THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 2017
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
Stop utility hikes
in fact they bring a diversity and
richness of character that has been
the backbone of Gearhart for many
generations.
Let’s put it to a vote; let the peo-
ple of Gearhart decide what’s best.
LORI and BOB BRESLAUER
Gearhart
pen letter to the Astoria City
Council: This is my second
request to please avoid taxing the
poor to solve the city’s budget short-
fall. Just a few dollars here and there
add up to a huge problem to those
who are barely able to stay in their
homes.
Six percent anticipated surcharge
on sewer, a fee for parks on the
water bill, and an additional fee for
recycling?
Please reconsider. Our Social
Security checks do not keep up with
the utility hikes. Are there no other
options to raise funds other than to
add fees onto the essentials that we
cannot do without?
TERRIE REMINGTON
Astoria
O
Nuclear warmongers
D
Low growth predicted
he preliminary population fore-
cast for Clatsop County cities
has just been released by Portland
State University. The state has des-
ignated that public agencies are to
use this estimate for land planning
purposes over the next 14 years.
On a county basis, Clatsop
County, with a present population
of 38,100, will only add 4,000 peo-
ple over the next 50 years, a sizable
reduction from numbers prepared
earlier by the county. This is a very
small population growth, with Asto-
ria and the unincorporated areas
T
es, of course it is worth the
effort for the congressional
Democratic neocons and liberal/
progressive interventionists, along
with their Republican war crazy
allies like John McCain and Lind-
sey Graham, to get Donald Trump
out of office by creating an interna-
tional crisis leading to nuclear war
with Russia and China.
Think I’m nuts? With Trump —
who talks of detente and peace with
Russia — out of the way, the war
psychopaths can use Mike Pence,
who has neocon foreign policy
views, to do their bidding. Think
I’m over the top? The Russian gen-
erals and high level Chinese offi-
cials are convinced that the U.S.
is planning a nuclear first strike
against them.
For starters, check the insight-
ful columns of Reagan administra-
tion Treasury undersecretary Paul
Craig Roberts on his official web-
site (www.paulcraigroberts.org). He
is highly knowledgeable, fearless
and has been exposing our lunatic
death wishing politicians’ prepara-
tions for just this scenario for quite
some time.
But hey, better to have nuclear
winter than all of Trump’s crazy
tweets. These guys are Stanley
Kubrick’s 1964 dark comedy about
nuclear war, “Dr. Strangelove,”
incarnated. But they’re even cra-
zier. That war was a mistake that
the presidents of the U.S. and the
Soviet Union were trying to stop.
Today’s congressional nuclear war-
mongers are like the film’s charac-
ter, Gen. Jack D. Ripper, who was
convinced the Russians were “poi-
soning our precious bodily fluids.”
Happy apocalypse in this time of
American imperial madness.
STEPHEN BERK
Astoria
Y
Dear Left
ear Left: I’ve been involved
in politics since I left the mil-
itary under Jimmy Carter. He’s the
one who made me the conservative
I am today.
Over the years, I’ve been per-
sonally attacked. I’ve been called
everything under the sun. I’ve been
flipped off, yelled at and threatened.
That doesn’t bother me — I was
raised with the sticks and stones
theory. Today, our young people
need safe places because words
now break bones. Really?
I’ve lived in this great state most
of my life. I’ve watched it change to
the point that people are struggling
to make a living here on the coast.
We have chased away business, and
blocked new business from coming
this way. About the only new jobs
we see pop up is within the service
industry. They don’t pay very well
so people need to take two, or three
job’s just to pay the bills.
Astoria has the highest prop-
erty tax in this county. A friend of
mine pays more property tax on his
business in Astoria then he does on
his ranch. I know the Left wants
to blame the big bad business peo-
ple, but who else brings jobs to the
area?
We need to take a look at the
root of the problem. The Left has
taken full control of this county.
Now ask yourself this: Have they
done a good job for all the peo-
ple, or just a few? The only way to
make this county great again is to
take away the power from the ones
who are hurting all of us.
I ask you to help me, and help
turn the political landscape of this
county around. Remember what
President John Kennedy said? “Ask
not what your country can do for
you, ask what you can do for your
country.”
JIM HOFFMAN
Chairman, Clatsop County
Republican Party
Gearhart
5A
having almost no growth, and War-
renton having almost all the future
growth.
Seaside, Gearhart and Cannon
Beach will each only add several
hundred new residents over the next
50 years. Hopefully, this should put
an end to plans by the city of Sea-
side and the Seaside School District
to expand the urban growth bound-
ary of Seaside. There is no need for
additional land outside the exist-
ing urban boundaries for hundreds
of new homes and businesses in
Seaside.
There is also no need to expand
the Seaside urban boundary for the
new schools. There is a perfectly
good solution to protecting the stu-
dents from tsunamis and provid-
ing new upgraded school facilities
that doesn’t require changing the
urban boundary. Why should we the
taxpayers pay $40 million for stu-
dent capacity growth when it’s not
coming?
