OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
East Oregonian
Armstrong:
Continued from Page A1
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Libraries, such as the Pendleton Public Library, are slowly resuming their in-person activities in the fall
of 2021.
“We’re looking into that,” he
said.
Libraries:
Pendleton
Continued from Page A1
Then, at week three, her
fortunes reversed course. More
than 20 children came, and the
numbers have improved slightly
since.
“It’s picking up, so I’m happy,”
Dowdy said.
Still, the library has remained
cautious about events. The upcom-
ing pumpkin-decorating activity
is an example of this. In previous
years, the library hosted decorat-
ing classes, with a guest showing
children how to decorate, Dowdy
said. This year, the library intends
to set out decorating kits starting
Oct. 26, but its has not planned any
class or public activity.
Mark Rose, library director,
said the road back from COVID-
19 has been diffi cult. For much
of 2019, the library was closed.
The doors were locked start-
ing in March 2019, then opened
in the summer, closed again and
reopened.
For a time, everything except
the checkout of books, was ceased.
This included regular events. At
least one item on the schedule,
Adult Storytime for people with
learning disabilities, was ended at
the library but resumed elsewhere.
That activity will remain at The
Arc of Umatilla County in Herm-
iston, even though the Hermiston
library is restarting its schedule for
other activities.
“We’re always pleased to
have customers come in,” Rose
said. He reported having “good
numbers” of people coming in
the door. More and more people
are using the library, he added.
He believes there will be even
more library users when he
starts making all of the chairs
and tables available again.
Politics:
Continued from Page A1
“That’s just the diff erence
between rural and urban
counties in Oregon and that
phenomenon growing,”
Southwell said. “People who
live in rural areas, in general,
tend to vote for the Republi-
can Party.”
Southwell said rural
areas, by defi nition, are more
sparsely populated and have
more people in blue collar
jobs. She said there are a
number of reasons rural areas
tend to have a higher percent-
age of Republican voters.
People in rural areas have
historically taken on a more
libertarian view of govern-
ment, but when forced to vote
in a two-party system, they
will tend to side with Repub-
lican candidates and legisla-
ture.
“The Libertarian Party,
which barely exists anymore,
does have an appeal to both
left wing and right,” South-
well said. “A lot of it is just
a hands-off approach to
government and author-
ities in particular, so that
kind of feeling is much more
predominant in Eastern and
rural Oregon in general.”
Additionally, Southwell
said people in rural areas
tend to oppose gun control
laws proposed by Demo-
cratic lawmakers. Others,
she said, disapprove of high
taxes, and they tend to have
religious beliefs that align
more closely with the Repub-
lican Party.
Southwell said if you
already align a political
party or political figure-
head because of how they
lean on certain issues, it’s
easy for people to adopt
the standpoint they have on
“Our events have been our
success story, post-COVID,”
Jennifer Costley, Pendleton Public
Library director, said. “Our circu-
lation has not been.”
Costley said circulation has
dropped between 21% to 30%
recently.
She said people have been
looking for things, mostly for chil-
dren, to do. Events, which resumed
a regular schedule in mid-March
2021, are maxing out on registra-
tion most of the time, according to
the director. The story times, for
example, have attracted around
60 people per reading during the
summer. But that has dropped to
around 40 since the start of the
school year.
Still, Costley said, these
numbers are actually higher
than pre-pandemic levels. She
attributed the increase to incen-
tives. The library, thanks to grants,
has off ered families free museum
passes for showing up to story
time.
Morrow County
Kathy Street is the director of
the Oregon Trail Library District,
which includes three libraries
— in Boardman, Heppner and
Irrigon. She also said the road to
reopening has been long and hard.
The district’s libraries in 2020
closed March 16 through April
28. On April 29, the library still
was closed to the public but began
off ering curbside service for mate-
rials, copies and faxes. And in June
2020, the library opened for “Grab
and Go” service.
“We were limited to 10 people
inside the buildings to accommo-
date for social distancing,” Street
said. “Patrons were allowed to pick
other issues as well.
“Obviously there are opin-
ion leaders and pundits, and
whether they’re giving false
information or not, they are
discouraging people from
getting the vaccine,” South-
well said. “And if you align
with that particular spokes-
person or that particular
political leader, usually on
the right, then you’re going
to sort of fall in.”
And Southwell said this is
happening in Oregon, where
some Republican lawmakers
have kept their vaccination
status a secret. Eight out of
the 10 counties with the high-
est vaccination rates voted
for Joe Biden in the 2020
presidential election and the
10 counties with the lowest
vaccination rates all voted for
Donald Trump.
“It’s a kind of a distrust
and an alienation from polit-
ical elites which has now
trickled over to medical
elites,” Southwell said.
Public health agencies in
these rural areas are left with
the particularly challenging
task of trying to encourage
vaccinations against COVID.
