The Lane County Chronicles

Dylan A. Farinash

May 26, 2021

BEND, Ore. — Cathy Reich has lived here in Bend for the better part of two decades, migrating to Deschutes County after having spent time in Colorado. Reich was born in upstate New York to a father who instilled her with the work ethic she needed to thrive in the workplace at a young age. She has been the lead Client Service Representative for the cardiology department at Summit Health for the past 12 years, having taught herself the skills necessary for her to succeed there. While she likes that people are getting vaccinated, she admits that the initial vaccination push was disheveled at first. “Now I think it’s better, but when the vaccines first came out, it was a struggle,” said Reich, 64. “People were really struggling to find places to get vaccinated, especially older patients, which is who I work with.” She also recommends that those around her get vaccinated because on January 6th, 2021, she lost her father due to complications from COVID. Her father worked long hours in her youth, and they weren’t as close as she would’ve liked as a result but losing him was hard on her. She’s not alone in the efforts to encourage those who can get vaccinated to do so.

Dylan Clemonsis a currently a registered nurse who works at Bend Transitional Care. Wanting to relocate after completing college at what is now Linfield University, and taking part in a pandemic shortened residency at Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, the Pendleton native and his girlfriend, Courtney, made the move to Bend in the summer of 2020. Clemons wishes that some people would be less indifferent towards the vaccine because of his prior experience being enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Linfield, along with his experience at EmmanuelHospital, as well as his experience working at Bend Transitional Care. “I feel like administration is going well with the vaccines,” said Clemons, 22. “However, I always feel like more people could be open-minded and accepting to the idea of receiving the vaccine.” Herd immunity is the goal, but Clemons is skeptical of the United States’ ability to get there based on an article he found. “Recently, a New York Times article was published that stated the United States might never actually reach a herd immunity stage with the COVID vaccine,” said Clemons. “Unfortunately, I can’t force anyone to take it, that’s not what the medical profession is about, so we’d always like to see more people be vaccinated, but you do what you can.”

Gayla Brandow came to Deschutes County from Molalla, Oregon, and has lived in La Pine forthe past four years. She was born in Prineville, but she eventually found herself in Algona, Washington at the age of four, when her father secured a position working at Boeing. She and her family made their way back down to Oregon in 1972 and has resided there since. She was not only able to reestablish herself as an Oregonian, but she was able to thrive there: she was able to go to Clackamas Community College to get her teaching degree, and she participated in AWANA, a longer and more involved iteration of Vacation Bible School. She taught preschool in Mollala, and she wedded the love of her life on June 20th, 1981. She has since retired from teaching, leaving her more time to spend with her grandchildren. She is against herself and othersreceiving the vaccine because of the love she found for Christianity, her belief that life is precious and should be treated as such, and what she feels the vaccination efforts represent. “I choose what I believe because I am an American and this is the Land of the Free,” said Brandow, 64. “I make my own decisions.”

Daniel Brandow was also born in Oregon, having been conceived in Portland. After growing up in West Linn, Brandow decided to follow in his father’s footsteps in military service, so he enlisted in the Army, and was stationed in Germany for two years. After his time in the Army, Brandow went to work for Freightliner, working on their trucks. He would accompany his future wife on a blind date set up by his cousin, and the two will be celebrating 40 years of holy matrimony this June. He, too, has since retired. He is also strongly against the vaccine because of what he feels it represents to him and his beliefs, as well as his respect for life. “My thoughts are sad and sorry for those who got the shots,” said Brandow, 67. “These shots will make 40% of those who got them sterile.” “Strokes increased 400% in the elderly.” Brandow goes to JD Farag, a pastor based in Hawaii, and the two also get information from Rock Harbor Church Prophecy Updates, with physical locations and communities based in California.

Vaccinations have played a part in reducing the spread of the virus, and Kate Brown has announced via press conference and later following up on her verified Twitter account that Deschutes County is among the counties that have vaccinated enough people 16 and up to be placed on a permanent lower-risk status. While the news is encouraging to hear and read, the news regarding the vaccination efforts doesn’t informon the mental scars left by the pandemic. There’s the visible mental scars, like the ones on Reich and Clemons:sore feet, aching muscles, and heavy eyelids after a long day’s work spent consistently moving around. Then there’s the mental scars that very few will get to see; Clemons going home with patients having succumbed to COVID fresh on his mind, Reich privately mourning the loss of her father to COVID, and the Brandows privately dealing with the grief of family members who have suffered moderate to severe side effects from the vaccine.

By Hanlin Wang

May 8th, 2021

EUGENE, Ore. — Asian migrants aren’t just plagued by the ongoing pandemic. As they flee their homes due to safety concerns and financial hardship, they are encountering language barriers, cultural impediments and lack of service around the U.S.-Mexico border.

