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
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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
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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
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Independent Fishermen
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TO THE EDITOR
A K IT E SH O P
IN C A N N O N BEACH
,
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' 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