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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2015 America’s un-Greek tragedies 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 Long live the festivals T Astoria Regatta is revived. Will the Music Festival survive? he passing of another edition of the Clatsop County Fair is a reminder of the vitality of our rural agricultural cul- ture. Last week our photographer Joshua Bessex evoked the sights, smells and sounds of the fair. It is a delight to discover a new generation of boys and girls who are raising animals through the 4-H program. The fair is also a window on the home grown culinary and ¿ber arts. If the fair has passed, the Astoria Regatta cannot be far behind. The signature event — the Grand Land Parade — is Saturday. Not that long ago, the Regatta was on hard times, as its leadership waned. The Astoria chef Peter Roscoe took the lead in reviving the festival’s lead- ership. This year Kevin Leahy has a major hand in running things. We take the operations of our festivals for granted until they hit a rock. After some years of main- taining the festival’s direction, the absence of Lektro President Eric Paulson caused an earthquake. That’s when Roscoe arrived. It is not unusual for a festival as old as Regatta — over 100 years — to have a break in smooth sailing. The Pendleton Round-Up, 105 years old, had its lean leadership years. Now we are witnessing a sim- ilar, but more tentative transi- tion in a much younger fete, the Astoria Music Festival. That top- ic was alive in last week’s Friday Exchange section. Whether or not the conductor Keith Clark has another festival in him — without funded profes- sional management — the festival is approaching a post-Clark era, whether he and his supporters will admit or plan for that. The longer it is postponed, the more likely that the music festival will become the responsibility of another organiza- tion. These festivals — Scandinavian, music, county fair and Regatta — feed our regional economy. They also make our culture richer. Long may they live. Traf¿c fatalities deserve action W Deadly highways shouldn’t come as surprise e as a local society manage to rationalize or gloss over the individual traf¿c fatalities that occur with alarming frequency in Clatsop County. So our story last week ¿nding such deaths here between 2004 and 2014 is excep- tionally attention-grabbing. This is a horrifying statistic that deserves action. The deadliness of our highways — particularly U.S. Highway 101 and U.S. Highway 30 — shouldn’t come as a surprise. Just a few years ago, a similar analysis of the decade that ended Dec. 31, 2009 found a similarly disturbing death toll. Over at least the past 15 years, the density per mile of fa- tal accidents between Astoria and Rainier on Highway 30 resembles that on the Interstate 5, which has far heavier traf¿c. Highway 2 is almost as bad, as is Highway 101. One of the pragmatic uses of such information is to identify par- ticularly dangerous intersections or other highway hazards. Last year, crash statistics led the Oregon Department of Transportation to name a -mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101 from Camp Rilea Armed Forces Training Center to Surf Pines Lane as a priority safety improvement project. Getting the work done depends on funding. The majority of fatal accidents in Clatsop County aren’t caused by faulty roads, but by drivers trav- eling too fast for conditions and straddling or crossing the center- line, according to crash data. This comes as no surprise to anyone here. It is common to observe mo- torists traveling 0 mph or more in 55 mph zones, particularly on Highways 30 and 2. Add to this the fact that there are many curves and it’s easy to see why vehicles sometimes stray from their own lanes. Weekenders in a hurry to get here and residents in a hurry to get to Portland appointments take dangerous chances every day of the year. It is a mystery why the statistics reported last week do not make any reference to alcohol and drug impairment as a factor. Crashes reported in The Daily Astorian certainly sometimes indicate such problems. Getting into the heart of the matter from a public policy stand- point, one of the greatest single contributors to these deaths is lack of adequate law enforcement. This isn’t necessarily a criticism of lo- cal Oregon State Police, who pre- sumably do the best they can with the resources at hand. But speed- ing and other forms of dangerous driving are not getting enough at- tention, perhaps for want of suf¿- cient funding. Cross the bridge into Paci¿c County, Wash., and try traveling to South Bend or Longview go- ing 0 mph. Speed enforcement is far more intense. People up to and including Bill Gates have been ticketed. Whatever Washington state is doing, it is more effective than Oregon in averting high- way fatalities. Looking at 2013, in Washington there was one fatal for every 1,000 residents, while in Oregon it was one per 12,500. (Both were safer than the nation- wide rate of about one fatal per 9,00 residents. These aren’t meaningless data points, but human beings who came to sudden, violent ends. They were fathers, mothers, daughters and sons. They leave rending gaps in survivors’ lives. If