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
The U.S. Coast Guard has an important job when it lies low over
local houses, Capt. Michael Farrell jokingly told people at the Seaside
Chamber of Commerce meeting Friday.
“That’s because we’re on a mission from the CIA,” he revealed. “We
are spying on you!”
Still joking, Farrell, the Coast Guard commander for Air Station
Astoria and Group Astoria, advised residents to wear aluminum foil hel-
mets … to foil the spying.
He became more serious as he related that the efforts of the Coast
Guard at Grays Harbor, Tillamook Bay, Cape Disappointment and Air
Station Astoria save 1,750 lives and $1.5 million in property each year.
Cape Disappointment alone averages more than one search-and-rescue
case a day, he said.
“What does the Coast Guard do for you? We spend your tax dollars,”
Farrell said. Sending boats and helicopters out is expensive, especially
since every hour a helicopter lies requires 20 hours of maintenance, he
said. But he asked the assembled when they were stranded in the ocean,
“do you really care how much it costs?”
Mark Youso believes condominiums and expensive houses
may replace low-income housing in Seaside, to the point where
some poorer people have to leave.
“Cannon Beach is slowly moving north, is my take,” he
said.
Youso, the president of the Clatsop County Rental Owners
Association, said increasing interest rates and property taxes
are making it harder to own an apartment building.
And baby make three.
The bald eagle pair that make their home in a tree next to Astoria’s
Skyline water tower have hatched a new offspring.
“It’s kind of a gray color,” said Georgia Forrester, who lives across
the street and keeps a close eye on her avian neighbors. She irst noticed
the eaglet Monday. “Every once in a while it sticks its little head up,” she
says. “It almost looks like a little ostrich.”
50 years ago — 1966
A red granite shaft mark-
ing the site of the irst post
ofice west of the Rockies,
established in 1847, was for-
mally dedicated Friday fol-
lowing the chamber of com-
merce luncheon.
Chamber members, a del-
egation from the Daughters
of American Revolution and
other citizens attended the
ceremony, which included
remarks by Ed Ross, donor of
the shaft and of the lot where
the 1847 post ofice stood, and
presentation of a U.S. Flag by
the DAR chapter to the city.
Northwest states’ representatives appear to have won a preliminary
battle last week in the war over water that may be fought bitterly for the
next several years.
Hearing on western water use before a congressional committee
ended in a recommendation for a federal study. Efforts by southwestern
states to get a recommendation for importation of water were thwarted.
The importation would of course be from the Columbia River.
This water war will be a tough one. We in the northwest have little
numerical strength against such populous states as Texas and California.
We will have to make logic and justice stand up against the angry pres-
sure of thirsty folk who want water and intend to tolerate no obstacles in
the way of quenching their thirst.
75 years ago — 1941
The third of a series of the six 42-ton four-motored Boeing clippers
being built for Pan American Airways landed on the Columbia River off
Tongue Point at 12:11 this afternoon for formal delivery to Pan Ameri-
can representatives here and took off for San Francisco at 1:18.
Measurements made by the national park service of the
large Douglas ir tree in Queets valley, which lies in Jeffer-
son County, Washington, reveal a diameter of 17 feet one inch.
Press reports from Aberdeen disclose that the thickness of the
tree is several inches less than it was several years ago. This
reduction in girth is not attributed to shriveling old age or
deliberate reduction, but rather as a result of bark scaling off.
If it continues for some time, the Clatsop ir will end up the
bigger of the two.
A possibility that midget auto races might be staged on Gyro ield
this summer was revealed Wednesday when Bobby Rowe, Portland
sports promoter who heads Bobby Rowe incorporated, met with Astoria
Regatta association and city oficials here.
President Roosevelt disclosed today that a new civilian
defense program so wide in scope that it may profoundly affect
every man, woman and child in America ‚ is about ready for
his inal approval.
