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East Oregonian
Friday, September 21, 2018
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
Tip of the hat,
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to the hundreds
of volunteers who planned, set up,
performed in and then, thankfully,
cleaned up after the Pendleton
Round-Up.
In a brief survey of the rodeo
attendees this year, we found several
who had never been before. They were
thoroughly impressed by the show and
surrounding festivities. Others spoke
about their first trip to the Round-Up,
and we found many of them haven’t
missed a year since.
Creating that kind of experience
is hard work, from the arena to
downtown to the businesses working
extra hours to make the visit extra
special.
For those of us who live in this
town, it can be easy to take the
Round-Up for granted 51 weeks out
of the year. But the work that goes
on behind the scenes is a Herculean
effort.
As those in the know say, there’s
356 days until Round-Up. There’s
work to be done.
A kick in the pants to U.S. Rep.
Greg Walden for offering such a
paltry debate, on a Friday night, in
front of no live audience, in his quest
for an 11th term in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
As voters and viewers, it’s hard to
feel grateful for a single 30-minute
time slot, which will air from a Bend
television studio as Friday night
football games kick off.
Even in the smallest district in the
U.S. it would be hard to fit the most
pressing topics into that small of a
window. In a district as large as the
2nd Congressional, we’ll feel lucky if
we get more than a few sound bites.
Walden’s opponent, Jamie McLeod-
Skinner, has suggested three debates,
including one in our corner of the
state. At very least, we’d like to see
the two spar for 90 minutes at the
Bend debate.
A tip of the hat to the Pendleton
City Council for standing firm on
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Koby Radley of Montpelier, Louisiana, flies head first off OLS Tubs Nickle Package
for no score in the bull riding finals on Saturday at the Pendleton Round-Up.
the most recent deal it had made with
housing developer Saj Jivanjee.
The council in the past has been
willing to extend new offers each time
Jivanjee has asked, including delaying
loan repayment and restructuring
terms of the original deal. And each
time Jivanjee has said the changes are
critical to keep work moving on the
Pendleton Heights project.
But allowing these kinds of deals to
morph at a developer’s whim is a bad
precedent, and we’re pleased to see
the council put its foot down on the
latest iteration.
It’s also telling that Jivanjee has
asked to receive duplicate incentives
to any given to other developers
in town, including property tax
deferment and land donation. He
seems intent to push the city as far as
it will go at each turn.
YOUR VIEWS
Why is Greg Walden
avoiding us?
Jamie McLeod-Skinner in November.
I follow Greg Walden pretty closely. I
think it is the duty of any citizen to know
what their elected officials are doing. I like
to look at his Twitter account every now
and then. One thing that has been coming
up lately is the air quality of the state in the
wake of nasty wildfires. This is certainly
a topic worth discussion. He usually says
something to the effect of “When I talk
to Oregonians they say this ...” I find this
phrase very interesting coming from Mr.
Walden for one particular reason. When
does he ever talk to Oregonians?
A little context as to why I am upset
with Mr. Walden. Last year he helped
write a health care bill that would
have taken care away from millions of
Americans — one of whom was my
father. My father was a teacher for many
years and had good insurance through his
job. But he was diagnosed with cancer and
his doctor told him that he could no longer
work. No job, no insurance. Ten thousand
dollars a month for chemo. My father got
on Obamacare and it made his last few
months livable. When the Republican
Party came to take my father’s insurance
away, he called Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
and she talked to him personally. I called
Greg Walden. He never called back. Why
would he? I’m a constituent. He doesn’t
talk to constituents.
He has been stonewalling Oregonians
for the last year and a half. He hasn’t held
a public town hall in over 500 days. What
is he afraid of exactly? Why doesn’t he
want to talk to us?
It could be that he wanted to take
away our health care. Since 20 percent
of Oregonians in our district use the
Affordable Care Act, that might be a sore
point. It could be that he has refused to
condemn Donald Trump on anything from
children in cages, to his most recent tweet
denying that 3,000 American citizens died
in Puerto Rico.
Perhaps he’ll prove me wrong. Perhaps
he’ll change his tune and start working
for us. Perhaps he’ll break away from
Donald Trump and the Republican agenda
of corruption and stealing our medicine. I
do think that there is a good person deep
inside Greg Walden.
But he’s clearly not here now. Vote for
Buehler won’t find pot of
gold if elected governor
Aaron Rouska
Hermiston
There is a television ad running in sup-
port of Knute Buehler talking about how
the graduation rate for Oregon students is
very poor and how Kate Brown is respon-
sible. What Dr. Buehler fails to remember
is that his friends Lon Parks, Don McIntire
and Bill Sizemore have gotten legislation
voted in that has basically put a strangle-
hold on spending for anything in Oregon.
