The daily Astorian., May 31, 2017, Page 4A, Image 4

OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2007
Flags danced in the wind on Memorial Day and it seemed that flowers
were everywhere as North Coast residents and visitors took time out to
remember soldiers who gave their lives for their country.
First called Decoration Day, the holiday has its roots in the Civil War
when women’s groups began decorating graves with flowers. It became
an official holiday in 1868 with proclamation by Ben John Logan. In
1900, it was renamed Memorial Day.
Memorial Day was observed on May 30 until 1971, when Congress
changed it to the last Monday in May and broadened it to include all sol-
diers and sailors killed fighting for America.
GUEST COLUMN
The un-American quality
Help is on the way for West Coast salmon fishers thanks to
the Iraq War.
Tacked on to the request for additional funding for troops in
the Middle East was a spending bill for our projects. This will
provide $60.4 million to West Coast fishers — mostly in Ore-
gon and California — hard hit by a downturn in catches and
allocations.
Astoria middle-schoolers have been learning about environmental
stewardship at its roots, in an outdoor location that didn’t take them too
far from homeroom.
More than 100 seventh-graders converged on the Oregon Department
of Forestry’s Astoria district last week. Broken into small groups, stu-
dents learned about the environmental, economic and social bearings of
the 154,000-acre Clatsop State Forest, one of the largest shares of Oregon
timber in the state.
Astoria’s sardine industry is growing, along with the market
for the North Coast’s oil-rich product.
This year, all three of the fish processors operating in the
Port of Astoria’s Pier 2 warehouse are expanding their oper-
ations to cash in on a burgeoning international sardine food
market.
50 years ago — 1967
A 7 million board foot logs cargo,
believed to be the largest ever loaded
on the Columbia River, sailed for
Japan last weekend from Port of Asto-
ria aboard the 34,733 ton Norwegian
motorship Thorshavn.
Astoria longshoremen stowed the
huge cargo in seven days, at the rate of
a million board feet a day.
The Thorshavn is 630 feet long
overall, with a 84 foot beam. The entire
log cargo was stowed below the ship’s
flush decks, in contrast to most ships
which load about 5 million feet of logs
of which they carry a fifth or so above
decks. Maximum draft of the ship is 36
The Daily Astorian/File
feet 71/4 inches.
The freighter Thorshavn, as
seen from the flying bridge,
Northwest Aluminum appar- with 7 million feet of logs
ently has chosen the local site and stowed in the holds.
will go ahead with plans to build
its plant here as result of Senate passage of the port bond
bill Friday morning, board chairman Richard W. Pickens of
Northwest Aluminum told the Daily Astorian by telephone
from Rockwall, Texas.
“We are very grateful for the fine vote of the Oregon Sen-
ate,” Pickens said.
Traffic over the Astoria Bridge soared to 31,122 vehicles, an aver-
age of 1,004 daily, in May, the Oregon Highway Department reported
Thursday.
This was a gain of 6,367 over the April total. The gain in average daily
traffic was 179 over the April average 825 daily.
There was a substantial increase in volume of tourist travel in May,
Highway Department officials reported.
75 years ago — 1942
Barrage balloons forming aerial “fences” around vital mili-
tary establishments have been installed along the entire Pacific
Coast from Canada to Mexico, a survey showed today.
The balloons are just a part of the drastic preparations
made to forestall any retaliatory bombing of the coast by Japa-
nese to avenge the American raid on Tokyo.
I people do not avail themselves of the chance to register for home
canning sugar this week, it will be too late, warned D.J. Lewis, rationing
administrator today. Registration so far has been unsatisfactory, Lewis
said, but it will be impossible to keep registration open after this week
because of lack of office help.
The Erickson Paving Co., Seattle, began work on grading
the new route of the Columbia highway through the hills south
of Tongue Point Naval Air Station.
The highway is being rerouted to avoid going through the
air station reservation.
Oregon and Washington radio stations returned to the air at 5:30 a.m.
Pacific war time, today after the second consecutive night of silence
ordered by the fourth interceptor command.
