Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2016)
OPINION 4A 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 Like many of the 50 or so who gathered for the rededication of the Doughboy Monument in Uniontown, Richard Kaufman had a personal reason for being there. His great-uncle, Robert J. Denver, is one of 32 World War I soldiers and Marines from Clatsop County who gave their lives for their country during the “war to end all wars.” Kaufman said Denver was the last surviving male in a pioneer Ore- gon family that settled in Jewell. When he died, his mother received a small blue pin with a gold star on it from the military, which was passed down through the family. Kaufman wore the pin proudly on his lapel for the rededication ceremony Saturday, which marked the monument’s 80th birthday. The City Council of Seaside unanimously rejected the bid to build a retaining wall for the skate park in Broadway Park Monday. “We don’t have the money at this point,” said Public Works Director Neal Wallace before the meeting. The opening ceremonies of FinnFest USA 2006 commenced in two languages and three national anthems as organizers welcomed visitors and dignitaries from Finland, Canada and the United States. The ceremonies offered a sampling of the many cultural opportuni- ties available throughout the week. Several visitors from all over the country and abroad spoke at the event, and performers played short sets previewing later performances. This photo shows some of the lumber and other materials still piled on the bridge, which will form a bottleneck requiring one- way traffic if the bridge is opened Friday. 50 years ago — 1966 There was still no announcement today by the enigmatic Oregon Highway department when the Astoria bridge will be open to trafic. Speculation was rife in town, with consensus being that this may be the inal week of ferry service. Final concrete pour on the bridge will take place Wednes- day morning, involving the last uncompleted segment of para- pet on the main channel crossing. Next-to-last pour took place this morning. Some work was being completed on the toll booth at the bridge’s Astoria end. Washroom facilities for the toll keeper and some emergency lighting for the state police were being installed, but the work was nearly over. The Astoria bridge will open for one-way controlled trafic Friday at 6 a.m., Rep. William Holmstrom announced this afternoon. The announcement came after an all-day conference of highway Department oficials and bridge contractors to iron out many problems to make possible use of the bridge while construction work is still in progress. Ferry service will cease tonight. Commemorative coins celebrating the August 27 dedica- tion of the Astoria bridge have arrived and orders are being taken for them now at the chamber of commerce. There appears to be a big demand for the coins, according to Hayes P. Lavis, of the committee in charge of the project. 75 years ago — 1941 The price of a good show these days is one piece of aluminum. Both the Riviera and Liberty theaters will adopt this new dues system for one matinee apiece this week. To further the drive for aluminum for national defense purposes. The Corssett Western lumber company has sold its 30-year- old Wauna mill to a newly-organized irm to be known as the Wauna Lumber company, which includes some of the opera- tors of the Knappton mill which was burned out of existence July 12. Soldiers of the 18th coast artillery and the 249th coast artillery entered a harbor defense tactical inspection Sunday at 4 p.m., taking positions in the ield and manning all defense emplacements for a week’s maneuvers and observation by inspectors of the ninth coast artillery district. The last of six 74-passenger Boeing clippers built for Pan American Airways lifted from the waters off Tongue Point at 12:35 this afternoon en route to San Francisco. The huge four motored ship left Seattle at 10:18 this morning and landed on the Columbia River at 11:20. Captain E.T. Allen, director of light and aerodynamics for Boeing, lew the ship from Seattle. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016 Let’s go to the Hops F YOU ARE A BASEBALL fan itching for the live expe- rience, salvation is just two hours away. I The Hillsboro Hops are a delightful experience. Drive up Highway 30 to Cornelius Pass. Take that path south to the ballpark. The Hops are a Class A, short-season minor league team, afiliated with the Arizona Dia- mondbacks. There are three reasons this is a great experience. 1. It is reasonably priced (our seats were $15). 2. You are close to the action everywhere in the stands. 3. The food. Ah, the food. Being at the edge of Willamette Valley wine coun- try and in the heart of Oregon’s brewing culture, the wine and beer offerings exceed what you’ll ind at a Major League park. Beyond the traditional hot dog and ham- burger, food offering are varied. My wife and I had a grilled brisket and cheese sandwich. Not an item you’ll ind at Safeco Field. The game we saw between the Hops and the Everett AquaSox was a comeback thriller. Everett’s pitcher maintained a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Hillsboro over- came a sizable deicit in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Hops’ win- ning gambit was a runner on irst breaking for second, which allowed their runner from third to score on a bad throw to home. Every play in minor league ball is an audition, and we saw quite a few that night Some succeeded in their audition. Others not. ▼▼▼ IF YOU’VE NOT BEEN TO Fort Columbia Theater to see the Peninsula Association of Performing Artists, it’s time. My wife and I made our irst trip last Saturday night to see Once Upon a Mattress. This is not a simple work, with lots of dificult singing and cho- reography – a challenge even to professionals. These penin- sula amateurs delivered a credible performance. Columbia Theater is a nice ret- roit. The audience experience exceeds the Coaster Theater in Cannon Beach. While the Coaster resists the need to upgrade its light- ing, Columbia Theater appears to have contemporary, LED lighting. Likewise, chairs were comfortable. Going to theater inside a state ‘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 Wikimedia Commons The Hillsboro