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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, NOvEmbER 30, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
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GUEST COLUMN
There is no back to normal
I
t was supposed to be over long
ago. Only a month or two. Then
life would be back to normal.
Back to eating in open, pleasantly
staffed restaurants. Back to hanging
out with family and friends in real life
instead of over the internet. Back to sit-
ting at office desks and wearing proper
business attire. Back
to attending sporting
events in person with-
out donning masks
and showing proof of
vaccinations.
Instead, the COVID-
19 pandemic rolls on
DICK
— like a roller coaster
HUGHES
with its ups and downs,
bringing out the best in
Oregonians. And sometimes the worst.
We laud health care workers for their
skills and endurance amid long hours.
Then a few of us turn around and ques-
tion whether these dedicated medi-
cal personnel did all they could to pre-
vent our loved one’s demise from
COVID-19.
We finally appreciate that store
clerks are essential workers. Yet if a
store runs out of goods, some of us turn
surly, or worse. We unload our wrath on
clerks, expecting them to exert a mysti-
cal power that undoes the global supply
chain bottlenecks.
We love being back in eateries and
drinking establishments. But some of
us ignore the national labor shortage
and blame the existing workers if short
staffing delays our meal. Indeed, blam-
ing seems ever more popular, pushing
aside gratitude.
Amid all this, we give mere lip ser-
vice to honoring our democracy, as our
minds fall victim to loudmouth extrem-
ists across the political spectrum.
Yes, we long for a return to normal.
But that normal no longer exists, and
never will. There is no going back. The
pandemic has inexorably altered how
we go about our daily lives, from how
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Vaccines against COVID-19, while imperfect, have proved effective.
we shop to how we worship and how
we obtain health care.
There is nothing to be gained by
pining for the past. But there is room
for gratitude. In fact, there is much
for which to be thankful, although not
always at first glance.
Let us start with the reality that being
governor amid a pandemic has proved
a thankless job. Yet two dozen men and
women already are running in hopes of
winning that job. Some are well-qual-
ified, giving Oregonians a wide range
of choices among political insiders
and outsiders in next year’s elections.
There will be change, but how much?
As the two main political parties turn
ever-more-partisan, will this be the era
when Oregonians go independent?
And while the labor shortage has
created havoc, the income gap among
Oregonians has narrowed a bit. As
employers have increased pay, espe-
cially at the bottom rungs, workers
earning less than $20 an hour are expe-
riencing real economic improvement
despite inflation.
Along with an economic reckon-
ing has come a refocus on family. Some
employers have adjusted their work
requirements and schedules to make
them more family-friendly, the jobs
more appealing and, ultimately, the
workers more productive and loyal.
Meanwhile, there is continued prog-
ress toward increasing access to decent,
affordable child care throughout the
state and the nation, enabling more par-
ents to enter the workforce.
Schools have innovated. Distance
learning was difficult for many students
and underscored the divide between the
broadband haves and the have nots. Yet
some students flourished with distance
learning, underscoring the need for a
rich array of teaching methods.
Health care providers have expanded
doctor visits by telephone and video,
cutting the wait time for many appoint-
ments. Yet access to care remains an
issue. Vaccines, while imperfect, have
proved effective. New medicines may
further reduce the severity of COVID-
19 symptoms — if Oregon can get
those prescriptions to newly diagnosed
patients in time.
We could go on and on.
Our resilience has been tested.
Our nerves have been frayed. Yet our
nimbleness and creativity have been
unleashed.
And there’s even a chance that we
can learn to be a bit nicer to each other,
despite our personal frustrations and
political differences. For that, we give
thanks.
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Fallacy
recent letter, “Begging” (Nov. 20),
suggests that The Astorian will be
automatically compromised by obtaining
government tax credits.
It conceives of the government as
monolithic, and having one will. The over-
heated fulmination, whose author seems
not to know the parlous situation of print
journalism, but rather to prefer The Asto-
rian to wither away with his own take on
honor, appears to be unduly grounded in
the fallacy of the “deep state” and its dicta-
torial nature and power.
Anyone familiar with bureaucracies in
the free world knows that different depart-
ments — even different units in the same
departments — function symbiotically at
best. They are frequently antagonistic, if
not inimical to one another: That is why
they function less optimally for us than
we might like. The U.S. government and
its bureaucracies do not act as one person,
with one ideology.
Again, there are many ways of whis-
tleblowing on bureaucrats who act out of
line, including dictatorially. Witness the
myriad stories of Trump administration
dysfunction, whose functionaries became
tattlers. One would imagine that any news-
paper would be at the head of the line of
whistleblowing, should abuse occur.
The U.S. isn’t post-Weimar Germany,
the USSR-becomes-Russia or China; its
bureaucracy is made up of freer thinking
individuals who have the means to high-
light abuses of power. Long story short,
The Astorian getting government tax
credits is hardly going transform it into
the bullhorn for the deep state which, of
course, only exists in the minds of the
willfully ignorant or paranoid.
BRIAN LAVELLE
Astoria
A
Dubious document
lanning Commissioner Robert Strick-
lin’s refusal to knuckle under to the Clat-
sop County Board of Commissioners comes
at a time when the board “is asserting more
control over the Planning Commission,”
according to The Astorian (Oct. 30).
Stricklin’s dismissal from the Planning
Commission is a troubling development,
with potentially serious consequences for
the county.
Stricklin is widely known as a fair-
minded, forthright and savvy citizen, who
has devoted much of his time to help-
ing the community with regional planning
issues.
P
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
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, gram-
mar and factual accuracy. Only two
letters per writer are allowed each
month. Letters written in response
When someone with his expertise and
service record calls foul on the board for
asserting what he has described as their
“command-and-control” stance vis-à-vis
the Planning Commission, we all should
listen.
The board decided to require Planning
Commission members to sign a document
defining their role as “assisting the board
… in order to enhance and augment (the
board’s) goals as identified in the adopted
strategic plan.”
The document is clearly at odds with
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
the headline and date the letter was
published. Discourse should be civil.
Send via email to editor@dailyasto-
rian.com, online at bit.ly/astorianlet-
ters, in person at 949 Exchange St.
in Astoria or mail to Letters to the
Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR.,
97103.
the Planning Commission’s traditional
role as an independent citizen body whose
bylaws define that role “to make recom-
mendations to the board,” not enhancing
and augmenting the board’s goals.
ROGER DORBAND
Astoria
Predatory capitalism
ll seniors: Ads for Medicare Advan-
tage Plans are all over TV. These
A
plans are private insurance plans that
are allowed, by law, to be sold under
the Medicare Advantage label. Advan-
tage plans may offer benefits for hear-
ing, vision and dental coverage, as well as
lower cost, to make them more attractive.
Elimination of traditional Medicare
is the long game plan for private insur-
ance companies. When enough eligible
senior Americans sign up for Medicare
Advantage, Medicare will be eventu-
ally bankrupted by the ever-shrinking
pool of Americans who sign up for Medi-
care. Already, about 40% of seniors have
opted for these plans. At 50%, Medicare is
doomed.
Eventually, Medicare will approach
insolvency, and be unable to pay claims.
Our legislators will complain that another
“government program,” another “bloated
bureaucracy,” has failed. They will shout
“Medicare is a failure! It must be stricken,
root and branch, from American law!”
When Medicare is finally gone alto-
gether, expect that Medicare Advantage
coverages will decline, and prices will
rise. American predatory capitalism at its
finest. Yay!
TERRY McCLURE
Astoria