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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016 Why Merkley supports Sanders 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 El Niño predictions were off course A s the near-record 2015–16 El Niño continues to diminish — it’s now weak to moderate — it is worth seeing if prewinter predictions and hype lived up to reality. At least one observant reader NOAA-West Watch blog recently pointed out that meteo- (www.tinyurl.com/noaa-west- rologists and journalists spun El watch) observes El Niño did Niño predictions in a variety of inject a lot of additional energy sometimes-contradictory ways. into the ocean system and the Though last fall’s long-range weather it delivered to our forecast of a warmer-than- shores. • Record waves battered usual winter was quite accu- UDWHSUHFLSLWDWLRQLQWKH3DFL¿F West Coast shorelines, result- Northwest was variously pre- ing in “approximately 45 per- dicted to be “below average,” cent more wave energy than “higher than normal,” “dry” normal hitting West Coast and “less.” As we now know, beaches, with about 40 percent our local winter rainfall was more erosion than the aver- impressively heavy virtually age for the similar winter time frame.” IURPVWDUWWR¿QLVK • Rough conditions slowed Insurance brokers, who bear UHDOZRUOG ¿QDQFLDO FRQVH- &ROXPELD VKLS WUDI¿F LQ quences of weather events, are December: “Pilots suspended perhaps the best judges of fore- VKLSSLQJ WUDI¿F DFURVV WKH Columbia River Bar nearly casting accuracy. An analyst for the BMS 10 times in the month of Group of brokers on April 6 December, among the most observed, “Climate forcers like closures in a single month that El Niño and La Niña can help most pilots could remember.” predict the frequency of overall Conditions were much more weather activity, but truthfully, moderate after Jan. 1, however. • An El Niño-related (making precise) long-term predictions about ... the power warm-water algal bloom off of severe weather is impos- Chile has killed more than 27 sible.” El Niño is only one of million farmed salmon, lead- several atmospheric cycles, all ing to a predicted “global sup- of which interact to create local ply shock” in coming months. Looking at all this, El Niño seasonal weather, the analyst clearly warranted the headlines noted. /RRNLQJDWWKH1RUWK3DFL¿F last fall — but not for all the as an enormous whole, the reasons journalists reported. GOP played the wrong game, yielding Trump M any coaches — football, basketball and other- wise — tell their players not to play the other team’s game. That advice is just as useful in business and politics. If you know who you are or your long-term strategy, it’s a mis- take to abandon it for the game your competitor wants to play. Congressional Republicans made that mistake when they made a pariah out of the ¿UVW EODFN SUHVLGHQW 6HQDWH Republican leader Mitch McConnell famously said his intention was to make Barack Obama a one-term president. At that point, congressional 5HSXEOLFDQV DGRSWHG D UHÀH[- ive response and became the party of “No.” They abandoned all pretense of positive values. Steven Rattner has dissected the GOP’s colossal error in a New York Times op-ed titled “By Opposing Obama, the Republicans Created Trump.” Rattner documents how the GOP’s obsessive negativity got in the way of helping the eco- nomically ravaged constituen- cies to whom Donald Trump is throwing the red meat of pro- tectionism, racial-religious exclusion and racism. Disingenuously, party lead- ers wonder what’s become of the party of Lincoln. Rattner says that McConnell and oth- ers did the groundwork for Trump’s game plan by doing nothing for eight years. Sen. Lyndon Johnson — a much more adept legisla- tive leader than McConnell — faced a choice in 1954, when he became Senate majority leader. Should he undercut President Eisenhower’s pro- gram or accommodate it. The ultimate pragmatist, Johnson worked with Eisenhower and his Senate allies. In their anger, Republican governors have even declined Obama’s Medicaid expansion, which would give material assistance to the demographic that has become Trump’s aggrieved constituency. America is poorer for the GOP’s so-called Obama Derangement Syndrome. age of American work- the contrary. The problem ers to bargain for a fair is that our economy, both by accident and design, share of the wealth they create in our remaining o decision we make as has become rigged to make a fortunate few very factories. Americans more dramat- well off while leaving He has passionately ically affects the direction of most Americans strug- advocated for pivot- our country than our choice for gling to keep