OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager OUR VIEW E ach week we recognize those people and organizations in the community deserving of public praise for the good things they do to make the North Coast a better place to live, and also those who should be called out for their actions. SHOUTOUTS This week’s Shoutouts go to: • Members of American Legion Post 99 in Seaside and Clatsop Post 12 American Legion in Astoria for conducting sol- emn memorial services that honored those who served and died at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, 75 years ago this week. In Seaside, a brief service was conducted in the lobby of the Civic and Convention Center and then moved outside to the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge where Pearl Harbor survivor Spurgeon Keeth participated in a wreath-laying service. Keeth, who was sta- tioned at the U.S. Army’s Schofield Barracks on Oahu during the attack, was also a special guest at the service in Astoria. Laura Sellers/The Daily Astorian The Astoria Fire Department made the rounds on the South Slope Wednesday night and Santa was joined by lots of volunteers, including Astoria Mayor Arline LaMear on the ground picking up food offerings. Those who were away during the food parade can drop off a bag of nonperishable food items to the Astoria Fire Department, 555 30th St. The lobby is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but arrangements can be made to drop off donations outside of those hours by calling 503-325-2345. • The Astoria Fire Department, which this week conducted its 28th annual Astoria Fire Department Christmas Food Parade. Firefighters, family and friends picked up nonperishable food donations block by block throughout the city on decorated fire engines in an effort to help needy families during the holiday sea- son. The goal of this year’s effort was to collect more than 4,000 pounds of food. • Providence Seaside Hospital’s 19th Annual Festival of Trees, which helped raise money for three-dimensional tomosyn- thesis imaging equipment, a state of the art mammography tech- nology that enhances early cancer detection and reduces false pos- itive readings. Through the years, the event has raised more than $1.3 million to benefit community health services and programs that the hospital provides, and this year’s event added to that total. • Students at the North Coast Christian School in Hammond who last week packed more than 10,000 meals of dried rice, soy, vegetables and a nutrient mix that they sealed into individual packets for Feed the Need, a nationwide fundraiser sending basic meals to people facing extreme hunger. The students helped raise more than $16,000 in a variety of events since October, and one- third of the proceeds went toward the meals project. Last Friday they conducted a packing party with 2,000 of the meals going to the Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank while the other 8,000 are being shipped to Haiti. • The Oller Fund, which provides free swimming lessons at the Astoria Aquatic Center for schoolchildren from south Pacific County, Wash. The fund, named for Verna Oller, was created from a $4.5 million bequest in her will that the money be used to increase access for swimming education for all residents of south- ern Pacific County. • The Lower Columbia Chief Petty Officers Association which created a first-time, $1,000 scholarship for Clatsop Community College that will be awarded this spring for the fall 2017 semester. Trump: Madman of the Year By CHARLES M. BLOW New York Times News Service S o, Time magazine, ever in search of buzz, this week named Donald Trump Person of the Year. But they did so with a headline that read, “President of the Divided States of America.” The demi-fas- cist of Fifth Avenue wasn’t flattered by that wording. In an interview with the “Today” show, Trump huffed, “When you say divided states of America, I didn’t divide them. They’re divided now.” He added later, “I think put- ting divided is snarky, but again, it’s divided. I’m not president yet. So I didn’t do anything to divide.” Donald, thy name is division. You and your campaign of toxic- ity and intolerance have not only divided this country but also ripped it to tatters. This comports with an extremely disturbing tendency of Trump’s: Denying responsibility for things of which he is fully cul- pable, while claiming full praise for things in which he was only partly involved. As my mother used to say: Don’t try to throw a rock and hide your hand. Own your odiousness. But Trump delivered the lie with an ease and innocuousness that bespoke a childish innocence and naiveté. In fact, his words disguised cold calculation. Demagogy That is the thing about dema- gogy: It can be charming, even daz- zling, and that is what makes it all the more dangerous. Demagogues can flatter and whisper and chuckle. They can remind us of the good in the world because they have an acute aware- ness of the ways of the world. They can also love and be loved. They can reflect our own humanity because they are human, but their ambitions do not bend toward the good. Their ultimate end is distraction, which allows domination, which leads to destruction. Trump is running two post-cam- paign campaigns: one high and one low, one of frivolity and one of enormous consequence. One is a campaign of bread and circuses — tweets, rallies, bom- bast about random issues of the moment, all meant to distract and excite — and the other is the con- stant assemblage of a Cabinet full of fat cats and “mad dog” gener- CALLOUTS This week’s Callouts go to: • The state’s most recent information technology security efforts, which a yearlong audit by the Secretary of State’s Office show are insufficient. The recently released audit examined 13 state agencies and showed, “Overall, planning efforts were often perfunctory, security staffing was generally insufficient, and crit- ical security functions were not always performed. These weak- nesses collectively increase the risk of a security incident at one or more of the agencies.” All of the agencies examined maintain large databases of sensitive personal data, and all fared poorly when it came to managing and protecting user accounts to ensure no unauthorized users had access to internal information. Gov. Kate Brown in September ordered that all IT security functions be placed under the state chief information officer’s umbrella rather than the individual agencies to address the vulnerabilities. Suggestions? Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com. als, a virtual aviary of vultures and hawks. “questioned the Obama adminis- tration’s plans to open all combat jobs to women, saying the military would have to lower its physi- cal standards to bring women into some roles.” This is disturbing, but Kelly isn’t the only one of Trump’s mili- tary picks who has a disturbing atti- tude toward women. Last month, The Daily Beast reported that the office of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, “told women to wear makeup, heels, and skirts.” These directives to women were presented in a “January 2013 presentation, entitled ‘Dress for Success,’” which was obtained by a Freedom of Information request by MuckRock. The presentation reportedly made sweeping patriar- chal declarations — “makeup helps women look more attractive” — and gave granular detail — “Wear just enough to accentuate your fea- tures.” According to the presenta- tion, “Do not advocate the ‘Plain Jane’ look.” So, in other words, while GI Joe is in camouflage, GI Jane should be in concealer. Got it. Indeed, on Wednesday, my colleague Susan Chira pondered in these pages: “Is Donald Trump’s Cabinet Anti- Woman?” She went through a lit- any of anti-woman positions taken and policies advanced by Trump appointees, leaving this reader with the clear conclusion that yes, it is. She closed with this: “One of the few bright spots that women’s advocates see in a Trump adminis- tration are proposals championed by Ivanka Trump to require paid maternity leave and offer expanded tax credits for child care.” But, as she notes, there is legitimate crit- icism that even that is patriarchal because it doesn’t cover paternal leave. The question hanging in the air, the issue that we must vig- ilantly monitor, is whether the emerging shoots of egalitarian- ism in this country will be stomped out by the jackboot of revitalized authoritarianism. I feel like America is being flashed by a giant neuralyzer, à la “Men In Black.” We are in danger of forgetting what has happened and losing sight, in the fog of con- fusion and concealment, of the pro- fundity of the menace taking shape right before us. That is our challenge: To see clearly what this deceiver wants to obscure; to be resolute about that to which he wants us to be resigned; to understand that Time’s man of the year is, by words and deeds, more of a madman of the year. Homeland Security On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Trump had “settled on Gen. John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan, as his choice for sec- retary of Homeland Security.” They also pointed out that Kelly had “dismissed one argument cited by those who advocate closing the military prison at Guantánamo, say- ing it had not proved to be an inspi- ration for militants.” The prison fell under his command. That is our challenge: To see clearly what this deceiver wants to obscure; to be resolute about that to which he wants us to be resigned; to understand that Time’s man of the year is, by words and deeds, more of a madman of the year. Make no mistake: The prison at Guantánamo is one of the most glaring and enduring moral blights remaining from our humanitari- anism-be-damned reaction to the attacks of 9/11. Trump said of the prison last month: “This morning, I watched Pres- ident Obama talking about Gitmo, right, Guantánamo Bay, which by the way, which by the way, we are keeping open. Which we are keep- ing open ... and we’re gonna load it up with some bad dudes, believe me, we’re gonna load it up.” Attitude toward women The Times also said that Kelly LETTERS TO THE EDITOR High cost o fully appreciate the concerns as voiced in the letter, “Walmart — a good thing?” (The Daily Asto- rian, Dec. 2) regarding the poten- tial damage to local businesses from the Walmart proposal for Warren- ton, I recommend the powerful docu- mentary “Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price” by Brave New Films, and available at Seaside Public Library. The effects cut deep and with a wide swath. MARGARET GREEN Gearhart T Shout out just wanted to give a shout out to the teachers and parents who helm the Warrenton Head Start program. I was shopping in my favorite lit- tle market, the Select Market in War- I renton, when I became aware of lots of noise and chatter in the produce department. The little children from Head Start, accompanied by the teachers and par- ents, were shopping for vegetables to make soup. They were given instruc- tion about which veggies to pick out, and how to wait in the checkout line to pay for their purchases. They were so excited, and their enthusiasm was contagious. It just made my day. Thanks to all who make this kind of teaching possible, and thanks for giving me a treat on an ordinary shop- ping day. SUSAN BISH Warrenton Mission to the rescue tip of the hat and a great big thank you to organizer Jeff Hall A and volunteers from the Astoria Res- cue Mission for teaming up for lit- ter patrol on our downtown streets of Astoria. Their care for our community is just one of several reasons my wife and I have come to appreciate our new hometown. May God bless these merry gentlemen. JOHN SLIVKOFF Astoria They came … egarding “Astoria will not pur- sue sanctuary status” (The Daily Astorian, Dec. 6): They came for Mayor Arline LaMear, and I did noth- ing … they came for Chief Brad Johnston, and I did nothing … they came for the city council members … and then they came for me. BOB WESTERBERG Astoria R