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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, July 28, 2017 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OTHER VIEWS OTHER VIEWS When the White House lies about you Remembering ‘Harkie’ L A File photo Frank Harkenrider, at the time a Hermiston City Councilor, represents the Desert Shriners on a float in the Stanfield Fourth of July parade. truly full life is Hermiston High School. He something like a play. wasn’t a man preoccupied with And a quality production image. Perhaps this was part of includes an extraordinary cast the reason why he seemed to of characters — some serious have his finger on the pulse of and some colorful. the community and reflected Among the most interesting a genuine understanding and appreciation for the daily lives of characters on my life’s stage those he was regularly-elected to has been my friend Frank George Harkenrider, the irrepressible Murdock represent. When I was named editor and Hermiston icon who died this Comment publisher of the East Oregonian, week at the age of 90. I last saw Harkie several the first person to contact me was months ago at the groundbreaking Harkie. He contacted me many times for the new senior citizens center in thereafter but always called from the EO Hermiston — a facility for which he offices in Hermiston where there was worked tirelessly and that appropriately a direct line that saved long distance will bear his name. At the ceremony charges. I was always happy to hear he was frail and wrapped in a blanket from him because anyone who writes a to stave off the cold winds blowing column needs to know unique characters across the site, but in order to get ideas. he appeared clearly I got enough stories pleased to be present. from Harkie that he As the ceremony could have been the came to a close, feature every week. he summoned the Some of the most amazing tales strength to stand up surrounded his athletic briefly for a quick career as both an photo session. He undersized Division stayed long enough I recruit and then as a to greet attendees Division I water boy before being whisked who once delayed the off. I thought at the start of a major college time how fortunate it football game because was that he could be he accidentally turned present for the initial the water wagon over stage of construction on the 50-yard-line. because there was a He made many chance he would not see the project through to its completion. friends with his oil business, including the late Don Hawkins of Pendleton. Sadly, my concerns were reality. Much of their banter surrounded Frank Harkenrider was both a long- Buckaroo-Bulldog athletics. time businessman and a tireless public One time Harkie suggested he servant whose record of public service would like to come to Pendleton so spanned more than half a century. As I could take him and the Deacon to noted in an earlier article, he saw the population of Hermiston grow from 800 lunch at Hamley’s for a discussion of old times. Somewhere around 3 p.m. I to 17,000 — a fact he shared frequently began to wonder if we were also going as part of his repertoire of stories to have dinner. about the success of the community he One of his greatest loves was the embraced with every ounce of his being. melon fest he invented in order to In the course of its journey from a acquaint the citizens of Portland with dusty village of 800, Hermiston has both Hermiston and its trademark had the good fortune of being home products. I had the pleasure of to a collection of visionaries with the accompanying Harkie and Mayor Bob wisdom, energy and foresight to lay the on several such ventures. foundation for what would ultimately One time the two of them brought become an economic powerhouse that a pickup load of melons to the East today is both Eastern Oregon’s largest Oregonian for distribution to the staff. community and one of the fastest I told him I thought that effort was growing cities in the state. intended to remind Portland about the Having been in leadership positions that made him an integral part of critical existence of Hermiston. Without missing a beat he said “it’s also good to remind decisions and benchmarks in that the EO of the same thing.” remarkable saga will serve as Harkie’s One morning during my tenure at legacy. At a time in our history when the newspaper, I called the house and the motives and agenda of many elected asked to speak to Frank. Bev, his wife officials is being called into question, of six decades, said he was out opening it is refreshing to pause and remember the contributions of an individual whose up Main Street in Hermiston for the motives and agenda were never in doubt. day — just like he does every morning. His stops always included Hermiston While many public officials are Drug and Hale’s with another one or two guided by opinion polls, Harkie was thrown in from time to time. long on opinion and short on polls. The I’m not quite sure what the daily term operating with the courage of one’s routine looks like in heaven, but if there conviction is often used loosely. This is a downtown that needs opening up gentleman invented it. every morning, there’s no doubt in my While he occupied a role in the community often filled by someone with mind who will be doing it. a large home in a fancy neighborhood, ■ Frank and Beverly have lived for years George Murdock is a Umatilla in a modest dwelling not far from County Commissioner. Frank was both a longtime businessman and tireless public servant whose record of service spanned more than half a century. YOUR VIEWS Memories of the late, great Frank Harkenrider Frank Harkenrider was a gem! Forty years ago my husband Gary and I were newlyweds, and we needed to sell a piece of property Gary owned that required