OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2017
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
GUEST COLUMN
A day for devotion to what?
By ALEC CHAPA
For The Daily Astorian
T
Luke Whittaker/EO Media Group
Warrenton junior Robert Barber came to the county’s job fair
dressed to impress. “I would like to be an ER doctor,” he said.
• Clatsop County Economic Development Resources Director
Kevin Leahy and organizers of the third annual Career and Job
Fair, which attracted more than 800 job seekers this week at the
county fairgrounds. More than 70 employers participated in the
successful event, which has grown in size and attendance each
year since its inception.
• The Cannon Beach Community Church and local residents
who reached out to assist those displaced from a North Larch
Street apartment building destroyed by fire last weekend. The
church created a GoFundMe account and has been conducting
fundraising efforts to help the three residents who were dislodged
and lost their belongings in the blaze. As Emmas Lindsay, owner
of Dogs Allowed, said after creating the online fundraising appeal,
“It’s a very small town, especially in the winter months. We’re one
big family. Everybody’s got everybody’s back.”
• Ted Langdon, the Astoria Riverfront Trolley’s volunteer
scheduler, and to all those who volunteer their time and efforts to
keep the trolley running. As the spring season approaches the vol-
unteers are preparing Old 300 for its upcoming track time. At the
peak of the season, it takes about 28 conductors a week to keep it
running, and the Astoria Riverfront Trolley Association is seek-
ing additional volunteers for conductors and for maintenance. The
103-year-old trolley is one of the unique attractions on the North
Coast and will make between 900 and 1,000 runs between spring
and fall.
• The Baked Alaska restaurant and Tongue Point Job Corps
Culinary Arts program, which teamed to conduct a “Pay What
You Can Pop-up Lunch” each day this week at The Baked Alaska
Annex as part of the “Chef Outta Water” program. The event gave
Job Corps culinary students an opportunity to learn and gain expe-
rience, while it also offered a dining experience for guests from all
walks of life regardless of their income level. “Chef Outta Water”
is a global membership program of events that celebrate food and
travel through chef exchanges, and the pop-up lunch took students
out of their normal comfort zones and gave them the opportunity
to learn from professional chefs on the front line.
• Ilwaco High School senior wrestlers Jack Odneal and Alec
Bell, who each won a state title and led their team to a third place
overall finish in the Class 1B/2B state tournament last weekend.
Odneal won the 138-pound division while Bell topped the 220-
pound weight class. Additionally, Ilwaco junior Cheyenne Brent
was in the limelight, being chosen to sing the national anthem at
the championships.
• The state No. 1 ranked Seaside High School boys bas-
ketball team, which wrapped up its Cowapa League season as
league co-champions earlier this week with a victory over Valley
Catholic. The team has a bye through the play-in round of the
state championships this weekend and will begin its playoff run
next week. Two other regional teams also made the playoffs. The
Knappa boys team will be in a play-in game today at 5 p.m. at
Imbler, while the Seaside High School girls team will be in a state
play-in on Saturday at home against Junction City.
CALLOUTS
• A bill in the Washington Legislature to eliminate Daylight
Savings Time in the state. Only two other states, Arizona and
Hawaii, stay on standard time year-round and changing would
separate Washington state from Oregon and California on the
West Coast and all others in the Northwest. Washington has had
Daylight Savings Time since a ballot initiative in 1960, and sim-
ilar bills that were filed in recent years that have all met a timely
defeat.
Suggestions?
Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let
us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a look.
hroughout the year, we in
America celebrate the usual
holidays recognized by
Hallmark or Congress: Valentine’s
Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New
Year’s and so on.
With the inauguration of Donald
Trump, however, we had a new
holiday ordered by the president: the
National Day of Patriotic Devotion.
It was Jan. 20, 2017 — Trump’s
Inauguration Day.
When you read the words “patri-
otic devotion,” many things might
come to mind.
This holiday stands apart from
Veterans Day, Memorial Day,
Presidents Day and Independence
Day, all of which have a particularly
holistic American sense to them. Are
we then to infer that a patriot is none
of those things; that any one of those
respective individuals we celebrate
couldn’t be patriotic? I suspect many
people would say quite the opposite.
And yet, the fact that patriotism
could have such variety leaves me
wondering: What exactly does it
mean to be patriotic?
Certainly this is of national
importance, given that the National
Day of Patriotic Devotion was
declared a national holiday by the
immediate course of an executive
order.
Common ground
There appears to be some com-
mon ground between the existing
holidays.
Veterans who served in the armed
forces are collectively known as the
federal military. Those lost in battle,
celebrated on Memorial Day, are the
counterpart to veterans — the ones
who didn’t make it home. Although
their honor always has a human face
to it, whether living or deceased, the
other essential aspect of that honor
is the collective in which they were
a part.
That same collective quality is
essential for Independence Day,
when every person of the 13 original
colonies stood together as one uni-
fied nation, and for every president
that has ever led our nation.
