OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2016
Living disabled in an able-bodied world
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
Sales tax is a
reach too far
‘P
ublic employees unions run the statehouse,” said state
Rep. Dennis Richardson, during a 2014 visit to Astoria.
The unions assert broad infl uence on the Democratic side of
the state Legislature through candidate interviews and cam-
paign funding.
Now the public employ- ment pensions.
Legislative remedies to
ees unions are asserting
themselves grandly with the PERS dilemma — bro-
Initiative Petition 28, the kered by former Gov. John
initiative to establish a cor- Kitzhaber — were thrown
porate sales tax on corpo- out by the Oregon Supreme
rations with gross receipts Court. In the face of the
of more than $25 million court’s judgment, there was
annually. Paris Achen of a proposal to require new
our Capital Bureau reported PERS enrollees to contrib-
Tuesday that the farm sup- ute to their retirement, in
plies and fuel cooperative the manner that is common
Wilco would face a huge in the private sector. Oregon
increase in its tax liability if Gov. Kate Brown would not
IP 28 passes.
support that.
Revenue raised by IP 28
Ballot measures are blunt
instruments. They are sel- is the unions’ answer to the
dom as simple as their propo- PERS problem.
Achen reported that the
nents make them sound. So
what is the reality check on Legislative Revenue Offi ce
projects the measure’s effects
Initiative Petition 28?
The most correct title for as follows: a contraction
the measure is the PERS of the private sector and an
Bailout Tax. Financial enlargement of the public
demands of the Public sector. Another consequence
Employees
Retirement will be price increases for
System will soon increase consumers, as corpora-
the load on school districts tions cover their big new tax
and municipalities — caus- liability.
Initiative Petition 28 is a
ing schools to lay off teach-
ers in order to fund retire- reach too far.
Suicide haunts
Northwest jobs
uicide is often associated
with mental illness — par-
ticularly chronic depression
— without much reference
to external factors occurring
in victims’ lives. But a large
new study of suicide in the
U.S. shows that individual
economic circumstances and
working conditions play a
substantial role.
The eye-opening aspect
of a study by the federal
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention is the extent
to which rural Pacifi c
Northwest jobs are associ-
ated with high rates of sui-
cide. The CDC’s occupa-
tional suicide list is topped
by farmworkers, fi sher-
men, lumberjacks and oth-
ers in forestry or agricul-
ture — with a rate of 85 per
100,000.
In popular culture, there
has been a perception that
suicide is especially com-
mon among dentists and
doctors. But those profes-
sions have an 80 percent
lower rate than the arche-
typal Northwest jobs of fi sh-
ing, logging and farming.
The CDC leaves to others
interpretation of these fi nd-
S
ings, but “found the high-
est suicide rates in manual
laborers who work in iso-
lation and face unsteady
employment,” AP reported.
It may be argued that per-
sonality types more prone
to suicide tend to enter cer-
tain professions. However, a
compelling case can be made
for the proposition that those
who grow and catch our
food and harvest our trees,
have been increasingly left
in the lurch by an economic
system that attaches too lit-
tle importance to lives spent
in these vital pursuits.
Suicide among fi sher-
men makes innovations
like a proposed community
fi shing associations on the
Columbia River all the more
important, by providing bet-
ter monetary outcomes for
fi shing families and provid-
ing a path for long-term eco-
nomic stability. Similar sys-
tems are possible in wood
products and farming.
We should do all we can to
provide hope for our neigh-
bors in these crucial indus-
tries. Far too often, they are
left feeling forgotten and
unvalued.
By Joan Herman
reluctantly left Astoria 14 years
ago for graduate school and
then career. Now retired, I am
fi nally back home in the wind- and
rain-swept town I so love.
I
Yet my return has not been with-
out some reservations, most having to
do with my much-changed body.
All of us age, of course, but multi-
ple sclerosis, or MS, has accelerated
my physical decline well beyond what
most 57-year-olds face.
I am all-too aware that my experi-
ence living here is going to be far dif-
ferent from my previous life in which
I co-founded and managed a business,
Bikes & Beyond, and rode my bike lit-
erally over hill and dale.
