Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 19, 2017
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Privatize BPA redux
Rick Perry, the former Texas
governor with aspirations for the
presidency and now head of the
Department of Energy, visited
Umatilla County last week. He
stopped at McNary Dam and toured
the Bonneville Power Administration
transmission facility operated by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
That tour was off limits to
reporters, but Perry was joined
by congressmen Greg Walden
(R-Oregon) and Dan Newhouse
(R-Washington), when they briefly
addressed the press outside the dam.
Perry said hydroelectricity will
continue to play an important role
in America’s energy strategy, even
though the Trump administration
has proposed selling off the BPA to
private energy companies.
Northwest lawmakers —
including Walden and Newhouse
— have roundly criticized that
plan, saying it will raise rates for
consumers and affect reliability in
rural areas.
Yet Perry was mum when asked
where he stood on the issue, saying
only that they should not be afraid to
have that conversation.
There’s no need to be afraid,
and in fact the Northwest has been
having that discussion for decades.
We’ve thought about it and
argued about it, and lawmakers of
both political parties now agree
that privatizing the BPA is a bad
idea.
To new minds in Washington
D.C., the short-term windfall of
a selloff has them salivating. But
those of us who have to live with
the result — not just for a political
term — know that in the long run,
the BPA must remain as is.
The real American heritage
efore they die, before they
be next, Trump said, using a line that
disappear into the opaque mist
neo-Nazis throw around at their hate
of history, the last Americans to
fests.
fight Nazi Germany have to face one
The founders, flawed but brilliant
more blast of something they thought
men, put their lives at risk to create
they’d eliminated in the bloodiest war
a nation built on principles that took
of all time.
a long time to realize. Robert E. Lee
Every day we lose an average of
was a traitor, the best general of a war
362 World War II veterans — the boys
Timothy that killed more Americans than any
from the Bronx, the farmers from
other. His statue no more belongs on
Egan
Nebraska, the kids yanked from late-
a pedestal than does that of Hitler’s
Comment
adolescent languor to fight a monster.
most proficient military man.
I asked one of them, Caesar Civitella,
History and culture are what
Nazi-killer and son of an Italian immigrant,
Civitella embodies, for his story is the
American story. His father, an immigrant from
how it felt to see Hitler’s flags paraded over
Italy, died when Caesar was
our soil last weekend.
young. With the call of war,
And make no mistake,
those were the flags of
he volunteered for jump
a genocidal force in the
school at Fort Benning,
Charlottesville, Virginia,
Georgia. Then the Office
rally last weekend, the one
of Strategic Services, a spy
in which some “very fine
service that did much more
people,” in President Donald
than snoop and decode,
Trump’s infamous words,
selected him for especially
participated. The polo-shirt
dangerous duty. Civitella
fascists were brandishing
jumped into occupied
Othala rune and Black Sun
France. Working with the
symbols — both used by the
French Resistance, he killed
SS, the paramilitary muscle
his share of Nazis, he said,
behind the slaughter of 6
and helped capture 4,000 of
million Jews.
them.
“These neo-Nazis,
Next up was a mission
whatever you call them — I
to go after Mussolini. But
thought we’d ended all
as the son of an Italian
that,” Civitella said, sounding both mournful
immigrant, his loyalty was challenged. “I was
and feisty. “These people have nothing to do
asked if I would hesitate to kill an Italian who
with American values.”
worked with the Nazis. I said, nope.”
I found this soldier of World War II at his
His generation includes George H.W. Bush,
home in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he is
another war hero, the exact age as Civitella.
a local hero for living a life that deserves a
This week Bush, with his son George W.,
movie. He will be 94 on Aug. 21, the day of
released a simple, decent statement on the
the total solar eclipse — “Jesus Christ’s way
toxicity of racial hatred.
of saying happy birthday,” he said.
