ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
SATuRDAY, JANuARY 22, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Chamber
president
out of step
P
endleton Chamber of Commerce
President Velda Arnaud is as enti-
tled to her own opinion as any
individual, but some of her statements
in a recent letter to chamber members
should give area residents pause.
Arnaud wrote she was not going to
use certain pronouns — such as “they”
— because she had “worked too hard to
learn English grammar to just willy-nilly
make changes.”
She also stated using “it” as a pronoun
for a person “is not something that I am
going to do.”
“It simply feels wrong to call someone
an ‘it’ as though that person is some type
of thing.”
Arnaud clearly has a First Amend-
ment right to express her personal views.
However, these views are out of step
with the mission of the Pendleton Cham-
ber of Commerce, which aims to create
a welcoming environment and promote
business and tourism.
Is the chamber of commerce as an
organization — and the community of
Pendleton at large – comfortable with
someone at the helm whose words clearly
exclude representation of nonbinary
and transgender people who wish to be
referred to as “they” rather than “he” or
“she?”
We believe it is wrong to deny an indi-
vidual the freedom to choose their own
gender identity and preferred pronouns.
Refusing to use a person’s preferred
pronouns can be seen as denying their
human essence and experience.
Nonbinary pronouns have been on
the rise for years. In 2015, the Ameri-
can Dialect Society designated singular
“they” as the “Word of the Year.”
For many, pronouns are more than just
words. They are clear depictions of how
some view the world and how they view
themselves inside of it. Roberta Lava-
dour, executive director of the Pendle-
ton Center for the Arts, sent a message
Sunday, Jan. 16, to the center’s email list
on the very issue of how we use pronouns
to refer to people.
“Gender identity is sometimes static
and may have been clear to someone
since their first consciousness,” Lavadour
wrote. “Gender identity is sometimes
fluid, and our own preconceived notions
of someone else’s gender identity can be
totally off base. By offering up how we’d
best like to be referred to and welcoming
that information from others, we make
people feel valued. We make them feel
seen.”
Arnaud’s missive may have been
tongue-in-cheek, but the subject she
touched on — a refusal to use nonbi-
nary pronouns — is troubling because
Arnaud, as chamber president, is in the
vanguard of our little piece of Oregon.
Arnaud’s role as the head of the board of
directors of the chamber of commerce is
important. She is an ambassador for our
town, our county and our region.
The respectful use of an individual’s
preferred pronouns is important to many
in our city, county, state and nation. If
we do not try to accept individuals and
communities within our own nation, how
can we prosper?
Arnaud can state her own opinion
anytime, anywhere. Yet when an indi-
vidual is writing on behalf of an official
organization, the risk is that personal
views will be seen as the sentiments of
that organization.
YOUR VIEWS
Proposed legislation should
wind up in garbage can
There are two items of proposed
legislation, one federal and one state,
which are bad and should find their way
to the nearest trash can, not into law.
First, the bad proposed federal item
is the River Democracy Act, sadly
initiated by our Oregon Sens. Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley. Thankfully,
it is opposed by U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz
and state Sen. Lynn Findley and Rep.
Mark Owens. The Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association also opposes it, along with
industry groups and several Eastern
Oregon county commissions.
The proposed bill would add some
4,700 miles of streams for protection
like those already under the Wild and
Scenic Rivers Act and would change
buffers from a quarter mile to half a
mile wide along each bank. The process
for adding this additional stream mile-
age was that anyone could recommend
their favorite stream or part thereof.
Some of these could be very small
waterways with only seasonal or
ephemeral flow or even dry gulches.
With the buffers, some 3 million acres
of land would be added for protection
but what that protection level means
is questionable. This appears to be
another means of land grab/control and
I question where it will end.
Second, the bad proposed state item
is Initiative Petition (IP)-13, Abuse,
Neglect, and Assault Exception Modi-
fication and Improvement Act. It’s
basically a vegan measure to put stock
growers (ranchers and farmers) out of
business and end hunting, fishing and
similar activities that are significant in
our Eastern Oregon lifestyles and live-
lihoods.
under this measure a person could
only kill an animal in self-defense.
