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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 2015)
OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015 This is the Cold War without the fun The Cold War had a be- %XW *XULHY PDNHV DQ important point. “If not ginning, an end and even Founded in 1873 for the Western sanctions a closing curtain, with the on Russia, East Ukraine et’s see, America is preposi- fall of the Berlin Wall. But STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher would already have been tioning battle tanks with our the post-post-Cold War has part of Russia today,” he brought us full circle back LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor East European NATO allies to to the pre-Cold War and the said, adding that there is BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager counterbalance Russia; U.S. and game of nations. There was nothing Putin fears more than Ukraine succeeding in CARL EARL, Systems Manager Russian military planes recently a moment when it seemed as diminishing corruption and though it would all be other- ÀHZZLWKLQIHHWRIHDFKRWKHU JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager building a modern economy wise — when it seemed that Thomas L. Russia is building a new genera- Arabs and Israelis would DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager that would be everything Friedman 3XWLQ¶V 5XVVLD LV QRW *X tion of long-range ballistic mis- make peace, that China HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager riev is worried, though, that would evolve into a more siles; and the U.S. and China are consensual political system and that the anti-Western propaganda Putin has jostling in the South China Sea. Russia would become part of Europe been pumping into the veins of the Rus- Did someone restart the Cold War DQGWKH*7KDWZDVDOLIHWLPHDJR sian public will have a lasting effect and while I was looking the other way? Now Western reporters struggle to make his successor even worse. Either If so, this time it seems like the Cold get visas to China, no American busi- way, “Russia will be a big challenge for War without the fun — that is, without nessman with a brain takes his laptop to your next president.” The Chinese leadership is not as -DPHV %RQG 60(56+ ³*HW 6PDUW´ Beijing, Chinese hackers have more of Agent 86’s shoe phone, Nikita Khrush- your personal data now than LinkedIn, dumb or desperate as Putin — and chev’s shoe-banging, a race to the Russia is still intent on becoming part of needs access to U.S. markets more — moon or a debate between American Europe — by annexing a piece here and so, for now, China’s leaders still be- and Soviet leaders over whose country DSLHFHWKHUH²DQGWKH*LVQRZWKH have with some restraint in asserting their claims in the South China Sea. has the best kitchen appliances. And *$PHULFDDQG*HUPDQ\ I don’t think we’re going to see Pres- :KHQ GLG LW DOO JR VRXU":H ¿UHG But the fact is, as the Asia expert An- fter an initial derailment, a proposal to raise Oregon’s minimum ident Barack Obama in Kiev declar- WKH¿UVWVKRWZKHQZHH[SDQGHG1$72 drew Browne noted in The Wall Street wage is back on track in the waning days of the state Legislature. ing, à la President Kennedy, “ich bin toward the Russian border even though Journal, “the U.S.-China relationship That’s an unfortunate development times forgo their own paycheck in order ein Ukrainian.” Also, the lingo of our the Soviet Union had disappeared. has lost its strategic raison d’être: the day — “reset with Russia” or “pivot to Message to Moscow: You are always Soviet Union, the common threat that for businesses outside the Portland met- to make payroll for their employees. Asia” — has none of the gravitas of — an enemy, no matter what system you brought the two countries together.” ropolitan area. Oregon’s economy is still recover- drum roll, please — have. When oil pric- They have not forged a new one, like We previously editorialized against ing from the brutal recession. In May, “détente.” es recovered, Putin being co-managers of global stability. In short, the attraction of the U.S. No, this post- No, this post- sought his revenge such legislation. Our opinion has not the number of jobs in the state declined economy and the bite of U.S. sanctions post-Cold War has for this humiliation, been changed by arguments recent- IRU WKH ¿UVW WLPH LQ WKUHH \HDUV $QG post-Cold more of a WWE but now he’s just are more vital than ever in managing the ly offered by Portland politicians and while the Portland area is humming, the — World Wrestling using the NATO post-post-Cold War game of nations, their supporters. Their pitch ignores our rest of the