Stations were silenced at 9 o’clock last night, and civilian defense
organizations in the two states remained on the alert against the possibil-
ity of an attack
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Hundreds of people participated in the Women’s March in Astoria in January.
By TIFFINY KAYE MITCHELL
Special to The Daily Astorian
O
n Saturday, I will join con-
cerned citizens of Astoria on
the corner of Commercial
and Eighth streets for the Indivisible
Rally for Truth. Thousands of others
will be rallying
across the United
States in similar
protests demanding
transparency and
honesty from our
government, par-
ticularly from the gentleman heading
our executive branch.
But, in the words of a friend of
mine in a Southern state, “Another
rally? Why?” For her, the particular
question extends to why “the Left”
— and the growing throngs on either
side of the aisle — just can’t “let it
go.”
Recently, I’ve had to answer this
question more for the sake of my
own mental fortitude than to satisfy
her specific inquiry. As we move
further into 2017 and its near daily
surreal revelations about Russian
meddling into our elections, alleged
collusion and how much our own
president did or didn’t know — I’ve
begun to show signs of exhaustion.
I’ve seen it in others, too. How
much longer can we really continue
to demand answers in the face of
repeated denials? How long can we
continue to profess there’s smoke if
we haven’t found a fire? Why is it
necessary that I continue to demand
these things, when it would be much
easier to watch cable news and trust
that my elected officials are doing it
for me?
After a time of weary pondering,
the answer comes: because apathy is
un-American.
As we approach Saturday, I would
ask my fellow citizens to consider
their roles in our society within the
context of the Founding Fathers we
all profess to love and admire. The
framers of our Constitution built
within this nation a mechanism for
America’s children to truly partici-
pate. We cast our initial vote to elect a
mouthpiece, and all share the respon-
sibility of ensuring that the mouth-
piece truly represents our interests by
supporting policies and legislation
that further America’s ideals.
Though many of the represen-
tatives for Oregon are asking the
critical questions of the Trump
administration and alleged ties to
foreign governments and conflicts of
interest, the people’s primary mouth-
piece — Donald Trump himself —
has compromised the responsibility
entrusted to him by the constituency
of the United States.
Citizens should feel compelled
to raise their voices in harmonious
discord and demand answers in
the same way our founders did.
Paine, Jefferson and Franklin didn’t
throw tea into the Boston Harbor,
but rather, exercised their dissent
through rhetoric and activism. And
though we’re no longer British
citizens demanding representation
for taxation and the same freedoms
of others in the British Empire — we
are Americans who deserve to know
whether the integrity of our election
was influenced by an outside govern-
ment and, more specifically, whether
collusion existed between that out-
side entity and our own president’s
administration.
And when an investigation
into those ties is disrupted by the
dismissal of the very man leading it?
Our Founding Fathers would demand
nothing less of us than to demand
answers and accountability.
Contrary to the popular opinion
of some — this isn’t about satisfying
a grudge over the other candidate
losing the 2016 election. It is tremen-
dously more complex and vast. This
is about ensuring the integrity of our
government’s future.
That is why I continue to fight,
even though it at times feels futile.
We as a unified people deserve
answers, and knowing I’m not alone
when individuals come together to
all demand the same thing makes the
path seem worthwhile. While on the
surface a rally appears to accomplish
very little, the banding together of
individuals in the pursuit of truth
serves as a visual reminder that a bloc
of people all have the same passion
and love for this country that I do,
as well as the power to unite and
dismiss public representatives who
fail to secure desired outcomes that
benefits American citizens. In a polit-
ical system that seems continuously
stacked against the individual, it’s the
promise that we stand indivisible as
an indestructible wall to oppose the
unacceptable.
I continue to fight — because
apathy is un-American.
Tiffiny Kaye Mitchell is a member
of the Astoria Indivisible community
group. A Utah native by birth, but
an Astorian in her soul, she and her
husband moved to Astoria to fulfill
shared lifelong dreams to live in one
of the rainiest cities in America.
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