Hops play at Ron Tonkin Field. In minor league baseball, every play is an audition. park is a novel and refreshing expe- rience. One could easily have a pre-performance picnic dinner. other American has ever been so fortunate, or even half so fortunate. His career irst amazed observers, and then dazzled them. Well do I remember the hot Saturday in Chi- cago when he was nominated for the Vice-Presidency on the ticket with Harding. Half a dozen other statesman had to commit politi- cal suicide in order to make way for him, but all of them stepped up docilely and bumped themselves off.” Hillary Clinton may be this year’s darling of the gods. Carrying so much baggage, Clinton lucky break is to oppose the serial fabulist (as Mencken would call him) Don- ald J. Trump. — S.A.F. ▼▼▼ LUCK IS IMPORTANT IN life. Especially in politics. Luck will certainly come into play during the presidential election. The best writing on that matter was H.L. Mencken’s piece follow- ing the death of former President Calvin Coolidge. Mencken labeled Coolidge “the darling of the gods.” Of Coolidge, The Sage of Bal- timore (aka Mencken) wrote: “No Why Democrats are still struggling By DAVID BROOKS New York Times News Service HILADELPHIA — Dear Hillary, P Donald Trump has presented you with an amazing opportunity to become a world historical igure! If you crush him in this election, you could create a new Democratic majority and reduce the GOP to an ever-declining rump of ethnic nation- alism. On the other hand, if you fail to beat Trump, you will go down as America’s most hapless political loser and be viliied forever for enabling an era of American Putinism. No pressure! Have fun in Philadelphia! To end up on the right side of this equation you’re probably going to have to resist three natural tendencies, two of them your party’s and one your own. First, you’re going to have to ight your party’s materialistic mind-set. This is 2016, not 1992. Over the past few years, economic and social anxiety has metastasized into some- thing spiritual and existential. Americans are no longer conident in their national project. They no lon- ger trust their institutions or have faith in their common destiny. This is a cri- sis of national purpose. It’s about per- sonal identity and the basic health of communal life. Americans’ anger and pessimism are more fundamental than anything that can be explained by GDP statistics. Many Democrats have trouble thinking in these terms. When asked to explain any complex phenomenon, they instinctively reduce it to a mate- rialist cause. If there’s terrorism there must be lack of economic opportu- nity. If marriage is declining it must be because of joblessness. This materialistic mind-set means that many Democrats are perpetually surprised by events that involve cul- tural threats and national identity. Why don’t working-class Kansans vote for us? We offer them more programs. gia of the left is as futile as Why did the Brits leave the the demographic nostalgia EU? It’s against their eco- nomic interest. of the right. The mind-set is also Somehow you’re going reductionist. There’s a ten- to have to come up with dency to break national an updated muscular Clin- problems into small, inter- tonism. For 30 years your est-group-size chunks and name has stood for a Dem- then deliver pandering pol- ocratic governing style icy promises. that is internationalist in Look at your website. As foreign affairs, socially David Oren Cass points out moderate and pro- Brooks in The City Journal, global integration every demographic or No pressure! (while softening its interest group gets its edges). That open, own pander. If you’re Have fun in optimistic approach a horse lover, the Clin- has to be combined ton campaign vows Philadelphia! with a more aggres- to crack down on sive and radical “horse soring, in which chemicals or effort to help people compete in the other inhumane methods are applied to new economy. horses’ limbs to exaggerate their gait.” Third, you’re going to have to If Democrats wage that kind of answer hatred with love. Your ten- niche-targeted campaign this year dency so far in your career has been they will lose. Voters are worried that to answer hostility with distrust, and the whole society is falling apart. If secretiveness. Democrats think a crisis of national You’ve ended up projecting cold- identity can be addressed with tar- ness but also weakness and hurt. Peo- geted tax credits they are living in a ple who build emotional walls amid different century. conlict do so out of fear, not strength. To stand a chance, Secretary Clin- Along the way you’ve made your- ton, you’re probably going to have to self phenomenally unpopular. The talk as adeptly about threats to per- polls show that you are now just as sonal dignity as you do about day care. distrusted by the American people as You’re probably going to have to talk Donald Trump is. bluntly about the American civic reli- The conident move is to break out gion. You’re going to have to show you of the emotional bunker with vulnera- understand the way members of your bility. The sign of strength is to answer class have slighted people who are less the “Lock Her Up” enmity with a coni- educated and less cosmopolitan. dent honest account of what it feels like Second, you’re going to have to to be you — embroiled in the political ight the Sanders tide, which on Day combat, encased in this global celebrity 1 of this convention was astoundingly role, but maintaining authenticity in a strong. Many Democrats have grown world that conspires against it. hostile to capitalism. Sixty percent of Imagine if you displayed honest Democrats are friendly to socialism, self-appraisal and even moments of according to a poll by OnMessage Inc. remorse. You’d have the world rooting for you, not against you. and the American Action Network. This convention is about reset- Of course, this is general election suicide. If you want a perfect way to ting relationships: establishing trust turn off suburban service economy between you and voters, restoring opti- ofice park workers who will decide mism that we can thrive in the modern this election, then the Bernie Sand- economy, redeining a soul satisfying ers route is it! The economic nostal- faith in the American project.