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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2016 Bachelor named Britain, looks for love By FRANK BRUNI New York Times News Service 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 Our best benefactors A scholarship is a vote of conidence inancing a college education is no small undertaking. While the rate of inlation has remained low, college tuition has ramped up considerably over the past two decades. Young peo- ple and their parents often cobble together an assortment of funds and loans to make it work. In this environment, Astoria in 1959, the Ross scholarships High School Scholarships predate the founding of the Inc., is a miraculous beneit. AHS scholarships fund. Established in 1976, the fund Younger funds at Knappa holds a principal of about $7 and Warrenton high schools million. At this year’s gradua- also awarded funds this spring. tion, AHS Scholarships gave Established in 1997, the Knappa away about $250,000. Coupling High School scholarships scholarship money with inan- fund has a principal of over cial aid from colleges, students $1 million. Coupling scholar- left with about $1.5 million. ship money with inancial aid, Three members of the AHS Warrenton High School grads class of 2016 received in excess took away $250,000. of $100,000. One of them No matter how big the received close to $200,000. scholarship, a inancial gift to AHS Scholarships Inc., is a deserving graduate is a vote a collection of more than 50 of conidence. Sometimes, it is funds that have been estab- the nudge that moves a young lished by a variety of alumni man or woman in the direction and friends of the school. of post-secondary learning. Another 12 companies give At a time when our nation scholarships annually. One of depends on an educated work this year’s achievements was force and citizenry, those who inclusion of the Ed and Eda give scholarships are some of Ross Scholarship. Established our best benefactors.. F Dying forests are emergencies here is a tendency among many in the environ- mental community to regard salvage logging and forest thinning as thinly veiled ways to allow unacceptable harvest levels in U.S. national forests. Long-term drought in the West coupled with related factors like insect damage should force a reassessment of this attitude. The U.S. Forest Service spent 56 percent of its budget last year on ireighting, com- pared to 16 percent in 1995, according to a June 23 story by the Christian Science Monitor. Sixty-six million trees have died in California alone since 2010 due to drought, higher temperatures and an infesta- tion of beetles that are ravag- ing forests from Mexico to Alaska. The Forest Service is beg- ging Congress to address ire- ighting expenses as a sepa- rate budget line item, in order to avoid starving the agency of funds desperately needed for other purposes. There isn’t enough money left to pay the substantial costs of restor- ing burned areas and keep up with the many other priori- ties that deserve to be top-of- mind for our manager of more than 300,000 square miles of America – the size of the nation of Turkey.) Twenty-irst century ires are a natural disaster of the T irst order and deserve to be treated as such. This means inding federal funds specif- ically to ight them. The $2.6 billion spent by the Forest Service in 2015 could have a dent in long-deferred property maintenance. Logging is the logical way to generate funds for ireight- ing, as well potentially being useful in creating ire breaks around residential areas that have encroached upon forest- land. Forest thinning, although not an eficient way of com- mercially harvesting, might also improve forest health while reducing ire danger. Logging opponents are understandably skeptical when it comes to Forest Service har- vest plans. For decades, wild- ire prevention served as a convenient excuse for tim- ber sales. In many cases, these sales cost taxpayers more than they brought in. The Reagan administration was particularly notorious. It was the backlash against its malfeasance that ushered in forest management crafted by litigation. But it now is time to treat dying forests as the emergen- cies they are. Reasonable, scientiically sound harvests can improve forest health while providing funds for ire suppression. It’s time for a meeting of minds on this complex and emotionally fraught issue. t has been forever since Britain was single, and there will be many lonesome and disorienting nights ahead. I Maybe we should ix it up with Switzerland. Not immediately, of course. The divorce from the European Union was just announced. The paperwork hasn’t been iled. There could be a loss of nerve, a relaxing of conjugal rules, tulips from Holland, chocolates from Belgium. Greece and Portugal could promise to stop leaving dirty dishes in the sink, Germany to quit hogging the remote. But as things stand now, Britain will soon stand apart, and we all know how that goes: exhil- aration, fol- Frank