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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, July 25, 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
OUR VIEW
President’s attacks on citizens unacceptable
F
or President Donald Trump
to tell any member of Con-
gress to “go back” to the
“places from which they came” is a
violation of basic American norms.
In the first place, under our Con-
stitution every elected member of
Congress has just as much right to
be in Washington, D.C. as any pres-
ident. Presuming to suggest other-
wise betrays a deep ignorance of
the rights and responsibilities of
governing.
The particular targets of Trump’s
contempt are women of color —
women from racial backgrounds
who rarely gained access to national
political power in the decades of
Trump’s ascendancy to fame and
riches. On the nights Trump spent
nightclubbing with registered sex
offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump
might have ordered more bath tow-
els from such women but would
have barely acknowledged their
existence as human beings. The
attitudes he displays toward them
today reveal a continuing contempt
for the ordinary working people he
pretends to represent.
Beyond this toxic bias toward
the “invisible” women and men
who keep our nation functioning,
Trump’s statements are racist. For
anyone to suggest otherwise is to
deliberately ignore decades of rac-
ist tropes during which uppity black
and brown people were told to shut
up, go away, stand down, or else.
The “or else” often contained an
implicit threat of violence. “Go
back” sometimes literally meant
back to your country farmhouse,
or back to the African regions from
which ancestors were abducted and
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
From left, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., respond to remarks by President
Donald Trump after his call for the four Democratic congresswomen to go back to their
“broken” countries. All are American citizens and three of the four were born in the U.S.
enslaved. More often, “go back”
meant go back to being silent, invis-
ible and powerless — don’t bother
us anymore with your grievances
and calls for social justice.
Here at the mouth of the Colum-
bia River, we live on the edge of the
Pacific Rim. Archaeology and his-
tory tell us of an eon of Indian civ-
ilization here, followed in the 18th
and 19th centuries by successive
waves of trading and immigration
by Europeans, Hawaiians, Iroquois,
Africans and dozens of others. The
later settlement era brought Finns
and Swedes, English and Yugosla-
vians, to name but a few.
Many of these were no doubt told
to “go back where you came from.”
There were many among them who
would be considered radical today.
In Clatsop County, the 1932 bal-
lot that resulted in the election of
Franklin Roosevelt included not just
Democrats and Republicans, but
also candidates from the Socialist
Labor Party, the Socialist Party and
the Communist Party. Local union
halls and social clubs contained
many Americans who the Donald
Trumps of their time would have
liked to kick out of the country.
Thank goodness, these trouble-
makers did not leave. Out of their
hard work and melding of genes
and cultures, we have the place that
gives us such pride today — towns
with rich history, loving families,
great food and independent people.
Immigration is a notoriously
touchy hot-button issue. There is
room for civil discussions about
how best to humanely and legally
address the presence in the U.S.
of millions who did not come here
through official channels. Very few
Democrats, Republicans or inde-
pendents believe in “open borders”
or advocate a blanket amnesty for
those who disregarded immigra-
tion laws. But we must not mix this
thorny issue with the legitimacy of
actual U.S. citizens.
To say, as Trump did, that criti-
cizing U.S. policies and conditions
— as his congressional critics do —
is a disqualification for continued
citizenship is both reprehensible
and hypocritical. His own criticisms
of this country and the previous
occupants of the White House have
often been far worse.
It is odious that some of his sup-
porters joined in chanting “send
her back” in an obvious reference
to one or more of the four female
members of Congress whom he has
turned into convenient symbols.
These poisonous attacks on politi-
cal opponents carry a very real risk
of placing them in physical danger,
and threaten to sour our political
discourse in ways that will be hard
to heal.
To be an American means being
part of a sometimes uncomfortably
diverse whole, a concept embed-
ded in our national motto “Out of
many, one.” This motto extends far
beyond its original allusion to the
merging of our 13 original states.
It now encompasses respecting
our fellow citizens and carrying
this great American experiment in
democracy forward into the future
despite our differences.
Language from the president
that rips our national seams apart is
utterly unacceptable.
LETTERS
Whom to trust?
ack in the 1970s, I retired from the
military and went to work for the
post office. A few years later, my brother
retired from the military and moved to
Oregon. We started talking about taxes,
and how Oregon was not taxing retired
state employees, but was taxing everybody
else.
