Page 4A
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 16, 2018
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Hamley’s deserves better
F
or years, the fate of a venerable
Pendleton institution has hung in
the balance as the two co-owners
of Hamley and Company have engaged
in a personal dispute that has now
spilled into the courtroom.
Hamley’s is an important and
valuable Pendleton brand, on the level
with the Round-Up, the Woolen Mills
and the Whisky. The business was
created in 1883, and it has operated
near the intersection of Court and Main
in Pendleton since 1905. It has helped
define Pendleton as a town of not just
cowboys but of fine craftsmanship. And
its long partnership with the Round-Up
and some of the best rodeo riders in the
world has helped define its own legacy.
Parley Pearce and Blair Woodfield
re-opened, restored and re-energized the
business in 2005, adding the coffeeshop
and steakhouse next door. That
operation now dominates one of the
most visible blocks in Pendleton, and
its rehab helped revitalize Main Street
when construction finished more than a
decade ago.
That is all in danger now, as the
inability for Pearce and Woodfield to
get along — or at the very least agree
on a financial future for the company —
has put Hamley’s at risk. And as anyone
in business knows, a disagreement
between principals on the future of the
company, as well as a lack of a cohesive
vision and plan, is no way to survive in
the rapidly changing world of retail.
It’s all the more disappointing when
you see the incredible advantages that
Hamley’s could have as an upscale,
artisan, historic business with deep
community roots. It’s the kind of
business that could be growing and
prospering in this moment, yet it has
been torn between two warring factions
— neither of whom are in the right.
Both have made plenty of mistakes, and
Pearce and Woodfield must do better
if Hamley’s is to survive unscathed.
It needs better marketing. An updated
online presence. Ownership that
understands the power of its brand and
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Hamley’s brand is stamped into the concrete sidewalk in front of the store in
downtown Pendleton.
takes full advantage.
When someone owns an institution
such as Hamley’s, they must do it
for the right reasons and be in it for
the long haul. Personal jealousies
and bickering must be set aside for
the good of a century-old company.
Deference must be paid to its past and
blood, sweat, tears and dollars must be
expended so it has a prosperous future.
It does Hamley’s no good, and it does
Pendleton no good, for this company
to be caught in a debilitating back-and-
forth, and it becomes vulnerable via
bankruptcy, auction, or being gutted and
sold on the cheap.
OTHER VIEWS
Personalism: The philosophy we need
ne of the lessons of a life
people to their superficial function.
in journalism is that people
But personalism asks, as much
are always way more
as possible, for I-Thou encounters:
complicated than you think. We talk
that you just don’t regard people as
in shorthand about “Trump voters”
a data point, but as emerging out of
or “social justice warriors,” but
the full narrative, and that you try,
when you actually meet people they
when you can, to get to know their
defy categories. Someone might be
stories, or at least to realize that
David
everybody is in a struggle you know
a Latina lesbian who loves the NRA
Brooks nothing about.
or a socialist Mormon cowboy from
Comment
The second responsibility
Arizona.
of personalism is self-gifting.
Moreover, most actual human
Twentieth-century psychologists like Carl
beings are filled with ambivalences. Most
Rogers treated people as self-actualizing
political activists I know love parts of their
beings — get in touch with yourself.
party and despise parts of their party. A
Descartes tried to separate individual
whole lifetime of experience, joy and pain
goes into that complexity, and it insults their reason from the bonding emotions. Nikolai
Berdyaev said that tends to turn people into
lives to try to reduce them to a label that
self-enclosed monads, with no doors or
ignores that.
windows.
Yet our culture does a pretty good job
Personalists believe that people are
of ignoring the uniqueness and depth of
“open wholes.” They find their perfection
each person. Pollsters see in terms of broad
demographic groups. Big data counts people in communion with other whole persons.
as if it were counting apples. At the extreme, The crucial questions in life are not “what”
questions — what do I do? They are “who”
evolutionary psychology reduces people to
questions — who do I follow, who do I
biological drives, capitalism reduces people
serve, who do I love?
to economic self-interest, modern Marxism
The reason for life, Jacques Maritain
to their class position and multiculturalism
wrote, is “self-mastery for the purpose
to their racial one. Consumerism treats
of self-giving.” It’s to give yourself as a
people as mere selves — as shallow
gift to people and causes you love and to
creatures concerned merely with the
receive such gifts for others. It is through
experience of pleasure and the acquisition
this love that each person brings unity to
of stuff.
his or her fragmented personality. Through
Back in 1968, Karol Wojtyla wrote,
this love, people touch the full personhood
“The evil of our times consists in the first
in others and purify the full personhood in
place in a kind of degradation, indeed
themselves.
in a pulverization, of the fundamental
The third responsibility of personalism
uniqueness of each human person.” That’s
is availability: to be open for this kind of
still true.
giving and friendship. This is a tough one,
So this might be a perfect time for a
too; life is busy, and being available for
revival of personalism.
people takes time and intentionality.