lowed by panic, Bruni leading to an age-inappropriate Tinder account. Oh, look, here’s Iceland, lashing its most voluptuous volcanoes. Nah, too stony and lugubrious, and you can lis- ten to only so much Bjork. Swipe left. Britain on its own is unfathom- able. Think of its relationship history: epic trans-Atlantic romances, auda- cious trans-Paciic affairs, lings in this jungle, hookups on that dune. It was usually dominant, occasionally submissive but always coupled — if not tripled, quadrupled or quintupled. It had a lust for entanglement if no tal- ent for idelity. But it’s not the overlord it once was. Those imperial pheromones are gone. Where a crown once rested, a bald spot spreads. Britain’s going to need primping, prodding, perhaps a prescription. And introductions. So: Switzerland? If marrying rich is the goal, mar- rying Switzerland is the jackpot. And Switzerland won’t do what Brit- ain loathed in its current spouse and encourage poorer, darker people to drop in for fondue. But it’s so worryingly petite. So wearyingly standofish, resisting the EU even while enveloped and pro- tected by it. And it’s sure to insist on a prenup longer than all of the Harry Potter novels combined. Brit- ain needs freer and easier love than that, especially as its jowls sag and its pound droops. Maybe that means Albania, Mon- tenegro or Macedonia. They’re the Ian West/PA Supporters hold a banners during a pro-EU rally in Trafalgar Square in London, after some of the pro-EU events organized in the aftermath of last week’s historic referendum have been canceled at short notice over safety concerns on Tuesday. Maybe we should fix Britain up with Switzerland. mail-order brides of the continent, dreaming of an “I do” from the EU. Surely they’d settle for Britain. But would Britain settle for them? The bloated pride that brought it to this juncture won’t allow for a signif- icant other that’s too other and insig- niicant, and most outsiders can’t locate Albania on a map. (Go south to the heel of Italy, turn left, cross the Adriatic, hope for the best.) There are better charted, more ego-salving cor- ners of Europe that haven’t bedded down with Brussels and are still on the market. Like Norway. It and Britain have plenty in common — they’re both wintry, watery, ishy, boozy — but also bring different, complementary assets to the table. In Norway’s case, oil. In Britain’s, Adele. If that’s not a recipe for global domination, what is? Britain isn’t a bachelor like most. It has been married so many times that it has pretty much run through the available options. Its predicament reminds me of the movie “What’s Your Number?” which I saw so that you wouldn’t have to. Anna Faris plays a Bostonian who believes that she has reached her maximum allotment of sexual part- ners and that her only hope for a hus- band is to circle back and reconnect with someone she disconnected from previously. For Britain that could be India. Australia. Much of Africa. Some of the Middle East. Its exes are every- where, though approaching any of them would require a new humility, as the Britain of yesteryear wasn’t a particularly modest or accommo- dating suitor. It typically got the bet- ter end of the deal, until the EU came along and the arrangement wasn’t so lopsided. America is Britain’s most promi- nent ex of all: the Elizabeth Taylor to its Richard Burton. Should our one- time colonial master become our 51st state? If we acted quickly enough, Boris Johnson could be tapped as Donald Trump’s running mate, creat- ing a tandem of tresses so perversely dazzling that it alone makes the case. This may have been Johnson’s plan all along. Britain is no more geographi- cally nonsensical for us than Hawaii or Alaska, though it’s probably too long a cultural stretch. It simply lacks the requisite prevalence of gun ownership. Which makes it a better it for Canada. Canada is saner, except about ice hockey. It’s Britain’s obvi- ous match: comparably afluent, suf- iciently English-speaking. Together Britain and Canada can laugh at the crudeness of us Americans, a favor- ite shared pastime and an understand- able one. Britain is suddenly leaderless, while Canada suddenly has a leader, Justin Trudeau, who’s an interna- tional heartthrob. He can expand his portfolio to two continents, and has tidy hair. Sorry, Boris. And the monarchy survives! Can- ada never ceased its ceremonial fealty to it, and bows before Queen Eliza- beth II much as Britain does. It’s a source of puzzlement, but it’s a bridge to Britain, which is going to need the love. Brexit shows you break it, you own it by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times News Service he British vote by a nar- row majority to leave the European Union is not the end of the world — but it does show us how we can get there. T A major European power, a long- time defender of liberal democ- racy, pluralism and free markets, falls under the sway of a few cyn- ical politicians who see a chance to exploit public fears