ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
TUESDAy, MARCH 16, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Idea to
convert
motel a
good one
T
he local area received some good
news last week with the announce-
ment that the Community Action
Program of East Central Oregon will
receive a large grant to help transform a
former local hotel into a facility to help
provide housing for the homeless and the
housing insecure.
A $1.3 million grant of state funding
administered by the Oregon Community
Foundation will drive a plan to refurbish
The Whiskey Inn on Dorion Avenue. The
facility is a first-of-its-kind in the eastern
portion of the state and it will hopefully
go a long way toward helping those in the
community most in need.
Like all such facilities anywhere, it prob-
ably won’t escape scrutiny and, perhaps,
criticism by neighbors. That isn’t unex-
pected and nearby residents surely have
the right to give their opinions and express
their fears about blight and potential illegal
activity.
Yet, CAPECO Chief Executive Offi-
cer Paula Hall said steps are already in
the works — including the formation of a
neighborhood committee — to tackle key
concerns.
The grant allows the city and, by exten-
sion, the county to take on a persistent
problem. Residents who are homeless or
housing insecure isn’t a new challenge, but
it is a growing one not only in Oregon but
across the nation.
Realistically, rural areas, such as Pend-
leton, were the least prepared to overcome
housing insecurity and homeless issues.
That’s not because of a lack of empathy, but
rests chiefly on the limited resources rural
counties and cities can rely on.
The number of people who are housing
insecure continues to climb each year and
is becoming a challenge not only in small
rural towns like Pendleton but in place like
Ontario, in Malheur County, and other
places throughout the state.
The new future for the former motel
is a concrete example of progress toward
addressing that problem. Rather than plat-
itudes or endless tomes of studies on the
problem of the housing insecure, this effort
provides a way forward.
Hall also emphasized in a story last
week in this newspaper that in the future
some rooms of the former motel will be
used to help the housing insecure for up to
two years, while they search to find perma-
nent housing.
That’s also good news because it means
the facility won’t be a “forever home” but a
way station, a place for people to get back
on their feet.
The plan to convert the old motel is a
good one and the local community should
be satisfied with this solution.
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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of 400 words or less on public issues and public
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to withhold letters that address concerns about
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SEND LETTERS TO:
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or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
A year in retrospect — abundant collectivism
ALEX
HOBBS
PASTURES OF PLENT Y
W
e have arrived at the one-year
marker of lockdown, and I
figured now would be a good
time as any to attempt to distill the
jumbled thoughts I’ve collected over the
past year into a single coherent world-
view.
The past 365 days have offered me the
chance to declutter, rearrange and cate-
gorize the changes I’ve accrued. Because
what are seismic shifts in our collective
and individual thought if not the oppor-
tunity to realign our value systems? To
fully realize the fleeting nature of our
lives, and to fully embody the sheer luck
of making it to the other side of 365 with
my health and the health of my loved
ones. In other words, I owe it to myself to
take the current moment to reconcile the
past with the present.
For example, over the past year I have
been brainstorming ways in which I can
break free of the isolating effects of what
I can only refer to as the pathological
worship of the individual. Collectivism
versus Individualism is certainly not
a new argument, but it has manifested
itself in new ways, particularly through
all our very-online existences.
Last year, whenever glitches in the
Matrix appeared, whether in the form of
Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign
or mass Black Lives Matter protests, the
powers that be ensured those movements
of the collective would meet their demise.
Real-world movements that enshrined
mutual justice and equity morphed into
online culture war spats as COVID-19
deaths were hyper-normalized and the
presidential election took up most of the
air in the room.
So, ironically enough, in order to
arrive at that place of collective connec-
tion, I turned inward to focus on myself
and my family. After all, what better
place to start breaking down beliefs than
in the self?
I began at the most fundamental of
human urges — the belief in the divine.
I have never been a devoutly religious
person despite being raised in the Cath-
olic church. I have stepped foot in Notre
Dame in Paris and felt the weight of
1,000 years of worship, but did not feel
magic until I happened upon a small
garden tucked away behind a bookstore,
secluded from the bustle of the city. At its
center stood a well that had long run dry,
its ancient wooden pulley smoothed by
time — a sacred grove in the middle of a
metropolis.
In pre-Christian belief systems,
sacred groves and springs were primary
places to connect to animistic spirits, to
practice rituals, or to cleanse. Today, I
find myself drawn to these sacred groves
more as an act of worship, connected-
ness, and as a radical departure from my
previous belief system. Sitting in silence
with my own thoughts, with a book in
hand, makes no difference because the
act of simultaneous connection and
disconnect is the purpose.
