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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, JuNE 7, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
Founded in 1873
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
SHANNON ARLINT
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
GUEST COLUMN
Democracy is difficult to sustain
O
n the day Oregonians chose
Tina Kotek and Christine Dra-
zan as their Democratic and
Republican nominees for governor, I
was supposed to be in Russia.
Instead, I was sailing the Baltic
Sea toward Finland after a sobering
day in Gdańsk, Poland. Russia’s inva-
sion of Ukraine had
caused St. Petersburg
to be dropped from our
itinerary.
Two years ago, when
friends broached the
idea of a Northern Euro-
pean trip in May 2022,
DICK
I wasn’t thinking about
HUGHES
this being a gubernato-
rial election year. I sim-
ply calculated that the annual legislative
session would be done in time for me
to go, and that my wife deserved such
a once-in-a-lifetime trip as she contem-
plated retirement.
Gdańsk was a fitting place to con-
template democracy.
World War II in Europe began
when Germany attacked a Polish garri-
son near the Free City of Danzig, now
known by the Polish name of Gdańsk.
Poles vividly remember how that out-
manned and outgunned garrison man-
aged to hold out longer than expected,
and today find unity in Ukraine’s con-
tinuing resolve against Russia.
About 115 members of the Oregon
National Guard are in Poland as part
of the U.S. military deployed there to
counter Russian expansionism.
The physical scars, and perhaps the
psychological ones, from WWII remain
evident in Gdańsk. Seventy-seven years
later, the city still is rebuilding from the
devastating Soviet bombardments as the
war came to a close. Seeing the ongoing
Evan Vucci/AP Photo
President Joe Biden spoke about the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a visit to Poland in March.
reconstruction was both inspiring and
haunting.
Along with the rest of Poland
and Nazi-occupied territory, Gdańsk
endured the horrors of the Holocaust.
As antisemitism rose in the 1930s,
many Jews emigrated overseas from
Gdańsk. When war arrived, the remain-
der were sent to concentration camps,
forcibly removed elsewhere or died in
other ways. A Jewish community that
had flourished since the 15th century
disappeared.
I’ve been to Holocaust museums
and met with survivors. But being in
Gdańsk, and hearing our guide tell the
city’s history, brought death to life in a
different way.
Our visit underscored the impor-
tance of why the Oregon Legislature in
2019 unanimously passed Senate Bill
664 requiring that public schools teach
about the Holocaust and other geno-
cides – to guard against history repeat-
ing itself. A high school freshman –
Claire Sarnowski, 14, of Lake Oswego,
who had developed a deep friendship
with Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener –
launched the legislation with the help of
state Sen. Rob Wagner.
As Germany was defeated, the Sovi-
ets took over Poland, turning it into a
communist state that lasted for decades.
Protests and dissent were put down vio-
lently. The towering Three Crosses
Monument – also known as the The
Memorial to the Fallen Shipyard Work-
ers – honors more than 40 individuals
killed during 1970 protests that began at
the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk.
In 1980, uprisings at that same ship-
yard created the Solidarity movement,
the first independent trade union in the
Soviet bloc. That in turn led to the col-
lapse of communism in Poland’s gov-
ernment and the election of Gdańsk’s
Lech Walesa as president. The Soviet
Union dissolved two years later.
But this is not an all-rosy tale.
Poland has struggled. Democracy is dif-
ficult to achieve and even more difficult
to sustain. The solidarity against com-
munism fractured. Gdańsk is a civic
beacon of democracy and citizen assem-
bly, whereas the Civil Liberties Union
for Europe this year warned that such
former communist states as Poland and
Hungary are increasingly authoritarian.
Democracy in Oregon: Turnout
for the May election can be character-
ized as wonderful or wimpy, depend-
ing on one’s perspective. As of Fri-
day afternoon, the Secretary of State’s
Office reported 1,095,859 ballots had
been cast, a record for a nonpresiden-
tial primary. But the overall turnout was
merely 37% of registered voters.
A swath of Eastern Oregon coun-
ties led the way. Gilliam, Wheeler,
Grant and Harney all recorded turnout
between 49% and 52%.
