OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Solar eclipse a
reminder of the
wonder around us
s a small group of office workers stood outside their
downtown Astoria business Monday, quietly watching
the moon eclipse the sun, the overture from the movie
“2001: A Space Odyssey” began playing in the background.
For listeners, the music and the images it conjured provided an
appropriately funny and memorable moment. It also provided
an immediate reminder of the wonder of the universe and the
small role each of us have in it — just one of the many take-
aways from an event not soon forgotten.
Across the state, Oregonians and the throngs of visitors who
trekked here to watch the solar eclipse came together and expe-
rienced the awe as part of the state turned to darkness during
midmorning. Stars came out and temperatures dropped through-
out the “path of totality,” the 70-mile-wide swath across Oregon
where the total eclipse was visible. For the rest of the state the
eclipse was partial, with 97.4 percent coverage viewable in
our region. Oregon was one of 14 states in the path of the total
eclipse and the first to experience it.
Somewhat like Y2K, there were dire worries beforehand
about the influx of traffic and visitors who would jam high-
ways, cause gridlock and over-
load telecommunications, compli-
cated by wildfires in the rural areas
near and along the path of total-
One of the
ity. But forest fires didn’t trap any-
thankful
one, and telecommunications didn’t
crash. Traffic jams weren’t as bad
takeaways
as expected. On the North Coast
was that
it was “just like a busy week-
common
end,” said Oregon Department of
Transportation spokesman Lou
sense
Torres. “We didn’t encounter any-
prevailed.
thing we couldn’t handle.”
But because of the concerns, it
gave the state and regional emer-
gency planners a live opportunity
to test preparations for worst-case scenarios, wisely using prac-
tice runs for a massive earthquake as a template. In the coming
weeks they’ll evaluate the experience and tweak future plans.
Total visitor counts aren’t in yet but will also be taken into con-
sideration, planners said.
Closer to home, one of the thankful takeaways was that com-
mon sense prevailed. Watchers heeded warnings not to look at
the sun directly and there were no local reports of eye damage
or other problems.
For many who watched, the largest takeaways were individ-
ual and the reflections of wonder the eclipse spurred.
That wonder need not stop with the celestial event. Our uni-
verse is full of wonder on a daily basis, in and around us every-
where for those who take the time to notice and experience it.
A
We know privatizing
the BPA is a bad idea
R
ick Perry, the former Texas governor with aspira-
tions for the presidency and now head of the U.S.
Department of Energy, recently visited Umatilla County
in Eastern Oregon. He stopped at McNary Dam and toured the
Bonneville Power Administration transmission facility operated
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
That tour was off-limits to reporters, but Perry was joined
by Congressmen Greg Walden, R-Oregon, and Dan Newhouse,
R-Washington, when they briefly addressed the press outside
the dam. Perry said hydroelectricity will continue to play an
important role in America’s energy strategy, even though the
Trump administration has proposed selling off the BPA to pri-
vate energy companies.
Northwest lawmakers — including Walden and Newhouse
— have roundly criticized that plan, saying it will raise rates
for consumers and affect reliability in rural areas.
Yet Perry was mum when asked where he stood on the
issue, saying only that they should not be afraid to have that
conversation.
Perry should have done more homework because the
Northwest has been having that discussion for decades.
We’ve thought about it and argued about it, and lawmakers
of both political parties now agree that privatizing the BPA is a
bad idea.
To new minds in Washington, D.C., the short-term windfall
of a sell-off has them salivating. But those of us who have to
live with the result — not just for a political term — know that
in the long run, the BPA must remain as is.
What moderates believe
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
D
onald Trump is not the
answer to this nation’s prob-
lems, so the great questions
of the moment
are: If not Trump,
what? What does
the reaction to
Trump look like?
For some peo-
ple, the warriors of
the populist right
must be replaced by warriors of
the populist left. For these people,
Trump has revealed an ugly authori-
tarian tendency in American society
that has to be fought with relentless
fervor and moral clarity.
For others, it’s Trump’s war-
rior mentality itself that must be
replaced. Warriors on one side
inevitably call forth warriors on
the other, and that just means more
culture war, more barbarism, more
dishonesty and more dysfunction.
The people in this camp we will
call moderates. Like most of you, I
dislike the word moderate. It is too
milquetoast. But I’ve been inspired
by Aurelian Craiutu’s great book
“Faces of Moderation” to stick with
this word, at least until a better one
comes along.
Moderates do not see politics as
warfare. Instead, national politics
is a voyage with a fractious fleet.
