PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 27, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Three men changing education
If Chuck Lee and John Honey get
students as excited about the Career
Technical Education Center (CTEC)
as adults, the facility will surpass all
expectations.
The Career Technical Education
Center—long a dream of the Salem-
Keizer School District—is scheduled
to open this fall on Portland Road.
Budget cuts of more than $120 million
a few years ago put the kabosh on the
district moving forward. It took the
zeal and vision of Larry Tokarski’s
Mountain West Investment Corp. to
provide $7 million to make the center
a reality.
Lee and Honey have been making
presentations around Keizer and Salem
to talk about the vision and creation of
CTEC. It is hard not to be infected by
their excitement and enthusiasm.
The CTEC will prepare students
for high-skill, high-wage jobs that will
be in high demand as millions of Baby
Boomers start to retire from positions
in the trades such as mechanics,
plumbing, construction, electrical and
the like. Accepted students will remain
enrolled at their resident high schools;
they will take advanced electives as
well as math and English at CTEC.
The fi rst classes will begin this
fall. The goal is enroll up to 200
students, with an eventual student
body of 1,000 within fi ve years. The
fi rst class will fi nd a large remodeled
facility. Students will have access to
transportation from their own high
schools to CTEC. They will also be
able to continue to be involved with
extracurricular activities such as sports
and the arts.
At the Career Technical Education
Center students can earn up to 35
total credits over a two-year period.
They will take classes, many taught
by experts, will take them from
introduction to manufacturing and
onto skills that are vital in the trades
including reading blueprints, precision
measuring and hands-on building.
The number one concern
of owners of construction and
manufacturing companies is their need
to replace retiring employees and not
being able to identify skilled workers.
The education center addresses that
concern head on. High schools will
always graduate a number of students
who wish to attend college and
enter a non-trade career: fi nance, law,
medicine, etc. The Career Technical
Education Center is an excellent
option for those who don’t wish to be
a lawyer or doctor but want to make a
good living.
Chuck Lee and John Honey bring
many years of educational experience
to their task of creating the center
and getting it operational. Lee, until
recently, was president of Blanchet
Catholic School and sits on the Salem-
Keizer School Board; Honey was
principal of both McNary and North
Salem high schools.
Lee, Honey and Tokarski are
a formidable team creating an
educational facility not found
anywhere else in the country. Due
to their vision Salem and Keizer are
on the cutting edge of vocational
education. We’re excited and we want
our kids to be excited, too.
—LAZ
By REP. BILL
POST
Things are
from the
moving quickly
capitol
here in the legis-
lature these days.
One short check By BILL POST
of the Oregon
Legislative In-
formation System (OLIS) where you
can see every bill, where they are and
everything on committees and fl oor
sessions and you will fi nd some of the
craziest ideas you can possibly imag-
ine. Everything from fi nes for large
gatherings in the forests, to banning
“Sharia law” in Oregon, to “animal
porn,” to....well, you get it. It seems
when one gets elected, one is supposed
to write all kinds of bills. I just don’t
get this burning desire to create more
laws. They may have the best of inten-
tions but it’s just more laws. I want to
cut government restrictions and red
tape and chip away at the already-too-
numerous laws we have now.
One bill I did introduce, HB 2969,
is a bill to help out small businesses
across the state. Last week it was voted
unanimously out of committee and
hopefully will be voted on in the
House soon.
So let’s take a look at a hot topic is-
sue from the last couple weeks. Educa-
tion: The amount of emails I get over-
all is pretty high and I answer them
all, but education
is by far the topic
I hear the most
about. The word
on the street is
that the legisla-
ture is “cutting
the K-12 bud-
get.” That is not
true, so don’t buy into that.
There are many of us in the build-
ing who want to increase funding for
K-12 to $7.5 billion. Yes, you read that
right—billion. Instead of that, howev-
er, leadership has started the negotia-
tions at just over $7 billion, and then
schools are required to provide all-day
kindergarten.
On top of that, I just found out
about HB 3390, what I call College
for Convicts. Yes, $9,500 a year for
three years so convicts can get a col-
lege degree. I’m not opposed to the
concept but not at the expense of our
kids.
So fi nally, I want you to know that
my offi ce is really your offi ce. Please
call my staff anytime and schedule a
visit or if you have a high school stu-
dent who would fi nd it interesting to
be an honorary page for a day, please
contact us. Thank you for allowing me
to serve you.
