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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2020)
ANDREW CUTLER Publisher/Editor KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor JADE McDOWELL Hermiston Editor SATuRDAy, OCTOBeR 17, 2020 A4 Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW Vote Fagan for Secretary of State W e’d like to talk about a for- mer Secretary of State, Dennis Richardson, before we get into our editorial endorsement of Shemia Fagan for that race in this election. Looking back helps remember why the office is import- ant and what to look for. Richardson set a high standard for how to run the office before his death that Red- mond’s Bev Clarno has followed. Rich- ardson was as Republican as any Repub- lican, but he set that partisanship aside when he was elected to that role. Partisan- ship should not play a role in the Secre- tary of State’s responsibility for oversee- ing Oregon’s election system and the state archives. The Secretary of State also matters because the office wields a powerful tool of oversight in how state agencies run and spend taxpayer money: the statewide audit. His office drilled down with state audits into agencies and programs, ruffling more than a few feathers. Few audits have res- onated as powerfully as the audit during his tenure of the failures of the state’s child foster system run by the Department of Human Services. Richardson also used his office to publicize findings and hold agencies accountable for what they did to improve. Both state Sen. Shemia Fagan, a Dem- ocrat, and state Sen. Kim Thatcher, a Republican, have been partisan politicians. They say they won’t be if elected to this office. We’ll have to wait and see. Fagan and Thatcher agree on many issues. They’d both like it if Oregon par- ties opened up primaries. They both say they are fully behind vote by mail. They both say they don’t intend to use the office just as a stepping stone. And they both will use auditing to uncover and solve problems in government. Fagan has shown a willingness to buck her party’s establishment and do what she believed was right. As we have written before, she was the lone vote against Sen. Peter Courtney, D-Salem, being reelected to his eight-term as Senate President. That was after a former employee of Courtney’s testified Courtney disapproved of who she was dating and gave her an ultimatum to resign or be fired. Fagan has also openly criticized the secret ballots in Senate Dem- ocratic caucus meetings that determine if bills make it to the Senate floor. We hope she would similarly be independent of her party as Secretary of State. Thatcher has been a strong advocate for public disclosure of government records and done so much more. But we have two concerns that tipped the decision for us to Fagan. Thatcher was willing to essentially help her fellow Republicans shut down the Oregon Legislature to prevent the Dem- ocratic climate change bill from moving forward. We understand why Republicans felt they had to walk out to stop the bill. It does make us wonder how much disrup- tion of state government Thatcher would be willing to indulge in if she does not get her way as Secretary of State. Second, Marion County Circuit Court Judge Tracy Prall in 2010 ruled that a company owned by Thatcher intention- ally destroyed a hard drive and intention- ally deleted other accounting records to avoid turning them over during an investi- gation of contracting fraud. That’s at least unnerving for a person we would trust to audit government agencies. We recommend a vote for Fagan. One final thing to consider: In Oregon, we don’t have a Lieutenant Governor who takes over if the Governor leaves office. The Secretary of State does. So when you vote in this race, think about that, too. OUR VIEW Vote Ellen Rosenblum for attorney general W e wish Oregonians had a hard choice to make in the race for state attorney general. They do not. Reelect ellen Rosenblum. It’s not a legal requirement but Ore- gon’s attorney general should be an attorney. Republican Michael Cross, 54, is not an attorney. He is perhaps best known for mounting a failed recall of Gov. Kate Brown. We can’t fault his strong state- ments for public records and his con- cern to ensure Oregonians are pro- tected from abuses by the government. Where’s the record of legal accom- plishments that would suggest he would make a good attorney general? It’s not there. Rosenblum, 69, a Democrat, does have that record as an attorney, judge and as the state’s attorney general. Her office has created change to curb police profiling and reduce hate crimes. She has worked to better ensure Oregonians get easier access to public documents. She took action a few years ago to ensure technol- ogy companies can only use education software for education purposes, not for gobbling up data about students. It’s easy to go on. And that is very good news for Oregonians. In honor of teachers, and what they do for our children BETTE HUSTED FROM HERE TO ANY WHERE L ast week, I got to help my grand- daughter with her remote learn- ing lessons from Athena ele- mentary School. Help isn’t quite the right word. What I actually did was cheer her on as she listened to the videos and fol- lowed her teachers’ guidance. I was fascinated by the depth of what she’s learning — a far cry from my own sec- ond-grade curriculum. It was a joy to witness both her bright young mind and her teachers’ steady, encouraging voices. She had fun, too. “This was the best day ever!” she said as she stretched her hand across the keyboard to write, “Done.” after the last activity. Of course, we were having a grandma day. Working parents don’t have the luxury of individual time with each of their school-age children, and remote learning can bring increased family stress. As a former teacher, I am impressed by what teachers at all lev- els are doing, but sympathetic, too — I can only imagine how difficult their jobs have become. In fact, we are all living in a period of extraordinary stress. From a rau- cous presidential debate to COVID-19 spreading through the White House to worries about election results — and what might happen after the election — “2020” has come to stand for any- thing but “clarity of vision.” White supremacist groups have been told to “stand by.” White domes- tic terrorists have plotted to kidnap a governor and try her for treason — echoing a threat I first heard when peo- ple with similar ideas invaded Harney County. Others have been arrested for planning to attack police in an effort to start a civil war. Meanwhile, Black lives continue to end at the hands of police officers — among the latest, Jonathan Price, a much-admired local resident in Wolfe City, Texas. even my friend in Southern Ore- gon — a member of our poetry work- shop group — has been dodging bul- lets from a drug war going on across the creek from her rural home. Is it any wonder, then, that an after- noon with a 7-year-old and a school tablet can be an island of relief? We look for solace anywhere we can these days. So, it was especially nice that an American poet was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature last week. Lou- ise Glück was chosen by the Swedish Academy’s Nobel committee for “her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual exis- tence universal.” “We are in a bleak moment in this country,” her friend and fellow poet Claudia Rankine said, “and as we poets continue to imagine our way forward, Louise has spent a lifetime showing us how to make language both mean something and hold everything.” Imagining a way forward. That’s what we’re all trying to do, isn’t it? Glück had been trying to do that EDITORIALS 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. LETTERS 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 herself. A single person, before the pandemic she had dinner with friends six nights of the week. For several months in the spring, she said, she had struggled to write. “And suddenly I saw how I could shape this manuscript and finish it,” she told The New York Times. “It was a miracle. The usual feelings of eupho- ria and relief were compromised by COVID, because I had to do battle with my daily terror and the necessary lim- itations on my daily life.” The book, she said, is about fall- ing apart. “The hope is that if you live through it, there will be art on the other side,” she said. The last paragraph of this interview was the one that won my heart. How has teaching shaped her own writing? “you’re constantly being bathed in the unexpected and the new,” Glück said. “you have to rearrange your ideas so that you can draw out of your stu- dents what excites them. My students amaze me; they dazzle me. Though I couldn’t always write, I could always read other people’s writing.” I heard that sense of loving wonder in the voices of my granddaughter’s teachers, too. Challenging as these times are, teachers are working hard to help their students — and by extension, all of us — imagine a way forward, help us believe that we will find the art of our own lives on the other side. Maybe there should be a Nobel Prize for Education. ——— Bette Husted is a writer and a stu- dent of T’ai Chi and the natural world. She lives in Pendleton. 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: editor@eastoregonian.com, or via mail to Andrew Cutler, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801