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 “If we’re going to build the thing, let’s make it last 50 years.” Some of the logs have split a bit, and there are a few gaps in the walls where the wood has shrunk or settled, but a half-century later, Fort Clatsop is still bring- ing the Lewis and Clark story to life for thousands of visitors. On Sunday, some of the people responsible for building the replica fort gath- ered to share their memories of the project, 50 years to the day after its dedication. The tiny log structure that is now the centerpiece of the new Lewis and Clark National Historical Park began as a seemingly far-fetched idea of a brand-new service group with lots of enthusiasm but no money or fort-building skills. It grew into a community-wide project supported by a variety of groups and individuals, who lent money, supplies and labor to make the idea a reality. While our region celebrates the achievement of obtaining a new national park, the time also is ripe to recognize an earlier success that was no less impressive. It is the preservation of Long Island in Willapa Bay. 7KLV6DWXUGD\PDQ\GLJQLWDULHVZLOOPHHWRQWKHLVODQGWRRI¿- cially name the “Don Bonker Cedar Grove” in honor of the retired Washington state congressman who led efforts to save one of the West Coast’s outstanding places. The 274-acre Cedar grove is the last remnant of a maritime forest that covered the coasts of southwestern Washington and northwest- ern Oregon thousands of years ago. Today, some of the cedars are as old as 900 years. It is rare that such an ancient grove has survived this long, both through natural threats and those imposed by man- kind. 50 years ago — 1965 7KH2UHJRQ+LJKZD\FRPPLVVLRQ0RQGD\DSSURYHGWKH¿UVWPDMRUSRU- tion of relocating the twisting Columbia River highway between Astoria and Knappa. The commission approved realignment and widening of 3.5 miles of US 30 between Burnside and a point east of Knappa High School where the new align- ment will join a previously rebuilt segment of the highway. The new alignment will cut through three mink ranches in the Svensen area, and construction work will not begin until mink pelting is completed next winter, for fear of disturbing the mink. Robert B. Nash of Everett and Steve Miscoe of Seaside, diving QHDU1HDKNDKQLHPRXQWDLQUHFHQWO\IRXQGRQWKHRFHDQÀRRUD short distance south of the slide which fell off the face of the moun- tain last winter, a green starboard light of the type which burned oil, and must have come from a sailing vessel. One person who saw the lamp stated it could have been from the Upada or Upata. There is a chance it could have come from the same ship as the bell which was recently recovered. Astoria’s 45th annual Regatta celebra- WLRQRI¿FLDOO\JRWXQGHUZD\7KXUVGD\QLJKW with selection of Sheryl Bettendorf as 1965 Regatta queen in ceremonies at Astoria High School. $ORQJ³2RRRRK´PXIÀHGE\KHUKDQG was all that was heard from Queen Sheryl when the royal robe was place on her shoul- ders at a private ceremony in a small room near the auditorium where her Regattaland subjects were awaiting her triumphant re- turn. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015 Community opens their KHDUWVKRPHVWR¿UHYLFWLPV The stories will remain long after WKH¿UHVDUHSXWRXW A V ¿UH URDUHG WKURXJK &DQ\RQ Creek and over the hills just south of John Day, those who were ordered to evacuate recall details they probably never will forget. Dean Elliott, who lost his home of 53 years, remembers the sound of the wind. It was like a locomotive, he said. His wife, Betty, recalls how the oxygen was sucked out of the air and she could hardly breathe. Mike Mannell, who was woken by a friend, tells how he ran through the smoke to put a sprinkler on his Har- ley-Davidson and another sprinkler on his neighbor’s house. If his friend hadn’t woken him that morning, says Mannell, whose cabin he had been building for six years burned to the ground, “I probably ZRXOGKDYHSHULVKHGLQWKDW¿UH´ And with tears in his eyes, the neighbor, Bryan Nelson, whose home Mannell saved, calls Mannell a “hero.” These stories abound in the can- yon. They are told and retold to friends, relatives, restaurant waitress- es, store clerks. They are told because people in this community know each other, and most importantly, they care about one another. 