OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 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
• Columbia Memorial
Hospital Chief Executive
Officer Erik Thorsen and
the hospital’s staff, who
conducted a grand open-
ing and two open houses
last week to familiarize the
community with the new
$16 million Columbia
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The ribbon is cut during a ceremo- Memorial Hospital-
ny to celebrate the opening of the Oregon Health & Science
Knight Cancer Collaborative.
University Knight Cancer
Collaborative. Hundreds of
attendees took tours of the new facility during a grand opening last
Thursday, which was followed by open houses on Saturday and
Sunday afternoons. The center took seven years to come to frui-
tion and greatly enhances cancer care on the North Coast.
• The Cannon Beach Library, which is celebrating its 90th
anniversary. Unlike most libraries, Cannon Beach’s has never
been public, and its legacy as a private, almost solely volun-
teer-driven library has remained through its nine decades. There is
one paid position and other day-to-day tasks like running the front
desk, book collection and inventory, maintenance and fundrais-
ing are done by more than 80 volunteers, who each year collec-
tively donate 9,000 hours of their time. The library’s board is host-
ing a celebration Saturday as a way to thank the community for its
longtime support. People are invited to dress as their favorite liter-
ary character and enjoy a buffet of snacks from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
at the library.
• Kelsey Balensifer, events coordinator at the Astoria-
Warrenton Chamber of Commerce, and volunteers who staged
the 36th annual Great Columbia River Crossing last week-
end. The family friendly, 10k run/walk across the Astoria-Megler
Bridge drew about 3,000 participants, observers and volunteers.
The participants started their trek at the Dismal Nitch Rest Area in
Washington, crossed the bridge into Astoria and finished the event
at the foot of Basin Street in Uniontown. Last year’s crossing,
which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the bridge, was can-
celed for the first time because of bad weather.
• Seaside Rotary event committee chairmen Al Peinhardt and
Greg Sawyer, who planned last weekend’s Roaring ‘20s Gala
and Auction. Members and guests dressed as flappers, bootleg-
gers, gangsters and molls while attending the Rotary Club’s annual
fundraiser at the Seaside convention center. About 280 people
attended, and a special appeal during the evening raised $12,450
specifically for holiday programs. Rotary President Raven Brown
said other money raised at the gala through ticket sales, silent and
live auctions and a blinky sale with a prize of a live auction item
will support additional community projects. The gala is conducted
each fall and every year it features a different theme.
• Seven businesses which were recently recognized as Pacific
County (Washington) Economic Development Council Business
of the Year award winners. Various Pacific County business orga-
nizations each select one winner to be recognized at the annual
awards ceremony. Honored were the Don Nisbett Art Gallery,
nominated by the Ilwaco Merchants Association; Kenanna RV
Park & Campground, selected by the Tokeland-North Cove
Chamber of Commerce; Englund Marine & Industrial Supply,
chosen by the Pacific County EDC South Committee; Elixir Cafe
and Floral Design of South Bend, selected by the Willapa Harbor
Chamber of Commerce; Anita’s Coastal Cafe in Ocean Park,
nominated by the Ocean Park Chamber of Commerce; the Dennis
Company, selected by the Pacific County EDC North Committee;
and Oman & Son Builders Supply, chosen by the Long Beach
Merchants Association.
CALLOUTS
• The driver of a vehicle that somehow managed to spill more
than 7,000 roofing nails on U.S. Highway 101 in Warrenton last
Saturday. The spill occurred in the southbound lane in front of
the Premarq Center, by the New Youngs Bay Bridge. Police were
called about 4 p.m. by a driver who didn’t see who spilled the
nails but stopped to report the mess in the roadway. Southbound
traffic was stalled for more than an hour while authorities and
state Department of Transportation workers cleaned up the dan-
gerous situation. The nails obviously weren’t properly secured in
the vehicle, but fortunately police said they received no reports of
injuries or accidents as a result.
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
Beach fire concerns
ow is a good time to address
public fire safety codes, and
restrictions and enforcement of cur-
rent laws — prevention being the
operative word.
Each year as summer approaches
and beach fires and fireworks line
our beaches, residents fear for their
safety, due to the lack of adherence
to posted fire rules. When the fire-
fighters are called, little is done. The
firefighters say there is no access
to the estuary. The residents clear
beaches and possible burning foli-
age, and hope for the best.