up. ing from fossil fuels to And as economic renewable energy to save president. power has become more our planet from global He or she is more than the man- concentrated, so too has warming — the great- Jeff ager of the executive branch, com- political power. Spe- est threat facing human- Merkley mander in chief or appointer of cial interests, aided by ity. He recognizes that to judges. their political and judicial allies, accomplish this we must keep the 7KH SUHVLGHQW UHÀHFWV EXW DOVR have exercised an ever-tighter grip vast bulk of the world’s fossil fuels KHOSV GH¿QH RXU QDWLRQDO YDOXHV on our political system, from the in the ground. rise of unlimited, secret campaign Bernie is a determined leader priorities and direction. After considering the biggest spending to a voter-suppression in taking on the concentration of challenges facing our nation and movement. campaign cash from the mega- Under President Obama’s leader- wealthy that is corrupting the vision the future I want for my children and our country, I have decided to ship, our country is fairer and more of opportunity embedded in our EHFRPHWKH¿UVWPHPEHURIWKH6HQ- prosperous for all than it was seven Constitution. ate to support my colleague Bernie years ago. But as we look toward $QG KH KDV EHHQ XQÀLQFKLQJ LQ the next administration, there is far taking on predatory lending, as well Sanders for president. I grew up in working-class Ore- more work to do. We need urgency. as the threats to our economy from gon. On a single income, my par- We need big ideas. We need to high-risk strategies at our biggest ents could buy a home, take a vaca- rethink the status quo. banks. Unlike the Republican primary tion and help pay for college. My It has been noted that Bernie has father worked with his hands as a circus, Democrats have a choice an uphill battle ahead of him to win millwright and built a middle-class between two candidates with life- the Democratic nomination. But his ORQJ WUDFN UHFRUGV RI ¿JKWLQJ IRU leadership on these issues and his life for us. economic opportunity willingness to fearlessly stand up My parents believed and who are commit- to the powers that be have galva- in education and they America ted to America’s being nized a grass-roots movement. Peo- believed in the United force for peace and ple know that we don’t just need States. When I was has gone a stability and who are better policies, we need a wholesale young, my father took eager to today’s rethinking of how our economy and me to the grade school off track. challenges meet and move our politics work, and for whom and told me that if I our country forward for they work. went through those doors, and worked hard, I could all its citizens, together. 7KH¿UVWWKUHHZRUGVRIWKH&RQ- From her time advocating for stitution, in bold script, are “We do just about anything because we lived in America. My dad was right. children as a young lawyer to her the People.” The American story Years later, my family and I still ZRUN DV ¿UVW ODG\ RI$UNDQVDV DQG is a journey of continuous striving live in the same working-class com- the United States, and as a sena- to more fully realize our founding munity I grew up in. But America tor and secretary of state, Hillary principles of hope and opportunity has gone off track, and the outlook Clinton has a remarkable record. for all. for the kids growing up there is a lot She would be a strong and capable It is time to recommit ourselves president. gloomier today than 40 years ago. to that vision of a country that mea- But Bernie Sanders is boldly and sures our nation’s success not at Many middle-class Americans are working longer for less income ¿HUFHO\DGGUHVVLQJWKHELJJHVWFKDO- the boardroom table, but at kitchen than decades ago, even while big- lenges facing our country. tables across America. Bernie Sand- He has opposed trade deals with ers stands for that America, and so ticket expenses like housing, health care and college have relentlessly nations that pay their workers as lit- I stand with Bernie Sanders for tle as a dollar an hour. Such deals president. pushed higher. It is not that America is less have caused good jobs to move Jeff Merkley is a Democratic wealthy than 40 years ago — quite overseas and undermined the lever- senator from Oregon. By U.S. Sen. JEFF MERKLEY For The New York Times N Happy birthday, Beverly Cleary! By NICHOLAS KRISTOF New York Times News Service Ramona drummed harder to show everyone how bad she was. She would not take off her shoes. She was a terrible, wicked girl! Being such a bad, terrible, horrid, wicked girl made her feel good! She brought both heels against the wall at the same time. Thump! Thump! Thump! She was not the least