Robert Duehmig, interim
director of the Oregon Offi ce
of Rural Health, said that as
far as he’s aware, all Oregon
public health agencies are
united in supporting the
vaccine, regardless of the
political tilt in individual
counties.
“I think that at a time
when our country is pretty
divided on so many issues,
and the pandemic itself, the
vaccine just got lumped into
that discussion and those
challenges,” Duehmig said.
“So it’s the politicization
of it. The divisiveness of
where we are in our political
discussions today certainly
have created a challenge on
making sure that the right
out books but were not allowed to
sit. Computer sessions were not
allowed.”
It was not until Sept. 8, 2020,
that the library began allowing
30-minute computer sessions.
“We increased usage to 60
minutes July 7, 2021,” she said.
As regular services were
ceased or reduced, the event
and program schedule also was
limited. The libraries canceled all
in-person events and programs,
including monthly adult craft
programs, story times and teen
nights. Use of the public meeting
room, which had been used an
average of 30 times a month, in
Irrigon also cam to an end.
“We canceled in-person
summer reading programs,” Street
said. “We changed to a virtual
summer reading program.”
Now, activities and programs
have resumed, but there are limits
to some activities.
“We have no plans to return
the toys to the children’s area,”
Street said, explaining the library
is limited in space and has no place
to disinfect toys.
“We have not brought back all
of the chairs we had in Boardman.
But, we plan on doing that soon,”
Street said.
Still, she reported low atten-
dance at programs and events. She
said other libraries are all report-
ing the same decrease in atten-
dance.
“Overall usage of the library
has not met pre-COVID usage,”
she said. “We adjusted our sched-
ule and are open 32 hours Tues-
day to Friday. We used to have 32
hours Tuesday to Saturday.”
To help people adjust to a new
situation in which they are isolated
and away from library services,
her district is circulating Wi-Fi
hotspots for patrons to connect to
Wi-Fi at home.
information gets out there.”
Public health
challenges in rural
Oregon
As vaccines became more
available last winter, Dueh-
mig said rural health agen-
cies found success with
administering doses at local
doctor’s offi ces, pharmacies
and clinics versus the mass
vaccination sites utilized in
urban areas.
“They were getting infor-
mation that they needed
directly from the providers
they trusted, which is their
own provider,” Duehmig
said. “And I think that was
extremely helpful.”
Duehmig said in rural
areas, distrust of authority is
common. In response, rural
health agencies have been
focusing on education about
vaccines, rather than trying
to mandate them.
“It’s about the vaccine
and what it does versus
‘you must do this or you
shouldn’t do that’,” he
said. “I think what we’ve
seen is that there’s been a
slow but steady increase in
many of these communities
as people have been more
confident in the vaccines.”
Still, rural, Republi-
can-leaning counties are well
behind urban, Democratic
ones as far as vaccine rates.
Southwell said while this isn’t
unique to Oregon, it’s fairly
unique to the United States.
She said in other Westernized
nations, vaccination rates and
political affi liation are unre-
lated.
Related: COV I D -19
deaths are much higher in
Washington’s Republican
counties, analysis shows
“So this is something that
has been cultivated, frankly, I
think particularly by Repub-
lican leaders in the United
While Armstrong has not writ-
ten the saccharine tales his mother, a
nurse practitioner, might like best, he
has written historical fi ction, which she
enjoys. One such story is about drum-
mers in the American Revolutionary
War. He has been writing such stories
since early in elementary school. She
also noted her son is a thinker, always
considering and dissecting books and
movies he consumes.
Mark Keith, Armstrong’s stepdad,
also has much respect for the teen.
Keith said he has enjoyed watching
Armstrong grow as a writer, doing
such things as meeting author Gordon
Cope on a trip to Mexico.
Cope, whose most recent book is
“The Hotel Seamstress,” writes crime/
suspense novels and memoirs. He also
is a world traveler and journalist, who
has made his home in Mexico.
According to Keith, the fi rst thing
Cope asked Armstrong was, “Have
you been published yet?”
Shortly after his talk with Cope,
Armstrong submitted his work for
publication.
Keit h a l so c ompl i me nt e d
Armstrong’s “never quit” atti-
tude, which Keith said he believes
Armstrong gets from his father, Jeff
Armstrong a frontline paramedic fi re-
fi ghter who recently survived COVID-
19.
At the event, Jeff Armstrong said he
was “absolutely” proud of his son. In
addition to being a motivated writer,
Ben Jeff Armstrong also is an avid
hockey player.
Jeff Jeff Armstrong said he, too,
likes telling stories. The father said he
has long told his son stories of military
service from his own life. Also, Jeff
Jeff Armstrong introduced his son to
the “Lord of the Ring” series of books
when he was very young.
