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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 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 Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers Harvey, Irma, Jose ... and Noah By DAVID BROOKS New York Times News Service s there anything we can learn from hurricanes, storms and floods? People have been asking that question for thousands of years, and telling stories that try to make sense of natural disasters. These flood myths are remarkably similar to one another. A researcher named John D. Morris collected more than 200 of them, from ancient China, India, Native American cultures and beyond. He calculates that in 88 per- cent of the tales there is a favored family. In 70 percent, they survive the flood in a boat. In 67 percent, the animals are also saved in the boat. In 66 percent, the flood is due to the wickedness of man, and in 57 percent the boat comes to rest on a mountain top. The authors of these myths are trying to make sense of vast and powerful forces. They are trying to figure out what sort of world they live in. Is it a capricious world, where cities are destroyed for no reason? Or perhaps it’s a just but merciless world, where civilizations are wiped out for their iniquity? The most famous story, of course, is the biblical story of Noah. As the story begins, the human race is living without law, and as a result is living violently and badly. But there was one righteous man, Noah. God tells Noah to build an ark because He is going to wipe out the rest of humanity with a great deluge. What does Noah say when he hears this? Nothing. Abraham protested to God when the city of Sodom was under threat of destruc- tion. Moses protested when God was going to harm the Israelites. But Noah is silent. He doesn’t try to save his neighbors or argue with his God. Rabbis and scholars have often judged Noah harshly for this. “He is incurious, he does not know and does not care what happens to others,” Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg writes. “He suffers from the inca- pacity to speak meaningfully to God or to his fellow human beings.” “Noah was righteous but not a leader,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes. A leader takes responsi- bility for those around him and at least tries to save the world, even if people are too wicked to actually listen. Moral integrity demands positive action against evil. Noah, by contrast, opts to withdraw from the corrupt world, in order to remain untainted. Noah and his family get on the ark and Noah gently cares for the animals. Then the rain stops and it is time to go out and remake the earth. I The Daily Astorian/File Reservoir 2, adjacent to Shively Park, holds 6 million gallons of water and serves most of the city below the elevation 190 feet. The reservoir, built of brick in 1895, must be covered to meet fed- eral drinking water rules. 10 years ago this week — 2007 The sparkling blue water that fills Astoria’s Reservoir 2 at Shively Park will disappear beneath an ugly rubber “floating” cover by this time next year. Either that, or the water could be stored inside a tank underground. The reason: Federal standards no longer allow treated drinking water to be stored in the open. “Uncovered drinking water reservoirs are a thing of the past. They’re just not safe,” said Peter Kreft, principal engineer with MWH Americas, the city’s consulting firm for designing the federally-mandated improve- ments. “You’d probably see birds swimming around in it, algae, maybe some frogs.” he said. A rule finalized by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in December 2005 requires that reservoirs throughout the United States be covered or additional water treatment facilities be installed at each reser- voir by April 1, 2009, or that a state-approved construction schedule be in place for either requirement. When publishers of Oregon Business magazine decided to organize a tour of Oregon businesses for its 25th anniversary, 40 communities clamored to be considered for one of 18 visited. A combination of enthusiasm, a sense of organization and many engaging activities got Astoria selected for the tour, and set it apart as the kickoff location for the three-week event. Thirty-five business leaders from across the state criss- crossed Astoria and Warrenton Monday, touring Englund Marine & Industrial Supply, Bornstein’s Seafood processing plant, Pier 39, Liberty Theater, Lektro and the Oregon State University Seafood Center. The idea was to see how businesses are branding their prod- ucts, innovating and preparing themselves for the future. 