GIRLS BASKETBALL: SEASIDE, ILWACO TEAMS ADVANCE SPORTS • PAGE 10A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 172
ONE DOLLAR
Wyden promises to fight for Oregon way
Astoria town hall
draws hundreds
After his 799th
town hall since
joining the U.S.
Senate in 1996,
Sen. Ron Wyden,
D-Oregon, took
pictures with local
organizers and
students at Asto-
ria High School
Friday.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden faced numer-
ous concerns from constituents about
President Donald Trump and a Repub-
lican-controlled Congress during his
799th town hall Friday.
In response, Wyden, D-Oregon,
promised the audience at Astoria High
School that he would fight for what he
Edward Stratton
The Daily Astorian
called the Oregon way.
The first break for Congress this
year has been referred to as the “resis-
tance recess,” with protests greeting
many congressional representatives at
town halls across the country.
Hundreds of students and residents
showed up with questions for Wyden
Friday, holding signs to agree or dis-
agree with the senator’s comments.
Support was essentially unanimous,
the crowd applauding often.
“My approach in Washington D.C.
— and this was true before Donald
Trump became president — was to
Fish tales set sail in Astoria
20TH ANNUAL FISHERPOETS NETS A CROWD
practice something that I called the
‘Oregon way,’” Wyden said. “And we
just have a different approach, as you
know. We’re much more independent
than many parts of the country. We like
to think creatively, some might say ‘out
of the box.’ We’re compassionate.”
Wyden said he has opposed many
of Trump’s policies, such as remov-
ing protections for LGBT students and
trying to ban immigrants and refugees
based on religion, because the policies
do not follow the Oregon way.
See WYDEN, Page 7A
Finding
faith and
forgiveness
after tragedy
After Sandy Hook,
parents share journey
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
on Broderick summoned his inner
state Department of Fish and Wildlife
ranger. “FisherPoets will be allowed
from 5 p.m. Friday until 12 p.m. Sunday,”
he announced to an audience at the Astoria
Event Center.
The proclamation marked the opening
of the 20th annual FisherPoets gathering in
Astoria this weekend. About 100 people with
connections to the fishing industry presented
poems, stories and songs in seven venues
around town.
The Voodoo Room bar, Wet Dog Cafe,
Liberty Theater, Columbian Theatre, Fort
George Lovell Showroom and KALA art
center also hosted the fisherpoets. A photo
projection on the wall of a building on 11th
Street and Marine Drive, films at the Colum-
bian Theatre and a dance at KALA were
among some of the other fisher-themed
events throughout the weekend.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Parents of a 6-year-old girl murdered at
Sandy Hook Elementary School relived their
story of grief and forgiveness at Astoria’s
Mormon Church on Saturday, offering a per-
sonal example of striving to make sense of
tragedy through the teachings of their faith.
Robbie and Alissa Parker lost their old-
est daughter, Emilie, when 20-year-old Adam
Lanza shot and killed 26 people — 20 of them
children — at the school in Newtown, Con-
necticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.
More than four years later, the trauma
remains raw.
And, for the
Parkers, heal- ‘My heart
ing has meant
confronting was broken.
what forgive- It was just
ness means,
particularly in shattered.’
the context of
the Church of Robbie Parker
Jesus Christ father of a 6-year-old girl
of Latter-day who was murdered at Sandy
Hook Elementary School
Saints.
The Park-
ers, who now live outside Vancouver, Wash-
ington, remember Emilie as a girl who loved
to draw and color, and would not give up on a
picture until she got it right.
At Emilie’s funeral, Robbie said he wanted
to apply her “never-give-up” spirit to how he
handles grief, because “I knew it was going to
be really hard, and I knew I wasn’t going to be
really good at it.”
Thousands of letters had poured in offer-
ing support, condolences, prayers and well-
wishes — an overwhelming response to over-
whelming evil.
But the Parkers were not ready to forgive;
Robbie even resented that he kept encounter-
ing messages of forgiveness in scripture, such
as: “If ye do not forgive, neither will your
Father which is in heaven forgive your tres-
passes,” from the Gospel According to St.
Mark.
“I have to tell you, it felt awful — I mean,
awful,” Robbie said, casting his struggle in a
self-deprecating light. “I was like, ‘Are you
See FISHERPOETS, Page 7A
Hobe Kytr from Astoria sings and plays his guitar in the Voodoo Room during the
FisherPoets Gathering on Friday. The event has grown quite a bit since 1997.
See SANDY HOOK, Page 7A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
FisherPoets organizers Jay Speakman, left, and Jon Broderick perform at the Astoria Event Center during the 20th annual Fish-
erPoets Gathering on Friday in downtown Astoria. About 100 people presented songs, stories and poems over the weekend.
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
J
From marine science to historic preservation
Rathmell
followed her
interests
A
fter relocating to Astoria,
Katie Rathmell’s career
path shifted more dramati-
cally than a Northwest winter
weather report.
Rathmell came to Asto-
ria with her partner, Mindy
Stokes, in 2007 from Flor-
ida. She had recently earned
her master’s degree in marine
science from the University of
Southern Florida and began
working as an Astoria-based
research associate for The
Center for Coastal Margin
‘I wanted to do something
more creative and be able
to be out in the world.’
Katie Rathmell
Observation and Prediction in
Portland.
But as the years floated
by, she increasingly became
involved in other pas-
sions. Always interested in
do-it-yourself projects, she
recalled performing historic
preservation on a 1920s-era
bungalow in Orland, Califor-
nia, in the late 1990s.
She and Stokes bought an
Astoria home that was built in
1937. She restored the cedar
Astoria-based former research associate
who now does restoration work on windows
home window frames and
Douglas fir hardwood floors.
Shifting gears
A conversation in 2012
with Pam Chestnut, an
instructor at the Clatsop Com-
munity College Historic Pres-
ervation and Restoration pro-
gram, prompted her to think
of new outlets to exercise her
passion. She enrolled in the
program later that year.
“I didn’t realize there was
a career where you could
work on historic buildings,”
Rathmell said. “I wanted to
do something more creative
and be able to be out in the
world.”
Submitted Photo
See RATHMELL, Page 7A
Katie Rathmell does resto-
ration work on windows.