OPINION
6A
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 new Tapiola Playground opened on schedule Sunday evening, the
culmination of a whirlwind building effort that involved the whole commu-
nity. Play structures replicating the Astoria Column, the Liberty Theater, the
Flavel house, Fort Clatsop and a gillnet boat are among the fanciful play-
ground’s uniquely Astorian components.
“We actually got all of it done. It was amazing,” said Julia Mabry, a vol-
unteer who worked on the project every day and also served as public rela-
tions coordinator.
Terra Littell, president of the Astoria Children’s Museum board, which
sponsored Sunday’s grand opening, said watching the kids play made it all
worthwhile.
The Seaside Rotary and the Clatsop County Secular Human-
ists probably don’t have much in common with each other. But
there is one thing that gives them a common bond: litter.
Sandy McDowall of the Seaside Rotary and Claude Clayton
of the Clatsop County Secular Humanists have been long-time
supporters and volunteers of the Oregon Department of Trans-
portation’s Adopt-A-Highway program.
The program has taken off since its inception in 1991. Since
then, residents in Clatsop and Tillamook counties have collected
470,950 pounds of litter off of the sides of the highways.
The new Tapiola playground is a phenomenal accomplishment. The
speed with which the playground took shape was little short of breathtaking,
not simply in terms of this community, but in the context of all communities.
Voluntarism is alive and well in Astoria. From dawn to dusk, hundreds
of workers showed up at Tapiola Park to make the new playground come
to life. Wendy Berezay, president of the organization that installed the play
structure, demonstrated a level of leadership that ought to be emulated else-
where in the city and the county.
Across Oregon for 15 years, adults have been telling school children that
they aren’t worth as much as their predecessors. This playground sends the
opposite message, and that is very healthy.
Creating opportunity for children is one of the measurements of a com-
munity. By that index, Astoria is doing very well.
50 years ago — 1965
The last pair of concrete shells for the Astoria bridge piers
were cast at Tongue Point and delivered to Pier 12 near the
bridge’s north end this week.
This was the 16th pair of these concrete bell-shaped shells to
be placed for the North Channel crossing just off the Washington
shore.
Sen. Wayne Morse, D-Ore., told the Senate today that U.S. bombing of
Hanoi and Red China would bring Russia into the war immediately and
Soviet ¿ ghting would not be con¿ ned to Southeast Asia.
“In such a case,” Morse said, “a third world war will be on ... a war from
which there will come no victor.”
Rep. Wendell Wyatt, R-Ore., demanded Wednesday that the
State Department protest to the Soviet Union against Russian
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The Oregon Republican said in a House speech that Russian
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shore.
A trio of Cannon Beach men braved the icy surf here Friday and swam
around Haystack rock.
The men, Jon Stachelrodt, Bill Kitterman and Pete Sroufe, made the
highly publicized swim at 10 a.m. when the tide was at a low of 1.5 foot level
75 years ago — 1940
LONG BEACH – Blood stained the beach sands and the
nearby roads over the weekend as two dead and 11 injured were
counted following the three-day northwest motorcycle gypsy tour
and beach races, which ended here Sunday.
A four-motored U.S. Army À ying fortress bombing plane, the largest
bombing ship in the American army today, landed at the Clatsop airport
Sunday, where the pilot, Lieutenant T.J. Way, said he was making an aerial
survey of available airports in the 10 Western states.
Long embarrassed with the location of some 300 buildings
on dedicated streets of the city, the Astoria city commission
Monday night announced that no further permits for repair of
such buildings or the erection of new ones on city streets would
be granted.
CANNON BEACH — Lester Ordway and Ted Nicholson, native resi-
dents here, today made a successful cruise to sea and back in a 14-foot power
boat, going out and returning through the surf in a stunt which crowds of
skeptical spectators thought impossible.
The pair made the trip just for a stunt, breaking through the waves on the
south side of Haystack rock and returning to the same point.