Without that broader unity, these
holidays would lose their national
significance. That unity is part of
Jennifer Jordan/Submitted Artwork
“The Patriot”
what the holidays celebrate. More
specifically, patriotism has a deep
sense of collective unity.
OK, fairly obvious, but the head
turns sideways when we admit that
such a vague sense of patriotism
doesn’t make much of a holiday.
If you say “I’m a patriot; I support
my country,” one would ask, “And
what country is that?” Different
countries stand for different values,
so if we are going to penetrate that
vagary — if a person’s patriotism is
going to mean anything whatsoever
— we must go further to ask “What
country do you support?” We must
ask what values the country stands
for, so we may see what values that
person defends, thereby manifesting
their patriotism.
Same values
When turning to America,
the scope of patriotism becomes
broader, and more difficult to
confine. Do we all share the same
values? And are we required to if we
are going to be patriots? While it’s
unclear what values would be set
forth for America, backed of course
by the most patriotic of citizens,
one thing is certain: Without some
common values, we cannot hope for
a national day of patriotism to have
national significance, much less to
bring national unity, as Trump called
for.
There are some people who
might see such questioning into
American values as undermining the
very nation they are proudly a part
of; however, these concerns are mis-
placed. If a common value treasured
by all is what unifies a population,
how could digging further into that
value dismember such unity? It
would seem the opposite has to be
true: such deep questioning could
potentially shed light on and create
a deeper connection to a common
value, and as such, create a deeper
connection among those who share
it.
There is a danger in ignoring
further questioning of such inherent
values that we are expected to hold
clearly as a nation. Just as words
have a technical definition and a cul-
tural understanding, so does a value.
“Patriotism” means very different
things when considered as a word
and as a living, breathing charac-
teristic. Unless we collectively take
the time to delve into the word and
come up with solid, definable values
and traits that unite a population
as a country, then it could mean
anything.
If something so relevant to our
political and cultural lives is so much
up to interpretation, there could
always be a gap in common ground.
By allowing such ambiguity, we run
the risk of losing not just the mean-
ing of patriotism, but the standard to
which we would hold any patriot.
Alec Chapa is a student at Clat-
sop Community College studying
philosophy and education. He is
from San Antonio, Texas.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Thoughts aid recovery
I
wish to extend my sincerest appre-
ciation to all those who have sent
cards (some with cash donations
to support the mission of Penny-
Wise Thrift Store, some accompa-
nied by gifts or flowers), visited, and
expressed their support for me during
my recent hospitalization and sub-
sequent recovery from my fractured
hip surgery.
Your prayers and the thought that
you cared enough to inquire as to my
status or took the time to visit me —
both at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Port-
land and at Clatsop Care in Asto-
ria — inspired me to work harder on
removing myself from those loca-
tions and return to my home for my
follow-up physical therapy. I would
gladly name each and every person
who has taken this time but, unfor-
tunately, the forum is only one page
long and I am sure that The Daily
Astorian would hate to lose all of
their revenue to print that list in the
entire paper.
I would like to personally thank
all the personnel in both the medical,
transportation and care facilities for
their professionalism and empathy
during my period of trauma and sub-
sequent road to recovery. Although I
am not yet at 100 percent and ready
to re-assume my “seat of power” at
PennyWise Thrift Store, I am recu-
perating at a much more rapid rate
than had been anticipated. I look for-
ward to seeing you all there, as I am
in sore need of all of my hugs and
conversations.
PATRICIA FESSLER
Astoria
Clatsop Care questions
A
fter reading last week’s article
about the Clatsop Care Health
District, “Bringing Clatsop Care Cen-
ter back from the brink,” The Daily
Astorian, Feb. 17), I am still left with
some questions:
Why did the administration have
trouble retaining certified nursing
assistants ?
How can reducing the number of
beds filled relate to improved finan-
cial stability?
Why did all senior manage-
ment staff leave within a five-month
period?
Why do they still turn potential
patients away?
Medicare and financial issues are
not new to this facility. How did the
situation get so out of control?
How does handing off the admin-
istrative function allow an outside
organization to create financial health
from no more money, and the same
service level?
Admittedly, this is a complicated
service to administer, but it has been
done in the past. Out-sourcing the
management appears to take the high-
er-paying administration jobs out of
the local economy, and causes local
taxpayers to provide a portion of
an outside management company’s
overhead.
Already, the board agreed to out-
source the food operations, losing
those well-paying jobs to a manage-
ment firm, and losing the opportuni-
ties for feeding locally-sourced foods
to their residents. Local providers
also lose the ability to sell to the dis-
trict. This is the rippling effect of such
an economic decision. I hope that it
is only a temporary measure, so that
local control is protected.
Something has jeopardized the
viability of this public district, and it
is a loss to our community.
JAN MITCHELL
Astoria