of immigration to advance their careers. They create a stark binary choice on an incredibly complex issue, of which few people understand the full scope — stay in or quit the EU. These politicians assume that the dog will never catch the car and they will have the best of all worlds — opposing something unpopular but not having to deal with the implica- tions of the public actually voting to get rid of it. But they so dumb down the debate with lies, fear-mongering and misdirection, and with only a sim- ple majority required to win, that the leave-the-EU crowd carries the day by a small margin. Presto: the dog catches the car. And, of course, it has no idea now what to do with this car. There is no plan. There is just barking. Like I said, not the end of the world yet, but if a few more EU countries try this trick we’ll have quite a little mess on our hands. Attention Donald Trump voters: This is what happens to a country that falls for hucksters who think that life can just imitate Twitter — that there are simple answers to hard questions — and that small men can rearrange big complex systems by just erecting a wall and everything will be peachy. But I digress. Because although withdrawing from the EU is not the right answer for Brit- ain, the fact that this argument won, albeit with lies, tells you that people are feeling deeply anxious about some- thing. It’s the story of our time: the pace of change in technology, glo- But we need to under- balization and climate have stand that “the issue before started to outrun the ability of us is ‘integration’ not our political systems to build ‘immigration,’” Mousav- the social, educational, com- izadeh added. The lived munity, workplace and polit- experience, in most cities in ical innovations needed for Europe today, is the fact that some citizens to keep up. “a pluralistic, multiethnic We have globalized trade society has grown up here, and manufacturing, and actually rather peacefully, we have introduced robots and it has brought enormous Thomas L. and artiicial intelligent sys- beneits and prosperity. We Friedman tems, far faster than we have need to change the focus designed the social safety of the problem — and the The nets, trade surge protectors solution — from the physi- and educational advancement cal reality of immigration to future the political and economic options that would allow peo- ple caught in this transition to belongs challenge of integration.” have the time, space and tools Schools, hospitals and pub- to thrive. It’s left a lot of peo- lic institutions generally to ple dizzy and dislocated. will not rise to the challenge those of the 21st century “if social At the same time, we have opened borders delib- integration is failing.” who erately — or experienced Indeed, in my view, the the inlux of illegal migra- countries that nurture plu- build tion from failing states at an ralism the best will be the unprecedented scale — and webs ones that thrive the most in this too has left some peo- the 21st century. They will not ple feeling culturally unan- have the most political sta- chored, that they are losing bility, attract the most talent walls. and be able to collaborate their “home” in the deepest sense of that word. The phys- with the most people. But ical reality of immigration, particularly it’s hard work. in Europe, has run ahead of not only the Yet in an age when technology is host countries’ ability to integrate peo- integrating us more tightly together ple but also of the immigrants’ ability and delivering tremendous lows of to integrate themselves — and both are innovation, knowledge, connectivity necessary for social stability. and commerce, the future belongs to And these rapid changes are tak- those who build webs not walls, who ing place when our politics has never can integrate not separate, to get the been more gridlocked and unable to most out of these lows. Britain leav- respond with just common sense — ing the EU is a lose-lose proposition. like governments borrowing money I hope the “Regrexit” campaign can at near zero interest to invest in much- reverse Brexit and that Americans will needed infrastructure that creates jobs dump Trump. and enables us to better exploit these Never forget, after the destruc- technologies. tion of World War II, the EU project “Political power in the West has “emerged as a force for peace, pros- been failing its own test of legitimacy perity, democracy and freedom in the and accountability since 2008 — and world,” noted Eric Beinhocker, the in its desperation has chosen to erode executive director of the Institute for it further by unforgivably abdicat- New Economic Thinking at Oxford. ing responsibility through the use of “This is one of humankind’s great a referendum on the EU,” said Nader achievements. Rather than let it be Mousavizadeh, who co-leads the Lon- destroyed we must use the shock of the don-based global consulting irm Brexit vote to reimagine, reform, and Macro Advisory Partners. rebuild a new Europe.”
