ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
THURSdAy, MARCH 11, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Across the aisle
in the Capitol
P
olicy disagreements, partisanship
and the walkouts can give Orego-
nians a distorted picture of what their
Oregon Legislature is like. Journalists —
and certainly this editorial page — tend to
highlight conflicts, not the places of accord.
We were struck recently by what state
Rep. Daniel Bonham said during a commit-
tee hearing about a resolution to honor
former state Rep. Mitch Greenlick. State
Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, is one of the reso-
lution’s sponsors.
Bonham is a Republican from The
Dalles. His district includes a large part of
Central Oregon — Sisters, Culver, Madras
and the Warm Springs Reservation. Plot
Bonham and Greenlick along an ideological
line and there would be a big gap between
them in how to solve many of Oregon’s
challenges. Bonham would be on the right.
Greenlick, a Democrat who represented
Multnomah and Washington counties
beginning in 2002, was on the left. Green-
lick died while serving in office on May 15,
2020.
They became friends.
Bonham was appointed to the Legislature
in November 2017 to fill a vacancy. He came
into the session in 2018 trying to find his
way in the new role.
He happened to stay in the same hotel
for the session as Greenlick and his wife,
Harriet. They fell into the habit of exercising
together in the gym and joining each other
in the pool. And talking.
“I got to know Rep. Greenlick more on a
personal level than anything else,” Bonham
said. “What really impressed me was just
his care and concern for helping somebody
brand new to this role that truly was trying
to find their way. And despite the fact that
we were not of the same party affiliation
or shared the same views on how to solve
health care problems, we had many wonder-
ful conversations.
“I will say we probably talked more
about the kids, the grandchildren and the
great-grandchildren than we did about
public policy. But his care and his compas-
sion for others was just evident in his
approach to life. And we saw it come
through in very passionate ways both on the
floor and in committee and even over lunch.
“I wanted to take the moment to stop by
your meeting here today and to offer my
words of just gratitude to the Greenlicks.
Again, I don’t know how you talk about
Mitch without talking about Harriet. I don’t
know how, at least from my experience.
They were such a team. I am grateful
for their friendship and for the kindness
that they showed me. I give my abso-
lute support to SCR (Senate Concurrent
Resolution) 3 and encourage everyone
else to take a moment and read through it
and remember and honor our good friend
Mitch Greenlick.”
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.
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History, like humans, is complicated
BRIGIT
FARLEY
PAST AND PROLOGUE
I
n last month’s column, I reviewed
some of our nation’s controversies
over statues and monuments, such
as Pendleton’s conflict over Confederate
street names. Today seems a good day
to talk about how some individuals and
nations have attempted to resolve them.
Certain individuals and events
honored with monuments in this coun-
try have had a rough go lately. Across
the South, monuments to prominent
Confederates have come under attack
for their advocacy of slavery as well as
the timing of their honor — most went
up during the 1920s, when the Ku Klux
Klan was making a comeback, so that
they became de facto monuments to
segregation. Outraged citizens took
it upon themselves in some cases to
pull them down. The statue of Theo-
dore Roosevelt at the entrance to New
York’s Museum of Natural History faces
removal after protests against the depic-
tion of subservient African and Native
Americans at Roosevelt’s feet, emblem-
atic of Roosevelt’s views on nonwhites.
San Francisco schools named for Pres-
idents Washington and Lincoln will be
renamed because of those individuals’
ties to and views of slavery.
Opponents of these changes charge
that removal airbrushes controversial
individuals out of history. Proponents
respond by underlining the absence of
monuments to Nazi leaders in Germany
and pointing to the hundreds of thou-
sands of books in numerous languages
covering every aspect of Nazism. No
one needs statues or monuments, they
maintain, to learn about Nazi Germany.
Others occupy something of a middle
ground. They allege that today’s history
warriors are imposing 21st century
standards on 18-20th century people. In
their view, some individuals with ties to
slavery should be extended grace if their
positive contributions to the country are
particularly meaningful and long last-
ing. Citizen Washington’s ownership of
slaves, for example, does not diminish
President Washington’s capable military
leadership in the Revolutionary War and
skillful stewardship of the country in its
first difficult years.
The experiences of people abroad
who have struggled with issues of
history and memory provide possible
guidance. When Communism fell in
the Soviet Union in 1991, citizens of
Moscow and other cities went to war
with statues and monuments of Soviet
leaders like Vladimir Lenin. A jubi-
lant mob cheered as the statue of “Iron
Feliks” Dzerzhinskii, founder of the
Soviet secret police, was unceremoni-
ously wrenched off its platform in front
of the KGB building.
