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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2022)
$1.50 THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2022 JAN . 26–F 146th Year, No. 41 INSIDE PENDLETON WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021 EB. 2, 202 2 WW W.G OEA STE RNO REG ON.COM The OLD CHURCH TOWERS OVER JOHN DAY’S MAIN STREET impor t of art ance PA G E 8 Chamber president apologizes for column adjusted offering s during the pan demic. PA GE 4 By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian PENDLETON — The presi- dent of the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors said she began issuing apologies after writing a column critical of personal pronouns. In the chamber’s Jan. 11 newslet- ter, President Velda Arnaud entitled her monthly column “Ostrich-like Behavior.” She opens with an anec- dote about a phone conversation she had with a person who mistook her comments about starting “‘ostrich- like’ behavior” for “ostracizing-like behaviors.” “No, I’m going to behave more like an ostrich: I will be sticking my head in the sand until some sense of sanity returns to the world,” she wrote. “For example, I cannot use ‘they’ to refer to a singular person. While I completely understand that some people are against he and she pronouns, I worked too hard to learn English grammar to just willy-nilly make changes.” She goes on to cover a variety of topics, including her educational experience with grammar, her thoughts on using “it” as a pronoun and “The Addams Family” char- acter Cousin Itt, whether ostriches actually bury their heads in the sand and how modern vernacular has replaced “sh## show” with “dump- ster fi re.” Queer, gender nonconform- ing and nonbinary people some- times use the personal pronouns “they” and “them” when they don’t identify as either male or female. In a Monday, Jan. 24, interview, Arnaud said she didn’t know the reason behind the use of they and them pronouns until after she PA GE 6 PA GE 12 wrote her column. “I don’t want to off end anyone,” she said. “I want to respect people for who they are.” Arnaud said she tries to keep her “Chamber President’s Message” column “light hearted,” using humor to comment on contempo- rary issues, such as how to main- tain social intelligence during the See Pronouns, Page A7 HERMISTON FOOD POD COVID-19 Large indoor events continue Pendleton chamber’s First Citizens Banquet is Friday; Umatilla County reports 198 new COVID-19 cases By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian PENDLETON — Following two years of cancellations and curtailments due to the pandemic, most local events have returned in earnest. The latest is the Pendle- ton Chamber of Commerce’s First Citizens Banquet, an annual dinner to honor exemplary community members and businesses from the past year. While the banquet is going ahead as planned on Friday, Jan. 28, at the Pendleton Convention Center, a new spike in COVID-19 cases is spreading throughout Umatilla County. Umatilla County has been hit hard by each wave of COVID-19, and the surge in cases caused by the omicron variant is no diff er- ent. During the week of Jan. 17, the Oregon Health Authority reported more than 1,600 cases of COVID- 19 in the county, an all-time high during the pandemic. Umatilla County Public Health Director Joe Fiumara said orga- nizers for events such as the cham- ber banquet haven’t reached out to him to ask for his advice nor is he seeking out organizers to off er his advice unsolicited. But Fiumara warned that large indoor events are likely to see some See COVID-19, Page A7 Dolores Amaya prepares pupusas Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, at her El Salvadoreno No. 2 food truck at the Hermiston Food Pod. Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian FOOD POD HOLDS A SOFT OPENING Two trucks to start, space has hookups for a total of eight By ERICK PETERSON East Oregonian H ERMISTON — Custom- ers walked up to his popular food truck, but they seem ready to do cartwheels instead, according to Patrick Hunt, owner of Southern Twain BBQ. Hunt said he is as happy as his customers — thrilled to be dishing out smokehouse nachos, hickory sausages, sweet tea and other delicacies once more. Hunt oversees the Hermiston Food Pod, 240 S.W. Third St., across the street from where he also runs his business. The pod was closed at the start of Octo- ber for improvements that would make it more attractive for addi- tional restaurants. At the pod’s soft opening Jan. 18, there were only two See Food, Page A7 Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian Patrick Hunt slathers barbecue sauce on a brisket sandwich Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, at his Southern Twain BBQ food truck at the Hermis- ton Food Pod. Marcus Whitman statue up for debate By EMRY DINMAN Walla Walla Union-Bulletin WALLA WALLA — More than a dozen members of the Walla Walla community and others recently spoke in support for or in opposition to the removal of a statue of pioneer Marcus Whitman during a recent meeting of the city arts commission. Part 1 of this article ran in the Tuesday, Jan. 25, edition of the East Oregonian and focused on arguments for the removal of the statue that is on public display on the campus of Whitman College. Several others spoke in opposi- tion to removing the statue Jan. 19, during a meeting of the Walla Walla Arts Commission. Marcia Wendler argued Whitman was a renowned physician who “answered every call of the distressed and sick, no matter the distance, the time, the day or his own weariness.” Susan Schomburg, who served on the Santa Monica Arts Committee in California for more than a decade and who opened an art gallery there in 2001, also spoke in opposition to the statue’s removal. Schomburg argued the statue, which she said is the oldest in the city’s public art collection, is acces- sible to all, but placing it in a museum would create a fi nancial barrier to viewing it. The debate around depictions of Whitman has paralleled debates nationwide over other statues, includ- ing those of Christopher Columbus (one of which sits on the Walla Walla County Courthouse lawn), Confed- erate soldiers and generals, and other controversial historical fi gures. Schomburg drew a distinction between them during an interview before the Jan. 19 arts commission meeting. “He’s not like Confederate soldiers,” Schomburg said. “I under- stand why those statues are being removed. I feel that those statues deserve to be removed. But Marcus Whitman did not enslave people, and he didn’t deliberately kill people.” In an online petition Schomburg started in 2020, which has been signed by more than 1,350 people, she argued rather than remove the statue, another statue should be placed See Statue, Page A7 Greg Lehman, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, File The Marcus Whitman statue stands in September 2020 at East Main Street and Boyer Avenue, Walla Walla.