The state land use planning laws
have successfully limited urban
sprawl by making sure that growth
boundaries are not ignored. Don’t
let the city, and the school dis-
trict, proceed with these misguided
attempts to destroy the area’s farms
and forests.
JOHN DUNZER
Seaside
Let big users pay
esterday a well-spoken,
well-meaning young woman
knocked on my door in an attempt
to sell me on buying green energy
(electricity) for a bit more than I am
presently paying for the product. I
pointed out to her, and she agreed,
that I use essentially the bare min-
imum billable amount at present.
But it got me thinking, not for the
first time, on the issue.
At great public cost in both
monies and aesthetic values, we
in the Pacific Northwest have cre-
ated hydro-powered electricity. The
woman at my door explained that
is largely sold out of state. I suspect
even at present I am paying con-
siderably more per electrical unit
than the industries purchasing this
power.
Y
So, me and many other like-
minded “greenies,” who are con-
scious and mindful of our use, are
essentially penalized for our thrift
already. Here’s an idea: Establish a
minimum electrical use that is free
(except, of course, all the hidden
costs built into our society, like tax-
payers paying for all those dams,
etc.), and increase the per unit cost
to large users to offset the expense.
You know, use a lot, pay a lot.
In my way of thinking this is a
more reasonable solution than dup-
ing young idealists into selling a
bad idea, cloaked as a progressive
move.
SAM DEVEREAUX
Astoria
In the doghouse
hen I was 10, we had a pet
roadrunner. My stepfather
brought it home as a fledgling. Two
things still nag my conscience about
that beloved bird’s life and death.
First, I sat on it, and hobbled it. The
other thing that haunts me is that
our cat, who killed the roadrunner,
found no forgiveness for just doing
what a cat does. I know my step-
father must have had a role in his
vanishing from our lives a day or
two after our feathered friend died.
I feel the pang of betrayal to that
cat, to the love he had for us, and
gave to us.
Sometimes to not repeat one
error, we commit another. It’s very
difficult for me to know how much
of my values to impose upon my
furry friends (mis amigos) and at
what point I’m just enslaving other
conscious beings, and denying them
their own path of self creation, their
own arc of evolution. Our soci-
ety won’t mandate that humans
act humanely, but some will con-
demn me for allowing my dogs to
be dogs.
However, I’ve been very near-
sighted. In the fog and confusion
of my own life, I seem to have sat
on the roadrunner again, a folly in
judgment and choice that will echo
in my mind for a long time to come.
I owe many in the city of Astoria
and the Astoria Police Department
an apology for failing to rein in the
W
harm and nuisance my dogs, Newt
and Syria, have caused. I’ve been
incredibly myopic in my thinking.
Since truth is the thing I’m aiming
for, I’m sure it will be the last thing
I ever hit.
My dogs most recent assault
on Astoria’s laws and sensibilities
— they killed a fawn. Newt and
Syria are in the pound. They need
to be separated, and they need good
homes. Syria’s easy, she’s a lover.
Newt, well he’s always been his
own person, so whatever human
relationship comes next, it will be
shaped both ways, just without his
testicles. Sorry bud, I tried.
My love to these dogs, and the
people of this community, and my
apologies as well.
M. ALEXANDER “SASHA”
MILLER
Astoria
Gearhart vote requested
ll we are asking for is a vote.
The question is, does the ordi-
nance restricting short-term rent-
als in Gearhart, that was pushed
through by the City Council, rep-
resent the wishes of the majority
of Gearhart residents, or a minority
of residents exerting their personal
agenda?
The ordinance represents dra-
matic and far-reaching impact on
personal property rights and value,
and deserves to be voted on by the
people of Gearhart, not just decided
on by a City Council.
Rental properties have been an
integral part of Gearhart for gener-
ations; they are crucial to the econ-
omy and health of this community.
They provide jobs, tax revenue and
support local businesses that could
not survive without them.
We recognize that there are
issues with overcrowding, loud par-
ties and septic, but these should
be handled on an individual basis,
not by passing broad brush, oner-
ous legislation that eventually elim-
inates these rentals by disallowing
their rental status after a sale.
We all want Gearhart to remain
the wonderful place that it is today.
Rentals have been characterized as
being bad for the community, but
A
Trump’s tax returns
hat the Republicans need
today is a rebel Republi-
can like former U.S. Sen. Low-
ell Weicker of Connecticut. During
the Watergate hearings, Weicker
explored President Richard Nix-
on’s tax records from 1968 to
1972, arguing that Nixon had ille-
gally categorized his presidential
papers as tax-deductible “gifts”
to the National Archives. If there
were an independent Republi-
can in the Senate today, this same
kind of investigation might prove
that President Donald Trump’s
tax returns have not been released
because they would reveal their
own “illegality.”
When it comes to Trump’s
never-ending defense of his lies
by condemning the free press as
“fake news,” he should listen to
Sen. Weicker, who said in 1975,
“With minor exceptions, research
shows that every major scandal
in public office over the past 20
years was uncovered by the press.”
Trump will discover that not much
has changed during the intervening
years.
