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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, July 12, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
SAMANTHA STINNETT
Circulation Manager
SARAH SILVER
Advertising Sales Manager
OUR VIEW
Ban U.S. farmland sales to China, other nations
proposal to protect a valuable
strategic asset from some for-
eign-based actors deserves
the full support of Congress and the
Biden administration.
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Wash-
ington state Republican, has offered
legislation in Congress to prevent
companies or individuals based in
China, Russia, Iran and North Korea
from buying U.S. farmland. The U.S.
House Appropriations Committee
recently added it to a funding bill on
a unanimous voice vote.
Similar measures have passed the
House before, but the Senate has
failed to pass them.
We all know the contempt with
which the Chinese government holds
U.S. technology and patents. We
also have seen the contempt the gov-
ernment has for human rights. And
we have seen the lengths to which
the government will go to deny its
responsibilities in the worldwide
spread of COVID-19.
Now those same actors have their
eyes on U.S. farmland, the most
important of assets.
The stated policy of every U.S.
administration has been to protect
the ability of U.S. farmers to feed
the nation and its friends around the
globe. This policy has resulted in
plentiful and affordable food. All a
person has to do is walk through any
grocery store and the success of that
policy is obvious.
Allowing Chinese companies
to buy into that policy makes no
sense. Already, a Chinese govern-
ment-backed company owns Smith-
field Foods, the world’s largest pork
producer and processor. The Chinese
paid $4.7 billion — 30% more than
the market value of the company —
A
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Legislation in Congress would block companies and individuals based in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying U.S. farmland.
in 2013.
Since then, a lot has happened
between China and the U.S. China
continues to threaten to take over Tai-
wan, an independent nation off the
coast of the mainland, apparently
hoping to emulate Russia’s invasion
of Crimea and Ukraine.
In each instance, China has put the
interests of itself over those of every-
one else.
Then there’s Russia, where Vladi-
mir Putin is taking over independent
foreign nations. He even threatened
the president of Finland after that
nation opted to join NATO, calling
the move “a mistake.”
At the same time, Putin has trashed
Russia’s economy. Note that the Russian
ruble is worth less than a few pennies.
Iran and North Korea, both sworn
enemies of the U.S., continue to seek
nuclear arsenals and the interconti-
nental missiles to deliver them.
Considering these factors, Con-
gress should block any efforts of
companies in any way associ-
ated with China, Russia, Iran and
North Korea from ever buying U.S.
farmland.
Chinese companies or individuals
already own 352,140 acres of U.S.
agricultural land. Much of that land
is tied to Smithfield Foods. Iranians
own 4,324 acres of U.S. farmland,
and Russians own 834 acres. North
Korea owns none.
That does not seem like a lot, but
in our eyes, it’s too much.
U.S. farmland is the keystone of
our nation’s security. Selling it to
those who wish us ill is folly.
GUEST COLUMN
Newspapers remain a foundation for the great town square
T
his is the story of Max Monda, a
mummified orange, and, idiosyn-
cratic as it might sound, the role of
the opinion press.
Longtime PR executive and politi-
cal insider Pat McCormick recently came
across a black-and-white photo with the
inscription, “Dear Pat. Thanx for the help.
Max Monda 4-29-83.”
“Max Monda” was the
alter ego of the late Salem
Statesman Journal colum-
nist Ron Blankenbaker.
The photo shows Blanken-
baker beside his newsroom
desk, which was piled sev-
eral feet high with press
DICK
releases, assorted papers,
HUGHES
newspaper clippings and
what-have-you spilling
onto the floor. A calculation written on the
adjacent blackboard says, “15 cubic feet of
total Mess.”
Editors feared someone might get hurt
if Blankenbaker’s desk unleashed an ava-
lanche of debris on an unwitting pass-
erby. It also was a fire hazard, especially
with smoking prevalent in the 1980s news-
room. So he enlisted McCormick’s help for
a cleanup.
Blankenbaker spent as little time as
possible at that desk, preferring the base-
ment press room of the Oregon State Capi-
tol. Anyone could stroll into the wide-open
press room – and they did – to pass tidbits
to reporters.
Even more critical to Blankenbaker’s
style of reporting was the coffee shop at the
other end of the basement, where he held
court as lobbyists, politicians and staffers
dropped by. Gov. Vic Atiyeh was among
the many officials who routinely lunched
there.
Over time, Blankenbaker’s news-
room desk in downtown Salem turned into
impromptu museum of an opinion colum-
nist’s life. As he recounted in a column
detailing his undirtying deed, the clean-
ing revealed a dried wreath, a table fork
with flashing lights, a white striped muffler,
a clipping of a story he’d written 14 years
earlier about trumpeter Harry James, and
mounds of phone messages he’d probably
never returned or even seen.
And yes, a mummified orange once
existed beneath those 40 or 50 pounds of
Bound archives from The Astorian are housed at the Clatsop County Historical Society.
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
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month. Letters written in response
paper.
In a profession that encompasses both
the organized journalist and the disordered,
Blankenbaker was in a class by himself.
I can attest. My desk was around the cor-
ner from his. A few weeks after that photo
was taken, I too moved down the street and
joined him in the Capitol as the newbie
covering the Legislature and state govern-
ment. A few years later, I became – to his
consternation – his editor.
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.
“R.B.” was both a local and statewide
institution, fully invested in the public’s
right to know. His political columns were
“must reads” – enlightening or aggravat-
ing, topical or tiresome, depending on one’s
point of view. They certainly got the read-
ers’ attention, and the politicians’.
During the week of Independence Day,
I’ve been thinking about Blankenbaker and
others of his ilk – local columnists who
know their community so well that they
become part of its character, who write
fearlessly but thoughtfully, and who keep
the readers’ interests at heart.
The founders of the U.S. recognized the
role of newspapers. The First Amendment,
which embraces freedom of the press, is
the best-known example but not the only
one. The Constitution authorized Congress
to establish post offices and post roads, in
essence granting governmental support to
ensure delivery of newspapers.
The newspapers of early America pri-
marily comprised opinion – first-hand
accounts, letters, treatises. Today’s news-
papers, whether in print or online, remain
a foundation for the great town square of
public opinion and debate.
Let me stress that the role of a newspa-
per opinion piece is not to tell people what
to think but to get them to think. Besides,
readers always get the last word through
letters to the editor. Letters are a window
into the soul of a community.
Long ago, a letter writer upset with the
tone of a Blankenbaker column called him
a “pompous twit.” He concurred, which
eventually led to creation of Pompous
Twits Anonymous.
From then, Blankenbaker annually
anointed a new cast of not-so-anonymous
Twits – “a politician, bureaucrat, lobbyist,
journalist or other public meddler caught
in an act of pomposity too outrageous to
ignore.” Rather than recoiling from such
a barb, officials looked forward to see-
ing whether they made the list, though not
always appreciating the accompanying
description of their ineptitude or pomposity.
Each year, Blankenbaker dunned the
Twits to help needy families at Christ-
mas with gifts and children’s clothing, but
sometimes appliances, auto repairs, back
rent – even a gravestone honoring a young
sister lost in a car crash.
The Twits, who included every gover-
nor during Blankenbaker’s tenure, crossed
political and philosophical lines. A Decem-
ber 1989 news story recounts that help-
ing deliver gifts that year were Gov. Neil
Goldschmidt, State Treasurer Tony Meeker,
then-Secretary of State Barbara Roberts,
ex-legislator Mike Kopetski and lobbyist
Ted Hughes, who annually bore a striking
resemblance to Santa Claus.
dick Hughes has been covering the Ore-
gon political scene since 1976.