7KH ¿UH RQH PLOH VRXWK RI -RKQ Day, has burned 69,606 acres — about 109 square miles. It has destroyed 39 homes. More than 200 people had to HYDFXDWHGXULQJWKHKHLJKWRIWKH¿UH ZKLFKVWDUWHGDVDDFUHEUXVK¿UH Aug. 12. For nearly two weeks, Blue Moun- tain EagleVWDIIHUV&KHU\O+RHÀHUDQG Angel Carpenter have kept a running list of all the donations, services, of- fers of homes and other resources available to those who were affected E\WKH¿UH5HVSRQVHKDVEHHQSRXU- ing into the Eagle’s Facebook page throughout the region, asking how they can help. That’s what you do in a crisis. Angel Carpenter/Blue Mountain Eagle Six-year-old Dalia Nicodemus of Canyon City shows a poster she made for the firefighters who’ve been working on the Canyon Creek Complex fire. I MPRESSIONS That’s what you do in a crisis. sponding to this crisis, I have hope that we will do just as well when disaster N ANCY hits us on the coast. M C C ARTHY 7KH ORFDO ¿UH GHSDUWPHQWV 86 Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, Grant County Sheriff’s Of- ¿FHDQG5HG&URVVDOOEHJDQZRUNLQJ WRJHWKHUWRIHQGRIIWKH¿UHDQGNHHSXV expected to occur 50 to 75 miles off- informed. In only a day or two, when shore and trigger a tsunami that would LWZDVREYLRXVWKH¿UHFRXOGQ¶WEHFRQ- WUROOHGORFDOO\QHDUO\¿UH¿JKWHUV wipe our communities off the map. It seems that, no matter where from throughout the region responded, you live, some sort of disaster looms, and two incident commanders trained threatening to destroy all we hold WR VXSHUYLVH PDVVLYH ZLOG¿UHV WRRN charge. dear. Meanwhile, local volunteers The difference between the North Coast and Eastern Oregon, however, is opened their hearts, wallets and homes that the Cascadia earthquake happens to those who needed immediate help. Where I live, they say not to count HYHU\ \HDUV DQG ¿UHV DUH D UHDO on outside help being able to reach us possibility here every 300 days. We are constantly in the emergency for several weeks — or even months. planning mode on the coast. We worry We will be on our own to cope. This experience, in this small com- about where we would evacuate to es- cape the wall of water heading toward munity, shows me that it can be done. Danger everywhere The details of our potential crisis us 15 minutes after the earthquake Where I live — on the North Ore- drops the ground out from under us. will be different. We will have differ- gon Coast — we are a small commu- We gather “go bags” — backpacks ent stories to tell. Instead of a wall of nity, too. Most all of us have ties to ¿OOHG ZLWK HPHUJHQF\ VXSSOLHV ZH ¿UHZHPD\EHÀHHLQJDZDOORIZDWHU each other — through family, work, test out evacuation routes leading to- ,QVWHDGRI¿UHFRQVXPLQJRXUKRPHV volunteer activities, civic duties or ward ground higher than 80 feet and it will be an enormous ocean wave. But I hope — and expect — the friendship. we organize Community Emergency We also have emergencies. Usu- Response Teams to help us deal with community response will be the same. DOO\ LW¶V ÀRRGLQJ RU ZLQGVWRUPV LQ the immediate crises that will occur We will take care of each other. Because that’s what communities the winter because it rains so much ZKHQ SHRSOH ¿QDOO\ UHDFK SUHHVWDE- do in a crisis. along the coast, where we live on a lished gathering spots. Nancy McCarthy is the former edi- narrow band of land between forest Hope for the future tor of the Seaside Signal and the Can- and ocean. After observing and reporting on non Beach Gazette. She has been the Our largest, overriding concern, however, is the potential Cascadia how John Day and Canyon City area interim editor of the Blue Mountain Subduction Zone earthquake that is residents and emergency crews are re- Eagle for the past month. B Y Live life as a series of revelations Paul’s point is that we’re cognitive creatures who are most sophisticated when we fundamentally ignorant rely on rationality. about many of the biggest et’s say you had the chance to be- choices of our lives and that The most reliable de- come a vampire. cision-making guides are it’s not possible to make more “primitive.” We’re With one magical bite you would purely rational decisions. historical creatures. We gain immortality, superhuman strength “You shouldn’t fool your- have inherited certain life and a life of glamorous intensity. self,” she writes. “You have scripts from evolution and Your friends who have undergone no idea what you are getting culture, and there’s often a the transformation say the experience into.” lot of wisdom in following is incredible. They drink animal blood, The decision to have a David those life scripts. We’re so- not human blood, and say everything child is the purest version Brooks cial creatures. Often we un- about their new existence provides of this choice. On average, them with fun, companionship and people who have a child suffer a loss dertake big transformational challenges meaning. of reported well-being. They’re more QRW EHFDXVH LW IXO¿OOV RXU GHVLUHV EXW Would you do it? Would you con- exhausted and report lower life satisfac- because it is good for our kind. We’re mystical creatures. Often sent to receive the life-altering bite, tion. And yet few parents can imagine even knowing that once changed you going back and being their old prepa- when people make a transformational could never go back? rental selves. Parents are like