“There can definitely be a more humanitarian approach at the border,” said Michelle Celleri, a Human Rights Counsel at Alliance San Diego.

Celleri has been involved with the migrant community to promote diversity and collaborate with organizations.

Used by the Trump administration and continued by President Biden, provision of U.S. health law, section 265 of Title 42 has kept the asylum seekers out of the gate of the United States and left them at the gang-active Mexico border. It allows people to be denied entry into the United States if these people potentially pose a health risk.

It’s the international and non-government organizations that are working in Mexico with people to put together a pack for humanitarian exemption.

“But there is not a real formal process, and individuals at the border trying to seek entry don’t know the process.” Celleri said, “the Asian population, if they don’t speak English, or if they don’t speak Spanish, the chance of them getting access to an organization that is able to help them, it’s going to be very difficult.”

Language difficulty – “They don’t feel they have a community there.”

Reassuringly, there have been organizations that cross the language barrier to help the non-English or non-Spanish migrants getting the help they need.

“I was able to get a phone number of those individuals, and I’m looking for a translator or interpreter here in the U.S. side, and I’ll be calling them as soon as I get an interpreter.” Ian M. Seruelo said, a Labor Representative at the Asia Pacific American Labor Alliance at San Diego, who has been helping migrant families at the border to enter the U.S.

Migrants encounter many security problems on the Mexican side of the border.

“We already did for an intake of more than 100 families there,” Seruelo said, “and what’s common is that we see a lot of them have some form of interaction with the gang, either they were threatened, robbed, or raped.”

Seruelo talked with people from Haiti.

“They said it’s good that somehow there are a big number of them there, they were able to help each other,” he said. “But not those that are from Asia.”

When Seruelo talked to one Middle Eastern there, the person told him that because they don’t speak Spanish, they feel more vulnerable and don’t feel like they have a community there.

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, there is a lack of visibility for the Asian immigrant community. Juanita Molina, the Executive Director for Border Action Network, said, “There is a lack of discussion and acknowledgment of people coming and crossing this way.”

Death prevention – “That’s a humanitarian issue.”

Asian migrants from China, Korea, Vietnam, and India face the challenge of distance, it usually needs months or years of cover on their way to the U.S. border, making them incredibly vulnerable.

Molina said, “We see a lot of sick people come through, and we have experienced a very tragic loss.”

A six-year-old girl died after attempting to cross the U.S-Mexico border with her mother. Leaving from India, it took them about a year and a half to get to the border.

“She made it one mile into the United States,” said Molina. The little girl passed away due to sun exposure.

Molina said, “unfortunately, I don’t see much of a response from the federal government to prevent these deaths.”

The federal government has been putting a policy into force that pushes migrants to more and more dangerous areas.

In the last 15 years of death mapping and evaluation, Molina noticed people are dying closer to the international line at the Mexican border.

The extreme heat and cold of the desert cause life-threatening harm to the Asian migrants, who are malnourished, along with a lack of medical attention, and basic needs like water. Which has even been less accessible to them during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The primary responsibility in dealing with migrant death has been a voluntary response. Molina said, “so literally volunteers are going to the desert, packed with water, or creating water stations, to try to prevent death due to dehydration.

As the pandemic went on and intensified, these volunteers were quarantined, “there was even less service in that area,” said Molina.

“That’s a humanitarian issue,” Celleri said.

“So it’s not right or wrong, it’s a human thing, it’s fulfilling necessities of life,” she said, “you know, I don’t think anybody wants somebody to die from thirst, so the work is much needed. “What’s sad is people don’t always see it that way,” said Celleri.

The Border Angel, which is a non-profit organization that lets volunteers bring water to the isolated desert area where the migrants are likely to cross, told Celleri that they went out there and found their water container with holes in them, that was slid open by somebody else and they left the trash there, rather than letting the migrants receive the water.

Battling bias – Immigration as a privilege?

Molina said the perception for many Asian migrants is that there is some kind of ill intent in migrating to the United States to begin with.

Kate Shattuck, a 33 years old removal defense attorney at the Catholic Charity in Portland, Oregon, thinks that recently in the last four years, in particular, asylum seeking has been thought of or talked about as a privilege in the U.S. national conversation on immigration.

“Our experience has been, I think, a real counterpoint to that viewpoint,” Shattuck said, sigh after a sigh.

Shattuck has a case involving a family from the Middle East, who lived in a country with the majority of Muslims and have converted to a different faith.

“They have received threats from family members, and the police there have refused to protect them.” She said, “and they believe that they will be harmed.”

“It’s not a privilege to not be tortured,” said Professor Lynn Marcus at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, ”it’s a right.”

