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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Friday, November 16, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor Founded October 16, 1875 Tip of the hat, kick in the pants A tip of the hat to firefighters putting out the blazes plaguing California, the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. And a tip of the hat to those helping in other ways. Two fires, one in the northern part of the state and another near Los Angeles, have tormented those communities for weeks. More than 50 people have died and hundreds are still unaccounted for as of this writing. More than 7,000 buildings have been destroyed. They’re still uncontained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The stories are heartbreaking and terrifying. Families forced to flee through corridors of burning trees, with traffic backed up on the one road out of town. Many who did escape will return to find their homes destroyed. While fire crews from other states — including the Hermiston- based Umatilla County Fire District 1 — arrive to help protect lives and properties, others have pitched in to financially support those who are on the run and have lost everything. Here are a couple of ways you can help: • The American Red Cross manages shelters for people with nowhere else to go, and they run an online registry for people to locate and contact friends and relatives. Donations can be made on the American Red Cross website, or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word CAWILDFIRES to 90999 to donate $10 quickly. • The California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Relief Fund will step into action once the fires are put out, helping rebuild homes and offering health assistance. Donate at www. calfund.org. • The Humane Society of Ventura County is providing a place for pets displaced by the Los Angeles-area fires as their owners look for their own place to stay. Donate at www.hsvc.org. There are many other groups doing good work, but be careful where you send your money in time of emergency. Some people will take advantage of a disaster for their own personal gain. A tip of the hat to Casey Beard, the first general manager of the Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon Night Show, who has set the bar high. AP Photo/Noah Berger Residences leveled by the Camp Fire line a cul-de-sac in Paradise, Calif., on Thurs- day. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday the wildfire that destroyed the town of Paradise is now 40 percent contained, up from 30 percent on Wednesday morning. Round-Up and Happy Canyon are dynamic events, in many ways tied to the past but always in need of fresh ideas and new directions. That’s not an easy balance, and working with two volunteers boards of two unique events surely takes some careful diplomacy. But Beard, who this week announced his pending May retirement, was clearly the right man for the job when the position was created in 2014. He has brought leadership, marketing sense and rodeo credibility to boost the events into their second century. It was more than just some good ideas on paper. Through added vendors in the stadium, diverse ticketing options and a new approach to marketing, the Round-Up has flourished, exceeding ticket sales expectations. The rodeo and night show have never been as widely known or as easily accessible. He’s maximized the investment of the board, the volunteers and the community, and his work will pay dividends for years to come. We wish the board the best of luck in finding the right person to fill those boots. LIMEY PASTOR A call from the North I YOUR VIEWS A balanced view would be better coverage It’s so nice to spend my money supporting my local East Oregonian newspaper to read about local Eastern Oregon news. I hope to read what is happening in our schools, sports, local government, community in general, and the history of our local citizens that have few years left to share their knowledge with us. There is so much to learn about our area. I don’t read too much about what goes on in La Grande, Boardman, Umatilla, Mission or any of the other small towns in the area. I thought they are all part of Eastern Oregon? So, the East Oregonian can’t find any local news to share with the readers who support their newspaper? I get more local informa- tion from the Tri-City Herald than from the EO. We have been contemplating whether to keep our subscription to the EO because we really do like to keep up the what’s happen- ing, but hearing so many conservative attacks on your liberal neighbors and customers isn’t very businesslike. A newspaper should offer a balanced view of news along with news of the people. The Nov. 17 paper made me up to upchuck for sure! Front page, and continued onto the inner pages, is an overwritten man- uscript-style, not newsworthy story of the Bundy matter that happened way back when, and in our state (not his), and was not favored by the citizens in the area when they brought all their hate, anger and militia-style protest to try and prove their political point! Why was that story, if you’re going to 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. cover an