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About The North Coast times-eagle. (Wheeler, Oregon) 1971-2007 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1979)
PAGE 4 THE NORTH COAST TIMES EAGLE, FRIDAY, 12 OCTOBER, 1979 Contempt Young adults seem to live in a chronological vacuum. They treat children as if they were never children them selves, and the special contempt they reserve for the elderly is virtual proof they do not believe they will them selves grow old. The most recent example of this particular contempt was caused by a traffic collision that involved an 89-year-old man. His automobile struck a motorcycle on Highway 101 just north of Arch Cape. A young woman who had been a passenger on the motorcycle lost her left leg. That started the flow of contempt. Young men anu women beseiged the TIMES EAGLE with suggestions or requests that the newspaper publicly demand the state revoke the licenses of everyone over the age of — only on this point was there any variance. Yet, just the week before a man in his seventies was killed by a man in his twenties who was impatient to pass a slower car south of the Arch Cape tunnel. The young man died also, and his young wife was seriously injured. No one demanded the TIMES EAGLE call for the licenses of all young men — though if the wife had been driving there certainly would have been comments about women drivers. The criminal irony is that most serious accidents are caused by young drivers who are drunk or stoned. More often than not their victims are the elderly. The tragedy is that a young woman must spend her life minus a limb, and an old man who led a long and honorable life approaches the end of it aware he cost another human being a leg. 7 JLL Portland’s Neil Goldschmidt, now officially at work on the nation’s transportation problems, was recently inter viewed by the TIMES EAGLE’s roving columnist regarding the abandonment of the historic Seaside Branch of the old Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway during a time when mass transportation is being encouraged so adamantly. Goldschmidt, a dedicated light-rail promoter, seemed like the best source for answers on why we couldn’t have in sisted that the railroad company re-establish passenger service to the coast from the Trimet area. The railroad refused to let us in the office. “We need the old S.P.&S.R.” “At a time,” we said, “ when more and moe people are becoming concerned over the availability of gasoline for the round trip to our ocean paradise, not to mention the cost, we could use something like a railroad to provide economical transportation and a great energy-saving opportunity, too.” Goldschmidt must have sensed that there was more to our appeal than that, so he waited without answering. We went on; “ In years past, there were trains of over twenty cars, twice a day! They carried vacationers from Portland and as far as Eugene, and put Seaside fifty years ahead of its time! If it hadn’t been for the railroad, Seaside’s claim to the title of Entertainment Capital of the West might have been lost to Coos Bay, or someplace. We needed the railroad then, and we need it NOW! Think of the advantages!” © O A (S t Old age is cherished in ancient castles, antique furniture, heirloom silver, weathered covered bridges, aged Swiss cheese, vintage wine, a golden wedding ring, a redwood tree. Old age is cherished in almost everything but me. rw * BHif 1 BY C H R IS M E H L IG ? 3« The Secretary of Transportation was clearly moved by these persuasions. He sat motionless, eyes closed, studying his reply. We decided that the moment was right for an all- out campaign at this point: it was time to unload the full impact of this devastating loss to the economy and future growth of the North Coast Wonderland. “Your honor, that railroad served in the highest tradi tion of the ‘High Iron’, it carried our forfathers and fore mothers, not to mention our iceboxes and our furniture, and how else would the U.S. Mail have gotten through, had it not been for the dependable Railway Postal Service? We grew up with that railroad! It’s as much a part of us as the Dodgem Cars and the Mad Mouse! Without it, the sounds and smells of the midway could waft into mere memories before the end of the decade, and leave us to the fate of such virtual ghost towns as Atlantic City, turning to gambling and organized crime for subsistence.” He nodded slowly, thoughtfully, bowing his head in contemplation. Then, as we were about to thrust home the javelin of truth, the mandate for return of the joyful sound of steam whistles and clicking wheels, the door to the Secretary’s office opened and a girl stepped over to him, saying, “Mr. Secretary, I hate to wake you, but the presi dent’s on the phone asking why the ash trays in his limo haven’t been emptied.’ Sic Transit. Chris Mehlig will begin a three part history o f the Seaside branch o f the Spokane, Portland <£ Seattle Railro.'id in the next issue o f the TIMES EAGLE. The series will focus on why the railroad’s officials decided to tear up the tracks from Astoria to Seaside at the precise time the redevelopment o f mass transit on the Oregon coast is becoming a necessity. Leona Will Caldwell Lakeland, Fla. POWER TO THE PEOPLE km «JL! luiNJi rajj'omi'f S ta tio n a r y CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE country had access to the information reconsider the idea. One man, Adolf But the possibility of criminal action was Hitler, was largely responsible for the threatened. more than 50-million deaths of WWII. “An act of incredible folly,” was the Our own secret wars in Laos and Cam- summation of a PROGR e s s iv e editor. odia - ordered by the same men who He said, “The issues of nuclear weaponry presently control the secrets of our should be open to the public instead of nuclear establishment — were not only a self-appointed elite.” quite the democratic actions our Everyone must believe in nuclear weapons, he said. They will not disappear ideals require. Millions of innocent simply because we wish them to. We must human beings were destroyed in the all understand how those weapons