The beaches are lined with the
remains of fireworks and other trash
left by inconsiderate beach visi-
tors. This may be a vacation site for
many people, but it is our home. We
pay taxes, do annual cleanups, and
take pride in our yards, homes and
beaches.
I have never seen a firefighter
patrol the beaches. I have never seen
prevention programs advertised,
nor the laws currently enforced. It is
time for our elected officials to step
to the plate and prevent grass fires,
driftwood and ultimately, home
fires, as in California.
The cities say it’s the state’s
responsibility; the states say it’s
the city’s responsibility. The insur-
ance companies say it’s not their
responsibility. This is an unending
approach to a problem that will only
get worse. The winds and storms
on the beach are coming, and the
inconsiderate and the noncomplying
public will destroy the beaches if we
don’t do something now.
MERILEE LAURENS
Seaside
N
Shriveled morality
T
he timing and tenure of the
recent article on “black guns”
demonstrates an appalling level of
insensitivity and callousness on the
part of the editors of the Coast River
Business Journal and The Daily
Astorian (“‘Black guns’ face back-
lash: Firearm prices fall to a frac-
tion of what they were in the Obama
years,” Coast River Business Jour-
nal, Oct. 10).
Less than a week after the most
deadly mass murder in American
history, they chose to publish a busi-
ness news article that in essence
was a two-page advertisement pro-
moting the sale of the very weap-
ons used to kill 58 innocent people
and injure and traumatize hundreds
more, including two women from
our area, their friends and families.
Was it numbness to the moral
breach of his wording, or a act
of sociopathic journalism that
prompted the article’s writer to open
with the sentence, “If you were con-
sidering pulling the trigger on a new
gun, an oversupply means this is a
buyers’ market.” Further in the text,
the business owner proclaims fire-
arms manufacturers are practically
giving away assault rifles.
Beyond its shameful disregard
for a nation in mourning, the arti-
cle does serve to lay bare the dubi-
ous motives of those who purchase
weapons which were designed with
one purpose in mind: to kill people.
Hiding behind their Second Amend-
ment rights to a “Hillary gun” are
fearful men who have fallen for
conservative talk show propaganda
that has convinced them that their
right to own a gun may be taken
away. They have been taught to
fear their federal government, and
believe their only safety lies in own-
ing a “black gun.” No doubt there
are darker motives for owning these
guns, as well.
The biggest lie these individuals
tell themselves is that they are patri-
ots. But gun hoarding and owning
an assault weapon creates an even
more dangerous environment. Mass
shootings have increased as owner-
ship of these weapons has increased.
To make matters worse, these “patri-
ots” are weakening our democracy
by dividing us in a fake argument
over Second Amendment rights.
The Daily Astorian should pro-
mote a real discussion of these
issues, rather than coming down on
the side of a shriveled morality that
can no longer identify the forces
destroying America.
ROGER DORBAND
Astoria
Critical reasoning?
’m glad Clatsop Community Col-
lege has a new hall; but I find an
aspect of the process disappoint-
ing. What’s problematic about
the so called “redevelopment” of
Patriot Hall, is it obfuscates the truth
(“Shoutouts and Callouts,” The
Daily Astorian, Sept. 22). It surren-
ders to the epidemic of our time:
distortions of principle, reason and
truth, which, by convention, cus-
tom and law, become accepted real-
ity. The more we normalize even
subtle falsehoods, the more secure
we make the foundations for bold
whoppers like “alternative facts.”
Fact: The college built a new
building. Distortion: The college
“redeveloped” Patriot Hall. I think
the motive for this distortion was
to avoid coming into compliance
with modern setbacks from the road.
Why even good people can use the
letter of the law to avoid its prin-
ciple and purpose is the reason we
keep a nation of lawyers employed;
and why the law is one thing for the
wealthy, and another for the poor.
I want to believe that the college,
at least, had a discussion about the
benefits of modern setbacks in con-
trast to the benefits of maintaining
the present ones, and rightly chose
the greater good; but still those most
responsible, in our area, for teach-
ing critical reasoning, honest argu-
ment, then entered into a hybrid of
fact and fiction. If they could have
kept a doormat from Patriot Hall,
and called it a “redevelopment,”
would they?