The trip is believed the ¿ rst successful one of its kind ever made from
Cannon Beach.
In keeping with time-honored custom, Astorians will take in
the Fourth of July celebrations of their seacoast neighbors on
the Clatsop Beaches. All the Astoria observance of the national
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rush to the beaches where the weather promises to cooperate in
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The Seaside girls high school band will play in the afternoon
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around.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2015
A month to remember
W
HEN A HISTORIAN
examines this era, June
2015 will be a treasure trove of
watershed events. Pope Francis’
encyclical on climate change,
the Supreme Court’s rulings on
health care and gay marriage,
and President Obama’s eulogy
to Rev. Clementa Pinckney sig-
nal the shifting of the tectonic
plates that underly American
culture.
The national newspapers have
focused on what these events —
particularly the health care and gay
marriage decisions — mean for the
Republican Party as it chooses a
nominee for president. But the sweep
of these events move well beyond the
world of partisan politics. They are
part of a rede¿ nition of the American
economy and culture.
Implicit in President Obama’s
speech at Emanuel AME church in
Charleston was his blackness. Obama
communicated with that congrega-
tion and with the African-American
experience in a way that a white
president could not have achieved.
The closest historical parallel one
may summon is of President Lyn-
don Johnson speaking to Congress
in 1965, demanding a Voting Rights
Act. In that speech, Johnson bor-
rowed the refrain from a civil rights
hymn, We shall overcome.
Preceded by the bloody Selma
march, the period when Johnson
made that speech, was also a time of
tumultuous change. Coincidentally,
the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made
the election of a black president pos-
sible in 2008.
źźź
THE RICHNESS OF REPORT-
ing for a newspaper such as The
Daily Astorian is the variety of top-
ics a young reporter may explore.
Kyle Spurr lived that experience
last week. Spurr’s meat and potatoes
diet is crime, courts and county gov-
ernment. Last week his workplace
nutrition was supplemented with an
interview with Angela Meade, the
world-class operatic soprano who
capped the Astoria Music Festival
‘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/Carolyn Kaster
President Barack Obama speaks during services honoring the life
of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Friday, in Charleston, S.C. Pinckney
was one of the nine people killed in the shooting at Emanuel AME
Church in Charleston.
Kyle Spurr
had an
advantage in
interviewing
Angela
Meade
with a Sunday performance.
Spurr took this assignment with
an advantage. He had known Meade
during his job at the Chronicle in Cen-
tralia. The phenomenal arc of Meade’s
career began in Centralia. Meade
spoke to Spurr with a candor that one
does not see in the national arts press.
As the supporting singers came
to the stage, you had the feeling they
understood that a Metropolitan Opera
star was coming. One by one, they
raised the game.
Over its 11 years, the festival
has produced many memorable af-
ternoons and evenings. This perfor-
mance was in a category of its own.
I didn’t look at my watch, but I sus-
pect the curtain calls — in which the
singers were called to the stage again
and again – went on for almost 10
minutes.
źźź
THE
SUNDAY
MUSIC
Festival performance of Donizetti’s
Mary Stuarda featured a cast of prin-
cipal singers who were all on top of
their game.
The next culture war: Mend the fabric
opted for another strategy:
ments are strained and
frayed. Millions of kids live
Fight on. Several contribu-
in stressed and À uid living
tors to the symposium in the
arrangements. Many com-
hristianity is in decline in the journal First Things called
munities have suffered a
United States. The share of the Obergefell decision last
loss of social capital. Many
week the Roe v. Wade of
Americans who describe them- marriage. It must be resisted
young people grow up in a
selves as Christians and attend and resisted again. Robert P.
sexual and social environ-
ment rendered barbaric be-
George,
probably
the
most
church is dropping.
cause there are no common
brilliant
social
conservative
Evangelical voters make up a
norms. Many adults hunger
theorist in the country, ar-
David
smaller share of the electorate.
for meaning and goodness,
gued that just as Lincoln per-
Brooks
Members of the millennial genera- sistently rejected the Dred
but lack a spiritual vocabu-
tion are detaching themselves from reli- Scott decision, so “we must reject and lary to think things through.