The demoted Dzerzhinskii and
other “dead” statues soon reappeared
and stood in a kind of rogues’ gallery,
without explanation, near a Moscow art
museum. Citizens would come inspect
and often curse at, spit on or kick their
least favorite former leaders. Someone
doused a statue of Joseph Stalin with red
paint. This represented a kind of cathar-
sis, but it shed heat rather than light.
In Hungary, officials and citizens
took a different tack. Hungary witnessed
prolonged, bitter fighting between
Nazi occupiers and Soviet liberators in
1944-45, only to have those “liberators”
impose a Communist dictatorship on
the country. Hungarians proved to be
resentful and rebellious Communists,
so they were overjoyed at the departure
of Soviet troops and officials when the
Cold War ended in 1989.
The capital, Budapest, was dotted
with monuments to Hungarian Commu-
nist leaders, which complicated the
debut of a post-Communist era. In
an admirably democratic spirit, each
neighborhood voted up or down on each
statue. Most were removed, but received
a transfer a year later to a Szoborpark
(Memento Park), just outside the city.
Visitors have the opportunity there
to view 50 years of Hungarian Commu-
nist history in monuments. They are
invited to assess prominent individuals,
like Hungarian Communist leader Bela
Kun driving the chariot of history on to
new heights, and important events, for
example Mother Russia holding out a
peace laurel symbolic of Soviet “libera-
tion.” Books and brochures detailing the
exhibits are available for purchase in a
small shop. When I visited, the park was
attracting Hungarians of all ages and
sparking some spirited conversations. It
was good to see people learning about
and engaging with their controversial
past.
People here in the U.S. might incor-
porate the Russian and Hungarian expe-
rience as they negotiate settlements in
their history wars. Some statues argu-
ably deserve removal, but not at the
hands of a mob. In a democratic society,
there ought to be a deliberative process,
an Arts Council ruling, perhaps, or, as in
Budapest, a local vote.
Finding them a place in a museum or
park, with well-informed context state-
ments, could repurpose them as silent
history instructors. And maybe some
particularly significant, yet controver-
sial, individuals — Presidents Washing-
ton and Lincoln, for example — could
retain their place of honor in the public
square, as a testament to the fact that
history, like human beings and life itself,
is complicated.
———
Brigit Farley is a Washington State
University professor, student of history,
adventurer and Irish heritage girl living
in Pendleton.
to public spaces should not be encour-
aged and supported by measures, such
as the poorly considered HB 3115.
There is no question the problem
of homelessness and all the atten-
dant subsets of drug abuse, mental
and emotional instability, poverty,
crime and random violence need to be
addressed at a governmental level, but
HB 3115 is not the tool for the job and
will not accomplish the desired and
necessary solution, but will in fact
only exacerbate the troubles.
Ray Horton
Portland
13) that forests are restored by natural
processes. That’s about all, though.
The forest ecosystems started chang-
ing dramatically when white man hit the
East Coast and haven’t stopped chang-
ing ever since. He points out a lot of
problems that contribute to where we
are today, but I don’t hear any answers
to them.
Sounds as if he is against the Malheur
collaborative because logging is part
of the possible problem-solving ideas.
Remember, for the past 30 to 40 years,
the environmentalists have guided and
directed the U.S. Forest Service in doing
its work.
Now we can’t see the forest for the
trees. I’m glad to see that there are some
folks trying to work together to find
answers for our man-made problems.
We should remember, man can’t live
without nature, but nature can do with-
out man.
Ken Koser
Prairie City
YOUR VIEWS
HB 3115 will not
accomplish the desired
and necessary solution
I must write to express my alarm
at the proposed House Bill 3115. As
I read it, this gives over all public
spaces, city, county and state parks,
sidewalks, city parking structures,
city halls, public trails, to a home-
less and transient population with-
out regard to, input from, or concern
for the rest of the people who live in
Oregon and pay the taxes to support
and maintain these public facilities
and spaces.
To invite the homeless to camp in
the places where children play, fami-
lies picnic, seniors walk, and people
exercise is simply a terrible, irrespon-
sible idea. Homeless camps are an
unsanitary, unhealthy, dirty, danger-
ous public health hazard, a trashed
blight on our cities, and their spread
Man can’t live without
nature, but nature can do
without man
I agree with George Wuerthner in his
comment (National forests, BLM lands
should be off-limits to logging, Feb.