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
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