A2 THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021 The Bulletin How to reach us CIRCULATION Didn’t receive your paper? Start or stop subscription? 541-385-5800 PHONE HOURS 6 a.m.-noon Tuesday-Friday 7 a.m.-noon Saturday-Sunday and holidays LOCAL, STATE & REGION DESCHUTES COUNTY Crook County cases: 881 (1 new case) Crook County deaths: 19 (zero new deaths) 120 (Jan. 1) 7-day average 90 new cases 110 94 new cases (Nov. 27) (April 17) 100 90 80 50 new cases 70 60 (Feb. 17) COVID-19 patients hospitalized at St. Charles Bend on Monday: 13 (3 in ICU) 47 new cases 50 (Nov. 14) 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. (Oct. 31) 16 new cases (July 16) 40 *State data unavailable for Jan. 31 31 new cases 28 new cases 30 (Sept. 19) 9 new cases ONLINE 108 new cases Ways to help limit its spread: 1. Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. 2. Avoid touching your face. 3. Avoid close contact with sick people. 4. Stay 6 feet from others and wear a face covering or mask. 5. Cover a sneeze with a tissue or cough into your elbow. 6. Clean frequently touched objects and surfaces. Jefferson County cases: 2,073 (3 new cases) Jefferson County deaths: 32 (zero new deaths) 130 (Dec. 4) What is COVID-19? A disease caused by a coronavirus. Symptoms (including fever and shortness of breath) can be severe, even fatal, though some cases are mild. 541-382-1811 www.bendbulletin.com BULLETIN GRAPHIC 129 new cases COVID-19 data for Monday, April 19: Deschutes County cases: 7,172 (44 new cases) Deschutes County deaths: 72 (zero new deaths) Oregon cases: 175,592 (473 new cases) Oregon deaths: 2,460 (zero new deaths) GENERAL INFORMATION SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY, DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES New COVID-19 cases per day 20 (May 20) 1st case 10 (March 11) EMAIL bulletin@bendbulletin.com March 2020 April June May July August September October November December January 2021 February March April AFTER HOURS Newsroom ................................541-383-0348 Circulation ................................541-385-5800 IN THE LEGISLATURE NEWSROOM EMAIL Business ........business@bendbulletin.com City Desk .............news@bendbulletin.com Features.................................................................. communitylife@bendbulletin.com Sports ................. sports@bendbulletin.com NEWSROOM FAX 541-385-5804 OUR ADDRESS Street .............. 320 SW Upper Terrace Drive Suite 200 Bend, OR 97702 Mailing ........... 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Call to ask about deadlines, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Phone ..........................................541-385-5809 Fax .................................................541-598-3150 Email .......................obits@bendbulletin.com OTHER SERVICES Oregon’s state song awaits an official remix BY PETER WONG Oregon Capital Bureau Oregon’s official state song, nearly a century old, is about to get a make- over to remove words that advocates of change say reflect a racist past. The Oregon House has adopted and sent to the Senate a resolution that changes some of the words to “Oregon, My Oregon,” which the Legislature ap- proved as the state song in 1927. House Concurrent Resolution 11, which passed 47-6 Friday , replaces the first verse by J.A. Buchanan: “Land of the Empire Builders, Land of the Golden West/Conquered and held by free men, Fairest and the Best.” It substitutes these words by Amy Shapiro: “Land of Majestic Mountains, Land of the Great Northwest/Forests and rolling rivers, Grandest and the best.” In the second stanza, the phrase “Blest by the blood of martyrs” is re- placed by “Blessed by the love of free- dom.” Shapiro is a constituent of Rep. Sheri Schouten, D-Beaverton, and the revised lyrics were sung in the House chamber Feb. 14, 2020, Oregon’s 161st anniver- sary of statehood. ”Every time we sang those words … we were celebrating the darkest aspects of our state’s racist history and reinforc- ing it in the present,” Schouten said. “The good news is that we have evolved somewhat, and school kids no longer sing those disturbing lyrics. … All Oregonians of all ethnic and racial backgrounds deserve a state song they can sing with pride and affection.” Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, was one of six who voted against it. Post recalled that in 2017, Buchanan’s granddaughter sought his help in raising money for a Oregon Encyclopedia Among the verses that would change in “Oregon, My Oregon” include: “Land of the Em- pire Builders, Land of the Golden West/Conquered and held by free men, Fairest and the Best.” That would be replaced with: “Land of Majestic Mountains, Land of the Great North- west/Forests and rolling rivers, Grandest and the best.” tombstone for Buchanan at his grave in Warrenton. Post said he asked her how she would feel if the lyrics were changed. “She told me if we did so, it would be like rewriting T.S. Eliot or Shakespeare. The song as is, she said, reflects the pe- riod of time and the writer’s intention,” he said. “I would find it hard to change the words of a song that schoolchildren have sung for nearly a century.” Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, traces his family roots to the white pioneers who came in the mid-1800s. Ann Eliz- Lottery results can now be found on the second page of Sports. pwong@pamplinmedia.com Oregon gun storage law would be among toughest in nation BY ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press A proposed gun storage law that would be among the toughest in the U.S. is headed for a vote in the Oregon Leg- islature, with backers saying it will save lives and opponents contending it could lead to deaths. Meanwhile, in Colorado, a less-sweeping gun storage bill was signed into law Monday by Gov. Jared Polis. Colorado’s new law creates the offense of unlawful storage of a firearm if a person stores a gun knowing that a juvenile could access it without per- mission or if a resident of the premises is ineligible to possess a firearm. Oregon’s bill generated tes- timony from hundreds of peo- ple . Among those testifying was Paul Kemp, whose brother-in- law Steve Forsyth was killed with a stolen gun in a mass shooting at a Portland-area shopping mall in 2012. “I will never forget the screams I heard when we had to tell my teenage nephew that his father had been killed at the mall,” Kemp said. But opponents say forcing people to keep guns locked up could waste precious moments if they need to defend them- selves against armed intruders. Jim Mischel, of Sheridan, Oregon, described how his wife woke up when he was away one night in 1981. She heard a noise, went to inves- tigate and saw that a man had broken into their home. She returned to the bedroom and tried to get to a pistol that was in a locked gun box in the nightstand. “She was unable to get the box unlocked and the pistol Say Back issues ................................541-385-5800 Photo reprints .........................541-383-0366 Apply for a job ........................541-383-0340 All Bulletin payments are accepted at the drop box at City Hall or at The Bulletin, P.O. Box 6020, Bend, OR 97708. Check payments may be converted to an electronic funds transfer. The Bulletin, USPS #552-520, is published daily by Central Oregon Media Group, 320 SW Upper Terrace Drive, Bend, OR 97702. Periodicals postage paid at Bend, OR. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Bulletin circulation department, P.O. Box 6020, Bend, OR 97708. The Bulletin retains ownership and copyright protection of all staff-prepared news copy, advertising copy and news or ad illustrations. They may not be reproduced without explicit prior approval. abeth Bills, his great-great-great grand- mother, is credited with sewing the first U.S. flag ever flown in Oregon. He said when he hears the state song, she and people like her come to mind. “It is special,” he said. “And not all of us hear it in a manner that comes across as offensive or racist. So I apologize to those of us who do — but I don’t.” Rep. Cedric Hayden, R-Lowell, said he also traces his Oregon roots to the mid-1800s and is a sixth-generation Or- egonian. His father, also named Cedric, was in the House 14 years. “I am concerned with erasing our history because we learn from the mis- takes we have made.” Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, said he also traces his family heritage to an an- cestor who arrived in Oregon in the mid-1800s. He is married to Carol Su- zuki, a staffer in the Senate Majority Of- fice, whose father was interned during World War II. Clem said what struck him was the song’s line about the “fairest and the best,” when his daughter, then age 8, asked him a question. “It hit home for me when my own daughter said three years ago — that’s not ancient history — ‘Do I look white enough to avoid being deported?’” he said. “That line should not evoke in her the question of whether she is fair enough to avoid what happened to her grandfather, and not get locked up be- cause she looks more like her dad than her mom, and avoid being sent to con- centration camps in the desert by the government.” Rep. Andrea Valderrama, D-Port- land, said the current lyrics demean Blacks and Indigenous tribes. Although Oregon was admitted to the Union in 1859 as an anti-slavery state, its 1857 Constitution also specified that Black people were unwelcome. “Written in the 1920s, the song’s rac- ist and violent lyrics wrongly and dis- turbingly celebrate the genocide of the Oregon tribes,” Valderrama, the newest member and one of a record nine mem- bers of color in the House, said. “This is dehumanizing, insulting and trauma- tizing. It has no place in our state song. So I ask: Whose Oregon is this song talking about? Because this is not my Oregon.” in The Bulletin The Bulletin will feature your Mother’s Day message in our classifi ed section on Sunday, May 9! SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF WITH PROMO CODE: MAMA 1x3 message: $30 2x3 message: $45 Subscribers: $15 Subscribers: $22.50 3x4 message: $75 Subscribers: $37.50 Purchase online at: www.BendBulletin.com/special out before he got into the bed- room and threatened her with his gun,” Mischel said. “She has never recovered.” Massachusetts is the only state that requires that all un- attended firearms be stored with locking devices in place, according to the Giffords gun safety advocacy group . States that have passed laws requir- ing some level of firearms safe storage include California, Connecticut and New York, said Allison Anderman, senior counsel at Giffords. Similar bills this session have failed in Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico and Virginia, An- derman said. Oregon’s bill mandates that gun owners secure unattended weapons with trigger locks or in locked compartments. Those who don’t would be strictly liable for any injuries or property damage. If a mi- nor gets hold of an unsecured firearm, the gun’s owner would face a maximum $2,000 fine. Advocates for the gun stor- age bill have said it would re- duce suicides. Safe storage could also re- duce school shootings. Minors who commit those attacks of- ten obtain the gun from their home or the home of a relative or friend. Opponents have said the bill is an infringement on the con- stitutional right to bear arms.