PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 6, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Keizer’s fi nest
The Keizer Chamber of Com-
merce bestowed awards on fi ve de-
serving Keizer people at its annual
First Citizen Awards banquet last
week.
Former Mayor Lore Christopher
was named Keizer’s First Citizen; Joe
Egli was named merchant of the year;
Krina Lee and Chuck Lee were hon-
ored as winners of the service to edu-
cation award. Dan Clem, who will
be moving to Keizer soon but works
at the Keizer Chamber working on
governmental affairs issues was chosen
by Audrey Butler for this year’s presi-
dent’s award. A committee chooses the
winners in all the categories except
the president’s award.
Lore Christopher, who served 14
years a mayor, was named First Citiz-
ren as much for what she did as mayor
as what she hopes to do in Keizer—
espeically in the fi eld of the arts.
For the fi rst time the Chamber had
fi ve nominees for each award. Chris-
topher’s fellow nominees were Mark
Caillier, Don Conat, Rich Duncan
and Richard Walsh—any could have
won this honor and it would have
been a great choice.
Former city councilor Joe Egli
was named Merchant of the Year, an
honor given to a local businessperson
who has volunteered for the ben-
efi t of Keizer business in general and
the Keizer Chamber of Commerce
in particular. Egli is a former presi-
dent: of Keizer Rotary Club and the
Keizer Chamber of Commerce. Aside
from his day job as an agent with R.
Bauer Insurance, Egli is serving his
second year as chairman of the Keizer
Iris Festival, the Chamber’s primary
fund raising event. Egli matches Lore
Christopher as an unwavering booster
and cheerleader for Keizer and Keizer
businesses.
Nominated for merchant award
CERT needs
members
To the Editor:
Keizer CERT (Community Emer-
gency Response Team) will be hold-
ing their spring training class begin-
ning Thursday, March 5, at 6:30 p.m.
The classes will run eight weeks from
6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Community
Room at the Keizer Fire Station, 661
Chemawa Rd. N.
The cost is $60 and will include
training, a backpack, helmet, vest and
various supplies.
Keizer CERT is a non-profi t or-
ganization with the primary purpose
of providing assistance to our com-
munity in the event of an emergency,
man-made or natural disaster. The
CERT program is organized under
FEMA, which provides the frame-
work of training. We work closely
with Keizer Fire District, Marion
County Emergency Management,
surrounding CERT teams, city of
Keizer and other organizations. Our
members come from all walks of life,
from young adult to retired. No ex-
perience needed, just a willing spirit.
You may have seen our bright yel-
low CERT trailer out in the com-
munity. In 2014, we provided infor-
mational booths, traffi c control and /
or medical assistance at the Keizer Iris
Festival, RIVERfair, Brooks Steam
Up, CycleCross, Oktoberfest, and
worked with many other community
groups. We also received training and
provided support for our local fi re-
fi ghters in a “Burn to Learn” exercise,
support at Keizer Fire Department’s
open house, help with warming shel-
ters, snow removal and numerous
other community events.
Our fundraising to cover the on-
going costs of classes, equipment,
medical supplies and other necessities,
come from donations, our commu-
nity garage sale, and grants from the
community. We wouldn’t be here to
help our community in a disaster if it
wasn’t for the generosity of our com-
munity donors. If you would like to
sign up for our March training class,
make a tax deductible contribution,
or fi nd out how you can contribute
to the on-going mission of Keizer
CERT, please see our website at
www.KeizerCERT.org or call 503-
910-3993.
Lori Shepard Lamb
Keizer
were Larry Jackson of Jackson’s Body
Shop, Shelly Paddock of Shelly’s Kids
Preschool and Childcare, Scott White
and Kalynn White of Big Town Hero
and Lyndon Zaitz of the Keizertimes.