Jaclyn Armstrong, Ben’s step-
mother, said she is looking forward
to his next stories. This latest story is
terrifi c, Jaclyn Armstrong said, and
she credited the teen for being able to
“draw you in” to a story.
“The progression, watching him
grow as an author and being published,
I’m just so proud of him,” she said.
Writing has “always been Ben’s
thing,” Hermiston High freshman
Amy Armstrong said about her brother.
“I’m glad he’s going further in it,”
she said.
Though more of a sporty person,
she has helped her brother as a proof-
reader. As such, she knows his work
very well. She said, this latest story,
“Sleigh 54,” is something he wrote
years ago and has reworked since. He
has many other tales to tell, Amy said.
Cali Simmons, Ben Armstrong’s
girlfriend, also attends Hermiston
High School. She said she likes his
stories, which she said makes him
“unique.”
Kalvin Colpitts, Ben Armstrong’s
States,” Southwell said.
“Because it is not a phenom-
enon among other Conserva-
tive governments, at least in
Western Europe.”
Oregon’s unique political
makeup adds to the tension:
The state has several heavily
populated Democratic coun-
ties, and many sparsely popu-
lated Republican counties,
creating a dynamic in which
a large portion of the state —
at least geographically speak-
ing — is left with less power
in state government.
“It looks very strange that
you have about six or seven
very blue counties, and yet
they control the state legis-
lature and they control the
governor’s offi ce,” Southwell
said. “There’s a great deal
A9
friend and classmate, called him a
“nice guy” who loves writing and
history. Though he had not yet read
the story, he was sure it is great and he
was looking forward to it.
He bought a copy, and had his
buddy autograph it with a Star Wars
reference. “Force choke is not a dark
side ability,” Armstrong wrote inside
the book above his signature.
Coleman Hill, another classmate,
also had good things to say about his
friend.
“You don’t see someone like this
every day,” Hill said, adding he read
“Sleigh 54,” and credited the story with
a gruesomeness that was suitable.
The writer as student
Armstrong said he is a good
student, though maybe not a “schol-
arship, straight-A student,” like some
other students he knows.
Teacher John Larson, who stood
in line for Ben’s autograph, is his
Advanced Placement language
teacher, disagreed with the student’s
self-assessment. He said Armstrong
stands out as a student.
“He’s a great student,” Larson said.
“He’s very imaginative, very creative.”
Larson said his class with
Armstrong deals with informative
texts on rhetoric. Ben thinks outside
of the box and writes enjoyable takes
on the material, the teacher said, such
as adding fl air to the use of rhetoric.
Larson also had high praise for the
story.
“I love it,” Larson said. “I think it’s
great.” He added that “Sleigh 54,” is
“creepy,” but it fi ts in with a horror
anthology.
Another teacher present at the sign-
ing, Erica Hearne, also was happy with
Armstrong’s achievement.
“At this age, having (a story)
published in a national publication is
huge,” she said.
Into the future
The young author said he expects
to expand into novellas and then
novels. Not limited to horror tales, he
also writes historical fi ction and other
genres.
Inspiration, Armstrong said, comes
from other writers, especially histor-
ical fi ction novelists, such as Alan
Gratz, and fantasy novelists, such as
George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolk-
ien.
Armstrong said he wants to be a
history teacher. He said he fi nds the
American Civil War intriguing and
likes to read and write about it.
“When I was younger, I was mostly
interested in the battles and fi ghts,”
Armstrong said, “but now I lean more
toward the time period and setting. I
write stories of meaning.”
Copies of “What Remains: An
Inked in Gray Anthology,” are avail-
able for checkout at the Hermis-
ton High School library and can be
purchased on Amazon.com, as well as
other online retailers. More informa-
tion is at the publisher’s website, inked-
ingray.com.
of resentment in the sense
that a lot of these conserva-
tive Republicans in eastern
Oregon, feel as if they’re
outnumbered, which they
are.”
As the number of vacci-
nations being administered
dwindles throughout the
state, health agencies are
still battling misinforma-
tion about the COVID-19
vaccines.
“The bottom line is that
the science of this doesn’t
change,” Duehmig said. “The
vaccines work, and they keep
the infection rates down, and
if you do happen to get a
breakthrough case, you are
very less likely to end up in
a hospital. Those are points
that don’t change and I think
they just need to continue to
be shared. And as we move
farther and farther through
this pandemic, we just hope
that those messages will
continue.”
Duehmig said while stats
on vaccination rates can
off er a quantitative picture
of public health eff orts, the
reason why people do or
don’t get vaccinated is much
more complicated.
“This isn’t going to be the
last time we’re going to have
a big challenge like this,”
Duehmig said. “And there’s
not been a lot of research
done into the pandemic as
far as people’s attitudes,
there’s been a lot of polling,
but that’s very diff erent from
really good research.”
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