The daily Astorian., November 18, 2015, Image 6

OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2015
From North Coast to Paris, with love
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
These days, members of the “don’t trust anyone over 30 generation” are
looking at 60 in the rearview mirror.
Facing that reality, aging baby-boomers are downsizing in droves, selling
their houses and moving to smaller places that need less maintenance.
The national trend is evident in Astoria, where numbers of newly minted
senior citizens might outstrip housing options designed with their changing
lifestyle in mind. So Astoria Gateway Senior Residence, a senior apartment
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Rosemary Johnson, Astoria’s city planner.
“With the volume of people coming into that age bracket, we’re see-
ing more projects like the senior housing and condominiums — condos for
those who can afford more, and the senior housing, which will be lower rent
for those who cannot afford to purchase their own place,” Johnson said.
“I think you’re overdoing the atmosphere,” Gov. Ted Ku-
longoski joked as rain pelted the audience at the kick-off of the
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memoration.
An event 200 years in the making began with “horrible”
weather that continued through much of the weekend, but didn’t
dampen the enthusiasm of locals and visitors who took part in
honoring the explorers’ famous trek to the ocean.
The Wauna mill will soon have yet another owner.
Koch Industries Inc. announced it is buying paper products giant Georgia
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payroll is Clatsop County’s largest employer.
The cash deal announced Sunday would marry the maker of Brawny
paper towels, Dixie plastic cutlery and Quilted Northern bath tissue with a
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revenue.
50 years ago — 1965
American
Bridge Division
put the last struc-
tural steel in place
Wednesday
af-
ternoon on the
2464-foot-long
through truss of
the main channel
span of the Astoria
bridge. This com-
pleted construction
of the world’s lon-
gest through truss,
except for riveting
work and laying
the concrete deck.
The towering
derrick
barge,
used by the con-
tractor to hoist
steel 350 feet into
the air to reach the two peaks of the half-mile long truss, was towed
to Tongue Point, its work at the bridge site completed.
The barge will be employed there to put together the prefab-
ricated panels of Span 167, lone remaining portion of the steel
bridge structure not yet in place.
Boris Sirpo, Finnish-born Portland musician, has accepted an invitation
to be guest conductor for a concert by Astoria High School’s 59-member
symphonic band Tuesday evening, in Astoria High School auditorium, the
chamber of commerce announced today.
The concert will be in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the birth of
the famous Finnish composer Jan Sibelius.
Oregon got a sound but apparently not very harmful lashing
from the winds of an ocean storm late Thursday and early today.
Scattered power outages occurred, but no serious damage was
reported.
75 years ago — 1940
The national government’s mountainous defense appropriations to build
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rehabilitate old ones and to equip and train more than a million men for
defense of hemispherical democracy, are seeping into Clatsop County, with
direct and indirect economic stimulus to industries and to people of this area.
There are almost 1,000 men employed directly in the construction of de-
fense projects at Tongue Point and at Fort Stevens. Working in emergency
double-step at Fort Stevens are about 125 carpenters, laborers and building
tradesmen. At Tongue Point the total of similar workmen exceeds 550. In
addition to these are 300 men employed on construction of the Bonneville
power line into the area, which although is not part of the defense program is
contributing directly to the payroll prosperity.
Adoption of the food stamp plan in Clatsop County was ap-
proved yesterday afternoon by the Clatsop County welfare com-
mission and will go into effect as soon as the machinery for its
operation is set up in the county.
The plan is backed by the federal government and has two
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in the lower wage brackets by providing food at lower prices to
the needy and, secondly, to provide a means for the distribution
of surplus foods produced in the United States.
I
was planning on delivering a
nice little piece in this space on
the topic of pot shops in Cannon
Beach.
The column is almost done, just
need to check a couple of names and
numbers.
Then on Friday, I heard the news of
the Paris terror attacks. Six coordinated
attacks in the name of ISIS in the city
center, striking at restaurants, a soccer
stadium and on the streets.
“L’ére de la guerre,” the French
newspaper called it, “the era of war.”
You don’t forget where you are
when you hear such news. How mun-
dane. I was getting out of a dentist’s
chair in Beaverton. I read it on my
smartphone.
Over the weekend, I thought why is
it bothering me? Why,in a local news-
paper do we need to write about killings
5,000 miles away? What’s the local
connection?
I had absolutely no intention of fol-
lowing up on it. So many other pressing
issues to consider: our own emergen-
cy preparedness in the face of Mother
Nature, a rising heroin problem in the
county, economic disparity, homeless-
ness and hunger. And holiday time is
around the corner: happy moments to
share with family and friends, celebra-
tions, Christmas trees and Hanukkah
lights.