these deaths were from ban- ditry, heroin overdoses or gunshot wounds, it would be an infamous scandal warranting a massive in- vestigation. The senseless loss of innocent people on our roads de- serves an equally strong response. between Puerto Rico and the mainland use U.S. ships, raising transportation costs even further. Puerto Rico, then, is in the n Friday the government of Puerto Rico announced wrong place at the wrong time. But here’s the thing: while the that it was about to miss a island’s economy has declined bond payment. It claimed that sharply, its population, while for technical legal reasons this hurting, hasn’t suffered anything wouldn’t be a default, but that’s like the catastrophes we see in Europe. Look, for example, at a distinction without a differ- consumption per capita, which ence. has fallen 30 percent in Greece So is Puerto Rico America’s but has actually continued to rise Greece? No, it isn’t, and it’s import- in Puerto Rico. Why have the human ant to understand why. consequences of economic troubles Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis is ba- been muted? sically the byproduct of a severe The main answer is that Puerto economic downturn. The common- Rico is part of the U.S. ¿scal union. wealth’s government was slow to When its economy faltered, its pay- adjust to the worsening fundamen- ments to Washington fell, but its tals, papering over the problem receipts from Washington — Social with borrowing. And now it has hit Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the wall. more — actually rose. So Puerto What went wrong? There was Rico automatically received aid on a time when the island did quite a scale beyond anything conceivable well as a manu- in Europe. facturing center, Is Puerto Rico’s boosted in part by status as part of the Compared a special federal U.S. all good? A tax break. But that with Europe, recent report com- tax break expired missioned by the America in 200, and in commonwealth’s any case changes government argues benefits in the world econ- that its economy omy have worked hugely from is hurt by sharing against Puerto the U.S. minimum having an Rico. wage, which rais- These days es costs, and also integrated manufacturing fa- by federal bene- vors either very- ¿ts that encourage national low-wage nations, adults to drop out or locations close of the workforce. budget — to markets that can In principle these but it’s not take advantage complaints could of short logistic be right. In partic- integrated chains to respond ular, even econo- quickly to chang- mists who support enough to ing conditions. But a higher U.S. mini- Puerto Rico’s wag- mum wage, myself deal with es aren’t low by included, generally really big global standards. agree that it could And its island lo- be a problem if set regional cation puts it at a too high relative to disadvantage com- productivity — and shocks. pared not just with Puerto Rican pro- the U.S. mainland ductivity is far be- but with places like the north of low mainland levels. Mexico, from which goods can be But the evidence that minimum quickly shipped by truck. wages or social bene¿ts are really a The situation is, unfortunate- problem is, as one careful if older ly, exacerbated by the Jones Act, study put it, “surprisingly fragile.” which requires that goods traveling Notably, Puerto Rico’s low rate of By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times News Service O labor force partic- ipation probably has more to do with outmigration than with welfare: When job oppor- tunities dry up, young, able-bodied workers move else- where, while the least employable Paul stay in place. You Krugman see the same phe- nomenon in Appa- lachia, where the disappearance of coal-mining jobs has induced many workers to leave, while the remain- ing population makes heavy use of the social safety net. And how terrible is that, really? The safety net is there to protect people, not places. If a region- al economy is left stranded by the shifting tides of globalization, well, that’s going to happen now and then. What’s important is that work- ers be able to ¿nd opportunities somewhere, and that those unable for whatever reason to take advan- tage of these opportunities be pro- tected from extreme hardship. There is, of course, the problem of maintaining public services for those who remain. Compared with Europe, America bene¿ts hugely from having an integrated nation- al budget — but it’s not integrat- ed enough to deal with really big regional shocks. And Puerto Rico faces some risk of a death spiral in which the emigration of work- ing-age residents undermines the tax base for those who are left, and deteriorating public services then lead to even more emigration. What this tells us, in turn, is that even for a part of the United States, too much austerity can be self-de- feating. It would, in particular, be a terrible idea to give the hedge funds that have scooped up much of Puerto Rico’s debt what they want — ba- sically to destroy the island’s edu- cation system in the name of ¿scal responsibility. Overall, however, the Puerto Ri- can story is one of bad times that fall well short of utter disaster. And the saving grace in this situation is big government — a federal system that provides a