PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Squeezing money from lemons
The 2014 inagural year of Lem-
onade Day in Keizer and Salem was
the most successful the junior en-
trepeneur organization has ever had.
Out of 100 cities across the nation
our area signed up more kids and
raised more money than any other
city in its fi rst year. Last year, more
than one million kids across the
country were involved.
Lemonade Day, born in Houston,
is a project that teaches kids about
business and entrepeneurship. With
guidance from the organizers and
assistance from parents or guardians,
kids (late elementary and middle
school age) devise a lemonade re-
ceipe and create a stand.
Kids are encouraged to be as
creative as they want to be. They
learn lessons in planning and oper-
ating their own little business for a
day. They are asked to split the day’s
profi ts three ways: one share to
their own education fund, one share
for spending money and one share
to a charity or non-profi t organiza-
tion of their choosing.
Oregon State Lemonade Day di-
rector Chip Conrad, an entrepeneur
himself, added Portland and Eugene
to the list of cities across the nation
that will join the day this year. The
kick-off cermony for Lemonade
Day 2015 will be held at IKE Box
in downtown Salem on Tuesday,
March 3 at 6 p.m.
Keizer parents should encourage
their kids to be involved with Lem-
onade Day. It gives kids—either in-
didivually or with a team—impor-
tant lessons that can be expanded as
their grow. The primary lesson kids
learn is that seeing a project through
has a pay-off. At the end of Lemon-
ade Day kids will have some money
in the pocket.
Millions of kids across the na-
tion over the past century have set
up lemonade stands in front of their
houses on hot days, hoping to make
a little pocket change. Lemonade
Day puts that concept on steroids.
Last year some of the lemonade
stands were a labor of youthful cre-
ativity. Some young entrepeneurs
staked out high traffi c areas. The
wind and cold rain did not deter the
young business people from having
fun and learning how a business
works.
At the March 3 kick-off cer-
emony kids will hear from local
supporters and sample examples of
lemonade. They will get their fi rst
taste of being a business person by
learning the 14 steps to becoming a
successful entrepeneur.
Lemonade Day has real world
applications. By learning early the
lessons of setting goals, planning and
follow through, kids will be armed
with knowledge that will make
them valuable in the teen-job mar-
ket as well as a productive member
of society.
While the project empowers
youth, organizers say that help is
needed from adults in the commu-
nity, including fi nancial donations
to defray the hard costs as well as
mentors to their own kids or others.
Each child who registers for Lem-
onade Day will receive materials
from the organizers that offers step
by step advise from having an idea
to saving and sharing their profi ts.
The project is a good lesson for
kids to understand where money
goes and where it comes from and
that having money is not always as
easy as asking mom and dad for a
few extra bucks. When a kid earns
their own money, the rewards are
more than fi nancial.
—LAZ
Lost wars – before
they start
in a very pre-
carious situa-
tion. The re-
cent battles and
gains in Iraq
have been lost
due to this in-
competence
and a president with no Commander
in Chief ability. Someone please ex-
plain the justifi cation for over 4,000
dead and over 30.000 with lost limbs
to me.
In my opinion, violence is the in-
herent sign of human ignorance. We
have been displaying it for centuries
because of failed and fl awed leader-
ship. So here we go again.
John P. Rizzo
Keizer
To the Editor:
I am a veteran of the Vietnam War,
if you can call it a war. How can you
explain a superpower fi ghting a poor
third world country for 10 years?
More than 55,000 Americans killed,
thousands wounded with a few hun-
dred thousand Vietnamese killed.
The war was fought mostly in South
Vietnam until the last few weeks
when President Nixon was forced to
bomb the enemy in the North and
end the war. B-52s carpet bombed
all over South Vietnam for years leav-
ing craters 30 to 40 feet in diameter
leaving wide areas looking like the
surface of the moon. I know as a he-
licopter pilot who fl ew over it. I was
young when I volunteered for the
military at age 19. If I knew even as
a very patriotic American how that
war was going to be fought, I would
have never signed up.
