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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2015)
Saturday, November 21, 2015 COFFEE BREAK PARENTS TALK BACK East Oregonian Page 9C OUT OF THE VAULT Parenting Ambitious doctor stirs up Pendleton politics through D the pain Editor’s note: Aisha Sultan is away this week. This column originally appeared on Sept. 4, 2010. girlfriend gave birth last week to a healthy, 9-pound baby boy. In the process of getting an epidural to numb the pain of labor, she ended up with such excruciating spinal headaches that she was unable to rise from her bed to care for her newborn. The chances of this happening — namely, leakage of spinal ÀXLGIURPWKHGXUD resulting in severe headaches — are only about 1 in 200. But when you are the one suffering, statistics Aisha are irrelevant. Sultan She said she cried, Parents talk back she prayed, she bargained with God to relieve the blinding headaches. She had moments when she wondered if she would survive if the pain continued. Certainly, pain is unavoidable in our lives. It comes in a rainbow of forms: emotional, like the anguish accompanying grief or the ache of loss and sadness; and physical, which can be latent and chronic, or acute and debilitating. The worst pain can render us helpless and force us into submission. My pain is in my gut, and it comes in crashing waves. Fortunately, the pain does not appear very often; for the most part, I control it with diet and medication. But when it does hit, it can be paralyzing: keeping me up at night, making my hands shake. I focus on breathing until each tidal wave passes. It can be terrifying to have a part of your own body turn against you — twisting and burning with such force. Like my friend and me, millions of parents struggle to deal with serious pain while trying to care for their children. The immediate thought that FURVVHVDPRWKHU¶VPLQGDWWKH¿UVW signs of an illness? “I don’t have time for this.” How can you keep up with a toddler, preschooler or tween when you can’t get out of bed? There is competing advice on how parents should navigate these waters, but the most crucial thing a parent in pain can do is to reach out for help. Let someone else take over the parenting reins when necessary. For the times when pain is immobilizing, there’s little choice. Needing help does not make us bad parents. Being able to accept an outstretched hand helps us recognize the value of our relationships. Our loved ones can provide not only moral and logistical support, but also new perspectives and nudges toward treatment. In the case of the new mother with the throbbing headaches, a friend came to her house and persuaded her to go to an emergency room. A medical procedure helped eliminate her pain within a few days. Some parents in pain wear a disguise. They manage to go through the necessary motions, without losing their temper, and the child may be clueless as to the lengths taken to FUHDWHWKHDUWL¿FLDOSHDFH$SDUWRI us whispers that we should keep our ORQHO\VDFUL¿FHDVHFUHW Some pain management sites say that while our instinct is to shelter our children from our pain, we should instead talk about it as honestly as possible. Use simple language, and speak calmly and quietly. Reassure children that it isn’t their fault. Relate it to something in their own experience, such as falling off a bike. Tell them you will get better, even if you’re not sure when or how. If there is one thing mothers know, it is our capacity for strength. But through pain, we learn our capacity for humility. And when the pain subsides, it leaves us with a renewed appreciation for health. Our children will inevitably H[SHULHQFHWKHLURZQKXUWV:DWFKLQJ us deal with ours shows them how to handle their own. I vividly remember my mother’s PRPHQWVRISDLQ:KHQVKHZDV bedridden with asthma, laboring for each breath, I felt an ache in my own lungs. She did not have to say anything for me to recognize her struggle. I could not offer much, except to lie next to her periodically, bring her medicines and ask her if she wanted soup. It was enough. Humans — including parents — need their pain to be recognized, ideally by someone who cares about the suffering. Ŷ Aisha Sultan is a St. Louis-based journalist who studies parenting in the digital age while trying to keep up with her tech-savvy children. Find her on Twitter: @AishaS. A r. James A. Best was a well-known and respected doctor in Umatilla County WKHHDUO\V¿UVWLQ:HVWRQ and later in Pendleton. Dr. Best became a household name in 1913 when he launched his political career, beginning with the controversial gravity-fed water project to bring drinking water from Thornhollow Springs to the city. As the water project was heading for WKH¿QLVKOLQH Dr. Best joined in the race for a seat on the commission. Best stirred up the current board when he charged the Renee project’s bank Struthers account was Out of the vault short more than $33,000 and implied one or more of the commissioners was at fault. The race was fraught with mudslinging, and Best was accused of graft when a contractor working on the project said the candidate was supplying his own horse teams for hauling gravel and demanding to be paid more than the other haulers. :KHQ%HVWZDVHOHFWHG to the commission by a large margin, the other four members