In these moments, I find myself giving
in to the urge to occupy the mindset of
my own pre-Christian, pre-industrialized
ancestors. What rituals, and stories, and
practices had they undertaken to connect
to the collective — both human and natu-
ral — back before brands and the alien-
ation of global capital turned us all into
consumers?
My Slavic ancestors believed in
Domovoi, a household god who protected
the family from harm. They probably
tended to it by leaving small offerings
and keeping a tidy house. On the other
side of my family, my Scottish ancestors
might have partaken in the act of Sain-
ing — a ritual where juniper smoke was
spread throughout the house to cleanse
and bless. Both practices offer me an
alternative path toward embracing the
collective in totality.
Deconstructing and rebuilding a spir-
itual foundation of my own has been one
of the gifts to emerge from the primordial
ooze of the past year — one in which I
see a place for myself and for my children
in a world that grows increasingly isolat-
ing and factionalized. It has been the first
step in the thought distillation process.
Does my new worldview mean that
I no longer consider myself Christian? I
suppose so, but that label is really beside
the point. What is more important is that
for the first time I feel connected to some-
thing bigger than myself — something
that extends beyond political or commu-
nity affiliations and reaches toward abun-
dance.
———
Alex Hobbs lives in Irrigon and is a
former educator turned full-time homes-
chooling mom. She has a degree in politi-
cal science from Oregon State University.
was to do what the politicians assigned
me to do. Almost every assignment was
unpopular with various segments of the
population because people have differ-
ing needs and expectations.
My advice to anyone who is unhappy
with a regulation is to find out who
influenced the passing of the bill that
included the problem regulation, who
it benefits, and why was the regula-
tion included in the implementation of
the legislation. What is your represen-
tative’s position? Did you follow the
legislation, and did you inform your
representative of your point of view?
And why did you vote for or against that
representative, and did you vote? So you
see, it all circles back to the responsible
parties — the voters.
Being a responsible citizen is not
easy.
Evelyn Swart
Joseph
bers in part over this issue.”
In 2018, Democrats won 38 House
seats and 11 Senate seats. In 40 House
seats, Democrats had a voter registra-
tion advantage over Republicans at an
average of 9,357.13, while Republicans
had a voter registration advantage in just
20 House seats at an average of 5,160.5.
Fourteen House seats had a Democratic
voter registration advantage greater than
10,000, versus just one House District
with a Republican voter registration
advantage that size. House District 43
had a Democratic advantage of 31,000.
Decades of partisan redistricting
created a system where the majority
party picks and chooses voters. Oregon
House Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate
President Peter Courtney have used the
power of their office to deny nonparti-
san redistricting proposals. Oregonians
deserve a system that allows voters, not
parties, to choose the candidates who
best represent their communities.
While the authority to draw district
maps remains with the Oregon Legisla-
ture, legislators must look beyond their
electoral interests and ensure all possible
districts are equally divided between
Republicans, Democrats and Indepen-
dents. Voter registration advantages
should be in the dozens, not tens of thou-
sands. This is the only road forward to
unity and honest policymaking.
Alex McHaddad
La Grande
YOUR VIEWS
Understanding legislation
takes effort
Maybe you say, “The government is
making too many regulations that inter-
fere with running my business the way
I want.” But really, who makes those
decisions?
First, we voters vote for the poli-
ticians who we believe will work for
us. We contribute to their campaign
funds and write to the winners. At the
same time, corporations and organiza-
tions also contribute campaign funds;
however, with their money, they can
hire lobbyists to influence legislation
for their benefit. (This is what “Citizens
United” is about.) Much of the time,
the lobbyists construct bills and hand
them to the legislators who submit them
for the decision process. Do you think
the lobbyists are promoting and writ-
ing legislation that benefits everyone?
No, they propose and write legislation
to benefit their employers. Do these
employers and lobbyists stop to think
about the effect their legislation will
have on others? Who will benefit if their
bill is put into law? Who will be hurt?
What about the bureaucrats, those
who work for the government and do
the “grunt work” to enable the decisions
made by the politicians? Do they make
too many decisions? For whom do they
make decisions? My experience as a
former state bureaucrat is that my job
Leave partisan politics out
of redistricting
In 2019, state Sen. Michael Dembrow
made the following remarks about the
GOP walkout protesting cap and trade:
“We know that the voters want us to be
creating this program. Every legislator
that was in a contested race in 2018 ran
on this issue. The governor ran on this
issue. We picked up seats in both cham-