THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
Thank you
can’t believe graduation is
almost here for the class of
2016. Most of us can say that
without many important peo-
ple in our lives, we wouldn’t
be where we are today. To
our family, friends, schools,
teachers, coaches and role
models: we owe you so much.
When bad and heart-breaking
events have occurred in our
everyday lives, it seems like
our communities have grown
stronger and closer together.
To you, Clatsop County
citizens, I say thank you for
making a difference in the
lives of all 2016 graduates.
CHANEL KELLY
Knappa High School
Class of 2016
Astoria
I
Take care
read, with great interest,
two separate articles about
the environment in The Daily
Astorian (“Speak now on coal
exports upriver,” May 3) and
The Oregonian, which would
have been enlightening to run
side by side.
The Daily Astorian piece
addresses the plan to estab-
lish two behemoth coal distri-
bution plants on the Columbia
River. The terminals would
store and deliver large depos-
its of coal that will be brought
by train to Longview-Kelso,
Washington, then shipped to
Asia.
The proposal speaks to the
creation of jobs in the area,
tax receipts, and the better-
ment of the economy. Little
shrift has been given to the
potential for disastrous, dom-
ino-effect occurrences should
one of the container ships hit
foul weather, as is predicted.
The Northwest isn’t immune
to severe weather.
The people of Oregon
recently turned “thumbs-
down” on a proposed lique-
ied natural gas (LNG) plant
in Warrenton at the mouth of
the Columbia River for many
reasons, but mostly in light of
what a study proposed would
happen if a container ship was
blown off course. The result-
ing explosion would literally
wipe out most of the local area
from Warrenton to Astoria.
This is an extreme exam-
ple, and additionally, the deg-
radation of building a pipeline
and placing a natural gas plant
in an ecologically and indus-
try-sensitive area is beyond
comprehension. The propo-
nents stated they could guar-
antee safety and preventative
maintenance for the plants
and the ships, taking natu-
ral gas to Asia for sale. Who
really beneits from this folly?
The Oregonian article is
about coral reefs being dec-
imated by the acidiication
of our oceans. Carbon diox-
ide accumulations are degrad-
ing calcium-producing organ-
isms — such as crab, lobster,
shrimp, clams, etc. — and
threatening their existence.
The increased amount of car-
bon dioxide in our oceans has
been proven to be largely con-
tributed by mankind.
Fish species depend on
coral reefs to sustain their
lives. Loss of this habitat will
affect all of us. As the oceans
go … so do we. We are all
dependent on our ecosystems
for our quality and sustain-
ability of life as we now enjoy
it.
I am not a bleeding-heart,
liberal tree hugger. I sup-
port sustainable business and
ecological-friendly business
practices. Some businesses
are currently working to help
nature recover; solar and wind
power are but a small part of
this endeavor.
If each of us recycles, puts
compost into a recovery sys-
tem and relies more on pub-
lic transportation, statistical
models indicate our planet
would be thankful in so many
ways. We either take care of
Mother Nature, or she will
take care of us — and not nec-
essarily in a good way.
JOHN CROWLEY
Gearhart
I
Political thoughts
t is Tuesday evening on
May 17 at 7:21 p.m. I have
not heard anything about vot-
ing results and I shouldn’t,
because there is still time for
people to vote and drop their
ballots into a special ballot
drop box.
But what I have heard is
very unsettling. Watching
I
Ring of Fire news on my com-
puter, I learned that Hilary
Clinton has made a statement
that when she is elected she
is going to put Bill in charge
of our economy. Bill Clinton,
the man who sent one mil-
lion American jobs overseas,
and strongly favors all trade
policies which gut American
jobs.
Bill Clinton who signed
the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act,
which repealed part of the
Glass-Steagall Act, which led
to the big inancial explosion
and bank bailout in 2008. Bill
Clinton, who signed the Tele-
communications Act of 1996,
which brought us Big Brother
Media (many different voices
saying the same propaganda),
higher prices for consumers,
and caused the loss of half a
million jobs. That Bill Clin-
ton. Don’t you feel better
already?
And then, if that was not
enough, I watched Mike
Papantonio and Thom Hart-
mann talk about who is host-
ing the Democratic Conven-
tion. The 2016 Democratic
National Convention in Phil-
adelphia will be hosted by
Republican donors, corpo-
rate executives, and anti-
Obamacare lobbyists. Accord-
ing to an Intercept article, the
15 member Host Committee
is composed of the same old
Republican moneybags that
bankrolled Republicans in
past elections.
