OPINION READER’S FORUM
Founded in 1906
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2021
A4
EDITOR’S DESK
It’s time to build on Hermiston’s success
A
s I prepare to leave Herm-
iston, I have been thinking
about what last bit of parting
advice I might give the community.
I’d like to talk about what I believe
are the main three categories of peo-
ple who live in any town. These are
the builders, the complainers and the
focusers.
The builders run
the community. Some
of them do so in overt
ways, as city councilors
or school board members
or the founders of a non-
profi t such as Made to
Jade
Thrive or Sweet Potato’s McDowell
NEWS EDITOR
Closet.
Many do so much
more quietly. They’re the ones who
called and reserved the commu-
nity center for an event you enjoyed
recently, or got their employer to
donate prizes for a silent auction
that funded the nonprofi t helping out
your neighbor. They add their name
every time someone passes around
a sign-up sheet at church asking for
volunteers or meals.
A builder makes a diff erence to
their community, and if they leave,
that loss is felt.
Complainers know just as much
about what is going on in their city,
but their contributions to the situation
are often unproductive.
They are waiting to pounce on
every idea, explaining why it won’t
work or should have been done dif-
ferently. Sometimes they have
valid points that deserve to be lis-
tened to, but they simply fl ing those
Hermiston Herald, File
Bricks at the Hermiston Public Library display the names of donors who helped build it.
points into the fray and then sit back,
expecting someone else to put in the
work to come up with a viable solu-
tion and implement it.
A classic complainer can be spot-
ted in the Facebook comments,
throwing out suggestions and criti-
cisms that make it crystal clear they
did not actually read the article. In
typical fashion, they are so eager to
make a cutting remark they aren’t
willing to pause to educate them-
selves on the basic facts of the situ-
ation and see if their initial reaction
makes sense.
The fi nal category I’ll call, for lack
of a better word, the focusers. These
are people who focus on their lives
— their job, their family, their friends
— rather than on getting involved,
either constructively or critically.
Being a focuser doesn’t make
someone a bad person. Lots of good
people are focusers.
Some people need to be focusers,
because they’re working 60 hours a
week and taking care of their chil-
dren and their elderly parents, and if
they try to take on any more they’re
going to have a literal nervous break-
down. Other people just simply get
caught up in day-to-day life, and
would rather focus on spending time
relaxing with their family on a Thurs-
day night than sitting through some
sort of committee meeting. That is
completely their right.
I think the problem that Hermis-
COLUMN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Hermiston community going
the extra mile for students
E
ton faces is it has an unusually large
number of focusers. That’s proba-
bly less of an indictment on the city’s
character and more a product of its
demographics, which are skewed
heavily toward young, working class
parents who have many demands
on their time. You can see the evi-
dence of focusers in statistics, such
as Hermiston’s voter turnout, which
is consistently one of the lowest in
the state.
The greater Hermiston area has
some amazing builders. I’ve had the
privilege of interviewing so many of
them over the years, and they inspire
me. They have made some great
improvements to this community
during my time here, because they
have been willing to think big and
other builders have supported their
vision.
Some of those builders are getting
burned out, though. They’re spend-
ing too many sleepless nights at the
Warming Station because not enough
people volunteer there. They’re
struggling to do the same amount of
volunteer work at age 75 as they did
at age 60 because the new 60-year-
olds aren’t stepping up.
If Hermiston is going to live up
to its full potential, it needs to fi nd a
way to turn more focusers into build-
ers. It’s possible — I’ve watched
it happen when some people have
gotten a small taste of community
involvement and it has blossomed
into something more.
I’ll be cheering this area’s suc-
cesses from afar from now on. I hope
to see spectacular things in its future.
ducation is a marathon,
not a sprint. And most
of the students, families
and educators in the Hermiston
School District at some point in
the past 15 months experienced
hitting the metaphorical wall.
There was no precedent for
the 2020-21 school year, and the
very real social,
emotional and edu-
cational impacts
aff ected everyone.
Every day brought
new challenges.
The strain of
switching educa-
Tricia
tional tactics mul-
Mooney
tiple times — fi rst
online learning,
then hybrid and fi nally in-per-
son with safety measures in place
— took its toll. Students and
teachers both need consistency
to function and perform at their
best, and the 2020-21 school year
didn’t off er much stability or pre-
dictability. We closed out the
academic calendar in need of a
breather.
The good news is, just like
marathon runners train to get
over the wall and fi nish the race
strong, the Hermiston School
District is here to make sure stu-
dents can fi nd their second wind
and start rebuilding both speed
and endurance. We have teach-
ers eager to help that process and
strong community support for the
students.
That work began when we
started bringing students back
into the classroom and will con-
tinue through the summer. Mak-
ing sure each student has an
opportunity to make up for the
lost classroom hours is critical.
I am extremely proud of the
nearly 380 students who crossed
the stage at graduation in the
face of historic adversity. They
are powerful role models for the
younger students who will fol-
low. Every graduating class has
a unique character and personal-
ity, and the Class of 2021 will be
remembered for their resilience.
Hopefully we’ll all learn from
their example. Coming back from
an unusual, diffi cult year will
take patience as educators eval-
uate where each student is aca-
demically and helps bring those
who have fallen behind back up
to their potential.
And we can’t forget the emo-
tional strain. It has been a hard
year, with so many missed oppor-
tunities for our kids. Sports,
activities, time with friends and
family, and many of the usual
milestones of growing up were
delayed or skipped entirely. We
can’t take that for granted.
But there’s also a lot to cele-
brate. In the fall we will resume
school with full classrooms and
what we hope will be a full extra-
curricular calendar. The strain
and uncertainty will be behind
us and we can look toward the
future.
As a fi nal note, I am grateful
to this community for its ongo-
ing support of its students. We’ve
missed seeing you all at sport-
ing events, school plays and con-
certs, and all the other usual
school functions. But we’ve felt
the support.
The nice thing about a mara-
thon is there’s still a lot of race
left to run. As our students fi nd
their stride and their teachers
coach them along the way, hav-
ing a community cheering them
on makes all the diff erence.
———
Dr. Tricia Mooney is super-
intendent of Hermiston School
District.
Dream Team coverage deserves kudos
This is a very belated letter written to express my apprecia-
tion for the wonderful job Jade McDowell did covering the Dream
Team last spring. She was so kind and supportive and did a great
job interacting with our special athletes.
I was saddened to read that she is leaving our area and wish her
the best of luck in her new endeavors!
I also want to commend Ben Lonergan for taking pictures of the
Dream Team athletes that truly captured their joy and enthusiasm
for the sport.
Kristi Smalley
Hermiston
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
JOE BIDEN
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
———
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RON WYDEN
221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande offi ce: 541-962-7691
•
JEFF MERKLEY
313 Hart Senate Offi ce Building
Washington, DC 20510
CORRECTIONS
Printed on
recycled
newsprint
VOLUME 114 • NUMBER 25
Andrew Cutler | Publisher • acutler@eomediagroup.com • 541-278-2673
Jade McDowell | News Editor • jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4536
Kelly Schwirse | Multi-Media consultant • kschwirse@hermistonherald.com • 541-564-4531
Audra Workman | Multi-Media consultant • aworkman@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4538
Tammy Malgesini | Community Editor • community@eastoregonian.com, 541-564-4532
It is the policy of the Hermiston Herald to correct errors as
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———
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