OPINION 6A T HE D AILY A STORIAN Founded in 1873 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 Tribal initiative deserves support ,W¶VWLPHWRUHFRQVLGHU¿VKSDVVDJH DURXQG*UDQG&RXOHH I n late January Indian tribes from Washington and Idaho took an important preliminary step toward restoring salmon to thousands of square miles of habitat north of Grand Coulee Dam. Fish passage is one of those SHFXOLDU 3DFL¿F 1RUWKZHVW LVVXHV that excites enormous passion here and blank stares in Washington, D.C. Within this esoteric subject, QR¿VKSDVVDJHFKDOOHQJHLVELJJHU than Grand Coulee — both literally and politically. Built during the depths of the Great Depression, Grand Coulee is civil and social engineering on the grandest of scales. Towering 550 feet, the advent of Grand Coulee marked a regional and national turning point. World War II transformed WKH 3DFL¿F 1RUWKZHVW¶V ODUJHO\ agrarian economy, and Grand Coulee was a pivotal engine of that transition. Originally conceived as a reclamation project — to increase irrigable agriculture in &HQWUDO :DVKLQJWRQ ² WKH GDP¶V construction gained an urgency as a power generator with the approach of World War II. President Franklin 5RRVHYHOW EHJDQ WKH GDP¶V construction in 1933 as Hitler came to power, two years before Congress would authorize the dam. It generated massive kilowatts IRU WKH UHJLRQ¶V QHZ VKLS\DUGV that were building vessels for the war, for aluminum plants that fed aircraft manufacturing and for a WRSVHFUHW XQQDPHG SURMHFW DW what would become the Hanford 1XFOHDU5HVHUYDWLRQ After all these years, the dam and reservoir continue irrigating a vast acreage of prime agricultural land, while producing electricity LQDPDQQHUWKDWGRHVQ¶WKDUPWKH atmosphere. However, salmon were never included in the calculus RI GDP FRVWV DQG EHQH¿WV$VNHG DW WKH WLPH DERXW ¿VK ODGGHUV WKH head of the U.S. Army Corps of (QJLQHHUVVDLG³,KDYHQ¶WWLPHWR SOD\QXUVHPDLGWRDEXQFKRI¿VK´ according to the &ROXPELD 5LYHU *LOOQHWWHU magazine. Thankfully, this attitude is a thing of the past. As the *LOOQHWWHU observed — with concurrence by tribal ¿VKHUPHQ ² WKH FDYDOLHU DWWLWXGH WRZDUG ¿VK SDVVDJH DW *UDQG Coulee “wiped out 40 percent of the entire Columbia River ¿VK VSDZQLQJ JURXQGV ,Q WKDW massacre, we forever lost the big -XQHµ+RJV¶FKLQRRNVDOPRQWKDW sometimes reached 80 pounds) and VRFNH\HUXQV´ 1RZ WULEHV DUH DVNLQJ WKH 1RUWKZHVW3RZHUDQG&RQVHUYDWLRQ &RXQFLOWRKHOS¿JXUHRXWZD\VWR restore salmon in the 100 river miles between Grand Coulee and the Canadian border. Salmon that make it to the border would obviously continue on — necessitating a UHWKLQN RI 86&DQDGD WUHDWLHV DQG &DQDGLDQ ¿VK UHVWRUDWLRQ VWUDWHJLHV ,W¶V DOVR XQFHUWDLQ ULJKW now whether salmon would still ¿QGKDELWDWWRWKHLUOLNLQJDERYHWKH dam. The ongoing restoration of the Elwha watershed on the Olympic Peninsula following dam removal provides room for optimism that salmon — once provided a way around Grand Coulee — would ¿QGZD\VWRVXFFHHG It is time we righted the injustice DQG DUURJDQFH RI VDOPRQUXQ GHVWUXFWLRQ,W¶VJRRGWKHWULEHVDUH leading this initiative. We should all get on board. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015 Heroes among the bystanders and symbols of the human 7KLV \HDU ,¶P DIUDLG capacity for evil. something similar will hap In the coming months, SHQ :H¶OO KHDU ÀRZHU\ rhetoric about Auschwitz, ne of the great heroes the world will also com Armenia and World War of the 20th century was memorate the 100th anni ,, DQG WKHQ ZH¶OO JR RQ versary of the start of the Ar $XVFKZLW] SULVRQHU 1R menian genocide — which, shrugging at crimes against who volunteered to be there. humanity in Syria, Central despite the outrage of Turk African Republic, Sudan :LWROG 3LOHFNL DQ RI¿FHU LQ WKH LVKRI¿FLDOVDWWKHWHUPZDV and South Sudan, Myanmar of course, a genocide. There, 3ROLVKUHVLVWDQFHWRWKH1D]LUHJLPH and elsewhere. too, I feel a connection be Nicholas deliberately let himself be captured by Darfur symbolizes our cause my ancestors were Kristof the Germans in 1940 so that he could Armenian. ¿FNOHQHVV ,W