OPINION
6A
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 — 2006
A new radio station was set to go on the air at 10 a.m. this morning.
Licensed as KCPB 90.9 Warrenton, this low-powered FM service will
originate from the Coast Community Radio studios inside Tillicum House in
Astoria. The transmitter is co-located with KMUN-FM’s antenna on Megler
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KMUN-FM Astoria and KTCB-FM Tillamook, will own and operate this
new station as well.
“Goodnight and good luck!”
Naziya Bissenova doesn’t speak much English, but she does
know Edward R. Murrow’s famous nightly farewell, and she
offered it Monday at the end of a visit to Astoria
Bissenova was among 16 journalists from countries in and
around the former Soviet Union who came to Astoria as part of
a three-week visit to the United States sponsored by the Mur-
row Program for Journalists and the U.S. State Department. The
trip has taken the group to Washington, D.C., and communities
around the country to provide the visitors a perspective on Amer-
ican media, government and society.
A beaming Mayor Willis Van Dusen accepted two $20,000 checks on
behalf of the city at Monday’s Astoria City Council meeting and quickly
passed them on to Finance Director John Snyder.
One check was presented by Dan Hauer, treasurer of the Uniontown
Association. The group collected the money from donations raised during a
fund-raising drive to renovate the exterior of the Doughboy Monument and
upgrade one of its public restrooms, the only restrooms in the United States
to be listed on National Register of Historic Places.
50 years ago — 1966
State Treasurer Robert Straub
today called for the United States
government to “assert it rights over
offshore lands and tell the Russian
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get off our property.
In a letter seeking Sen. Wayne
Morse’s assistance, Straub said the
U.S. claims possession of the conti-
nental shelf outside the three-mile
limit for oil drilling.
Rep. Robert Duncan, who
“We surely could do the same supported Astoria bridge
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legislation when he was in
He noted that the U.S. govern- the Oregon House of Rep-
ment has granted oil leases to pri- resentatives, looks at a riv-
vate oil companies “in the very et exhibited by Robert El-
DUHD ZKHUH WKH 5XVVLDQ ¿VKLQJ lison, project engineer for
boats are.”
the bridge.
“If Russian oil rigs came over
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we’d soon see a U.S. Navy cruiser running them off,” Straub said.
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much protection from their government as are the oil companies.”
A quarter-million dollar Thunderbird Motel will rise on pilings at the
southwest corner of West End mooring basin as a result of a lease approved
by the Port of Astoria commission Tuesday.
The port approved a 52-year lease to the Thunderbird Motel company,
which proposes to erect a 40-unit motel overhanging the West End basin and
located west of the Sea Fare restaurant.
75 years ago — 1941
“Any bugbears in your home?” asks Miss Barbara Miller,
the charming and gifted director of the Happy Kitchen Cooking
School, put on by the Astorian-Budget, to take place on April 16,
17, 18, at the River theater, between 2 and 4 p.m.
“Planning and preparing 1095 meals a year (3x365) often
becomes a bugbear to the busy housewife, particularly if local
conditions render food shopping a problem. “But no such dif-
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Miller, “for I have visited many of the stores and markets since
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equipped, capable of satisfying the needs of the most exacting
shopper, and a well stocked larder makes for a Happy Kitchen.”
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Forest Service, stands in a dense grove of spruce some two miles north-
east of Wolf Creek junction in the southwest corner of section 7, township 5
north, range 9 west. The tree, which measures 15.5 feet at 4.5 feet above the
ground, was found by Les D. Lloyd, timber cruiser, in September, 1940, but
he has not made the exact location of the tree known to the public.
The Astoria Poultry and Egg store at Tenth and Astor streets
isn’t in London but it might as well be.
Hitler’s Stukas can hardly have wreaked more damage
to London shops than did an express truck driven by Stan
Neururer which plowed through the front of the egg store last
Monday.
Neururer steered the big van at an angle to the store, hop-
ing to park it there, but the brakes apparently failed. With the
same devastating force of a 500-pound bomb the nose of the big
machine plowed into the store, breaking two plate glass win-
dows, tearing out a huge block of cement walling, and upsetting
an interior glass showcase, which struck Mrs. Louis Friedman,
who until that time had been sitting peacefully at her table.
