2A — THE OBSERVER
Daily
Planner
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 8,
the 343rd day of 2020. There
are 23 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On Dec. 8, 1941, the Unit-
ed States entered World War
II as Congress declared war
against Imperial Japan, a
day after the attack on Pearl
Harbor.
ON THIS DATE:
In 1886, the American
Federation of Labor was
founded in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1972, a United Airlines
Boeing 737 crashed while
attempting to land at Chica-
go-Midway Airport, killing 43
of the 61 people on board,
as well as two people on the
ground.
In 1980, rock star and
former Beatle John Lennon
was shot to death outside
his New York City apartment
building by an apparently
deranged fan.
In 1987, President Ronald
Reagan and Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed
a treaty at the White House
calling for destruction of
intermediate-range nuclear
missiles.
In 1991, AIDS patient
Kimberly Bergalis, who
had contracted the disease
from her dentist, died in Fort
Pierce, Florida, at age 23.
In 1998, struggling to
stave off impeachment, Pres-
ident Bill Clinton’s defenders
forcefully pleaded his case
before the House Judiciary
Committee.
In 2008, in a startling
about-face, Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed told the
Guantanamo war crimes
tribunal he would confess to
masterminding the Sept. 11
attacks; four other men also
abandoned their defenses.
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Win for Life: Dec. 5
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DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer,
please call 541-963-3161.
Urgent care clinic now open downtown
By Kaleb Lay
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A new
urgent care clinic in down-
town La Grande aims to
bring a broader range of
health care options to the
Grande Ronde Valley.
La Grande Urgent Care,
a branch of La Grande
Family Medicine, opened
at 2011 Fourth St. on Nov.
16. Office manager Kayla
Reagan said the clinic
offers a family-based
approach and an alternative
to seeking care in a “larger,
less personal setting.”
“We provide an alterna-
tive option for our commu-
nity, La Grande and all sur-
rounding areas, for them to
come into a family-owned
practice,” Reagan said.
The urgent care clinic
includes an on-site Inter-
path laboratory, meaning
some lab work, such as
blood testing, can be com-
pleted at the clinic. Reagan
said the clinic also can do
ultrasounds and electrocar-
diograms, though they do
refer imaging services such
as x-rays to Grande Ronde
Hospital, La Grande.
The clinic has a pro-
vider and a medical assis-
tant on staff at all times,
Reagan said, as well as
a medical office sup-
port worker doing patient
check-in and check-out.
Kaleb Lay/The Observer
La Grande Urgent Care opened downtown on Nov. 16, 2020, and has since seen a steady
stream of patients, mostly for COVID-19 related issues.
People can seek treat-
ment at the clinic for any-
thing from cold and flu
symptoms to urinary tract
infections, sexually trans-
mitted diseases, strains
and fractures and more.
While the clinic provides
a broad range of services,
Reagan said it has pri-
marily been seeing people
for COVID-19 related rea-
sons thus far.
LA GRANDE —
Eastern Oregon University
welcomes Ben Dorfman,
an American professor
living in Germany and
teaching at Aalborg Uni-
versity in Denmark, to dis-
cuss his research on his-
tory, contemporary politics
and human rights at the
Thursday, Dec. 10 EOU
Colloquium.
Dorfman’s talk will
be held via Zoom (ID:
92178553423) at 4 p.m.
Dorfman has been
focusing on human rights
issues for 10 years, and has
published two books of
essays and a range of arti-
cles exploring a plethora
of issues in human rights,
from contemporary news
items to historical scenes,
such as the site of the
Potsdam Conference and
the Bergen-Belsen concen-
tration camp.
“Like anybody else, it is
COVID-19. That is No. 1
right now,” she said, adding
that “we are leaning into
this pandemic and choosing
to serve our community
to the best of our ability,
which we absolutely could
not do without the hard
work and dedication from
our staff. They are true
heroes.”
The clinic provides
COVID-19 testing ser-
vices, and results are usu-
ally available within three
to five days.
