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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 30, 2016 THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager ‘OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE’ JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager President Abraham Lincoln delivered this address at the ded- ication of the cemetery at Gettys- burg, Pa., on Nov. 19, 1863. our score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, con- ceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are cre- ated equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battleield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that ield, as a inal resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether itting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate –we cannot hallow – this F AP Photo/Susan Walsh Members of the Old Guard Pvt. Brandon Hyer, left, from Kansas City, Kan., and Pvt. Brad Dixon of Baltimore, Md., place flags in front of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Thursday. Soldiers were to place nearly a quarter of a million U.S. flags at the cemetery as part of a Memorial Day tradition. ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have con- secrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will lit- tle note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the uninished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here ded- icated to the great task remaining before us — that from these hon- ored dead we take increased devo- tion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devo- tion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of free- dom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the peo- ple, shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln Today is about the cost of war Every war creates a new generation of veterans oday we honor those who made the ultimate sacriice — giving their life because their country sent them to war. There was a time when that we are still too far away Congress contained many from learning this lesson. veterans. Because there is no draft, there are now few vet- ut war is not the true sub- erans in the House or Senate. ject for Memorial Day. There is always plenty of war We honor the personal sac- rhetoric, but very little per- riices that men and women spective based on experience. have made in the name of our AP Photo/Matt York Passengers retrieve their luggage after their flights Friday at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. This also is true of the presi- nation and its Constitution. dency. Neither Barack Obama We who live in the relative nor any of the three candidates comfort of 2016 cannot ignore seeking to replace him has these sacriices. We cannot com- that it seems to be able to get away By GAIL COLLINS with squishing people into smaller New York Times News Service served in the military. mend one soldier’s valor and and smaller spaces. Last month, Sen. Obama — elected in part minimize another’s, depend- Chuck Schumer of New York offered ummer is upon us, and we due to a perception he would ing on whether we deem one a an amendment to a bill reauthorizing are facing important travel the Federal Aviation Administration quickly disentangle the U.S. “good war” and the other not. decisions. that would have imposed a morato- What we honor this day is from wars on the other side Such as who to blame when we rium on reductions in seat size and space between rows. It failed, 54-42. of the world — continues all selless service to the coun- get stuck in interminable airport Nobody spoke out against the lines. these years later to preside over try. But if this day is to be any- proposal, but only one Republi- persistent and deadly military thing but an excuse for a day So many can, Susan Collins of Maine, voted o p t i o n s . for it. We salute Susan Collins, who engagements in countries few off from work, we must put There’s the has been, for a number of years, vir- Americans would otherwise meat on the bones of otherwise g o v e r n m e n t , tually the entire population of the but how many Moderate Republican Caucus. set foot in. Like most mod- empty promises. times can you AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews When Schumer lies, his irst ern U.S. political elites, mili- Our president and Congress can complain Transportation Security Admin- move is to empty the seat pocket in tary service is about projecting aren’t unique in being shielded about Congress istration officers, center, wait to front of him. in the course screen travelers at LaGuardia “I take out the magazine and the American power abroad and from the realities of modern of a lifetime? Airport Friday in New York. airsickness bag so I have an extra protecting American interests. warfare. Although more serve There’s the eighth of an inch,” he said in a Gail interview. Neither they nor their imme- from working-class areas like public — air Collins Heaven forfend phone trafic up 12 It’s a matter of some passion — diate families ever have any ours, the shared experience of percent since the presidents of three airlines we mess with when actual “skin in the game.” serving in America’s defense 2011. But really, people, don’t