crucial safety net for American citizens in times of need, wherever they happen to live. Our sex-obsessed Congress “The last time you the Planned Parenthood videos, if you’re infu- had sex, did you use a riated by abortion, you condom?” asks Courtney should be channeling o appreciate the dumbing Pate, a nurse practitioner. more money to Title X, down of American politics, China shakes her head. not less. Pate hands her a bag consider this: Conservative of condoms and warns Since 190, inÀa- Republicans, indignant about her that if she doesn’t use tion-adjusted spending on Title X family planning abortion, are trying to destroy a one every time, she risks has fallen by two-thirds. serious health problems, government program that helps Now the House proposes “like not being able to Nicholas prevent 345,000 abortions a have a baby when you eliminating it altogether, Kristof year. while the Senate propos- want to.” Pate also grills Inevitably in politics there are her on whether she has es a 10 percent cut. good ideas and bad ideas. But oc- told her sexual partners about the This in a country where half casionally there are also moronic infections and whether they are of all pregnancies are unintend- ed, where 30 percent of American ideas - such as the House Republi- getting treated. can proposal to kill America’s main When Pate steps out for a mo- teenage girls become pregnant by family planning program, Title X. ment, I ask China if her boyfriend age 19. The Guttmacher Institute, which The upshot would be more will accept condoms. China looks pregnancies, more abortions, more doubtful and says, “Maybe.” Pate studies reproductive health, calcu- AIDS, more sexually transmitted overhears and comes roaring back. lates that Title X family planning infections and more women dying “If he doesn’t wear a condom, he centers prevent about 1 million of cervical and breast cancer. End- doesn’t get any sex,” Pate declares. unintended pregnancies a year, of ing the program would impoverish “These are the rules: No condoms, which 345,000 would have ended in abortion. It says that every year young mothers and impede the for- no sex.” mation of stable two-parent fami- China tells me she doesn’t have Title X clinics avert some 53,000 lies that conservatives rightly argue any other way of getting birth con- cases of chlamydia and 8,800 cases help overcome poverty. trol or treatment for sexually trans- of gonorrhea, and save the lives of It’s bafÀing mitted diseases. 1,100 women who would otherwise that House Re- Without this clin- die of cervical cancer. Family In other words, Title X prevents publicans are try- ic, she says, she ing to eliminate might well be an abortion about once every 90 planning a 45-year-old pregnant and be seconds. Family planning investments bipartisan initia- spreading infec- investments also offer hedge fund-like returns, tive that is one tions. of the country’s As China for a condom or IUD can avert more also offer anti-poverty suc- leaves, Pate cau- than $12,000 in average Medicaid hedge fund- cesses — and also tions her again: spending on a childbirth. Guttmach- perhaps America’s “Somebody says, er calculates that every $1 invested like returns, most successful ‘Let’s have sex in public family planning services anti-abortion ini- for a condom without a con- saves $ in public expenditures. tiative. dom,’ you say, This is a program that saves money Title X began ‘No, I don’t want as well as lives. or IUD can Opponents of Title X preen and in a Republican any needles in my avert more administration, butt! I don’t want moralize, even as their behavior that of Richard to see that crazy has dreadfully immoral conse- Nixon. Today, than $12,000 lady in the clinic quences. Conservatives empha- size that poverty is often linked 4,100 clinics sup- again!” in average ported by Title I also met to personal irresponsibility. Are X provide fami- Doretta, who after youths like China irresponsible Medicaid ly planning and a pelvic exam at when they have sex without a con- spending on also often test for the clinic received dom? Sure they are! They’re kids. HIV, cure sexually a diagnosis of What’s harder to understand is a childbirth. transmitted infec- possible cervical the irresponsibility of Republican tions and screen cancer. The good House members. My question to them: Do you re- for cervical and news is that it was breast cancer. found early and was treated, and she ally want to increase the odds that kids like China will get pregnant, I visited a Title X clinic in Bal- is expected to be ¿ne. timore. Republican members of the Title X isn’t directly related will spread disease, will become House, this is what you’re trying to to the furor over video footage impoverished single mothers, will destroy: showing Planned Parenthood staff get mired in a cycle of poverty, will A tall 1-year-old girl, nicknamed members speaking cavalierly about get abortions — or will die of breast China (she doesn’t know why; she’s fetal tissues; the Republican ef- or cervical cancer — and do you re- not Chinese, is being treated for fort to eliminate Title X goes back ally think this is moral behavior to gonorrhea and chlamydia. much earlier. To those offended by be proud of? By NICHOLAS KRISTOF New York Times News Service T