“We’re doing a ton of
COVID testing right now,”
said certified nurse practi-
tioner Jennifer Provence,
who added she was unsur-
prised to be dealing so
heavily with the pandemic.
Provence said the urgent
care clinic has been well
received by the community
and patients have not been
in short supply.
“It’s been great,” she
said. “We’re busy. The first
couple of days were slow,
but I don’t think the word
was out, really, that we
were open.”
Staff agreed that
increased health care
options are a benefit to the
local community.
“Patients love that they
can come in, and if they
can’t be seen with their pri-
mary they can just come
over here and see us,” said
medical assistant Kaitlyn
Henry.
Clinic staff noted
patients can check in and
reserve a spot online,
allowing them to forgo
some of the waiting that
may happen in medical
offices.
Prospective patients also
can see when the next avail-
able appointment slot is and
can receive text message
alerts reminding them about
their visit.
To make an appoint-
ment, go to lagrandefami-
lymedicine.com or call 541-
962-7808. The clinic also
accepts walk-in patients. La
Grande Urgent Care is open
seven days a week, from 8
a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays
and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on
Saturdays and Sundays.
Pearl Harbor attack had immediate impact on LG
By Dick Mason
A Dec. 8, 1941, story
stated that guards were
being posted at La Grande’s
city reservoir, at the rail-
road and at telephone and
electric plants 24 hours a
day. The American Legion
was posting the guards and
asked all unemployed vet-
erans to volunteer.
As another precaution,
police reserves and air raid
wardens were activated
in La Grande. Later in
December they helped con-
duct air raid drills at places
such as La Grande’s ele-
mentary schools.
In one December air
raid drill, students were
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Air
raid drills, blackouts and
the sudden presence of
guards throughout La
Grande.
All became part of the
daily lives of La Grande
residents in the days imme-
diately following the Dec.
7, 1941, attack on Pearl
Harbor by the Japanese.
Fear of attack and sab-
otage suddenly became all
too real according to sto-
ries that appeared in The
Observer, then named
the La Grande Evening
Observer.
EOU Colloquium welcomes
human rights researcher
The Observer
TuESday, dEcEmBER 8, 2020
LOCAL
Recognizing that human
rights invite many opin-
ions and ideas, Dorfman
acknowledges many feel
the need to weigh in on the
subject.
“There are very few
people that you can say
the words to and they
don’t light up immedi-
ately and feel like they have
some sort of sense of the
meaning of the term and
imaginations they engage
in about different sceneries
from the past and present,”
Dorfman said in a press
release from EOU.
While on sabbat-
ical in the U.S., Dorfman
is working on a book
explaining why human
rights continue to play
a central role in modern
culture. During his col-
loquium, he plans to
cover the role rights have
played in the recent elec-
tion, including the right to
be recognized as a polit-
ical subject, a voting indi-
vidual or a participant in
democracy.
Initially, Dorfman didn’t
realize human rights was
the blanket term under
which the social concerns
he was looking to address
fell. His definition of
human rights has changed
as his research developed.
“The important point
is the realization that even
though we may imagine
that we come from irrec-
oncilable political posi-
tions, in fact, we don’t,”
Dorfman said. “That’s
because we have a bedrock
of ideas that flows under-
neath the multiple places
we stand. We have our-
selves convinced that we
don’t. But we do.”
For more information
about upcoming EOU
Colloquium topics, visit
eou.edu/colloquium.
asked to return to their
homes within 15 minutes.
About 85% of the children
succeeded.
In addition to air raid
drills, blackouts were con-
ducted throughout the
state as a precaution. For
example, a radio blackout
was conducted the day after
the Pearl Harbor attack. On
Dec. 8 all radio stations in
Oregon and Washington
were ordered off the air.
Stations remained off from
11 p.m. Dec. 8 through
Dec. 9. After that radio
stations were allowed to
operate during the daytime
but not at night.
La Grande had one radio
station then — KLBM.
At the time of the Pearl
Harbor attack there were at
least 30 young men from
Union County stationed
overseas in the military.
