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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANuARY 2, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Community is the antidote to loneliness
G
ood news arrives in many pack-
ages. The most startling and
heartening moment I’ve seen
lately arrived during the Liberty Theatre
gala in November.
As state Sen. Betsy Johnson asked the
crowd if anyone would give to the the-
ater, a man sitting near the front raised
his hand. Handed the microphone, he
said: “My wife and I
moved here one year
ago.” He expressed grat-
itude for how welcoming
Astorians had been to
them. He pledged a gift
of $1,000 to the theater’s
restoration campaign.
STEVE
Jennifer Crockett, the
FORRESTER
theater’s director, said
more than 260 people
attended the gala, contributing more than
$1,100 in donations, $11,000 in ticket
sales, $18,200 from auctions and raf-
fles, and $269,000 to a special appeal by
Johnson.
The hero in this story is the town —
more precisely, the people who reached
out to this man and his wife. It is a
symptom of a healthy community.
I recognize that this couple’s experi-
ence has not necessarily been everyone’s
experience as a newcomer. But it does
make a point about the ingredients of a
community. This is especially timely,
because there is widespread hunger for
community across America at a time
when it is easy to feel anonymous.
Arthur C. Brooks recently wrote a
penetrating op-ed on this topic titled
“Loneliness is Tearing America Apart.”
Brooks’ thesis, published Nov. 24 in the
New York Times, is that America’s “epi-
demic of loneliness” makes a vast swath
of the nation susceptible to the extremes
of the political spectrum whose advo-
cates populate the Internet and cable
television.
The antidote is community, wrote
Brooks. More specifically, he quotes
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has
written that the key is “to intentionally
invest in the places where we actually
live.”
Building community is what this
newspaper is about. And it is what the
other newspapers of our company are
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A gala Nov. 10 at the Liberty Theatre in Astoria raised $300,000 toward a capital campaign to modernize the historic venue.
about. When people ask me about the
future of newspapers, my response is
that as long as people value commu-
nity, they will value a news source that
reflects that community. Decades ago
the iconoclastic newspaper and maga-
zine editor Clay Felker explained his lat-
est creation, New York Magazine, saying
that it would hold up a mirror and show
people themselves.
The startling phenomenon I discov-
ered while serving as the Astorian’s edi-
tor was the people who did not want to
have human contact. Some would hide
behind email addresses. But one of my
frequent antagonists, who used his real
name, resisted all my attempts to have
conversation in person. It struck me then
as an unhealthy attitude, and I see it in
what Arthur Brooks has described.
In the book “Grit and Ink,” author
William Willingham writes about how
our sister newspaper, the Blue Moun-
tain Eagle, responded when a sect of
the Aryan Nations out of Idaho sought
to create a homeland in Grant County.
Led by Publisher Marissa Williams
and Editor Scotta Callister, the news-
paper convened a community meeting
to talk about the prospect of becoming
the home of a nativist, white nationalist
community.
It was a remarkable and long discus-
sion, and it drew the national press. In
my favorite moment, Callister chewed
out a Wall Street Journal reporter for
talking loudly on his cellphone while cit-
izens were addressing the group. In that
brief encounter, an authentic local editor
lectured a self-important national news-
man on the meaning of community.
Steve Forrester, the former editor and
publisher of The Daily Astorian, is the
president and CEO of EO Media Group.
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2009
Leaders in Clatsop County’s five cities welcomed
the new year with cautious optimism, knowing there are
tough financial times ahead.
In Astoria, a top priority is paying for federally ordered
improvements.
In Warrenton, the challenge is keeping up with
construction.
In Cannon Beach, the new mayor has a “sustainability”
agenda in the works.
In Gearhart, the water system is front and center.
In Seaside, the agenda includes selling the old library,
improving sidewalks and battling flooding.
Roadside trees weighted by ice continue to
cause disruption on U.S. Highways 30 and 26
to and from the North Coast, blocking the high-
ways and bringing down power lines.
Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin has kick-
started a campaign to get rid of them — even
though state laws require them.
The irony is that the Oregon Department
Transportation doesn’t like them either.
“They don’t work for us very well,” said Dan
Lepschat, the ODOT forester. “Frankly, we
don’t want them.”
Nine rooms at the Tolovana Inn in Cannon Beach suf-
fered damage when a three-alarm fire broke out Thursday
night on the third floor and spread to the basement.
There were no injuries. Some of the rooms were occu-
pied, and the tenants were moved to other units.
50 years ago — 1969
Astorians dug out Wednesday from the worst ice storm
in many years as utility, television and highway crews
struggled to restore service interrupted or cut off com-
pletely Tuesday night by a silver thaw.
State police said all highways were open out of the city,
although chains were required on Highway 26 beyond
Elderberry Inn and east of Clatskanie on Highway 30.
Highway 101 reportedly was bare with icy spots.
The constant contest between the stork and
the grim reaper in Clatsop County reveals a
happy ending, with births well in excess over
deaths.
According to the county health department,
there were 405 births registered as of today,
against 322 deaths during 1968. On the stork side
of the ledger, baby boys nudged out baby girls by
one, with 194 boys born to 193 girl babies.
In 1967 there were 375 births in the county
recorded, showing a substantial growth in popu-
lation, baby wise, this year.
A harrowing tale of five-yard visibility and 60-knot
winds during a rescue mission was related by Coast Guard
Lt. Comdr. Tom Finnegan on his return to Astoria Coast
Guard Air Station from Sand island near Portland.
Finnegan was pilot of a helicopter which saved a
stranded duck hunter from the island Tuesday. The hunt-
er’s companion died of exposure.
The public’s ownership of Oregon’s dry sand
beaches was upheld again today by Circuit
Judge J.S. Bohannon in an opinion in the case of
the Surfsand Motel at Cannon Beach.
Judge Bohannon held that Oregon’s beach
bill is constitutional and ordered William Hay to
remove the cable between pilings driven into the
beach.
75 years ago — 1944
Quietly, new years came to Astoria and the lower
Columbia last night right on schedule time. Many amuse-
ment places were already dark when the midnight hour
struck. Today Astoria streets are deserted with all business
establishments and offices closed for the holiday. Largest
crowds of the new year celebrants last night were at the
Labor Temple and Suomi hall dances with the night clubs
fairly well filled.
The unsanitary condition of Astoria eating
places was the principal topic of discussion at
the Clatsop County Health Association meeting
Thursday.
It was reported to the association that three
cases of trench mouth had been handled in
recent weeks by one Astoria doctor. One of these
cases was directly traced to the dishwashing in a
city restaurant.
The group conceded that the restaurant prob-
lems of insufficient, inexperienced and transient
help contribute to poor standards of cleanliness,
but agreed that the situation should be improved.
An outstanding feature of 1943 was development here
of 453 public housing units, in trailers, dormitory units
and apartments.
They are the Riverwood Parks project of 240 apartment
units in Jeffers Gardens, 100 trailers in Astoria near Gyro
field, 46 apartment units at the former site of the Warren-
ton soil conservation service camp near Warrenton and 67
dormitory beds in the remodeled old Astoria city hall.
Launched last week at the Oregon Ship-
building company’s yards in Portland was a
Liberty ship named the Mary E. Kinney, in
honor of Mrs. W.S. Kinney, first woman to be
elected to the Oregon state legislature and an
Astoria resident for years. Mrs. Kinney was
elected senator from Clatsop County in 1923
and served two terms.