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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2016 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 Crude oil mishap would wreak havoc H akai magazine, an interesting online journal devoted to coastal science and societies, devotes an Aug. 2 article to ramiications of more than doubling crude oil shipments through the Columbia River and out past the Graveyard of the Paciic. It makes for thought-provoking reading. (See tinyurl. com/Columbia-Oil-Tankers.) State hearings concluded bar somewhat exaggerated, last week on whether to but there’s no denying that is allow construction of the sometimes is too dangerous to nation’s largest oil-by- cross, even for oceangoing and rail terminal in Vancouver, professionally piloted vessels. Washington,which would A major wreck could move crude oil from North release nearly 200,000 bar- Dakota’s Bakken Formation rels of oil, which could to West Coast reineries via be hard to recover in the ships and barges. dynamic conditions around “If the new facility is built, the river’s mouth. Ocean it’s estimated that one oil beaches, endangered salmon tanker would visit the termi- and other species, and valu- nal every day, traveling more able crab, clam and oyster than 170 kilometers upriver isheries could all be placed to Vancouver. The vessel in harm’s way. A Washington would also have to navigate state report said such a spill one of the most dangerous “could cause between U.S. bar crossings in the world, $170-million and $1.16-bil- where the swift current of the lion in damages, and would Columbia collides with the require decades of recovery.” The odds of an accident are Paciic. The chaos creates the shifting maelstrom of shoals, low. But the consequences currents and towering break- are very great. Washington ers known as the Columbia Gov. Jay Inslee will have inal say over the terminal’s River Bar,” Hakai reports. We who live here may fate. Let him know what you ind this description of the think. How do we think about war veterans? Trump inadvertently offers us a teachable moment onald Trump’s irst blunder into a mineield began with his disparagement of Arizona Sen. John McCain. In reference to McCain’s long captivity as a prisoner of war, Trump said he liked guys who weren’t captured. By logical extension, would Trump also say that he prefers soldiers and Marines who aren’t killed in combat? The lessons that are lost in Trump’s stumbling between his insults to McCain and the parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq are twofold. War is an equal opportunity snare and killer. And war is often a matter of inches. Michael Herr makes the latter point in his book Dispatches. Herr wrote that Vietnam was a place where one was never safe, no mat- ter your location. You were grateful when a rocket or mortar landed 100 feet away. And if you read the mem- oir of a prisoner of war, you realize the full trauma of that experience. If we talk about these things on Veterans Day, they are seldom heard in the din of a national holiday. But in D You must stop indulging Trump By FRANK BRUNI New York Times News Service ohn McCain, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and the rest of you: It’s time to stop suggesting that Donald Trump doesn’t represent you, because he does represent you. J He’s your party’s nominee, with your endorsements. Until you withdraw those, he has your blessing. Your permission. And if you keep forgiving him and prioritizing your political sur- vival over the country’s stability, he could wind up representing all of us. Tell me that doesn’t scare the bejesus out of you. Do it with a straight face. Sen. McCain, Rep. Ryan, he’s just given you fresh cause to bolt, saying in a Tuesday interview with The Washington Post that he doesn’t support either of you in your respec- tive Republican primary contests. From the standpoint of tradition, this is shocking. From the stand- point of Trump, not so much. You’ve upbraided him (mildly). You’ve bruised his tender ego. So now he gets to stick out his tongue at you. It has to make you wonder why you twisted and turned and tried to justify your support of him in the face of his petulant, gratuitous attack on the Muslim parents of a soldier who died ighting for America. Or why so many GOP leaders twisted and turned after his petulant, gratu- itous attack on a Mexican-American judge. Or why you all should stick around to twist and turn the next time. Trump isn’t slouching toward gravitas. He’s having a tantrum, and to threaten him with timeouts that never come only encourages it. Spare the rod, spoil the Donald. This isn’t a normal presidential election, he isn’t a normal political candidate, and you know it. We all do. And it’s well past time to reckon fully with that. Not just you but all of us keep according larger historical sense to his candidacy and try- it’s on target. ing to it it into pre-exist- “There’s just no ing frames, but I fear that sense of decency from when we do that, we min- this man,” Rick Tyler, a imize the outright outrage Republican strategist who and singular farce of it. worked for Ted Cruz, told We throw around terms Politico. like demagogue and fas- “He has no decency,” cist, but I’m not sure he’s Khizr Khan, the fallen coherent, consistent or soldier’s father, told ABC weighty enough for either. News. Frank We label him anti-es- Trump isn’t just unin- Bruni tablishment, and that’s a formed, as his recent com- howler. He grew up aflu- ments on Ukraine reaf- Spare irmed. He’s a repository ent. Went to an Ivy League college. Sent his kids to of almost every charac- the rod, ter posh boarding schools. trait that we reprimand Mingled with Bill and Hil- children for. spoil lary Clinton at his (third) And the examples of the wedding. He is the power his indecency get lost elite, albeit an ostenta- in the sheer volume of tiously gold-tufted version Donald. them. Any one might of it. end another candidate’s In presidential races past, we’ve quest. But they’re the white noise of seen protectionists, nativists, even his bid. He’s redeemed by his own racists. What we haven’t seen, not in repulsiveness. my lifetime, is a major-party