OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 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
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2007
The cavalry — in the form of federal money — is coming to rescue the
city of Astoria as leaders cope with costs of the big landslide.
The money will come from the Federal Emergency Management
Agency through the Oregon Emergency Management Offi ce.
“The city of Astoria has done a tremendous job responding to this slide,”
state coordinating offi cer Abby Kershaw said. “They have taken steps to
ensure the safety of their community and will now have the opportunity to
offset some of the costs associated with this slide.”
Federal rules will allow for up the three-quarters of the total spent by the
community on emergency measures.
When the faculty at Astoria High School launched an inde-
pendent scholarship fund in 1976, two graduates received $250
awards the following spring.
Astoria High School Scholarships Inc. handed out its mil-
lionth dollar two years ago and will reach another major bench-
mark with this year’s round of awards, when it presents its
1,000th scholarship at the 30th anniversary ceremony in June.
Another one-sixth of a mile of the Long Beach Peninsula’s 26-mile pub-
lic beach will be added to the Washington State Parks system this year —
thanks to $1.2 million from the 2007 Legislature.
One of the park department’s highest priorities has been to add addi-
tional land in the Seaview dunes north of the existing Beards Hollow unit
of Cape Disappointment State Park.
50 years ago — 1967
The Daily Astorian/File
Tony Mareno of Salem began digging for the fabled Spanish trea-
sure of Neahkahnie mountain south of the headland Saturday. He
said a large metal object was detected about 7 feet below rocks
and sand. An unidentified skeptic stood on the digging site when
picture was taken.
The magnifi cent stands of timber found throughout Oregon
mean one thing to the economy of the state — dollars! Lumber
from the state of Oregon is used in the construction projects in
New England to paper bags in Arkansas.
Oregon leads the nation in production of lumber and related
products and the lumber industry in the Astoria-Clatsop C ounty
area is responsible for a large share of the state’s lumber output.
According to the latest Cooperative Extension Service analy-
sis by Oregon State U niversity, approximately 472,600 acres of
the 515,200 acres in Clatsop C ounty are forest lands. This indi-
cates the importance of forest resources to the county.
Tony Mareno of Salem, digging for the fabled Spanish treasure at Neah-
kahnie, sunk a wooden caisson into the sand Monday where he believes the
legendary treasure is located.
Mareno began scraping sand and rocks from the site on the beach
directly in front of the town of Neahkahnie Saturday.
Mareno is digging for an “8 by 12 foot metal object” he found with a
metal detector after researching the Neahkahnie treasure rocks and a other
historical information for more than a year.
A family trade in trophies occurred Sunday noon when Don
Murray and his wife relinquished their twice-won “Mountains
to the Sea” perpetual trophy to this year’s winners, their daugh-
ter and son-in-law Mr. and Mrs Tom Waes, Seattle, who incurred
only 46 penalties during the four check-pointed — course from
Portland to Seaside. Waes and his navigator wife also won the
best navigational award for the rally.
75 years ago — 1942
Someone in Seattle is circulating rumors that the Oregon Coast highway
is closed and that people have to get special permits to drive to the Clatsop
beaches and other coast points, police here reported.
Police said Monday that three parties had called at the police station
Sunday to ask for permits to drive to Seaside, reporting they had heard in
Seattle that such permits were needed. Police said the Astoria hotel had had
similar inquiries.
A fair amount of early season tourist travel is coming through the com-
munity now in spite of war conditions, it is reported.
Because of war uncertainties, the concert committee decided
at a meeting last night they would be unable to sponsor concerts
next year, according to Mrs. R.K. Booth, chairman of the com-
mittee during the last two years.
It was felt that the audience would be cut because the tire
shortage would prevent people coming in from outlying regions
and that fuel shortages might create a heating problem.
An appeal for volunteers to man Astoria’s new and vital air raid observa-
tion post on the very nose of the Astoria peninsula, near the Edward Elfving
residence in Astor court was issued today by defense council headquarters.
More than 2,400 men between the ages of 45 and 65 will regis-
ter in Clatsop County from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday in the fourth
selective service call.
The urgency of ethnic nationalism
By DAVID LEONHARDT
New York Times News Service
A
virulent nationalism, tinged
with bigotry, is on the rise
across much of the world.
It helped elect Narendra Modi in
India and sustains
Vladimir Putin
in Russia. It has
vaulted Marine
Le Pen to the fi nal
round of the French
election. She is
the underdog in the runoff, but it’s
chilling to see that this weekend she
seems to have won voters under age
34.
In the United States, Donald
Trump won the White House despite
— and partly because of — his
disdain for Mexicans, Muslims and
African-Americans and his fl irtation
with anti-Semitic tropes.
In the face of this ethnic nation-
alism, citizens often face diffi cult
choices. They have to decide how
much of a priority to place on com-
bating it.