The Iraq Wars were another
military disaster. We told Saddam
we were coming for months as we
built up our military on his border.
Where was the surprise attack with
no warning, destroying his palaces,
military and infrastructure prior to
a ground attack? Then before we
sent in the missiles and bombers we
named it Shock and Awe like some
video game? I fi nd it hard to believe
the U.S. military; the Pentagon op-
erates with such incompetence with
the lives of our men and women
soldiers. If it was necessary to attack
Iraq, we should have hit Saddam like
President Reagan hit Libya with no
warning and devastating force. We
may not have even needed ground
troops—and stop calling them boots
on the ground. These people are our
professional soldiers with lives and
families, they are not military-issued
dispensable pieces of equipment.
Now the Pentagon is advertis-
ing ISIS of a new attack on Mosul
Iraq coming in April with a force of
25,000. That gives the terrorists two
months to prepare and maximize
their killing effectiveness. I am sorry
to say but based on what I have seen
and participated in, the Pentagon
does not know how to engage an
enemy from the perspective of a su-
perpower. The way wars have been
fought the last decades and especially
the last few years have left the world
letters
Cheaper surface
at Big Toy
To the Editor:
After reading your article on the
surface changes and its impact to the
budget I feel it’s worth pointing out
that ADA compliant does not mean
something is accessible to everyone,
or even most people.
The Americans with Disabilities
Act is written to cover a large popu-
lation of disabilities, but the real-
ity still is that Keizer does not have
a park that is easily accessible to the
most disabled.
While I understand that fund-
ing needs to be considered, the en-
gineered wood fi ber is still not the
same as a poured surface. Keizer talks
a lot about its community and its
support for its kids. Still to this day
we do not have a playground where
children with severe physical disabili-
ties can play alongside their peers on
the playground. Instead children in
wheelchairs must sit on the sidelines
or fi nd other activities.
Think about what it would be like
to have to sit with your child in a
wheelchair while they watch their
siblings and friends play. Or what it
would be like as a disabled parent or
grandparent to be stuck outside the
play area far from your loved ones. As
an employee in Keizer and a former
resident, I feel that to be a true com-
munity Keizer has to be inclusive to
all.
Jared Weekly
Salem
Keizertimes
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Lyndon A. Zaitz, Editor & Publisher
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Things to fret about in early ‘15
By DON VOWELL
Productivity seems to have faded
since my entrance into the Medicare
phase of life. Or maybe it is increasing
embarrassment owed to a more real-
istic assessment of the worth of these,
um, dissertations. Whatever. It still
seems harder to faithfully adhere to a
bi-weekly schedule. So we’ll go with
several weeks’ worth of mini-gripes
bundled.
Gas prices have not only yo-yoed
by a nonsensical amount in the last
several months, you can also fi nd 30
cents variance just by driving around
Marion County. In what is probably
a designed attack, you accomplish
only complete befuddlement by seek-
ing justifi cation for these price swings.
On one day you can read that U.S. oil
reserves are at an all-time high, prices
must go up because of switch to sum-
mer gasoline blends, Saudis have ruled
out reduction in production no mat-
ter the price decline, and airlines have
not responded with cheaper tickets.
Chatter about supply and demand
seems frivolous. There is one thing
you can count on: If cheap gasoline is
good for the American public and bad
for Wall Street investing, then prices
will go up.
As of Feb. 16, our lawn is twice-
mown in 2015. Admittedly the fi rst
trim was only to impress visiting fam-
ily, but not the second. Overwhelm-
ing
scien-
tifi c evidence
that
Mari-
on
County
warming
is
arriving faster
than skeptics
can deny.
I hope I am eventually proven
wrong but Gov. Kitzhaber’s remov-
al has a faint fl avor of lynching. He
has been charged with nothing and
neither has Cylvia Hayes, though it
seems more likely in her case. So I
am left to believe that if leaders of
the Democratic Party regretfully
asked him to step aside it was because
they were able to spot some fi re be-
neath all the smoke. That leaves me
yet wondering what happens if Gov.
