OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015
Remembering John Duncan
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
New future
awaits legendary
ship-rescue vessel
Salvage Chief slated for educational
mission in Columbia estuary
A
nyone who lived near the mouth of the Columbia River in
the second half of the 20th century is certain to know of
“the powerful tug Salvage Chief, famed savior of many a ship
in distress,” to quote Paci¿c *raveyard, by James A. Gibbs.
It’s exciting to learn that
Salvage Chief LLC, a group
headed by Pier 39 owner Floyd
Holcom, and a related founda-
tion have acquired this legend-
ary workhorse and returned it to
the estuary “as both a memorial
to past crewmen and as an edu-
cation tool for future seaman.”
Salvage Chief worked not just
in local waters, but was called
XSRQWRUHÀRDWKXQGUHGVRIYHV-
sels stranded along the U.S. West
Coast between 1947 and 2008.
As our Monday story noted,
during its active career Salvage
Chief employed many area res-
idents, some of whom will play
an active role in crafting a new
set of missions for it. These for-
mer crew members and support
staff will be its most passion-
ate supporters, but there is no
overstating just how prominent
Salvage Chief was in local news
and community consciousness.
By setting anchors, attaching
winches and carefully maneuver-
ing — often in dangerous condi-
tions — Salvage Chief was able
to redeem situations that would
otherwise have been hopeless.
The amount of property and en-
vironmental damage thus avoid-
ed must easily total hundreds
of millions of dollars over the
course of its storied career. This
made Salvage Chief and its high-
ly trained crew into celebrities in
the maritime communities of the
3DFL¿FFRDVWZKRVHDFFRPSOLVK-
ments were front-page news and
the topic of countless coffee shop
conversations.
Vast improvements in navi-
gation, nautical systems, com-
munications, timely U.S. Coast
Guard response and other factors
mean fewer occasions for hero-
ic maritime rescues now than
when Salvage Chief was in its
prime. But the ship nevertheless
offers the opportunity to impart
¿UVWKDQGOHVVRQVWRQHZJHQHUD-
tions of young people interested
in careers on the ocean. Holcom
hopes to form collaborations
with Tongue Point Job Corps,
Clatsop Community College’s
Marine and Environmental
Research and Training Station
and the U.S. Army.
Salvage Chief has an honor-
able record of service. It’s good
to see the possibility that it will
remain intact and serve useful
new roles here at the mouth of
the Columbia.
A
rriving in the South County
in May from the East was
like landing in a different world.
2QHRIWKH¿UVWSHRSOHWRFDSWXUH
our attention was John Duncan.
:KR ZDV WKLV 6DQWD &ODXV ¿J-
ure wearing short pants and orange
Crocs? He sat at the Gearhart City
Council meeting next to Mayor Di-
anne Widdop and had the calm and
placid demeanor of the Buddha.
The topic was a fence ordinance.
Everybody else wanted a fence or-
dinance. Duncan didn’t see the need
and said so. “We still have the inter-
national building code. “We would
have something in place.”
He was not only one or two chess
moves ahead, he was three or four.
He said that an ordinance without a
permit requirement made no sense.
“Without a permit requirement in the
city we have no way of tracking what
is going on,” he said. “The original
updated ordinance had a permit in it,
and the council decided they didn’t
like it and took it out.”
In a subsequent meeting, he mas-
terfully navigated a street vacation
— a homeowner’s request to remedy
a century-old surveyor’s error. They
wanted relief from the city to help
them set their maps straight.
Duncan knew councilors needed
to make things right, but he made
sure the city didn’t give away the
store. He pressed for an easement
that would preserve city utility ac-
cess and limit potential building size
on the site — important concessions
WKDWZLOOEHQH¿WDOOUHVLGHQWV
He was among the leaders calling
IRU D QHZ DQG VDIHU ¿UHKRXVH DQG
emergency center in Gearhart, and
volunteered to serve on a committee
to make that happen.
Duncan seemed to embody ev-
erything we like about the state: big
man, big heart, independent and love
of the outdoors.
Duncan — or “Dunc” as his old
friends called him — hung out at
WKH 3DFL¿F :D\ HYHU\ GD\ LW ZDV
open, and he was glad to enlighten
his audience, in a good way. When
he said I wrote a good story in The
Daily Astorian or the Seaside Sig-
nal, it meant he had read every
word and every punctuation mark.
It meant a lot.
In his spare time, Duncan led a
small, homegrown crew to reclaim
the city’s beloved Ridge Path, the
former Indian trail crossing through
backyards and side yards.
