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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, August 26, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW OTHER VIEWS The big decisions L Photo courtesy of Confederated Umatilla Journal Umatilla Indian Reservation Youth Leadership Council representatives Cece Hoffman, left, and Alyssa Farrow hurry to put on rain gear during a wet ride around the nation’s capital aboard a tour bus during the White House Tribal Youth Gathering July. Western tribes strive to keep the light alive G rowing up is hard enough ridiculous ways in which they without having to worry are wasted. But for small-town about your civilization teenagers from Indian Country, going extinct. making connections at the center In the summer 2015 edition of national power and visiting of Gilcrease magazine, young the Smithsonian’s National Cherokee Tribe member Danielle Museum of the American Indian Culp draws a quite brilliant might be the kind of spark metaphor about surviving within needed to ignite a life of activism Matt a maelstrom of worry about Winters and political engagement. ZKHWKHUWKHFXOWXUHWKDWGH¿QHV Attendee Alyssa Farrow, Comment you is fading away. secretary of the Umatilla youth “One of the scariest things for council, reports being moved by me to think about is the death of a star. First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech to Some stars are close enough that the WKHSDUWLFLSDQWVLQWKLV¿UVWHYHU light reaches us in minutes. Some stars White House Tribal Youth Gathering in are so far it takes tens of thousands of early July. And youth council treasurer years for their light to travel to us. Like Cece Hoffman said, “I’m very thankful all things, stars die. If a star dies and it that we were able to represent our tribe takes hundreds of years for the light to and bring back knowledge and ideas reach Earth we will see the light of that for the future. It was an eye-opening star even after it has passed. By the time experience I will never forget.” that we realize it is gone it will have Considering that it takes almost no been gone a long time. effort at all to learn that reservation “I am afraid that cultures are like youth are among America’s most at-risk stars, that they can die too. We know citizens, it’s head-spinning to think it’s they do, even if we do not like to admit it taken until now for it to sink in at the top or talk about it. The original inhabitants level that it was time to toss them a life of the eastern coast were some of ring. But good to see anyway. WKH¿UVWRQHVWRFRPHLQFRQWDFWZLWK ——— the new explorers. There were some It’s also emotionally affecting to tribes that were wiped off the face of read in the latest issue of Archaeology the planet. Either by disease or by the magazine about Yup’ik Tribe wooden sword. Those cultures are lost in time. dolls dating between 1540 and 1650 There was no one left to pass on their washing out of a prehistoric site stories, their language, their legacy. I destabilized by melting Bering Sea ice. equate them to close stars, for we can Archaeologists mounted an emergency see the immediate effect of their demise. response to investigate the mound I am afraid that other cultures have died from which the dolls were emerging. and we are still seeing their light in Sometimes a couple of hundred of these present generations, but when we realize ¿JXUHVDORQJZLWKULWXDOPDVNVDQG that they are truly gone it will be too late other well-preserved wooden objects, to save their memory. I know that this were recovered each day. is not a happy thought, and if I allowed It is a strange but invigorating irony myself, it could be too big a burden to that destruction of a place so saturated bear. Instead, I allow it to inspire me. with tribal history is reawakening local ,WLQVSLUHVPHWR¿JKWIRUP\FXOWXUHWR young people. show the world that I am still here, that “In part as a result of their experience WE are still here. I refuse to let our light with the dig, a group of children from go out, because I want it to continue to Quinhagak petitioned the elders for and shine in generations to come.” received permission to form a traditional ——— dance group,” the magazine reports. 0\¿UVWERVVZDVDIXOOEORRGHG In 2013 at an exhibition of newfound Cherokee, a profoundly likable artifacts, these young dancers performed. Oklahoma man named Henry Gourd, “They were welcoming the pieces back,” whose name always comes easily to the lead archaeologist said. “That was mind because he was distinctly pumpkin WKH¿VWWLPHWKHUHKDGEHHQWUDGLWLRQDO shaped. Living all my life in the West, dancing in Quinhagak in more than a I can’t gauge how common it is for century. It’s all part of this revival that is white Americans in general to have JURZLQJDORQJZLWKWKH¿QGV´ such Native Americans in their lives. A somewhat similar renewal of tribal But certainly for me, after my parents identity happened near the mouth of the decided to build a house just inside a Columbia River when archaeologists reservation, it was inevitable that I’d uncovered Chinook tribal remains at the have a stronger-than-ordinary interest in Middle Village unit of Lewis and Clark their fate. There have always been some National Park in the run-up to the 2005 whites who cross the line into being expedition bicentennial. This tangible tribal groupies. I know far too much evidence of their ancestors was sad about their internal feuds, corruption, for local tribal members, and yet at the school bullying and other ordinary same time appeared to strengthen their human foibles to so idolize Indian life. passion for asserting a right to endure But it would be outright sinful to not pay and even prosper in the tribe’s traditional attention when despair haunts too many homeland. Indian people, good folks just trying to Shamefully, this hasn’t ignited a have decent lives. similar interest on the part of national There are glimmers of hope dawning leaders to right wrongs against this on the horizon, much of this light HVVHQWLDO3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWWULEH$ coming from people like Culp who letter-writing campaign now in its aren’t defeated and who feel a renewed 54th day has yet to elicit any response sense of direction. whatsoever from the White House. The Confederated Umatilla Journal’s The Chinook — and the Clatsop on August issue reports on six Umatilla the Oregon side of the river — continue Youth Leadership Council members hoping, in the words of the young attending an inspirational gathering Cherokee woman, to receive some convened by the White House to acknowledgment that “We are still here.” improve the lives of native youth around Ŷ the country. Visiting the capital ought to Matt Winters is editor of the Chinook be a rite of passage we arrange for every Observer and Coast River Business young American — this would surely be Journal, sister papers of the East a far better use of taxes than most of the Oregonian. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. et’s say you had the chance to desire to know. Ask, Do I have a become a vampire. With one profound desire to discover what it magical bite you would gain would be like to be this new me, to immortality, superhuman strength experience this new mode of living? and a life of glamorous intensity. As she puts it, “The best response Your friends who have undergone the to this situation is to choose based transformation say the experience is on whether we want to discover who incredible. They drink animal blood, we’ll become.” David not human blood, and say everything Live life as a series of revelations. Brooks about their new existence provides Personally, I think Paul’s Comment them with fun, companionship and description of the problem is ingenious meaning. but her solution is incomplete. Would Would you do it? Would you you really trust yourself to raise and consent to receive the life-altering bite, even nurture a child simply on the basis of self- knowing that once changed you could never revelation? Curiosity is too thin, relativistic go back? and ephemeral. 7KHGLI¿FXOW\RIWKHFKRLFHLVWKDW\RX¶G I’d say to really make these decisions have to use your human self and preferences well you need to step outside the modern to try to guess whether you’d enjoy having conception of ourselves as cognitive creatures a vampire self and preferences. Becoming who are most sophisticated when we rely on a vampire is transformational. You would rationality. literally become a different self. How can you The most reliable decision-making guides possibly know what it would feel like to be are more “primitive.” We’re historical this different version of you creatures. We have or whether you would like inherited certain life it? scripts from evolution In her book and culture, and there’s “Transformative often a lot of wisdom in Experience,” L.A. Paul, a following those life scripts. philosophy professor at the We’re social creatures. University of North Carolina Often we undertake big at Chapel Hill, says life is transformational challenges ¿OOHGZLWKGHFLVLRQVWKDWDUH QRWEHFDXVHLWIXO¿OOVRXU DELWOLNHWKLV/LIHLV¿OOHG desires, but because it is with forks in the road in good for our kind. which you end up changing We’re mystical creatures. who you are and what you Often when people make a want. transformational choice they People who have a child feel it less as a choice and suddenly become different. more as a calling. They feel Joining the military is there was something that another transformational destined them to be with this experience. So are spouse or in that vocation. marrying, changing careers, Most important, we’re immigrating, switching moral creatures. When faced religions. with a transformational In each of these cases choice the weakest question the current you is trying to may be: What do I desire? make an important decision, without having Our desires change all the time. The strongest the chance to know what it will feel like to be questions may be: Which path will make me the future you. a better person? Will joining the military give Paul’s point is that we’re fundamentally me more courage? Will becoming a parent ignorant about many of the biggest choices PDNHPHPRUHFDSDEOHRIVHOÀHVVORYH" of our lives and that it’s not possible to make Our moral intuitions are more durable than purely rational decisions. “You shouldn’t fool our desires, based on a universal standard of yourself,” she writes. “You have no idea what right and wrong. The person who shoots for you are getting into.” virtue will more reliably be happy with her The decision to have a child is the purest new self, and will at least have a nice quality version of this choice. On average, people to help her cope with whatever comes. who have a child suffer a loss of reported Which brings us to the core social point. well-being. They’re more exhausted and These days we think of a lot of decisions report lower life satisfaction. And yet few as if they were shopping choices. When parents can imagine going back and being we’re shopping for something, we act as their old pre-parental selves. Parents are like autonomous creatures who are looking for the VHOIIXO¿OOHGYDPSLUHV7KHLUULFKQHZOLYHV product that will produce the most pleasure would have seemed incomprehensible to their or utility. But choosing to have a child or old childless selves. selecting a spouse, faith or life course is not So how do you make transformational like that. It’s probably safer to ask “What do I decisions? You have to ask the right questions, admire?” than “What do I want?” Paul argues. Don’t ask, Will I like parenting? Ŷ You can’t know. Instead, acknowledge that David Brooks became a New York you, like all people, are born with an intense Times Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. The strongest questions may be: Which path will make me a better person? Will joining the military give me more courage? Will becoming a parent make me more capable of selfless love? YOUR VIEWS Umatilla County jail treats inmates poorly I am writing this from Umatilla County Jail. I’m serving a 90-day sentence for a misdemeanor driving while suspended violation. I do not have a problem paying my dues for breaking the law. I do have a problem with the way inmates are treated here. I am listing below problems encountered by myself and most inmates I have talked to: )RXUGD\VVOHHSLQJRQDFRQFUHWHÀRRU overcrowded, no toothbrush, toothpaste or soap. 2. Less than 5 minutes to eat meals. 3. Very limited reading material. Books are torn up, missing pages. 4. Four phones in cell block. Only one works, and not always. Calls cost 10 times what they should and would on the outside. 5. Requests for medical attention have been ignored. I’ve been here for a month. They’ve had plenty of time to see me. 6. They keep our socks and do not give us any to wear. Feet have become dry and cracking to the point of bleeding. 7. I’m hypoglycemic, and have requested proper nutrition for my condition. No response. 8. I have progressive, degenerative arthritis, am 56 years old and on disability. I have requested a bottom bunk and thicker mattress. Also ignored. I’m on a top bunk and have a mattress that should have been disposed of long ago. 9. Although it’s midsummer, cells are so cold most of the time I have to stay wrapped up in a blanket. 10. Have not received any mail although I know mail has been sent to me weeks ago. 11. No newspapers. I can swear to everything I have listed is true and will stand by it as such. It is not right, DQGXQMXVWWRWUHDWD¿YH\HDUYHWHUDQRIWKH U.S. armed forces, honorably discharged, or any other U.S. citizen for that matter, in this way. LETTERS POLICY John Engebretson, Pendleton The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