In my diminished body, I won-
der, how will I carve out a new life for
myself?
This column, the fi rst of what I hope
will be the occasional piece, represents
one step toward creating a full life here,
regardless — or in the case of the col-
umn, because of — my condition.
I could tell you my goals for the col-
umn include raising awareness and giv-
ing a face to the millions of people in
our country who live with disabilities.
And that would not be untrue.
That said, I would not presume to
speak for others with disabilities. None-
theless, I know we share many experi-
ences and feelings, yet to a great extent,
people with disabilities are invisible in
our youth-obsessed culture. I have a
voice and want to use it.
But the biggest reasons I am writing
are personal ones: to reach out and make
connections in a way I could not without
this forum; to give my life a sense of pur-
pose and value, which to a great extent is
lost with retirement, especially when, as
in my case, it comes prematurely; and,
perhaps most important, to do something
that makes me feel “abled.”
T
hrough the column, I will share
my struggles living with a chronic
condition, an experience that so many
people face, whether themselves or a
loved one. The column may also veer
into the political/advocacy realm, when
appropriate.
I should mention this is not the fi rst
time I have written for the paper. In
fact, I fi rst moved to the North Coast 30
years ago to accept a job as a reporter
with The Daily Astorian.
A newspaper ad in the late ’80s, early ’90s, spoke of Joan Herman’s
role at The Daily Astorian. Today, she returns, albeit in a different role
and a different stage of life.
Although there are so many
things I can no longer do, I still
want — and need — to feel useful.
I was 27, just two years out of col-
lege, and excited to start my new job.
My biggest health concern was fl oppy
ankles that would sprain easily when I
ran the trails at Fort Stevens.
I could never have imagined I would
return some day in a much different
physical state. Today I am in a wheel-
chair pretty much 24/7, leaving me feel-
ing imprisoned in my body much of the
time.
Often, I want to shout that I used
to be successful, holding down a full-
time job as a college English instructor,
where I was treated with deference by
colleagues and students alike.
When I ride my red powerchair up
and down the Astoria hills because I
can no longer drive, let alone walk, I
want to tell everyone who sees me that
I once ascended these hills on my bike
with ease.
I feel self-conscious about how
acquaintances who haven’t seen me in
years react when they view me in “the
chair.” I hate the pity looks I some-
times get and assume others are secretly
relieved they’re not in my situation —
and I can’t blame them. I’ve been there,
too.
B
ut I’m taking the leap into carving
out a new, ”active” life anyway. If
nothing else, having a chronic condi-
tion has given me an attitude of “What
do I have to lose?”
Although there are so many things
I can no longer do, I still want — and
need — to feel useful. So I volunteer
twice a week answering the phones
at the local community radio station,
KMUN. Some might view it as a big
step down from my previous lives, but
being there has helped restore, at least a
little bit, the sense of worth I had when
I was working.
I have even ventured into broadcast-
ing, starting a new radio program read-
ing short fi ction on the air Sunday eve-
nings. As my husband, John, jokes, my
mouth still works just fi ne.
I hope to become involved with
other community efforts as they present
themselves, as well.
Those of us living with chronic con-
ditions are often told we’re inspirational
because we continue living our lives as
best we can in spite of our conditions.
While I much appreciate the sen-
timent behind those words, they also
make me wonder, “Well, what would
you have me do?”
Hence my column’s title, taken
from the poem Late Fragment by the
late, great American writer Raymond
Carver (who incidentally was born in
Clatskanie):
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
This life is not what I planned —
even so …
This body is not what I wanted—
even so …
It’s all I have.
Joan Herman is a second-time Asto-
rian who was co-owner of Bikes &
Beyond and a former reporter for The
Daily Astorian. She will contribute an
occasional column about living with
disabilities.
Obama’s fi nal fi ght for his legacy
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
ou introduce yourself to vot-
ers as a son of Kansas and
Kenya, an emblem of this coun-
try’s openness to outsiders and its
embrace of difference.
Y
Your election and re-election
affi rm the distance that the United
States has traveled, or so you believe.
So you hope.
