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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 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 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 Weinstein and our culture of enablers By BRET STEPHENS New York Times News Service Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian John Goodenberger, right, talks about some of the special collec- tion in the Astoria Library’s basement. • The Astoria Library and its nonprofit foundation, which kicked off a renovation campaign during the library’s 50th anni- versary celebration last Sunday. The foundation hopes to raise $3.5 million, which will be paired with $1.6 million the city has set aside for the library’s makeover. Mayor Arlene LaMear told the crowd at the anniversary celebration that a lot has changed for libraries in the past 50 years, and the renovation will make it more relevant in today’s world. Work is expected to begin in 2019 and be completed in 2020. During the celebration, library Director Jimmy Pearson also announced the library is expanding its Monday operating hours. • Astoria Sunday Market Executive Director Cyndi Mudge and organizers and volunteers of the weekly marketplace, which closed out its 17th season last weekend with another good crowd on hand. The marketplace, which runs weekly from mid-spring to early fall, brings crowds downtown to browse the booths of vendors who offer locally made products that have been hand- crafted, grown, created or gathered by the farmers, craftspeo- ple and artisans of the region. It also features live music and an appetizing food court. Astoria Sunday Market is run by a non- profit organization by the same name with a goal of revitalizing downtown. Funds are reinvested in downtown projects, enter- prises and efforts that support the nonprofit’s mission. • Vintage Hardware and Astoria Station, which houses Reach Break Brewing, Reville Ciderworks and Astoria Barber, which were each honored with revitalization awards at the recent Oregon Main Street conference in Oregon City. Vintage Hardware, at 1162 Marine Drive, won the award for Best Facade Under $7,500. Astoria Station, a former service station and indoor garden supply store at 1343 Duane St., was honored for Outstanding Adaptive Use. It was transformed by the late Warren Williams into a mixed-use storefront with food carts in front. • Organizers of the first Jordan’s Hope Rally and Fun Run/ Walk, which was conducted recently at Astoria High School and brought more attention and awareness to the fight against the opioid epidemic. The event included a run/walk at the school’s track, speakers who told of their fight and recovery from addiction, panel discussions and entertainment from the high school’s marching band and Brownsmead Flats. About 150 people participated in the nonprofit organization’s event, includ- ing members of the Lion’s Club who served lunch for those attending. • Clatsop County commissioners, whose commitment to renewable energy sources has led to the county being the first in Oregon and only the second in the nation to join the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership. As part of its membership, the county has committed to purchas- ing at least 10 percent of its annual electric supply for operations from renewable sources such as solar, wind and water. O f all of the dismaying and disgusting details of the Harvey Weinstein saga, none is more depressing than this: It has so few heroes. There is a storybook villain, Weinstein, whose repulsive face turns out to be the spitting image of his putrescent soul. There are victims, so many of them, typically up-and-comers in an industry where he had the power to make or wreck their careers, or bully or buy their silence, or, if some alle- gations are to be believed, rape them. But mostly there are enablers, both those who facilitated his predations and those who found it expedient to look the other way. The enablers were of all sorts. Corporate board members who declined to investigate allegations of his sexual behavior and now claim the news comes as “an utter surprise.” Assistants who acted as “honeypots,” joining meetings between Weinstein and his intended victims to give them a sense of secu- rity — and then leaving the predator to his prey. Reporters who paid him tribute with awards, did his bidding with fawning coverage, or went after his enemies with hit pieces. A lavishly paid Italian studio executive whose real job, according to former Times reporter Sharon Waxman, was “to take care of Weinstein’s women needs.” (A lawyer for the executive reportedly denies the allegation.) And then there was the rest of Hollywood. Weinstein’s depredations were an open film industry secret, the subject of an onstage joke by Seth MacFarlane at the 2013 Oscar nomination announcement. Everyone laughed because everyone got it. Some of his victims, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, became Hollywood powers in their own right but never publicly rang an alarm until this week. The actor Ben Affleck, who owes his start to Weinstein, is an overnight laughingstock because he acts surprised by the producer’s behavior. He won’t be the only celebrity doing his best Claude Rains “shocked, shocked” impression. Even some of the ostensibly good guys in this saga cannot be let off lightly. In The New Yorker, Ronan Andy Kropa/Invision Harvey Weinstein, shown here in 2014, faces multiple allegations of sexu- al abuse and harassment from some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Farrow reports that Irwin Reiter, a top Weinstein Co. executive, sought to console one of the office assistants harassed by Weinstein by saying the “mistreatment of women” was a long-standing company issue and that “if you were my daughter he would not have made out so well.” But Reiter never went public. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that an industry built around pretended characters and scenarios could have pretended for so long that nothing was amiss. Perhaps it should be no surprise, either, that its concept of ethics is every bit as ersatz and inconstant as most everything else in Tinseltown. The outrage over Weinstein also has a whiff of opportunism. In recent years, notes New York magazine’s Rebecca Traister, Weinstein has “lost power in the movie industry” and is no longer “the indie mogul who could make or break an actor’s Oscar chances.” Lame horses get shot. It’s in this context that one can mount a defense of sorts for Weinstein, who inhabited a moral universe that did nothing but cheer his golden touch and wink at (or look away from) his transgressions — right until the moment that it became politically inconvenient to do so. Conservatives are trying to make hay of the fact that Weinstein donated lavishly to Democratic politicians, backed progressive causes and dis- tributed films such as “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about campus sexual assault. But the important truth about Weinstein isn’t his moral hypocrisy: In movies as in politics, hypocrisy isn’t just an accepted fact of life but also an essential part of the job. The important truth is that he was just another libidinous cad in a libertine culture that long ago dis- pensed with most notions of personal restraint and gentlemanly behavior. “I came of age in the ’60s and ’70s, when all the rules about behavior and workplaces were different,” Weinstein wrote in his mea culpa to The Times last week. “That was the culture then.” That line was roundly mocked, but it contains its truth. Like those other libidinous cads — Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — Weinstein benefited from a culture that often celebrated, constantly depicted, sometimes enabled, seldom confronted, and all-too frequently forgave the behavior they so often indulged in. Hyenas cannot help their own nature. But the work of a morally sentient society is to prevent them from taking over the savanna. Our society, by contrast, festooned Weinstein with honors, endowed him with riches, and enabled him to feast on his victims without serious conse- quence for the better part of 30 years. The old saw that all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing was never truer than it was in Weinstein’s case. It may be that Weinstein’s epic downfall will scare straight other sexual miscreants, or at least those who tolerate their behavior and are liable for its consequences. Don’t count on it. Our belated indictment of him now does too much to acquit his many accomplices, and too little to transform a culture that never gave him a reason to change. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR CALLOUTS • Vandals who stole political “Vote No” signs from home- owners’ yards along Cottage and Marion avenues in Gearhart last weekend. The signs advocated a “no” vote on Measure 4-188, which asks for a repeal and replacement of Gearhart’s short-term rental ordinance. Sign stealing is a familiar accusation in political campaigns, from presidential elections to local races, and the culprits are seldom caught. Gearhart and other Clatsop County cities don’t take crime reports on political sign vandal- ism and theft, so the residents don’t have much recourse. But as Mayor Matt Brown said, “These signs cost money and theft is a serious charge.” 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. Keep Gearhart a gem have a high-energy dog who likes to walk around Gearhart for one to two hours a day. I accompany him on these forays. We very much enjoy the usually quiet side streets, the mag- nificent trees along the Ridge Path, waving to friends driving by, stop- ping to chat with an acquaintance we encounter, viewing the houses and their gardens, eating blackberries. We know a lot of people by name, and even more dogs. I have wonder- ful, friendly neighbors with whom I can visit, usually standing in the mid- dle of the road, because we don’t have much traffic. To me, this is the essence of a small residential town, and I cherish it. I also want to protect it. Living in a town with unlimited short-term I rentals without regulations will be the demise of this way of life. We have a gem. Let’s be mindful, and not sell our soul. Please vote “no” on ballot Measure 4-188. SHARON KLOEPFER Gearhart Ask for prayers he inability of authorities to gain purchase on the motive behind the Las Vegas slaughter should give us a moment to stop and consider: Does having a political, religious or emotional motive make it any less evil? The truth might be no more than the idea of a mass slaughter of humans went through the mind of someone rich and sickeningly vul- nerable enough to act on it. T Those of us who believe in angels and demons, right and wrong, heaven and hell have a fair idea where the inspiration for such an act came from. Prudence might suggest the similar spiritual condition of Kim Jung-un, dictator of North Korea: Wealthy, powerful beyond under- standing, and fascinated with weap- ons that can kill millions in minutes. A word to the troubled and vul- nerable: There are priests, pastors, and laymen across this country who know how to “bind up the spirits” in the unseen world. Seek them out and ask them to pray for you. “The fervent prayer of the believer availeth much.” (James 5:16) WAYNE MAYO Scappoose