visited Schumer’s ofice for discus- blame yourself. sion of a totally unrelated issue, he the business For a majority of Americans, is increasingly uncommon. Let’s pick a rant that’s good for moved the coffee table so it was an Memorial Day is most mean- History teaches the dan- you, good for me, good for the lines model. inch from their knees. “I said: ‘OK, now you know how it feels.’” ingfully about the veterans ger faced by powerful nations in security: Make the airlines stop charging fees for checked baggage. a number that never includes details But about the bags. who are still actively endeav- where the majority of the cit- Seems simple, doesn’t it? Plus, if like the special fees for bags, food, Rather than reducing the num- oring to live following the end- izenry no longer remembers you do manage to make it to your canceling a reservation, booking by ber of bags in security lines, the air- these are the same people phone, sitting in a minimally more lines would like the government to less years of war begun after the hardship and realities faced light, who will be announcing there’s a $3 comfortable emergency row or, in deal with the problem by adding the craven attacks of Sept. 11, by its defenders. It becomes far fee if you want a snack. some cases, requesting a pillow. more workers to screen them. And The largest airlines charge $25 Shouldn’t the airlines offer up the perpetually beleaguered Trans- 2001. too easy to expend their lives for the irst checked bag, thus the baggage fee as a token of soli- portation Security Administration is How easy it still is for old for meager pay to achieve too encouraging people to drag their darity with their miserable passen- going to spend $34 million to hire men to start wars that burn up little, then bringing them home belongings through the airport, clog- gers? The idea has come up. Home- more people and pay more overtime ging the X-ray lines and slowing land Security Secretary Jeh Johnson this summer. Which, it assured the the lives of the young. The and forgetting them. the boarding process as everybody asked the airlines to “consider pos- public, is not really going to solve Iraq War especially deserves Repairing the disconnect ights to cram one last rolling duf- sibly” this modest bow to air travel much of anything. (Who, you may ask, pays for the to be remembered as a “war between decision-makers and fel into the overhead compartment. sanity. Two U.S. senators, Edward The idea that travelers should be Markey of Massachusetts and Rich- security lines anyway? For the most of choice” launched by polit- these sacriices is essential to the hit by an extra charge for, um, hav- ard Blumenthal of Connecticut, part you the taxpayer do. Also you ical leaders who never per- long-term survival of America’s ing luggage began in 2008, when wrote a letter to the airlines asking the passenger pay a special security cost of fuel went through the them to just drop the fees during the fee on your tickets. Which Congress sonally risked a drop of their great experiment in democracy. the roof. We understood the airlines’ high-trafic summer months. tends to grab away from the TSA for own blood defending the Meanwhile, genuinely hon- pain, sort of. Maybe. But now fuel We pause now for the sound of use in all-purpose deicit reduction. I know, I know.) nation. oring veterans means remem- prices have fallen into the cellar. silence and crickets chirping. The airlines are taking in stupen- The airlines have maximized A spokesman for Delta Air Lines, President Ulysses S. Grant bering them and tending to their dous proits — last year nearly $26 proits by making travel as mis- which took in more than $875 mil- — as good a general as the needs 365 days of the year, not billion after taxes, up from $2.3 bil- erable as possible. Boeing found lion on baggage fees last year, told in 2010. a way to cram 14 more seats into The Atlanta Journal-Constitution U.S. ever had — said, “There just this one. Memorial Day is lion Yet the baggage fees are still its largest twin-engine jetliner by that bowing to the extremely mod- never was a time when, in my only the start, not the inish, of with us. In fact, they’ve gone up reducing the size of the lavatories. est Markey-Blumenthal request for opinion, some way could not recognizing the debt we owe by about two-thirds. Last year, the Bloomberg quoted a Boeing oficial a summer suspension of the bag- nation’s airlines made more than as reporting that “the market reac- gage fee wouldn’t “really help alle- be found to prevent the draw- to veterans. Truly honoring $3.8 billion off what I believe it is tion has been good — really posi- viate a lot.” It would also, he said, ing of the sword.” Our sad them means embodying their fair to call a scam. It’s also an excel- tive.” We presume the market in require a “considerable change to way to make your prices look question does not involve the actual the business model.” drumbeat of wars in the 20th values and honor in our own lent Heaven forfend we mess with lower than they really are when passengers. people surf for the cheapest ticket, But the industry is so powerful the business model. and 21st centuries informs us lives every day of the year. T B Memorial weekend rant about baggage S