators. They
have been holding the meet-
ings without allowing the
public to listen. We only
know about the meetings
thanks to the reporting of The
Oregonian.
The meetings have featured
updates on the latest news
about the pandemic. Shouldn’t
the public be able to hear that
discussion among its elected
leaders?
There have been weekly
updates from the head of Ore-
gon’s Department of Human
Services. He apparently spoke
about what a cut of 17% in
funding would mean for the
department. Oregonians have
heard far too many heart-
wrenching stories of how the
state has failed some of the
state’s most vulnerable chil-
dren : those in the foster care
system. Fariborz Pakseresht,
the department’s director,
said he had to freeze hiring
EO Media Group
The Oregon Capitol building adorned with the Oregon Pioneer with downtown Salem in the background.
for the child welfare program.
Why not let the public listen
in?
The struggling state
Employment Department
also ash given presentations.
It has some 38,000 unpro-
cessed claims. And there’s
another staggering figure:
200,000 claims have not been
paid during the pandemic.
Shouldn’t Oregonians be able
to hear what the department is
saying to legislators and what
legislators are asking? Appar-
ently Gov. Brown and legisla-
tors don’t think so.
And this is where things
get really interesting. The
intent of Oregon’s open meet-
ings law is the public is
allowed to know what the
government is doing. And it’s
not only that the decisions
are made in public. Delibera-
tions are important, too. That
enables the public to know
the choices that must be made
and the information on which
those choices are based.
“Officials in the governor’s
office and the Legislature’s
top lawyer argue” that these
meetings that the governor is
having with legislators don’t
trigger the state’s open meet-
ings law, The Oregonian
wrote. They are getting infor-
mation, the argument goes,
not making decisions.
Baloney.
The information legislators
get in these meetings helps
them make decisions. Legis-
lators will meet in a special
session to make choices about
how state budgets will be cut.
Gov. Brown and legislators
say they believe in transparent
and accountable government.
But that’s not what they do.
words lack the full context of
what King said:
“I think America must see
that riots do not develop out
of thin air. Certain condi-
tions continue to exist in our
society which must be con-
demned as vigorously as we
condemn riots. But in the final
analysis, a riot is the language
of the unheard. And what is
it that America has failed to
hear? It has failed to hear that
the plight of the Negro poor
has worsened over the last few
years. It has failed to hear that
the promises of freedom and
justice have not been met. And
it has failed to hear that large
segments of white society are
more concerned about tran-
quility and the status quo than
about justice, equality, and
humanity. And so in a real
sense our nation’s summers of
riots are caused by our nation’s
winters of delay. And as long
as America postpones jus-
tice, we stand in the position
of having these recurrences
of violence and riots over and
over again. Social justice and
progress are the absolute guar-
antors of riot prevention.”
That was at Stanford Uni-
versity on April 14, 1967, little
more than half a century ago.
CONTACT
YOUR PUBLIC
OFFICIALS
President Donald Trump:
The White House, 1600 Penn-
sylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.
20500; 202-456-1414; fax 202-456-
2461; to send comments, go to
www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley:
D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate
Office Building, U.S. Senate,
Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-
224-3753; fax 202-228-3997.
Portland office: One World Trade
Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St.
Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204;
503-326-3386; fax 503-326-
2900. Pendleton office: 310 S.E.
Second St. Suite 105, Pendleton
97801; 541-278-1129; merkley.
senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden:
D.C. office: 221 Dirksen Senate
Office Building, Washington,
D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax
202-228-2717. La Grande office:
105 Fir St., No. 210, La Grande,
OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax,
541-963-0885; wyden.senate.
gov.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (2nd
District): D.C. office: 2182 Ray-
burn Office Building, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730;
fax 202-225-5774. La Grande
office: 1211 Washington Ave., La
Grande, OR 97850; 541-624-2400,
fax, 541-624-2402; walden.house.
gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown:
254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.
governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer To-
bias Read: oregon.treasurer@
ost.state.or.us; 350 Winter St.
NE, Suite 100, Salem OR 97301-
3896; 503-378-4000.
State Sen. William S.
Hansell (29th District/Pend-
leton): Salem office: 900 Court
St. NE., S-423, Salem, OR 97301;
503-986-1729. Website: www.
oregonlegislature.gov/ hansell.
Email: sen.billhansell@oregon-
legislature. gov.