Kitzhaber is eventually found to have
broken no law. Sorry, man, about the
public fl aying and ruthless speculation
about your relationship with Cyl-
via Hayes. That could be a factor in
his resignation—a reportedly private
man had his life laid bare. Could you
endure that? Why would any public
offi cial sacrifi ce all hope of privacy in
order to hold his/her offi ce? There
are some crimes and character failings
that obviously disqualify offi cials and
lawmakers from serving. We should
name them.
In the month’s most serious beef I
am completely fed up with the gigan-
a box
of
soap
tic new Coke “Freestyle” machines
found in fast food places and even a
local grocery store. My hometown
had genuine soda fountains. A cherry
coke was a glass of soda with a mea-
sure of Coke syrup and a smaller mea-
sure of cherry syrup, an occasionally
perfect mix.
In marches progress. In an attempt
to be all things to all soda junkies
these machines offer about 125 drink
choices to customers. The fi rst prob-
lem is obvious. A bank of eight dis-
pensers is replaced by one. You wait in
line behind customers dealing, some
for the fi rst time, with a slightly tem-
peramental and complicated touch-
screen. In the last few weeks I have
been to fi ve places whose shiny new
machines were out of Cherry Coke.
In order to cut down on labor, the fi ve
gallon bag-in-a-box syrups have been
replaced with syrup cartridges similar
to printer toner/ink cartridges. Lord
Google says that merchants some-
times must replace two or three of
these cartridges during a heavy lunch
rush. They aren’t. When I asked at
the counter I got a shrug. I returned
disheartened to my sticky table. Em-
blematic of the American rush toward
profi t over service.
Grumble, grumble, grumble. See
you next time.
(Don Vowell gets on his soapbox
regularly in the Keizertimes.)
Kitz or Brown, people will have views
My mother-in-law, bless her de-
parted soul, had a few choice expres-
sions she liked to share. One of them
had to do with chronic complainers
about whom she’d comment, “He
would even complain if he were
hung with a new rope.” That seems
fi tting for those folks who the very
day Katherine H. Brown was sworn in
as Oregon’s 38th governor already de-
cided she will not work out and offers
only more grief to them.
As far as Oregon history is con-
cerned, during the last 75 years, a pe-
riod of time that includes the birth of
most Oregonians alive today, the state’s
voters have selected a Republican for
governor nine times and a Democrat
eight times. That means, one may
surmise, based on all the complain-
ing about another Democrat in the
person now of Gov. Brown, that there
have been as many Republicans to
grouse about “another Democrat!” as
in former years the other party took
pity on themselves. The bottom line
is that Oregon has been as inclined
to elect one party to lead the state as
the other, which says there’s been a
fair amount of moderation and even-
handedness in Oregon.
Meanwhile, offered here are sam-
ples of complaints that appeared in
mid-Valley newspapers the day after
Gov. Brown took offi ce:
• “Morals will further decline.
More people will gain from gifts from
the government, enslaving more.”
• “I think that, given the fact
that Kate Brown is even further to
the left than
John Kitzhaber,
things will de-
cline in Oregon
as we’ll see a
new wave of tax
hikes that will
drain
much-
needed
funds
from our economy and new laws that
will put even greater restrictions on
our basic freedoms.”
• “I doubt there will be much
change with Kate Brown as gover-
nor because we’ll still have the same
elected offi cials in offi ce. That is, un-
less The Oregonian and/or Willamette
Week make unsubstantiated allegations
against one or some of them, starting
another slanderous feeding frenzy and
resignations(s).”
• And, among so many slanderously
negative others, “I think Oregon will
decline socially under Kate Brown.. .
because of her refusal to put Jessica’s
Law on the fl oor of the Senate.”