work, name of America; but our consent was neither sought or given. and we must be aware of the devastation If there is any validity to the they can cause. His words were like a fist hitting an open palm. “ We’ve got to des fear that an enemy could use the disclosed information against us, troy them before they destroy us. The only chance we’ve got is nuclear disarm the nuclear power industry would be the most likely source. The indus ament.” try exports its technology and mat THE PROGRESSIVE chose its risk carefully. Its decision to commission the eriel to whoever has the money. article was based on one of the first THE REAL DANGER principles of an open and democratic government: The danger is in the secrecy. An informed citizenry makes reason Power and tyranny grow out of able decisions. The government violated that tenet. secrecy. Tyranny exists when a gov ernment makes its people afraid to It had cloaked almost all information know certain things. pertaining to nuclear physics in secrecy Time and again since Hiroshima — and though so much got out (which the world has been at the brink of proves only that the government is as inept as it is shady) — and attempted to nuclear suicide. Each time the rest keep the pnpulare in ignorance and fear, of us waits in fear while a very few men decide if they should destroy an old trick of despots. civilization. Critics complained the article un Possessing tje secrets of the necessarily made the world a more Bomb gives power back to the dangerous place to live. The argument people. So armed, a sovereign cit seems based on the premise that the izenry must be reckoned with. If fewer who know or have control over we must all die in a nuclear hola- such secrets the safer the world is for caust, then we dammed well better the rest of us. The recent history of have something to say about it. the Third Reich might be enough to {kt L o t in _ Dining j,.. OPEN 11am to10 pm CLOSED Monday A Tuasd A rt Supplies Gifts A Cards 302 A n n u ir A £ra Hi i)r ttl.» .....,.., . . ...... (Shtrp Ujuw Independent Fishermen A S rrrz r I TO THE EDITOR A K IT E SH O P IN C A N N O N BEACH , .J the poodle pad ' PROFESSIONAL GROOMING § A LL BREEDS 4 3 6 -2 8 4 5 C A N N O N BEACH The American troller wants to inform you of the facts that relate to the present problems with our industry and with the salmon resource as a whole. This past 1979 season we operated under increasingly severe management restrictions. We once had a season from April 1 to November 1. Due to the Boldt decision, the Supreme Court and the Fishery Management Council, we now fish May, July, August, and one week in September. Because of the Indian litigation in the federal court in Portland, Oregon, we were cut an addition 10 days in the peak of the season — July 23 to August 3 — and we lost the last eight days of the already shortened season, the period from September 1 - 8, as well. The cuts came during the most productive part of the season. The irony is that the troller was cut out of approx imately ISO-thousand salmon, and the Indians may only get three thousand to five thousand additional fish to the upriver areas. The troller fishes on mixed stocks. Many of fish we were fishing came from other areas and the rivers of other states. The result means surpluses of fish to these areas with no one to harvest them, resulting in a waste of the resource and less food produced for the consumer table. We question why the troller was shut down, thus reduc ing the available supply of this prime product, the troll salmon. While these questions remain unanswered, the Washing ton Department of Fisheries and the Oregon Fish and Wild life Commission will in the meantime have large surpluses of fish returning to hatcheries that will be sold for pet food. Surplus eggs will be sold for profit to private ocean ranching facilities m mis and other states. These ocean ranches are generally owned and financed by large multinational The treaty Indians appear to be the winners under the Supreme Court decision - but are they? Many questions remain to be answered: who is entitled to fish? How many fish constitute a reasonable living, and who among the tribes are entitled to this living? corporations and are in direct competition with the commercial fisherman for this public resource. Will we allow another industry of small businessmen to be put on the welfare rolls while state agencies and multinational corporations take over a public resource for their own private profit, which at the same time will insure an inferior product on the tables of the American consumer? Speaking for the independent commercial fishermen, we believe the answer should be no. The gillnetter, like the troller, has suffered increasingly severe regulatuons, including The gillnetter has also suffered. Thus past gillnetting season has been the shortest on record. Yet neither the troller nor the gillnetter is the raper of the salmon. Certainly there are problems with some of the runs of fish, but it is not the commercial fishermen who have caused these problems. The sources are: too many dams on the Columbia River with inadequate fish ladders, heating up the river with the generation of electricity; 245T and 24D, among other herbicides wantonly sprayed in rearing areas and watersheds, poor logging practices, manipulation of fish stocks in hatcheries to produce smaller fish that do not bit either commercial or sport hooks. The practice by supposed experts of mixing the stocks so that there remain no true pristine wildstocks anywhere, then using the argument that they need to manage to protect the wild stocks, plummets their credibility to a new low. There are areas with dwindling native (but not wild) populations. These need intensive rehabilitation. Curtailing commercial fishermen from fishing the resource until these problems are corrected is a su^e way to waste food and insure transfer of a public resource to private corporate control. Anyone concerned is urged to write to the Federation of Independent Seafood Harvesters (FISH), P.O. Box 717, Ilwaco, Washington, 98624 Jackie Priest, Manager, FISH Ilwaco, Washington
