PAGE 4, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 30, 2015 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Get out of town The leaders of Keizer, especially members of the city council, don’t like to try new things unless or until they’re been done somewhere else. What is Salem doing? is a regular question when policy questions are discussed at the council level. It’s a policy that suits Keizer— why take the risk of being fi rst when we can benefi t from what other municipalities already know? We may ask the leadership of other cit- ies how they handle a particular is- sue. When it comes to infrastructure and development ideas the leaders of city staff and the city council should keep an eye on what is done in the places they travel (whether the trip is offi cial or personal). Keizer as a city is not unique. There are thousands of suburban towns across the country that serve as bedroom communities for larger cities. Every tangible issue Keizer faces has been addressed in a simi- lar city somewhere else. Our com- munity is poised to build a large playground project at Keizer Rap- ids Park because someone saw one elsewhere and talked about it here. What other ideas can be borrowed from somewhere else? The things our traveling lead- ers should observe include public art placement, commercial signage, curb appeal of business areas, ame- nities in city parks and the like. Col- lectively our leaders could put forth many ideas for what to do in Keizer. What cannot be observed by city offi cials are municipal policies. That takes communication at seminars, training sessions and conferences. What are like-sized cities doing to fund their 9-1-1 obligations? What are cities doing to actively recruit businesses (and jobs) to their towns? This is a good thing to keep in mind for the members of the newly created Economic Development Commission. The commission, which will meet only four times a year, is charged with, among other things, to create development in- centives for Keizer and create out- reach to recruit targeted industries to locate in Keizer. The members of the commission should leave no stone unturned, no expert unquestioned, no resource unread, no idea dismissed out of hand. We believe one of the duties of the commission is to know what Keizer has to offer now to busi- nesses considering a Keizer address. Commissioners need to know their product from River Road—south to north—to Keizer Station and all points in-between. The main question that should be asked of targeted business is: “What is needed in Keizer for you to move here?” As a city we can sell what we have but if it is not com- pletely what a business is buying, we need to consider our course of ac- tion. That’s a good job for the Eco- nomic Development Commission and our city leaders as they consider a local, a regional and a national re- cruiting strategy. —LAZ Keizer Rapids Regional Park chest thumping opportunity for the administra- tion in power. I would have ex- pected no less from Obama. And a negative rebuttal by the other party is expected as well. It seems like things have never been better—or worse. Let me give my own “unbiased” views about what has or should have happened since Obama fi rst became president. One of the Administration’s most signifi cant actions, I feel, is begin- ning “normalization” of relations with Cuba, something that was long over- due. Closing of Gitmo—on track (I guess) but taking far too long. The previous administration’s action in de- nying prisoners access to courts of law has done irreparable damage to the credibility of the United States. Renunciation of torture – it’s about time. I can hardly believe that we allowed such things as waterboard- ing and sleep deprivation to occur. Affordable Health Care—Seri- ously needed but so many concessions were made to Republicans and the health care industry (that failed to win their support, anyway) resulting in a very fl awed health care act. The Ad- ministration should have built on the Wyden-Bennett Bill which already had a measure of bi-partisan support. We have allowed our relationship with Russia to deteriorate, which is a very dangerous thing, indeed. The president should have entered into direct talks with President Putin, at- tended the Moscow Olympics, par- ticipated in the Paris Anti-terrorism Rally and should recognize the legiti- mate concerns of Israel and moderate Arab states about nuclear weapons de- velopment in Iran. Finally, like his predecessors, Obama has done little toward recog- nizing and strengthening the UN as the best hope to lead the fi ght against radicalism and provide support for human rights throughout the world. At least, that is my take. Art Burr Keizer To the Editor: I am under the impression our Keizer Rapids Park was a regional park since Marion County contrib- uted funds to purchase some of the property. The county was able to spend county park money. If the park is re- gional, the county should provide the city with funds for some park main- tenance. County Commissioner Ja- net Carlson is the co-chairman of the Community Build Task Force