KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TUESDAy, FEBRUARy 1, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Chamber
president
does right
thing with
apology
J
ust as we called into question the
words of Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce Board of Director
President Velda Arnaud’s last week, we
want to commend her for reacting in a
positive manner and issuing an apology.
Readers may recall Arnaud, in her
monthly column in the chamber’s news-
letter, criticized the use of gender-neutral
personal pronouns, specifically stat-
ing she wouldn’t use the word “they” in
reference to individuals. She also said
she would not use nonpersonal pronouns.
Queer, gender nonconforming and
nonbinary people sometimes use the
pronouns “they” and “them” when they
do not identify as either male or female.
In a later interview with the East
Oregonian, Arnaud said she did not
know why people used gender-neutral
pronouns until after her column was
published. People then, she said, began
to reach out to her to ask her to clarify
her position on the issue.
Arnaud said once community
members began to call and email the
chamber, she returned the emails and
calls to apologize.
Arnaud did exactly the right thing.
She later commented in a story in this
paper that the letter, in hindsight, was a
mistake.
That show clearly that Arnaud was
ready to take responsibly for what
clearly, at best, was a poor use of judge-
ment.
Arnaud had several courses of action
open to her after the column, including
battening down the hatches and creating
an even larger problem by fighting about
the sentiments in her missive.
That she did not shows Arnaud
understood her column was in bad
taste, her words potentially hurtful to
those who are gender nonconforming.
In many ways her stance — to quickly
apologize and recognize her mistake
— was a breath of fresh air. Now, the
nation is used to officials making dumb
comments that are charged with nega-
tive connotations and then fighting all
comers to prove their point, even when
their stance is clearly lopsided and
wrong.
No one likes to make a mistake. No
one likes to make a mistake and then get
called on it in a public forum. However,
when officials make a miscue — at least
inside a democracy — they must be
called on it.
Arnaud’s column can be chalked up to
simply bad judgment. That’s not a crime,
nor, that unusual. We all, at times, have
exhibited bad judgment.
Arnaud did the right thing by issu-
ing apologies and speaking to the East
Oregonian to clarify her actions.
That took a lot of courage, but it was
the proper way to diffuse an unpleasant
situation.
Solving the state’s woes in 35 days
DANIEL
WATTENBURGER
HOMEGROWN
T
his week, the Oregon Legislature
will convene for its sixth “short”
session in state history. The desig-
nation is relative, depending on what you
feel can and should be accomplished in a
35-day period.
Gov. Kate Brown and Democratic
leaders said during a press briefing last
week they hope to approve as much as $2
billion in spending during the session. This
includes $400 million for affordable hous-
ing, $200 million for workforce develop-
ment, $100 million for expanded child care
and a variety of other expensive goals.
Republicans have, of course, pushed
back on the proposals, saying it’s too much
in too short of a timeframe. Since voters
approved even-year short sessions in 2010,
Republicans have consistently called for
sticking to the assumed purpose of the
sessions — budget adjustments and tech-
nical fixes.
Along with deciding how to allocate
what may be Oregon’s last large influx of
revenue, legislators will consider bills to
extend overtime pay to agricultural work-
ers, send an additional stimulus check to
frontline essential workers, allow Orego-
nians to pump their own gas and many,
many more.
To avoid an unworkable logjam of
legislation in a short session, each of the 90
lawmakers is allowed to introduce just two
bills. Each of the 20-plus policy commit-
tees also can introduce three bills, and
budget bills are given their own allotment.
If you’re doing the math, that’s nearly 300
potential bills to discuss, amend, refine and
pass in each chamber.
The Legislature follows a strict series
of deadlines of when bills must be heard
in committees and pass floor votes to stay
alive. This quickly reduces the number of
viable bills, but also can make full vetting
and robust discussion difficult. Commit-
tee testimony and debate gets truncated.
Legislation moves quickly, often leading to
unresolved issues and unintended conse-
quences that must be sorted out later. State
agencies are left with gaping holes that
must be filled through rulemaking, which
can lead well outside the legislative intent.
The average Oregonian won’t likely
remember any individual previous legisla-
tive session. There may be a few high-pro-
file bills that garner headlines and coffee
shop conversation, but the years blend
together. However, the last short session,
held in 2020, was remarkable for two
reasons.
The first is that it wrapped up just
as COVID-19 was arriving in Oregon.
If there was any attention being paid to
the Capitol, it was quickly turning to a
pandemic in the making.
The second is that Republicans used
a walkout to stall the session and the
cap-and-trade bill that had been on Demo-
crats’ priority list. This move killed the
climate change tax bill as well as hundreds
of others. Only three low-profile bills
passed before the walkout. The number is
usually in the hundreds.
