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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Wednesday, May 16, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 CULTURE CORNER ‘Lean on Pete’ rethinks the Western B oth as a novelist and lyricist, Willy Vlautin writes best about horses, the desert, and poor people struggling to survive on the edges of modern society. In his 2010 novel “Lean on Pete,” Vlautin is able to dabble in all three themes — a lucrative trifecta for fans of the Portland-based creative. This month, a movie based on the novel opened across the country to solid reviews. Directed by Tim Trainor Andrew Haigh, it was Comment filmed partly in the southeastern Oregon towns of Burns and Hines. It stars Charlie Plummer in a deeply affecting performance, alongside admirable supporting efforts from Steve Buscemi and Chloë Sevigny. The movie’s plot follows Charley, a teenage boy who endures a difficult home life with a loving but limited father. Charley falls into a summer job at a Portland horse track where he finds responsibility, friendship and plenty of new problems. The quarterhorse “Lean on Pete” isn’t that way, however, and when the manure hits the proverbial fan, both boy and horse head off on an eastward adventure that becomes a battle for survival. It’s a hard, sparse, beautiful film — something that lovers of the Eastern Oregon landscape and culture will find Courtesy photo In “Lean on Pete,” Charlie Plummer portrays Charley, a teen who escapes city street life for a harrowing journey across Eastern Oregon with a racehorse. plenty in common with. There are plenty of scenes of Charley and Pete wandering through endless southeast Oregon sagebrush, but not triumphantly and confidently like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. Plummer is hunched, parched and on foot, and “Pete” trails halfheartedly behind. Charley says the “horse ain’t for riding,” a decidedly non-cowboy frame of mind and turn of phrase. But far from being an anti-Western, “Lean on Pete” updates the genre with the fears that stoke today’s American imagination. The enemy of the modern American misfit is no longer Indians or grizzly bears — it’s poverty, violence and drugs. No longer are our cowboys flattening out their bedroll for a clear night under the stars, those without a roof overhead are instead crawling into sleeping bags under highway overpasses or vacant lots. Vlautin has spent his career rethinking and rebuilding literature of the American West, stripping away the mythical grit to remind us of the look and smell of real dirt. It’s not pretty, and parts of “Lean on Pete” are ugly enough to make you look away. It’s only out of a deep desire for something to break right for Charley that the audience can remain engaged. It is Plummer’s acting that makes the character and film so compelling. If his career continues to catapult toward stardom, his turn in “Lean on Pete” will be remembered as one of the vehicles that sent him to the stratosphere. It’s no small feat to come across so vulnerable yet so brave, so young yet so mature. The film does have its limitations. A novel is a better medium to fleshing out the character of Pete, allowing the relationship between boy and horse to blossom and develop. That doesn’t quite connect on screen, and Buscemi and Sevigny come and go too quickly to make the necessary impact to push the plot into motion. But Vlautin’s love and respect for the high desert comes shining through, something many Eastern Oregonians already know well. Vlautin’s band “Richmond Fontaine” has been a staple of the last few Pendleton Round-Up after-parties, and he often stops in town when driving between Portland and the rural, empty places where he likes to escape. There’s more than a little Charley in him. The film premiered in Harney County on May 11, though as of now it is not scheduled to appear at cinemas in Wildhorse, Hermiston, Walla Walla or Tri-Cities. It is still being shown in Portland and other major American markets, as well as abroad. OTHER VIEWS American renaissance is underway P OTHER VIEWS Remember teachers when voting Ventura (Calif.) County Star T uesday was National Teacher Day, part of Teacher Appreciation Week, but the tone this year is more consequential than boxes of candy or #ThankATeacher posts on social media. Across the nation — from Arizona to West Virginia — teachers are holding rallies, walking out, even going on strike. They are fighting back after years of low pay and education budget cuts, and successfully turning the tide in some areas. Many teachers work long hours yet earn modest salaries for all they do in guiding our children to become productive members of society. We should be thanking them every day and especially this week, but we also can be doing more. Teachers deserve our political support as they rally against underfunded programs, stagnant pay, rising student loan debt and constant criticism from pundits who have never been in a classroom. As we cast votes in primary elections and again in November, we should hold candidates accountable for their support of education, or lack thereof. Meanwhile, teachers earn about 30 percent less than other college graduates, the Learning Policy Institute says. Those earning a master’s degree in education had an average of $50,879 in student loan debt, a 2014 study found. The starting salary for a public-school teacher in America averaged $38,617 in 2016-17, according to the National Education Association. With at least 17 percent of new teachers leaving the profession within their first five years, it’s no surprise that we have a teacher shortage. The Learning Policy Institute surveyed 25 school districts in California and found 80 percent had a shortage of qualified teachers last fall. So yes, give your child’s teacher some appreciation this week. Just don’t forget in November to vote for candidates who will give teachers the resources they need to educate our nation — and to feel fulfilled doing it. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. eople who read this column know active in town life. Mike Gallo went to San Bernardino, California, my political ideology: I’m a Whig. as a junior officer in the Air Force. He left to work If progressives generally believe in for a company pioneering new missile technology. expanding government to enhance equality, and Then he helped found an aerospace technology libertarians try to reduce government to expand company. When the firm succeeded, he set up an freedom, Whigs seek to use limited but energetic education nonprofit called Technical Employment government to enhance social mobility. Training. Then he ran for the school board and Back in the 19th century, during their heyday, David became its chairman. Whigs promoted infrastructure projects, public Brooks Third, these places tend to have strong education, public-private investments and Comment vocational schools and community colleges, character-building programs to create dynamic, teaching modern workplace skills in partnership capitalist communities in which poor boys and with local businesses. Raj Shaunak and his family went to girls could rise and succeed. Columbus, Mississippi, and founded a manufacturing firm. Whigs admired people and places that are enterprising, After they sold it, Shaunak went to work at East Mississippi emotionally balanced and spiritually ardent. They had Community College, where students learn on real versions a great historic run — inspired by Alexander Hamilton, or scaled-down models of the same machines that operate led by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, embodied most at the local manufacturing plants. brilliantly in the minds of Abraham Lincoln and the early Fourth, these places tend to have a lot of social capital Theodore Roosevelt. and entrepreneurial civic institutions. In Allentown, And then the Whig tendency disappeared from Pennsylvania, a couple needed a foam pit for their new American life. There’s a promising effort called the Modern Whig Party gymnastics center. So the local Mack Trucks factory donated leftover padding used in the airplane seats it trying to revive the movement, but until last week I was under the impression that there were basically only 24 of us manufactured, it delivered the padding in a fleet of trucks and 200 town volunteers showed up with electric kitchen left. And then I read James and Deborah Fallows’ book, “Our knives to carve it into pieces. In many of the cities the local library serves as an all- Towns.” Now I realize that Whigs are the most important purpose community center. In Bend, Oregon, the library political force in America today. It’s just that the people who are Whigs don’t call themselves Whigs and they are all has a few dozen local partnerships — AARP volunteers help people do their taxes in the library; Goodwill workers on the local level. teach résumé writing. In Charleston, West Virginia, and Over the past five years, the Fallowses piloted their Columbus, Ohio, the libraries zero in on programs for own small plane to dozens of cities, from Eastport, Maine, infants to 3-year-olds, so children enter school ready to to Redlands, California. They found that as the national political climate has deteriorated, small cities have revived. learn. Finally, the cities have strong civic stories and clear As the national scene has polarized, people in local narratives about where they’ve been, where they are going communities are working effectively to get things done. and what makes them distinctive. The mayors in these Their book is a group portrait of 42 of these success places almost never have national ambitions. This is their stories. To anybody with a Whig mindset, the tales have a town, and this is their highest office. familiar ring. Today, in this era of local renaissance and national Most of the cities tell a redemption story about apocalypse, I hear people wondering if maybe America can themselves. They had a booming industry; it collapsed; be like Italy — dysfunctional on the national level but with now they are rebuilding with new industries and new strong localities and a lovely lifestyle. wealth. I don’t think so. Local improvement can go only so far Many of the cities began their recovery with when national politics is a meat grinder. The good news is infrastructure projects that revived the downtown core. the solutions to our civic problems already exist; it’s just In Greenville, South Carolina, an ugly highway bridge that, as the Fallowses write, these stories are lonely and was removed and replaced with a gorgeous walk along disconnected. the Reedy River, which is now home to parks and cafes. We just need to take these civic programs and this In Fresno, California, the misbegotten pedestrian mall governing philosophy and nationalize them. We need to that crushed downtown development was bulldozed, and transform these local stories into a coherent national story now there are human-size streets that encourage visits and and a bottom-up coalition, which will look a lot like a activity. 21st-century descendant of the 19th-century Whigs. A second common thread for these cities was that ■ they were often led by business leaders who were both David Brooks became a New York Times Op-Ed colum- entrepreneurial and civically minded. In these places if you nist in 2003. become successful, it is expected that you will become 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. 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.