The Service to Education Award
has been presented to teachers, prin-
cipals and education supporters. This
year the dual winners were—as last
year’s winner, Ron Hittner called
them—Keizer’s education power cou-
ple: Krina and Chuck Lee.
Krina Lee is executive director of
the Salem-Keizer Education Foun-
dation; Chuck Lee, a Salem-Keizer
School Board member and former
president of Blanchet Catholic School,
is currently president of Mountain
West Career Techincal Institute. The
institute is scheduled to open in Sep-
tember and provide technical training
for up to 100 students its fi rst year.
The other nominees were JoAnne
Beilke, Scott Coburn, John Honey
and Jim Taylor.
Audrey Butler bestowed the Presi-
dent’s Award on Dan Clem, who
oversees the organization’s Economic
Development and Governmental Af-
fairs Committee. Clem, who served
for 12 years on the Salem City Coun-
cil, is moving to Keizer. The award is
given at the discretion of the president
to a person who has had a major im-
pact on the chamber.
Is Keizer just lucky to have so many
people who volunteer selfl essly to bet-
ter their community? Luck has some-
thing to do with it, but more than that
Keizer has designed itself as a city that
relies on volunteers. Success attracts
success and those who want to do
good work have plenty of role models
to emulate here in the Iris Capital of
the World.
Congratulations to all the winners
and the nominees.
—LAZ
Ethics
To the Editor:
What is going
on in Oregon?
We have a per-
son in the gov-
ernor’s chair that
lacks scruples and good judgment.
Governor Kitzhaber’s continuing
episode with Cylvia Hayes is mind-
boggling. He claims he was blind sided
about her past when it appeared in a
newspaper article. The article pointed
out her sordid background about mar-
rying an Ethiopian so he could obtain
a green card and her desire to grow il-
legal pot on a Washington farm, among
other things. That was some time ago.
What amazes me is he continued their
relationship and is even sharing the
governor’s offi ce and who knows what
else, with this woman. Well, he is in love.
Using the governor’s offi ce to gain
$180,000 of outside work is a confl ict
of interest, I would think. How long
does the Ethics Commission need to
decide to investigate and determine
wrong doing? Remember three of the
seven members on the commission are
appointed by the governor. No doubt
Ms.Hayes is pretty, smart and ambitious
but she has no regards for the law.
People around the governor knew
he was allowing something unethical
to happen but did not come forward.
This happens all of the time as no po-
litical party is exempt. There are too
many people in power positions that
think they can brush the law aside. All
too many times these people use attor-
neys’ advice to justify their actions. It
appears these attorneys will provide the
person in power with whatever answer
the person desires. This occurred in the
White House and state capitals around
the country. It is not uncommon to see
national and state elective offi cials use
the excuse, “My lawyer told me it was
alright.”
It will be interesting to see how the
Democrat-controlled legislature deals
with an unethical governor. I never
thought of Cylvia Hayes as Oregon’s
fi rst lady. First Girlfreind maybe, but
not fi rst lady. I may have been wrong
because she may be the fi rst lady in the
governors’ offi ce to go to federal pris-
on for tax evasion. Forgetting to put
$180,000 of earnings on your income
tax is no accident.
Bill Quinn
Keizer
letters
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Salem, Oregon
The public good vs. individual freedom
By MICHAEL GERSON
The measles outbreak at Califor-
nia’s Disneyland—which has spread
like pixie dust—along with several
other smaller fl are-ups, has health of-
fi cials warning of worse to come. Pre-
ventable infectious disease is making
its return to the developed world—
this time by invitation.
The scientifi c consensus on measles
is effectively unanimous: (1) It is not
trivial. Children with measles can get
seriously ill, and there is chance of
complications such as middle ear in-
fections, pneumonia and encephalitis.
(2) Measles is highly transmissible—
one of the easiest viruses to get or
give. (3) The measles vaccine is highly
effective—one of the most successful
against any virus or microbe.