I left the Democratic
party years ago when I real-
ized it was corrupt. I suggest
that all Democrats who real-
ize that the present “Demo-
cratic Party” does not repre-
sent them do the same.
And then for the grand
inale of the evening. A forth-
coming book by Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman,
“The Strip & Flip Selection
Of 2016: Five Jim Crows &
Electronic Election Theft,”
all about electronic election
theft. Eighty percent of the
votes that will be cast in the
2016 general election will
be cast on electronic voting
machines — which can have
their records altered by a gov-
ernor or secretary of state with
just a few keystrokes. The
solution? Observable hand
counting of ballots.
I think Oregon has one
of the best voting programs
in our country. But it is still
hackable. We should do some-
thing about that. It wouldn’t
be hard.
DIXIE GAINER
Nehalem
Do your job
recent letter “Coal ired”
(The Daily Astorian, May
13), was submitted by Tom
Harris, executive director
of the International Climate
Coalition, Ottawa, Canada. It
would have been nice had a
note been added that Mr. Har-
ris is not a climate scientist,
but a former energy industry
public relations consultant.
It might have also been
helpful to note that the
so-called coalition is primar-
ily a climate denial organiza-
tion that is funded by a Chi-
cago-based front group for
the energy industry. Go even
further, and you will ind the
various members of this “coa-
lition” have either zero, or
highly questionable creden-
tials within climate science,
and are all paid by organiza-
tions created by and funded
by energy industry monies.
As a former newspaper-
man and editor myself, I
A
asked myself why would a
publication serving Clatsop
County publish a letter from
Ottawa, Canada, comment-
ing on an Associated Press
story about the presidential
campaign? I understand that
exporting coal via the Colum-
bia River is a current local
issue. But Ottawa? What’s the
connection, I wondered? So I
did the simple thing any news
organization would (or at least
should) do — I looked further.
It was easy to ind plenty
of information about these
folks, who are receiving
money from the energy indus-
try to spread oficial sounding
pseudo-science denial about
climate change and to support
fossil fuel-based industries.
It was also fairly easy
to ind information about
Ottawa, the electric prices,
job losses and net job gains
(yes, they are up a net 60,000
jobs) as they make the neces-
sary transition towards a sus-
tainable energy future that
doesn’t sacriice the environ-
ment for proit today. It’s not
the doom and gloom Mr. Har-
ris would have you believe.
Newspaper people seem
to be bafled at why the pub-
lic doesn’t trust them. I think
this is a good example. You
gave this energy industry pro-
paganda organization free
publicity on an important
topic that, as you well know,
many of your readers care
about. In my opinion, you
should have added an editor’s
note explaining who Har-
ris is, what his organization
does and where they get their
money. You might ind people
trust you better when you do
your job correctly.
BILL GRAFFIUS
Gearhart
developed by this contractor for
the governor will also be made
publicly available.
It is unfortunate that your
news story created an illu-
sion of secrecy where it does
not exist. This work group has
endeavored to exceed disclo-
sure requirements because
we believe both in sharing
our work product with pol-
icymakers and Oregonians,
and because we believe this
review will ultimately be a
tool the governor can use to
further strengthen the work
and conidence in our state’s
transportation agency.
SUSAN MORGAN
Commissioner, Douglas
County
Roseburg
Energy sense
n response, or as a follow-up,
to the letter “Coal ired” by
Tom Harris, executive direc-
tor, International Climate Sci-
ence Coalition, Ottawa, Ontario
(The Daily Astorian, May 13),
we Oregonians should become
more aware/informed of fail-
ures of the European Union
over the past decade.
Despite their combined
governments’ spending more
than 1 trillion euros of tax-
I
payer money on “Green Sub-
sidies,” carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions in the EU have actu-
ally risen. In 2015, CO2 emis-
sions from fossil-fuel combus-
tion increased by 0.7 percent,
compared with that of the pre-
vious year.
CO2 emissions in Ger-
many alone increased by an
estimated 10 million tons from
2014 to 2015, in a setback to
that nation’s claims about “cli-
mate leadership.” Accord-
ing to the Institute of German
Business, the cost of Germa-
ny’s once highly publicized
“Energiewende” (“Transition
to green energy”) will increase
another 31 billion euros (U.S.
$35 billion) in 2016 alone: this
will further burden the already
faltering German economy.
