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.