OPINION
6A
T HE
+ow many marriages
are done in church?
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
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2005
The basement at Astoria City Hall looks just like the one at your grand-
parents’ house. At the end of a steep staircase there’s a big, dimly lit room
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“stuff” is stored everywhere.
The basement at City Hall is bigger and there’s an old bank vault in its
dank interior, but otherwise it’s just the same. It’s probably not where you’d
want to store important historical documents.
But that’s exactly where several hundred irreplaceable original construc-
tion blueprints for many of Astoria’s historical buildings were kept — until
this year.
Now, nearly 600 of those drawings have been professionally scanned
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the Clatsop County Historical Society’s Heritage Museum and Astoria City
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Richard Rowland, one of the North Coast’s most innovative
artists, received statewide recognition Wednesday.
Clatsop Community College’s ceramics and sculpture instruc-
tor, who serves as head of the college’s art Department, was hon-
ored with a Governor’s Arts Award.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski presented the award at a ceremony at
Willamette University.
Rowland is an innovator in wood-¿red ceramics. +e is known
for the workshops he conducts at his wood-¿red anagama-style
Dragon Kiln in Youngs River, involving college students, local and
regional artists, and ceramicists from around the world. The kiln
has become a gathering point for artists and friends.
Hungry sea lions feasting on chinook salmon at Bonneville Dam were
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guns that biologists hope will keep them away for good.
But if the scare tactics fail, the states of Oregon and Washington may have
to ask for federal permission to trap or even kill the playful and intelligent
marine mammals, which are protected under federal law, just like the salmon.
50 years ago — 1965
William J. Talbot, Portland U.S. Army district engineer, has
announced transfer of 18.1 acres of land at Cape Disappointment
in Paci¿c County, Wash., at the mouth of the Columbia River,
from the Portland district to the U.S. Coast Guard.
+e said the land, which is part of the former )ort Canby 0ili-
tary Reservation, will be used by the 13th Coast Guard District to
expand its lifeboat station at Cape Disappointment.
The Corps of Engineers owns 940 acres of land on the cape.
Both the north jetty and jetty “A” at the mouth of the Columbia
River are located on the land.
A Coast Guard spokesman in Seattle said the Coast Guard
plans to close the Point Adams station across the river at +am-
mond and consolidate the two installations. Personnel now at
Point Adams – about 25 – will be transferred to the Cape Disap-
pointment Station.
General economy of the lower Columbia area advanced in April, the Or-
egon Employment Service has reported, despite storms that hampered ship-
ping and shutdown of major plants for repairs and construction.
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Oregon Employment Service reported.
75 years ago — 1940
If there were any large numbers of Chinooks in the lower Co-
lumbia River Sunday night, the Astoria gillnet Àeet couldn’t ¿nd
them. One of the most disappointing season openings on record
was generally reported. The high boat in deliveries up to noon
had less than 200 pounds. One cannery said that its record catch
was 142 pounds.
In the wake of the recent Oregon supreme court decision which held that
operation of a “baseball” type of pinball machine for amusement only was
not in violation of anti-gambling statutes, several pinball machines have
made their debut here. There is said to be some question whether any type of
pinball machine would get the blessing of the supreme court, even though it
was played for sheer joy.
Unless the machines “pay,” there is no apparent grounds for action by the
district attorney in view of the supreme court decision.
William Boyd as “+opalong Cassidy” stages a new roundup of
action and thrills in Clarence E. 0ulford’s “Santa )e 0arshal,”
the Paramount western thriller, opening tonight at the Riviera
Theatre. Also on this same program is Wallace Beery and Jackie
Cooper in “The Champ.”
A seven-year struggle for national recognition was successfully culminat-
ed yesterday for Astoria’s Sea Scout ship Flying Cloud with the announce-
ment from the national headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America that the
local ship has been selected as one of the ships of the national Sea Scout
Fleet.