I’ll turn “(4)” over to Dr. Anthony
Fauci, director of the National Insti-
tute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases:
“The ‘evidence’ that measles vaccina-
tion is associated with serious adverse
events such as autism and other affl ic-
tions, “ Fauci told me, “has been com-
pletely discredited by a number of in-
dependent scientifi c bodies.”
Yet, a signifi cant minority of par-
ents—often well-educated parents—
are opting out of vaccination. Many
states (including California) make it
relatively easy to refuse vaccination for
“philosophic” reasons. This does not, I
suspect, mean that people are reading
Immanuel Kant or John Stuart Mill;
it means they are consuming dodgy
sources on the Internet.
Resistance to vaccination on the left
often refl ects an obsession with purity.
Vaccines are placed in the same mental
category as GMOs, DDT and gluten.
But the problem with organic health
care is that the “natural” rate of child
mortality is unacceptably high. Or-
ganically raised
children can get
some very nasty
diseases.
Opposition
to vaccination
on the right of-
ten refl ects an
obsession with liberty—in this case,
freedom from intrusive state mandates.
It has always struck me as odd that a
parent would defend his or her chil-
dren with a gun but leave them vul-
nerable to a microbe. Some conser-
vatives get especially exercised when
vaccination has anything to do with
sex—as with the HPV vaccine—on
the questionable theory that teenag-
ers are more likely to fornicate if they
have a medical permission slip (or less
likely to without it).
Whether hipsters or homeschool-
ers, parents who don’t vaccinate are
free riders. Their children benefi t from
herd immunity without assuming the
very small risk of adverse reaction to
vaccination. It is a game that works—
until too many play it.
Herd immunity requires about 90
percent vaccine coverage. Some chil-
dren with highly vulnerable immune
systems—say, a child being treated
for leukemia—can’t be vaccinated for
medical reasons. When the number of
non-medical exemptions from vac-
cination gets large enough, the child
with leukemia becomes the most vul-
nerable to the spread of disease.
The government (in this case, state
governments) has the responsibility to
keep vaccination rates above 90 per-
cent, which benefi ts everyone. This re-
quires burdening the freedom of par-
ents in a variety of ways —not putting
them in jail if they refuse to vaccinate,
but denying them some public good
(like public education) and subjecting
them to stigma (which they generally
deserve). As the rate of vaccination
goes lower, the level of coercion must
increase —making exemptions more
diffi cult and burdensome to secure (as
California needs to do).
This issue is important in itself. It
also demonstrates a point that is prop-
erly called “philosophic.” Vaccination is
communitarianism in its purest, labo-
ratory form. The choices of citizens
are restricted for a clearly (even math-
ematically) defi ned social good.
Things get murkier with other
kinds of goods. Does the same coer-
cive power apply to chronic diseases
involving lifestyle choices? Govern-
ment has taken a position against the
use of tobacco. What of substances
such as sugar, salt and saturated fat?
Does the common good extend
to the moral and social health of a
community? Maybe just to the moral
health of people under 21 or 18 who
can’t buy or consume certain things?
How about prostitution, which de-
grades women and men (even as will-
ing participants) and results in a squal-
id social atmosphere? How about the
legal availability of concentrated forms
of THC?
In all these matters, there is a bal-
ance between individual rights and the
common good. This may sound com-
monplace. But some Americans seem
to believe that the mere assertion of a
right is suffi cient to end a public argu-
ment. It is not, when the exercise of
that right has unacceptable public con-
sequences, or when the sum of likely
choices is dangerous to a community.
Sometimes we need 90 percent of the
public to make the right choice, or in-
nocent people suffer.
By LAWRENCE KUDLOW
In his announcement that he will
not be running for president in 2016,
he stated, “I believe that one of our
next generation of Republican leaders,
one who may not be as well known as
I am today, one who has not yet taken
their message across the country, one
who is just getting started, may well
emerge as being better able to defeat
the Democrat nominee.”