Amazingly, last year Ger-
many paid wind farms $548
million to close down, in order
to prevent damage to the coun-
try’s electricity grid. Germa-
ny’s wind and solar power sys-
tems had provided too much
power at unpredictable times,
which damaged the power grid
and made the system more
vulnerable to blackouts. To
ix the problem, grid opera-
tors paid companies to turn off
their wind turbines — accord-
ing to the German newspaper
Wirtschaftswoche.
Energy is, of course, import-
ant for economic growth and
general prosperity, but don’t we
also need to consider reason and
common sense? Over the last
30 years, a fresh view of the
English “Industrial Revolution”
has begun to take shape, which
suggests that fossil-fuel energy
can be signiicantly used much
more than is being allowed these
days in “mainstream econom-
ics.” This new realization gives
further purpose that we should
be concerned about reasonable
global attempts to reduce emis-
sions, rather than blindly adopt-
ing renewable energy at what-
ever cost.
DAN NEBERT
Tillamook
Reinstating award
n a recent letter submit-
ted to The Daily Astorian,
the importance of honor-
ing the sacriices of our law
I
5A
enforcement oficers, as well
as the signiicance of the Law
Enforcement Oficer of the
Year ceremony was discussed
(“Honor his memory,” May
6).
Marine Corps League
Daniel E. Crockett Detach-
ment 1228 was mentioned
as having made the deci-
sion to discontinue the Law
Enforcement Oficer of the
Year Awards. We would like
to clarify as to why we had to
temporarily suspend the pro-
gram, so that there is no con-
fusion surrounding this.
Our law enforcement ofi-
cers are near and dear to our
detachment; we are com-
prised of a number of current
and former oficers who have
stepped forward to serve and
protect their community, and
hold others who also do so in
the highest esteem — espe-
cially those who have lost
their lives in the line of duty.
At the time we had to sus-
pend the program, we sim-
ply could no longer afford
to carry the program on, as
we were operating in the red.
This was the only deciding
factor in having to suspend
the program.
For the past seven months,
Marine Corps League Detach-
ment 1228 has been in the
process of reinstating the Law
Enforcement Oficer of the
Year program. We are well
on our way to being able to
inancially cover the expenses
of the program, and have a
committee who is commit-
ted to not only honoring our
law enforcement oficers on
the North Coast, but those in
Southwest Washington, as
well.
We are pleased to announce
at this time that there will be a
Law Enforcement Oficer of
the Year ceremony, to be held
at our annual Marine Corps
Ball on Nov. 12. Thank you,
to all of our law enforcement
oficers, for all that you give
of yourselves, and we extend
our gratitude for the risk you
take every time you put on
that uniform.
LOU NEUBECKER
Marine Corps League
Detachment 1228
Seaside
No secrets
am writing to correct mis-
conceptions created by
reporting in your paper on a
management review of the
Oregon Department of Trans-
portation (“Delay in ODOT
review could hamper trans-
portation plan,” The Daily
Astorian, April 5).
As chairwoman of the
ODOT Management Review
Committee, we are a small
working group that was
selected to help engage an
independent third party to
examine the management
practices at ODOT. While
this group is serving in an
advisory capacity to the
governor, it is not a deci-
sion-making body. Our meet-
ings are, therefore, not sub-
ject to the notice and access
requirements under the Ore-
gon Public Meetings Law,
nor has the governor told this
group, publicly or privately,
to close or conduct our meet-
ings in secret. Nevertheless,
we have worked diligently in
the spirit of openness to share
this group’s work publicly,
and will continue to do so.
Our primary task has been
to develop a proposed scope
of work that will be used to
hire an independent contrac-
tor to review ODOT. This pro-
posed scope of work has been
developed with input from
legislators and key stakehold-
ers. This input, along with
minutes from our meeting, is
publicly available.
Additionally, we will offer a
recommendation to the Depart-
ment of Administrative Ser-
vices (DAS) on a contrac-
tor, but it is DAS, and not this
working group, that will decide
who will be hired. It should also
be noted that the inal report
I
Living with Alzheimer’s:
For Caregivers – Late Stage
Saturday, June 4
10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Clatsop Community College Columbia Hall,
Room 219
(1651 Lexington Ave., Astoria, OR 97103)
In the late stage of Alzheimer’s disease, caregiving
typically involves new ways of connecting and interacting
with the person with the disease. Join the Alzheimer’s
Association Oregon Chapter for this class to hear from
caregivers and professionals about resources, monitoring care
and providing meaningful connection for individuals with
late-stage Alzheimer’s and their families.
This class is free, but registration is required.
To register, call 800-272-3900.
Offered in collaboration with: