February 16, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
We must be aware of warning signs of suicide
I
n a moment, something that
should have felt distant became
so deeply personal. On a wet and
windy Tuesday night in January, my
phone buzzed with a text message
from an old friend. “Did you hear
about Tyler Hilinski?”
I knew all about Tyler Hilinski.
Tyler was the heir apparent quar-
terback for my favorite college
football team, the Washington State
Cougars.
Tyler was a 21-year old, hand-
some, professional, bright and
plucky signal-caller in an offense
that throws the ball over 50 times
a game. Tyler was the quarterback
that led the Cougars to an improb-
able come-from-behind September
victory over Boise State, despite be-
ing down 31-10 with eight minutes
to play in the fourth quarter.
Notice that in all of these de-
scriptions, I used the phrase, “Tyler
was.”
Tyler was with us, with the col-
lective Washington State commu-
nity, with his teammates, with his
friends and family. Tyler was with
us until January 16. Tyler Hilinski
killed himself.
The story came out in a blurry
haze and rather quickly, as most
messages do in our society. Tyler
had taken his own life, in his apart-
ment in Pullman, Washington. My
SKY BOX
SKYLER ARCHIBALD
heart ached in pain for Tyler and his
family.
I want to be clear that this was
not someone that I knew or had any
association with, outside of rooting
interest and a kinship that anyone
who calls themselves a WSU Cou-
gar might feel. So why did it impact
me and so many others in such a
powerful way?
Tyler had opportunities and
fortune that most could only dream
about. He had the full support of
his parents. He was a scholarship
athlete at a major institution that
features one of the best offensive
systems in college football. By all
accounts, he was cheerful, talented,
loving and kind.
But despite all those opportu-
nities and possibilities for Tyler,
he was obviously in pain. Know-
ing what we know now, he likely
anguished under the weight of his
life responsibilities and circum-
stances.
And that’s the problem, is that
at the time of his sorrow and agony,
nobody knew it. Everyone assumed,
FILE PHOTO
Tyler Hilinski
including me, that this young man,
with a bright future, was happy and
well.
There were nearly 45,000 deaths
by suicide in 2016. It’s the 10th
leading cause of death in our coun-
try. Among those aged 15-24, it’s
the third leading cause of death. It’s
a miserable fact that we must admit,
discuss and work to prevent.
In the days following Tyler’s
death, I thought often about others
I know who have suffered a similar
fate. Due to the rising number of
individuals that die by suicide, it is
likely that each of us knew a person,
or multiple people, who are not
with us anymore because of suicide.
Each individual
experience is
unique and rep-
resents complex
circumstances
and challenges.
This is not a
generic experi-
ence. These are
FILE PHOTO
actual people,
sisters and broth-
ers, sons and daughters, mothers
and fathers. They have real families
and friends, most of which are very
aware of the challenges present and
are doing everything possible to
help and provide support.
There are things that we can all
do to help prevent suicide in our
sphere of influence. Suicide is often
tied to a mental illness, like depres-
sion, and we know that the major-
ity of Americans that experience
depression do not receive treatment
for their illness.
That’s a complex issue in and
of itself but certainly there is more
that we can do to encourage those
around us to be comfortable about
mental illness and to encourage
proper treatment by medical profes-
sionals.
We can break down the stigma of
mental illness and encourage proper
response to those episodes that so
many experience. When someone
is having a suicidal thought, we
must provide them with the support
that they need and there are many
resources that provide help.
We can encourage and prac-
tice good well-being ourselves.
That’s not just physical wellbeing
although certainly proper exercise
and nutrition play a significant role
in our mental health. I feel fortunate
to have chosen an occupational path
that promotes well-being for our
community.
Most importantly perhaps, there
are two characteristics that this
world needs more of: kindness and
empathy.
We can be kind to each other, we
can work through differences, we
can as Plato requested, “Be kind, for
everyone you meet is fighting a hard
battle.” We can be empathetic to the
challenges of life that others might
be experiencing. We can truly work,
and it indeed is work, to develop an
ability to understand and share in
the feelings of others.
I miss Tyler Hilinski. I feel great
sorrow for the community that came
to know him, for his friends and
teammates and for his family.
If you know or someone you
know is struggling emotionally
or having a hard time, please call
the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at
1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Cronyism has no place in our region’s public affairs
N
igel Jaquiss is a Pulitzer
Prize-winning investigative
reporter who writes for
Willamette Week, a Portland
newspaper. He came to Astoria
to speak at the Columbia Forum
on March 7, 2017, about the need
for integrity, good judgment, and
a rational thought process in the
conduct of public affairs.
He also said something that’s
been bouncing around in my brain
ever since. “Corruption in Oregon
doesn’t look like envelopes full of
hundred-dollar bills being passed.
Corruption in Oregon looks like
cronyism without accountability.”
Cronyism without accountability.
What does that mean? And why
does it matter to you?
It matters to you because it’s
GUEST COLUMN
LIANNE THOMPSON
your money, your tax dollars that
are being spent.
It might help to consider what
accountability looks and feels like.
It looks like having a plan. It
looks like having a vision and a
mission and goals. If the goals are
SMART (specific, measurable,
achievable, reality-based, and
time-specific), so much the better.
One way to look at cronyism
is that it means using power or
authority to treat our friends differ-
ently, whether giving them a job or
looking at the methods and results
of how they do a job.
Accountability should be used
as a tool, not a weapon, I think. It
involves communication, based
on respect and affection. And it
empowers us, based on appropriate
rules, roles, and responsibilities.
But it’s embarrassing to be
measured and fail. It’s unpleasant
and uncomfortable to talk about not
meeting a goal, especially one that
matters. No wonder I’ve been as
popular as a skunk at a picnic for
asking my fellow County Commis-
sioners and the County Manager
to develop and use accountability
systems for our work.
On the other hand, if we ap-
proach the questions with some
compassion for ourselves, some
willingness to fail and recover, some
humor and some grace. What might
we be able to accomplish?
We might address our crying
needs: housing, ecologically sus-
tainable economic development, and
resilience. Even if you and I are OK
in today’s economy, many others are
not, and they’re part of our com-
munity. We need to care about our
people and our planet.
We need as many people as
possible to have stable and adequate
income. Manufacturing jobs can
provide stable and adequate income
in a way that other sectors often do
not. Manufacturing also provides a
more stable tax base for the rest of the
services a healthy community needs,
like schools, health care, public
health, public safety, roads, and so on.
Mother Nature has blessed us
with a natural resource base, but we
are not adding as much value to the
wood products as we might be able
to do by developing cross-laminat-
ed timber and other mass timber
technology, as is already done in
Europe and Asia. Automation can be
our friend
Or, instead of building a dream
of a better use for our people and
our planet, we can attack those who
ask for accountability as a way
of moving us forward together. If
you want a world that works for
everyone, cronyism has no place.
Mutually respectful and compas-
sionate accountability does.
Lianne Thompson is District
5 member of the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners.
Getting a chill from the ‘Ghost in the Stacks’
T
his month for my
Between the Covers
article I am pleased to
present a brief excerpt of a
short story written by local
author Melissa Eskue Ousley.
Melissa is an award-winning
author living on the Oregon
coast with her family, a
neurotic dog, and a piranha.
Among other awards Melissa
has received, her debut novel,
“Sign of the Throne,” won
a 2014 Reader’s Favorite
International Book Award
and a 2014 Eric Hoffer
Book Award. Her suspense
novel, “Pitcher Plant,” was
published in May of 2017
and is set in Seaside. When
she’s not writing, she can
be found walking along the
beach, poking dead things
with a stick.
I am presenting this short
story as a tie-in to the upcom-
ing fundraiser for Libraries
ROCC and the Library
Foundation, a joint fundraiser
to support children’s library
services across Clatsop Coun-
ty. The fundraiser will be held
on Saturday March 31 at the
Seaside Convention Center.
Now, without further ado,
here is an excerpt from the
story titled “Ghost in the
Stacks.”
‘Ghost in the
Stacks’
Rebecca had heard the
rumors about the library
being haunted, but she never
believed the stories. Edna
Williams, a librarian obsessed
with superstitions, once told
Rebecca she’d heard strange
noises coming from the
non-fiction section. She had
described it as a low rum-
ble that didn’t sound quite
human. Rebecca figured it
was probably Bill Hawkins,
fast asleep in an armchair.
The man snored loud enough
to wake the dead. Besides,
Mrs. Williams was afraid of
just about everything —she
jumped at the sound of wind
whistling as winter storms
BETWEEN
THE COVERS
ESTHER MOBERG
rattled the library’s old win-
dows.
Beth Richardson said she
saw an odd shadow lurking
in historical fiction. “It was
shaped like a person, but all
black,” Beth told Rebecca.
“It felt like it was looking
right at me, but then it faded.
I never got a clear look at
it, but it gave me goose-
bumps.” Beth didn’t scare
easily — she worked on the
after-school program for
teens—but she looked pale as
she shared her story. Rebecca
wasn’t sure what to think
about that.
Michael Levin, who man-
aged acquisitions, believed
the ghost could be one of
the library’s former direc-
tors, Thomasina Gladwell,
who had died in 1936. Ms.
Gladwell had served as the
town’s first librarian, when
the library was built in 1905.
Rebecca had never expe-
rienced anything weird in her
three years working at the
library. She usually worked
the final shift of the day,
ushering out patrons at eight
in the evening. She was often
the last person to leave, after
shutting down computers, ti-
dying shelves, and turning off
the lights. If the library was
haunted, wouldn’t she have
seen or heard something?
She hadn’t though, and she’d
grown to love that quiet time
when she had the building
to herself. Walking through
the library at night felt like
visiting a sanctuary. It gave
Rebecca a sense of peace.
That was why Rebecca
was more startled than scared
when she heard a clatter near
the back of the library. She
had just turned off the lights
and was headed toward the
front door when it happened.
Curious, she turned on the
lights again, and sauntered
over to the fiction section.
There, scattered on the floor,
were three books. Rebecca
stared for a moment, con-
fused. She had just walked
all the aisles, making sure
everything had been put
back in place, re-shelving
stray books set on reading
tables by patrons. If there had
been books left on the floor,
Rebecca would have spotted
them.
She shrugged and then
scooped up the books so she
could return them to their
places on the shelves. The
odd thing was, these books
didn’t even belong in the
aisle where she’d found them.
The first, “A Dirty Job,” by
Christopher Moore, should
have been shelved two stacks
down from where she stood.
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” by
Margaret Atwood, belonged
four aisles to the left. The
third book, “Little Fires
Everywhere,” by Celeste
Ng, should have been filed
three stacks to the right. How
weird, Rebecca thought. The
books couldn’t have simply
fallen off the shelves, unless
they’d been shelved incor-
rectly in the first place. Well,
that happened sometimes.
After putting the books
back on the shelves, Rebecca
walked toward the front door
again. She checked the clock
above the circulation desk
— nearly 8:30. It was getting
late, and Rebecca’s golden
retriever, Pumpkin, would be
hungry by now. She picked
up her pace, wanting to get
home.
Just as she reached the
door, she heard another crash
coming from the stacks.
“What is going on?” she mur-
mured. Intrigued, she turned
around and walked back to
the fiction section. She wasn’t
surprised to see two books
lying on the floor in aisle G,
but she was shocked to find
that one of them was Celeste
Ng’s, a book Rebecca had
shelved not five minutes
before. The other was Magic
Hour, by Susan Isaacs, and
lay half on top of the first
book. Shaking her head,
Rebecca picked up the books
and shelved them in alpha-
betical order, Isaacs then Ng.
She started to wonder if the
library was indeed haunted. If
so, she decided, the ghost had
a knack for being annoying.
SEPRD
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District play set.
Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District to
host community forum
Library event
Seaside Signal
I hope you enjoyed this
excerpt from Melissa’s story,
check this article again next
month for more from Melis-
sa’s spooky library story and
save the date March 31 to
attend the author extravagan-
za and little library auction
at the Seaside Convention
center. Doors open at 5 p.m.
Tickets are available for sale
at the Astoria Public Library,
Beach Books, Seaside Public
Library, and the Warrenton
Public Library. Attendees will
have a chance to bid to have
a name or character placed in
the short stories. I hope to see
you there.
The Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District is
gathering input from the com-
munity at a series of commu-
nity forums. The first forum
was held in late November.
The second forum, Tuesday,
Feb, 20, at 4 p.m. will be held
at the Bob Chisholm Com-
munity Center, 1225 Avenue
A in Seaside.
The forum will be an op-
portunity for our communi-
ty to hear directly from the
consultants and architects
regarding the potential op-
tions for district expansions.
Attendees will have an op-
portunity to provide import-
ant and valued feedback that
will help shape the future of
the district and inform staff
and district board on how to
meet the recreational needs
of our community. Light re-
freshments will be provided.
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