July 21, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A
A presidential
moment
REBECCA HERREN/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Walter Trumbull portrays President Abraham Lincoln in his one-man show “Lin-
coln: For the People” at the Seaside United Methodist Church.
Sixteenth president
recalled onstage
By Rebecca Herren
Seaside Signal
The words of a young Abraham Lin-
coln, and as the 16th President of the
United States, are as relevant today as
they were then. Lincoln fought for the
inclusion of all people who come to this
country. He spoke out fervently in favor
of women’s suffrage and for assisting
all foreigners who wanted to make a life
in this great nation. And, as it was with
slavery, America was and still is divided.
Standing just shy of Lincoln’s 6-foot-
4-inch stature, Walter Trumbull brought
Lincoln’s words to life in his one-man
show “Lincoln: For the People” on June
23 at Seaside United Methodist Church,
where he fi rst performed eight years ago.
A slide show of Civil War pictures
preceded the recitations, as did an in-
troduction and singing of Julia Ward
Howe’s stirring “Battle Hymn of the Re-
public” led by Debbie Vail.
His show comprised a chronologi-
cal fi rst-person narrative of Lincoln’s
humble origins growing up on Little Pi-
geon Creek farm to Lincoln’s troubling
years in the White House. It wasn’t just
a monologue of Lincoln’s speeches, but
an intimate portrayal into the man who
freed people from the bonds of slavery
while saving the Union. It was a look of
Lincoln during his political years inter-
twined with recollections of childhood
memories that infl uenced his path and
character.
Though Lincoln was a man who took
his job as president seriously, he was a
storyteller with a good sense of humor
and liked to make jokes. He loved read-
ing and was a great fan of poetry, once
considering himself a future poet.
Under the large oak trees on the farm,
Lincoln wrote his fi rst poem: “Abraham
Lincoln, hand and pen, he will be good,
but God knows when.”
Afterwards, his mother broke out in
laughter, but his father who remained
stoic said, “Abraham, that explains you
perfectly.”
The idea of slavery was personal for
Lincoln. During his childhood, it was
law that fathers owned their children in
all manners, even to hiring them out for
labor. Lincoln was 17 when he was hired
out as a laborer chopping wood and split-
ting rails for 25 cents a day. He didn’t
like the idea and thought of himself as
an indentured servant, but he respected
his father and accepted this as a duty to
help him.
At age 18, he left his father’s farm
to forge his own path. It wasn’t long
thereafter when he came face to face
with slavery while working on a fl atboat
heading toward New Orleans. About two
weeks later, he witnessed a well-dressed
man leading a dozen slaves through the
streets. Shackled at the ankles, he treated
them as common stockyard pigs, kicking
them if they spoke as if they were noth-
ing.
Being opposed to the oppression of
all peoples, this experience sickened
Lincoln and left such an impression, he
decided to study law and eventually run
for offi ce. He ran for a seat on the Illi-
nois General Assembly in 1832, but lost
that campaign. He ran again in 1834 and
won. Two years into his service, Lincoln
made his fi rst public declaration against
slavery. He tried again in 1849, this time
proposing an amendment to abolish slav-
ery in the District of Columbia, but lost.
These defeats did not deter Lincoln
as he continued his service in the polit-
ical arena. It was the Electoral College
and not the popular vote that elected
Lincoln the fi rst Republican president in
1860. Lincoln won re-election to his sec-
ond term, this time by the popular vote
against George McClellan who want-
ed to reinstate slavery and restore the
Union, as it was prior.
Lincoln knew well the growing pow-
er of capitalism’s threat to justice and
liberty to all mankind, as it was promised
in the Declaration of Independence. He
understood that plantation owners in the
South wanted free labor and slavery to
endure forever. Slavery was the catalyst
the South needed to start the Civil War
and as he saw it, the elephant in the halls
of Congress was slavery.
During his presidency, Lincoln stood
strong against many threats and foes, and
it was his belief of “all men are created
equal” that ended his life.
Trumbull’s performance leaves one
with a deeper awareness of the power of
Lincoln’s words and actions in both his
public and private life that showed Lin-
coln’s deep love he had for his nation,
his family and for all people.
Trumbull has written variations of his
Lincoln show bringing in more and more
information about the man and myth.
He says he started right after Barack
Obama was elected president in 2008,
and dedicates his show to his father who
was a collector of modern day Civil War
memorabilia. He has made a YouTube
video reciting Lincoln’s second inaugu-
ral speech, receiving more than 70,000
views; it is as realistic as if witnessing
it in person.
As the country celebrated another In-
dependence Day, Americans continue to
be thrust into a period of intense political
polarization, anger and distrust; poten-
tially jeopardizing the ideals for which
Lincoln so honestly fought.
Trumbull has lived in Seaside since
2000. He studied to be an opera singer
pursuing a degree in opera performance
and theater at Denison and Kent State
universities. He enjoys the local arts
scene and has performed at both the
Coaster and Liberty theaters. Trumbull
says he is at the point where he hopes to
take his Lincoln show on the road.
Mobile summer camps build hard science skills
Camp from Page 1A
systems, creating wind tur-
bines and building handmade
speakers.
“In a lot of small, rural
communities, they’re not go-
ing to have classes with many
of these activities,” said Ra-
chel Johnson, a senior bioengi-
neering major at OSU.
Johnson was one of four
OSU students facilitating Sea-
side’s Center for Outreach in
Science and Engineering for
Youth Mobile Science and
Engineering Camp, operated
by the Precollege Programs at
OSU in partnership with the
Oregon Coast STEM Hub.
Gearhart
Elementary
School fi fth-grade teacher
Erica Acton served as the lo-
cal host. Students from the
Seaside School District could
participate in the camp, which
included lunch and materials,
at no cost.
Stress-free environment
The mobile summer camps
— which so far have been held
in Tillamook, Lincoln City,
Astoria and Seaside, and next
will travel to Coquille and
Brookings — offer several
benefi ts, according to Johnson.
The campers are in a comfort-
able, familiar environment
with their friends and peers
from school. Additionally, the
camp is an outlet where they
can learn STEM-related infor-
mation without the pressure of
impending tests or homework
assignments.
Sometimes, Johnson said,
students will show up feeling
reluctant about the idea of do-
ing “more school,” so to speak.
During the two days of camp,
however, the instructors have
the pleasure of showing the
campers how enjoyable it can be
to engage the STEM topics by
providing hands-on application.
KATHERINE LACAZE/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Rachel Johnson, a camp
leader and bio engineer-
ing major at Oregon State
University, talks with local
students while they worked
on building a water infi ltra-
tion system.
When it comes to building
and retaining children’s in-
terest in STEM topics at the
middle-school age, that’s “a
big step in the right direction,”
said camp instructor Apoorva
Ayyagari, another senior bio-
engineering major at OSU.
“It’s an easier way to piece
together information that’s be-
ing thrown at you,” she said.
‘Just problem-solving’
Most students are exposed
to science, math and technol-
ogy by the time they are en-
tering ninth grade, but engi-
neering can be a more elusive
subject for children. Acton
felt the camp was especial-
ly successful in exposing the
students to what engineering
entails and making the topic
accessible to them.
“It’s really just prob-
lem-solving,” she said.
Johnson agreed most of
the activities they do with
the campers put a heavy fo-
cus on critical thinking and
problem-solving. Each project
involves multiple variables,
which allows the students to
play around with changing
one or two and seeing how
that affects the outcome. If
changing one variable doesn’t
accomplish what they hope,
they can address another.
What strikes the instructors
as particularly interesting is
how creativity varies consid-
erably from school to school,
and even from student to stu-
dent.
During the fi rst activity,
students were put into teams,
and each team had to use
plastic pipe and connectors
to build a freestanding dog
sculpture. This activity helped
them warm up to the idea of
engineering as problem-solv-
ing, as well as group work and
sharing and listening to others’
ideas.
One group chose to have
their dog sitting, instead of
standing on all fours. Al-
though unconventional and
surprising compared to the
structures made by other
groups, it wasn’t “a wrong an-
swer within the specifi cations
of the problem,” Acton said.
Similarly, when the students
build solar-powered cars from
kits, “not a single car looks the
same,” Ayyagari said.
In general, the young stu-
dents seem more apt to ex-
ercise creative thinking and
personalized approaches than
adults, Johnson said, adding,
“They don’t see the obstacles
we see.”
In another activity, held
on the second day of camp,
the instructors talked to the
students about college ad-
missions and the professions
available in the STEM disci-
plines. The purpose, Ayyagari
said, was “to encourage them
to pursue education after high
school and inform them on the
benefi t of doing so.”
Providence
Seaside weathers
cutback gale
Higher costs,
lower subsidies
stress system
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Providence Seaside Hos-
pital, the city’s largest em-
ployer with 375 employees ,
is bracing for changes amid
a changing health care land-
scape.
Members of the hospital’s
corporate offi ce responded
to comments after an Ore-
gonian report of “aggressive
cost-cutting and layoffs” by
Providence Health & Ser-
vices early this month.
For Oregon-based care-
givers — including those at
Providence Seaside Hospi-
tal — there are no planned
layoffs, wrote Providence
Health & Services Region-
al Chief Executive Offi cer
Dave Underriner in a letter
to employees this week.
“That doesn’t mean we
will not continue our regu-
lar stewardship of business,
making decisions that can
change employment for
some caregivers, but we are
not having Oregon region-
wide layoffs,” Underriner
said. “Financially in Oregon,
we are doing OK and meet-
ing our budget.”
In 2016, Providence Sea-
side Hospital saw more than
1,000 inpatient admissions,
with 146,000 outpatient
visits, including more than
10,000 in the emergency de-
partment.
“In 2017, we are running
ahead of those fi gures, and
defi nitely expect to exceed
those 2016 totals,” Prov-
idence Health & Services
Communications Director
Gary Walker said Tuesday.
Higher costs, lower
reimbursements
Lower government health
care reimbursements are
driving higher costs through-
out the system, Underriner
said.
Since the start of health
care reform
in
2011,
Providence
cut
$340
million in
costs in Ore-
gon, he said.
Dave
But
new
state taxes Underriner
on hospitals
and health insurance, along
with uncertainty at the fed-
eral level “means we need to
continue to focus on meeting
the needs of the community
in light of the revenue we re-
ceive,” Underriner said. “We
are busier than ever, serving
thousands more patients, but
there continues to be a fun-
damental shift in reimburse-
ments to cover the costs. It’s
unlikely that reimbursements
will improve anytime soon.”
Providence’s 50 hospi-
tals handled more than 1
million Medicaid patient
visits in 2016. The Renton,
Washington-based company
was forced to subsidize the
unfunded portion of Med-
icaid at a cost exceeding
$1 billion, said Providence
spokeswoman Colleen Wad-
den.
The current year is bring-
ing more of the same, she
said.
This is all a dramatic
contrast to 2014 and 2015,
when many large hospitals
enjoyed windfall profi ts, in
large part because Medicaid
eligibility was loosened and
millions of Americans joined
the program. Oregon alone
added more than 400,000
to the Medicaid rolls, and
many fl ocked to hospitals for
long-delayed treatment.
“This trend is continu-
ing into 2017,” Underriner
said. “We are a safety net
for many patients, especial-
ly those with Medicaid, and
we are deeply committed to
continuing to serve this vul-
nerable population.”
The state Legislature
passed the $550 million Ore-
gon Health Authority budget
and a hospital and provider
tax package that allows the
state to continue covering
health care for low-income
families.