From the editor’s desk: Welcoming a new era
By Pat Caldwell
Sunday, July 12, 2009 2:17 AM PDT
We don’t secure the opportunity to showcase what we do and where we do it very often, but, Wednesday, the Argus Observer will host an open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The event is designed to do two things: Say goodbye to former Publisher Steve Krehl and to welcome new Argus Publisher John Dillon. The session also allows members of the community and our readers to visit with Dillon and to see the Argus.
In a sense, the event marks the end of an era and also symbolizes the beginning of a new epoch. In another way, though, the Argus Observer is still the area’s main newspaper, and we are still going to be printing the paper and putting it out throughout the week just like before.
Change can be hard. Yet, I’ve always been one that likes change. I think moving into the John Dillon era here at the Argus is really all about opportunity: the opportunity to improve on the solid foundation built by former publishers such as Fran McLean and Krehl.
So if you are out and about Wednesday and would like to see the Argus, swing by our plant at 1160 S.W. Fourth St.There will be door prizes, refreshments and tours. I, and some of my staff, will be in the newsroom if you want to ask us any questions.
Funny thing about family reunions: When you prepare for them, it can be with a certain sense of dread. Maybe it’s the nervousness of re-meeting people that you have not seen in two or three or four years or even longer. Maybe it’s just the stress of being around family.
Last week, I took the tribe up to La Grande for the Joyce family reunion. I can honestly say I carried none of the feelings of trepidation mentioned above. Instead, I was eager to see my cousins and brothers. Except for a nucleus of Joyce’s locally, most of my family is spread out over the West. Didn’t used to be that way, of course. Back in the day, most of the Joyce’s were right here in Malheur County, centered in Juntura.
Times change, though, and I think it is a particular Irish attribute that, once we leave a place, we often just keep going.
I’m not sure what attracted two branches of the Joyce clan from County Galway in Ireland to Malheur County. But, whatever it was, they must have liked it because, once they arrived here, they kept sending for their relatives.
The reunion was a nice event, and, when we all got together to take a group picture, I realized just how fruitful my grandfather Jack’s brood had become. More than 70 people from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona and California were on hand.
I wonder now, as I occasionally do, whether my grandfather and my grandmother had any idea how their small Juntura family would prosper.
Probably like most immigrants, they were not too concerned about it. They were, most likely, simply trying to live and prosper in America.
But the reunion sparked a train of thought, about immigration and the Irish in America.
We spend a tremendous amount of time fighting over politics or dogma in this nation. Republicans hate Democrats. Conservatives hate liberals.
Yet, glancing at my 70-plus family gathered for a group photo, I realized something that my grandfather and grandmother probably knew instinctively: No matter what, no matter how fouled up things may seem, America is still probably the best chance the globe has of surviving another 1,000 years.
Yes, it sounds like a pretty jingoistic comment, and I guess it is. But what other country on the earth could a teenage Irishman come to and create a prosperous cattle and sheep outfit in the middle of the desert in Malheur County? Seeing everyone at the reunion was nice. But understanding how we came to be and the sacrifices my grandparents made for my family to prosper, it really resonates.
Pat Caldwell is the editor of the Argus Observer. He can be contacted at PatC@argusobserver.com
