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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2016 Both are unpopular. Only one is a threat 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 Another good outcome Derelict building ordinance forced Flavel property sale he purchase of a Flavel-owned downtown block is monumental news. The block — on the north side of Commercial Street — had been on the market for some 18 months. The Astoria City Council in December 2014 used the derelict building ordinance to force a sale of this down- town property as well as the Flavel residence at 15th Street and Franklin Avenue. For as long as most Liotta of Warrenton — are Astorians can remember, the relative newcomers to our two Flavel blocks — facing region. They appear to have each other on Commercial the experience necessary — have been virtually to put a new face on this empty. In fact, Sears left the block’s faded glory. north-side building in 1996, The City Council’s terms leaving it vacant. for this deal require Mary To the visitor entering Louise Flavel to put pro- downtown, these dead zones ceeds from this sale — make a bad irst impression. $135,000 — into improve- Despite the gains down- ments in the facing block. town has made over the past We are fond these days 20 years – with restoration of trusting that the market- of the Liberty Theater and place will solve things. But Hotel Elliott and birth of a a willfully negligent prop- host of restaurants – the two erty owner does not it the Flavel blocks have been a economic model of a mar- ket. That’s where the derelict weight around our neck. The building’s purchas- building ordinance comes in. ers — Marcus and Michelle Astoria is fortunate to have it. T July 4 plan still needs work To avoid a ban, ireworks supporters must curb residential problems By THE WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD his election,” a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Thursday, “remains a dumpster ire.” Well, yes, the two major-party candidates for president are historically unpopu- lar. But if this election is unusually bad, it is not because both parties chose bad candidates. There is no equivalence between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — as even responsible Republicans should be able to recognize. ‘T Clinton is a knowledgeable politi- cian who has been vetted many times over. She understands and respects the U.S. Constitution. She knows pol- icy. She can cite accomplishments in the public interest, such as press- ing through an important children’s health insurance program during her husband’s administration. As a sena- tor, she was respected by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. She com- pleted four years as secretary of state to generally positive reviews. She began her presidential campaign by rolling out a series of serious policy papers. None of this means you have to like Clinton or believe she would be a good president. You may disagree with her views; we have done so often enough and will do so again when we think she is wrong. You may believe she was foolish to push for the Libya interven- tion, arrogant to keep her emails out of the oficial State Department server, greedy to take large speaking fees as a private citizen. But measured against other major-party candidates of recent times, Clinton is well within estab- lished bounds of competence, knowl- edge, commitment and integrity. She is not a dumpster candidate. Trump, by contrast, has waged a campaign based on bigotry, ignorance and resentment. He has no experience as a public servant, and his private record of bankruptcies and exploita- tion should be disqualifying. He reg- ularly circulates falsehoods. He has no dis cern ible interest in or knowledge of policy. Just in recent days, Trump tweeted out an anti-Semitic image circulating on neo-Nazi websites and attacked the media for reporting as much. He called one sitting senator a loser and threatened another while receding memory, Paciic County, Washington, residents and oficials are engaged in the latest round of postgame analysis about what went right, wrong and what else to do about it. In 2015, July 4 was a bac- chanal worthy of ancient Rome, resulting in a homi- cide, hundreds of complaints, and ugly tons of garbage left on the beach. A new group, Not a Ban a Better Plan, formed to see if existing laws could be bet- ter enforced to address resi- dents’ concerns while avoid- ing a heavy regulatory hand in a place that prides itself on freewheeling spirit. Did the corrective mea- sures work? In part, they did. Parks and Washington State Patrol, along with local law enforcement, pro- vided a highly visible pres- ence on peninsula streets and beaches. However, ireworks remain a problem for numer- ous residents. In 2016, there sequence of four nights of explosions, culminating on the Fourth. What should the next steps be? Starting next year, the Vancouver, Washington, City Council is banning personal use and sale of any ireworks, including sparklers. The Long Beach Peninsula and Paciic County need not be so draconian. They can choose, for example, to do as the city of Ocean Shores does and allow ireworks only on the beach, but not in residen- tial areas. And if Vancouver has been legally able to enact an outright ban, surely local governments can impose additional date and time restrictions without the need of state legislation. If ireworks supporters want to avoid a ban, addi- tional action is required to address the concerns of those who believe the “better plan” helped curb misbehavior on the beach but did little for the streets where local peo- ple live. Editorials that appear on this page are written by Publisher Steve Forrester and Matt Winters, editor of the Chinook Observer and Coast River Business Journal, or staff members from the EO Media Group’s sister newspapers. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the African Methodist Episcopal church national convention in Philadelphia Friday. proving that he lacks even a passing familiarity with the Constitution. He praised one of the most vile dictators of the 20th century. Those Republicans with enough self-respect to be mortiied by the man their party is about to nominate con- tinually hold out hope for some magi- cal transformation. Yet even if Trump lipped his agenda — not a problem for a man with almost no ixed beliefs — he would still be the candidate who mocked a disabled reporter, proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States, attacked a judge based on his ethnicity, celebrated violence at his rallies, demeaned women and prom- ised to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. He would still be the candidate who vaulted to political prominence with race-based attacks on the incumbent president and launched his campaign by calling Mex- icans rapists. Sasse has proved to be a rare Repub- lican oficial with the moral courage to speak as honestly about Trump after he clinched the nomination as he did before. It’s not surprising that the sen- ator would want to dismiss the whole campaign as a mess, and we don’t doubt that he genuinely fears the direc- tion in which Clinton would lead the nation. But to equate the two candidates as indistinguishably unqualiied prod- ucts of a rigged or failed system only feeds public cynicism while blur- ring distinctions that should not be blurred. Clinton is a politician, long in the arena, whom you may or may not support. Mr. Trump is a danger to the republic. Those Republicans with enough self-respect to be mortiied by the man their party is about to nominate contin- ually hold out hope for some magical transformation. A week from hell for Americans By CHARLES BLOW New York Times News Service ast week was yet another week that tore at the very iber of our nation. ith July 4 now a were in effect an escalating W AP Photos Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during an interview after a rally in Virginia Beach, Va., Monday. L After two videos emerged show- ing the gruesome killings of two black men by police oficers, one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the other in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, a black man shot and killed ive oficers, and wounded nine more people, in a cow- ardly ambush at an otherwise peaceful protest. The Dallas police chief, David O. Brown, said, “He was upset about Black Lives Matter” and “about the recent police shootings” and “was upset at white people” and “wanted to kill white people, especially white oficers.” We seem caught in a cycle of esca- lating atrocities without an easy way out, without enough clear voices of calm, without tools for reduction, with- out resolutions that will satisfy. There is so much loss and pain. There are so many families whose hearts hurt for a loved one needlessly taken, never to be embraced again. There is so much disintegrating trust, so much animosity stirring. So many — too many — Amer- icans now seem to be living with an ambient terror that someone is some- how targeting them. Friday morning, after the Dallas shootings, my college-student daugh- ter entered my room before heading out to her summer job. She hugged me and said: “Dad, I’m scared. Are you scared?” We talked about what had happened in the preceding days, and I tried to allay her fears and soothe her anxiety. How does a father answer such a question? I’m still not sure I got it pre- cisely right. Truth is, I am afraid. Not so much for my own safety, which is what my daughter was fretting about, but more for the country I love. This is not a level of stress and strain that a civil society can long endure. I feel numb, and anguished and heartbroken, and I fear that I am far from alone. And yet, I also fear that time is a We seem caught in a cycle of escalating atrocities without an easy way out, without enough clear voices of calm, without tools for reduction, without resolutions that will satisfy. protests over police killings requirement for remedy. We and the killings of police didn’t arrive at this place overnight, and we won’t oficers as fundamentally move on from it overnight. about the value of life rise Centuries of U.S. pol- above those who see politi- icy, culture and tribalism are cal opportunity in this arms simply being revealed as the race of atrocities? frothy tide of hagiographic These are very serious history recedes. questions — soul-of-a-na- Our American “ghettos” tion questions — that we were created by policy and dare not ignore. Charles design. These areas of con- We must see all unwar- Blow centrated poverty became ranted violence for what it fertile ground for crime and violence. is: A corrosion of culture. Municipalities used heavy police forces I know well that when people speak to try to cap that violence. Too often, of love and empathy and honor in the aggressive policing began to feel like face of violence, it can feel like meeting oppressive policing. Relationships hard power with soft, like there is inher- between communities and cops became ent weakness in an approach that leans strained. A small number of criminals so heavily on things so ephemeral and poisoned police beliefs about whole even clichéd. communities and a small number of But that is simply an illusion fos- dishonorable oficers poisoned com- tered by those of little faith. munities’ beliefs about entire police Anger and vengeance and violence forces. And then, too often the unimag- are exceedingly easy to access and inable happened and someone ended up almost effortlessly unleashed. dead at the hands of the police. The higher calling — the harder trial Since people have camera phones, — is the belief in the ultimate moral we are actually seeing these deaths, live justice and the inevitable victory of and in living color. Now a terrorist with righteousness over wrong. a racist worldview has taken it upon This requires an almost religious himself to co-opt a cause and mow faith in fate, and that can be hard for down innocent oficers. some to accept, but accept it we must. This is a time when communi- The moment any person comes to ties, institutions, movements and even accept as justiiable an act of violence nations are tested. Will the people of upon another — whether physical, spir- moral clarity, good character and righ- itual or otherwise — that person has teous cause be able to drown out the already lost the moral battle, even if he chorus of voices that seek to use each is currently winning the somatic one. dead body as a societal wedge? When we all can see clearly that Will the people who can see clearly the ultimate goal is harmony and not that there is no such thing as selective, hate, rectiication and not retribution, discriminatory, exclusionary outrage we have a chance to see our way for- and grieving when lives are taken, be ward. But we all need to start here and heard above those who see every trag- now, by doing this simple thing: Seeing edy as a plus or minus for a cumulative every person as fully human, deserving every day to make it home to the peo- argument? Will the people who see both the ple he loves.