My brother said, “They can’t do that,
can they?” I said, “They’re our elected
officials, and surely we can trust them.”
Boy was I dumb.
In the late 1990s, a case went to the
U.S. Supreme Court involving 17 states
that were doing the same thing as Oregon;
two of the states were Virginia and Mich-
igan. The end result was all of the states
were told to reimburse us and stop the
practice.
Our governor, John Kitzhaber, stated
that if it was all paid back, it would bank-
rupt the state. A formula computed in
the back room allowed the state to pull
another one out of the hat. I personally
received approximately $23,000.
We spent our time in the service to stop
this country from being overrun by aggres-
sors, and little did we realize that they
are here, and we can’t go to the Supreme
Court because the Public Employees
Retirement System debt is legal.
And just as it was 50 years ago, all
of the politicians knew, or should have
known, about it. So just where do you
place your trust? Arizona, maybe?
BOB COOK
Seaside
B
‘Animal Farm’
W
hen it comes to the arguments
between the left and those on the
right, I believe most have lost sight of, or
simply ignore, the origins of their political
and philosophical backgrounds.
Those on the left are tied to man-
kind as their focus, and accept a lot of the
ideas stemming from the movement we
define as humanism. Mankind’s thoughts
and ideas become paramount, and thus
someone or some group must become the
world’s answer to all our problems.
Our traditional philosophical roots
begin with the Judeo-Christian ideals, pri-
marily. For instance, our founders under-
stood that power corrupts because man-
kind is flawed, so they split the powers
of the federal government up into three
branches.
Shared power became our normal way
of doing things. But when some believe
that they are smarter than the rest of us,
and try to seize positions of power illegit-
imately, they are merely confirming what
our founders knew to be true.
George Orwell gave us a great example
of this in his book “Animal Farm.” The
animals on the farm felt that they were
being mistreated, and rose up in anger to
seize the means of production. The result
was that the pigs gained ultimate control
and the rest of the livestock were enslaved
by their oppressive rule.
All their efforts then went to supply the
leader’s wants and wishes. Unless all the
chickens and ducks willingly complied to
their orders, they threatened to unleash the
dogs on them. America, the left is not your
answer.
CARL YATES
Seaside
The Astorian, July 19). If it has actually
contributed anything to Astoria, I feel
privileged.
As Erick said, I have since retired from
adventuring except for occasional recre-
ational mining excursions, and have taken
up writing again, recently self-publishing
a novel, “The Gold Gang,” with Amazon.
Turned it into a script, and am now
working on a couple of other projects,
including another pre-teen saga called
“Horses,” which also has youthful der-
ring-do and offbeat crooks to keep them
hopping.
Astoria was my second summer home
in the mid-1980s, running six-day offshore
trips up to the San Juan Islands and back,
and I have fond memories still of the town
and residents. Go Goonies!
GEORGE CLARK
Gold Beach
Go Goonies!
B
T
hank you for publishing Erick Ben-
gel’s article on my screenplay,
“Golden Ventures” (“Writer believes
his Astoria tale inspired ‘Goonies’,”
Great performance
ravo to the Peninsula Association
of Performing Artists (PAPA). Such
a great performance of “Mary Poppins”
— now showing until July 28 at the Fort
Columbia Theater outside of Chinook,
Washington.
It was my very first visit to the theater,
and it was money well spent. Very well
done. From the least to the greatest, again
I say, “Bravo!”
SHEILA FORTE
Astoria
Safe driving
I
have recently returned from a drive on
U.S. Highway 26 between Portland and
Seaside, and two things confuse me.
First, I don’t understand why people
refuse to turn on their headlights, despite
a number of signs advising their use for
safety. Do they think that because they can
see all right, it’s not necessary? Perhaps
they don’t realize that the purpose is not to
see, but to be seen. Visibility of oncoming
traffic is much enhanced when the oncom-
ing vehicle has headlights on.
Secondly, I don’t understand the refusal
to use turn signals when changing lanes.
Using turn signals gives other drivers the
impression that you know what you are
doing, and that what you are doing is on
purpose, rather than wandering between
lanes while distracted.
BOB FLETCHER
Seaside