No such message came from the empty
Within a generation’s time, nearly all of
shell of Donald Trump, a man who once
the 16 million American veterans who served
said his own personal Vietnam was avoiding
in World War II will be gone. And the biggest
sexually transmitted diseases in the wilds
insult, the gravest disservice of Trump’s giving of Manhattan. Warming the hearts of the
comfort to Hitler sympathizers, is to those
little Hitlers this week, Trump claimed to
who fought to save the world from evil more
have looked carefully at the hatemongers in
than 70 years ago.
Charlottesville and found many good citizens.
“Because I’m old, now 94, I recognize
He must have missed the chants of “Jews
these omens of doom,” wrote Harry Leslie
will not replace us!” and “blood and soil,” a
Smith, a Royal Air Force veteran, in an essay
favorite of Hitler’s murderous legions. Or he
this week in The Guardian. “Chilling signs are must have overlooked the thugs brandishing
everywhere, perhaps the biggest being that the semi-automatic rifles and chanting “sieg
U.S. allows itself to be led by Donald Trump,
heil” outside the Congregation Beth Israel
a man deficient in honor, wisdom and just
synagogue in Charlottesville.
simple human kindness.”
It doesn’t take much to find the sources
To those grave deficiencies, you can
of the best American culture and history.
add one more: historical illiteracy. In his
You won’t find them in the “beautiful statues
grievance-burst of a news conference this
and monuments” — Trump’s words this
week, Trump had this to say about those
week — of slaveholders and traitors. Look
who showed up to protest the neo-Nazis and
instead to those like Civitella, who are not yet
neo-Confederates: “You are changing history,
cast in bronze but deserve to be — the living
you’re changing culture.”
memory.
In truth, it was the raising of statues in the
■
early 20th century — when the Lost Cause
Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a
whitewash of the confederacy of slaveholders
writer for The New York Times, first as the
was in full swing — that tried to change both
Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a
culture and history. George Washington will
national enterprise reporter.
B
Every day we
lose an average
of 362 World
War II veterans
— the kids
yanked from
late-adolescent
languor to fight
a monster.
Tread safely, interstellar travelers
We are as ready as can be for
Monday’s total solar eclipse, which
will bring more visitors to Eastern
Oregon than the Round-Up, Whisky
Fest, Bike Week and the county fair
combined.
It’s a massive influx of people,
and you have likely noticed them
already — filling area highways and
gas stations and restaurants. Likely
you’ve heard some foreign accents if
you waltzed down Main Street.
By now, you’ve either made plans
or you haven’t. We hope those who
have their plans set in stone can get
to where they need to go, and are
adequately prepared for whatever
emergency is thrown their way.
For those without them, we hope
your new plan is to follow along
with our journalists.
Reporter George Plaven and
photographer E.J. Harris have been
dispatched to John Day, right in the
thick of the zone of totality. They
will report on the gathering crowds
throughout the weekend and on
eclipse day proper. The town of
2,000 has two gas stations and one
grocery store — and is expecting
more than 20,000 visitors.
Opinion page editor Tim Trainor
and East Oregonian intern Emily
Olson have a different plan. They
will leave Pendleton at 6 a.m.
Monday and drive towards the zone
of totality, come what may.
They will document their
journey on Facebook Live, with
updates throughout the trip. Visit
East Oregonian’s Facebook page
to follow along, and maybe if the
traffic is light you’ll be inclined to
jump in your car and join them.
Wherever you are: Wear your
glasses!
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
Solar show proves you can’t eclipse the American spirit
S
ituated on a busy
mind-blower.
thoroughfare and
I don’t mean
oh so romantically
astronomically — moon
named, the 1st Interstate
smothers sun, day turns
Motel in Casper,
to night, birds freak
Wyoming, could stand
out, all of that. I mean
improvement. Eight of
entrepreneurially. What’s
its nine reviewers on Trip
happening in the heavens is
Advisor gave it the lowest
a bonanza here on Earth, in
Frank
rating possible, and they
this money-minded patch
Bruni
weren’t shy about their
of purple mountains, fruited
Comment
reasons. “Absolutely
plains and Donald Trump-
filthy.” “Two empty
branded properties called the
liquor bottles under the bed.” “Foul United States.
smell.” “Horrible smell.” “Hell
Our response affirms that we
hole.”
