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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, July 7, 2020
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Saving a community resource
I
t was a joy last week to report
the sale of the Performing Arts
Center.
For more than a decade, Clat-
sop Community College leaders
have been seeking to find a suit-
able buyer for the converted Peace
Lutheran Church building on 16th
Street.
The college bought it for classes
and performances as it expanded
in the 1970s, but discontinued a
drama program many years ago
and has moved away from hosting
significant musical and other public
events to focus on the core mission
of providing community and aca-
demic education.
Maintenance issues as the build-
ing’s interior deteriorated also
meant it was no longer available
for college classes, although it
could still be used by community
groups.
In recent years, a coalition called
Partners for the PAC has helped
partner organizations make good
use of the facility for concerts,
plays and guest speakers while
seeking a long-term solution to
ownership.
Many of the events were fund-
raisers for the PAC, paying for
some repairs and enhancements.
The Astoria Music Festival used
the stage as an alternate venue for
some of its smaller-scale concerts
and operatic performances. The
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
After unfurling the banner in a big reveal, Charlene Larsen learns the new name for the
venue — the Charlene Larsen Center for the Performing Arts.
North Coast Symphonic Band has
graced its stage frequently and for
the past two years the folk commu-
nity has hosted a Pete Seeger birth-
day concert there.
As college leaders continued to
seek a buyer, many in the arts com-
munity worried that the facility
would be lost as a performing arts
center. These fears were ramped up
with an outside investor’s approach
to the college in 2016. When North
Coast arts supporters learned the
prospective buyers wanted to use
the site for housing, they lobbied
the college board to reject the offer.
College leaders agreed, but urged
the Partners to find a workable
solution.
As discussions continued, up
stepped Constance Waisanen, a
local financial adviser and arts sup-
porter. Her organization, Trinity
LLC, has bought the building with
the sole intent of eventually hand-
ing it over to the partners.
“This is the win-win scenario we
were hoping for,” said Chris Breit-
meyer, the college president. “The
college can let go of a building it
couldn’t utilize and the community
gets to keep the beloved gathering
space.”
While preserving the performing
arts center is good news, there was
a bonus cause for celebration as
the small, socially distanced crowd
assembled last week discovered.
Warm applause greeted the
unveiling of the new name of the
facility — the Charlene Larsen
Center for the Performing Arts.
Larsen has been a fixture in the
leadership of the Partners, a stal-
wart performer with more than one
musical group, and a leader with
the Astoria Regatta, Astoria Scan-
dinavian Midsummer Festival and
Lions Club. When she was chosen
for the George Award in 2011, the
citizen-of-the-year honor was long
overdue.
Her work for the PAC has
included leading the Partners, but
also considerable hands-on main-
tenance and refurbishing of the
building — even the mucky stuff.
The one cloud on the horizon
is the one affecting all arts organi-
zations. The necessary health and
safety requirements of the coro-
navirus mean that performing arts
facilities may be among the last to
reopen when health risks of public
gatherings begin to diminish.
Still, the Partners for the PAC
board and supporters combine the
energy and enthusiasm of some
of the most creative minds on the
North Coast. We have confidence
they will continue this united drive
to keep the facility alive.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Inspiring
M
arches, civil unrest, a pandemic …
not just today’s news, but almost a
century ago these same events ushered in
the 19th Amendment.
There were meetings, marches, rallies
and rage taking place for 72 years. Ore-
gon can thank Abigail Scott Duniway for
mobilizing Oregonians to pass suffrage
earlier in 1912, eight years ahead of the
19th Amendment.
I just previewed “The Vote,” airing on
PBS’ “American Experience.” It is history
coming alive with stunning original histor-
ical film footage, a compelling true story
and one we should all know.
Beginning Jan. 3, 1917, women silently
picketed the White House six days a week,
in the cold of winter, enduring jeering, jail
and hunger strikes for months. The sheer
dedication of many thousands of women
to gain the right to vote is astounding. Did
you know the 19th Amendment passed
Aug. 26, 1920? Finally the other half of
American citizens could vote.
“The Vote,” an inspiring PBS program,
is one you will want to share with your
family and friends; it will open up conver-
sations relevant to today’s issues. Hope-
fully it will encourage everyone to register
to vote and vote, your vote is your voice
for our environment, our health care, our
education and the security of a better life
for our future.
As we are approach the 100th anniver-
sary of the 19th Amendment in August,
I urge you to tune in for this remarkable
story, one not taught when I was in school.
It is not “his-story” but our story.
