OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016
GUEST COLUMN
Founded in 1873
Lines
for Life
tackles
teen
depression
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
Attention must be paid
to rural white women
Their death rate is startling
iddle-aged white women in places like Tillamook
County are dying long before they should — a reversal
in decades of improving life expectancy in the U.S.
Delving into govern- among these being rising
ment and academic data, The rates of opioid and heroin
Washington Post this Sunday addiction, alcoholism and
published a deeply trou- related diseases like cirrhosis
bling look at how addictions, of the liver, suicide, smoking
depression and other factors and obesity. The suicide rate
cut decades from the lifes- has more than doubled for
pans of women, especially in rural white women ages 50
America’s countryside and to 54, for example.
These deaths of all vari-
small towns.
“From 1990 through 2014, eties are an end result of
the mortality rate for white unique downward spirals
women rose in most parts of illness, often tied to pov-
of the country, particularly erty and absence of much to
around small cities and in feel optimistic about. “There
rural areas. Rates often went are millions of people under-
up by more than 40 percent neath these (death statistics)
and, in some places, dou- who are in pain,” one expert
said.
bled,” the Post reported.
Separate research pub-
Along the economi-
cally privileged West Coast, lished Monday in The Journal
Tillamook County is the only of the American Medical
county in the worst quartile of Association ¿nds a stron-
connection
excess death rates — above ger-than-ever
40 percent. Clatsop County between low incomes and
is comparatively much bet- unhealthy lifestyle choices
ter off, in the lowest quartile when it comes to living lon-
with premature mortality of ger. This research discovered
up to 12.5 percent. Just to our that local attitudes and pol-
north, 3aci¿c County, Wash., icy choices can have a sub-
has an early death rate in the stantial positive impact. The
range of 12.5 to 25 percent. Way to Wellville program in
According to the Post, Clatsop County may demon-
for every 100,000 women strate how an accumulation
in their late 40s living in of good-living decisions can
U.S. rural areas, 228 died inÀuence health outcomes —
in the year 2000. “Today, though it appears Tillamook
296 are dying,” the Post County might have bene¿ted
reports. “And in rural areas, more from such a campaign.
The infamous “Rural-
the uptick in mortality was
noticeable even earlier, as Urban Divide” sometimes
far back as 1990. Since then, only seems like a rhetori-
death rates for rural white cal tool ginned up by the
women in midlife have risen political hate-meisters of
talk radio. However, there is
by nearly 50 percent.”
This
“corrosion
of legitimate pain on America’s
American health” is driven back roads. Attention must
by several factors, chief be paid.
M
FYI:
Another blow to USPS
T
Clippings from the press of the
Paci¿c Northwest and the nation
oo bad the federal government
can’t wage war on drugs or poverty
as effectively as it has against the U.S.
Postal Service. Congress keeps coming
up with inventive ways to cripple the
Postal Service ¿nancially — with the
latest coming Sunday, when a manda-
tory rate cut took effect.
If left in place, the cut will cost the
Postal Service $2 billion a year, crip-
pling its ability to adapt to new compe-
tition and technology.
The Postal Service lost money
during the Great Recession. So to close
the budgetary gap the Postal Regu-
latory Commission, the independent
regulatory agency that oversees postal
services and rates, approved a rate
increase in 2014.
The increase boosted the price of
a ¿rst-class stamp to 49 cents from 46
cents. The commission also required
that the increase be rescinded once it
generated $4.6 billion in revenue.
The Postal Service hit the $4.6 bil-
lion target Sunday. The Postal Service
is allowed to take inÀation into account
in calculating the rollback, so the price
of a ¿rst-class stamp will be cut to 47
cents.
It will be the ¿rst time since 1919
that the price of a stamp has declined.
Despite the proliferation of alter-
natives, the Postal Service remains the
only truly universal delivery system in
the country. For 49 cents (or 47 cents,
as of today), it will deliver a letter from
any address to any address, whether
it’s in Marcola or Manhattan. The
availability of such a service binds the
nation, lubricates the channels of com-
munication and creates a democratic
equality among urban and rural areas.