50 years ago — 1967 Rainfall totaling 1.37 inches fell at Clatsop airport station of U.S. Weather Bureau over the weekend and comparable amounts fell all through the lower Columbia area, terminating one of the driest summers in years and putting at least a temporary end to serious forest fire danger. The Port of Astoria Commission took some important steps Monday night toward readiness to sell bonds and build an alu- minum plant for Northwest Aluminum Co. One major step was approval and signature of the text of a “statement of controversy” to be filed in Circuit Court this week. This statement constitutes the legal test action to deter- mine validity of the Oregon Legislature’s port bonding act of 1967. A second step was approval and signing of a letter of intent or agreement with Northwest Aluminum, setting out in gen- eral terms what the Port proposes to do and what Northwest proposes to do in establishing a $142 million aluminum plant here. A third action was adoption of a resolution asking the Clat- sop County commissioners to turn over to the Port Commis- sion a tract of land on the right bank of Skipanon River. Salem house painter and treasure hunter Tony Mareno has discovered four links of anchor chain in his search for the legendary Neahkahnie treasure. Earlier, he said he found a marlin spike off an old vessel, a hand-fash- ioned wooden spike with writing on it, a small rock with a cross on it and pieces of china. 75 years ago — 1942 R.R. Barlett, manager of the Port of Astoria, told the Port Commission last night that representatives of Russian shipping, seeking dock space on the West Coast for lend-lease cargo, had reviewed Astoria’s facilities and were favorably impressed for possible use of this port to handle this vital war cargo. The fall run of salmon on the Columbia River, which has been subject of excited speculation among the entire river’s $10 million dollar indus- try, today materialized in proportions almost equal to the record-breaking volume of 1941. After a 24-hour fishing period starting Thursday noon, the weighted opinion of Astoria canneries is that returns from the lower river are as great and probably greater than those of last year, while there is no ques- tion the volume of fish in the middle and upper river is off, perhaps as much as 60 percent. Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun Gianni Pena, 18, paddles a canoe through the flood waters sur- rounding his family’s home in the Hills of Santa Fe neighborhood in Gainesville, Fla., on Tuesday. What does Noah do now? Once again, Noah is silent. He does noth- ing. He sits in the ark for another seven days twiddling his thumbs. He is waiting for God’s permission to disembark. Once again, the rabbis are criti- cal of Noah’s passivity. One doesn’t need permission to go build the world. You just do it. “If I had been there I would have smashed down (the doors of) the ark and taken myself out,” said the second-century scholar Rabbi Judah bar Ilai. Floods are invitations to re-create the world. That only happens successfully when strong individuals are willing to yoke themselves to collective institutions. Now God gives Noah a cove- nant. Moral laws are handed down, and Noah is told to go off and re-create. Noah seems to flee from this responsibility. Perhaps he has survivor’s guilt. He gets drunk. His sons find him lying naked and passed out. Noah is a good man, but his story is a lesson in the dangers of blind obedience. The God of the Hebrew Bible wants respect for authority and deference to law. But He doesn’t want passive surrender. Sacks writes, “One of the strang- est features of biblical Hebrew is that — despite the fact that the Torah contains 613 commands — there is no word for ‘obey.’ Instead the verb the Torah uses is shema/ lishmoa, ‘to listen, hear, attend, understand, internalize, respond.’ So distinctive is this word that, in effect, the King James Bible had to invent an English equivalent, the word, ‘hearken.’” Today we live amid many floods. Some, like Harvey or Irma, are natural. Others are man-made. People are still good at acting individually to tackle problems. Look at how many Houstonians leapt forth to care for their neigh- bors. But we have trouble with collective action, with building new institutions, or reviving old ones, that are big enough to deal with the biggest challenges. That’s because we have trouble thinking about authority. Everybody seems to have an outsider mentality. Social distrust is at record highs. Many seem to swerve between cheap, anti-establishment cynicism, on the one hand, and a lemming-like partisan obedience on the other. The answer is the “hearken” mentality that Sacks describes. This is where Abraham succeeds and Noah fails. Abraham listens deeply to God and derives everything from his identity on down from Him, but pushes out ahead of the shepherd. To hearken is to be faithful but also responsible, to defer to just authority but also to answer the call of individual conscience, to work within the system but as a coura- geous, creative force. Floods are invitations to re-create the world. That only happens suc- cessfully when strong individuals are willing to yoke themselves to collective institutions. 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.