LaREE JOHNSON
Astoria
Very low interaction
I
wish to respond to the letter to the edi-
tor, “Dangerous Cycle” (The Astorian,
June 30). I am a senior citizen in my late
70s, who has had very low interaction with
police personnel all of my life.
It has been my personal experience that
any time an officer of the law wanted to
interact with me, I made every effort to be
cooperative with the officer, and answer
any question in a nonhostile manner if an
officer wished to talk to me, or instruct me
to move off in a different direction if they
were dealing with an issue.
My observation of most of the pro-
tests I have seen this year is that there is
the appearance of substantial belligerence
between protesters and police trying to
maintain order during many of these pro-
tests. I suspect that there are police that are
overly aggressive when they sense that a
large group of protesters is actively bait-
ing these police, and I deplore their lack of
self-control.
However, I see very little effort by
many protesters to be cooperative with
police, or to make an effort to avoid con-
frontation. I see confrontation as a goal
by an unusually large number of protest-
ers in many of the protests I see on TV,
and it breaks my heart that being a citi-
zen these days seems to make these pro-
testers believe they can get away with
almost anything because they are in a large
uncontrolled group that enjoys baiting the
police.
SCOTT WIDDICOMBE
Warrenton
A question
P
resident Donald Trump famously
claimed he could shoot someone in the
middle of Fifth Avenue, and he wouldn’t
lose any voters. His lawyer even used the
same argument in federal appeals court
last fall, while declaring that a sitting pres-
ident has absolute immunity from criminal
indictment or investigation.
Here’s a question: Would Donald
Trump lose any voters if he allowed Rus-
sian President Vladimir Putin to shoot
someone in the middle of Fifth Ave-
nue? How about American soldiers in
Afghanistan?
This November, will you be voting for
Trump, or for America?
ERIC HALPERIN
Gearhart
Bleed red
I
feel sad and incensed when I see or
hear hateful diatribe against others, and
worse, systemic racism.
First, we must confront the violence
and terrible inequities against Black peo-
ple for the past 400 years, beginning with
slavery. What happened to 40 acres and a
mule? Never happened.
Also, Black people must receive repa-
rations for continuing inequity in oppor-
tunities, medical care, justice, commu-
nity assistance and broken promises by
the white-dominated majority. By 2050,
Caucasians are on the way to becoming a
minority, unless climate change, disease,
stupid warfare, ignorant fascists and hate-
filled mongers don’t cause extinction of all
humans.
First, though, let’s focus on providing
real help to our most vulnerable population
— Black Americans. No more institution-
alized slavery in our prison systems. No
more violence and death caused by police
officers; or disgusting actions and words at
the hands of ignorant, unhappy, hate-filled
groups that somehow have these violent
fascist and racist agendas.
I live in Clatsop County, and near my
home an unhappy person flies a Confeder-
ate flag. It shatters the beauty of this area
to see that flag, and I wonder what kind of
sick, afraid and dangerous people live at
that home.
Isn’t it inconceivable that many people
don’t think all humans bleed red?
SUSAN WILLIAMS
Astoria
Inspirational leadership
K
udos to Clatsop County Commis-
sioner Pam Wev for her inspirational
leadership and willingness to call a spade a
spade at the June 24 commission meeting.
Her insistence on keeping Robert
Stricklin and Chris Farrar on the Clat-
sop County Planning Commission was the
right call. Both men have been thoughtful
and fair minded in their positions, which
have consistently upheld local values.
The commissioners voting in the
minority tried the old “Moscow” Mitch
McConnell tactic of not allowing an
important vote, even though the change of
majority rule on the commission is months
away. In deference to the new composi-
tion of the commission after Jan. 1, the
minority tried to postpone the vote, which
Commissioner Wev courageously called a
“cheap trick.”
Commissioner Mark Kujala and Com-
missioner Lianne Thompson said they
were just trying to avoid the wholesale
replacement of the new Planning Com-
mission that took place in 2011, after a
progressive majority took control of the
county commission.
Time will tell if Kujala and Thompson
are willing to live up to that standard, and
let the rightful democratic appointment
of Stricklin and Farrar stand. More likely,
they will conveniently forget about it, and
lead the charge to replace the full planning
commission after January.
When Courtney Bangs and John
Toyooka join the county commission, it
will usher in preferential treatment for
big business and corporations, under the
guise of giving voice to rural communi-
ties, rather than the environmentally sensi-
tive, slow growth values upheld by Strick-
lin and Farrar.
ROGER DORBAND
Astoria