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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 12, 2018)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 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 How will history view anti-immigrant hysteria? as U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s visit to an immigrant detention center a political stunt or a valid exercise in political theater that shed light on some hard truths of Trump administration policies? While there may be room for both interpretations, Merkley’s action illus- trated a dangerous truth: America’s ever-swelling system of immigrant pris- ons considers itself above legislative oversight. Merkley’s video of his attempt to gain entry to a facility in Brownsville, Texas run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement has gone viral. Watch it at tinyurl.com/Merkley-Refugee-Video. Did he really expect to get in during an unannounced drop-in? Perhaps not. But in the nation most of us think we reside in, a visit from a U.S. senator to a feder- ally funded facility warrants special con- sideration. Leaders of one of the three co-equal branches of government, it used to be that any bureaucrat or contractor would be loath to cross a senator. Such courtesy or instinct for self-preservation is apparently no longer to be expected from the industrial complex put in charge of imprisoning undocumented immigrants. After calling the cops on Merkley, reporting revealed the detention cen- ter’s CEO makes $771,000 a year — four times more than a senator. No wonder, W then, that he treated Merkley like a door- to-door solicitor? We should be even more outraged by the underlying policy to which Merkley was responding — the separation of immigrant children and parents, even when they are making claims for refugee status. The administration says this harsh step is meant to deter all unauthorized border-crossers, while critics observe it is a likely violation of international refu- gee-protection treaties. All four Pacific Northwest sena- tors joined in a 40-signature letter last week calling on Trump’s Department of Homeland Security to quit taking chil- dren from their parents at the border. “Children and their parents seeking asylum and safety in the United States should not have to live in fear that they will be forcibly separated once they reach the border,” Sen. Ron Wyden said about legislation aimed at ending the practice. “This bill will put an end to the Trump administration’s inhumane policy of sep- arating families, which runs counter to American and humanitarian values and only succeeds in further traumatizing innocent children.” Although the bill stands little chance in the Republican-controlled Congress, it is urgently needed, along with a thorough review of other questionable moves by Trump officials. For example, U.S. immigration author- ities confirmed to the Associated Press last week that more than 1,600 peo- ple arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border, including parents who have been sepa- rated from their children, are being trans- ferred to the federal Bureau of Prisons system because other facilities are out of room. “There is simply no moral or legal jus- tification for separating children from their parents in this draconian effort seek- ing to deter other immigrants,” Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said in a writ- ten statement. “This is not only unlaw- ful, but also contrary to basic human decency.” All this comes too close to our national mistake of interning Japanese-American citizens at the outset of World War II. Now seen as a grave moral error, too few of their fellow citizens possessed the courage to speak out against it at the time. History will look at today’s anti-immi- grant hysteria in a similar way. All politi- cians and citizens should aspire to be on the side of benevolence when it comes to safeguarding desperate families who come to us seeking mercy. dential campaign? Republicans, if a Demo- cratic president was doing this, you would be horrified. So why are you letting a Republi- can do it? ERIC HALPERIN Gearhart guidelines of the weakest Forest Practices Act on the West Coast. If this concerns you, contact the Oregon Department of Forestry and Weyerhaeuser. GWENDOLYN ENDICOTT Nehalem on what happens when they’re all mixed up together. What can you do? Call or write your legis- lators. Tell them to end this reckless practice. JANE ANDERSON Garibaldi Poison in paradise End reckless spraying of pesticides God bless our president In this image from video, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., attempts to gain entry to a de- tention facility in Brownsville, Texas. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Celebrate coming out of the shadows ecently a letter dismissed lighting the column for gay pride, saying: “Mak- ing people’s sexual preference a civic honor seems silly to me. I don’t understand” (“Other causes more worthy of Column lighting,” The Daily Astorian, May 29). What is silly is saying we are bestowing a civic honor on a sexual preference. Het- erosexual individuals do not have to explain their “preference.” They don’t have to live in fear of being publicly mocked, or fired from their jobs, simply for who they are. They don’t have to worry that merchants will refuse to serve them for religious reasons. Heterosexual children do have to fear being bullied if peers know whom they find attractive. Heterosexuals do not need to worry about being “discovered,” and beaten to death, left in the wilderness as human refuse. If we were celebrating heterosexu- ality and cisgender identity, that would be silly. What is being celebrated is coming out of the shadows. It is saying who I am is main- stream to the human condition, and not some freakish aberration. It is saying that I no lon- ger accept the shame and guilt imposed upon me. Our lighting of the Column is not to bestow a civic honor on people’s sexual preferences. It is a small nod to the dig- nity of a group historically reviled and mis- treated. What is given the civic honor is a change in attitude and the freedom to be who you are. I do not find these frivolous or silly. RODNEY MERRILL Astoria R If a Democratic president were doing this, you’d be horrified resident Donald Trump is fighting our allies, Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia and Mexico. He is separating us from demo- cratic nations and a world order in place for the past 70 years. He is realigning us with Russia, an authoritarian dictatorship. The Russians attacked our election, and are doing everything they can to undermine our democracy. He seems to be fine with this, and Republicans in Congress seem fine with it, also. They are aiding and abetting, not pro- viding oversight, which is their constitutional duty. Democracy is fragile. Our revered “checks and balances” do not apply themselves. They are applied by people. Right now, not so much. Do this. Google “images of Russians in Oval Office.” Why does everyone look so gleeful? And this, “image of Trump Putin handshake July 7, 2017.” Look at those pic- tures. And you think there is no collusion? That picture is the definition of collusion. Which world leader has he never criticized? Nary a harsh word for Putin. Ever. Yet look at the insults for our allies. You realize there were negotiations for a hotel in Moscow going on during the presi- P swald West State Park is a place of pristine beauty — old growth trees, a clear running stream, and Short Sands Beach, treasured by surfers, people, children and dogs. Did you know that its neighbor up the hill plans to spray a toxic poison, by air, adjacent to a stream that runs through the park “some- time” in the next few months? They can’t say exactly when, because weather conditions are so unpredictable. Those of us who live on the coast can ver- ify that, yes, earth, air and water all move — especially downhill. But perhaps it would not matter if they let people know ahead of time, because according to the packaging the her- bicide, Indaziflam, “has a high potential for reaching surface water via runoff for several months or more after application.” They need to spray, they say, because they are a tree farm. This is a big neighbor, Weyer- haeuser, one of the largest private owners of timberland in the U.S. Although the packaging does read “toxic to fish, and aquatic vertebrates,” and “Human Health Hazard: organ damage,” what they are doing is legal — for they are following the O n a world where media outlets cared more for the welfare of local citizens than fear of bullying from big corporations, this is an issue that would be covered in depth by a reporter, but instead this short (mandatory 250 words or less) note will have to do. My apologies for the brevity, and if you’d like to learn more, go to healthywatershed.org. Here’s what you need to know: An aerial application of a mixture of mul- tiple pesticides is planned for the indus- trial timberland adjoining Oswald West State Park. You won’t know when it is taking place, because the timber company, Oregon Depart- ment of Forestry and the Oregon State Parks Department think you don’t need to know. This is perfectly legal, thanks to your state legislators, most of whom think there is no need to change the rules on this, despite knowing that these operations can result in chemicals drifting for miles. No one is providing you with a list of chemicals to be used so that you can make your own decision about whether they’re really safe — and there is no information I n response to the letter about President Trump’s support from his base (“Why do so many people tolerate President Trump?” The Daily Astorian, June 7), I would like to answer why we would continue to do so. The writer talks about his behavior without considering what choice we were given after the debates. He asks, “Who among his base would find it acceptable for a child to bully or subvert a friend?” But the left finds no diffi- culty in killing the unborn baby in the womb. The risk to the planet that the writer men- tions was, in our eyes, much greater under Obama, who kowtowed to the bullies of nation states. And who knows what Hillary Clinton would have done? Possibly pushed the reset button over and over again, looking for a better result each time. President Trump is at least responding to us, and not lying over and over again. He doesn’t despise people who have guns and Bibles, while supporting factions who hate traditional American values. God bless our president, now and in the next election. CARL YATES Seaside I