bit sorry for what she was doing. She would never be sorry. Never! Never! Never! O ne of the world’s great inven- tions, only a little behind the light bulb, was R a m o n a Nicholas Quimby, Kristof the strong- willed, lov- able and exasperating star of “Ramona the Pest” and other books. Vern Fisher/Monterey Herald/AP Beverly Cleary signs books at the Monterey Bay Book Festival in Mon- terey, Calif., in 1998. The feisty and witty author remembers the Oregon childhood that inspired the likes of characters Ramona and Beezus Quimby and Henry Huggins in the children’s books that sold millions UHDGHU EHFDXVH VKH GLGQ¶W ¿QG most children’s books very inter- HVWLQJ ,Q KHU ¿UVWJUDGH FODVV VKH was assigned to the lowest read- ing group, the Backbirds, and her teacher, Miss Falb, beat her on the palms for daydreaming. So Cleary tried to drop out of VFKRRO LQ WKH ¿UVW JUDGH %XW KHU parents forced her to keep going, For decades the Ramona books and Cleary eventually excelled in have been a gateway drug luring school and in college and found a young readers into the spellbinding job as a librarian in Yakima, Wash- ington. A boy there complained that world of books. there weren’t any books about kids Ramona’s inventor, Beverly like him. In response, Cleary sat down Cleary, has sold 85 million copies of her books about Ramona, Henry and wrote about Henry Huggins Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and other and his dog, Spareribs. She thought EHORYHG ¿JXUHV &OHDU\ WXUQHG her characters needed siblings, so on Tuesday, so I asked her about her she decided to torment Henry’s characters, her life and her wisdom. friend Beezus with a pesky lit- Now living in a retirement home tle sister — “and at that moment in Carmel, California, she immedi- someone called out ‘Ramona,’ so I ately disclaimed any grand thoughts named her Ramona.” An editor suggested a few about reaching a century. “I didn’t plan on it,” she changes — such as turning “Spare- ribs” into “Ribsy” — and the explained dryly. Cleary’s only long-range plan book was published to immedi- is that when the time comes, she’ll ate acclaim. Later volumes fol- return to her Oregon hometown, lowed, including a series focused Yamhill, to be buried beside her late RQ5DPRQDRQHRIWKHJUHDW¿JXUHV husband in the local cemetery. As in children’s literature. Cleary says Ramona is her favor- it happens, I’m also from Yamhill, population about 1,000, and Cleary ite character but isn’t directly mod- eled on her. “I was a well-behaved is our hometown hero. girl,” she said, “but I often thought “Miss Binney, I want to know like Ramona.” Cleary’s works depict ordinary — how did Mike Mulligan go to the bathroom when he was digging events drawn from her own child- hood. Her cousin once caught a the basement of the town hall?” Miss Binney’s smile seemed to salmon with his bare hands, so last longer than smiles usually last. she had Henry Huggins spotting Ramona glanced uneasily around and tackling a 29-pound salmon in and saw that others were waiting an ocean stream. That left a deep impression on me as a boy, and ever with interest for the answer. since I’ve looked carefully in ocean As a girl, Cleary was a late streams for monster salmon. In telling these stories, Cleary DOZD\V UHIUDLQV IURP LQÀLFWLQJ larger lessons. “As a child, I very much objected to books that tried to teach me something,” she told me. “I just wanted to read for pleasure, and I did. But if a book tried to teach me, I returned it to the library.” Miss Binney taught the class the words of a puzzling song about “the dawnzer lee light,” which Ramona did not understand because she did not know what a dawnzer was. “Oh, say, can you see by the dawnzer lee light,” sang Miss Binney. Cleary says that when she goes back to Yamhill, everything seems the same as ever — except that now the kids aren’t playing in the streets but are inside watching television. There’s something to that. On any given day, U.S. children ages 8 to 12 consume almost six hours of entertainment, such as television, video games and social media, according to polling by Common Sense Media. Aside from school- work, 57 percent of those kids typ- ically don’t read at all. We measure child poverty by household income, but a better metric might be how often a child hears stories read aloud. To honor Cleary’s birthday, school organiza- tions called on kids and parents to “drop everything and read.” So it’s time to take a break from sordid politics to celebrate authors like Cleary who inspire us to read. Let’s make what Ramona would call “a great big noisy fuss” about her creator’s 100th birthday — for as they invent new worlds, great writers enrich our own.