nomi- I appreciate that for many conser- nee who is such an unabashed and vatives, a Supreme Court shaped by unrepentant fabulist, with so little Hillary Clinton would be an abom- control over his temper and a worl- ination. But can they really ele- dview shaped entirely by what and vate that concern above national who latter him. security and entrust the country Never has a nominee pouted with to a tyrant-loving, Putin-lirting, his grandeur. Never has one bragged NATO-dissing novice? with his abandon. I understand that renouncing him He’s best described not in polit- means abetting her, which hurts, ical terms but in developmental given her considerable laws and ones. He’s a toddler. I’d say “infant” their genuine qualms. but infants are pre-verbal, and he But there are bigger things at has a few words, most of them stake. That’s why so many loyal monosyllabic. Republicans have already led, to Only a toddler could be so regroup over the next four years. self-justifying and tone-deaf that I get it: If McCain and other con- he’d compare the sacriice of Huma- gressional Republicans turn off yun Khan — the soldier I mentioned Trump’s supporters, they might get who was killed in Iraq — to his own turned out themselves. professional work of erecting tall But as the Post interview made buildings and simultaneously enrich- clear, Trump is already giving those ing himself. supporters license to do as they wish. Only a toddler would respond to Besides which, isn’t there a point at Michael Bloomberg’s digs at him which principle must kick in? Aren’t by saying that when they golfed there bounds to partisanship and per- together, “I hit the ball a lot longer.” sonal interest? I ask that not in favor Yes, Donald, everythingabout you of Clinton or the Democrats but out is longer. We haven’t forgotten that of concern — no, alarm — for Amer- GOP presidential debate. ica, which needs a grown-up who Over the last few days, the word honors our values, not a brat who “decency” has popped up a lot, and shreds them. the heat of this presidential campaign, it is impossible to ignore the values underpin- ning the thicket that Donald Trump has staggered into. Another Vietnam draft evader, Ted Gup, wrote about himself and Trump in Wednesday’s New York Times. Said Gup: “The igno- Wonderful show he Peninsula Association of Per- Letters welcome bility of the Vietnam era — forming Artists production of Letters should be exclusive to the letter was published. Discourse the corruption and manip- “Once Upon a Mattress” is a summer must-see. I was absolutely enthralled The Daily Astorian. We do not pub- should be civil and people should ulation of the draft, the by the dynamic characters, ornate cos- lish open letters or third-party letters. be referred to in a respectful man- disproportionate numbers tumes and absolutely hilarious plot line Letters should be fewer than 350 ner. Letters referring to news stories of this comical retelling of the Princess words and must include the writer’s should also mention the headline of the poor and minorities and the Pea. Not to mention, the way name, address and phone numbers. and date of publication. pressed into service, the abil- the Fort Columbia Theater was deco- You will be contacted to conirm Submissions may be sent in any authorship. of these ways: ity of so much of the nation rated had me feeling as though I were the show. All letters are subject to editing E-mail to editor@dailyastorian. to carry on as if there were apart The of cast and crew will surprise you for space, grammar and, on occasion, com; factual accuracy and verbal veriica- Online form at www.dailyasto- no war — created in many of with their varying walks of life, ages, and wonderful talents they bring to the tion of authorship. Only two letters rian.com; us a special sense of purpose, stage. I can’t speak more highly of this per writer are printed each month. Delivered to the Astorian ofices a desire to make amends, to wonderful musical because to me it was Letters written in response to at 949 Exchange St. and 1555 N. other letter writers should address Roosevelt in Seaside. carry the weight of citizen- more than a production, it was a cele- bration of the music, talent and com- the issue at hand and, rather than Or by mail to Letters to the Edi- ship, albeit belatedly.” And munity that came together to bring the mentioning the writer by name, tor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR should refer to the headline and date 97103 that desire, wrote Gup, seems show to life. MEGAN FECHTER lacking in Trump. Long Beach, Washington As Gup implies, serving They inally voted to approve Plan please let me know, because I would not want to destroy the livability of this B … sort of. Now they need to study in the military is about cit- Livability city. where the money will come from, and izenship. Because we have ere again, we celebrated the MIKE WALTERS how much we can afford to spend. In Fourth of July, our freedom for Gearhart other words after all this time, we are post-Vietnam all-volunteer life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- exactly where we were eight years services, that particular cit- ness. Well, unless you are in the city of ago. izenship is carried by a nar- Gearhart, and your kids want to camp Where’s the money? Now, if I were going to buy, say, a ur City Council outdid itself at out in the backyard, in their tents. The new car, and I was choosing from ive row slice of our population. the recent crucial meeting on their different models, I would irst have Gearhart police just might stop to tell Unlike the postwar 20th cen- you that it’s illegal, and the tents must library site choice. After eight years some idea of how I was going to inance of consultants, studies, meetings and this purchase. Of course, I’m probably tury, the number of veterans come down. I believe that they believe this must wasted time, there was no consen- not as intelligent as our City Council. in Congress is tiny. That is be done to keep Gearhart livable. Why, sus on a site plan, although they did MARGE PECK not healthy. I don’t know. Do you know why? If so, vote not to build at Heritage Square. Astoria Open forum T H O