Should voters eschew their
favorite candidate and vote for one
with the best chance to defeat the
nationalist? Should policy experts be
willing to work in an administration
that plays footsie with intolerance?
Should a museum dedicated to
fi ghting hate, like the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum, host a hateful
president?
These choices often end up being
more complicated than they fi rst
seem, and I don’t want to suggest
otherwise. But a disturbing pattern is
still emerging.
Too many people — well-mean-
ing people on both the left and right
— have grown complacent about
nationalist bigotry. They are erring
on the side of putting other priorities
fi rst, and ethnic nationalism is
benefi ting.
Let’s start on the political left.
And, no, I’m not about to lapse into
false equivalence. Ethnic national-
ism is largely a force of the right.
But the left needs to decide how to
respond, and it hasn’t been effective
enough so far. It has underestimated
the threat and put smaller matters
ahead of larger ones.
After France’s fi rst round of
voting, the leftist candidate Jean-
Luc Mélenchon refused to endorse
the last person who can prevent
Le Pen from becoming president,
Emmanuel Macron. A Le Pen presi-
dency, to be clear, would likely tear
Europe asunder, marginalize French
citizens who hail from Africa and the
Middle East and lead to a big expan-
sion of security forces. It would be
the biggest victory for Europe’s far
right since World War II, by far.
Yet Mélenchon still won’t back
Macron — a centrist former banker
who was until recently a member
of the Socialist Party. It’s a classic
case of political purism that may feel
AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu
Far-right candidate for the presidential election Marine Le Pen
speaks during a campaign meeting in Paris in April.
good, but can do grave damage.
Just look at the United States.
Updated presidential vote totals
show that Trump’s margins in
Michigan, in Pennsylvania and in
Wisconsin — which together would
have swung the result — were
smaller than the tally of Jill Stein,
the Green Party candidate. It’s
impossible to know whether Stein’s
campaign cost Hillary Clinton the
election, yet it clearly hurt. In a very
close race, parts of the American left
aided Trump.
Today’s
Republican
Party has
plainly made
room for white
nationalism,
via Steve King,
Steve Bannon,
Jeff Sessions
and Fox News,
not to mention
the president.
I understand that this point
enrages backers of Stein and
Mélenchon. They have real differ-
ences of opinion with center-left
candidates, and they want to win
those debates. But the fi nal round
of an election that includes a viable
white nationalist isn’t a time to hash
out the future of progressive politics.
It’s a time to defeat racism.
A version of this dilemma also
applies to the political center.
Apolitical institutions have to
decide whether they will treat eth-
no-centrists like Trump and Le Pen
differently from other politicians.
These institutions are right to resist
becoming part of “the opposition,”
because society needs nonpartisan
institutions. But they also have to
avoid compromising their mission.
The Holocaust Museum has
put itself in a tricky spot. It invited
Trump to give a major speech
Tuesday morning, much as previous
presidents have done. Of course,
previous presidents didn’t retweet
neo-Nazi sympathizers, vilify
Muslims or try to airbrush Jews out
of the Holocaust.
Maybe the museum’s leaders are
confi dent Trump will use the speech
as a turning point, which would be
wonderful. But by conferring the
museum’s prestige on Trump, those
leaders have a new responsibility
to call out future dog whistles from
the administration. The Holocaust
Museum has effectively invested in
Trump.
Finally, there is the political right.
Most Republicans despise the notion
that their ideology makes room
for bigotry. Theirs is the party of
Lincoln and of individual freedom,
they say.
Fair enough. But that history
brings responsibilities. Today’s
Republican Party has plainly made
room for white nationalism, via
Steve King, Steve Bannon, Jeff
Sessions and Fox News, not to men-
tion the president.
If the Holocaust Museum is now
invested in Trump, Republicans are
really invested in him and his fellow
nationalists. You don’t get to call
yourself the party of Lincoln and
stay silent when voting rights are
abridged, hate crimes are met with
silence and dark-skinned citizens are
cast as un-American.
I never expected to live through
a time when bigotry would again be
as ascendant. But we are living in
that time, and it brings a new set of
choices.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY?
100 words for 100 days of Trump
The Daily Astorian
Saturday marks 100 days of
Donald Trump’s presidency.
To mark the occasion,
we’re asking readers to sub-
mit 100 words on the presi-
dent’s fi rst 100 days. Whether
it’s about the man, his policies,
his approach to the offi ce or his
accomplishments, we’d like to
share your take.
Email your thoughts to
news @dailyastorian.com
or
drop them off at the Astoria
offi ce at 949 Exchange St. or
the offi ce in Seaside at 1555
N. Roosevelt. Please include a
phone number and city of res-
idence so we can verify your
identity.
The deadline is Friday at
noon. And be concise — 100
words goes fast.
AP
Photo