This honor, goal of all Sea Scout units, is bestowed each year upon the
outstanding ships of the nation. The number of ships in the National Fleet, 35,
is relatively small in comparison with the number of Sea Scout units, which
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Only four ships from the northwest were selected for the national Fleet.
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the Rainbow of Hillsboro.
The Flying Cloud’s bid for fame lay in the successful Sea Scout regatta
staged in Astoria last June, in which Sea Scouts from all along the Columbia
River participated. In addition to this event, the local ship engaged in an ac-
tive part in the annual Astoria regatta.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2015
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Roosevelt dubbed the
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as “nine old men.
FDR’s implication was that the
justices were out of touch with the
nation’s dire situation in the midst
of the Great Depression. The
court’s conservative majority had
thrown out a few of Roosevelt’s
New Deal programs.
During oral argument concern-
ing gay rights last week, Justice
Antonin Scalia raised a question
that is becoming archaic in this
century. Asked Scalia: If there is
no ban on gay marriage, can cler-
gy refuse to perform a marriage of
a gay couple? It seems to me that
clergy already has that latitude.
I’ve witnessed it in Astoria.
The larger question Scalia’s
query prompts is: What percentage
of marriages are done by clergy
these days? Of the four weddings
my wife and I have attended in
the past two years, two were con-
ducted by a rabbi, the other two
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with licenses from the Universal
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counterculture organization that li-
censed ordinary people to conduct
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sampling tells me it is much more
mainstream these days.
‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things;
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax —
Of cabbages —and kings —’
Through the Looking-glass
of Cabbages and Kings
AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren
This artist rendering shows Washington attorney Douglas Hall-
ward-Driemeier arguing that states must recognize same-sex mar-
riages performed elsewhere, April 28, during the Supreme Court
hearing on same-sex marriage. Justices, from left are, Antonin
Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, Samuel Alito Jr. and Elena Kagan.
H.L.
Mencken
said that
marriage is
an economic
arrangement
źźź
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marriage, at bottom, is an eco-
nomic arrangement. It is certainly
a contract. No matter whether
churches enter the wedding pic-
ture, the logic behind gay marriage
is that two people who choose to
make a long-term commitment
should be allowed the protection
of having their relationship made
legal in the eyes of the state.
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Anna King in Astoria last week.
She is the only journalist who
covers the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation full time. She reports
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consortium of stations in Oregon,
Washington and Idaho.
Describing Anna, I’ve often
said you would not pick her out
of a lineup as what she does for
a living. She conveys an exuber-
ance that I don’t associate with the
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AP Photo
Henry L. Mencken, “The Sage of
Baltimore” and America’s most fa-
mous cynic, pictured with his wife,
the former Sara Haardt, aboard the
liner Europa on their return to New
York following a Mediterranean
cruise, April 5, 1934.
sedate world of public radio. Anna
calls herself a “radio cowgirl.”
I take every opportunity to rec-
ommend the Hanford tour. The
place is not to be believed. Rich-
land, Wash., itself is fascinating —
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The Cannon Beach hoteliers —
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hotel in Richland. It will be worth
the trip.
BEN
HUNT
BROKE
ground Sunday afternoon by stag-
ing a jazz concert in the McTavish
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room’s acoustics showed well
for vocalist Nancy King and pi-
anist Steve Christofferson. The
room’s Steinway upright showed
great tone color in the hands of
Christofferson.