This was unusual political humil-
ity. But let me highlight this specifi c
phrase: “one who has not yet taken
their message across the country.”
If there’s anything the GOP needs
—besides a winner—it’s a confi dent,
incentive-based, pro-growth message.
The party didn’t have one last year, but
it won the midterms thanks to Presi-
dent Obama’s ineptness. That won’t be
enough in 2016.
The fourth-quarter GDP report,
just out, illustrates the importance of
a growth message. GDP came in at a
disappointing 2.6 percent, way below
expectations. For the year, only 2.5
percent growth.
All is not lost. The job numbers are
better and there’s welcome relief from
crumbling energy prices and a strong
dollar. Consumer confi dence has im-
proved. Our resilient free-market
economy is trying to plow ahead.
If the economy were unshackled
of rising taxes and regulations, and if
there was a new long-run commit-
ment to souand money and free trade,
we could unleash a new American
prosperity. Negativism would turn
into optimism, and America’s global
leadership position would be restored.
Unfortunately, while Romney was
great at rescuing companies, he ran a
poor political campaign. There was no
clear growth
message.
As
John Tamny
reminds in a
recent column,
Obamacare
was modeled
on Romney-
care; Romney talked of a trade war
with China, throwing off strong sig-
nals of a weaker dollar; Romney never
made clear how he would limit gov-
ernment spending; and while he had a
reasonably good tax-cut plan, he rarely
discussed it.
Ultimately, Romney’s highly fl awed
message was unpersuasive to voters.
Now, the 2016 GOP candidate must
have a strong growth message.
Somebody on the campaign trail
should also talk about money. New York
Sun editor Seth Lipsky points out that
the GOP platform last time around
called for a monetary commission to
look at a metallic standard, yet Rom-
ney never mentioned sound money.
The Fed ran completely amok with
its QE program. It ballooned its bal-
ance sheet by more than $4 trillion,
yet there was no sustainable pickup
in real or nominal GDP. Actually, this
monetarist failure was a good thing: If
the turnover, or velocity, of money had
been stable, instead of crashing, today’s
infl ation rate would be 15 percent
rather than practically zero.
So the next Republican candidate
should state a desire for the Fed to re-
turn to a market-based discipline using
gold, commodities, dollar-exchange
value and bond-market indicators.
Contrary to conventional wisdom,
the King Dollar comeback, along with
falling energy prices, has not only
delivered a tax-cut effect to consum-
ers, it’s reduced all business produc-
tion costs, making the economy more
competitive. GOP candidates should
not be afraid to talk sound money. It’s
pro-growth.
They also must focus laser-like on
the importance of incentives to grow
the economy. For instance, rather than
propose spending roughly $1.6 trillion
on child tax credits (according to the
Tax Policy Center), Senator Marco
Rubio, an otherwise sound thinker,
would be better advised to propose a
fl attening of marginal tax rates to per-
haps 15 and 28 percent. This would
give everyone in the middle class larg-
er tax savings and stronger incentives
to keep more of the extra dollar they
earn.
President Obama doesn’t under-
stand that taxing capital is a negative
for new businesses, jobs, incomes and
family spending. But Republicans
should make darn sure they have a
completely different vision.
And the GOP must recognize it
can’t outbid the Democrats on lower-
or middle-class benefi ts. Instead, they
can talk incentives: If it pays more to
work than to collect food stamps, or
unemployment insurance, more peo-
ple will work. The incentive model
carries over to education and health
care, where choice should be maxi-
mized. And Romney is right about
this: Marriage is a key answer to pov-
erty.
We’re about a year away from the
fi rst Republican primaries. The GOP
has a solid bench. But the wannabes
must get cracking on the central
growth message of incentives, freedom
of choice and sound money to unleash
a new wave of American prosperity.
other
views
(Washington Post Writers Group)
After Mitt: A GOP message of sound growth
guest
column
(Creators Syndicate)