Americans haven’t completely
But you can snag a room this
lost our savvy or our way. True,
coming Sunday and Monday for
we failed to sniff out and stanch
only $1,211 a night, according to
a presidential disaster in the
my recent search on hotels.com.
making, and we’re stuck for now
A bargain! No, really. The
with a morally bankrupt plutocrat
initially advertised rate was
so defensive and deluded that
$1,346 for two queen beds. For a
he’s urging more nuance in the
kitchenette as well, it was $1,616,
appraisal of neo-Nazis. But we
later discounted to $1,454. Act now still know a prime interplanetary
while supplies last.
opportunity when we see one.
What the 1st Interstate Motel
The eclipse is precisely that.
has in lieu of an endurable odor is
I’m not well versed in matters of
an exalted latitude: Casper lies on
the cosmos — I’ve never even
the path of towns and cities from
made it through a whole episode
Oregon to South Carolina that are
of “The Big Bang Theory” — so
set to experience a total eclipse on
I’ll describe its rareness in a
Monday. And this eclipse is a total
vocabulary that I and most of
you probably better understand.
Envision a month in which the
president didn’t golf. Imagine a
sentence in which he didn’t brag.
Fantasize a speech of his that made
you proud. The eclipse is that rare.
Contradicting its name, it
reveals rather than obscures many
aspects of the American character.
It’s a portal to the crafty, stagy,
venal sum of us.
We Americans are marketers
above all else. I wasn’t more than
a few minutes into my eclipse
research when I learned of the
claim that Hopkinsville, Kentucky,
makes to being “the point of
greatest eclipse,” a reference to
how long the eclipse will last there:
2 minutes 40 seconds.
To exploit this blessing,
Hopkinsville has rebranded itself
“Eclipseville,” built a snazzy
website using that term and
orchestrated an array of events.
You can combine eclipse viewing
with bourbon tasting, which didn’t
surprise me, or with scuba diving,
which did. When I think Kentucky,
I somehow don’t think coral reefs.
You can of course purchase
Eclipseville swag: fleece blankets,
twill caps, T-shirts in sizes going
all the way up to XXXL. We
Americans merchandize, and we
Americans swell.
We Americans splurge. For sale
on a popular site for handmade
crafts, there’s a $1,224 “solar
eclipse diamond ring” with a
series of gems that change colors
incrementally from yellow to black
and back again, thus evoking “the
moon’s journey as it eclipses the
sun.”
We Americans congregate. All
along the eclipse’s path, there are
small outdoor theaters and large
outdoor stadiums in which eclipse
watchers will come together, each
with his or her own protective
eclipse eyewear, of which there
seem to be thousands of varieties.
I’ve yet to order mine. We
Americans procrastinate.
There are eclipse concerts,
too. In Jefferson City, Missouri, a
band will play selections from a
particular Pink Floyd album, and if
anyone out there is guessing “The
Wall” or “Animals” and not “Dark
Side of the Moon,” you’re eclipse-
grounded and must stay indoors.
In Columbia, South Carolina,
a philharmonic orchestra will
perform the soundtrack from a
certain intergalactic epic. Savor the
“Star Wars Musiclipse.”
We Americans sometimes
connive, if we’re being honest and
not letting our vanity eclipse the
truth. In Oregon in particular there
have been complaints that hotels
canceled or “lost” reservations
made long ago so that they could
jack up prices, then blamed ...
computer glitches! That’s my new
preferred explanation for Trump’s
election.
We Americans are resourceful
— evident in how many are
poised to wring dough from their
domiciles. According to Airbnb,
there will be more than 50,000
“guest arrivals” tied to eclipse
viewing, in comparison with fewer
than 11,000 in the same geographic
area a week earlier.
A week after the eclipse, a room
at the 1st Interstate Motel reverts
to $63 a night. That’s savings of
more than $1,000 from the eclipse
rate! Amazing what a galactic
phenomenon will do — and what
we Americans will do with it.
■
Frank Bruni, has been an
Op-Ed columnist for The New York
Times since 2011.