a city variance, so that we could buy or build our own home. At the city council meeting I will never forget Frank telling the rest of the council to get that variance passed so these young folks could get on with their lives. What a sweetheart, and what a character. Marilyn Stolz Hermiston LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. ast week the White House told House where the line between idiocy a lie. It was a small lie and, and malice isn’t always clear. given the epic scale of this To give Scavino the benefit of the administration’s mendacity, a trivial doubt, I asked the CIA spokesman one. It just happened to be about me. to set him straight. I also rebutted On Thursday I interviewed CIA his claim on Twitter, emailed and Director Mike Pompeo on a public left messages with him on his stage at the Aspen Security Forum. private number, and wrote the new We covered everything from Russian communications director, Anthony Bret meddling in the U.S. election to the Stephens Scaramucci, at his personal email war in Syria and the nuclear deal with address. Comment Iran. The director also broke some No acknowledgment. No response. policy ground with a veiled suggestion The tweet has not been deleted. The that the administration might pursue regime CIA has not publicly corrected the record. change in North Korea. The White House is knowingly allowing There was one sour moment. Midway Scavino’s falsehood to stand. That’s called through the interview, Pompeo abruptly lying — which, as Pompeo might say, is slammed The New York Times for publishing “unconscionable.” the name last month of a So what’s new, senior covert CIA officer, you ask? Well, not calling the disclosure much, at least if you’re “unconscionable.” comfortable with a The line was met with political dispensation audience applause. I in which a senior said, “You’re talking White House official about Phil Agee,” and can stonewall without then repeated the name. compunction and expect Pompeo replied, “I don’t everyone else to yawn know that name,” and the interview moved on. and shrug. Every administration has a few My startled rejoinder was not a reference sulfuric personalities. This one bubbles over to the covert CIA officer unmasked by and erupts with them, like a fetid geyser at The Times, but rather a fumbled attempt to Yellowstone. refer to the law governing such disclosures. Nor is it new that Scavino’s attack is Philip Agee, as Pompeo and everyone in the also part of a broader White House effort to audience knew, was the infamous CIA officer demonize The New York Times. Also in Aspen, Gen. Tony Thomas, head of the Special who went rogue in the 1970s, wrote a tell-all Operations Command, alleged in an interview memoir, and publicly identified the names of that an effort to kill the Islamic State leader scores of CIA officers, front companies and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi failed on account of foreign agents. His disclosures led Congress a leak to “a prominent national newspaper” in 1982 to pass the Intelligence Identities — no prizes for guessing the paper he had in Protection Act, aka the “Anti-Agee Act,” mind. which made it a federal crime to reveal the The general’s claim was also dubious, names of covert agents. Agee died in Havana at least as far as The Times was concerned. in 2008. Taken with Pompeo’s outburst and Scavino’s If I could have a do-over, I would have recalled the name of the law itself, not the man lie, it raises the question of whether normally apolitical figures aren’t being conscripted into after whom it was informally named. I might Trump’s war on the press. That’s a worrying have asked Pompeo why the government didn’t just put the law to the constitutional test thought for institutions, like the CIA, that are supposed to remain above the fray to preserve by suing The Times. public trust. L’esprit de l’escalier: I plead guilty. Here’s what worries me more: One judges What I didn’t do is disclose the name of a liar less by the whoppers he tells than by any covert officer — nor would I have, since I disagree with The Times’ decision to publish the fibs — by his willingness to live outside the truth even when the advantages of doing it. So it came as a bad surprise when, the so are almost negligible. Scavino’s failure to following morning, Dan Scavino, the White correct the record on something as minute as House director of social media, tweeted that I my exchange with Pompeo suggests he’ll lie had. about anything. And this is the guy who stands “CIA Dir Pompeo calls out @NYTimes at the heart of the Trump administration’s for publishing name of an UNDERCOVER social media operation — the most demagogic CIA agent,” he wrote on his official Twitter enterprise of our time. account, adding, “Just as disgraceful? @ The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has BretStephensNYT REPEATS name 2x’s!” He also posted a brief clip of the exchange — but already warned Scavino that he violated the 1939 Hatch Act in April by engaging in muted my voice when I mentioned Agee. “prohibited political activity.” If Anthony This was nasty, manipulated and false, Scaramucci is serious about cleaning house in but it wasn’t necessarily a lie. If Scavino had his new shop, dismissing Scavino should be a never heard of Agee, didn’t know the name priority. I’ll take it instead of the apology I’m of the CIA officer whose name was published still owed. by The Times and didn’t bother to fact check ■ before tweeting, he might have inferred from Bret Stephens won a Pulitzer Prize for my reply that I had indeed done what he commentary in 2013. He began working as a alleged. columnist at The New York Times in April. That’s a plausible surmise about a White The White House is knowingly allowing a falsehood to stand.
