STATE
6A — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2021
Oregon’s state song awaits an offi cial makeover
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon’s
offi cial state song, nearly
a century old, is about to
get a makeover to remove
words that advocates of
change say refl ect a racist
past.
The Oregon House has
adopted and sent to the
Senate a resolution that
changes some of the words
to “Oregon, My Oregon,”
which the Legislature
approved as the state song
in 1927.
House Concurrent Res-
olution 11, which passed
47-6 on Friday, April 16,
replaces the fi rst verse by
J.A. Buchanan: “Land of
the Empire Builders, Land
of the Golden West/Con-
quered and held by free
men, Fairest and the Best.”
It substitutes these words
by Amy Shapiro: “Land of
Majestic Mountains, Land
of the Great Northwest/
Forests and rolling rivers,
Grandest and the best.”
In the second stanza, the
phrase “Blest by the blood
of martyrs” is replaced
by “Blessed by the love of
freedom.”
Shapiro is a constituent
of Rep. Sheri Schouten,
D-Beaverton, and the
revised lyrics were sung in
the House chamber on Feb.
14, 2020, Oregon’s 161st
anniversary of statehood.
“I was too young to
realize that every time we
sang those words … we
were celebrating the darkest
aspects of our state’s racist
history, and reinforcing it in
Oregon Secretary of State/Contributed Graphic
“Oregon, My Oregon” has been the offi cial state song of Oregon since
1927. The Legislature is moving to change some of the song’s lyrics, in-
cluding the line that states, “Land of the Empire Builders, Land of the
Golden West/Conquered and held by free men, Fairest and the Best.”
The new lyrics would be “Land of Majestic Mountains, Land of the Great
Northwest/Forests and rolling rivers, Grandest and the best.”
the present,” Schouten said.
“The good news is that
we have evolved some-
what and school kids no
longer sing those disturbing
lyrics … All Oregonians of
all ethnic and racial back-
grounds deserve a state
song they can sing with
pride and aff ection.”
Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer,
was one of six who voted
against it. Post recalled
that in 2017, Buchanan’s
granddaughter sought his
help in raising money for
a tombstone for Buchanan
at his grave in Warrenton.
(Buchanan was in the
Oregon House two terms
from Southern Oregon, but
lived in Astoria in 1920,
when he wrote the orig-
inal lyrics for a competition
sponsored by the Society of
Oregon Composers.)
Post said he asked her
then how she would feel if
the lyrics were changed.
“She told me if we
did so, it would be like
rewriting T.S. Eliot or
Shakespeare. The song as
is, she said, refl ects the
period of time and the writ-
er’s intention,” he said. “I
would fi nd it hard to change
the words of a song that
schoolchildren have sung
for nearly a century.”
Rep. Greg Smith, R-Hep-
pner, traces his family roots
to the white pioneers who
came in the mid-1800s. Ann
Elizabeth Bills, his great-
great-great grandmother,
is credited with sewing the
fi rst U.S. fl ag ever fl own
in Oregon. He said when
he hears the state song, she
and people like her come to
mind.
“It is special,” he said.
“And not all of us hear it in
a manner that comes across
as off ensive or racist. So
I apologize to those of us
who do — but I don’t.”
Rep. Cedric Hayden,
R-Lowell, said he also
traces his Oregon roots
to the mid-1800s and is a
sixth-generation Orego-
nian. His father, also named
Cedric, was in the House 14
years.
“I am concerned with
erasing our history because
we learn from the mistakes
we have made,” he said.
Who is the ‘fairest’?
Rep. Brian Clem,
D-Salem, said he also
traces his family heri-
tage to an ancestor who
arrived in Oregon in the
mid-1800s. He is married
to Carol Suzuki, a staff er in
the Senate Majority Offi ce,
whose father was interned
during World War II.
Clem said what struck
him was the song’s line
about the “fairest and the
best,” when his daughter,
then age 8, asked him a
question.
“It hit home for me when
my own daughter said
three years ago — that’s
not ancient history — ‘Do I
look white enough to avoid
being deported?’” he said.
“That line should not
evoke in her the question of
whether she is fair enough
to avoid what happened to
her grandfather, and not
get locked up because she
looks more like her dad
than her mom, and avoid
being sent to concentration
camps in the desert by the
government.”
Rep. Andrea Valderrama,
D-Portland, said the current
lyrics demean Blacks and
indigenous tribes. Although
Oregon was admitted to the
Union in 1859 as an anti-
slavery state, its 1857 Con-
stitution also specifi ed that
Black people were unwel-
come. (Voters repealed that
section in 1926 and removed
all racial references in 2002.)
“Written in the 1920s,
the song’s racist and violent
lyrics wrongly and disturb-
ingly celebrate the geno-
cide of the Oregon tribes,”
Valderrama, the newest
member and one of a record
nine members of color in
the House, said. “This is
dehumanizing, insulting and
traumatizing. It has no place
in our state song. So I ask:
Whose Oregon is this song
talking about? Because this
is not my Oregon.”
Rep. Dacia Grayber,
D-Portland, said: “What is
not sung in this song is the
history of our First Nations,
people who were brought
to this country against
their will in the shackles of
slavery, and those who have
immigrated to make this
nation and this state richer
and better. It is time for us
to sing the history that is
refl ective of all of Oregon.”