Then you look up toward the end of
your second term to behold a Republi-
can presidential nominee who is cyni-
cally exploiting racism and xenophobia
to put the White House within his own
reach. He’s not merely your adversary;
he’s your antithesis. And his victory
would do more than endanger your pol-
icies. It would question the very moral
of your journey, the very bend of the arc
you frequently invoke.
That’s what Barack Obama con-
fronts right now, and that’s why he hit
the campaign trail Tuesday, appearing
onstage with Hillary Clinton in North
Carolina and proclaiming without res-
ervation that “there has never been any
man or woman more qualifi ed for this
offi ce” than she. That’s why he’ll say
words like those again and again, with
the same fi re, in the months ahead.
For the nation’s fi rst black president,
Clinton isn’t just the better candidate.
She’s the better America. She wins and
he holds on to his rosiest convictions
about what he and his presidency sym-
bolize. Donald Trump wins and that’s a
tricky thing to do.
Trump forged his bond with bigots
by essentially calling Obama an impos-
tor and demanding to see his birth cer-
tifi cate. But that particular stunt weighs
less on Obama than Trump’s sustained
behavior during the 2016 presidential
race does, according to people close to
the president.
“The thing that I’m sure aggravates
him — enrages him — is the invoca-
ald Reagan, because Bush’s
tion of race and ethnicity in
father similarly felt the need
our politics,” David Axelrod,
to fl ex his own muscle, out-
a former White House aide,
side of anyone’s shadow,
told me. “Obama’s mes-
and Reagan’s energy was
sage is about the emerging
fl agging anyway.
America and the strength of
Dwight Eisenhower?
our diversity. He represents
When asked what Richard
it. And when Trump says
Nixon had accomplished as
‘Make America great again,’
his vice president, he said
there’s an element of turning
that he needed a week to
the clock back to the days
Frank
think
about it.
when minorities were at the
Bruni
Obama and Hillary
back of the bus.”
Clinton have arrived at a
“That goes to the char-
Where place of obvious respect
acter of our country,” Axel-
for each other, and of pal-
rod added. “The president
does
pable fondness. His high
is someone who would be
ratings put him
uniquely sensitive to that.”
Trump approval
in a position to help. Her
Uniquely sensitive and
utterly impassioned. In
fi t into stature puts her in a posi-
tion not to be eclipsed by
North Carolina he didn’t so
it, and his presence or belittled by
much urge voters as com-
assistance.
mand them, with a testimo-
does it that Campaigning
together
nial about Clinton that was
gushing and epic. I swear I survive is an imperfect arrange-
ment, inasmuch as she
saw her blush.
may seem to be arguing for
Was Trump on Obama’s
him?
the status quo instead of a
mind? I suspect. “Every-
body can tweet,” he said, adding better tomorrow. But Americans hold
that it’s no preparation or qualifi ca- Obama in signifi cantly higher esteem
tion for the presidency. He brought up than they do her or Trump. There are
his younger daughter. “Sasha tweets, far riskier things than letting the presi-
but she doesn’t think that she thereby dent carry the ball.
And he’s a player in this regard-
should be sitting behind the desk.”
Was Trump on Clinton’s mind? less, given the larger context, which
Clearly. She complimented Obama was clear when Clinton asked the
as “someone who has never forgotten North Carolina audience to think of
where he came from — and Donald, if “the early patriots who met in Phila-
you’re out there tweeting, it’s Hawaii.” delphia” in 1776.
“Nobody who looked like Barack
The 2016 campaign keeps showing
us things that we’re not accustomed Obama or me would have been
to, and a second-term president cam- included back then,” she said. “But
paigning with unfettered vigor for his we’re here today because the story of
desired successor is another of those. America is the story of hard-fought,
George W. Bush didn’t do it: He was hard-won progress.”
That’s the tale that Obama has
so toxic at this point in his administra-
tion that John McCain’s most fervent always told. It’s the narrative that
wish was to tuck him into a broom so many of us cling to. Where does
Trump fi t into it, and does it survive
closet.
Bill Clinton didn’t do it, because Al him? Instead of just wondering and
Gore was intent on coming across as his worrying, the departing president has
own, less priapic man. Neither did Ron- joined the fi ght.