But now comes another $2 billion
blow. Americans don’t need the extra
pennies — indeed, the rate cut makes
those ¿xed-price “forever” stamps in
millions of kitchen drawers worth a bit
less.
Congress should allow the Postal
Service to charge a break-even price
for its services rather than needlessly
pushing it toward insolvency. Surely,
it’s in no one’s interest to force an
essential public service to fail.
— The Register-Guard, Eugene
By LINDA BERGER, HEATHER
HUMMELL-MARTIN
and DONNA CARSON
Of Astoria Middle School
o Astoria Middle School par-
ents or guardians: The teen
years are marked by a roller coaster
ride of emotions making it dif¿cult
for teens, their parents, and educa-
tors. It is easy to misread depres-
sion as normal adolescent turmoil;
however, depression (among the
most common of mental illnesses)
appears to be occurring at a much
earlier age, and the past decade has
seen teen suicide rates double.
T
Our school community is expe-
riencing an increase in the reported
number of students engaging in self-
harm behaviors, and we want to share
a proactive plan to help students be
safer. This involves pulling together as
parents, school, and the community to
begin the conversation to address how
our students/children are doing.
In order to proactively address this
issue, Astoria Middle School is partner-
ing with Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare
to review programs and plans which
can be most useful in our setting. They
have connected us with Lines For Life,
who will bring in trainers to review best
practices for interacting with students
who are in crisis, anxious, depressed,
who may be using or considering self-
harm behaviors or are suicidal.
Friday, Monday and today, Lines for
Life visited student classrooms (one day
‘Our school community is
experiencing an increase in the
reported number of students
engaging in self-harm behaviors.’
fully, and being genuine.
for each grade level) and dis-
What can you say? “I’m
cussed with students how to
concerned about you ...
make healthy choices. Our
about how you feel.”
goal is to increase help-seek-
It is OK (often very help-
ing by students if they are
ful) to be very direct and
worried about themselves
or a friend in crisis, harm-
nonjudgmental. You can
ing themselves or feeling
ask, “Are you thinking about
suicidal. We want students
suicide?”
to understand what they are
It is also important to get
feeling and provide them
help. “You aren’t alone. I
Linda
with strategies for dealing
will get you the help you
Berger
with their concerns.
need.”
There will be an opportunity for par-
If your child is suicidal, don’t leave
ents to join us and learn about commu- him or her alone. If your child is not
nity supports available. This will take suicidal, it is still important to ask
place at Astoria Middle School. You are about whether they have been injuring
encouraged to attend an informational or harming themselves and when they
meeting that will include a panel for last did this. Check for signs of cuts,
questions and answers. It will be from bruises, or other injuries. Remove or
6:30 to 8:00 p.m. today and Wednes- lock up items your child could use for
day. The focus will be on community suicide or self-harm.
resources and useful advice about help-
You can call Clatsop Behavioral
ing a child who is in crisis. It is critical Healthcare to arrange for an emer-
that our community of parents, school, gency screening if your child is sui-
and public agencies come together with cidal or self-harming (503-325-
a commitment to our children. Together 0241), or request that screening at
we can support our children and pre- the hospital emergency room. Lines
vent a tragedy.
for Life crisis line can be reached at
Some students may be aware of 800-273-8255.
problems that haven’t yet been shared
You are welcome to call us if you
with an adult at home or school. They have questions at 503-325-4331.
may be worried what will happen if
Linda Berger is the principal at
they share fears about themselves or Astoria Middle School, Heather Hum-
their friends. You can be most helpful mell Martin is the assistant principal
by showing you care, listening care- and Donna Carson is a counselor.
A Mason-Dixon line of progress
By TIMOTHY EGAN
New York Times News Service
nside the ancient town hall of
Siena, Italy, the walls hold a
series of magni¿cent 14th-cen-
tury frescoes showing the effects
of good government and bad.
I
One side depicts a prosperous
city-state, where justice and tolerance
prevail in the Tuscan countryside.
The other is ruled by a horned,
fanged ¿gure, the streets deserted and
scary.
We saw our own version of this
allegory with the two Americas this
week — one going backward, the
other stepping into tomorrow. We saw
a retreat to bigotry in states doom-
ing themselves to decline. And in
other states, we saw a way for peo-
ple to get around a do-nothing Con-
gress controlled by Know-Nothing
throwbacks.