ou-of-area story, so important to even have but not cover what we could do as a community to help the people in California who are losing everything to the fires? This is not an Eastern Oregon newspaper but seems more like an eastern conservative right-wing propaganda paper. This paper needs a change. There is a lot of good stuff that happens in our area and I’d like to read about it. Interview school kids on issues; talk with the Native Amer- ican elders and share their knowledge with everyone;, ask the churches how they work together when crisis happen; what do small towns need from the larger towns? There are so many stories out there. And there are so many positive stories outside our area to use as fill-ins from our neighbor states. Bernie Sanderson Hermiston Voting is your chance to be heard A short while ago, a young man asked me if I thought it was important to vote. I said yes, as it is your chance to be heard. He said, “Well all my life I have waited to be old enough to vote, and now with all the confusion, disrespect and corruption I wonder if it really matters if you vote.” I held my breath for a second and said, “Some good comes from everything, and it matters even though on the face of it things look bad. But for some reason we have no better way to improve.” James Tiede Hermiston got a letter from a church in responsively. I will say yes! If North Dakota this week. Its God is against the idea, there is question: “Am I looking for a no way it can happen. If God is for the idea, there is no way it can new call”? be stopped. If there is a choice, Why, yes, I am. I think. I we must learn to discern the right sensed something was going way. Discernment involves prayer, to be coming, that I was mov- reflection and the ability to not ing into what is called a lim- Colin necessarily think that what we inal space, which means a kind Brown think is as substantial as we think of indeterminate place of waiting Faith it is. where change is happening but is The Jesuit David Lonsdale, scarcely detectable. I even had an in his book “The Art of Discernment,” intuition that North Dakota would one quotes from Deuteronomy where Moses day call my name. I remember the time says to his people, “See today I set before I drove across the country and stopped you life and prosperity, death and disas- in Fargo, with the snow flurrying around ter. ... If you love God and follow his and a feeling of a memory had touched ways ... you will live and increase. ... But me — a memory of something from if your heart strays, you will most cer- before. tainly perish. ... I set before you life or It was a familiarity of something a death, blessing or curse. Choose life, long time ago. I had sailed on the Great then, so that you and your descendants Lakes. I had seen the Northern Lights. may live in the love of Yahweh your A Native American medicine woman, a God ... for in this your life consists (Dt. great-granddaughter of Black Elk, from 30:15-20). Dakota had given me the Native Amer- So my decision-making, my path-mak- ican name Pahasapa, the name of the ing must discern between an egoistic sacred mountain, and said that I would wish to make good in the place I consider receive the help of her people when I Lutheran central (and perhaps that is a began to work. vanity) and a wish to follow what must I had been a student of the profoundly be God’s will. It is kind of tricky if you wise Dr. Jim Nestingen, who I had stud- don’t really know God’s will. ied with in my clergy training, and his My colleague, Pastor Becky, was home ground was in North Dakota, called out to visit Ethiopia, and I must although now, in his retirement, he admit I felt that to get a call like that spends his springs and summers in Ore- was remarkable, to be an emissary of the gon. He has written much of the modern church to a distant African nation of Ethi- literature in our studies, and is the wisest opia, where according to legend the Ark person I know. He is my exemplar. of the Covenant may even reside. For North Dakota seemed to me an out- me, that would be a vanity and wildly post of a holy empire that doesn’t need a exciting. North Dakota is truly an earth warm temperature to unveil the warmth of earth, a place of work and a main- of the human heart. Is there are doorway out there that is waiting from me to show stay of the nation in its effort, toil and up and pass through it? Or should I admit earthy wisdom. It would be a honor to serve a congregation there, and one that my English flimsiness and run from the temptation? A congregation of souls lives I could truly learn from as well as speak on behalf of Jesus who toiled in the fields in its icy furnace, up against the hard of Israel. seasons of the United States, who feel ■ that their toil upholds the moral densi- Colin Brown is the former pastor of ties of a nation. I find the Midwesterners Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Board- impressive. man. Contact him at colin.brown@usa.net. So, I am going to write to them CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande office: 541-962-7691 Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton office: 541-278-1129 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.