state still is hampered by high Entertainment — War has more threat to justify the including bringing Iran to nuclear talks. state’s economic diversity and relies on unemployment and a lack of skilled feel to it, and I don’t militarization of We may be back to traditional geopoli- of a World Russian society so tics, but it’s in a much more interdepen- benevolent assumptions not supported workers. Raising the minimum wage just mean President Wrestling he and his fellow dent world, where our economic clout is by science. by 37 percent over the next few years Vladimir Putin of Russia’s riding hors- kleptocrats can stay still a source of restraint on Moscow and House Speaker Tina Kotek proposes will exacerbate the challenges facing es bare-chested, al- Entertainment in power and paint Beijing. Putin doesn’t disguise his mil- to raise the minimum hourly rate to $13 small businesses. though that is an apt their opponents as itary involvement in Ukraine for noth- feel to it by 2018. It would be pegged at $11 in Rep. Kotek’s proposal would re- metaphor. It’s just lackeys of the West. ing; he’s afraid of more U.S. banking 2016 and $12 in 2017. scind current law to allow for some a raw jostling for NATO’s top- sanctions. China doesn’t circumscribe It does not matter to Rep. Kotek cities to approve larger increases in the power for power’s sake — not a clash pling of the Libyan leader Moammar its behavior in the South China Sea for that Oregon’s current rate of $9.25 per minimum wage. That plays to the good RILQÀXHQWLDOLGHDVEXWUDWKHURIVSKHUHV *DGKD¿WKH$UDE6SULQJDQGWKH0RV nothing; it can’t grow without exporting to America. It’s not just our guns, it’s our hour already is the second-highest in the citizens of Portland and Eugene, but RI LQÀXHQFH ³<RX FURVV WKDW OLQH , cow street protests that followed rattled butter. It’s why we should be expanding punch your nose.” “Why?” “Because 3XWLQ VDLG 6HUJHL *XULHY WKH QRWHG nation. And she conveniently sidesteps does nothing for those in the small com- I said so.” “You got a problem with Russian economist now based in Par- U.S.-shaped free-trade deals with Asia questions about the potential impact munities of Clatsop County. that?” “Yes, let me show you my drone. is. “Putin understood that he lost the and Europe and it’s why the most im- RI VXFK LQFUHDVHV EH\RQG KHU DIÀXHQW Oregon’s minimum wage is half You got a problem with that?” “Not at Russian middle class and so he started portant source of stability in the world Portland district. the median hourly wage for all Oregon all. My cyber guys stole the guidance to look for legitimacy somewhere else” today is the health of the U.S. economy. Large Portland-area employers hourly workers. That is a reasonable V\VWHPODVWZHHNIURP1RUWKURS*UXP — in hypernationalism and anti-Amer- We can walk softly only as long as we carry a big stick — and a big wallet. man.” “You got a problem with that?” icanism. like Nike and Intel can easily absorb level for a wage meant for entry-level such payroll increases. But most pri- workers when compared with those vate-sector jobs in Clatsop County and with years of experience or specialized elsewhere in rural Oregon are found in skills. By TIMOTHY EGAN incongruent element of a by a great nation — have a small business — many of them fami- If there is good news for workers New York Times News Service people proclaiming to be power all their own. ly-owned and run on a shoestring. Such in Oregon, it is this: “Real wages are enlightened. The British, the Vatican, large increases will require them to cut growing … Average hourly earnings Lincoln said he hated week of absurdity around WKH *HUPDQV DQG WKH 6RXWK hours, reduce staff size or pass on to increased 2.2 percent over the year for “the monstrous injustice of Africans have all issued for- a confused racial con artist, slavery,” in part because it PDODSRORJLHVIRUWKHLURI¿ customers those additional costs. Such Oregon’s private-sector payroll em- and a massacre in a black church cial cruelties, and each case allowed “enemies of free in- outcomes would hurt the very people ployees. These wage gains were above brings us to this: Friday was the stitutions, with plausibility, has had a cleansing, even the minimum wage hike is designed to WKHUDWHRIFRQVXPHUSULFHLQÀDWLRQ´ to taunt us as hypocrites.” liberating effect. The U.S. help. That recent report from state gov- 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, Congress apologized to Af- Countries, religions and A typical response to those likely ernment shows that employers are re- when the last of the American rican-Americans for slavery corporations sometimes do Timothy scenarios is an activist rant: “The