Wisdom is finding the right for-
mation of ships for each specific
circumstance so the whole assembly
can ride the waves forward for
another day. Moderation is not
an ideology; it’s a way of coping
with the complexity of the world.
Moderates tend to embrace certain
ideas:
The truth is plural. There is no
one and correct answer to the big
political questions. Instead, politics
is usually a tension between two
or more views, each of which
possesses a piece of the truth.
Sometimes immigration restrictions
should be loosened to bring in
new people and new dynamism;
sometimes they should be tight-
ened to ensure national cohesion.
Leadership is about determining
which viewpoint is more needed at
that moment. Politics is a dynamic
unfolding, not a debate that can ever
be settled once and for all.
Politics is a limited activity.
Zealots look to the political realm
for salvation and self-fulfillment.
They turn politics into a secular reli-
gion and ultimately an apocalyptic
war of religion because they try to
impose one correct answer on all of
life. Moderates believe that, at most,
government can create a platform
upon which the beautiful things
in life can flourish. But it cannot
itself provide those beautiful things.
Government can create economic
and physical security and a just
order, but meaning, joy and the
good life flow from loving relation-
AP Photo/Matt York
Phoenix police move protesters away after using tear gas outside the
Phoenix Convention Center Tuesday. Protests were held against Pres-
ident Donald Trump as he hosted a rally inside the convention center.
ships, thick communities and wise
friends. The moderate is prudent
and temperate about political life
because he is so passionate about
emotional, spiritual and intellectual
life.
Creativity is syncretistic.
Voyagers don’t just pull their ideas
from the center of the ideological
spectrum. They believe creativity
happens when you merge galaxies
of belief that seem at first blush
incompatible. They might combine
left-wing ideas about labor unions
with right-wing ideas about local
community to come up with a new
conception of labor law. Because
they are syncretistic, they are careful
to spend time in opposing camps,
Moderation
is not an
ideology; it’s
a way of
coping with
the complexity
of the world.
always opening lines of communi-
cation. The wise moderate can hold
two or more opposing ideas together
in her mind at the same time.
In politics, the lows are lower
than the highs are high. The harm
government does when it screws
up — wars, depressions — is larger
than the benefits government pro-
duces when it does well. Therefore
the moderate operates from a
politics of skepticism, not a politics
of faith. He understands that most of
the choices are among bad options
(North Korea), so he prefers steady
incremental reform to sudden revo-
lutionary change.
Truth before justice. All political
movements must face inconvenient
facts — thoughts and data that
seem to aid their foes. If you try to
suppress those facts, by banning a
speaker or firing an employee, then
you are putting the goals of your
cause, no matter how noble, above
the search for truth. This is the path
to fanaticism, and it always back-
fires in the end.
Beware the danger of a single
identity. Before they brutalize poli-
tics, warriors brutalize themselves.
Instead of living out several identi-
ties — Latina/lesbian/gun-owning/
Christian — that pull in different
directions, they turn themselves
into monads. They prioritize one
identity, one narrative and one com-
forting distortion.
Partisanship is necessary but
blinding. Partisan debate sharpens
opinion, but partisans tend to justify
their own sins by pointing to the
other side’s sins. Moderates are
problematic members of their party.
They tend to be hard on their peers
and sympathetic to their foes.
Humility is the fundamental
virtue. Humility is a radical
self-awareness from a position
outside yourself — a form of radical
honesty. The more the moderate
grapples with reality the more she
understands how much is beyond
our understanding.
Moderation requires courage.
Moderates don’t operate from the
safety of their ideologically pure
galleons. They are unafraid to face
the cross currents, detached from
clan, acknowledging how little they
know.
If you have elected a man who is
not awed by the complexity of the
world, but who filters the world to
suit his own narcissism, then woe
to you, because such a man is the
opposite of the moderate voyager
type. He will reap a whirlwind.
WHERE TO WRITE
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 439 Cannon House Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20515.
Phone: 202- 225-0855. Fax 202-225-
9497. District office: 12725 SW Mil-
likan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR
97005. Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax
503-326-5066. Web: bonamici.house.
gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
Hart Senate Office Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State
Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373,
Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-
1431. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/witt/
Email: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone (D):
900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem,
OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432.
Email: rep.deborah boone@state.
or.us District office: P.O. Box 928,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone:
503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/ boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy-
johnson.com District Office: P.O.
Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone:
503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296.
Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280.
• Port of Astoria: Executive
Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto-
ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300.
Email: admin@portofastoria.com
• Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners: c/o County Manager, 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR
97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.