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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2016)
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 You don’t have to be Scandinavian to enjoy Astoria’s Scandinavian Mid-summer Festival. After 39 years of operation, the festival itself is as important to Astoria’s heritage as the ive nations it celebrates. This past weekend, hundreds of people of different ethnicities gathered to celebrate the food, fun and traditions of Norway, Finland, Denmark, Ice- land and Sweden. A comprehensive trafic plan designed to accommodate future development on Port of Astoria property in the Uniontown area got a thumbs-up Tuesday from the Port Commission. Valerie Grigg Devis, northwest senior planner for the Oregon Department of Transportation, called the Astoria/Port/Union- town Transportation Reinement Plan a model of cooperation between a port and a city. Grigg Devis said she looked closely at the port’s goal of having working industrial area as well as other uses including a marina and accommodations for visitors when developing the plan. In the short term it features an improved entry to the port, new link- ages to West Marine Drive and better access to new waterfront businesses. Seals used to authenticate documents have been around since biblical times. The practice continues, even in today’s high-tech, wired world. Nations, states and cities still have seals, including Astoria. The Astoria City Council got a good look at the details of the Astoria’s seal Monday when City Manager Paul Benoit showed off a replica, hand- painted on a 2-foot circle of plywood by local artist Roger McKay. It will be on display at City Hall. 50 years ago — 1966 The MR Chessman and Tourist II ferries ran aground Tuesday morning in the Columbia river main channel during a minus 1.5 foot low tide. The Chessman went aground at 9 a.m. On its return trip to Astoria, while the Tourist II became stuck en route to Megler about 90 minutes later. The two ves- sels were about 200 yards part in a shallow spot in the dredged river channel and were approximately 2,000 yards from the Asto- ria shore. National Guardsmen were in the field this week, winding up sum- mer training session at Camp Rilea which ends Saturday. Ma- chine gun and M-42 air defense weapons carrier are shown in position for maneuvers. (Astorian Photo by Gordon Clark) Concrete decking may be completed Friday on the Astoria bridge’s 2464- foot truss across the Columbia River main ship channel. Robert Ellison, resident bridge engineer, said Wednesday, “If we adhere to our present work schedule, we should be inished by then.” Pouring of concrete began June 13 on the last undecked segment of the bridge. To ensure proper balance, the concrete has been poured from the middle toward both ends of the truss. If the inal batch of concrete is poured Friday on the undecked section, the bridge still will not be ready for use as curbs and parapets must be added to make the roadway safe. 75 years ago — 1941 The keel of the irst of several minesweepers to be built by the Astoria Marine Construction company will be laid next Wednesday. This is the irst keel for a war vessel ever laid in the lower Columbia and the irst craft of considerable size to be constructed here since the irst World War. Forty men on the day shift and a small crew at night have been engaged at the Lewis and Clark plant of the boat building concern for more than a week in preparing for the laying of the irst keel. Piling for the irst ways has been driven by the Gilpin Construction company. Gearhart, Ore., is rapidly assuming a position high among the convention cities of this state. Realtors, druggists, trap shooters, publishers, bankers, pot- tery makers, savings and loan men, circulation managers, sociologists, golf- ers. They are swarming into the big, gray Hotel Gearhart, talking, conven- ing, listening and funning, then fanning out over the 18-hole golf course, the beach and into Astoria and Seaside. The suitcase crowd is from every west- ern state and Canada and now and then, some with stickers from heck and gone. Twenty-four boys 16 to 19 years of age inclusive will leave from the court house at 10 o’clock Sunday morning in a six-car caravan for Corvallis where they will register for the one-week Beaver Boys State, June 22 to 29. Beaver Boys State, sponsored by the American Legion, is a plan for training in the functional aspects of citizenship. Its pur- pose is to teach the youth of today constructive attitudes toward the American form of government. OLYMPIA, Wash., The proposed $30,000,000 ship canal connecting Puget Sound with the Columbia River, shelved six years ago, was dusted off today and discussed at a public hearing held by the U.S. Army Engineer. Col. B.C. Dunn, district engineer, was in charge of the hearing. It was ordered by the house of representative in Washington, D.C., to determine whether the plan should be revived as a defense measure. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2016 For as long as we have had them, guns have given ‘credence to delusional rants’ E ver since Leonard Bernstein touched a young generation through the televised Young People’s Concerts, orchestra conductors have felt compelled to imitate Lenny by facing the audience and providing a pre- amble to the next number. Keith Clark did that Saturday night, previewing the performance of Phillip Glass’ Symphony No. 4, Heroes. ‘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 The essence of Clark’s mono- logue was that Glass’ music grew out of a period when the very nature of music was being hotly debated by twelve-tone composers and their detractors and challenged by the ascendance of rock ’n’ roll. Performance of the Glass work was meant to evoke David Bowie, whose death sent ripples through the music world. A young colleague who has heard more Glass than I was unsatisied, feeling it was a watered-down version of Glass and Bowie. My colleague termed Mae- stro Clark’s performance “a well-ex- ecuted mediocre symphony.” But the festival audience loved it, giving a standing ovation. Glass has done compelling movie soundtracks, most notably for The Hours. ▼▼▼ When the Bundys and their followers occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon Public Broadcasting sent their new reporter, John Sepulvado, to the battle site. Sepulvado’s story was a magnif- icent piece of reporting. Because he came to OPB from Nevada, where he had covered the prior Bundy show- down, he knew those guys. Thus he gained access to the inner circle. In a subsequent Willamette Week story, Sepulvado included this obser- vation about guns and what they do for middle-aged guys who are losing their relevance. “Guns, for as long as we have had them,” wrote Sepul- vado, “have given undue impetus to arguments that lack merit or reason, given credence to delusional rants.” A premeditated delusional rant is one way of describing the recent massacre at an Orlando gay night club. It is a wonder that the National Rile Association and its congressio- nal supporters continue to tell us that Dwight Caswell/File Photo Astoria Music Festival co-founder and artistic director Keith Clark conducts during the 2014 Astoria Music Festival. Conductors following Leonard Bernstein feel compelled to imitate Lenny. the kind of irepower which Omar Mateen used in that club to kill 49 people should be available to com- mon citizens. ▼▼▼ Garrison Keillor has given us an apt characterization of Donald Trump. Writing in The Washington Post, Keil- lor took us back to high school. “The class hood, the bully and braggart, the guy revving his pink Chevy to make the pipes rumble, pre- siding over the student council. This is the C-minus guy who sat behind you in history and poked you with his pencil and smirked when you asked him to stop. That smirk is now on every front page in America. It is not what anybody — left, right or center — looks for in a president. There’s no philosophy here, just an attitude.” Lyndon Johnson. Among the praiseworthy ele- ments of Barack Obama’s presidency is his parenting. On Father’s Day, The Washington Post paid attention to the president as father (Obama’s most unusual legacy? Being a good dad”) Joshua Kendall, who wrote the Post’s piece, has authored a book about “irst dads.” Wrote Kendall: “The other mem- bers of this small fraternity (of good presidential fathers) include James Monroe, Rutherford B. Hayes, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. Truman doted on his only child, Margaret, who described herself as ‘“a total Daddy’s girl.’” — S.A.F. ▼▼▼ Our presidents have been noto- rious for ignoring their children. Franklin Roosevelt did that. So did A week to remember for all time By TIMOTHY EGAN New York Times News Service plan would likely round up play, you see. He is histori- the parents of some of the cally illiterate, so the rest of Latinos killed in Orlando. us must be as well. And because it comes in They will remember, in hey will remember, a century such waves, there is no a week