Unaffiliated voters, who outnum-
ber Democrats or Republicans, couldn’t
vote in party primary races for Con-
gress, governor, Legislature or some
county offices. Neither could voters reg-
istered with so-called minor parties.
But everyone could vote for the
important local and state nonpartisan
positions on the ballot. My wife and I
voted by absentee ballot in Polk County
before our trip, doing our small part
toward the county’s 39.9% turnout.
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Clear
I
t’s been clear for a number of years that
Betsy Johnson was a “DINO” (Demo-
crat In Name Only), and though she now
claims to be an “independent” (but backed
by Big Timber bucks!), her response to
the recent gun violence was typically
Republican.
SHERRIE HAMMOND
Hammond
Stepping in it
I
n just 24 hours, Betsy Johnson reversed
her staunch anti-gun control stance after
she figuratively “stepped in it” in a public
forum over Memorial Day weekend.
Following the talking points of the
National Rifle Association, Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott and former President Donald
Trump, she inferred that a “shitty” men-
tal health system was where reform needs
to take place in order to prevent future
shootings.
As if that weren’t enough she also said
that, “the style of the gun doesn’t dic-
tate the lethality.” She wants us to believe
that grandpa’s double-barreled 20 gauge
shotgun can do the same damage as an
18-year-old with an AR-15 and a 120-
round clip.
The immediate blowback from her
comments must have sent her campaign
into a frenzy. Over 70% of Oregonians
support tougher gun control.
What to do but the old flip-flop. John-
son’s spokesperson announced a day later
that she is now willing to support stron-
ger background checks and a change to 21
years of age for gun purchase.
The flip-flop on her perennial gun con-
trol stance will surely not sit well with some
of her Second Amendment supporters. How
can she be trusted now to “get things done”
as she says in her slick TV ads?
By the way, she never says what she’s
done beside being an obstructionist on
every issue important to her party, from
gun control to climate change.
Betsy Johnson, not ready for political
prime time.
ROGER DORBAND
Astoria
My apologies
A
s a father of two daughters, a grand-
father to two beautiful girls, and hav-
ing two sisters, with each having their
own daughters, I apologize from the bot-
tom of my soul. Your whole lives, I’ve
been preaching to you all that in the great-
est country in the world, you can be and do
anything you set your mind to.
As a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army
for over 20 years, I apologize to the hun-
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
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letters per writer are allowed each
month. Letters written in response
dreds of soldiers I served with. I never
knew that while we shared a foxhole under
attack, that you were not seen as an equal
American citizen in the eyes of our justice
system.
I apologize to all for being so naive as
to believe that the U.S. Constitution was
for all Americans, and that our government
would keep the church and state matters
separated. Which, by the way, is what and
why the Constitution was written in the
first place.
I wonder if this whole control or hav-
ing power over another disease could be
solved as simply as changing a word? If,
in the Constitution, where the word “man”
was written, it was changed to “person,”
will that help understand why our form of
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.
democracy is worth dying for? The rest of
the world thinks so!
TROY HASKELL
Astoria
Bewildered or blessed
T
he other evening, after watching the news,
the lyrics of an old song captured my
mind. I’m “bewitched, bothered and bewil-
dered,” and I thought to myself, “get over it!”
My mind shifted, and I thought, “We
live in a nation that is beautiful, bounti-
ful, and how blessed we are to live in the
United States of America!”
JIM BERNARD
Warrenton
Noticing
L
iving in Knappa the entirety of my
life has given me many things to be
proud of, and watching our area, as well
as our community develop has been an
absolute pleasure.
I’m very grateful for the many
lessons and relationships I will
take away from this experience,
although I do have some concerns that
I think would benefit future generations
before I continue from this chapter of
my life.
As I got older and began things like
driving and high school jobs, I started
noticing little things to be more com-
mon than I had originally perceived.
One of those things would be the road
conditions throughout the Knappa,
Astoria and Warrenton area.
Living in Knappa has forced me, as
well as many of my peers, to travel up
to 45 minutes away for work, and many
days I notice huge potholes, as well as
uneven or outdated roads.
I can’t say that I’ve done enough
research to come up with a solution,
but I do believe that it is a necessary
and basic problem to fix for future
students to have a better and safer
experience.
DEVYN McCALL
Astoria