The number included sev-
eral men at Pearl Harbor.
Family members did not
know for at least a day who
had survived the attack.
The Dec. 8, 1941, edition
of The Observer stated
that casualty lists would
begin appearing in the next
edition.
In addition to mem-
bers of the military, Union
County residents were also
concerned about the wel-
fare of three Willamette
University football players
from La Grande. The
players — Glen Nordquist,
“Buddy’’ Reynolds and
Dave Kelly — had traveled
with Willamette Univer-
sity’s team to play a game
against the University of
Hawaii in Honolulu.
Willamette played on
Dec. 6 and was in Hawaii
the next day when the Jap-
anese attacked. None of the
players were injured in the
Pearl Harbor attack.
However, this news
did not reach La Grande
until Dec. 9.
Getting down and dirty in the trenches
Dick Mason/The Observer
Tim Forsythe of InfraSource Services does trench work on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, on
Terrace Avenue in La Grande for Avista Utilities.
Preventing suicide with ‘Question, Persuade, Refer’ method may save lives
By Dick Mason
The Observer
MORE INFORMATION
ISLAND CITY —
Sometimes asking a ques-
tion is the best way to save
a life.
This is critically true if
one is using the “Question,
Persuade, Refer” method
for reaching out to someone
feared to be so depressed
they may commit suicide.
La Grande High School
counselor Teresa Dowdy
emphasized this while
giving a QPR training ses-
sion, Friday, Dec. 4, to
teachers and staff at Island
City Elementary School.
Dowdy said under-
standing this method for
emergency mental inter-
vention is akin to knowing
The La Grande School District is providing “Question, Persuade,
Refer” training to teachers and staff to strengthen its conformity
to Measure 52, which the Legislature passed in 2019. Measure 52
requires Oregon school districts to have a comprehensive plan
for student suicide prevention in place. The La Grande School
District already had a good plan, La Grande High School coun-
selor Teresa Dowdy said, but adding training will boost it.
CPR to revive someone
whose heart has stopped.
Using the QPR method —
question, persuade and refer
— she said, allows one to
address a mental health
crisis before professionals
can help the person.
She said many people in
the community know CPR
and she hopes that soon will
be true for QPR.
“It is important to have
people community-wide
who can recognize the signs
(of someone considering
taking their own life) and
know how to respond to
help them,” said Dowdy, a
certified QPR trainer.
To apply the QPR
method one first asks
someone they are con-
cerned about if they are
considering hurting them-
selves; then, if they say yes,
the individual tries to per-
suade the at-risk person to
seek help and next, if they
are successful, they refer
the person to a counselor
or another mental health
professional.
Dowdy said when asking
the initial question, one can
use a direct or less direct
approach but always should
do so in a sensitive manner.
Someone using a less direct
approach, she suggested,
could ask, “Have you been
so unhappy lately that you’ve
been thinking about ending
your life?” or “Do you ever
wish you could go to sleep
and never wake up?”
Someone choosing a
more direct approach could
say: “You look upset and
down. Are you thinking
about suicide?”
She added that research
has shown once the ques-
tion is asked, people often
express a sense of relief
and open up about their
feelings. Dowdy said if
someone is trying to per-
suade another to seek help
and is unsuccessful, that
is when they should call a
crisis worker or 911 if they
are concerned.
When someone agrees to
go to a mental health pro-
fessional, it is important to
get them to make a brief
commitment.
“If they say ‘yes,’ ask
them, ‘Will you promise
me that you will not to
hurt yourself in between
now and the time you talk
to a mental health profes-
sional?’” Dowdy said.
In terms of making a
referral, Dowdy said it is
important to always have
contact information for
mental health professionals
available one can share
when needed.
Friday’s QPR training
was one of about half a
dozen Dowdy will be con-
ducting in the La Grande
School District and online
for the public over the next
month. Dowdy’s next online
training for the public will
be Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. To sign
up, go to the Center for
Human Development Inc.’s
website at www.chdinc.org
or visit its Facebook page.