ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
PHIL WRIGHT
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Learning
valuable
lessons from
COVID-19
O
n the COVID-19 front last week,
it was more good news, bad news,
but the glimmer of hope in terms
of reopening the state is now a full-fledged
spotlight and that should bring some relief
to us all.
COVID-19 still is around in Umatilla
County, and Baker County is seeing some-
thing of a minor surge, but Gov. Kate
Brown said last week the state will either
reopen totally by June 30 or by the time
the state hits a 70% vaccination rate.
That means mandates on masks along
with social distancing rules and limits on
restaurants will be gone.
In another piece of good news, the
Oregon Department of Education
announced recently it planned to return
to full-time, in-person instruction in the
fall. COVID-19 safety protocols — such
as masks and social distancing — will be
advisory instead of requirements.
That is all good news. The COVID-19
pandemic caused unprecedented damage
to millions of lives and hit the already
shaky economy of Eastern Oregon partic-
ularly hard. Since the virus hit our shores
last year, it cut a wide destructive path
across our nation.
What was so discouraging about the
impact of the virus was it never had to be
that way. While Oregon’s response to the
pathogen was robust at times, the national
reaction was lackluster at best. We were,
in short, caught off guard and it showed.
Yet, there were plenty of warnings signs
and many books, medical papers and
comments from health officials during the
last 15 years that another global pandemic
was coming, it was just a matter of when.
Those warnings still hold true.
Another pandemic ignited by a respi-
rator viral pathogen is not a possibility
but a certainty. While that could seem
to be cause for deep worry, it need not
be. The nation and, hopefully, Oregon,
have learned a lot from the COVID-19
pandemic.
Those lessons, though, cannot be
forgotten. They must be codified in some
manner and studied over the long term.
The Legislature also should decide in
its next session to earmark dollars fo a
new state agency whose sole purpose is to
monitor for pandemic risks and to develop
a very specific, detailed plan that offi-
cials can roll out the next time a pandemic
erupts.
We are a smart society and can learn
from our mistakes. Against the constant
threat of another pandemic, we must
act decisively to ensure the errors that
plagued the state, and the nation, are not
repeated.
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
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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
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Unsigned letters will not be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
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or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
Oregon Legislature honored our Vietnam veterans
STEVE
BATES
OTHER VIEWS
T
he 2021 legislative session started
with the hope that the state Legis-
lature would honor our Vietnam
veterans by passing a bill to establish a
Vietnam War Memorial on the Oregon
State Capitol Grounds.
Senate Bill 319 was introduced by
the Senate Committee on Veterans and
Emergency Preparedness. The bill dedi-
cates a portion of Capitol State Park to
a Vietnam War Memorial to be funded
and constructed by a qualified nonprofit
corporation.
SB319 in its last paragraph declares
an emergency. Its preamble states
more than 180,000 Oregonians served
during the Vietnam War, of which about
100,000 are alive today. The average age
of these Oregon Veterans is 70+. Oregon
is losing up to eight Vietnam veterans
per day. This is based upon data from the
United States Department of Veterans
Affairs. SB319 states: “It is imperative
to memorialize the service and sacri-
fice of all who served during the tumul-
tuous decades of the Vietnam War.”
This should be done before our Vietnam
veterans are gone.
The Senate passed SB319 with a 29-0
vote on March 18. The bill was moved
to the House and assigned to the House
Committee on Veterans and Emergency
Management with a subsequent referral
to the House Committee on Rules. On
May 18, the House Veterans Commit-
tee passed the bill unanimously with a
“Do Pass” recommendation. On June
16, the House Rules Committee did the
same. On Tuesday, June 22, the House
of Representatives passed SB319 with a
58-0 vote.
It now awaits the Gov. Kate Brown’s
signature.
In 2017, the Vietnam War Memorial
Fund was founded as a 501©3 nonprofit
corporation with the sole mission of
funding and constructing a Vietnam War
Memorial on the Oregon State Capitol
Grounds. For a year and a half, its steer-
ing committee met regularly and devel-
oped a design for the proposed memorial.
The design was adopted July 31, 2019.
During 2020, the design was reviewed
and approved by the Oregon Capitol
Planning Commission and the city of
Salem Historic Landmarks Commis-
sion. The design was also approved
by the Oregon Parks and Recreation
Commission on Feb. 25. Subsequently,
the Oregon Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment and the Vietnam War Memorial
Fund have entered into a memorandum
of understanding that outlines each enti-
ty’s responsibilities going forward.
The approved design includes inter-
pretive panels that will detail historic
events and facts of the Vietnam War.
This information will be developed later
in the process by the steering commit-
tee, which is outlined in the memoran-
dum of understanding. The steering
committee will consist of veterans, local
and national historians, interpreters,
local and state public officials and people
representing Oregon’s Vietnamese and
Southeast Asian communities.
This project has met all local and state
requirements with more than a dozen
public hearings or forums. As a result,
the Oregon Legislature voted to honor
our Vietnam veterans by passing SB319
and setting aside space for a Vietnam
War Memorial on the Oregon State Capi-
tol Grounds.
With the governor’s signature on
Senate Bill 319, the major permissions
will be in place to construct a Vietnam
War Memorial. While there are state and
local requirements to be met, the great-
est challenge remaining is raising the $3
million needed to complete the project.
As we approach the Fourth of July
holiday, remember to honor all of our
veterans. Freedom is not free! In particu-
lar, you can honor our Vietnam veterans
with a contribution to the Vietnam War
Memorial on the Oregon State Capitol
Grounds Project.
———
Steve Bates has resided in Boring for
44 years and is an honorary life member
of the Vietnam Veterans of America and
is a life member of the Associates of Viet-
nam Veterans of America. He serves as
chair of the Committee on Memorials and
Remembrance and president of the Viet-
nam War Memorial Fund.
YOUR VIEWS
Herd immunity
protects everyone
Herd immunity, while scientifically
appropriate, is an unfortunate term to
throw at Americans. We think of a herd
as something that is rounded up, put into
pens and then slaughtered. We don’t
want to be treated like cattle.
So how are we supposed to react to a
pandemic? We know that some diseases
spread quickly and can be lethal. Think
of typhoid fever, polio or the 1918 flu,
which killed some of our ancestors.
Vaccines have eliminated the risk of
catching them today. Scientists study-
ing such diseases in animals discov-
ered some time ago that immunizing a
substantial percentage of the herd soon
stops the spread of the disease.
Immunizing a herd of cattle is rela-
tively easy, but democracies don’t round
up their citizens and force 70% of them
to get vaccinated. As citizens we are
in charge of our own decisions, but
perhaps we should consider how our
decisions affect the people around us.
If your friends and neighbors start
dropping like flies from COVID-19, you
will likely take it seriously. But what if
you don’t know anyone who is really
sick from the virus? You only hear
about it on the news. Or you may know
people who got sick but seemed to get
over it. So you decide to skip the vacci-
nation. If you don’t get sick you feel
justified in your decision. You may even
decide not to wear a mask. You may feel
proud that you made your decision inde-
pendently, but you overlook the fact that
you may be infecting others who will
get really sick.
Here is where herd immunity makes
sense. Vaccinating around 70% of our
population is sufficient to keep the virus
from spreading. If most people in our
community decide not to get vacci-
nated, the virus and its new variants
will continue to spread, with dire conse-
quences for some of the unvaccinated.
To date in Umatilla County, nearly
3,000 people have been infected with
it, and 87 of them have died. We don’t
know how many others who caught the
disease have lingering health problems.
As a community we are not a herd of
cattle, but we are in close contact with
other people every day. No one is forc-
ing us to be vaccinated, but by refusing
to get vaccinated we are gambling not
only with our own health but with the
health of those around us.
Terry Templeman
Pendleton
Another date should
join Juneteenth as
national holiday
On June 19, 1865, federal troops
landed at Galveston Bay, Texas, and
ended 200 years of slavery. It is now and
should be a national holiday. But there
is an even more important date — April
19, 1775, when at a bridge on Lexing-
ton Green a shot heard around the world
was fired. That shot was literally heard
around the world. It challenged tyranny,
which at that time was vested in royalty.
Royalty: the idea that you are born to
rule and could pass that on to your heirs.
The idea of republics, where the people
elect their leaders, caught on. Bolivar
in South America challenged Spanish
royalty, the French chopped their heads
off. Later the Russians shot their royal
family. The republic idea caught on,
except in the so-called Great Britain,
where they still kiss the royal arse.
I guess it is the failure of the Amer-
ican education system that subjects me
to what Megan and Harry are doing.
They are everywhere, even Fox
News. Tucker Carlson and Sean Hann-
ity both have had Piers Morgan on,
because he trashes Harry and Megan.
Morgan is a staunch supporter of the
royal family. He is, however, a vocal
opponent of our Second Amendment.
It shouldn’t be hard to google Piers
defending the British idea that only the
elite should possess arms, the exact
opposite of the American ideal.
Enough crap about whether Biden
violated royal protocol and other such
tripe. I don’t care if there is another
royal brat, I don’t want to hear anymore
about an American royal baby. Titles
of royalty are specifically prohibited in
our constitution. Coverage of Megan
and Harry gives our poorly educated
citizenry the idea that royalty is a legit-
imate form of government. That shot
fired at Lexington Green challenged
that.
It is time to teach history in our
schools again, and it is time that April
19 becomes a national holiday. It set the
idea that people of all colors all around
the world are capable of controlling
their own lives. People of all colors.
Steve Culley
Baker City