First, the good. On Monday, Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo signed a bill that
will eventually raise the minimum
wage to $15 an hour, lifting the earn-
ings of 2.3 million New Yorkers, and
he authorized one of the strongest
paid parental leave laws in the nation.
On the same day, Gov. Jerry Brown
of California put his signature to a
$15 minimum wage plan in the most
populous state. And San Francisco
became the ¿rst place in the country
to require businesses to provide paid
leave for new parents.
What had seemed impossible
just a few years ago is now rolling
through cities and states led by for-
ward-looking politicians. Together,
these changes amount to a “revolu-
tion in the workplace,” as one exul-
tant activist put it. But let’s not get too
excited: The United States remains
the only developed country in the
world that does not mandate paid
parental leave.
Now the bad. Following North
Carolina’s lead, another state, Mis-
sissippi, passed a law allowing peo-
ple and institutions to deny services
to gay people. With this measure,
Mississippi, already one of the poor-
est states in the nation, ensures that
distressed and socially
good job providers will stay
backward to accept prog-
away.
ress, so why change? Dis-
Indeed, PayPal dropped
crimination, as they see
plans to bring 400 jobs to
it, is just another term for
North Carolina after politi-
cians gave people a green
religious freedom.
light to discriminate, and
Raising the minimum
Bruce Springsteen just can-
wage is not a panacea,
celed a concert there for
as Brown noted. But he
the same reason. And cor-
called it a moral impera-
porate leaders signed a let-
tive, one that will allow
Timothy
ter Wednesday, expressing
full-time workers at the
Egan
disgust. “Such laws are bad
low end to better provide
for employees,” the representatives for their children. In California and
of companies ranging from Whole New York, the new laws have Àexi-
Foods to General Electric wrote, “and bility, either by region, or size of busi-
bad for business.”
ness, or during the phase-in period.
Next door, in Alabama, the embat-
Good companies feel the same
tled Republican governor signed a way. Costco just announced that it
bill earlier this year preventing cities would raise entry-level wages to
from raising the minimum wage. This $13.50 an hour — at a cost to stock-
after Birmingham dared to dream of holders of a penny a share in the cur-
a day when its lowest-paid workers rent quarter. One penny. Twitter will
could make $10 an hour.
soon start giving full-time employees
20 weeks of paid parental leave.
Lifting wages for low-end work-
Discrimination, ers and bringing the United States
into the 21st century on family leave
as they see
should be no-brainers. And yet, Con-
gress refuses to move on President
it, is just
Barack Obama’s call for paid parental
leave for federal employees, and will
another term
not raise the minimum wage beyond
for religious
the paltry $7.25 an hour.
Still, people are blowing past the
freedom.
obstructionists. Since Obama ¿rst
called on Congress to move forward
Nearly all the states with the high- on wages, in 2013, 18 states and at
est percentage of minimum-wage least 40 cities have acted on their
workers — full-time jobholders mak- own. Expect to see family leave laws
ing $290 a week, before taxes — are ripple across the land as well.
in the South. These are also the same
“The nation is alive from the bot-
states that refuse to expand Medic- tom up,” Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom of
aid to allow the working poor to get California told my colleague Thomas
health care. And it’s in the same cra- Fuller. “For all the disproportionate
dle of the old Confederacy where dis- focus on Washington, D.C., there’s a
criminatory bills are rising. Don’t whole other America out there, and it
blame the cities; from Birmingham should give pause to the pessimists.”
to Charlotte, people are trying to open
Now, maybe paying the work-
doors to higher wages and tolerance ing poor a little more will be a job-
of gays, only to be rebuffed at the killer, as Republicans assert. Maybe
state level.
mandating parental leave will inhibit
Essentially, this Republican-con- business startups. Sure. If you believe
trolled block has decided that it’s doing nothing, in the wake of 20 years
better to be poor, sick and bigoted of declining wages and a harder qual-
than prosperous, healthy and open- ity of life, is better than doing some-
minded. And its defense is precisely thing, this is your home: the geogra-
that: The region is too economically phy of despair.