But I couldn’t get the killings out of
my mind. The threat. The subsequent
response. Our worst fears. The mind
spins.
It seems like the North Coast of Or-
egon is about the safest place you could
be in terms of terror risk. Nature is po-
tentially far more devastating, but even
a tsunami cannot inspire the dread of
ISIS and their ilk.
From 9/11 to Charlie Hebdo
I have been friends with French
journalist Fabienne Bizet and members
of her family since 2003. We became
acquainted shortly after 9/11. Both of
us were distraught by the World Trade
Center attacks. We were also shamed
by the sudden divide between our
two countries. (Remember “freedom
fries?”).
When I visited France that year,
I went to the Brittany region, where
gratitude for Americans’ commitment
in World War II remains strong. But at
the time, I was besieged by questions:
What was going on in our nation? Why
were we heading to war in Iraq? What
was happening to our civil liberties?
The French were not just angry with
George W. Bush, they were angry with
me.
What had gone from France’s un-
conditional support for the nation be-
came a scathing indictment of Ameri-
can foreign policy in the Middle East.
SOUTHERN
EXPOSURE
B Y
R.J.
M ARX
day. “I know the owner of one of the
restaurants that was attacked.
On Friday, I was truly scared she
was dead.”
Fabienne’s friend survived. Other
acquaintances were present at the Bata-
clan concert hall during the attacks.
“Tout ça est horrible. It makes me
ill,” Fabienne wrote.
Maintaining our values
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by the fur trade, Étienne Lucier, Joseph
Gervais and Gabriel Franchère were
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They came on boats with John Jacob
Astor’s crews, and accompanied Lewis
and Clark on their overland explora-
tions.
In a new movie, “Les Voyageurs
Sans Trace” (“Voyagers Without
Trace”), screened at the Astoria Film
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maker Ian McCluskey recounted the
experience of three French adventurers
as they journeyed down the Colorado
River in 1938. Newlyweds Genevieve
and Bernard de Colmont and their
friend, Antoine de Seynes traveled from
Christophe Ena/AP Photo
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A woman lights candles Tuesday both the Green and Colorado rivers. In
outside the Bataclan concert hall, IDFW*HQHYLHYHZDVWKH¿UVWZRPDQWR
which was a site of last Friday’s kayak the Colorado.
attacks, in Paris.
In Oregon, we share not only their
dreams of exploration and adventure,
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How can we
thousands of visitors whom we wel-
come from every planet on the globe.
separate the
Our sights and destinations draw artists,
innocents and
environmentalists and families. We rely
on tourism, hospitality and mutual re-
the terrorists?
spect.
How can we keep an open-minded,
Yet in the years to follow, the bonds tolerant attitude in the face of terror?
between France and the United States How can we separate the innocents and
have become closer. We share mutu- the terrorists?
France has closed its borders and
al shock at the assassination of Daniel
Pearl and beheadings in the name of re- retaliated in Syria, even while memo-
ligion. Our nations share goals of peace. rials and vigils continue, and mourners
Our military partnerships have teamed worldwide share their grief. Governors
WR¿JKWWHUURULVWFHOOVLQ$VLD$IULFDDQG in many states are seeking to close
the Middle East, and we both seek a de- their doors to refugees, but our gov-
nuclearized Iran. Over the past decade ernor, Kate Brown, says Oregon will
and a change in administrations, we still welcome them. For our country to
have witnessed a less hawkish U.S. for- close our borders, abandoning the refu-
eign policy and a more hawkish French gees would be, I think, the worst result.
These families have suffered the effects
one.
January seems like a million years of terrorism far greater than any of us.
Perhaps the hardening of our hearts
ago in CNN time, but it was less than a
\HDUDJRWKDWWKHRI¿FHVRI&KDUOLH+HE- is the ultimate goal of ISIS, and the
do were attacked and France’s leading IRUHVKDGRZ RI D PLOLWDU\ FRQÀLFW WKDW
can never be extinguished.
political cartoonists were slaughtered.
“La vie, pas la mort,” my friend Fa-
“We are Charlie” had special mean-
ing, especially for those of us who bienne posted in a memorial to a band
are committed to an unfettered First member at Friday’s concert at the Bat-
aclan theater, where at least 89 people
Amendment.
Already we are seeing repercus- were killed.
“Life, not death.”
sions in the United States. A suspicion
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
of foreigners is growing. Security is
South County reporter and editor of
heightened at every level.
³, DP ¿QH EXW ZH DUH DOO WUDXPD- the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach
tized,” Fabienne messaged me Tues- Gazette.