Rep. Mark Meek, D-Or-
egon City, drew notice April
8 when he sang “Lift Every
Voice and Sing,” often
known as the Black national
anthem, during a debate on
a resolution to designate
June 19 as a state holiday.
Juneteenth, as it is known,
observes the day that
slavery was proclaimed at
an end in the United States.
Unlike that song, or
“America the Beautiful,”
Meek — who is Hispanic
— said he feels diff er-
ently about “Oregon, My
Oregon.”
“Here’s the shame of this:
This is our state song, and I
don’t know how to sing it,” he
said. “Songs are meant to be
sung, and they should be fun
songs, songs that you love. I
don’t know this song, because
it does not relate to me.”
CDC investigating woman’s death after J&J vaccine La GRANDE
AUTO REPAIR
975-2000
could make a recommenda-
tion soon after on whether
and how to resume use of
the J&J vaccine.
Sharief said whether
Oregon resumes distri-
bution of the J&J vaccine
will be a “refl ection” of the
committee’s decision.
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
and SARA CLINE
Associated Press
PORTLAND —
Oregon health offi cials said
Thursday, April 22, that
federal offi cials are investi-
gating the death of a woman
in her 50s who developed
a rare blood clot and low
platelets within two weeks
of receiving the Johnson
& Johnson vaccine against
COVID-19.
The Oregon Health
Authority learned of the
probe on Tuesday, two days
after the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Pre-
vention began the inves-
tigation, the agency said.
The woman, whose name
was not released, received
the dose before the CDC
ordered a pause on the vac-
cine amid concerns it could
cause dangerous clots.
The woman developed a
“rare but serious blood clot
in combination with very
low platelets,” OHA said in
a statement.
Dr. Shimi Sharief, senior
health advisor for the state’s
health authority, said the
woman’s symptoms were
consistent with other cases
— severe headache, abdom-
inal pain, leg pain or short-
ness of breath .
Health offi cials declined
to release any further
details, including the date
David Zalubowski/Associated Press, File
This Saturday, March 6, 2021, photo, shows vials of Johnson & Johnson
COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital pharmacy. Oregon health offi cials said
Thursday, April 22, 2021, that federal offi cials are investigating the death
of a woman in her 50s who developed a rare blood clot and low platelets
within two weeks of receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
the woman got the vac-
cine or where in Oregon
she lived, citing patient pri-
vacy. The woman was hos-
pitalized before her death
and got the vaccine in early
April, Sharief said.
Until the investigation
is complete, which health
offi cials predict will take a
week or more, it’s not cer-
tain that her death is related
to the vaccine, the agency
said.
Federal and state agen-
cies paused the J&J vaccine
rollout on April 13 due to
concerns about blood clots.
“For most people that
received the (J&J) vac-
cine, we are nearing the
end of that time of where
they need to be monitoring
for symptoms,” Sharief
said. The CDC warned that
if people have symptoms
within three weeks after
receiving the vaccine they
should contact their health
care provider.
Federal offi cials already
were examining six reports
of the unusual clots,
including a death, out of
more 8 million Americans
given the one-dose vaccina-
tion so far.
The CDC also told Texas
health authorities Thursday
that a woman in that state
was hospitalized with pos-
sible blood clots associated
with J&J vaccine recipients.
A government advisory
committee on vaccines is
expected to meet Friday and
Oregon sued for charging
inmates for medical devices
Associated Press
PORTLAND — A class
action lawsuit has been
fi led claiming the Oregon
Department of Correc-
tions is violating the Amer-
icans with Disabilities Act
because it charges prisoners
with disabilities for pros-
thetics and other medical
devices they need.
The suit was fi led this
week in federal court by
Portland attorney Lynn
Walsh and nonprofi t legal
organization Disability
Rights Advocates, Oregon
Public Broadcasting
reported.
The litigation aims to
prevent the practice of
charging people with dis-
abilities in prison for health
care appliances and durable
medical equipment. In
addition to preventing the
practice in the future, the
plaintiff s want the state to
reimburse people.
The lead plaintiff ,
Donald Terrill, is impris-
oned at the Snake River
Correctional Institution in
Ontario, and was fi tted with
a prosthesis after a lower
leg amputation eight years
ago.
Since 2013, the Depart-
ment of Corrections has
garnished Terrill’s trust
account. He’s paid more
than $10,000 toward his
own prosthetic leg and owes
another $14,000. He makes
$45 per month working in
prison.
“Because I am being
charged for my prosthesis,
I cannot buy much beyond
toothpaste and deodorant,
or save up for shoes,” Terrill
said in a statement.
The corrections depart-
ment acknowledged adults
in custody are “gener-
ally required” to buy their
own medical equipment
“like hearing aids and
prosthetics.”
“When AICs are
released from custody,
these items leave with the
AIC because the equip-
ment is not Department of
Corrections property, but
personal property,” correc-
tions spokesperson Jennifer
Black said. The DOC sup-
plies medical items such
as canes, which can be
returned and used again,
she said.
Terrill requires the pros-
thetic limb to get around
the Snake River prison,
according to the lawsuit.
Without it, he said, he
wouldn’t have access to the
same programs and services
in prison as inmates who
are not disabled.
“We have the utmost
confi dence that it would be
a decision made with thor-
ough investigation and con-
sideration of the potential
benefi ts and risks, in rela-
tion to each other, as we
go through this pandemic,”
Sharief said.
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