Shattuck said, “ I wish that people would realize that asylum seekers are not trying to take advantage of a privilege, cutting the line, or manipulating the immigration system.”

By Patrick McMahon

May 29, 2021

BEND, Ore — Rob Rastovich is a man who has been doing the work of two people every day for the past nine years. No, he isn’t Superman. Rob owns Rastovich Family Farms, located in Bend, Oregon since 1919, and he also is the chief technical officer for ThingLogix, a tech company that helps other companies adopt emerging technologies. However, since Rob is very highly invested in both companies, both of these positions take up a large amount of his time. “I usually get up between 4:30 and 5… I usually wrap up my tech day around 3-3:30,” said Rob. “Then I go back out to the ranch, so I’ll spend from 3:30 or so till 7-7:30 working.” All the family time Rob gets is at dinner after his work day, and that’s when he’s not traveling for ThingLogix. “Before COVID, I was gone three weeks out of every four,” said Rob.

For most people, the fact that these careers have nothing to do with each other would be a daunting thing, but Rob seems to relish this fact. “If I had to do nothing but ranching, it would drive me nuts, and if I had to do nothing but programming, it would drive me nuts,” said Rob with a laugh. He also finds it very useful to be able to switch between two careers that are in almost opposite fields of work. “I have solved more technical problems while changing irrigation or herding cows than I will have ever solved playing ping-pong or pool,” said Rob. “It takes you out of that realm, and gives you time to think and do things that are real.” He also adds that he’s not the only one who likes having something to take his mind off programming. “The best programmers I’ve ever worked with always have something on the side, that ability to actually do real, concrete things,” said Rob.

While it may seem like these two fields of work have absolutely nothing in common, Rob believes otherwise. “The number one industry for connected devices is agriculture,” said Rob. “ThingLogix actually has a customer in the San Joaquin Valley who is an agricultural consulting company.” People around Rob echoed this idea as well. “I think some of the root values and ideas are pretty similar,” said Levi Schwarz, the ranch manager at Rastovich Family Farm. “He transitions so smoothly from one to the other that there’s no way that he has to completely switch his way of thinking.”

Along with connections between the two industries of agriculture and programming, there are key skills that connect Rob’s two very different careers. “As a farmer who understands efficiency and technology, there are ways he’s made it possible to make enough money to keep the grass green,” said Colleen Rastovich, Rob’s wife. “Rob had to be very creative with marketing and efficiencies to be able to turn it into Barley Beef, so that made him an innovative, forward thinking farmer, which is an unusual combination.” Barley Beef is something that Rob started in 2012 as a way to bring in money by selling beef products, and has become simply another thing that is added to Rob’s already full plate of work. “He has to manage people similarly in both jobs,” said Sam Rastovich, Rob’s eldest son and a software engineer at ThingLogix. “He also really has to be innovative in both jobs, whether it’s creating new processes for the farm or a new technology.”

With Rob gone 75% out of every usual month, and working 15 hour days when he’s home, family time is often hard to come by. “Per week, dinnertime usually,” said Colleen. “That might be it. After dinner, if he’s not working, he will sit down and fall asleep.” This has been standard for the Rastovich family for quite some time, and has simply become something they are used to. “For the most part, I have not spent a ton of time with my dad,” said Max Rastovich, Rob’s youngest son. “He’s definitely a workaholic, and I respect him a lot for that.” Even with the large time commitment that having two jobs requires, Rob has clearly left an impact on his kids in the best way possible. “He’s a role model for me, just because of how hard he works, and how dedicated he is,” said Max.

Even with Rob’s long hours and loaded schedule, it is clear he still has passion and a love for both of his respective careers. “It’s that perfect dichotomy of when you’re ranching, it feels good to be away from the technology, and when you’re in technology, it feels good to be away from the ranching,” said Rob. “I can’t say I like one or the other better, I like the combination.” Rob’s son Max, however, had a different view on what his dad likes to do more. “Farming, he talks about it all the time. I’m sure he would love, in an ideal future, to only work on the farm, and to not deal with the programming side.” said Max with enthusiasm. “Don’t get me wrong, he loves the programming side. It’s just at this point, it’s more managing, and less of the fun part of the programming.” Rob echoed this sentiment about managing when bringing up things he didn’t like about his jobs. “I don’t like managing people,” said Rob. “I hate it.”

Both of these careers have had a strong impact on Rob’s journey through life thus far. “I couldn’t separate them out, they’ve both impacted it,” said Rob. “Technology obviously has a bigger financial impact, and I think ranching has a bigger character impact. They’re very different impacts.” One thing Rob didn’t have an answer to was when he would be ready to step away from both jobs. “Ask me that again next year,” said Rob with a smile on his face. “I’m getting tired, I’m getting old.”