CEOs sponding to economic conditions with- slaves were told they were free. awful things in their names. It in 2009, though it came with Egan Now, to put it to good use, at a doesn’t diminish them to note a caveat that the mea culpa should take a pay cut!” Tell that to out interference from Rep. Kotek and their failures, their injustices, their crimes could not be used as legal rationale for time when a post-racial era seems mom-and-pop business owners, who at her Portland colleagues. against humanity. It elevates them. reparations. very much out of reach. When Prime Minister Tony Blair of And President Bill Clinton, while in 7KH ¿UVW EODFN PDQ WR OLYH LQ WKH Africa in 1998, apologized for the slave Britain apologized to the Irish in 1997 White House, long hesitant about doing trade, but not for a government that in- for England’s role in a famine that killed anything bold on the color divide, could stitutionalized white supremacy during more than a million people, it opened the make one of the most simple and dra- LWV¿UVWIRXUVFRUHDQGFKDQJH door to reconciliation, and a burst of new matic moves of his presidency: apolo- For this year’s Juneteenth — com- scholarship and awareness about a geno- gize for the land of the free being, at one memorating the day in 1865, more than cidal episode long mired in shame. The British government also tried time, the largest slaveholding nation on two years after the Emancipation Proc- earth. lamation, when a Union general landed to make good for prosecuting a World 7KH&RQIHGHUDWHEDWWOHÀDJWKDWVWLOO LQ*DOYHVWRQ7H[DVDQGWROGWKHODVWRI War II hero and Nazi code breaker, ÀLHVRQWKHJURXQGVRIWKH6WDWH+RXVH the dead-enders in Texas that “all slaves Alan Turing, for the crime of being gay. It took the Vatican 350 years to in South Carolina, cradle of the Civil are free” — Obama could close a loop in ll eyes in the American soccer WKHUHZHUHIRXURU¿YHWHDPVSOD\LQJDW War, is a reminder that the hatred be- a terrible history. He could also elevate apologize for the persecution of the the current discussion on ,WDOLDQDVWURQRPHU*DOLOHR%XWQRZWKH world will be on Ottawa Friday their skill level. By the time our wom- hind the proclaimed right to own another human being race, which swirled earlier church speaks with authority, backed DWSP3DFL¿F7LPH HQORVWWKHVHPL¿QDODW3RUWODQG¶V3*( has never left our shores. Obama in the week around the serial by science, on climate change — leav- The Canadian capital will be the 3DUN LQ ZLQQHUV *HUPDQ\ DQG An apology would not liar Rachel Dolezal, and the ing Republicans in the United States in could venue for the U.S. Women’s National Brazil had improved, too, and were kill that hatred, but it would race-baiting billionaire van- the dungeon of ignorance. Pope John Paul II apologized to ity blimp of Donald Trump. 7HDP¶V ORVHURXW TXDUWHU¿QDO DJDLQVW mirroring their men’s teams, the most ripple, positively, in ways close Jews for the Vatican’s inaction on the that may be felt for years. The slaughter of wor- China. And, judging by its four erratic successful in soccer history. Holocaust and to Muslims killed by As the son of a Kenyan shippers in a church with a loop performances in the opening rounds, Although there were a couple father and a white mother ORQJWLHVWR¿JKWLQJVODYHU\ crusaders. Last year, Pope Francis the U.S. players will have to step up of 10-0 blow outs, this year’s open- who died more than a cen- in a and Jim Crow “raises ques- reached out to victims of clerical sex their consistency to advance to the ing pool-play rounds were general- tury after slavery ended, tions about a dark part of our abuse and said he was sorry on behalf history,” Obama said Thurs- of the church he leads. VHPL¿QDOV ly competitive and any team in the Barack Obama has little terrible President Ronald Reagan signed leg- ancestral baggage on this is- Questions about why (YHUVLQFHWKH¿UVW:RPHQ¶V:RUOG TXDUWHU¿QDOVLVJRRGHQRXJKWROLIWWKH history. day. islation that provided payments and apol- sue. Yet no man could make 6RXWK&DUROLQDFDQVWLOOÀ \ Cup tournament in 1991, interest has trophy. England, France and Australia a stronger statement about WKHÀDJRIDWUDLWRUQDWLRQD ogies for the internment, during World War been building, in part because of the are among nations that have invested $PHULFD¶VRULJLQDOVLQWKDQWKH¿UVW$I ÀDJDSSDUHQWO\HPEUDFHGE\WKHVKRRW II, of more than 100,000 Japanese-Ameri- number of American girls playing the in women’s programs; some of their rican-American president. er. Questions rooted in a history that cans — most of them U.S. citizens. sport — including here on the North stars play in the United States, and It’s harder to be contrite than to con- Conservatives would caw — they calls for a formal apology. )URPWKHWLPHWKH¿UVW$IULFDQVDU quer. Obama had nothing to do with Coast through the Lower Columbia EHQH¿WIURPRXU¿WQHVVWDFWLFDODQG always do — and say, get over it, don’t Youth Soccer Association and for technical training. Thanks, in part, to play the race card. Liberals would rived as slaves in Jamestown in 1619 slavery. Most Americans, descendants of immigrants shunned in their home- Astoria and Seaside high school teams. the University of Portland, Canada complain that a simple apology did not WKURXJK WKH FRGL¿FDWLRQ RI EODFNV DV lands, have very little connection to the go far enough, unless it entailed repa- WKUHH¿IWKV RI D SHUVRQ LQ WKH &RQVWL 7KH86WUDYHOHGWRWKDW¿UVWWRXU has developed world-class players, rations for the descendants of slaves. tution and up to the eve of the Civil slaveholders of the American South. So nament in China accompanied by a too. But words of contrition — a formal War, when 4 million people were held why apologize? Because we own this lone American journalist to report All this is a far cry from the oth- acknowledgment of a grievous wrong in bondage, slavery has been the most past. As such, we have to condemn it. on the “novelty” of the female game. er recent headlines world soccer has He came home with a notable scoop: been making. The FBI has unveiled the inspirational Michelle Akers’ a long overdue investigation into cor- WZR JRDOV LQ WKH ¿QDO DJDLQVW ULYDOV ruption among international admin- • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici 224-5244. Web: www.wyden.senate. State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., Norway secured the trophy for the istrators, with obscene amounts of (D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing- gov S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone: • State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State 503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john- USA and set the bar for women’s soc- cash secretly changing hands for the ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225- cer in the intervening years, winning rights to host lucrative tournaments. 0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373, son@state.or.us Web: www.betsyjohn- RI¿FH 6: 0LOOLNDQ :D\ IRXURXWRI¿YH2O\PSLFJROGPHGDOV Court revelations, plea deals and con- Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986- VRQFRP 'LVWULFW 2I¿FH 32 %R[ 5 1431. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/witt/ Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone: 503- Fast-forward 20-plus years and fessions will further tarnish the image Phone: 503-326-2901. Fax 503- Email: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us 543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296. Astoria media coverage has ballooned. Every of FIFA, the body which runs world 326-5066. Web: bonamici.house. • State Rep. Deborah Boone (D): RI¿FHSKRQH gov/ 900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem, • Port of Astoria: Executive Direc- game is televised in the U.S.; fans soccer. • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313 OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432. tor, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Astoria, OR have packed Canadian stadiums. And Meanwhile, the 2015 Women’s parity in international women’s soc- World Cup rolls on toward the July +DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ :DVK Email: rep.deborah boone@state.or.us 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300. Email: ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224- 'LVWULFW RI¿FH 32 %R[ &DQ admin@portofastoria.com cer has arrived. 5 championship game in Vancouver, 3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov non Beach, OR 97110. Phone: 503- • Clatsop County Board of Com- When the U.S. hosted the 1999 %ULWLVK&ROXPELD*RRGOXFNJHWWLQJ • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/ missioners: c/o County Manager, 800 tourney, and won that memorable pen- a ticket if the U.S. team advances 'LUNVHQ 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ boone/ Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-325-1000. Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202- • State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D): DOW\VKRRWRXW¿QDOLQWKH5RVH%RZO through the next two rounds. By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times News Service L Minimum wage bill misses our diversity A Speaker Kotek’s last-minute bill is too much, too late It’s time to apologize for slavery A Time for USA team to step up A Women’s World Cup sparkles, but soccer scandals remain Where to write