VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, September 9, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 5A
Confronting pain everywhere
M
y husband is in pain, but the waiting
room at the pain clinic is crowded.
No one has been called back to see
the doctor for some time, and as the clock
ticks on, more people enter. The server’s
down. We’ll all have to wait
until they can retrieve patients’
records, their scans and MRIs,
X-rays.
People brace against their
pain or retreat into the space
that holds them when they
can’t quite hold themselves.
Today there’s an athletic young
man immobilized after an
accident, a woman whose eyes
look frantic with love for the
man in a reclined wheelchair, sheepskin pads
strapped to the arm and leg rests to protect
his skin.
At least I’ve brought a book, the one
that came in today’s mail: Layli Long
Soldier’s new poetry collection “Whereas.”
It’s nothing short of amazing, the way
she questions and explores and confronts
language. I will be a long time truly
understanding everything she’s doing in this
book.
But when I reach the section for which
her book is titled, I think I’ve found my
footing. “Whereas” is Long Soldier’s
response to the Congressional Resolution of
Apology to Native Americans, a document
signed on December 19, 2009, by President
Obama. No Native representatives were
invited to receive the declaration, which was
read aloud only five months later by Senator
Sam Brownback to a gathering of five tribal
leaders, then folded into the unrelated 2010
Defense Appropriations Act.
It’s not much of an apology.
No mention of genocide.
Just “conflict.” “Numerous
armed conflicts in which,
unfortunately, both took
innocent lives.”
Both sides. Many sides.
Language with which we have
become all too familiar.
I turn the page. Here’s a
poem about Long Soldier’s
daughter, whose friends carry
her into the kitchen bleeding from a fall on
rough asphalt just as Long Soldier has come
to this line in the apology: “The arrival of
Europeans in North America opened a new
chapter in the history of Native Peoples.”
The little girl is quivering a nervous laugh
for her friends, but Long Soldier tells her,
“Stop, my girl. If you’re hurting, cry.” And
she does. “In our home,” Long Soldier
reminds her child as she washes and
bandages the wounds, “in our family we are
ourselves, real feelings. Be true.”
“Yet I’m serious,” she adds in the next
line, “when I say I laugh reading the phrase,
‘opened a new chapter.’ I can’t help my
body.”
“I shake,” she continues. “The realization
that it took this phrase to show. My
So what do
I see when
I look in the
mirror?
daughter’s quiver isn’t new — / but a deep
practice very old she’s watching me.”
I close the book. How can we “be true?”
Racism is nothing new in America, but
recently — since the deaths of Trayvon
Martin and so many others, since the events
at Standing Rock, since the repeal of the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,
since the chants of “blood and soil” and
“Jews will not replace us” from swastika and
torch-bearing marchers — we’ve all been
asked to look straight on at the pain of the
racism so deeply embedded in our culture.
So what do I see when I look in the
mirror?
I see a person who was taught from early
childhood that racism is wrong, but who
was also taught by everything in my school,
on my family’s television, even in the Sears
catalog we welcomed with such joy as
back-to-school time neared, that “white” was
the default human being. Others were to be
treated with courtesy, like company.
Many white Americans are beginning
to realize that seeing white as the default
human being is indeed “deep practice, very
old.” Like Layli Long Soldier, we are trying
to face the sources of our country’s pain.
And like the people waiting in this clinic —
where the server’s back at last — we hope
for some relief.
What can we do? We can listen to each
other’s stories, learn to understand each
other. That’s why the First Draft Writers’
Series invites Northwest writers of as many
Preparing ourselves for wildfire
By DAVID POWELL
Eastern Oregon Climate Change Coalition
W
Era of Megafires
September 20, 6:30 p.m.
estern forests are destined to burn.