REX AMOS
Cannon Beach
W
Ideological exploitation reduces shootings to sport
By CHARLES BLOW
New York Times News Service
I
n 2011, after U.S. Rep. Gabby
Giffords of Arizona was gravely
injured and six others were
killed by a shooter
in Tucson, I was
moved to commit an
entire column to con-
demning the left for
linking the shooting
so closely to political
rhetoric.
Yes, Republican personalities
and officials in the wake of Barack
Obama’s election had spoken
openly about “Second Amendment
remedies” and being “armed and
dangerous” and “revolution,” but it
was not possible to connect the dots
between that irresponsible talk and
the Tucson shooter.
Now, here I am again, only this
time extending the same condemna-
tion to the right for doing the same
after four people, including U.S.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise,
were shot at an Alexandria, Virginia,
baseball field where Republican
members of Congress were practic-
ing in advance of a charity game.
The shooter, identified as James
T. Hodgkinson, appears to have had
strong liberal, anti-Trump, anti-Re-
publican views — among other
things, he was a volunteer with the
Bernie Sanders presidential campaign
— but at the time of this writing,
authorities had not announced a
motive for the shooting.
The very real possibility that the
shooting was politically motivated
was clearly on the minds of many,
including U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis,
R-Ill., who was at the baseball field
during the shooting: “This could be
the first political rhetorical terrorist
attack, and that has to stop.”
Let me be clear: I don’t have a
problem with viewing these incidents
through a political lens. Not to do so
is naive and ridiculously self-blinding
in a way that avoids reality.
As Katy Waldman wrote for Slate
last June:
“Things that happen for political
reasons, and have political conse-
quences, demand that we scrutinize
them through a political lens. Crying
‘politicization’ is itself politicization
— a way to advance whatever slate
of politics favors the status quo.
Often people invoke policy goals
in order to get things done; what’s
at stake is whether these tragedies
should be regarded as irreducible
lightning strikes or problems with
potential solutions.”
What I abhor is ideological
exploitation that reduces these acts
to a political sport and uses them as
weapons to silence political oppo-
nents and their “rhetoric,” rather than
viewing them as American tragedies
that we can work together to prevent
through honest appraisal and coura-
geous action. Every shooting in this
country is a tragedy, and they happen
with disturbing frequency here.
As The Washington Post reported,
Wednesday’s shooting was the 154th
mass shooting so far this year in
America. That’s 154 mass shootings
in just 165 days. Violence, particu-
larly gun violence, is the American
fact, the American shame.
This country has a violent culture,
is full of guns, and our federal
lawmakers — mostly Republicans, it
must be said, because there isn’t any
real equivalency — are loath to even
moderately regulate gun access.
Pretending that America’s gun
violence is a function of collective
political rhetoric rather than the
nexus of personal mental defect and
easy access to weapons is a way of
dodging, well, the bullet.
So, here I must take a stand in
defense of rhetoric. While rhetoric
should never promote violence, it
needn’t be timid.
I was impressed by the official
responses from Washington. Even
President Donald Trump’s response
was sober and direct, not marred
by his typical lack of tact, not like
the way he tried to exploit the Pulse
Nightclub shooting last year. U.S.
House Speaker Paul Ryan delivered a
stately speech from the House floor,
and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
echoed his sentiments in a noble act
of bipartisanship.
At the top, the responses were
pitch perfect, but the political debate
isn’t confined to the top. It trickles
down into the cesspool of social
media, which has grown exponen-
tially since Giffords was shot. At
that time, Facebook had only about a
third of its current number of users,
Twitter had about a fifth of its current
users, Instagram was just three
months old, and Snapchat didn’t
exist.
On social media, where anonym-
ity provides cover for vitriol, violent
threats are a regular feature.
When Gabby Giffords wrote on
Twitter, “My heart is with my former
colleagues, their families & staff,
and the US Capitol Police – public
servants and heroes today and every
day,” she was met with a sickening
number of hateful responses, includ-
ing one that said, “To bad it was not
her.” (Yes, it should have been “too,”
but grammar isn’t a major concern in
a statement that grotesque.)
It is true that political rhetoric
can set a tone that greases the skids
for a small number of people who
are prone to violence to act on those
impulses. We have just gone through
a political cycle where that was on
full display.
But some rhetoric is necessary
and real. I believe Donald Trump
and the Republican-led Congress are
attempting to do very serious harm
to the country and its most vulner-
able citizens, and I will never stop
saying so in the strongest terms I can
summon. For many people, this isn’t
an abstract policy debate between
partisans. For them, these debates
— about repealing the Affordable
Care Act, for example — are about
life and death. But that has nothing
to do with the promotion of physical
violence; it has everything to do with
protecting this country from adminis-
trative and legislative violence.
We have to object stridently to
proposals that will hurt people, and
not be chilled by a deranged man
with a gun. Violence is abhorrent
and self-defeating, but vociferous
resistance to national damage has
nothing to do with that violence and
must continue unabated.
You can, as I do, have sympathy
for the victims of Wednesday’s
shooting and condemn the shooter,
while at the same time raging, nonvi-
olently of course, against an agenda
that places other Americans in very
real danger.