Introducing Lower Columbia Currents

Commentary by Andre Stepankowsky

Gun control. Saving salmon. School prayer. Ukrainian babushkas caught up in Putin’s genocidal war.  COVID vaccines and abortion. Ebenezer Scrooge. The malignancy of Trumpism. The lessons of Mount St. Helens.

I have written about all of these topics as a newspaper columnist for the past several years. For me, the whole world has indeed been a stage and inspiration for commentary and essay writing.  I promise that Lower Columbia Currents will be equally diverse, unpredictable and enjoyable. And it will be free to all readers.

I spent my entire 43-year journalism career reporting, editing and writing commentary for the Daily News of Longview, a city that rests along the banks of the Columbia River where it makes it final westward turn to the Pacific Ocean. I have won many reporting and editing awards, and I shared in the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens.

This depth of experience and history gives me authority and background to comment on the many issues facing the Pacific Northwest.  It is natural, then, that most pieces in Lower Columbia Currents will focus on this corner of the world, with some attention of course to the Longview area itself. 

However, the newsletter also will venture beyond this local and regional focus. I have always had broad interests, and the newsletter will reflect that. I especially enjoy writing about politics, natural resources, constitutional rights and foreign affairs. Occasionally, the newsletter also will reflect my passion for roses, woodworking and music. 

I seek the crux and historical background of today’s conflicts and issues.  Politically, I am a left-of-center moderate. And I try to treat the reader to polished and imaginative writing.

Several commentaries recently published elsewhere will appear over the next week or so. Afterwards, a fresh essay ranging up to 1,000 words will appear in Lower Columbia Currents every other week, likely on Fridays. While I expect to write most of them, occasionally I will share the work of other writers. In addition, shorter commentaries will sporadically appear in response to spot news developments.

Use of the word “current” in the newsletter’s title is a play off the term “au courant,” a somewhat anachronistic name for early American newspapers, some still publishing. It derives from a French phrase meaning “up to date”  and “fashionable.”  Choosing it reflects the fact that I consider myself an old-school journalist dedicated to accuracy and fairness, even in the context of editorial writing.

I hope that you will subscribe to Lower Columbia Currents and find it “au courant.”