Administration oficials charged with developing the pro-
gram have been secretive on its ramiications. Indications
have been that the scheme may permeate the American com-
munities in months to come almost as thorough as did the
NRA (National Industrial Recovery Administration) in the
early days of Mr. Roosevelt’s administration.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016
Tired of campaigns’ negativity?
Go to a graduation ceremony
A
graduation ceremony is an
antidote to the ugliness and
cynicism of this presidential
campaign season. The constant
negativity on the airwaves is
all about the past. Graduations
are about the future. They cele-
brate accomplishment.
‘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
We traveled last week to
our son’s graduation from the
University of Nevada, Reno.
Harrison’s
fascination
with
aquatic science and the outdoors
was ignited by Lee Cain and his
salmon biology program at Astoria
High School. That experience
eventually led to a graduate degree
in natural resources and environ-
mental science with an emphasis
on hydrology.
Contrary to my preconcep-
tion about Reno’s desert environ-
ment, the graduation was held in a
tree-bordered quadrangle that lies
at the heart of the old land-grant
campus.
As the early morning light
played through the groves of old
Wikimedia Commons
trees, the audience drifted in to rows The Pittock Mansion in Portland.
of white chairs. All around us were
families anticipating their sons’
We mainly know of
and daughters’ moment. A young
black man in academic gown came
Henry Pittock because of
to the row where his family sat.
One by one, he embraced siblings,
his Portland mansion.
mother and father, grandfather and
grandmother. Behind us was an
Indian family who embraced their uct of the Dominican Republic.
gence as a major voice at a time
graduate.
The Aces played with less than when the Newhouse family of
Brass from the Reno Symphony a full deck on Saturday night, New York City is dismantling the
played the processional.
fatally mufing ielding opportuni- once dominant journalistic engine.
The university president, Marc ties. They lost by the dismal mar-
Johnson, acknowledged the con- gin of 17-2. In true baseball fash-
▼▼▼
trast between America’s politi- ion, on the following day the Aces
cal carnival and the reality of this beat the Cubs.
President Obama’s pending trip
event.
to Hiroshima has ignited the com-
▼▼▼
mentariat of historians and politi-
▼▼▼
cians. The Wall Street Journal’s edi-
Henry Pittock is one of those torial writers last week published a
Minor league baseball is like Oregonians who was once enor- speech they wished Obama would
a treasure hunt. You come to the mously prominent, but now deliver.
ballpark knowing that somewhere recedes from view. Portlanders
When my wife, daughter and
during that game you are likely to know of Pittock’s mansion atop I visited Hiroshima in 2001, two
see a future Major League star. On Willamette Heights. Rescued months following the attack on the
Saturday night, we watched the in 1968, the magniicent home World Trade Center, we were the
Reno Aces play the Iowa Cubs. became an iconic historic preser- only Americans in sight.
The Aces are an Arizona Dia- vation moment. Restoration of the
The exhibits that Obama will see
mondbacks farm team. The Iowa Old Church would be next.
in the Hiroshima Peace Museum
team is a progeny of the Chicago
Thanks to prodding from Chris- may provide a fuller story than we
Cubs. The Cub’s Japanese player tine Lolich, I went to the Pit- saw. When we visited, there was
Munenori Kawasaki had the slight tock Mansion last week to see its scant acknowledgment of Japan’s
proile of Ichiro Suzuki, Like exhibit about Pittock as a pioneer culpability or its conduct in Asia
Ichiro, Kawasaki was an impres- printer. There was a painful irony during the war, such as the Rape of
sive hitter. I love baseball names. in the exhibit’s celebration of The Nanking.
The Aces’ Socrates Brito is a prod- Oregonian’s 19th century emer-
— S.A.F.
Making repairs one community at a time
it’s the loss of community
way to change behavior.
leaders. Every town used
At the nut plant I met
to have its small-business
men and women who’d
lost more than 100 pounds.
OST HILLS, Calif. — What owners and bankers. But
now
those
businesses
and
One of the workers gets
is the central challenge fac-
banks are owned by invest-
up at 2:45 every morning,
ing our era? My answer would ment funds far away.
so he can hit the gym by 4
be: social isolation.
Either way, social isola-
and be at work by 6. This
guy wants to be around to
Gaps have opened up among par- tion produces rising suicide
rates,
rising
drug
addiction,
watch his kids grow, and
tisan tribes, economic classes and
widening
inequality,
politi-
his self-disciplined health
David
races. There has been a loss of social
cal polarization, depression
regime has led to a whole
Brooks
capital, especially for communities and alienation.
life transformation. He’s
down the income scale.
Fortunately, we’re beginning to now taking business and law courses
Take, for example, the town of see the rise of intentional commu- online.
Lost Hills. Lost Hills is a farming nity instigators. If social capital isn’t
The new institutions here are
town in the Central Valley, 42 miles going to form spontaneously, people intensely social. When you go to the
northwest of Bakersield. It is not and groups will try to jump-start it health center, you don’t sit silently in
a rich town, but neither is it a deso- into existence.
the waiting room before going into a
late one. There are jobs here, thanks
Lost Hills is the home of a prom- small room for your 15-minute visit.
to the almond and pistachio process- ising experiment. The experiment is Many of the patients have group vis-
ing plants nearby. When you go to the being led by Lynda Resnick, who, its (sort of like Al Anon groups) to
pre-K center and look at the family with her husband, Stewart, owns Won- meet communally with doctors and
photos on the wall, you see that most derful Co., which includes FIJI Water, encourage one another’s health-
of the families are intact —
POM juice and most of the ier behavior. The medical staffs per-
a mom, a dad and a cou-
pistachios and almonds you form as teams, too. Staff members sit
ple kids standing proudly What’s eat. You should know that together in a central workroom col-
in front of a small ranch
I’m friends with Lynda and laborating all day.
the
house. Many of these fam-
Stewart and am biased in
Finally, there are more cross-class
ilies have been here for
their direction. But what connections. Dr. Maureen Mavrinac
right they are doing is still worth moved here from the UCLA Fam-
decades.
But until recently you level to learning from.
ily Medicine Department. Dr. Rishi
didn’t ind the community
First, they are looding Manchanda was the lead physician
organizations that you’d pursue the zone. They’re not trying for homeless primary care at the Los
expect to ind in such a
to ind one way to serve this Angeles VA. These are among the
social population. The problems dozens who have come to Lost Hills
place. There’s still no per-
manent church. Up until
are so intertwined, they are not to save the place from outside, but
now there has been no repair? trying to change this com- to befriend it. Their way of being rip-
library and no polling sta-
munity from all directions ples. I met several local women who
tion. The closest police station is at once. In Lost Hills there are new said they were shy and quiet, but now
45 miles away. Until recently there health centers, new pre-K facilities, they are joining community boards
were no sidewalks nor many street- new housing projects, new gardens, and running meetings.
lights, so it was too dangerous to go new sidewalks and lights, a new com-
What’s the right level to pursue
trick-or-treating.
munity center and a new soccer ield. social repair? The nation may be too
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that Through the day, people have more large. The individual is too small. The
Americans are great at forming spon- places to meet, play and cooperate community is the right level, picking
a piece of land and giving people a
taneous voluntary groups. But in with their neighbors.
towns like Lost Hills, and in neigh-
Second, they’ve created a prac- context in which they can do neigh-
borhoods across the country, that tical culture of self-improvement. borly things — like the dads here who
doesn’t seem to be as true any more.
You can talk about social reform came to the pre-K center and spent
Maybe with the rise of TV and the in ways that seem preachy. But the six hours building a shed, and with
Internet people are happier staying emphasis here is on better health it, invisibly, a wider circle of care for
in the private world of home. Maybe and less diabetes, a nonmoralistic their children.
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
L