There should be a happy medium to this
all-or-nothing approach. Maybe Repub-
licans genuinely don’t think the short
session is necessary, preferring to do the
work every biennium and address emer-
gencies in special sessions.
Ideally, a short session would look
more like December’s single-day special
session, in which the majority party
presented its agenda (eviction protection),
the minority party brought its concerns
with the bill and a few priorities of its own
(illegal marijuana grows and drought assis-
tance), and leaders worked out a bipartisan
bridge to passage.
No doubt bigger concepts should wait
for the full session. But there is a path to
solving immediate crises without reach-
ing beyond what Oregonians actually
want. It’s in the compromise, which seems
harder to find each passing year.
This session will be a test for new
leadership in both parties. A new House
speaker, new Republican leaders in both
chambers, and new opportunities to find
common ground.
Ultimately, meeting every two years
doesn’t seem realistic. But Oregonians all
benefit if legislators make the best use of
their time when they do convene.
———
Daniel Wattenburger is the former
managing editor of the East Oregonian. He
lives in Hermiston with his wife and children
and is an account manager for Pac/West
Lobby Group. Contact him at danielwatten-
burger@gmail.com.
avoidance. In all the push to return
to “normal,” their lives have been
discounted and ignored.
The need for personal care persists
in spite of the risks presented by those
who won’t wear a mask in public.
If my health care professional falls
ill, they don’t provide care to anyone
until the disease passes. Every time
they agree to treat an unmasked indi-
vidual, they risk every other patient
they have on their schedule. The
demand of the unmasked costs every-
one in real physical terms and there is
an untold deep chasm of distrust in our
fellow citizens who are convinced that
wearing a mask is a bigger crime than
infecting an entire office with a poten-
tially deadly disease.
I am the spouse of one who has a
compromised immune system who
serves the community by being an
involved board member of several
organizations. He continues to serve
because a community only succeeds
when citizens participate in the func-
tions that make up the many different
organizations and public groups that
exist for the cooperation and consider-
ation of all.
The least that should be expected
is that everyone mask up when going
to a health care professional. If that is
too much bother, then stay home. The
compromised members of this commu-
nity have been hermits for two years
and those who are still alive want to
stay that way.
Colleen Blackwood
Pendleton
We face the same
dangers Russia faces
YOUR VIEWS
Mask up to protect the
immunocompromised
Two years into a pandemic, we are
more aware than ever that people have
different opinions about the realities
involved that affect the daily actions
we all need to take to help one another
survive and continue in our community.
One year in, everyone was sure who
should be first to receive vaccines. In
many cases, people with compromised
immune systems were set aside, forced
to wait for the “age group” they were
assigned. That wait was stressful to say
the least.
Wearing masks has been shown to
reduce transmission of the coronavirus,
yet so many people are inconvenienced
that it has become a socially dangerous
subject and those anti-maskers feel it is
OK to reject masks with acts of social
and personal demands to the extent that
flights have been rerouted, businesses
have lost customers and divisiveness is
the common theme.
It is imperative that we all have
access to personal health care and
comfort. The providers of health and
personal care risk their health with
every contact and by risking their
health, they are risking their financial
stability and family security. It was and
is necessary to expect first respond-
ers and health care professionals to
get vaccinated for the good of all the
patients they see daily.
While the rhetoric has run loud and
foul about masks and requirements,
those with compromised systems have
been relegated to the silent system of
In his marathon press conference on
Jan. 19, President Joe Biden told Russian
President Vladimir Putin that Russia
has something much more important to
worry about than whether Ukraine looks
East of West – namely, “a burning tundra
that will not freeze again naturally.”
I do not mean to downplay the sever-
ity of Russian aggression against our ally
Ukraine, nor the damage the fires in the
Russian tundra pose to Russia’s economy
and stability. But I would ask the presi-
dent to look at the number of acres in the
United States that are in permafrost and
are subject to the same melting and fire
dangers as the Russian north. Alaska has
fires most years on permafrost ground.
We face the same dangers Russia faces.
This is not a quick acting crisis so
it’s hard to see the urgency of respond-
ing to it. But we have to act now before
the damage is irreversible. We need
large scale, immediate action by nations
around the world, including action in the
United States Congress.
Oregon’s senators get it: they know we
have to write climate policy and provide
climate change mitigation funds now.
Eastern Oregon’s congressional repre-
sentative needs to see the urgent need.
Please write to him (again) to plead that
he support climate change funding and
policy. If you have friends in other states,
urge them to write to their sSenators and
members of Congress as well. Start with
your friends in Alaska.
Lindsay Winsor
Milton-Freewater