No matter how old you are, you
feel like a kid on the Ridge Path.
From its earliest days, the path was
a shaded cross-through from town
to Little Beach. The path was over-
grown in places, impassable, even.
Despite ill health, Duncan and his
presidential candidates squirm.
Jeb Bush, a Catholic, virtually
disclaimed the pope’s credential
IRU RIIHULQJ VFLHQWL¿F DGYLFH WR
the world.
The truth is that politicians
are the last people we should
EH ORRNLQJ WR IRU VFLHQWL¿F RU
moral guidance. Or apparently
for guidance on pressing mat-
ters such as climate change and
immigration. What most of the
Republicans running for presi-
dent know best is the politics of
fear. There is little hope in their
messages.
Rachel Donadio makes a
useful observation about the se-
lection of Cardinal Jorge Mario
Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as
pope. Noting that the Italians
who dominate the Vatican press
corps did not see his elevation
coming, she says: “It was out-
VLGHWKHLU¿HOGRIYLVLRQ,WZDV
RXWVLGH DOPRVW HYHU\RQH¶V ¿HOG
of vision.”
We long for a national lead-
er who will move our politics
away from the congressional
cycle of anger, resentment, ret-
ribution and procrastination.
That is not likely to happen.
And that’s why we anticipate
Pope Francis’ American visit
with enthusiasm.
SEEN FROM
SEASIDE
B Y
R.J.
M ARX
Submitted Photo
John Duncan
volunteer army traipsed through
mud, brambles and elk poop with
loppers and saws.
He worked so long and with such
pride that other volunteers would
have to plead fatigue to convince
him it was time to quit for the day.
He was out working on the path two
days before his death, and at the
Gearhart Homeowners Association
luncheon the day before. No irony
ever lost on Duncan, the homeown-
ers association themselves had con-
ceived and nurtured the path.
Gearhart needed John Duncan.
He was elected in 2014 in the midst
of a growing political clash leading
to a failed recall election of Mayor
Dianne Widdop.
When no one else had the an-
swers, he did. Widdop, councilors,
the city’s manager Chad Sweet
looked to him for guidance and so
did the city attorney.
7KH ÀDJV ZHUH DW KDOIVWDII LQ
Gearhart this week, and that was ap-
propriate, for his loss doesn’t only
bring sorrow to his family. It makes
us all too aware of what we as a com-
A ‘PATH’ TO
HIS MEMORY
The city of Gearhart has set
up a memorial fund in honor
of City Councilman, John
Duncan.
The proceeds of this fund
will be used to complete the
extension of the ridge path
through the wetland areas.
Councilman Duncan used
his engineering skills and the
help of volunteers over the
past several months to make
this dream of former Mayor
Kent Smith a reality.
If you would like to make
a donation, checks may
be made out to the City of
Gearhart, P.O. Box 2510,
Gearhart, OR 97138. Please
reference John Duncan on
the memo line.
munity have lost as well.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
South County reporter and editor
of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach *a]ette.
The Republicans play loser’s poker
suggested that vaccines
while others lost their
homes to foreclosure.
caused autism.
Still, Fiorina tried her
:LWK&DOLIRUQLDRQ¿UH
hand at loser’s poker, with
ou can’t out-crazy Donald nobody onstage acknowl-
a seemingly heartfelt ac-
edged the need for urgent
Trump.
count of how Planned Par-
action on climate change.
You can’t best him in half-truths And with the Middle East
enthood sells fetal body
that sound plausible just because you DÀDPHLQDQRWKHUZD\WKH
parts. The problem, as
say them with forceful bluster.
fact-checkers have point-
front-runners vowed to
You can’t be scarier to Latinos be anything but Reagan-
ed out, is that the video
than the man who threatens to round esque in talking with our
she described was most-
Timothy
them up like stray cattle.
ly a fabrication — on her
enemies. All but the noble
Egan
part.
And you can’t offend half the failure of Sen. Rand Paul
Dr. Ben Carson, who looks like
population more than the puffer- were ready and eager to give war a
KHFDQ¶W¿QGKLVJODVVHVDIWHUZDNLQJ
¿VKIDFHG SOXWRFUDW ZKR GLVPLVVHV chance.
less-attractive females as “fat pigs,”
The media stampede now is for up from a long nap, also threw a few
while bragging that he used to sleep Carly Fiorina. She’ll get a sizable chips in the Trump game. While not
with “the top women in the world.”
poll bump and lots of favorable press calling for the police-state roundup
No, Trump is a singular force, im- in coming weeks. She showed digni- of immigrants that Trump promotes,
mune to the normal rules that punish ty when asked to respond to Trump’s he advocated “turning off the spigot
a buffoon. Trump has the charlatan’s put-down of her looks, and she that dispenses all the goodies so we
gift of using superlatives to cover showed a basic mastery of detail that don’t have people coming here, in-
the lack of detail. His opponents do anyone who spends a day Googling cluding employment.”
