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In Our View: Cheers & Jeers

Giving thanks for volunteers; demise of Big Tree sad but will provide habitats

The Columbian
Published: November 26, 2016, 6:03am

Cheers: To volunteers who helped create a happy Thanksgiving. In the days leading up to the holiday, The Columbian reported on four outlets offering free Thanksgiving meals for the needy: WareHouse ’23 near downtown; St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church; The Fraternal Order of the Eagles; and The Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater. Through these institutions, hundreds of local residents were able to share in the bounty and camaraderie of Thanksgiving when they might otherwise have gone hungry.

What often is overlooked in these feel-good tales of the holiday season is the role played by numerous volunteers and those who donate food or gifts. The generosity of others is what makes possible such events that reach out to the area’s neediest people, demonstrating what it means to be a community.

Sad: To the death of a legend. There were reports this week of the demise of Big Tree, a massive ponderosa pine near Trout Lake in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. A website for the tree, run by the U.S. Forest Service, estimates the 200-foot-tall icon’s age to be 370 years, but some experts believe that it is much older.

The tree will remain standing, with forest officials noting that many species rely upon dead trees for habitat, but its 84-inch diameter is no longer expanding. Experts say that the tree’s old age and a Western Pine beetle attack probably combined for Big Tree’s demise, providing an example of the circle of life that is evident in our forests.

Cheers: To responsive education. Recognizing the need for innovative programs that adjust to a changing economy, Clark College is highlighting a series of programs designed to meet the needs of employers. Two examples are education in mechatronics and welding.

The importance of such training was detailed recently by a report from the Washington Roundtable, which estimates that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created in the state over the next five years but that the local workforce will be ill-equipped to fill those jobs. “The catch is, do those young people have the skills they’ll need?” Roundtable president Steve Mullin told The (Everett) Herald. College-educated workers are increasingly important for a robust economy, but Clark College and others are showing that such an education does not always mean a four-year degree. Sometimes it simply means advanced training in a marketable skill.

Jeers: To poor maintenance. A sidewalk on Fairmount Avenue off of Fourth Plain Boulevard is so narrow and dilapidated that wheelchair users in the area are forced to travel in the street. The area also is problematic for bicycle riders and pedestrians.

The sidewalk is adjacent to a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, and city officials say landowners are responsible for maintaining sidewalks. The area has been troublesome for some time, but here’s hoping that it gets addressed and gets fixed before a tragedy occurs.

Cheers: To the power of photographs. Time magazine recently posted “The Most Influential Images of All Time,” a collection of 100 photos that changed the world. Included is a 1963 image from the Civil Rights Movement in which a police dog is tearing at the pants leg of a protester in Birmingham, Ala.

The local significance is that the man being attacked, Henry Shamby, moved to the Northwest in 1968 and settled in Vancouver. Shamby died in 2011, but he once told The Columbian: “I never did get afraid. I got mad, and I was thinking, ‘What are these people doing?’ When you get that mad, you get stubborn and just don’t care.” The image made many people throughout the country care, however, as it boosted public attention for the Civil Rights struggle.

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