OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 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
OUR VIEW
Real ID bill needs
approval before
end of session
A
s the Oregon Legislature’s session winds down, law-
makers must not forget to pass Senate Bill 374, which
would bring the state into compliance with the federal
Real ID Act. The bill is currently in the hands of a Senate
subcommittee.
The Real ID act, passed in 2005, increased the required doc-
umentation for issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards,
with the goal of thwarting terrorism. But many states, includ-
ing Oregon, balked at implementing changes because no federal
funding was available to cover the states’ additional costs.
Since then the federal government has been issuing compli-
ance waivers to Oregon and other states. But Oregon’s waiver
expires in June, and it will leave card-carrying Oregonians in the
lurch by 2020 if the Legislature doesn’t act. The biggest impact
of noncompliance will be on those hoping to board a plane,
which isn’t allowed without approved identification. In other
words, it would take a passport for an Oregon resident to board
a flight — even a domestic one. It would also restrict access to
some federal facilities and military installations.
The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees
airport security, intends to stop accepting IDs from noncompli-
ant states on Jan. 22, 2018. Residents of states that are in com-
pliance have until Oct. 21, 2020, before being required to show
the Real ID compliant identification.
While the bill in the Oregon Senate is more of a bandage than
a full cure for the problem, it creates a path to a future solution
while meeting the federal requirements of the present. It would
allow Oregonians to pay extra to go through the additional steps
and obtain a Real ID, while directing the Department of Motor
Vehicles to set up a program to provide the enhanced IDs.
In short, it will give Oregonians who want to board a plane
but not hassle with a passport the ability to do so, and also push
the state closer to making the IDs available to everyone. It’s not
perfect — but without it those who aren’t aware will be furious
when they arrive at airport security and cannot pass.
The bill has gone through the bulk of the legislative process
with a public hearing and work sessions, but it now resides in
the Senate’s Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic
Development. The subcommittee needs to act, and the bill needs
to proceed.
Earlier this month, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a mea-
sure that will bring that state into compliance, one of 25 states
and the District of Columbia that have done so. Oregon needs to
join the compliance club too, and soon.
Seaside made right
choice on zoning
for housing project
F
or once, NIMBY didn’t win.
Seaside city councilors should be applauded for taking
a potentially unpopular step with the greater good in mind
in approving a zoning change along North Wahanna Road for a
housing project.
The change will apply to 3.75 acres owned by James Folk
between North Wahanna Road and the wetlands along Stanley
Lake for what could become a five-building, 40-unit apartment
complex or up to 10 duplexes.
While neighbors cited potential environmental and traffic
issues that could be connected to the zoning change, city coun-
cilors in last week’ meeting referred to the need for additional
housing in the city and acknowledged that not everyone will be
happy with the decision.
Councilor Dana Phillips pointed out that the council had
recently spent “two days of public goal-setting, and we need
additional housing in this community.”
Councilor Seth Morrisey added that, “Anytime we can
expand, anywhere we try to increase density or place housing,
there’s going to be people who aren’t going to like where it’s at.”
Folk had previously said traffic impacts should be minimal,
and he pledged that his project will not damage trees or harm the
wetlands habitat.
The vote was 5-0 with Mayor Jay Barber not present and
Councilor Steve Wright recusing himself.
While the council’s step won’t cure the region’s housing
crunch, it’s a move in the right direction. It came with the politi-
cal will of facing the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) issue that’s
been prevalent throughout the region. Seaside’s councilors led
by example, and leaders in the county and other cities should
take note.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
The women pioneers
of Seaside Rotary
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
T
hirty years ago, the U.S.
Supreme Court issued a
landmark decision: Rotary
clubs may not exclude women
from membership
on the basis of
gender.
The vote fol-
lowed the decade-
slong efforts of
men and women
from all over the Rotary world to
allow for the admission of women.
Seaside Rotarian Laura Freed-
man was a member of the Arcadia
club, “where the whole women’s
movement started in 1987.”
She was the group’s second
female Rotarian. “We did not lose
any members, but we had a lot of
rumblings,” Freedman said.
After the Supreme Court deci-
sion, Rotary clubs throughout the
nation sought to rectify years of
exclusion.
Rotarians in Seaside worked
hard to recruit women. But even
so, the transition was not without
resistance.
In Seaside, Mary Blake was
working as the general manager of
the Sunset Empire Park and Rec-
reation District, a position she had
held since 1984. She and banker
Rhonda Wills attended their first
meeting in May 1988.