that gave us a scary from now, who stood up to time to process it all. Was peek into the heart of Amer- the tyrant Donald Trump and who ican darkness, how the civil it just a few weeks ago that found it expedient to throw out the ties that bind a nation of peo- he attacked a federal judge, hearing a case in which most basic American values — the ple from all nations could Trump is accused of fraud be shredded. The blood “Vichy Republicans,” as historian from the Pulse nightclub in on a mass scale, because of Timothy Ken Burns called them in his Orlando, no less a battleield the judge’s ethnic heritage? Egan Stanford commencement speech. than Shiloh or Bull Run, was They will also remem- The shrug from Mitch McConnell, not yet dry when Trump was congratu- ber the Republicans who did not look the twisted explanation of Paul Ryan, lating himself — a sleep-deprived nar- the other way. Mitt Romney and Meg cissist on a morning me high. The worst Whitman and the Bush family showed who said Trump is a racist and a xeno- mass shooting in U.S. history was not more decency in a day than Trump has phobe, but he’s ours — party before about the murder of everyday people; in a lifetime. country. it was about him: “Appreciate the con- “Man up,” wrote Republican strate- As well, the duck-and-hide Repub- grats for being right.” gist Rick Wilson. “Show courage. Say licans, so quick to whip out their pocket They will hang their heads in sorrow what’s in your hearts; he’s insane. He’s copy of the Constitution, now nowhere at the time when the man leading the poison. He’s doomed. He’s killing the to be seen when the foundation of that party of Lincoln suggested that a sitting party.” same document is under assault by the president was a traitor, somehow sym- The American public, for once, man carrying their banner. pathetic to Islamic seems to get him. While Republican They will remember, in nihilists who slaugh- Party leaders cower or remain silent, classrooms and seminars, ter innocent Ameri- voters by a 2-1 margin in polls con- History those who wrote Trump off cans. Trump implied ducted this week disapprove of the way will as entertainment, a freak it. Then he banned Trump acted in a crisis. He’s disliked by show and ratings spike, newspaper for its nearly 70 percent of the people, which remember. a headline before he tried to muzzle about it. only makes you wonder about the other a free press, and came for He wasn’t in- 30 percent. But come you — using a page from ished, this 70-year- “There comes a time when I — another tyrant, Vladimir November, old with the tempera- and you — can no longer remain neu- Putin, admired by the home- ment of a 7-year-old. tral, silent,” said Burns at Stanford on will we? He made no rous- Sunday, the morning we all awoke to grown monster. As well, they will call out ing call for unity and news of the slaughter in Florida. “For the enablers. In the run-up to the presi- courage, no plea for a partisan pause. 216 years, our elections, though bitterly dential primary season, few candidates He said the president must resign, as if contested, have featured the philos- received more favorable press coverage it wasn’t an assault rile easily obtained ophies and characters of candidates than Trump, the Shorenstein Center at by a New York-born fanatic that killed who were clearly qualiied. That’s not Harvard’s Kennedy School found. The 49 people, but the U.S. command- the case this year. One is glaringly not watchdogs were in on the ride. Sure, er-in-chief. He compared the nation to qualiied.” he’s a know-nothing and fraud, inca- a terminally ill patient. All is lost. For In this week of trial and tragedy, pable of processing information or get- good measure, he suggested that our Trump showed us how he would gov- ern — by fear, by intimidation, by lies, ting through a day without a half-dozen soldiers were thieves. lies — but it’s just a role. Get a load of It comes in such waves, the prepos- by turning American against Ameri- Ted Cruz’s wife! Heidi Klum is no lon- terous lies, the breaches in honor, from can, by exhibiting all the empathy of ger a 10! And when he talks like a fas- this man who wants to use high ofice a sociopath. Seal last week. Put it in cist, when he uses the America First to attack his enemies in civil court, a time capsule. Teach it. History will slogan adopted by Nazi sympathizers who would apply a religious test to fel- remember. But come November, will in this country in the 1930s, it’s all for low citizens, whose mass deportation we? T