Vert Auditorium, Pendleton
Before Euro-American emigrants
Free, but please register at
arrived, Blue Mountain forests burned
www.eom2017pdt.eventbrite.com
every five to 20 years when lightning or Native
Americans ignited fires.
up to the treetops, where it races from one tree
These fires moved swiftly across the
to another.
forest floor, conserving the large trees while
After thinning, prescribed fire is used in
consuming needles, twigs, downed wood,
spring or fall when it is safe to do so. Prescribed
and small seedlings. After settlement, we
fire reduces fine fuels (needles, twigs, downed
began putting fires out. We did this job quite
wood) for 10 years or more, providing a safer
well for decades, and forests are now choked
environment for both the forest and firefighters.
with woody debris and a
Modeling forecasts 2 or
flammable layer of small
3 times more wildfire in
trees.
the future than now, so we
Now, fires burn hotter,
could choose to let some
faster and get bigger than
fires burn as a “managed
ever before. Since 2000,
wildfire” strategy.
about 100 million acres of
Often used for large
forest and range in the West
tracts of public land,
have burned. As a result,
managed wildfire is
Oregon and other western
seldom practical for small,
states set new records for
private-land parcels. It is a
their largest forest fire
reasonable approach when
(Oregon’s record is the
— Paul Hessburg, weather and fuel conditions
2002 Biscuit Fire, which
U.S. Forest Service ecologist are ideal, particularly for
totaled about half a million
wilderness and roadless
acres). Large burns like the
areas where wildfires can be
Biscuit Fire are called megafires.
“herded” away from human developments.
Paul Hessburg, a research ecologist with the
Any use of prescribed fire or managed
U.S. Forest Service in Wenatchee, Washington, wildfire inevitably raises concerns about
will visit Pendleton on Sept. 20 to present a
smoke. Smoke is a big issue, especially for
multimedia program called “Era of Megafires.” those with asthma or respiratory difficulties.
Hessburg explains that the program addresses
During this past summer, Pendleton and most
how we got here, what’s at stake, and what each of the interior Northwest dealt with many days
of us can do.
of smoky conditions caused by wildfires in
Hessburg has been publishing scientific
British Columbia and Montana.
work in leading journals for more than 30
When compared to this summer’s wildfire
years. Recently, after large fires ravaged
smoke from western Canada, prescribed fire
favorite forests near his home in central
smoke is short-lived and affects limited areas.
Washington, he felt a need to take his findings
In August 2016, the Weigh Station Fire burned
directly to the public. The Carlton Complex
near Interstate 84 between Pendleton and La
megafire burned 256,000 acres in 2014 (largest
Grande. It closed the interstate for a time and
fire in Washington history), and the Sleepy
threatened many structures. And a year earlier
Hollow Fire a year later consumed 30 homes in in August 2015, the Canyon Creek Fire near
his hometown of Wenatchee.
John Day destroyed 43 homes and nearly 100
“It is heart wrenching when you know
other structures, while burning 110,000 acres
people who lost their homes in these fires,”
of land. 300 people were evacuated because of
Hessburg said. “Especially when you know the this megafire.
loss is avoidable.”
During the presentation, Hessburg describes
Hessburg also notes that “modeling indicates how Blue Mountain residents can use FireWise
we can expect a doubling or tripling of annual
concepts (firewise.org) to prepare their cabins,
area burned by mid-century.” This estimate
homes, and properties for an event like the
is supported by a just-completed national
Weigh Station or Canyon Creek fire. The Era
climate assessment — it found that average
of Megafires program uses compelling videos
temperatures in the United States have risen
prepared by a documentary film company to
dramatically since 1980, and recent decades
cover these and many other topics. Hessburg
have been the warmest of the past 1,500 years.
skillfully weaves the multimedia elements
Fire seasons clearly reflect recent temperature
together, crafting both a cautionary tale and a
changes, as they now stretch 4 to 8 weeks
call to action.
longer than just 50 years ago.
Yes, western forests are destined to burn.
What will be, they say, will be. But this is
We can’t prevent summer thunderstorms and
not true when it comes to fire risk.
lightning-caused fires. But we can learn to live
“We have tools that can reverse the trend,”
with wildfires in a better way. As the Era of
said Hessburg. Thinning, prescribed fire,
Megafires program rightly notes, the choice is
and managed wildfire are effective tools for
ours.
mitigating fire risk.
■
Thinning mimics historical processes
David C. Powell is vice chair of the
by removing the small trees that fire would
Eastern Oregon Climate Change Coalition, a
have killed. It reduces “ladder fuel” — small
co-sponsor of the “Era of Megafires” showing
understory trees that carry fire from the ground
in Pendleton.
“It is heart
wrenching when
you know people
who lost their homes
in these fires.”
B ette H usted
FROM HERE TO ANYWHERE
styles and backgrounds as we can. The
next reading is on October 19 at 7 p.m. at
Pendleton Center for the Arts. It’s free. I
hope you’ll come.
■
Bette Husted is a writer and a student of
T’ai Chi and the natural world. She lives in
Pendleton.
The best is yet to come for
the Pendleton Class of ‘58
I
n early August, my wife
One of my classmates only
Ginny and I made our way to
half-jokingly had suggested
buying the old high school as a
Pendleton for what was billed
retirement home for the Class of
as the last ever class reunion.
’58. The process went quickly
My parents had moved from
and the building passed back
Portland to Pendleton in time
into McClintock hands.
for me to the join the ninth
After the auction, we
grade class at the old junior high
followed a rainbow — not
school, then located in what
Kent
is now the now the Pendleton
Hughes hoping for a pot of gold. Instead,
library and city hall. Maybe
we each found a single, large,
Comment
because we moved enough in
delicious pancake at the Main
Portland or maybe because
Street’s Rainbow Café. Main
the high school years are so important,
Street had memories of its own. In the
Pendleton seems like home to me.
1950s, Saturday nights were often spent
Living as I do
“dragging Main”
inside the Washington
before heading for a
Beltway (still
hamburger.
often described as
The heart of the
ten square miles
reunion revolved
surrounded by
around the Red Lion
reality), Pendleton
and a hospitality
reminds me that
suite. For those who
there is an America
had grown up in
that is not obsessed
Pendleton, there were
with the complexities
scrapbooks that took
of congressional
them back as far back
procedure or
as the first grade.
speculation on
There were many
the presidential
shared memories,
candidates in 2020.
talk of children and
When back in
grandchildren, and the
Pendleton, I always
pleasure of being back
take a memory tour. We started with my
in Pendleton.
home on N.W. Third and then followed
The first night a large group had
my paper route starting near Main Street dinner at the Hamley Steakhouse.
and ending after crossing the Lee Street
No one can say you cannot eat well
Bridge. The trailer park was still there.
in Pendleton. We also enjoyed great
Next, we headed for Washington
sandwiches at the Hamley Café and
Elementary, where I practiced football
at the Great Pacific Wine and Coffee
and ran in track meets. On past visits to
Company. On Friday night the class had
Pendleton, I made sure to run a ritual half a delicious dinner at the Sundown Grill
mile. But the track had been replaced by
and Bar-B-Q. Over dinner we talked
a new, considerably larger school. We
about having a future gathering, even
drove on to the Pendleton Woolen Mills
if not a full reunion. At the Sundown it
to admire the latest designs.
became clear that the sun was not ready
Then we went up the hill to visit the
to set on the Class of ’58.
old high school, now known as the John
The formal reunion closed with the
Murray building. It was open so we
class dinner at the Red Lion. Our master
could wander a bit through much of the
of ceremonies asked the class how they
building. It was new territory for Ginny.
felt about this “last reunion.”
For me there were memories of classes,
Did the class see it as the “end of the
teachers, sometimes a noon dance and
road” a “victory lap,” or as “the best is
the physical fitness tests encouraged by
yet to come?”
Finally he called on the class to vote.
President Eisenhower.
Showing typical Buckaroo optimism,
We had heard that the John Murray
the class overwhelmingly voted for “ the
building was due to be auctioned on the
best is yet to come.”
following day, August 10. Taped to the
The sheriff may have auctioned off
main door was a notice informing us that
the auction would be held the next day at the old high school, but the Class of ’58
is not yet ready for the auction block.
10 a.m. at the sheriff’s office. The next
■
morning, we decided to go.
Kent Hughes is a public policy
We arrived at the sheriff’s building
fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in
with time to spare. Almost everyone
Washington, D.C. He is a 1958 graduate
there was with the McClintock group,
of Pendleton High School.
the senior creditor. We met and talked
He will write dispatches from
with Pat McClintock explaining that we
Washington for Eastern Oregon readers,
were not bidding on the building but
were in town for a class reunion.
which will appear in this space.
Pendleton
reminds me there
is an America
that is not
obsessed with
the complexities
of congressional
procedure.