Opinion
A4
Friday, December 31, 2021
OUR VIEW
Looking
forward and
moving ahead
o getting around it, the past year was tough
one.
In fact, the past two years deliv-
ered a host of challenges to our nation, state and
community.
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched nearly
every facet of our lives and will probably do so
again in the next year.
The toll of the virus on our nation is incalcu-
lable, both in a real sense and in the method — it
invaded our very culture.
The pandemic also helped create wider divi-
sions in our nation and our community. That’s a
depressing circumstance but one that is real and
evident.
In terms of tolerance, government transpar-
ency and sympathy for diff erent points of view,
2021 was not a banner year for the United States,
Oregon or Eastern Oregon.
Racism in all its horrid forms still haunts our
nation. Government still seems, at times, to be for
the very few and not for all. We still scream at each
other more than we ever did and fail to listen. An
all-or-nothing attitude fl ourishes in many places,
choking out educated and measured dissent.
Yet, we can change all of that.
We carry the capacity as a people to move for-
ward into the future with a united purpose to over-
come the challenges presented by the COVID-19
pandemic.
We are a great nation, and we live in a great
community that has much to off er and is resilient.
Yet our greatness also comes with a tremendous
amount of responsibility. Much has been given to
our piece of the heartland — great places for recre-
ation, wide-open skies and beautiful forests — but
much is also required of us.
Someday, far into the future, our decisions and
sacrifi ces and failures will be measured and eval-
uated by historians. We need not leave a trail of
intolerance, apathy and failure.
We have the opportunity to meet the challenges
in the next 12 months with courage and a commit-
ment to do better than we did in 2021.
We, and our children, will inherit what we sow,
but instead of an empty garden we should expect
and want to leave a cornucopia for those who come
after our time has passed.
Our future is as bright as we want it to be. But it
is up to us individually and collectively to meet the
problems of the future with clear thinking and a
methodical resolve to live up to the high standards
set by our nation’s founders.
The new year will deliver many high-spirited
revelers around the area and we would be remiss
if we did not remind everyone who indulges to be
prudent and safe and responsible.
And Happy New Year from The Observer.
N
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Find your clean fork in the new year
KARRINE
BROGOITTI
FROM THE PUBLISHER
ike most people, I’ve been
desperately searching each
day for any tiny sliver of
joy that I can fi nd. And, after 649
days of “pandemic-ing,” I’m happy
to report that I’ve been mostly
successful.
Some days are certainly more
joyous than others. There are days
when I’ve been getting ready for
bed and realize that I haven’t men-
tally acknowledged anything in par-
ticular that brought me joy that day.
On those nights, I’ll take a minute
to review my day’s events and fi nd a
tiny sliver to appreciate. Such joyous
recognition might be tied to some-
thing like a perfectly brewed and
doctored cup of coff ee that morning,
or something far more trivial and
desperate — like realizing I have
just enough clean forks to eat dinner
with that night.
Then, there are those rare days
that overfl ow with “clean fork
moments,” like the 24 hours of bliss
recently shared between myself,
my sister, Keisha, and my maternal
grandparents as we traveled to a
funeral, of all things. My sister and
I drove our grandparents, John and
Sally Smith, to Hood River so that
they could pay their respects to our
grandma’s favorite cousin, Ann,
after the loss of her husband. There
were clean forks everywhere.
We listened to Willie’s Road-
L
Karrine Brogoitti/The Observer
John and Sally Smith take time to pose for
a photograph during a December 2021 trip
to Hood River.
house on SiriusXM and overheard
our grandparents humming and
singing along to Merle Haggard,
George Jones, Conway Twitty and
Patsy Cline. Joy was found at the
Idlewilde Cemetery, where Keisha
and I walked with our grandparents
as they showed us the fi nal resting
places of many of our relatives and
shared stories we’d never heard
before — or didn’t pay attention to
the fi rst time. Forks, forks, forks.
Joy was even found at Rosauers
Supermarket where our grandpa
returned to the car with trays of
steaks and sealed packages of sau-
sages (“Girls, they have the best
meat department of any supermarket
I’ve ever been to. It’s worth the stop”
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— and best served with a clean fork,
I would imagine).
We enjoyed a post-funeral lun-
cheon, complete with wine and
views of the beautiful Columbia
River that stretched for days, where
our grandma visited with family and
our grandpa told us stories of how
loggers once moved logs high from
the surrounding hills down to the
river for transport.
It was joyous.
The trip ended with breakfast at
Egg River Cafe — four perfectly
brewed and doctored cups of coff ee,
alongside four clean forks on the
table — where my sister and I hung
on every word they shared with
us about their time living in Hood
River.
As we drove back into the
valley, the trip was capped off with
a Grammy-worthy performance
of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Par-
ton’s “Islands in the Stream” —
covered by my sister and me, with
the sweetest sound coming from
the backseat of my grandparents’
Buick — the backup vocals of our
85-year-old grandma. It was one of
the single, greatest moments of pure
joy that I can recall over the last 649
pandemic days. Or any pre-pan-
demic days, for that matter.
I encourage each of you to start
day No. 650 of the pandemic, Jan.
1, and every day after in the coming
year, fi nding your clean fork. It’s
easier to fi nd than you think.
———
Karrine Brogoitti is the publisher
of The Observer and the Baker City
Herald.
Anindependent newspaper foundedin1896
www.lagrandeobserver.com
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