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