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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015 Despair, in uniquely American style 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 It’s about turning young lives around Astoria, Seaside districts could imitate the goal of South Jetty High School O ne aspect of a newspaper’s mission is to take its readers inside places they don’t know about. That is what Edward Stratton did last Wednesday with his report on South Jetty High School. In Warrenton near Costco, this state facility houses up to 50 young in- mates. As Stratton noted this place is “mostly invisible to local resi- dents.” One of the facility’s core mis- sions is to move inmates across the ¿nish line to obtain a high school diploma. Its teachers are trained in a new program called Positive Human Development, which fo- cuses on accountability. The Warrenton School District runs South Jetty High School. Warrenton Grade School Librarian Kathy Merritt is one of the instruc- tors. In a State of the State speech some 25 years ago, Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt talked about the massive prison-building pro- gram on which the state had em- barked. We will build prisons, said Goldschmidt. But if that’s all we do, they will always be full. That is one way of explaining the logic and the importance of a program like South Jetty High School. Education is one of the most im- portant levers in moving toward a productive, non-criminal life. By contrast, illiteracy is a crimi- nal indicator. Thus, there is a signif- icant link to Stratton’s earlier story on the alarming rate of truancy in Clatsop County schools — especial- ly among kindergarten students in Astoria and Seaside. A person of that age who misses foundational read- ing instruction starts school without the most basic learning tool. Astoria and Seaside’s school boards should give as much priori- ty to curbing truancy as the state of Oregon is putting into South Jetty High School. Both strategies lead to the same place. Time wasted waiting on Keystone kill P resident Obama last week ¿nally did something many felt he should and could have done near the start of his administration: He said no to the Keystone XL tar- sands oil pipeline between western Canada and re¿neries on the 8.S. Gulf Coast. Particularly during the months leading up to the 2012 presiden- tial and 2014 congressional elec- tions, the slowly oozing nature of this bureaucratic decision struck both supporters and opponents of the pipeline as brazen political cowardice. Clearly, a progressive Democrat would not give the go- ahead to a fossil-fuel project of such stellar symbolic importance. Declining for so long to sim- ply make this decision of¿cial was a matter of avoiding an elec- tion-year handicap for a handful of politicians — perhaps most no- tably Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who lost her 2014 re-election bid despite vociferously defending Keystone on behalf of her ener- gy-oriented state. It is important to note that Keystone is not particularly im- portant as either a great economic boon or as a potent villain in the struggle against climate change. From the climate perspective, denying permits to one oil pipeline is the equivalent of hoping to stop the blight of heroin addiction by banning the sale of a hypodermic needle. The pipeline is merely one delivery system for oil; the private companies and economic forces that push for more fossil-fuel de- velopment will ¿nd other ways to get their product to market. In fact, Joel Connelly of the Seattle P-I reported last week that the 800,000 barrels per day of Alberta tar sands that would have been carried by Keystone will like- ly instead be piped within Canada to the British Columbia coast and then via tanker ship down through sensitive Paci¿c Northwest wa- ters. Tanker traf¿c through Haro Strait between the San Juan and Gulf Islands could increase from ¿ve ships a month to 4. It will be a Pyrrhic victory in- deed if the 8.S. notches an illusory climate win that someday results in a major oil spill in the Salish Sea. Nor do Keystone advocates have much of a leg to stand on when they claim enormous job creation. After an admittedly wel- come bump in jobs during pipeline construction, permanent employ- ment gains have been estimated at a grand total of 5 nationwide for ongoing operation and mainte- nance. Legitimate and substantial steps to begin limiting climate damage from burning fossil fuels has long been stymied by the manipulations of corporations and their servants in Congress, who deny anything is going wrong. The New York attorney general’s investigation of ExxonMobil’s alleged efforts to deliberately deceive the public is the beginning of the end of willful ignorance about the challenges we face from greenhouse gases creat- ed during traditional energy pro- duction. Time wasted in an empty ¿ght over Keystone XL should have been spent by the 8.S. and Canada in developing real alternatives to burning tar-sand oil, American coal and other dirty fuels. Real leaders will quit playing games and immediately get busy with funding research and development of clean energy. It quite possibly can be done, but we can’t afford to lose another moment. By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times News Service A couple of weeks ago President Obama Barack mocked Republicans who are “down on America,” and rein- forced his message by doing a pretty good Grumpy Cat im- pression. He had a point: With job growth at rates not seen since the 1990s, with the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance hitting record highs, the doom-and-gloom predictions of his political enemies look ever more at odds with reality. Yet there is a darkness spread- ing over part of our society. And we don’t really understand why. There has been a lot of comment, and rightly so, over a new paper by the economists Angus Deaton (who just won a Nobel) and Anne Case, showing that mortality among mid- dle-aged white Americans has been rising since 1999. This deterioration took place while death rates were falling steadily both in other coun- tries and among other groups in our own nation. Even more striking are the prox- imate causes of rising mortality. Basically, white Americans are, in increasing numbers, killing them- selves, directly or indirectly. Sui- cide is way up, and so are deaths from drug poisoning and the chron- ic liver disease that excessive drink- ing can cause. We’ve seen this kind of thing in other times and places — for example, in the plunging life expectancy that afÀicted Russia af- ter the fall of Communism. But it’s a shock to see it, even in an attenu- ated form, in America. Yet the Deaton-Case ¿ndings ¿t into a well-established pattern. There have been a number of stud- ies showing that life expectancy for less-educated whites is falling across much of the nation. Rising suicides and overuse of opioids are known problems. And while pop- ular culture may focus after all, talking about the more on meth than on consequences of behavior, prescription painkillers or and culture clearly matters good old alcohol, it’s not a great deal. Most nota- really news that there’s a bly, Hispanic Americans drug problem in the heart- are considerably poorer than whites but have much land. lower mortality. It’s prob- But what’s causing this ably worth noting, in this epidemic of self-destruc- context, that international tive behavior? comparisons consistently If you believe the usu- Paul ¿nd that Latin Americans al suspects on the right, Krugman have higher subjective it’s all the fault of liber- als. Generous social programs, they well-being than you would expect, insist, have created a culture of de- given their incomes. So what is going on? In a recent pendency and despair, while secular humanists have undermined tradi- interview Deaton suggested that tional values. But (surprise!) this middle-aged whites have “lost the view is very much at odds with the narrative of their lives.” That is, their economic setbacks have hit evidence. hard because they expected better. Or to put it a bit differently, we’re Rising looking at people who were raised to believe in the American Dream, mortality is and are coping badly with its failure to come true. a uniquely That sounds like a plausible hy- pothesis to me, but the truth is that American we don’t really know why despair phenomenon. appears to be spreading across Middle America. But it clearly is, For one thing, rising mortality is with troubling consequences for a uniquely American phenomenon our society as a whole. In particular, I know I’m not the — yet America has both a much weaker welfare state and a much only observer who sees a link be- stronger role for traditional religion tween the despair reÀected in those and values than any other advanced mortality numbers and the volatility country. Sweden gives its poor far of right-wing politics. Some people more aid than we do, and a majority who feel left behind by the Ameri- of Swedish children are now born can story turn self-destructive; oth- out of wedlock, yet Sweden’s mid- ers turn on the elites they feel have dle-aged mortality rate is only half betrayed them. No, deporting im- migrants and wearing baseball caps of white America’s. You see a somewhat similar bearing slogans won’t solve their pattern across regions within the problems, but neither will cutting 8nited States. Life expectancy is taxes on capital gains. So you can high and rising in the Northeast and understand why some voters have California, where social bene¿ts are rallied around politicians who at highest and traditional values weak- least seem to feel their pain. At this point you probably ex- est. Meanwhile, low and stagnant or declining life expectancy is concen- pect me to offer a solution. But while universal health care, higher trated in the Bible Belt. What about a materialist expla- minimum wages, aid to education, nation? Is rising mortality a conse- and so on would do a lot to help quence of rising inequality and the Americans in trouble, I’m not sure whether they’re enough to cure ex- hollowing out of the middle class? Well, it’s not that simple. We are, istential despair. GOP should take the