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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Deadly animals, big and small
T
he fatal mauling of a Seattle
bicyclist in western Washington
serves as a reminder that nature
is wild and poses unavoidable threats
to human beings when we venture into
it — or when nature ventures to us.
The friends riding the trails near
Snoqualmie did everything right when
they spotted the cougar — got off their
bikes, made loud noises and scared it off
— and yet the man who survived said
the animal returned to attack.
It was an unusual death — just the
second attributed to a cougar in the
state in the last 94 years — but its rarity
makes it no less tragic.
But as terrifying an ordeal as it was
for those men, and for others who come
face-to-face with predators on their
home turf, it’s worth remembering that
large mammals pose a relatively small
threat to humans.
Dogs are the most deadly, according
to the World Health Organization, which
estimates about 25,000 human deaths a
year by canine attack. The vast major-
ity of those are from rabid dogs, though
about 30 people die in the U.S. each
year from non-rabid dog attacks. That is
about the same number of people who
have been killed by a cougar in the U.S.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
A cougar in the wild.
in the last century.
Mosquitoes are the deadliest beast
in the world, accounting for 725,000
annual human deaths, the majority from
the spread of malaria. In the U.S., bees,
wasps and hornets are the top killers,
according to the Centers for Disease
Control, killing 58. Cows (20) are the
second deadliest, while spiders (7) and
venomous snakes and lizards (6) keep
just a high enough body count to give us
the willies. Sharks, alligators and bears
each kill about one American per year.
We’re the top of the food chain in
the forests of Oregon. Almost without
fail, bears, wolves and cougars sprint
in the opposite direction whenever they
hear or smell a human. Very rarely do
they attack, and when they do it’s often
because they are ill or injured.
Yet as the West’s wild spaces become
filled in with human habitation, colli-
sions between its apex predators will
become more common. We must know
how to protect ourselves — with bear
spray, with respect and space for wild
animals, with knowledge about best
practices. For large predators, act big
and be loud. Don’t run. Play dead if an
animal makes physical contact. But if it
appears to be trying to kill, then punch at
its face, eyes and nose.
But the point we try to make in this
editorial is that you are much more likely
to be attacked and killed by the neigh-
bor’s dog, or that tick you can’t see, than
an apex predator in the mountains. Be
careful, but don’t let fear stop you from
experiencing wildness. Odds are that
another person in the region won’t be
killed by a cougar for many decades.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Other causes more
worthy of Column lighting
ell, it’s gay pride time of year again.
What a wonderful time for those who
choose to participate. I see our beloved City
Council had decided to light up the Astor Col-
umn to celebrate. How proud they must be,
lighting up the largest phallic symbol in the
state of Oregon on behalf of peoples’ sexual
preference.
They’ve made a point of saying they only
light it up twice a year, once for breast can-
cer awareness and once for gay pride. I can
understand the breast cancer issue, we need
to find a cure, just like we need to cure other
things, like colon cancer. What, no brown
lights?
Making people’s sexual preference a civic
honor seems silly to me. I don’t understand.
This year alone, 37 law enforcement offi-
cers have died. I didn’t see any blue lights up
on the hill. More students have died this year
already than have died in combat. Why no
lights for them?
And what about our veterans or the
fire department? A month or so ago it was
National Nurse Week. Why no lights? What
about our Coast Guard men and women?
They quite literally risk their lives every day.
Why no lights?
What about our teachers? Maybe if they
had some lights, our graduation rate wouldn’t
be so bad.
Sexual preference? Really? C’mon guys.
DAVE BERGQUIST
Gearhart
W
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
Daily Astorian.
Letters should be fewer than 250
words and must include the writer’s
name, address and phone number. You
will be contacted to confirm authorship.
All letters are subject to editing for
space, grammar, and, on occasion, fac-
tual accuracy. Only two letters per writer
are allowed each month.