If we did not pay attention or al-
ready forgot what Gov. Brown said
in her prepared speech on Feb.18, let’s
remember what she said she would
do as governor of Oregon: “I have
sought to promote transparency and
trust in government, working to build
confi dence that our public dollars are
spent wisely. As your governor, this
will not change. I will be a governor
who wants to hear the concerns of ev-
eryday Oregonians. We must restore
the public trust.
“I pledge to you today that for as
gene h.
mcintyre
long as I am governor, I will not seek
or accept any outside compensation
from any source. And I pledge fur-
ther that while I am the governor, the
members of my household and mem-
bers of my staff will not seek or ac-
cept any outside compensation, from
any source, for any work related to the
business of the state of Oregon. That
simply will not happen.”
Further, she said she wants to pass
legislation that strengthens the Ore-
gon Government Ethics Commission
and strengthen laws to ensure timely
release of public documents.
So, can you extinguish your torch-
es and put away your pitchforks oh
ye disgruntled Oregonians and not
look for them again unless Gov. Brown
does not keep her word. For the mo-
ment, her words have made some very
worthy promises to us; ones she vows
to keep. For gosh sakes, let’s give her
a chance to guide us further along the
pioneering trail for which Oregon
has been known, save for a recent
bump, to practice clean government
since 1859.
Incidentally, for those seeking to
fi nd good works in the Brown admin-
istration, you can look to a press con-
ference she held two days after tak-
ing offi ce, something her predecessor
never did and seldom otherwise held
one. Further, she treated the journal-
ists attending with respect and consid-
eration, not like the apparent natter-
ing nabobs of no account view from
ones held by the previous governor.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column
appears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
A new representative’s perspective
By REP. BILL POST
This has been quite the month in
the Oregon Legislature. These days
have been full of meetings, commit-
tee hearings, fl oor votes, and I’ve felt
like I am drinking from a fi re hose.
I am extremely honored to be rep-
resenting you in the legislature, and
have done my best to ask the ques-
tions that you and your family might
ask if you were listening in on these
discussions. During one committee,
a person was expressing the value of
a certain bill, and I just had to ask
“What’s broken here?” because in
my mind, if it isn’t broken, don’t fi x
it.
I have been assigned to two com-
mittees: the Judiciary Committee
and the Rural Community, Land
Use and Water Committee. There
are lots of people coming around
my offi ce, wanting to bend my ear
on their pet issue, and while I often
listen, the people I like to hear from
most are you and your neighbors.
I personally answer every e-mail I
receive from constituents and it is
really good to hear your thoughts
on issues and how draft legislation
might impact your families.
There have been more than 1,700
bills introduced so far this session,
and there will probably be many
more. I know I can’t fi x everything
by being here as your state represen-
tative but here are a couple bills I’ve
introduced:
HB2969 is a bill to cut through
some red tape and help small busi-
nesses. The other bill is HB3051,
which would provide concealed
handgun license reciprocity. It seems
to me that if you have a drivers li-
cense
from
another state
and can drive
your car le-
gally
into
Oregon, you
should
be
able to do the
same
thing
with a concealed weapon if you are
properly licensed.
You have probably been follow-
ing the news about the governor.
All I can say is that this has been a
historic moment for our state. Both
the House and the Senate have been
passing bills and working hard, but
there has been a vacuum of execu-
tive leadership in all this. Now that
Kate Brown has been sworn in as
our 38th governor, I hope we can
from the
state
capitol
move forward on behalf of all Or-
egonians.
This week a group of retired citi-
zens came for a tour of the Capi-
tol building and I was able to speak
with them for a few minutes. One
thing I stressed to them was “This is
your building.” Currently my name
is on the front of my desk on the
fl oor, but at some point it will just
be a little brass plaque on the side,
joining a long list of other represen-
tatives who are long forgotten. I am
here to work for you—please don’t
hesitate to contact my offi ce, come
by for a tour, or sit in on a fl oor ses-
sion or committee.
(Bill Post represents the 25th
House district which includes
Keizer. He can reached at 503-986-
1425 or via email at rep.billpost@
state.or.us. )