“When I showed up to be
inducted, half the people were
gone,” Blake said.
When she asked where they
were, Blake said she was told,
“They’re golfing.”
‘Handwriting on the wall’
Today we don’t think much of
the outrages of the past. We accept
that women always had the right to
vote or a promotion at work.
While talking about the Great-
est Generation honors those who
served in World War II, there was
a battle at home for gender equal-
ity that waged into the 1980s and
beyond.
It was my mother’s generation
that changed that. Although she
attended the University of Michi-
gan and graduated cum laude, Mar-
jorie was steered into a secretarial
path that she was only able to break
out of in the 1970s, and never,
I think she would have agreed,
reached her full potential.
Just as the battle for racial
equality swept the nation, gen-
der equality followed in its wake.
No male bastions were more stub-
born in lifting these barriers than
the men’s civic fraternal organiza-
tions that endorsed a separate but
equal system — but God forbid no
women standing at the bar.
At Seaside Rotary’s recent 70th
anniversary celebration at the Best
Western, members of the organi-
zation stressed community — both
local and international — and good
works.
But as Society with a capital
S dragged its feet, so did service
clubs and by the 1980s the cul-
ture clash had reached the Supreme
Court. The court ruled that the
clubs had to take in members of
both sexes and would be liable to
discrimination lawsuits.
The court rejected Rotary Inter-
national’s argument that it has
a constitutional right to bar the
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Rhonda Wills and Mary Blake, Seaside’s first women Rotarians.
admission of women as members
of any affiliated club because of
its selective membership policy,
public service activities and other
attributes, The New York Times
reported after the May 1987 deci-
sion was delivered.
Eleanor Smeal, head of the
National Organization for Women,
hailed the decision as “the death
knell for male-only clubs that are
part of the business establishment.
… The handwriting is on the wall.
These clubs are going to have to
admit women.”
Freedman subsequently became
the Arcadia Rotary club’s first
woman president and knew she had
“arrived” when one of the group’s
board members called her “one of
the guys.”
“When I was going to be the
first woman president I had a lit-
tle uprising from past presidents
who wanted to make sure I was on
board with what I was supposed to
be doing,” Freedman said. “They
decided they were going to ‘train
me’ in my presidential affairs.”
A personal decision
After the Supreme Court deci-
sion, Rotary clubs throughout the
nation sought to rectify years of
exclusion. In Seaside, Blake said it
was all “straight white men.”
But City Manager Larry Leh-
man and Rotary’s Fred Bassett felt
Mary was the right choice to break
barriers.
She had encountered gender dis-
crimination in Portland at the Port-
land Bureau of Parks and Rec-
reation and maintained a private
personal life.
“It was a dangerous time hav-
ing an alternative lifestyle,” Blake
recalled. “I said, ‘Really, you guys
don’t want me in your club.’”
To make their case more persua-
sive, Blake said, Rotarian George
Reimers “explained the larger piece
of it” — the business networking,
the international programs and edu-
cational scholarships — and even
offered to add a second woman
member so “no one person would
take the heat.”
That woman was Wills.
“My husband Jim was the
president,” Wills said. “He also
recruited a woman who was the
manager of the U.S. Bank,” Wills
said. “She chickened out at the last
minute.”
The club meeting went on as
normal. “When it was time to
induct the women, there was a
bunch of six or seven men who
left,” Rhonda Wills said. “They
weren’t going to be a party to this.
And there was a whole contingent
that didn’t show up, and there were
some who got up and left. It was
disappointing. Some to this day
hold a grudge, 30 years later.”
Nevertheless, both women
remained.
“I never had any question about
coming back,” Wills said. “It’s
a personal decision you have to
make. (But) when you’re in a pro-
fessional situations, you have to
make a lot of tough decisions.”
“We all rolled up our sleeves,
side by side doing everything
together, sharing the work and the
workload,” Blake said. “I look at
what the organization is built on,
It’s very powerful — that’s what is
so remarkable about Rotary. We all
have the ability to contribute. And
we’re all eager to do that.”
Last week, members of Rotary
District 5100 arrived in Seaside for
their annual conference. Among
their speakers was Sylvia Whit-
lock of Duarte, California, the first
female Rotary Club president. A fit-
ting 30th anniversary to comple-
ment Seaside Rotary’s 70th.
“I really felt it was my profes-
sional right to belong,” Wills said.
“I’m thinking it’s worked out.”
Today, her daughter is a Rotary
member.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Asto-
rian’s South County reporter and
editor of the Seaside Signal and
Cannon Beach Gazette.