ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
SATurdAy, MAy 8, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
A tip of
the hat,
a kick in
the pants
tip of the hat to efforts to
preserve the Umatilla language,
most recently by putting the
Umatilla Language Dictionary online
where it is accessible to anyone in the
world.
The online dictionary is the effort of
a partnership between the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion and Amazon Web Services, but there
are also many individuals who were key
in putting it together. A full list of their
names can be found at dictionary.ctuir.
org/about.
As humans we worry about the extinc-
tion of animals and plants, but languages
can also go extinct if care is not taken to
pass them down to new generations. The
dictionary will help make sure the words
preserved there are not lost over time.
A tip of the hat to the Dream Team
program in Hermiston, which brings
athletes with intellectual disabilities
together every week in the spring and
pairs them up with Little League athletes
for a game of softball.
Kids, parents and coaches alike have a
great time and we’re glad to see athletes
of all abilities mingling on the field with
whatever accommodations they need to
participate. Communities should always
be striving to provide inclusive oppor-
tunities, and the Dream Team is a good
example of how that can be done.
A kick in the pants to the drought and
early start to fire season we’re seeing this
spring.
We’re likely in for a rough summer on
those fronts, and it’s imperative we work
together to mitigate the damage.
That includes being a good neighbor
when it comes to water usage, as an indi-
vidual, family or business. Think now
about how you can cut back, whether it’s
running your sprinklers less often or only
running the washing machine when it’s
full.
It also includes being exceedingly
careful with fire — no leaving burn piles
unsupervised or figuring charcoal in a
grill will burn out on its own eventually.
These problems also need much bigger
solutions, too. Power companies must
do all in their power to stop their lines
from sparking wildfires. The agricultural
community must work together to find
the most efficient ways to use the limited
water coming their way. Government
leaders must provide sufficient resources
toward fire prevention measures.
There is no time to waste in addressing
these problems head-on.
A
Doing the rain boogie
J.D.
SMITH
FROM THE HEADWATERS
OF DRY CREEK
O
K, my garden is in at about the
same time the county is trying to
get drought status for the farmers.
So, here is a little rain dance, a riffing on
other folks’ thoughts about weather, in the
hope that ours gets a bit wetter soon.
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refresh-
ing, wind braces us up, snow is exhil-
arating; there is really no such thing as
bad weather, only different kinds of good
weather.” — John Ruskin
“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be
an unnecessary freezing of water.” — Carl
Reiner
“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain
beat upon your head with silver liquid
drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” —
Langston Hughes
“Rainbows apologize for angry skies.”
— Sylvia Voirol
“The trouble with weather forecasting
is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it
and wrong too often for us to rely on it.”
— Patrick Young
“To be interested in the changing
seasons is a happier state of mind than
to be hopelessly in love with spring.” —
George Santayana
“Weather is a great metaphor for life —
sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad,
and there’s nothing much you can do about
it but carry an umbrella.” — Pepper Giar-
dino
“The best thing one can do when
it’s raining is to let it rain.” — Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
“It is one of the secrets of Nature in its
mood of mockery that fine weather lays
heavier weight on the mind and hearts of
the depressed and the inwardly tormented
than does a really bad day with dark rain
sniveling continuously and sympatheti-
cally from a dirty sky.” — Muriel Spark
“Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths
LETTERS
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to withhold letters that address concerns about
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SEND LETTERS TO:
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211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
storms which whip the blood do but make it
pulse more vigorously.” — George Gissing
“My favorite weather is bird-chirping
weather.” — Loire Hartwould
“Any proverbs about weather are doubly
true during a storm.” — Ed Northstrum
“It is best to read the weather forecast
before praying for rain.” — Mark Twain
“The snow doesn’t give a soft white
damn whom it touches.” — e.e. cummings
“What dreadful hot weather we have!
It keeps me in a continual state of inele-
gance.” — Jane Austen
“Clouds come floating into my life, no
longer to carry rain or usher storm, but
to add color to my sunset sky.” — Rabin-
dranath Tagore
“Where does the white go when the
snow melts?” — Author Unknown
“A snowflake is one of God’s most
fragile creations, but look what they can
do when they stick together!” — Author
Unknown
“Snowmen fall from heaven ... unas-
sembled.” — Author Unknown
“Bad weather always looks worse
through a window.” — Author Unknown
“Only those in tune with nature seem
to pick up on the energy in wind. All
sorts of things get swept off in the breeze
— ghosts, pieces of soul, voices unsung,
thoughts repressed, love uncherished, and
a thousands galore of spiritual ether. Wind
is an emotional rush because emotions are
rushing by.” — Drew Sirtors
“There’s one good thing about snow,
it makes your lawn look as nice as your
neighbor’s.” — Clyde Moore
“Perfect winter weather is a great
caffeine, while perfect summer weather is
the best sedative.” — Amethyst Snow-Rivers
“Walking through puddles is my favor-
ite metaphor for life.” — Jessi Lane Adams
“There is little chance that meteorol-
ogists can solve the mysteries of weather
until they gain an understanding of the
mutual attraction of rain and weekends.”