fund- raising committee to fund the Big Toy in the park along with former Keizer city councilman Richard Walsh. If the county is so involved why is it that only people living within the city are on the Keizer Parks Board? It only makes sense that someone from the county should have a vote on how the regional park is managed and run since it has money in the park. The citizens of Keizer should thank the Marion County Commissioners for their interest and fi nancial support. There are plans to construct a large indoor sports facility within the park in the future. The footprint for the building is set out in the revised park master plan. The money for the facil- ity will have to come from the park budget at the expense of the other city parks. Besides the cost of construction there will be constant maintenance and administration cost throughout the year. The facility would need heat- ing and cleaning in the winter and maybe air conditioning in the sum- mer. There were rumors that some Keizer Rapids Park supporters want to create a park district for a greater source of revenue. This means a new set of elective offi cers and a paid staff like the fi re district. Of course this would raise taxes on everyone in Keizer. I assume a parks district would not be entitled to receive Systems De- velopment Charge funds. One possi- bility would be to charge the people who use the indoor sports facility. If and when a sports facility is built in the future, then anyone could pay to use it and not just Keizer residents al- though we paid for most of it in the fi rst place. Bill Quinn Keizer State of the Union To the Editor: The President’s State of the Union address is, by long standing tradition, a letters Share your opinion, Send a letter to the editor. Please limit to 300 words. Deadline for submissons is noon each Tuesday. E-mail to: publisher@keizertimes.com Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com Lyndon A. Zaitz, Editor & Publisher POSTMASTER SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 facebook.com/keizertimes Send address changes to: Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon twitter.com/keizertimes Who’s missing in economic growth? By DON VOWELL To say that you are worried about America’s future is no different than saying you are worried about Amer- ica’s children. Last week we learned that just more than 50 percent of pub- lic school children are now from low- income homes. In the same week we learned that the world’s richest 80 men collect the same income as the world’s three and a half billion poor- est citizens. The richest one percent will control half the world’s wealth by sometime in 2016. That’s half for one percent, the other half for the 99 per- cent. Even Congressional leadership is beginning to publicly speak of this inequity as a problem. Is it time to connect the dots? Income level is now the surest in- dicator of successful outcomes in pub- lic schools. Achievement gap is more reliably predicted by wealth than skin color. Children from low income families often have more hurdles to clear than their fi nancially stable classmates. They often face disadvan- tages in hygiene, health, nutrition and sometimes safety and nurture in their homes. There is humiliation in pov- erty. We are fond of telling ourselves that America is the land of opportu- nity. Anyone can rise from humble origin to become a success—societal or fi nancial. It isn’t borne out by real- ity. Upward mobility is a hard thing to measure, but in our country children of poverty most often remain trapped in poverty and the children of affl uent parents usually grow into the same prosperity. Since the 1960s the achievement gap between low in- come and higher income students has increased by forty percent. Raised in a 1950s small town, my assumption that we all progressed through K-12 learn- ing about the same stuff and graduated with a common body of knowledge now seems like wishful thinking. It may help to view this as a na- tional security problem. If America can only remain safe and strong by producing healthy and well-educated citizens then that is our fi rst respon- sibility. We seem to have turned our backs to it. Since 2009 the stock market has grown by 60 percent, GDP is up eight percent, and corporate profi t as percentage of national income is at a record high while median household income shriveled by fi ve percent. Any talk of reversing this trend through legislation is called “class warfare.” Since 1952 corporate taxes as share of all revenues has dropped from 33 percent to 9 percent. That’s class war- fare. Since 1963 the top personal income tax rate has fallen from 91 percent to 36.9 percent. That’s class warfare. We all tend to socialize and congregate with people about like ourselves. Congress does the same. It is a millionaire’s club that is demon- strably passing legislation in correla- tion with the views of wealthy Amer- ica. Intentional or not, that’s class warfare. Is a hedge fund manager or a schoolteacher more instrumental in forging future citizens? Even more infl ammatory is rais- ing the “socialism” bogeyman. In