winnings and run By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group WASHINGTON — Where do Republicans get that special tal- ent for turning gold to dross? They score an electoral “massacre” (The Economist) in 2014 and, a year lat- er, what do they have to show for it other than another threat to shut down the gov- ernment? Hil- lary Clinton is caught in email Àagrante and Benghazi mendacity and Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo yet, with one Republican presidential candidates, from left, John Kasich, Mike Huck- Kevin McCar- abee, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, thy gaffe and a and Ted Cruz take the stage during the CNBC Republican presidential singularly inef- debate at the University of Colorado, Oct. 28, in Boulder, Colo. fective 11-hour Charles Benghazi hear- Krauthammer ing, Republi- rum? gay employees. Quintanilla seemed cans render her Third, this continues the sea- genuinely unable to fathom that one sanitized. son-long GOP diversion from what can oppose the most radical change And now their latest feat. They should be its real target — the in the structure of marriage in hu- win a stunning victory over their wreckage wrought by seven years man history — as Bill Clinton, Hil- perennial nemesis, the mainstream of Barack Obama. The greatest iro- lary Clinton and Barack Obama all media — a slam-dunk rim-rattling ny of this campaign is that Clinton did just a few years ago — without exposure of the media bias they and Bernie Sanders are the ones wanting to see gay people persecut- have been complaining about for a making the case that the economy ed and denied decent treatment by half-century — and within a week is stagnant, inequality growing and their employers. CNBC produced the best night they so overplayed their hand as to the middle class falling increas- dissipate whatever sympathetic ad- ingly behind. That’s a devastating of the entire campaign season for vantage they gained. indictment of Democratic gover- the GOP. And yet some Republi- The CNBC debate was nance, exactly the case cans were determined to turn it into a gift for the GOP, so un- Republicans should have another theater of their civil war The adorned a demonstration been making all year. against the GOP “establishment.” of liberal condescension, they’ve wasted This time the target was Republi- CNBC Instead, hostility and arrogance months trading schoolboy can National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. As if Priebus is re- that the rest of the media debate taunts and ad hominems. — their ideological cover Now another distrac- sponsible for Harwood. Good grief. Priebus’ job, the exposed — were forced tion: debate structure. was to denounce and ridicule The party is demanding party’s job, is to control the num- a gift their ham-handed col- there be no repetition of ber of debates and set the calendar. leagues. What happened the CNBC debate. Why, Its doing so in 2015-16 constitutes then? Instead of quitting for the for God’s sake? That de- a signi¿cant achievement, consid- while they were ahead, the bate was the best thing to ering the damage done to the GOP GOP. Republicans plunged into happen to the GOP since in 2011-2012 by its 20 freelance debates. That endless, vicious intra- a week of meetings and Michael Dukakis. statements, whining and complain- Won’t someone tell the Republi- mural ¿ght — featuring Rick Perry ing, bouncing around a series of de- cans that they won? Let it go. Who and Newt Gingrich savaging Mitt mands, including control of the kind cares who’s on the next debate pan- Romney’s “vulture capitalism” — of questions that may or may not be el? Don’t they realize that fear of laid the premise for Obama’s nega- asked at future debates. ridicule alone will temper the in- tive and winning campaign. Ted Cruz has suggested that Who’s the genius who thought stincts of whatever liberal question- Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and up that one? First, it instantly al- ers are chosen? lowed the liberal media to turn the John Harwood’s obnoxiousness Mark Levin moderate Republican tables and play defenders of jour- and Becky Quick’s incompetence debates. Good idea, wrong target. nalistic independence against GOP earned most of the opprobrium How about this arrangement? Lim- bullies. heaped on the moderators’ perfor- baugh & Co. should moderate the Second, it made the Republicans mance. But it was Carl Quintanilla Democratic debates. What a splen- look small. To paraphrase Chris who demonstrated just how un- did blood-soaked spectacle that Christie’s “fantasy football” mo- moored liberal delusions about con- would be. As for the GOP? Bring on the ment, the economy is in the tank, servatives have become. He asked Russia is on the move, the Islamic Ben Carson how, as an opponent liberals. The Republicans should State is on the attack — and the of gay marriage, he could remain demand the return of Harwood, candidates are debating the proper on the board of a company that is Quick and Quintanilla, until the end room temperature for a debate fo- known for its generous treatment of of time.
