OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015
Liberty Theater celebrates 90 and 10
T
he Liberty Theater is 90. The theater
opened in April 1925. Its construction
was a major element in downtown
Astoria’s rebuilding following the great
Liberty Restoration
anniversary with a day
of open houses next
night will be a dinner
and concert.
by their cultural
assets. Here are my
nominations for the
Steve
Forrester
1. the city’s watershed – a purchase of
the 1950s. 2. the Astoria Column and 3. the
Liberty Theater.
From its opening until the advent of
you will hear their Liberty Theater stories.
entered during Saturday matinees. Others
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Students from Clatsop County Community College Historic Preservation and Restoration program gild medallions on the walls of
the Liberty Theater. The students were guided by Lucien Swerdloff, John Goodenberger, Don Herlin and Jonathon Pierce.
Wyatt’s story is that his mother went into
labor with him while seeing a movie at the
Liberty.
W
they soon forget how much trouble
and money went into creating it. In a recent
properties that came with it.
Here are two more special moments. To
the more important point is what it would
be if we hadn’t purchased and restored it.”
group who used Romanian artisans. Those
Romanian masons fell in love with the
you see in many small towns and cities.
The biggest single accomplishment
medallions one sees in the theater and
absentee landlord.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Brenna Chase, a student at Clatsop County Community College, works with other
students to gild medallions in the balcony level of the Liberty Theater.
T
he drive to acquire and restore the
Liberty began in about 1992 with
a group that called itself the Theater
Committee. We were casting about for
new theater space.
From the period when we struggled
to complete the purchase I have two
abiding memories. The moment when grant to complete the purchase.
restoration
P
occurred
France should have been
That criticism was right.
itics today that we focus on this and
not what would have really made
the world feel the jihadist threat was
ed. And that would not be a march
one in which he’s not involved at
march against the jihadists across
geria and Syria.
the
— S.A.F.
by way of adopting its val
ues. Is Stratfor’s George
Friedman right when he
Thomas L.
argues that Europeans
Friedman
adopted multiculturalism
precisely because they
didn’t really want to absorb their
streets. ... What is required here is
support and silence that
extremism has grown into
terrorism that is harming
people. It is of no value
the Paris crime and Islamic extrem
ism in general.” (Translation by
The truth is there is a huge
amount of ambivalence toward this
whole jihadist phenomenon — more
rope and America. This ambiva
lims recently murdered by jihadists
when
it has more support than
we want to believe.
Ambivalence
runs
through Europe today on
the question of what a
country should demand of
who are involved in this
crisis and stand accused.
... The story of extremism
terrorism march in Paris Sunday.
O
“It’s all here.” The fact that no one had
A
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
fact by shielding him.
over what constitutes authentic Is
lam today. We fool ourselves when
of the most respected Arab journal
Ambivalence runs through
Washington’s ties with Saudi Ara
Saudi Arabia has redoubled its
sion of that faith. This Saudi right
turn — combined with oil revenues
there are many Islams today. The
tilted the entire Sunni community
female graduates of Cairo Univer
sity in 1950. Few are wearing veils.
60 years there was a tacit alliance
between Arab dictators and their
Sunni religious clergy. The regimes
uninspired dictators — and both sti
wash it down with a beer at night —
has been hardened by this Wahhabi
wind from Arabia.
front Saudi Arabia about this be
cause of our oil ad
addicts never tell the
truth to their pushers.
The Saudi government
opposes the jihadists.
it’s a very short step
from Wahhabi Islam
to the violent jihad
ism practiced by the Islamic State.
The French terrorists were born in
France but were marinated in Wah
— between Sunnis and Shiites — has
led many mainstream Sunni chari
jihadist groups because they’re fero
ly — yet more ambivalence — for
authentic reformation requires a free
programmed
mainly
vision and mosques
— especially small
mosques that trade in
Egyptian intellectual
“There is no choice but to dismantle
this system and rebuild it in a way
that is compatible with human cul
ture and values.”
revolutions to stem — revolutions
that will require a lot of people in
to shed their ambivalence and stop
playing double games.
Open forum
Seaside solution
A
suggestion for the expansion of the
Seaside Civic & Convention Center:
convention meeting space room. Leave
room at ground level for recreational ve
T HE
D AILY A STORIAN
Founded in 1873
Leave the river alone.
as well as a street level entrance.
Seaside
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
• CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
• DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager