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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2015)
OPINION 6A Music festival ahead of last year 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 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015 D ON HASKELL AND I looked at each other in amazement. We agreed that the music coming from the stage of the Liberty Theater on Saturday evening was as good as anything you might hear in New York or Chicago. ‘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 On Sunday, Keith Clark ob- served that there are very few plac- es in the world where you could have heard Bach’s “St. John’s Passion” one night, and the follow- ing day heard the Beethoven “Triple Concerto” followed by the second act of “Fidelio.” Each audience I’ve observed at the festival has been larger than what I re- member from prior years. Carol Shep- KHUGFRQ¿UPVWKLV6KHVD\VWKHIHVWL- DAVID LEE MYERS — For The Daily Astorian YDOLVSURMHFWHGWR¿QLVKVLJQL¿FDQWO\ ahead of the prior year. Shepherd is the The Sibelius Piano Quintet in G Minor was one of the treats at the Astoria Music Festival. From left to right, Anthea Kreston, violin; festival’s managing director. źźź Courtesy of Clatsop Historical Society Before the Scandinavian Festival, Astoria held a Scandinavian Parade. The winning float from 1911 parades past the replica of Fort Astoria in this photo. 10 years ago this week — 2005 When “The Star-Spangled Banner” is sung, it is common to see people’s lips moving along with the words, to hear the low tones of people singing along quietly. To hear this phenomenon with the national anthems of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden is a far rarer occurrence in America, but it’s been happening once a year for the last 38 years in Astoria, Oregon, at the Scandinavian Midsum- mer Festival. Everywhere you turned at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds this weekend, flags waved merrily in the breeze. The five Scandinavian flags were joined by the Stars and Stripes on the walkway from the parking lot to the fairgrounds, in front of the fairgrounds, and on merchandise at vendors’ stalls. Why did Seaside wait so long? That was a question being asked today as agencies up and down the North Coast continued their post-game analysis of last week’s emergency. The Seaside Police Department received the tsunami warning at 7:58 p.m. June 14, but the sirens were not sounded until 8:50 p.m. The alert was canceled at 9:18 p.m., county officials said. City Manager Mark Winstanley said the city used the time to get fire and police staff into place to coordinate the evacuation, especially to direct traffic at all intersections. Seaside — Drew Weil’s comment to his father was succinct and sensational. “I just got attacked by a mountain lion!” the nine-year-old told his father, Joe Weil. Drew had been walking around the next-door neighbor’s house at 1565 Wahanna road when he came face to face with a mountain lion at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The big cat leapt toward him slobbering on his shorts and grazing his left leg with two teeth before it ran off. Drew is sure it was a mountain lion. “I know what mountain lions look like; I saw them at the zoo,” he said. 50 years ago — 1965 Fist-fights involving not more than 25 trainees took place Monday evening at Tongue Point Job Corps Center, the Daily Astorian learned Tuesday. Groups of instructors and counselors calmed the fighting and late in the evening the institution was completely quiet, according to people who were there. The State Highway commission is expected to approve an estimated $2 million relocation project for highway 30 from the Burnside area extending east to Knappa High School at its July 13 meeting in Salem. The Russian flagship Mikhail Yanko and at least three trawlers were operating on the fishing grounds 13 miles west of the Columbia River lightship late Tuesday. Arthur Anderson, local drag netter, who operates the boat Wash- ington, returned to port Wednesday morning after having the Rus- sians under close observation since Sunday. Anderson even brought his boat alongside the Mikhail Yanko and attempted to converse with the friendly Russian crewmen. “Best we could do was talk sign language,” he said. Gov. Mark Hatfield has now called upon the U.S. government to provide po- lice protection at Tongue Point Job Corps Center, something which the govern- ment should have provided right at the beginning. It has been apparent to local people for some time that there is need for more control over the activities of the center trainees, both off and on the base. A handful of guards is not enough. They are too few and they are not trained police officers. 75 years ago — 1940 Structural steel for Uncle Sam’s naval plane hangar at Tongue Point to- day was hoisted in position by a special crane as more than 100 skilled work- men labored on industrial and personnel buildings at the naval air station. R.R. Bartlett, manager of the Port of Astoria, told the port commission last night he had written a strong note to U.S. Senator Rufus Holman, urging him to press the bill to establish a Coast Guard air base at the port’s Clatsop airport, notwithstanding the adverse recommendation of the acting secretary of treasury. There is reason to hope that Astoria will be the principal tuna port in the northwest when the 1940 season opens. The unusual conditions which resulted in diversion of large quan- tities of the fish from this port last year may no longer exercise such a strong influence on the movement of the deep sea fleet. In 1939 most of the tuna purchased by California firms was deliv- ered in Westport, Newport, Aberdeen and Seattle, rather than Astoria. Nelly Kovalev, violin; James VanValkenburg, viola; Jason Duckles, cello; and Sergey Antonov, cello. A FEW OF US REMINISCED ÀHZRYHUWKHNH\ERDUG DERXW WKH YHU\ ¿UVW $VWRULD 0XVLF My favorite of the weekend was Festival. Gin Laughery had a wom- the concert version of the second act en’s wear store in those days, called of Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio.” The Amaryllis. Gin had stocked quite topic of Beethoven’s only opera is a number of fabulous scarves and human freedom. The act’s ending was despaired that she might not move especially powerful, with all princi- them. Along came the music festival, pals and chorus in full throat and women wanted something new to ZHDUHDFKQLJKW7KHVFDUYHVÀHZRII źźź the shelves. It is great to have a festival that “MY PEOPLE ARE HERE,” features a silent movie with organ ac- said my wife as we walked into companiment as well Safeco Field. She as major orchestral had spotted light blue Kansas works. Last Thurs- shirts and hats bear- day night’s showing the Kansas City