Mrs. Friedman was given immediate medical attention by
physicians who said she received light shock and bruises.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2016
‘The Boy Scout’s’ endorsement of
Sanders for president is puzzling
en. Jeff Merkley is a very
careful guy.
S
When he was speaker of the
Oregon House of Representatives,
colleagues nicknamed him “the
Boy Scout,” because of the method-
ical way Merkley systematically
worked his colleagues, building
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For a politician who has been the
soul of premeditation, Sen. Merk-
ley’s endorsement of Bernie Sand-
ers’ presidential candidacy is surpris-
ing. In last Thursday’s edition, we
published Merkley’s pitch for Sand-
ers, which originally appeared in The
New York Times.
In the U.S. Senate, Merkley used
his Boy Scout persona to build a
working group, which succeeded
in making senators’ delaying tac-
tics an issue the Senate could not
ignore. Legislative accomplishment
has not been Sanders’ habit. He is
more a talker than a doer. And that’s
one reason why no Democratic sen-
ator, except Merkley, has endorsed
Sanders.
When we look for the reason why
politicians do things, we generally
assume it will get them something.
That is not apparent in this case. Hil-
lary Clinton is more likely the nom-
inee and more likely the next presi-
dent. It’s unclear what an Oregon
senator gets for plugging Bernie to
New Yorkers.
The moment of Sanders’ unmask-
ing came a couple weeks ago during
the editorial board interview by the
New York Daily News. When pressed
on how he would break up large
banks, Sanders appeared as though
he hadn’t thought about it.
The newspaper’s subsequent
endorsement of Clinton in the New
York primary described Sanders as
“a fantasist who’s at passionate war
with reality” who has “proved utterly
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FRQ¿UPLQJ WKDW WKH FHQWUDO WKUXVWV
of his campaign are politically
impossible.”
‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things;
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax —
Of cabbages —and kings —’
Through the Looking-glass
of Cabbages and Kings
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right,
and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. walk to a news conference on Capitol
Hill in Washington in November, to announce new climate legislation.
counselor come listen
with teams from our
It’s not
to them. Apparently it
region, as well as
was vicarious trauma-
from the Willamette
clear
tization, although we
Valley, Beaverton and
what an
didn’t know the term.
British Columbia. In
our original vision,
Oregonian
źźź
there was hope that
we could attract some
gets for
nn Marie, who
visitors from beyond
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died on April 7,
plugging
was a delightful soul.
counties.
Bernie
Gary
Henley’s
I met her while she
Monday story about
did framing for the
to New
the Astoria girls who
Compleat Photogra-
pher. She was unfail-
dominated the com-
Yorkers.
petition painted a
ingly pleasant and she
vivid picture. Spot-
had a great eye for
lighting individual performance is how to frame a picture. Her home at
what this meet was intended to do.
11th and Lexington was a menagerie
of curiosities. If she were more dour,
źźź
Ann Marie could have been cast as
one of Charles Dickens’ reclusive
źźź
nterviewing Dawn McIntosh last spinsters.
— S.A.F.
week, I learned a new phrase —
y high school memory of vicarious traumatization. It is the
spring is track meets — shiv- emotional effect that a violent inci-
ering as the wind blew off the sage- dent can have on someone who
brush into Hermiston or feeling the views it from a distance. Many years
ago our news staff covered a succes-
Sun’s warmth in LaGrande.
Having that empathy for high sion of violence, which included a
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led to The Daily Astorian Invitational a street near Gray School.
It became clear to our managing
Track Meet, which had its 28th run-
editor that the staff was feeling the
ning last Saturday in Seaside.
This was one of the biggest meets, dark emotion of all this. We had a
M
A
I
The Pope offers end of Catholic guilt
As Jack Donaghy, the
cies. By emphasizing the
character played by Alec
inclusive and the positive,
Baldwin in “30 Rock,”
the church under Francis
explained:
“Whether
omedian George Carlin strives to be more “mod-
things are good or bad, or
used to say that he was a ern family” than “monas-
tic denial,” and will even
you’re simply eating tacos
Roman Catholic “until I reached let some things go. “No
in the park, there is always
the age of reason.”
one can be condemned for-
the crushing guilt.”
The old message was: If
For Carlin, that happened some- ever,” says the pope, which
seems
to
rule
out
that
burn-
you
break the rules, you’re
time in the eighth grade, when all his
in-hell-for-eternity
thing.
condemned.