the Scandinavian countries income is dis- tributed more evenly. I’m not sure why. More signifi cantly they have the best education systems in the world. Their education investment begins in children from one to fi ve years old. They continue to support them by tracking them in high school and then making college affordable to qualifi ed students. These countries know how to prepare for their future. Maybe we can call it something besides socialism while still matching that dedication in taking care of America’s children. Our future and theirs depends on it. By MICHAEL GERSON Any Republican event convened by Rep. Steven King—he of “calves the size of cantaloupes” fame— could easily have degenerated into a festival of immigrant bashing. It is to the credit of the serious GOP presi- dential prospects in attendance that the Iowa Freedom Summit gener- ally was not. Yes, Donald Trump emerged from his stretch clown car to say that “half of them are criminals.” And King declared that protesting Dream Act supporters were from “the other planet.” But the Republican script in Iowa was mainly focused on criti- cizing President Obama’s immigra- tion executive actions rather than negatively characterizing illegal im- migrants themselves. Avoiding of- fensive language is admittedly a low bar. But it is progress for Republi- cans to realize that they are walking in a minefi eld instead of a meadow. The greatest hazard to Repub- lican prospects with rising demo- graphic groups came in the form of an argument rather than an epithet. Former Sen. Rick Santorum made the case that the GOP should be “the party of the worker.” Which is better than being the party of disdain for “takers” and the “47 percent.” But Santorum went on to claim that immigration has depressed the earn- ings of native-born Americans. “We need to stand for an immigration policy,” he said, “that puts Americans and American workers fi rst.” The campaign slogan “America fi rst,” it turns out, is already taken. But Santorum is proposing a seri- ous response to the GOP’s national electoral challenge. Republicans, in this view, need to shift their focus away from high earners to strug- gling middle- and working-class families; and they also need to choose between courting the work- ing class and courting Hispanic vot- ers, because immigrants take jobs and depress wages at the low end. The party of the worker therefore must be the party of immigration restrictionism. Santorum is often thoughtful; in this case, he is thoughtfully wrong. His economic case is overblown. Economists sift and dispute the evidence. But the long-term impact of immigration on native wages seems to be slight—slightly positive for those with a high school and some college education, slightly negative for those who don’t gradu- ate from high school. These effects, however, are overwhelmed by other economic trends, such as the ad- vance of technology and globalized labor markets. The white working class does have many problems, but competition from low-skilled im- migrants is not among the biggest ones. Effectively focusing on the white working class also buys into the no- tion that Republicans can win the presidency by running up the white vote. This might, for all I know, work in the next presidential election. If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee and gets 80 percent of the minority vote, Republicans would probably need about 63 percent of white voters. (The highest percent- age Republicans have ever gotten was Ronald Reagan’s 64 percent in 1984.) This is not impossible, with the right con- ditions and candidate. But be- cause the electorate is grow- ing less white over t i m e — by about two percent- age points every four years -- this strategy becomes harder and harder to implement. Mitt Romney won the white vote in a landslide—59 per- cent —and lost his election handily. Republicans, in other words, need the appeal of Reagan at his height to narrowly win the presidency in the current electorate. Eventually, even that will not be enough. It is one thing for a political analyst to recommend a get-out- the-whites strategy. But when this thought is consciously entertained by a politician, something disturbing has happened. We have too much tragic history with political lines drawn along ethnic and racial faults. The issue of immigration has a way of clarifying some of the deep- est beliefs of a political movement. Does it regard outsiders as poten- tial threats or potential allies? Does it empathize or dehumanize? The public character of a political fi gure is often judged by voters—especial- ly immigrant voters —intuitively, by signals and symbols. When arriving at a party, you generally know im- mediately if you are welcome or not. No effective reconstitution of the Republican Party’s appeal can begin with pessimism about the drawing power of Republican ideals. A party that has lost the ambition to con- vince is a party in decline. a box of soap (Don Vowell gets on his soapbox regularly in the Keizertimes.) Republicans in the immigrant minefi eld other views (Washington Post Writers Group)