Had Dr. Buehler sat in on the same
meeting as I did with actuarials (number
crunchers) in 1990 when I was running for
the House from District 57 he would have
heard exactly what would happen if Bal-
lot Measure 5 was passed. We were told
what would happen and you are now see-
ing police departments running on skele-
ton crews, fire departments understaffed
and school districts wondering how they
are going to find enough money to keep
class sizes down. We were told that if Bal-
lot Measure 5 was passed it would hurt
rural Oregon first and they were right; then
came Ballot Measure s 47 and 50 and that
made matters worse.
Folks, Dr. Buehler is living in a delu-
sional world if he thinks there is money to
do everything he is proposing. I’ve known
Kate Brown, and she sat in the same meet-
ing as I did and heard what the numbers
guys told us, and she campaigned against
passage of Ballot Measure 5 as I did —
and alas, it passed.
The solution to Oregon’s financial prob-
lems isn’t voting in Knute Buehler, it’s
keeping Kate Brown and getting rid of
ballot measures 47 and 50. Dr. Buehler
fails to remember that not only did Ore-
gonians vote in both those initiatives but
the EPA also has made unfunded mandates
that Oregon has to comply with or face the
consequences all at the expense of the Ore-
gonians that Dr. Buehler hopes will elect
him as governor.
Folks, don’t get snookered into voting
for Knute Buehler for governor thinking
that there is a pot of gold somewhere that
will pay for his pipe dreams.
Barbara Ann Wright-Dunagan
Pendleton
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
U.S. SENATORS
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
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.
LIMEY PASTOR
Adoption and birth from above
I
write this on the eve of my
I also think that it drew me
mother’s birthday. I was adopted
closer to God, the heavenly father,
at the age of six weeks by
Abba — and feel as close to him
Gwenda Mary Brown, my new
as I possibly could to any human
adopted mother, and Gilbert Brown,
father. I feel my father continues
my new adopted father. My birth
to draw me closer and closer. I
mother, a young girl called Marilyn
know that this drawing is the most
Dobbs, and an unknown father
powerful love; what father who
Colin
were needed to bring me to my
loves does not want his children
Brown
new parents’ doorstep. My mother,
to be close in spirit? What child
Faith
Gwenda (now passed), was born on
does not love back a loving parent,
September 20.
being magnetized with that force,
I only found out that I was adopted
not fearful of making mistakes but truly
wanting to be like the one who drew us into
when I was about 12 years old. It was a
shock, as if I was being suddenly dislocated fullness of life?
Male and female he created us. We are
to Mars. After this I still loved the only
all sons and daughters of the living God. I
parents I had known as much as ever, but
truly want to be like my father from above,
I felt enormously that I had somehow
with the gift of my parents from here with
been gifted with an inheritance that wasn’t
all their normal holiness and kindness. We
honestly mine.
are imaged by those from who we receive
My cousin Alan, as I found out much
instruction and love.
later on, had also been adopted. When I
When I think of my former church in
talked about this with him in his 30s –
Eastern Oregon, and consider my friends
calling him in New York where he had
there, I feel my heart glowing like a hot
moved and become a writer of detective
coal. Every church is like the heart of a fire,
stories — he asked me if I was a good
and its congregation members are like the
adoptee or a bad adoptee.
hot coals breathing and glowing. I think of
He had made a study of this. Some
them warmly, each one, and the children I
adoptees, according to Alan, feel that they
have to prove to the whole world that there think must be growing fast and expanding
into the God-shaped promise of adulthood.
really is no connection with their adopted
I feel the father’s love growing as I
parents, and act out — thus, the bad
think of them, praying for their success,
adoptee. One of my friends at high school
their own futures radiant with the promise
had become a bad adoptee and had robbed
that Jesus has provided them, that they
a bank. His parents had run the local scout
are loved, blessed and forgiven, and in the
troops.
passport that love has provided them, to
My own path, I hoped, had been
opposite. I first went to school to become a start their own families soon enough and to
go and do likewise, with song and prayer,
teacher when I was in my early 20s. I then
in Jesus’ name.
became a technology guy for some of the
Amen.
big companies. In my waning years I hope
■
I have tried to be a really good adoptee
Colin Brown is the former pastor of Good
— and have become both a pastor and a
Shepherd Lutheran Church in Boardman.
chaplain, albeit limey all the way.
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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