City Royals ing of the silent “Wings” Royals logo. At the drew a larger crowd invitation of her cous- fans than last year’s show- in, we had taken the ing of Buster Keaton proliferated train to Seattle to see in “The General.” As the Royals challenge at Safeco the Mariners. I watched the depic- tion of a World War I Sitting near the Field aerial battle, I had one Royals dugout on question: “How did the third base line, WKH\¿OPWKDW"´ we had a vantage point on the North- The piano artistry during Satur- west-Midwest rivalry among specta- day afternoon’s chamber concert was tors. An especially loud Mariner fan (I EUHDWKWDNLQJ,O\D.D]DQWVHY¶V¿QJHUV didn’t know they made them) was be- hind me and another was to my right. At times it seemed as though there were as many Royals fans as Mariners zealots. It’s hard being a Mariners fan. I tried it for years. Of course, it’s been even harder to be a Royals fan. My ZLIHZDWFKHG\HDUVRIODVWSODFH¿Q- ishes in the American League Central Division. That ended last year with the 5R\DOV¶VWURQJ¿QLVKDJDLQVWWKH6DQ Francisco Giants in the World Series. Our Monday night game moved at a fast clip, with the Royals hitting Mariners ace Felix Hernandez early. 7KHJDPH¿QLVKHGDWDUHODWLYHO\HDUO\ 9:20 pm with a 4-1 K.C. win. “So where did all of these Royals IDQVFRPHIURP"´,DVNHG/RRNLQJDW her cousin with a knowing smile, my wife said: “They are the ones who left (the Midwest).” — S.A.F. Fracking and the Franciscans By DAVID BROOKS New York Times News Service P ope Francis is one of the world’s most inspiring figures. There are passages in his new encyclical on the environment that beautifully place human beings within the seamless garment of life. And yet overall the encyclical is surprisingly disappoint- ing. Legitimate warnings about the perils of global warming morph into 1970s-style doom-mongering about technological civilization. There are too many overdrawn statements like “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” Hardest to accept, though, is the moral premise implied throughout the encyclical: that the only legitimate human relation- ships are based on compassion, harmony and love, and that arrangements based on self-interest and competition are inherently destructive. The pope has a section on work in the encyclical. The section’s heroes are St. Francis of Assisi and monks — emblems of selfless love who seek to return, the pope says, to a state of “original innocence.” He is relentlessly negative, on the oth- er hand, when describing institutions in which people compete for political power or economic gain. At one point he links self-interest with violence. He comes out against technological advances that will improve productivity by replacing human work. He specifically condemns mar- ket-based mechanisms to solve environ- mental problems, even though these cap- and-trade programs are up and running in places like California. Moral realists, including Catholic ones, should be able to worship and emulate a God of perfect love and still appreciate sys- tems, like democracy and capitalism, that harness self-interest. But Francis doesn’t seem to have practical strategies for a fall- en world. He neglects the obvious truth that the qualities that do harm can often, when carefully directed, do enormous good. Within marriage, lust can lead to child- bearing. Within a regulated market, greed can lead to entrepreneurship and economic innovation. Within a consti- economic and environmental gains. I’m talking of course tution, the desire for fame can about fracking. lead to political greatness. There was recently a vogue You would never know for polemical antifracking doc- from the encyclical that we umentaries like “Gasland” that are living through the greatest purport to show that fracking is reduction in poverty in human causing flammable tap water history. A raw and rugged cap- and other horrors. italism in Asia has led, ironical- But a recent Environmen- ly, to a great expansion of the tal Protection Agency study middle class and great gains in David found that there was no evi- human dignity. Brooks dence that fracking was caus- You would never know that in many parts of the world, like the ing widespread harm to the nation’s water United States, the rivers and skies are get- supply. On the contrary, there’s some evi- ting cleaner. The race for riches, ironically, dence that fracking is a net environmental produces the wealth that can be used to plus. That’s because cheap natural gas clean the environment. from fracking displaces coal. A study by the Breakthrough Institute found Moral realists, coal-powered electricity declined to 37 percent from 50 percent of the genera- including tion mix between 2007 and 2012. Be- cause natural gas has just half as much Catholic ones, global-warming potential as coal, en- should be able ergy-related carbon emissions have de- clined more in the U.S. than in any other to worship country over that time. Fracking has also been an enormous and emulate a boon to the nation’s wealth and the God of perfect well-being of its people. In a new report called “America’s Unconventional En- love and still ergy Opportunity,” Michael E. Porter, David S. Gee and Gregory J. Pope con- appreciate clude that gas and oil resources extract- ed through fracking have already added systems, like more than $430 billion to annual gross democracy domestic product and supported more than 2.7 million jobs that pay, on average, and twice the median U.S. salary. Pope Francis is a wonderful example capitalism, of how to be a truly good person. But if we had followed his line of analysis, nei- that harness ther the Asian economic miracle nor the self-interest. technology-based American energy revo- lution would have happened. There’d be A few years ago, a team of researchers no awareness that though industrializa- led by Daniel Esty of Yale looked at the tion can lead to catastrophic pollution in environmental health of 150 countries. The the short term (China), over the long haul nations with higher income per capita had both people and nature are better off with better environmental ratings. As countries technological progress, growth and regu- get richer they invest to tackle environmen- ODWHGDIÀXHQFH The innocence of the dove has to tal problems that directly kill human beings (though they don’t necessarily tackle prob- be accompanied by the wisdom of the serpent — the awareness that programs lems that despoil the natural commons). You would never suspect, from this EDVHGRQWKHSXULW\RIWKHKHDUWEDFN¿UH encyclical, that over the last decade, one of the irony that the best social programs the most castigated industries has, ironical- harvest the low but steady motivations of ly, produced some of the most important people as they actually are.