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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 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 E ach week we recognize those people and organizations in the community deserving of public praise for the good things they do to make the North Coast a better place to live, and also those who should be called out for their actions. SHOUTOUTS • Organizers of the 37th annual Washington State International Kite Festival, which concludes its weeklong run Sunday on the Long Beach Peninsula. The festival is one of the biggest events on the peninsula each year and attracts thousands of spectators who watch the colorful, high-flying kites flown by experts from around the world. The festival has featured work- shops, kite battles and demonstrations, and many of the specta- tors also have been partaking in the kite flying. Another high- light this year has been a display from the Buffalo Kite Project, which exhibited a collection of 14 large kites created by some of the nation’s most highly regarded Native American artists. • Firefighters from throughout Clatsop County, who are helping battle a raging wildfire near Sisters, in Deschutes County in central Oregon. Knappa Fire Chief Paul Olheiser has been coordinating the local help effort and said 13 firefighters from Seaside, Olney, Lewis and Clark, Warrenton and Knappa dis- tricts were sent last week to help combat the Milli Fire after the governor issued a call for additional resources from outside the Deschutes County area to help battle the blaze. • Six local 4H equestrian riders, who will be competing in a variety of events this weekend at the State Fair in Salem. The riders are from Astoria and Knappa high schools and include three graduating seniors. Competing are Angelina Lindres of Astoria and Olivia Rilatos and Haylee Skipper of Knappa, while the graduating seniors competition includes Kaisa Israel and Maggie McClean of Astoria and Kaitlyn Landwehr of Knappa. • Diane Buttrell, a retired teacher who lives on the Long Beach Peninsula and founded the Oysterville Science Academy, a creative summer program that encourages youngsters to learn about science in a fun setting at the his- toric Oysterville School House. The free program is now in its third year. With the help of visiting teachers and guest Patrick Webb/For EO Media Group speakers, the program uses curriculum An art project on the based on materials from the American Long Beach Peninsula Association for the Advancement of that had students use Science that are designed to improve their imagination to in- student achievement and literacy in sci- corporate five required geometric shapes ence and math. produced results that • U.S. Bank, which recently donated would have made Pi- $4,000 to the Assistance League of the casso’s head spin. Columbia Pacific’s School Activity Sponsorship Program, The program provides money for fees and gear for local children’s sports, cultural, art and scholas- tic-based activities. • The nonprofit Cannon Beach Arts Association, which recently marked its 30th anniversary, The arts association rep- resents 150 regional and local artists working in fine arts and crafts in nine curated shows each year. Lila Wickham is the nonprofit’s current board president, and through the years the association has grown to include a number of programs includ- ing the Cannon Beach Gallery, summer concerts in the park, arts in education and individual artist grants. CALLOUTS • Thieves who have recently targeted local businesses with an email phishing campaign and a telephone advertising scam. The phishing scam involves employees’ W-2 forms, which can put staffers’ Social Security numbers and other critical informa- tion in the hands of thieves, while the other targets local busi- nesses with calls from fraudsters pretending to represent Astoria High School athletics in soliciting advertisements for calendars. In the W-2 scam, cyberthieves send emails that appear to come from executives inside the targeted organizations. The emails have spoofed addresses and ask payroll or human resources departments to reply with a list of all employees and their W-2 forms. Some emails also ask companies to transfer money to a specified bank account. The IRS says more than 200 businesses nationwide have been victimized, and companies should always be on alert for anyone asking for employees’ W-2 forms or for wire transfers of money. In the other scam, Astoria High School Athletic Director Howard Rub said no company has been autho- rized to represent the high school and that the athletic depart- ment works directly with businesses and community members for the support of its programs. Suggestions? Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a look. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The one that got away ecently I was enjoying fish- ing near Buoy 10 with two of my grandsons. As fishing was slow, my mind wandered to years ago when my wife and I were fish- ing in the ocean near Buoy 6. My wife had a tremendous hit. The line just screamed out. She said, “Jim, I have a really big one on, it must be a Chinook.” She fought it for over 20 min- utes. Finally it came thrashing to the surface, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had never seen such a huge salmon in all my years fish- ing here and in Alaska. It continued to fight on the surface, and slowly she nursed it closer to the boat. As I lowered the net to meet it, I said, “Thank you, Lord, for such a great fish.” My wife quickly responded, “Don’t thank him yet — wait until it’s in the boat.” Looking at its size, well over 50 pounds, I wondered if it would fit in the net. I cautiously lowered the net under the fish, but as I did, it made a last ditch thrash, and threw the hooks and swam victoriously away. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that disappointment hap- pens. “I didn’t get the job,” “the medical report was bad,” “I didn’t make the sale,” “the relationship broke up,” “we didn’t win.” Life is filled with all kinds of disappointments. But to let them discourage, deflate and depress you is within your control. By the grace of God, keep moving on. There will be other jobs, cures, sales made, new relationships, victories and even another fish. So remember, by the grace of God you are in control of your reactions. So when disappoint- ments happen, and they will, don’t let discouragement dominate your thinking. Move on to all the new adventures life has for you. JIM BERNARD Warrenton R A swimming decision e were happy to read that Seaside High School’s swim team will be able to use the Asto- ria Aquatic Center during the clo- sure of Sunset Pool this fall (“Asto- ria will share pools with Seaside swimmers,” The Daily Astorian, Aug. 22). Many years ago, we were coaching the SHS swim team when the Astoria swim team held their workouts for the season at Sun- set Pool, while the old YMCA pool was closed. This was before the Astoria Aquatic Center was built. Two large high school teams worked out in three lanes each, at the same time, five days a week, eight to 10 high school swimmers to a lane. Astoria Head Coach Paul Des- W sen walked up and down one side of the pool, and Seaside Head Coach Mike Brown walked up and down the other, each coach- ing their own swimmers in a very loud and extremely wavy pool. Swimmers really mastered the skill of circle-swimming during that time period. It wasn’t easy, but it worked. Thank you to the Astoria Aquatic Center and Astoria High School for making it work, once again. SANDE and MIKE BROWN Astoria Small-minded separatists t seems to be in vogue, at the moment, that sports stars should also stand up for social injustice; this is a good thing, because they have an excellent platform from which to do so. The thing that I do not understand is why, in the name of fighting bigotry, separatism and social injustice, these motivated individuals refuse to even make an attempt to work with the cur- rent federal administration, i.e. the president. It seems strange that those foot- ball players and others sports stars who rail against injustice and the lack of equality in this country by demonstrating during the playing of the national anthem, emphat- ically refuse to even attempt to work with the president to effect change. These individuals would rather label President Trump a rac- ist, and ridicule him, than attempt to work with him to create unity and equality in this country. It seems to me that if you have not given a person a chance to work with you for the good of all, then you may possibly be the same type of small-minded separatist that you are condemning. I guess that these protesters feel that they have a right to condemn and belittle others because, after all, they are doing it for the right reasons. I get it: Let’s create unity by refusing to work with others to effect change; makes sense to me. As always; I could be wrong. DAVID GRAVES Astoria I Take in Sunday Market have lived in Astoria just over two years, and have enjoyed many of the great things offered here. One of the activities I have enjoyed the most is the Sunday Market. For those who may live in surrounding towns, I highly recom- mend it. Every year between May and October, Astoria has a downtown outdoor market — three blocks of various food items, trinkets, home remedies, plants, T-shirts, carved animals and other items which we haven’t imagined or need. The market, though not unlike I others, is special because it is in the center of downtown, showing the beauty of the spot. The booths and city offer a Christmas look in the summer. It is a time to get your- self or your family up and enter the excitement of the three-block path. It is really the people who make the excitement. Most wear their fun attire — sandals, casual and run- ning clothes, and other odd things not worn at work. Grandparents are tugging their grandchildren, mothers carrying their infants with fathers herding their families. Most everyone is happy in the pleasant air of this sea town. It is being with family, and a momentarily feeling of no cares. It is a feeling that all love, even with knowing another day will be work. NORM HOOGE Astoria Where would Waldo go? listened to the KMUN program featuring our coastal hazard spe- cialist, Pat Corcoran, discussing our minimalist local efforts in Asto- ria and Warrenton (my emphasis, not his) to prepare for the inevita- ble earthquake/tsunami coming to an ocean near us. The tasks we need to take on are daunting, and it is easy for us to want to continue thinking it will happen to someone else — maybe great-grandchildren, or others we don’t yet know. But we will all fare far better if we begin to think about what we can do in advance. That’s obvious. As a starter, we’re figuring out where the highest ground is when we are out taking our dogs to a river beach, shopping or going to an event. Try it. We discovered that we really needed to look at the map and navigate from a beach in Ham- mond to find the highest ground. We ran out of time that day, and will have to go back. But it did bring the reality home to us. So now, as we have time, we’re on a “Where would Waldo go” quest. If you don’t get the question, ask a kid. Let’s get away from our devices with our families, and go for a Sunday drive. Make sure that your family knows where to head from school, a shopping center, offices and playgrounds. As we do this, we’ll also become more aware and pack our “grab and go” bags finally. Who knows, maybe then we can move on to attacking larger issues, like where we are locating new housing, schools and public facilities. It’s a start. If you are inter- ested, you can learn more from Pat Corcoran by going to KMUN’s website for the “Human Beat” pro- gram recording at http://bit.ly/ 2g2iVvM. A second interview will be aired at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 11. JAN MITCHELL Astoria I LETTERS WELCOME Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian. We do not publish open letters or third-party letters. Letters should be fewer than 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and phone numbers. You will be contacted to confirm authorship. All letters are subject to editing for space, grammar and, on occa- sion, factual accuracy and verbal verification of authorship. Only two letters per writer are printed each month. Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand and, rather than mentioning the writer by name, should refer to the headline and date the letter was published. Dis- course should be civil and people should be referred to in a respectful manner. Letters referring to news stories should also mention the headline and date of publication. The Daily Astorian welcomes short “in gratitude” notes from readers for publication. They should keep to a 200-word maxi- mum and writers are asked to avoid simply listing event sponsors. They must be signed, include the writ- er’s address, phone number and are subject to condensation and editing for style, grammar, etc. Submissions may be sent in any of these ways: E-mail to editor@dailyastorian. com; Online form at www.dailyasto- rian.com; Delivered to the Astorian offices at 949 Exchange St. and 1555 N. Roosevelt in Seaside. Or by mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103