KDV GLVDS JDWKHU LQIRUPDWLRQ DERXW +LWOHU¶V peared from headlines, and Then, in the summer, concentration camps. ZH¶OOREVHUYHWKHWKDQQLYHUVDU\RIWKH Sudan makes it almost impossible for Inside Auschwitz, he set up resis end of World War II — an occasion for journalists to get there, but Human tance cells — even as he almost died of recalling Japanese atrocities in China, Rights Watch reported a few days ago starvation, torture and disease. Korea, the Philippines and elsewhere. that the human rights situation in Sudan Then Pilecki helped build a radio All this is likely to fuel more debates fo actually deteriorated in 2014. transmitter, and, in 1942, he broadcast cused on the past. Should we honor Ar Indeed, the Sudanese regime is now to the outside world accounts of atroc menian genocide victims with a special engaging in mass atrocities not only in LWLHVLQVLGH$XVFKZLW]²DVWKH1D]LV day? Should Japan apologize for enslav 'DUIXUEXWDOVRLQWKH1XED0RXQWDLQV frantically searched the camp look LQJ³FRPIRUWZRPHQ´" DQG%OXH1LOHUHJLRQV6XGDQERPEHG ing for the transmitter. He But, to me, the lesson DQDLGKRVSLWDOLQ-DQXDU\LQWKH1XED ZRUNHGWRH[SRVHWKH1D]L of history is that the best Mountains, and the Belgian branch of gas chambers, brutal sex way to honor past victims Doctors Without Borders has just an 7KHEHVW ual experiments and sav of atrocities is to stand up nounced the closure of operations in ZD\WR age camp punishments, in to slaughter today. The Sudan because of government obstruc hopes that the world would most respectful way to tionism. KRQRU A decade ago, one of the most out act. honor Jewish, Armenian or spoken politicians on Darfur — harsh Finally, in April 1943, Rwandan victims of geno SDVW he escaped from Aus cide is not with a ceremony ly scolding President George W. Bush FKZLW] EXOOHWV À\LQJ DIWHU YLFWLPVRI or a day, but with efforts to for not doing more — was an Illinois him, and wrote an eyewit reduce mass atrocities cur senator, Barack Obama. Today, as pres DWURFLWLHV rently underway. ident of the United States, he is quiet. ness report laying out the horror of the extermina The U.S. Holocaust 7KH8QLWHG1DWLRQVIRUFHLQ'DUIXUKDV LVWRVWDQG Memorial Museum in been impotent. tion camps. He then cam Granted, humanitarian crises rarely paigned unsuccessfully for Washington is a shining XSWR an attack on Auschwitz. example of that approach, RIIHU JRRG SROLF\ FKRLFHV EXW WKHUH¶V Eventually, he was VODXJKWHU channeling outrage at past no need to embrace the worse option, brutally tortured and exe KRUURUVWRPLWLJDWHWRGD\¶V ZKLFKLVSDUDO\VLV:H¶YHVHHQLQ.RVR FXWHG²QRWE\WKH1D]LV WRGD\ — from Syria to Central vo, Sierra Leone, Kurdistan and, lately, but after the war, in 1947, African Republic. But, in Yazidi areas of Iraq and eastern Con by the Communists. They general, the world is typi go that outside efforts sometimes can WKHQ VXSSUHVVHG WKH VWRU\ RI 3LOHFNL¶V cally less galvanized by mass atrocities make a difference. 6RVXUHOHW¶VFRPPHPRUDWHWKHOLE KHURLVPIRUGHFDGHVDERRNDERXWKLV than paralyzed by them. work, 7KH $XVFKZLW] 9ROXQWHHU was Even during the Holocaust, despite eration of Auschwitz, the horror of the published in 2012). the heroism of Pilecki and others like Holocaust and the brutality of the Arme I was thinking of Pilecki last week Jan Karski, who tried desperately to nian genocide by trying to mitigate mass on the 70th anniversary of the libera shake sense into world leaders, no one atrocities today. The basic lesson of these WLRQ RI WKH$XVFKZLW]%LUNHQDX GHDWK was very interested in industrial slaugh episodes is not just that humans are capa camps. I had relatives killed in Aus ter. Over and over since then, world ble of astonishing evil, or that some indi FKZLW]WKH\ZHUH3ROHVVS\LQJRQWKH leaders have excelled at giving elo viduals like Witold Pilecki respond with 1D]LV IRU WKH UHVLVWDQFH DQG WKHVH TXHQW³QHYHUDJDLQ´VSHHFKHVEXWUDUHO\ mesmerizing heroism — but that, sadly, LW¶VMXVWWRRHDV\WRDFTXLHVFH camps are emblems of the Holocaust offered much beyond lip service. By NICHOLAS KRISTOF 1HZ