Too many bills
(Bill Post represents House District
25. He can be reached at 503-986-
1425 or via email at rep.billpost@
state.or.us)
Keizertimes
Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303
phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com
NEWS EDITOR
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Craig Murphy
editor@keizertimes.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Eric A. Howald
news@keizertimes.com
One year:
$25 in Marion County,
$33 outside Marion County,
$45 outside Oregon
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Publication No: USPS 679-430
ADVERTISING
Paula Moseley
POSTMASTER
advertising@keizertimes.com
Send address changes to:
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Andrew Jackson
graphics@keizertimes.com
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Lyndon A. Zaitz
publisher@keizertimes.com
Keizertimes Circulation
142 Chemawa Road N.
Keizer, OR 97303
BUSINESS MANAGER
Laurie Painter
billing@keizertimes.com
OFFICE INTERN
Periodical postage paid at
Salem, Oregon
Allie Kehret
LEGAL NOTICES
legals@keizertimes.com
facebook.com/keizertimes
twitter.com/keizertimes
Anti-vaccination forces hurt all
Rude awakenings, it was once
believed, were reserved for other
states in our nation. Now we know
from recent events that the one ex-
ceptional state, Oregon, is no lon-
ger of privileged status as was true in
former years. Our former governor
has taken a dive for a girlfriend and
it turns out that he may have had
a lot of state administrators helping
him, those apparently willing to be
bossed around by the former gover-
nor’s fi ancee.
But the most threatening among
the changes that have come to Or-
egon of late is that which decries
vaccinations and the immunizations
against disease that are afforded by
them. In the West, specifi cally west-
ern Europe, experimentation with
ways to control disease date back
to the 1700s when successful means
were found to rid the population of
smallpox. Other efforts followed
and enabled people and their chil-
dren to avoid diseases that promised
certain death in years past.
The means to control polio came
to be in my lifetime. It was a truly
dreaded malady that took away a
victim’s ability to breathe outside
an “iron lung” and other forms
of paralysis that deprived those so
contracted with not being able to
carry on with lives resembling nor-
mality. Jonas Salk was recognized as
a hero throughout the nation and
that meant a lot of grateful Orego-
nians, too. I remember well how I
hoped for years
I would not
get polio and
gene h. then escaped
worry af-
mcintyre that
ter
receiving
my dose of pre-
vention.
B
u
t
what matter of madness do we en-
dure now? People who will not
permit vaccinations against serious,
death-threatening diseases for their
children, themselves and the en-
tire population. What has caused
so many among us to ignore the
consequences of dangerous, termi-
nating illnesses? Frankly, I have no
answer to my nagging question. I
can guess at the reasons but suggest
that the greatest, the most compel-
ling reason for vaccinations has to
do with humanity: the founda-
tion for perpetuating a civilized
world, one where the very survival
of humans is at stake.
As a child I heard none of the
bizarre screams and yells directed
at enlightened medical doctors
and Oregon leaders whose laws
that bring health protections to all
persons living in this state. Those
against it must hail from times long
past where ignorance ruled and sci-
ence was yet unknown.
Meanwhile, way beyond disap-
pointment is what’s felt about those
caved Oregon legislators who sur-
rendered their integrity to the
wanton few who came to Salem to
protest what could have been public
health protections through required
vaccinations. It’s not understood
what these representatives see as
their job when they turn their backs
on public safety for the majority
to practice cowardice in response to
the few misguided among us.
One TV host has suggested that
we not acquire our health infor-
mation from talk show hosts, radio
nutcases or “Google University.”
Rather, he went on to say, look to
medical graduates who attended
medical schools with accreditation.
Then there’s the very wise quip
about those who forget history be-
ing destined to repeat it and the
wise doctor who asks whether you
remember the time you got polio:
“Of course you don’t, because your
grandparents got your parents vac-
cinated who in turn got you vac-
cinated.” But this kind of logic is
unfortunately too obscure for those
among us who prefer darkness over
light.
Incidentally, it would have to be
a rather brainless God to discourage
people from inventing and using
vaccinations. If God weren’t smart,
don’t you see, he’d not have cre-
ated a humankind that could save
itself. After all, he had already made
a huge mistake with the dinosaurs.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s columns ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
Hillary’s Nixonian path to offi ce
By MICHAEL GERSON
The effective kickoff of Hillary
Clinton’s presidential campaign was
an act of deck clearing so breathtak-
ing, so brazen, that it remains diffi -
cult to process.