What’s he talking about? By turn-
not. In trying to embrace ignorance, world events could acquire.
make things up and then act offend-
But she will not wear well; she’s ing off the spigot, does he mean forc-
ed when someone calls them on it, a terrible candidate in the age of in- ing other people to make the beds in
they just look smaller and less pres- come inequality and a battered mid- hotel rooms, to mow the lawns in
idential.
dle class. Mitt Romney was pum- suburbia, to pick the apples in farm
It’s a game of loser’s poker, to use meled for investing in companies country? All Carson did with this
Trump’s favorite put-
that close U.S. plants non sequitur was give Democrats
down. And for a party
and ship jobs overseas. further evidence to show Hispanics
By
that desperately needs
Fiorina, as chief exec- that Republicans treat them like dirt.
Jeb Bush tried to play by Trump’s
to expand its appeal in a
of Hewlett-Pack-
Trump’s utive
general election, exactly
ard, went him one bet- rules as well. Responding to the hit
the wrong tack.
WHU ² ¿ULQJ WKRXVDQGV that he’s low energy — read, low
rules,
By Trump’s rules,
of people, while being testosterone — he said his Secret
facts will get you no- facts will
rewarded for failure. Service nickname would be “Ever-
where. Don’t bother
She is the embodiment eady — it’s very high energy, Don-
get you
with a plan. And cer-
of the unfairness, the DOG´6QDSS\%XWWKHQKHORZ¿YHG
tainly don’t reach out to
rigged game that hurts Trump’s extended palm, bro-joining
the majority of Ameri- nowhere.
so many average work- the hand of the one who has emascu-
lated him. If only he had a little Irish
cans who are not afraid
ing people.
of undocumented immigrants, or
Sen. Barbara Boxer of California or Sicilian blood in him.
Bush did expose Trump for
think that abortion should be safe destroyed Fiorina on this point in
and legal in most cases, or prefer di- 2010, a bad year for Democrats, in what should be his greatest weak-
plomacy to war.
a race that Republicans should have ness, something that’s been largely
So it was at Ronald Reagan’s done better in. Trump, who makes overlooked by the surface-obsessed
presidential library in the Republi- his living “playing to people’s fan- press. The guy is a casino opera-
can debate, where the sunny opti- tasies,” in his words — casinos, tor. He made a lot of money sepa-
mism of the Gipper was nowhere gold-plated apartments, gaudy ho- rating suckers from their money.
to be found. Instead, we heard dark tels — was the wrong person to car- And then, through his bankruptcies,
stories of auctioned fetus brains, a ry this line of attack. Joe Biden, with he eventually failed at that — one
world falling apart, and promises his Everyman, Uncle Joe demeanor, of the most rigged schemes in the
to kick people off health care. And could paint the dour Fiorina as the world. He lost in his own game of
that was before the leading candidate boss who slipped away with millions loser’s poker.
By TIMOTHY EGAN
New York Times News Service
Compared to Congress, Y
Pope Francis glows
T
he phenomenon of Pope
Francis is summed up by an
American journalist who covers
him at the Vatican.
On Sunday, Rachel Donadio
of The New York Times wrote:
“In the two short years since his
election, Pope Francis has man-
aged an unusual feat: He has
become as beloved by the in-
ternational news media and the
secular intelligentsia as by his
RZQÀRFNRIELOOLRQ´
This week, the pope is
in Cuba and he comes to
Washington, D.C. On Thursday,
he will speak to a joint session
of Congress.
Francis’ arrival during a sur-
real presidential campaign sea-
son is most welcome.
The sequence of Cuba, fol-
lowed by the Washington ap-
pearance, makes a certain point.
The motivation for secret talks
between Cuba and the U.S. came
IURP WKLV ¿UVW 6RXWK $PHULFDQ
pope. That led to a resumption
of diplomatic relations between
WKH WZR FRXQWULHV DIWHU ¿YH GH-
cades of a Cold War dynamic.
The pope made a broad dec-
laration on climate change and
the damage it brings to the poor-
est, in his encyclical Laudato
Si. That made some American
Betty Smith/The Daily Astorian
Hundreds of friends and mourners came to Gearhart last week to re-
member John Duncan.