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
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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
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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
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most children’s books very inter-
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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.