Social conservatives could be the
gious institutions in droves.
resist an egregious act of judicial usur-
people who help reweave the sinews
Christianity’s gravest setbacks are pation.”
in the realm of values. American cul-
These conservatives are enmeshed of society. They already subscribe to
ture is shifting away from orthodox in a decades-long culture war that has a faith built on selÀ ess love. They can
Christian positions on homosexuality, been fought over issues arising from serve as examples of commitment.
premarital sex, contraception, out-of- the sexual revolution. Most of the con- They are equipped with a vocabulary to
wedlock childbearing, divorce and a servative commentators I’ve read over distinguish right from wrong, what dig-
range of other social issues. More and the past few days are resolved to keep ni¿ es and what demeans. They already,
but in private, tithe to the poor and nur-
more Christians feel estranged from ¿ ghting that war.
mainstream culture. They fear they
I am to the left of the people I have ture the lonely.
The de¿ ning face of social conser-
will soon be treat-
been describing on
ed as social pariahs,
almost all of these vatism could be this: Those are the peo-
the moral equivalent
social issues. But ple who go into underprivileged areas
We live in
of segregationists
I hope they regard and form organizations to help nurture
a society
because of their ad-
me as a friend and stable families. Those are the people
herence to scriptur-
admirer. And from who build community institutions in
plagued by
al teaching on gay
that vantage point, I places where they are sparse. Those are
marriage. They fear formlessness
would just ask them the people who can help us think about
their colleges will be
to consider a change how economic joblessness and spiritual
poverty reinforce each other. Those are
decerti¿ ed, their reli-
and radical
in course.
gious institutions will
Consider putting the people who converse with us about
fl ux.
lose their tax-exempt
aside, in the current the transcendent in everyday life.
This culture war is more Albert Sch-
status, their religious
climate, the culture
liberty will come under greater assault. war oriented around the sexual revolu- weitzer and Dorothy Day than Jerry
Falwell and Franklin Graham; more Sal-
The Supreme Court’s gay marriage tion.
decision landed like some sort of culmi-
Put aside a culture war that has vation Army than Moral Majority. It’s
nating body blow onto this beleaguered alienated large parts of three genera- doing purposefully in public what social
climate. Rod Dreher, author of the tru- tions from any consideration of religion conservatives already do in private.
I don’t expect social conservatives
ly outstanding book How Dante Can or belief. Put aside an effort that has
Save Your Life, wrote an essay in Time been a communications disaster, reduc- to change their positions on sex, and
in which he argued that it was time for ing a rich, complex and beautiful faith of course ¿ ghts about the de¿ nition
Christians to strategically retreat into into a public obsession with sex. Put of marriage are meant as efforts to re-
their own communities, where they can aside a culture war that, at least over the weave society. But the sexual revolu-
tion will not be undone anytime soon.
keep “the light of faith burning through near term, you are destined to lose.
the surrounding cultural darkness.”
Consider a different culture war, The more practical struggle is to repair
He continued: “We have to accept one that would be just as central to your a society rendered atomized, unforgiv-
that we really are living in a culturally faith and far more powerful in its per- ing and inhospitable. Social conserva-
tives are well equipped to repair this
post-Christian nation. The fundamental suasive witness.
norms Christians have long been able to
We live in a society plagued by fabric, and to serve as messengers of
depend on no longer exist.”
formlessness and radical À ux, in which love, dignity, commitment, communion
Most Christian commentary has bonds, social structures and commit- and grace.
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
C
Where to write
•865HS6X]DQQH%RQDPLFL
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-
0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District
of¿ ce: 12725 SW Millikan Way,
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005.
Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-
326-5066. Web: bonamici.house.
gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
Hart Senate Of¿ ce Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Of¿ ce Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-
224-5244. Web: www.wyden.senate.
gov