— Arnot Sheppard
———
J.D. Smith is an accomplished writer and
jack-of-all-trades. He lives in Athena.
Senate Bill 499 should become law
EARL
BAIN
OTHER VIEWS
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.
of the people couldn’t start a conversation
if it didn’t change once in a while.” — Kin
Hubbard
“Weather forecast for tonight: dark.”
— George Carlin
“Anyone who says sunshine brings
happiness has never danced in the rain.”
— Author Unknown
“Some people walk in the rain, others
just get wet.” — Roger Miller
“Coal lay in ledges under the ground
since the Flood, until a laborer with pick
and windlass brings it to the surface. We
may will call it black diamonds. Every
basket is power and civilization. For coal is
a portable climate.” — Ralph Waldo Emer-
son
“Rain! whose soft architectural hands
have power to cut stones, and chisel to
shapes of grandeur the very mountains.”
— Henry Ward Beecher
“When snow falls, nature listens.” —
Antoinette van Kleeff
“Many a man curses the rain that falls
upon his head, and knows not that it brings
abundance to drive away the hunger.” —
Saint Basil
“A rainy day is the perfect time for a
walk in the woods.” — Rachel Carson
“There’s always a period of curious fear
between the first sweet-smelling breeze
and the time when the rain comes cracking
down.” — Don Delillo
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a
summer in San Francisco.” — Mark Twain
“There is a muscular energy in sunlight
corresponding to the spiritual energy of
wind.” — Annie Dillard
“The best kind of rain, of course, is a
cozy rain. This is the kind the anonymous
medieval poet makes me remember, the
rain that falls on a day when you’d just
as soon stay in bed a little longer, write
letters or read a good book by the fire,
take early tea with hot scones and jam
and look out the streaked window with
complacency.”
— Susan Allen Tot
“For the man sound in body and serene
of mind there is no such thing as bad
weather; every day has its beauty, and
F
or over six years of my life, I was
wrongfully incarcerated in an Oregon
prison. I was convicted in Malheur
County of a crime I did not commit and
falsely labeled as having abused my own
child. I was living a nightmare, but I
couldn’t wake up.
Last year, Gov. Kate Brown granted me
a pardon on the grounds of my innocence,
the first time she has issued a pardon on that
basis. I no longer carry the labels of “felon”
or “sex offender” but the problems stem-
ming from my wrongful conviction are far
from over.
Due to my conviction, I lost the good
career I had in the military and can’t go back
to it. I am a combat veteran who served my
country in Afghanistan, but that didn’t count
for anything when the state took everything
from me and sent me to prison.
Since returning to the community, I have
spent thousands of dollars on polygraph
tests, which my parole officer repeatedly
forced me to take, assuming I was lying
when I said I was innocent.
The greatest loss, though, was time with
my daughters while they were growing up.
During my time in prison, I was not allowed
to see or talk to them at any time. I wasn’t
even allowed to send them a letter.
Trying to overcome all of this has been
a tremendous struggle for me and my
family. The stigma of my wrongful convic-
tion is such that every time I meet someone
new, I have had to worry about what they
are thinking about me. I have had to try to
find words to explain that I’m not who my
conviction said I was.
I’m free now, and my innocence has been
recognized, but I’m still trying to rebuild
my life. I had to start over when I got out of
prison and the challenges I face have not
come to an end just because I no longer have
the wrongful conviction on my record.
People like me are just asking for a fair
shot. We lost everything and it was the
criminal justice system that took it from us.
I believe it’s time for Oregon to recognize
exonerees and address the harm that has
been done to us. I am an innocent man, but
those are just words. How can the state be
allowed to take everything away from me
and shrug its shoulders after I am exoner-
ated?
Fortunately, there’s an opportunity for
Oregon to do the right thing. A bill currently
being considered by legislators, Senate
Bill 499 by Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer,
would provide a fixed amount of $65,000 in
compensation per year of wrongful incar-
ceration to exonerees who meet certain
criteria, as well as $25,000 for years spent
on parole, post-prison supervision or the sex
offender registry.
Our neighbors in Idaho passed simi-
lar legislation this year, and the governor
recently signed that bill into law. If Idaho
can do it, so should Oregon.
Seeing SB 499 become law would mean
more than just financial compensation that
would allow me to get back on my feet and
give me a chance to support my family the
way I should have been doing all those years
I was locked up.
This bill represents the state of Oregon
admitting they sometimes get it wrong. And
for wrongfully convicted people like me,
that means more than words can say.
———
Earl Bain was wrongfully convicted
in Malheur County in 2009 and spent six
years in prison. After the complaining
witness in his case recanted her story, with
the help of the Oregon Innocence Project
he was pardoned on the grounds of inno-
cence by Gov. Kate Brown in August 2020.