self-ful- choice they feel it less as a choice and 7KH GLI¿FXOW\ RI WKH FKRLFH LV WKDW ¿OOHG YDPSLUHV 7KHLU ULFK QHZ OLYHV more as a calling. They feel there was you’d have to use your human self would have seemed incomprehensible something that destined them to be with this spouse or in that vocation. and preferences to try to guess wheth- to their old childless selves. Most important, we’re moral crea- er you’d enjoy having a vampire self So how do you make transforma- and preferences. Becoming a vampire tional decisions? You have to ask the tures. When faced with a transforma- is transformational. You right questions, Paul ar- tional choice the weakest question would literally become gues. Don’t ask, Will I may be, What do I desire? Our desires Parents a different self. How can like parenting? You can’t change all the time. The strongest ques- you possibly know what know. Instead, acknowl- tions may be: Which path will make are like it would feel like to be edge that you, like all me a better person? Will joining the this different version people, are born with an military give me more courage? Will self- of you or whether you intense desire to know. becoming a parent make me more ca- fulfilled would like it? Ask, Do I have a pro- SDEOHRIVHOÀHVVORYH" Our moral intuitions are more du- In her book “Transfor- found desire to discover mative Experience,” L.A. vampires. what it would be like to rable than our desires, based on a uni- Paul, a philosophy pro- be this new me, to expe- versal standard of right and wrong. The person who shoots for virtue will more fessor at the University of North Caroli- rience this new mode of living? QDDW&KDSHO+LOOVD\VOLIHLV¿OOHGZLWK As she puts it, “The best response reliably be happy with her new self, and decisions that are a bit like this. Life is to this situation is to choose based on will at least have a nice quality to help ¿OOHG ZLWK IRUNV LQ WKH URDG LQ ZKLFK whether we want to discover who we’ll her cope with whatever comes. Which brings us to the core social you end up changing who you are and become.” point. These days we think of a lot of what you want. Live life as a series of revelations. People who have a child suddenly Personally, I think Paul’s descrip- decisions as if they were shopping become different. Joining the military tion of the problem is ingenious but choices. When we’re shopping for is another transformational experience. her solution is incomplete. Would you something, we act as autonomous crea- So are marrying, changing careers, im- really trust yourself to raise and nurture tures who are looking for the product migrating, switching religions. a child simply on the basis of self-reve- that will produce the most pleasure or In each of these cases the current lation? Curiosity is too thin, relativistic utility. But choosing to have a child or selecting a spouse, faith or life course is you is trying to make an important and ephemeral. decision, without having the chance I’d say to really make these deci- not like that. It’s probably safer to ask to know what it will feel like to be the sions well you need to step outside “What do I admire?” than “What do I future you. the modern conception of ourselves as want?” By DAVID BROOKS New York Times News Service L Courtesy of Clatsop County Historical Society Admiral Lawrence Barber of Astoria is facing a “critical” coin Portland crowns Sheryl Bet- shortage and according to a local tendorf 1965 Regatta queen bank spokesman the situation “is go- in ceremonies at Astoria ing to get worse before it gets better.” High School Thursday night. Local merchants have been “cry- ing” for coins for the last few months but lately the situation has been growing worse. 7RP%UDPHRSHUDWLRQVRI¿FHURI)LUVW1DWLRQDO%DQN¶V$VWRULD branch, said Monday his bank has only enough coins for one or two days of normal operations. “It’s a nation-wide shortage,” Brame said. “Mints are not pro- GXFLQJHQRXJKFRLQVWRPHHWWKHVKRUWDJHDQGWKH)HGHUDO5HVHUYH system has had to cut its allotment of coins to banks way down,” he said. 75 years ago — 1940 Not until he had lined up Al Sehorn, Aero club swimming coach of Port- ODQGWRPDNHQLJKWO\³¿UHGLYHV´GXULQJWKHWKUHHGD\ZDWHUVSRUWVSURJUDPRI the Astoria Regatta did William Seeborg, chairman of the water sports, satisfy a burning desire to have the biggest water show ever presented here. A special platform, 15 feet off the water in front of the marine stadium, will be erected to accommodate the sensational stunt diver. Sehorn will sat- urate his clothing with gasoline. For a moment after a match is touched to KLVFORWKHVWKHGLYHUKHVLWDWHVDQGWKHÀDPHVVZHHSRYHUKLVERG\7KHQKH plunges into the river in complete darkness, save for the light of the “human torch.” 7KHODUJHVWÀHHWRIVSHHGERDWVIRUWKLV\HDU¶V5HJDWWDVLQFHWKH 3DFL¿FFRDVWFKDPSLRQVKLSVGUHZRXWERDUGVSHHGHUVWR