A former secretary of state sum-
moned reporters to the United
Nations, made a statement on Iran
nuclear negotiations, then admitted
deleting more than 30,000 emails
she deemed personal from the ac-
count she exclusively used while in
offi ce. This was the culmination of a
deliberate, multiyear end run around
congressional oversight, the Freedom
of Information Act and the archiving
of federal records. Documents she
found inconvenient to sort while in
government were convenient to de-
stroy after leaving offi ce.
Those looking for a historical par-
allel turned, inevitably, to one fi gure.
According to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-
Calif., Clinton is “a modern, Dem-
ocratic Richard Nixon.” “Nixon
didn’t burn the tapes,” tweeted Joe
Scarborough, “but Hillary deleted
the emails.” Politico’s Todd Purdum
did a careful historical comparison
to Nixon, fi nding Clinton similarly
“suspicious, defensive, contemptuous
of the press and scornful of political
adversaries.”
Clinton’s email housecleaning
—barring future revelations—may
work. She seems to have effectively
navigated the gray areas of federal
rules to avoid transparency. But Re-
publicans clearly hope the Nixonian
label—which some in the media
fi nd credible—will stick. They be-
lieve the email controversy, while
not politically fatal in isolation, will
add to the composite image of a can-
didate driven by secrecy and resent-
ment, surrounded by a ruthless pal-
ace guard and convinced that rules
apply only to others.
A Republican candidate for presi-
dent in 2016 (like every candidate
for president) will need to nega-
tively characterize his or her oppo-
nent. But the narrative of Clinton as
Nixon under-
estimates both
leaders.
First, the
obvious: Nix-
on won two
p re s i d e n t i a l
elections, after
being associat-
ed with low political tactics (against
Helen Gahagan Douglas) and a series
of scandals (including a political do-
nation controversy that nearly forced
his resignation as vice president, and
a political favoritism scandal some-
how involving his brother Donald
and Howard Hughes). Well before
Watergate, Nixon was not viewed
as an ethical paragon. But he was
generally viewed as smart, tenacious,
tough and knowledgeable about the
world. Which sounds familiar.
The context of Nixon’s two pres-
idential victories (1968 and 1972)
was unique. For many Americans,
Nixon represented social order in
a frightening world of riots, assassi-
nations and bell-bottom jeans. But
a reputation for toughness was also
seen as a presidential qualifi cation
during the Cold War, and Nixon
(who had gone toe to toe with Ni-
kita Khrushchev in the “kitchen de-
bate”) benefi ted from the contrast
to Hubert Humphrey and George
McGovern.
The comparison to Clinton can
certainly be overplayed. By all ac-
counts, she lacks Nixon’s personal
awkwardness and strangeness. But
a portion of the characterization
“Nixonian” is a compliment: hard-
working, untiring, relentless. While
another portion—wary, secretive,
ruthless—can lead down some dark
alleys.
Right now, Clinton is generally
benefi ting, not suffering, from this
reputation. The next president, from
either party, will need to provide a
contrast of strength and purpose to
President Obama’s foreign policy
of disengagement that has resulted
in disaster and led to inadequate,
other
views
ad hoc responses. Despite her asso-
ciation with the failed “Russian re-
set,” Clinton is generally positioned
to Obama’s interventionist right on
foreign policy matters (especially
on Syria). She is a Democrat who
would be seen as a tougher, more
responsible alternative to her former
employer.
And this reputation is also help-
ing Clinton within her party. Her
pre-campaign has been rusty—her
awkward book tour, her claim that
she left offi ce “fl at broke,” her exor-
bitant speaking fees, her foundation’s
acceptance of donations by foreign
governments. Democratic concerns
about her skills are real; but public
criticisms are rare and mild. Some
of this refl ects Clinton’s position as
a prohibitive front-runner, but some
is also the intimidating effect of her
style of politics. No Democrat wants
to be on the wrong list.
Clinton is not unbeatable, but the
effort to label her as Nixonian will
not beat her. Republicans face a very
diffi cult electoral map; their party is
still viewed more negatively than the
alternative; they have managed to
alienate large numbers of working-
class and minority voters; and all of
their prospective presidential candi-
dates are currently losing to Clinton
by double digits.
If the next election is viewed by
Republicans as a referendum on
Hillary Clinton’s scandals—and this
distracts from the task of reconsti-
tuting the Republican message and
appeal—then Clinton may take the
Nixonian path to the Oval Offi ce.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
The Keizertimes welcomes
all points of view.
Send a letter to the editor (300
words) to the Keizertimes.
Deadline for submissons
is noon each Tuesday.
E-mail to:
publisher@keizertimes.com