Shame,
Timothy
probing questions about faith were
He offers tips, as well, for
shame,
shame.
The
new
Egan
answered with, “well, it’s a mystery.” how to keep “the passion”
message is: Welcome, for
Of course, as a lifelong contrarian, alive.
forgiveness is at the heart of this faith.
It wasn’t so long ago that hear-
Carlin also wondered if it was OK for
Sex “is a marvelous gift from God,”
ing the word “erotic” from a man Francis wrote. “The stirring of desire
a vegetarian to eat animal crackers.
I thought of him while reading the who’s taken a vow of chastity was or repugnance is neither sinful nor
latest institution-shifting document blush-worthy. Catholic doctrine, as blameworthy.” Those living less than
from Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia laid out in spiritual statutes governing ideal marital unions are no longer vili-
— the Joy of Love. The title sets the human conduct, featured an exhaus- ¿HGDVVLQQHUVWREHVFRUQHG³,UUHJXODU
tone for the continuation of a quiet tive list of enumerated offenses.
unions” is the term coined by Francis.
Sex was dirty. Sex was shameful.
revolution. Note that it’s not called the
“Hence it can no longer be said
Job of Love, the Duty of Love or the Sex was unnatural. Thinking about it that all those in any ‘irregular’ situ-
Unbearable Burden of Love. Instead, was wrong. Premeditation itself was ations are living in a state of mortal
the pope implies that there’s consid- DVLQDQGVRZDVÀLUWLQJ6H[KDGRQH sin,” he wrote. You can read that as a
erable fun to be had in human rela- purpose: procreation, the joyless act papal pardon of sorts. Yet for this kind
WLRQVKLSV<RXFDQHYHQ¿QGLQLWV of breeding. “The sixth command- of language and fresh air, the pope
pages a mention of the “erotic dimen- ment forbids all impurity and immod- has come under renewed attack from
esty in words, looks conservative Catholics. One critic
sion” of love and “the stir-
and actions,” was called the latest treatise “The Joy of
ring of desire.” Yes, sex.
Sex ‘is a DGPRQLWLRQ 1R Sex.” Well, yes.
The pope approves of it, in
in the Baltimore Cat-
many forms.
The pope’s guidance would be a
And while skeptics marvelous echism, the standard relief to the millions of Catholics liv-
used to teach the LQJLQWKRVHQHZO\FODVVL¿HGLUUHJXODU
were disappointed that the
gift from text
faith from 1885 to the unions, if they ever gave it a second
latest apostolic exhorta-
ODWHV
tion did not change church
thought. The truth is that a majority
God.’
1R DOVR of Catholics in Europe and the United
teachings regarding Cath-
olics who are divorced or — Pope Francis warned about the States have long since stopped listen-
dangers of “sinful ing to church dictates about sex. A
in same-sex marriages, the
document signals the end for one par- curiosity, bad companions, drinking, British study in 2013 found that only
ticular kind of medieval millstone — immodest dress and indecent books, 1 in 10 regular attendees at Mass felt
Catholic guilt, especially in regard to plays and motion pictures.” If that any guilt over using contraception,
sounds now like the dynamics of a long shunned by the church. Evan-
sex.
He’s not talking here about the good dinner party, you can also see gelical Christians and Muslims were
guilt that generations of clerics and this pope joining the fun at the table. more likely to feel guilt over sexual
I can’t tell you how many Cath- sins, the survey found.
their enablers should feel for the
crimes of sexual abuse against the olics I know who are trying to work
Pope Francis is merely acknowl-
young, an institutional cancer tied to through the consequences of those edging the obvious. As he’s done
sexual strictures. They wonder if before, he’s using words to change
its own awful pathology.
The new teachings, from a self-pro- there are still people doing time in hearts, rather than trying to wrangle
fessed less-judgmental church, go purgatory because of the misde- with the rusted plumbing of church
to the everyday lives of people who meanor sins of masturbation or pre- doctrine. Still, to George Carlin’s
don’t believe that they should be con- marital sex. Life was all don’ts and point, some things will always remain
stantly reminded of their inadequa- dark thoughts.
a mystery, but then so is love.
By TIMOTHY EGAN
New York Times News Service
C