of the board submitted their resignations and requested a thorough audit of the books. Contrary to Best’s allegations, the audit turned up a small ($1.14) excess in the project account. The recalcitrant commissioners were lured back to their seats on the board by the fear that anti-gravity men would be appointed to the commission and tie up the project before it could be completed. Dr. Best’s detractors continued to try to dig up reasons why he should not be allowed to sit on the commission, citing his lack of U.S. citizenship, among other things, but the charges never seemed to stick. Best eventually gave up his seat on the water commission when he entered the race for mayor in 1915. This campaign also was beset by strife; supporters of Best’s main opponent, John Montgomery, dredged up accusations that Best was in cahoots with local bootleggers and purveyors of bawdy houses — accusations that Dr. Best did not deny. The East Oregonian weighed in against Dr. Best, running editorials and political cartoons depicting organized crime interests using every tactic (including corrupt polling practices) to secure their Dr. Best candidate’s victory. Special police contingents hovered at every polling station to prevent non-eligible voters from swaying the outcome. More than 500 people registered to vote the day of the election. In the end, after the heaviest voting ever seen in Pendleton to that point, Dr. Best was declared the winner, beating Montgomery by 232 votes, 1,197 to 965. A near riot followed the close of the polls. One of Best’s other opponents for the mayoralty, Dudley Evans, left the polling station in the Bowman Hotel to ZDONWRFLW\KDOOIRUWKHRI¿FLDO results and was followed by a mostly quiet crowd, though some of Best’s supporters began tossing about jeers and threats. After the crowd returned to the hotel, Dr. E.J. Sommerville stirred up the crowd and a short VFXIÀHHUXSWHGLQWKHOREE\RI WKHEXLOGLQJFRPSHOOLQJRI¿FHUV to pull their guns to scatter the crowd. Dr. Sommerville joined up with another Best supporter, (:0F&RPDVQHDUWKH6W George Hotel and there ran afoul of Chief of Police Alex Manning DQG2I¿FHU2PDU6WHSKHQV :RUGVOHGWREORZVDQGLQWKH VKRUWPHOHH2I¿FHU6WHSKHQVZDV knocked down. Chief Manning clubbed McComas over the head and took both McComas and Sommerville to the police station. The crowd reformed and attempted to force its way into city hall, but Chief Manning again drew his gun and club and, with a few well-placed blows, beat back the rioters. Several prominent citizens were able then had never been done. He immediately got on the wrong side of Chief of Police Thomas B. Gurdane, who claimed the mayor was undermining his authority and hampering his abilities to do his job. A protracted struggle between Mayor Best, a contingent of city councilors led by Claude Penland EO file photo and Chief Gurdane built up over several months, ending in to defuse the situation, but the March of 1917 with Gurdane’s crowd did not disperse until well abrupt resignation and a barrage after midnight. of letters in the East Oregonian Dr. Best next threw his revealing a sampling of the hat into the ring for the mayor’s alleged transgressions Republican nomination for state (including allowing illegal representative in February of businesses to operate during 1916, another potential step up Round-Up and splitting the for the aspiring politician. He SUR¿WV7KHFLW\FRXQFLOPHHWLQJ polled a distant third of three of March 9, 1917, blew up into candidates in the race. Best’s time as mayor was also charges and counter-charges and almost erupted into a quite contentious. On March 23, brawl. But again, the expected 1916, Best attended a boxing ¿UHFUDFNHUVEHWZHHQWKHPD\RU match at the Oregon Theater, a DQGKLVGHWUDFWRUV¿]]OHGRXW ten-round bout between Romeo when the planned “clipping Hagan and Ray McCarroll of the lion’s claws” during the that lasted only into the second March 21 council meeting didn’t round. McCarroll was knocked happen — the rebel councilors to the canvas and Mayor Best appeared to be afraid to speak up, stood up to announce the match much to the disappointment of a would be the last to be staged large crowd. Dr. Best served as in Pendleton during his tenure, Pendleton’s mayor until October DVSUL]H¿JKWVZHUHDJDLQVWWKH of 1917, when he joined the war law. In the furor that resulted effort as a captain in the medical from his announcement Best corps. “hurled a profane epithet and Best returned to Pendleton, obscene injunction” at one of after serving almost two years his tormentors that resulted in in the military, to continue his the mayor being brought up on duties as a doctor. Dr. Best was charges. A protracted legal battle eventually elected to the Oregon ensued, ending a year later when legislature, serving one term as the mayor suddenly changed his state representative in 1933 and SOHDWRJXLOW\SD\LQJD¿QHRI three terms in the Senate, where $15. He admitted he had broken the obscenity laws but claimed he his priorities included assistance ZDV¿JKWLQJWKHRI¿FLDOFKDUJHRI for the elderly and agriculture. vagrancy; his own search of state He retired in December 1944 due to ill health and died Aug. 18, statues revealed it was the only 1946. law on the books he could be Ŷ charged with on the complaint. Renee Struthers is the 