I had the pure joy of taking crit-
ical reasoning, from John Hauser at
CCC. Then, I was sure of my criti-
cal thinking. This “redevelopment”
has me wondering if how I thought I
thought, is actually how I think, or if
my thinking on my thinking, wasn’t
as thoughtful as I thought.
These are smart, principled peo-
ple. Would they enter into a lie to
achieve a desired end, and isn’t that
the antithesis of what we expect
them to model? Or perhaps my
thinking upon their thinking, isn’t as
thoughtful as I think.
M. A. “SASHA” MILLER
Astoria
I
trailer parked where the school sign
is now. The trailer was, for its time,
really high tech, set with a dozen
arcade-style driving simulators. It
was designed to give permit-seeking
drivers some “realization” learning.
On almost every pop quiz or
test I remember taking in that class
was this statement: The No. 1 rule
in driving safely is to drive with
respect and courtesy, while looking
at least two blocks ahead. It gives
you time to react to someone else’s
miscues. Often he would say with
his sarcastic smirk, “We’re human
aren’t we?”
I am tired of keeping my mouth
shut because I have nothing nice to
say. Obviously it does not work. So
I’m writing this on bended knees.
Please drive with respect, courtesy
and some patience. It could literally
save a life.
And thank you, Mr. Sarpola.
TROY J. HASKELL
Astoria
River Song needs our help
o you know what it’s like to
walk uphill on a slippery clay
path in never-ending rain? That’s
what Rita Smith — self-charged
these last nine years with the River
Song Foundation — feels like while
she and the several members of her
staff try to tend to the ever-increas-
ing numbers of abandoned animals
left behind on the other side of the
Astoria Riverwalk near Safeway.
And that’s really only part of
River Song’s problems. They also
help with the animals of incapac-
itated, homeless or senior citizens
who can no longer take their ani-
mals to the vet or provide enough
food for them.
River Song is fully accredited
and tax deductible. It works to fill in
the niches for the larger animal shel-
ters. It receives small grants from
time to time, but it’s never enough
for the many needs of all the peo-
ple and their animals. Rita and her
group deal with hundreds or ani-
mals, including goats, pigs, rabbits
and ferrets.
We, as a family, have been con-
tributing to River Song since we
first heard of its good work. And, if
half of you who read this have $5
or $10 extra monthly, or even occa-
sionally, it would help Rita and the
animals to get off this slippery slope.
Her address is: River Song Founda-
tion, P.O. Box 44, Hammond, OR
97121. Or, you can donate at http://
riversongfoundation.org
We all feel deeply when we catch
a glimpse of lost furry ones peering
from the bushes. If we can afford to,
let’s help out.
PAT GUERIN
Astoria
D
Driver courtesy
Beware of catch phrase
round 9:15 a.m. Oct. 11, it
happened in front of my eyes
again. Coach Ted Sarpola is surely
disgusted at the way most peo-
ple drive a car today, having one or
more person standing at the cross-
walk’s edge, and drivers ignoring
the law. Pedestrians have the right
of way when crossing the street.
Today’s drivers more and more are
controlling a 2-ton weapon that has
only a what I call “5-foot bubble
realm of responsibility.”
Mr. Sarpola is one of Astoria’s
larger than life natives who taught
life to at least one-third of Astoria’s
students. After putting the Astoria
High School Fishermen of 1932-
1933 state basketball champions,
and the town, a place on the map, so
to speak, he spent all his adult life
after college teaching in Astoria.
After being forced to retire by
our society’s rules of age discrimi-
nation, he taught driver education.
In 1977, when I took the mandatory
semester, the class was held in a
I
A
t is about time that someone who
is “in the know” told you and the
people of your area/region the truth
about a phrase that is very often
used by today’s conservatives. That
phrase is “limited-government con-
servative.” To me, those are the
three most frightening words in the
English language.
You might have noticed recently
that some conservatives feel very
badly because, as they have said,
President Donald Trump is not a
limited-government conservative (as
they are). That happens to be true.
That phrase is actually a buzzword
and codeword that really means that
the person does not believe that the
federal government should spend
one cent on social programs that are
intended to help people. Their ulti-
mate goal is to one day see that all
of them are abolished/eliminated
from existence, especially Social
Security, which they hate the most.
STEWART EPSTEIN
Rochester, New York