Letters written in response to other
letter writers should address the issue
at hand and, rather than mentioning the
Need flashing light
below Crest Motel
fter reading the article May 25 regarding
accidents on U.S. Highway 30 (“Acci-
dents on U.S. Highway 30 more prevalent
near eastern Astoria” The Daily Astorian), I
still do not understand why a flashing caution
light is not at the curve below the Crest
Motel.
I live in Alderbrook, and think the turn
there is very dangerous, and traffic moves fast
at this location. Just last week a deer dashed
in front of my car at the 45 mph area, and a
pickup truck behind me was going fast when
I put on my brakes. The deer then dashed
across the road in front of the truck, and fortu-
nately was missed and a serious accident was
avoided.
Will it take another fatality to make this a
safer place?
TONI KNIER
Astoria
A
Thank you for children’s
hospital fundraising
am writing today to express our sincere
gratitude to our local community from your
local Rite Aid in Seaside. With your help, we
were able to raise an astounding $11,000 for
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. We thank
you all.
LINDA L. BROWN
Seaside
I
Nonprofit seeks benefactor
with a building
ou may or may not have heard of the
Astoria Alano Club, or seen an Alano
Club business sign. If you have, you probably
wonder what it is.
In brief, the Astoria Alano Club is a 501(c)
(3) that provides social support for people
recovering from addictions, including main-
taining meeting space for support groups (cur-
rently 19 meetings per week), clean and sober
social events, a social area, and other forms of
support for people in recovery from addictions.
The Alano Club is often the first stop for
new people in recovery, so, we are a very
important service to our community. To be able
to maintain and maximize the services we pro-
vide and ensure longevity of the Alano Club,
we have a need for a ground-level building
(which will also meet a disabled access need).
In short, we seek a benefactor who has a build-
Y
writer by name, should refer to the head-
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Discourse should be civil and people
should be referred to in a respectful
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Send via email to editor@dailyas-
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Exchange St. in Astoria or 1555 North
Roosevelt in Seaside, or mail to Letters
to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103.
ing of approximately 3,000 square feet you
would like to donate to a very worthy cause.
Whether you are a devout giver as a moral
obligation, an investor looking for tax breaks, a
giver as family tradition, or a person who gives
just because it is the right thing to do, we need
your help. If you own a building you’d like to
donate, contact me at 503-861-2383 and please
leave a message. If you would like to finan-
cially support the Alano Club you may send
a check to the Astoria Alano Club, P.O. Box
1199, Astoria, OR 97103.
STEVE HAWKS
Warrenton
President Trump’s policies
are actually working
ational politics today confirms the oldie:
“history repeats itself.”
President Harry Truman was re-elected in
N
1948. But media folks predicted New York’s
Gov. Thomas Dewey would win in a landslide.
They called Truman a nincompoop.
I remember news accounts showing a jubi-
lant President Truman holding the front page
of an (embarrassingly) early edition of the Chi-
cago Tribune with a huge headline shouting
“Dewey defeats Truman.” Today, such a head-
line would be “fake news.”
The hullabaloo today about Russia being
a bogey-man in the last election reminds me
of the uproar of the McCarthy era during the
1950s, when politicians looked under bushes
for communists in America.
In the early 1970s Democrats disapproved
of President Nixon, who resigned to escape
impeachment. Nixon broke laws covering up
crimes by campaign workers.
In 1998, Republicans impeached Presi-
dent Clinton because he broke perjury and
obstruction of justice laws. Clinton, of course,
is famous for lying about sex with Monica
Lewinsky, a White House employee 30 years
younger than Hillary.
Whatever President Donald Trump’s past
sex life may be, he couldn’t hold a candle to
past presidents Kennedy’s and Clinton’s extra-
marital escapades. Yet all presidential sex scan-
dals pale to utter insignificance when com-
pared to today’s sex scandals involving Harvey
Weinstein and Hollywood celebrities.
I can’t remember any president who has
upset the apple carts of established career pol-
iticians in Washington, D.C., like President
Trump has. His blockbuster policies are actu-
ally working, and he’s keeping his campaign
promises.
It’s those things about President Trump that
are new for the history books.
DON HASKELL
Astoria