0D\RU%HVWDOVRUXIÀHG feathers in the police department. Community Records Editor for the East Oregonian. See the 2QHRIKLV¿UVWRI¿FLDOPRYHV complete collection of Out of in January of 1916 was to the Vault columns at eovault. appoint himself the head of the blogspot.com police commission, which until ODDS & ENDS Heineken cans beneath it. Drinking or possessing alcohol is a criminal offense in the ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Pastafarian gets to wear strainer in license photo BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts agency is letting a woman who belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wear a colander on her head in her driver’s license photo after she cited her religious beliefs. Lowell resident Lindsay Miller said Friday that she “absolutely loves the history and the story” of Pastafarians, whose website says has existed in secrecy for hundreds of years and entered the mainstream in 2005. Miller says wearing the spaghetti strainer allows her to express her beliefs, like other religions are allowed to do. A spokesman for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles says policy does not permit head coverings or hats on license photos, but exceptions are made for religious reasons. Lawyer Patty DeJuneas calls Pastafarianism a “secular religion that uses parody to make its point.” Spirituality bookstore named Isis gets vandalized (1*/(:22'&ROR$3²$'HQYHU area store called Isis Books & Gifts wants the world to know its name comes from the Egyptian goddess of healing and motherhood and it isn’t run by terrorists. &RRZQHU-HII+DUULVRQVDLG:HGQHVGD\ that the suburban Denver shop has been YDQGDOL]HG¿YHWLPHVLQWKHSDVW\HDURUVR probably by people who mistake the name for ISIS, one of the acronyms for the Islamic State terrorist group. The latest vandalism came last weekend when a store sign was smashed after the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 people. The store sells books and gifts related to spirituality, religion and healing. “Isis is the name of an Egyptian goddess, 3,500 years old at least, the goddess of women and healing and childbirth — basically the antithesis of everything the terrorists are about,” he said. Harrison suspects the vandals are “some ignorant people believing that somehow the terrorists have a store, a gift store, in the middle of Denver, Colorado.” The store has been around since 1980 Man arrested in soap/cocaine mix-up sues in Pennsylvania Darrick Fauvel via AP In this Nov. 12 photo provided by Darrick Fauvel, Lindsay Miller of Lowell, Mass., wears a spaghetti strainer to reflect her religious beliefs while holding her tem- porary driver license that also bears a photo of her wearing the colander. under the Isis name. He and his wife, Karen, have owned it since 1997. Harrison said he’s heard from other businesses with “Isis” in their names, asking if they planned to change. He tells them no. ³)RUQRZZHDUHGH¿QLWHO\VWLFNLQJZLWK the name,” he said. The store has not suffered from the name confusion. ³%XVLQHVVKDVEHHQ¿QH$FWXDOO\RQWKH uptick,” Harrison said. 2I¿FDOVFUDFNFDVHRIVPXJJOHG beer disguised as Pepsi DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ²&XVWRPVRI¿FLDOVLQ6DXGL$UDELDVD\ they’ve cracked a case — and then some — of smugglers trying to bring illicit cans of beer through the kingdom by disguising them as Pepsi. ,QDVWDWHPHQWFXVWRPVRI¿FLDOVVD\WKH\ intercepted 48,000 cans of beer moving through the al-Batha border crossing with the United Arab Emirates. ,QYLGHRSRVWHG:HGQHVGD\RQ7ZLWWHU WKHFXVWRPVRI¿FLDOVVKRZDQRI¿FHUXVLQJD box cutter to open a wrapped 24-pack of the IDNH3HSVLRQO\WR¿QGWKHJUHHQDQGZKLWH $//(172:13D$3²$1HZ York man who spent 29 days in jail after Pennsylvania state police mistook homemade VRDSIRUFRFDLQHKDV¿OHGDODZVXLW The (Allentown) Morning Call reports Alexander Bernstein says he had to pay thousands of dollars in court costs and missed Thanksgiving with his toddler before the charges were dropped. He’s seeking damages exceeding $150,000. State troopers DQGWKH¿HOGWHVWPDQXIDFWXUHUDUHQDPHGLQ WKHVXLW¿OHGODVWZHHN Bernstein was a passenger in a Mercedes- Benz police pulled over for speeding near Allentown in November 2013. Troopers smelled marijuana, searched the car and found packages the driver said was homemade soap, but tested as cocaine. Lab tests later showed it was soap. The driver was charged with marijuana possession and speeding. State police declined to comment. Lawsuit: Amusement park lets chimp smoke cigarettes 1(:25/($16$3²$QDQLPDO rights group is suing to get a chimpanzee named Candy out of an amusement park where, it says, she smokes cigarettes and is given soft drinks instead of water. The federal lawsuit says Candy is in an inadequate cage at the Baton Rouge park, and should be moved to a sanctuary. The Animal Legal Defense Fund sued Tuesday in Baton Rouge on behalf of two women who have campaigned to get Candy moved from the Dixie Landin’ park. The lawsuit says the women have seen visitors throw lit cigarettes into Candy’s cage for the chimp to smoke. Attorney Carter Dillard says the lawsuit LVWKH¿UVW¿OHGXQGHUDQHZIHGHUDOUXOH that requires captive chimps to get the same protection as wild chimps. Park owner Sam Haynes’ attorney, Joanne 7UHDGZD\VDLG:HGQHVGD\VKHKDVQRWKDG time to read the lawsuit.