It’s open season to beat the press
For some time now, it’s
the University of Idaho jour-
been open season on this
nalism graduate Sarah Palin,
beaten-down trade, from the
is evil incarnate.
Real reporters have been
efore it slips away, let’s try left and the right. Into that
replaced
with fake reporters.
vacuum
have
emerged
pow-
to pull some larger meaning
No, not the “Daily Show”
erful partisan voices, inject-
from perhaps the most absurd ing rumors and outright lies
staff, which did a better job
moment of 2015: that professor at into the public arena, with
of fact-checking the Repub-
lican debate this week than
one of the nation’s top journalism no consequence. At the
did Fox News. I’m talking
same
time,
it’s
become
ex-
colleges who threatened to use
about stunt reporters, who
WUHPHO\ GLI¿FXOW IRU UHSRUW-
Timothy
force against a student journalist ers who adhere to higher
do the dirty work of the par-
Egan
tisan outlets.
for doing the things taught in that standards to make a living.
Real reporters get threatened, or
Poverty-level wages have become the
school.
The viral video, of Melissa Click, norm at many a town’s lone nonparti- YLOL¿HG RQ VRFLDO PHGLD ZKLOH WU\LQJ
to cover city hall, the state legislature,
san media outlet.
an assistant professor at the University
More than 20,000 newsroom jobs a rally of heavily armed militants or a
of Missouri, shows her screaming have been lost in this country since campus protest. Too often, the left sees
“get this reporter out of here” — the 2001 — a workforce drop of about 42 them as an appendage, and the right as
“here” being a public space, at a percent. The mean salary of reporters an enemy.
Conservative media deserve credit
public event, a protest circle during LQ ZDV MRXUQDOLVWV QRZ
earn less than the national average for for going after the un-American cen-
Mizzou’s days of rage. “I need some all U.S. workers, according to the Bu- soriousness on college campuses. But
muscle over here,” she cries, in facul- reau of Labor Statistics.
elsewhere, in promulgating a create-
ty-thug mode.
This is not because your-own-facts media world, they’ve
One lesson — in
people are getting less made a mess of our democracy.
For some
dignity, in the raw
Even if you don’t give a damn about
of their information
rights of a free press, time now, it’s
from those trained what’s happened to the once-storied
in how hard it is to
in fact-gathering and free press, consider the consequences
do the work that an
storytelling. Just the to a once-storied political party. The
been open
informed democracy
opposite. The digital main reason that Republican politicians
season on
needs done on a dai-
age has expanded sound so crazy of late is because they
ly basis — was em-
the audience of most get their information, and validation,
this beaten-
bodied by a student
media outlets. In that from the twisted world of partisan me-
photographer, Tim
journalism dia outlets.
down trade. sense,
So, climate change is a hoax, be-
Tai, harassed just
has never been more
moments earlier and
successful. But the cause Limbaugh says so. Raising the
captured in the video. He kept his poise crash of traditional business models has minimum wage always causes job loss-
while being mocked by the professor impoverished the practitioners of daily es — as Ben Carson asserted last week
— because that’s what you hear on Fox.
for asserting a First Amendment duty journalism.
to his job.
None of the above is news, nor even Both claims are demonstrably false.
What is also not true, in the jab
Click has since apologized and re- a sympathy plea for a beleaguered trade
signed from her courtesy appointment whose alumni include Mark Twain, Er- thrown by the unctuous Sen. Ted Cruz,
at the Missouri School of Journalism. nest Hemingway and Joan Didion. But is that things would be different “if a
She should take a long timeout for take this perspective into account the bunch of people with journalism de-
some remedial reading of I.F. Stone, next time you hear somebody attack the grees were coming over and driving
down the wages in the press.” He said
Frederick Douglass and Gloria Stei- “media elites.”
nem, all journalists who faced harass-
The true media elites are in talk this before a moderator, Gerard Baker,
ment in their day.
radio and right-wing television — editor of The Wall Street Journal, who
I’d like to believe that this video snip- multimillionaire gasbags from Rush is a British citizen, making far more
pet was just another absurdity of campus Limbaugh to Sean Hannity. Every day, money than the average American re-
life, where the politics are so vicious, as nearly every hour, they attack report- porter, with no effect on their wages.
they say, because the stakes are so small. ers, using verbal assaults more con- In the age of the partisan press, irony is
But it goes to a more troubling trend — sequential than the muscle play by an another casualty.
For some time now, it’s been open
the diminishment of a healthy, profes- amped-up academic. In that world, the
sionally trained free press.
“lamestream media,” to use the term of season on this beaten-down trade.
By TIMOTHY EGAN
New York Times News Service
B