Race, class and neglect in America
ly educated; life expectancy
As Isabel Sawhill of the
Brookings Institution writes:
among less educated whites
“Blacks have faced, and
has been falling at rates rem-
will continue to face, unique
very time you’re tempted to iniscent of the collapse of life
challenges. But when we
expectancy
in
post-Commu-
say that America is moving
look for the reasons why
nist Russia.
forward on race — that prejudice
less skilled blacks are failing
And yes, these excess
is no longer as important as it used deaths are the result of in-
to marry and join the mid-
dle class, it is largely for the
equality
and
lack
of
oppor-
to be — along comes an atrocity to
same reasons that marriage
tunity,
even
in
those
cases
puncture your complacency.
and a middle-class lifestyle
where their direct cause lies
Paul
Almost everyone realizes, I hope, that in self-destructive behav-
is eluding a growing number
Krugman
the Freddie Gray affair wasn’t an isolated ior. Overuse of prescription
of whites as well.”
incident, that it’s unique only to the extent drugs, smoking, and obesity account for
So it is, as I said, disheartening still
that for once there seems to be a real pos- a lot of early deaths, but there’s a reason to see commentators suggesting that the
such behaviors are so widespread, and poor are causing their own poverty, and
sibility that justice may be done.
that reason has to do with an economy could easily escape if only they acted
And the riots in Baltimore, destruc- that leaves tens of millions behind.
like members of the upper middle class.
tive as they are, have served at least one
And it’s also disheartening to see
It has been disheartening to see
useful purpose: drawing attention to the some commentators still writing as if commentators still purveying another
grotesque inequalities that poison the poverty were simply a matter of values, debunked myth, that we’ve spent vast
lives of too many Americans.
as if the poor just mysteriously make VXPV¿JKWLQJSRYHUW\WRQRDYDLOEH-
Yet I do worry that the centrality of bad choices and all would be well if cause of values, you see.)
In reality, federal spending on
race and racism to this particular story they adopted middle-class values. May-
may convey the false
be, just maybe, that means-tested programs other than
impression that de-
was a sustainable ar- 0HGLFDLGKDVÀXFWXDWHGEHWZHHQDQG
Shrugging
bilitating poverty and
gument four decades SHUFHQWRI*'3IRUGHFDGHVJRLQJXS
alienation from soci-
ago, but at this point in recessions and down in recoveries.
your
ety are uniquely black
it should be obvious That’s not a lot of money — it’s far less
experiences. In fact,
that middle-class val- than other advanced countries spend —
shoulders
much though by no
XHVRQO\ÀRXULVKLQDQ and not all of it goes to families below
as you
means all of the horror
economy that offers the poverty line.
Despite this, measures that correct
one sees in Baltimore
middle-class jobs.
attribute it
and many other places
The great sociol- ZHOONQRZQÀDZVLQWKHVWDWLVWLFVVKRZ
is really about class, all to values
ogist William Julius that we have made some real progress
about the devastating
Wilson argued long against poverty. And we would make
effects of extreme and
ago that widely decried a lot more progress if we were even a
is an act
rising inequality.
social changes among fraction as generous toward the needy
of malign
Take, for exam-
blacks, like the decline as we imagine ourselves to be.
The point is that there is no excuse
ple, issues of health
of traditional families,
neglect.
and mortality. Many
were actually caused for fatalism as we contemplate the
people have pointed
by the disappearance evils of poverty in America. Shrugging
out that there are a number of black of well-paying jobs in inner cities. His your shoulders as you attribute it all to
neighborhoods in Baltimore where life argument contained an implicit predic- values is an act of malign neglect. The
expectancy compares unfavorably with tion: If other racial groups were to face poor don’t need lectures on morality,
impoverished Third World nations. But a similar loss of job opportunity, their they need more resources — which
what’s really striking on a national basis behavior would change in similar ways. we can afford to provide — and bet-
is the way class disparities in death rates
$QGVRLWKDVSURYHG/DJJLQJZDJ- ter economic opportunities, which we
have been soaring even among whites. es — actually declining in real terms can also afford to provide through ev-
Most notably, mortality among for half of working men — and work erything from training and subsidies
white women has increased sharply instability have been followed by sharp to higher minimum wages. Baltimore,
VLQFH WKH V ZLWK WKH ULVH VXUHO\ declines in marriage, rising births out of and America, don’t have to be as unjust
as they are.
concentrated among the poor and poor- wedlock, and more.
By PAU/ KRUG0AN
New York Times News Service
E