An animal could only be butchered
and used for food if it died of old age.
Wouldn’t that make for a nice, tender
steak? Animals could not be used in
rodeos or similar exhibitions. Control
of vermin and pests would not be
allowed.
This initiative petition failed to get
on the ballot in 2021 from lack of peti-
tion signatures, but no one thinks it will
go away, and it is not unique to Oregon.
Colorado faced a similar measure in
2021. One would think this proposal is
so crazy it would never be on the ballot
or passed, but we need to be on our
guard.
These proposed measures are avail-
able online, and I strongly encourage
everyone to become knowledgeable of
their details, oppose them, and tell our
elected politicians to oppose them.
Jim Carnahan
Baker City
Oregon needs an
independent State
Housing Ombudsman
If the Philadelphia Housing Author-
ity operates anything like its North-
eastern Oregon counterpart, the recent
horrific roadhouse inferno was a trag-
edy waiting to happen.
Given the HuD demographic’s
predilection for numbing substances;
and given the non-existence of desig-
nated smoking stations; and given our
inclement winters; and given the ease of
disabling a smoke alarm — you get the
picture.
Here at our frozen outpost of the
HuD gulag, we’ve been begging since
before Christmas to get our ice field of a
parking lot plowed. Alas, our repeated
entreaties have fallen on deaf ears,
resulting in numerous near-accidents
and stranded vehicles.
I realize in this heyday of hous-
ing inequity, anything more than a
tent beneath a freeway underpass is
considered a luxury. One would hope,
however, that kinder, gentler Oregon
could rise above the lowest common
denominator.
Appointing a nonpartisan, indepen-
dent state housing ombudsman and a
statewide network of tenants’ unions
would be a good place to start.
In the words of Robert Frost: “Some
say the world will end in fire/Some say
in ice/From what I’ve tasted of desire/I
hold with those who favor fire/But if
I had to perish twice/I think I know
enough of hate/To say that for destruc-
tion/Ice is also great and would suffice.”
Ester Bentz
Enterprise
Comfortable conservatives
are bending reality
It’s pathetic how comfortable conser-
vatives are bending reality. Our region’s
U.S. representative, Cliff Bentz, said
last year’s deadly Jan. 6 riot at the u.S.
Capitol Building is being blown out of
proportion to divert attention from the
real issues facing the country (“Bentz
alleges 2020 election was ‘bought’,” Jan.
15 edition of the East Oregonian).
I can’t imagine a more pressing issue
than determining what and who precip-
itated the attempted insurrection. The
efforts of the U.S. House Select Commit-
tee on the Jan. 6 attack have clarified the
premeditated nature of that attack and
the enormity of the organized attempt to
subvert the presidential election through
massive election fraud.
That’s right, while conservatives
scream about voter fraud, which is
extremely rare and has not affected the
outcome of elections, many support
the brazen election fraud sought by
the former president (such as asking
the Georgia secretary of state to “find
11,780” votes). Now they want to enable
future election fraud by subverting
voting and election protections at the
state level.
The crux of the problem is the former
president, and many of his minions,
refuse to accept the reality of his elec-
tion loss. And those who begrudgingly
admit he lost, downplay his efforts to
steal the election and inspire the insur-
rectionists.
Our country desperately needs
people (particularly elected officials)
to embrace truth and call out lies. A
compulsive liar like the former president
wouldn’t be a problem if no one listened
to him. But his compulsive believers,
and the politicians who know better,
continue to enable him. The reality is an
overwhelming majority of one political
party’s entire congressional delegation
has rejected reality and truth in the quest
to secure minority rule.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century
American essayist and staunch opponent
of slavery, noted that every violation of
truth “is a stab at the health of human
society.” And thus, our current mess.
Hal McCune
Pendleton
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
GOVERNOR
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
REPRESENTATIVES
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Cliff Bentz
2185 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford office: 541-776-4646
SENATOR
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-415
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us