Personalism is a philosophic tendency
Margarita Mooney of Princeton
built on the infinite uniqueness and depth of
each person. Over the years people like Walt Theological Seminary has written that
personalism is a middle way between
Whitman, Martin Luther King, William
James, Peter Maurin and Wojtyla (who went authoritarian collectivism and radical
on to become Pope John Paul II) have called individualism. The former subsumes the
individual within the collective. The latter
themselves personalists, but the movement
uses the group to serve the interests of the
is still something of a philosophic nub. It’s
self.
not exactly famous.
Personalism demands that we change
Personalism starts by drawing a line
the way we structure our institutions. A
between humans and other animals. Your
dog is great, but there is a depth, complexity company that treats people as units to
simply maximize shareholder return is
and superabundance to each human
showing contempt for its own workers.
personality that gives each person unique,
Schools that treat students as brains on a
infinite dignity.
stick are not preparing them to lead whole
Despite what the achievement culture
lives.
teaches, that dignity does not depend on
The big point is that today’s social
what you do, how successful you are or
whether your school calls you gifted. Infinite fragmentation didn’t spring from shallow
roots. It sprang from worldviews that
worth is inherent in being human. Every
amputated people from their own depths
human encounter is a meeting of equals.
Doing community service isn’t about saving and divided them into simplistic, flattened
the poor; it’s a meeting of absolute equals as identities. That has to change. As Charles
Péguy said, “The revolution is moral or not
both seek to change and grow.
at all.”
The first responsibility of personalism
■
is to see each other person in his or her full
David Brooks became a New York Times
depth. This is astonishingly hard to do. As
Op-Ed columnist in 2003. He has been a
we go through our busy days it’s normal
senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a con-
to want to establish I-It relationships —
tributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlan-
with the security guard in your building
tic Monthly, and is currently a commentator
or the office worker down the hall. Life is
on PBS.
busy, and sometimes we just need to reduce
O
YOUR VIEWS
Shifting priorities for
Pendleton development
The Stillman Park street and shelter
area and the walkway above the Little
League Park, both designated no smoking
areas, are going head-to-head for the
undisputed title of the city’s largest
ashtray. Stillman does get a few bonus
points as a repository for empty whisky,
beer and pot containers that appear on
a daily basis, plus the convenience of
camping either on a table or the river bank.
Though there is currently no scholarship
available, the sport of “bottle breaking”
seems to be gaining in popularity at
Stillman. City priorities continue to favor
the downtown area.
How about those Pendleton
Development Commission urban
renewal projects: Bowman Apartments,
$338,428; Sisters Cafe, $126,167; Old
City Hall $33,318; Bela Bakery, $10,000;
Community Bank, $220,000; Quarterly
Pendleton Downtown Association (PDA)
donation, $13,750; OMG Burgers,
$19,000; Fenton and Marier demolition,
$10,000 and $26,933. Can you guess how
much they are including for sorely needed
sidewalk and street improvements in the
urban renewal district? That would be $0.
Despite having some of the worst in the
city, again they don’t seem a priority.
It’s now official, the mayor and city
manager agree: Creating living-wage jobs
with the drone program is just not working
out and is no longer a priority. It’s kinda
like that old adage says: “Why buy the
cow when you can get the milk for free?”
when it comes to any meaningful private
sector investment at the airport. It looks
like more bed-making jobs in the tourist
industry is the new target.
When is enough, enough? The
Pendleton Heights contractor, in his latest
plea, is, you guessed it, asking for more.
Evidently, he’s got City Hall figured out, a
lot of confusing doubletalk seems to work.
I’ll bet he tries selling them a bridge next.
A possible $25,000 in grants is
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.
available to study opening up the north
side of the river for greater public access.
It should provide additional camping space
for those professional outdoorsmen and
relieve the overcrowding along the levee
walkway.
Rick Rohde, Pendleton
Housing in Pendleton being
held for ransom by developer
This is my opinion on the article posted
in the East Oregonian June 14 about the
developer housing project in Pendleton.
It astonishes me how cities work with
so-called developers. Why do I always
hear city councils or school districts being
held hostage? Big or small cities sign
winning bidder contracts with businesses
all the time agreeing to conditions, and
sign an agreement to a price.
During the work process the company
comes across unforeseen circumstances
that may raise the original cost by 30-75
percent, or higher. The company goes back
to the city and asks for much more money
than the contract was signed for. The city
feels they need to help for the good of the
people.
Then the company returns with more
needs. Now the city is being held hostage.
Already in unforeseen debt, they hope by
paying the ransom the city will be okay.
But that’s not how it goes. Now, a project
that should have been completed a long
time ago has been brought back with
another demand. Any signed contract
should stand. Period.
I believe there should be an added
section to the contract. Any bid should
include a certain percentage (10-15
percent) additional cost, for unforeseen
expenses occurring during the set agreed
time of the job completion. It is not to
go over this cost. And the city is not
responsible for the overage. It should be
covered by the business’ insurance.
Something has to change. All these ran-
som tactics only hurt the taxpayers.
Bernie Sanderson, Hermiston
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
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Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.