PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 15, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Keizer’s best foot
Keizer is celebrating all weekend
long as Early Risers, the 2015 Iris
Festival, kicks into gear with a vari-
ety of events and activities to please
every family and every budget.
Saturday morning the Valley
Credit Service Iris Parade gets start-
ed at 10:30 a.m. at Lockhaven Drive
and River Road. Parade entries will
include a mix of favorites and new-
bies.
The grand marshal of the parade
is Steve Pfaff. A Keizer resident and
a past president of the Keizer Cham-
ber of Commerce, Pfaff chaired
the Iris Festival Parade commitee
for more than 13 non-consecutive
years. He has overseen the parade
from the early 1990s until last year.
The organizers of the Iris Fes-
tival parade have a solid history of
choosing the right grand marshal
each year; 2015 is no different. The
Iris Festival Council unanimously
choose Pfaff due to his important
imprint on one of Keizer’s biggest
events.
The festival seems to have found
a good home in central Keizer at the
Keizer Lions Club. Cherry Avenue
is closed from the club to Walery
Plaza. Parking for attendees didn’t
seem to an issue last year. This year
there will be a shuttle between the
Keizerfest area and parking at the
Sentry Insurance lot on Cherry Av-
enue across from Plymouth Drive.
For runners the Iris Festival is a
bonanza of choices. The pre-parade
5K and 3K Kidz runs down River
Road is succeeded on Sunday with
a marathon, a half marathon and a
10K run on starting at Keizerfest at
the Keizer Lions Club. The Sunday
runs have become very popular and
it’s hard to think they won’t eclipse
other festival events in the coming
years.
Besides events this weekend there
were Iris Festival events earlier this
month with the Keizer Volunteer
FireFighters Mother’s Day Breakfast
and the Keizer Distinguished Young
Woman program held at McNary
High School Saturday night. Fati-
ma Falcon and Cambria Rushton
were co-winners. Both will repre-
sent Keizer at the state program this
summer. The two were chosen out
of a fi eld of 21 women (all juniors)
who stepped outside their comfort
zones to speak before an audience
and perform a talent.
Beer lovers will have a grand
time at the Keizerfest Tent with fi ve
local breweries selling and sampling
their beers.
The community stage inside
the Lions Club hall will be fi lled
with lots of local talent including
elementary school choirs, dancers
and a performance of Always...Patsy
Cline by the Keizer Homegrown
Theatre.
It’s the middle of May. The irises
are blooming and Keizer is putting
its best foot forward again.
—LAZ
Commitment to
community
hand experience
of the Tran-
sit District as a
regular rider of
both the Cher-
riots scheduled
bus service and
the CherryLift service for disabled
riders.
Mr. Stevenson and I were origi-
nal members of the Transit District’s
Citizen’s Advisory Committee when
it was created in 2012. Mr. Steven-
son is one of the few of that origi-
nal committee who is still serving,
demonstrating true commitment to
transit in our community. He is now
the committee’s chairman. He has
attended many Transit Board meet-
ings since then, frequently offering
comments to the board pointing out
both our successes and our short-
comings, as well as suggesting sen-
sible improvements.
He is the best-qualifi ed candi-
date for this position. I believe Mr.
Stevenson will serve our board and
community well in the coming
years; with a voice that will both
support our successes and work to
overcome our shortcomings.
John Hammill
Salem-Keizer Transit
District director
Salem
To the Editor:
Betty L. Hart is running for Keiz-
er Rural Fire Protection District
Board, Position 5.
As the election days are coming
nearer, I wish to get the community
to take a closer look at Hart and
why she is the best choice.
Hart is a long-time volunteer
in both Marion and Polk coun-
ties. Hart understands public policy,
local government budgeting process,
and the role of a board. Hart has
experience in non-profi t fi nance
and has an extensive background
in engaging both counties in local
government activities and explain-
ing issues.
These are just a few of the reasons
why I am supporting Betty L. Hart
in her campaign for Keizer Rural
Fire Protection District Board, Posi-
tion 5.
I hope that you will join me in
backing Betty L. Hart.
Janeen L. Baker
Salem
Support for
Stevenson
To the Editor:
On May 19 voters in Keizer will
be selecting a new board member
for the Salem-Keizer Transit District
(subdistrict 2).
I recommend a vote for Richard
Stevenson. He has many years’ fi rst-
letters
The Keizertimes welcomes
all points of view.
E-mail to:
publisher@keizertimes.com
by noon each Tuesday
Paper’s endorsement is puzzling
By GREG EGO
While I support the right of the
Keizertimes to endorse candidates for
local elections, I believe you got it
wrong for Keizer Fire District Posi-
tion 4. Betty Hart is the better choice
to lead the fi re district with her con-
siderable knowledge of how it oper-
ates.
I am curious that there was no re-
sponse from candidate Taylor in your
article of May 8 (Fire board candidates
sound off) regarding the questions pre-
sented to the other four candidates.
Yet you chose to endorse him “due to
his call for changes in daily operations
of expensive equipment.”
What does that mean? Does he
believe the fi re district is doing it in-
correctly? What is his expertise to say
how we should deploy? Is it a matter
of other districts do it differently?
Keizer Fire responds to medi-
cal emergencies with an advanced
life support medic as well as an en-
gine. In many medical emergencies
it requires more than two people to
properly assess and treat on the scene.
Additionally, moving patients from
their predicament to the ambulance
requires more manpower. By send-
ing the on duty engine, both of these
areas are addressed. As the ambulance
leaves to trans-
port the patient
the engine is
then returned
to the station. In
the event of an-
other call, fi re or
medical, the en-
gine is available
to respond from the current scene
saving time.
Mr. Taylor does not state, nor does
your endorsement say, how he would
change the daily operations. Since
Keizer Fire is a transporting agency
we have little wiggle room in what
equipment we respond with. In some
departments, who do not provide
transport services, they have utilized
rapid response vehicles such as small
SUV’s. That works well if you are only
stabilizing patients and then returning
to the station. In the case of Keizer
Fire, rapid response vehicles would
require additional equipment and
manpower. We could not replace cur-
rent apparatus with smaller vehicles
because of our mission to transport
patients and be prepared to fi ght fi re.
We also need to maintain the current
staffi ng for our medic and engines.
While we do have a strong volunteer
program, Keizer Fire asks more of its
(Greg Ego is president of the Keizer
Fire District Board of Directors.)
By MICHAEL GERSON
The sign of a fi rst-rate intelligence,
according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, is “the
ability to hold two opposed ideas in
the mind at the same time, and still re-
tain the ability to function.” When it
comes to Islam and blasphemy, many
Americans are having trouble accept-
ing even consistent ones.
Under the law, blasphemy is fully
protected speech, precisely because
there is no public orthodoxy. Elevate
the crucifi x in a processional or dip
it in urine—the state neither genu-
fl ects nor cringes. The defense of
unpopular or offensive speech plays
a particularly important role in our
constitutional order; it defi nes the
expansive boundaries of First Amend-
ment guarantees. Religious people of
all backgrounds should recognize that
this legal neutrality on religion has
produced a society remarkably ame-
nable to religion. Those who attempt
to intimidate or silence the believer or
the blasphemer are attacking a central
tenet of the American creed. And if
they resort to violence, they may end
up as chalk outlines on the pavement.
At the same time: Under most moral
codes, setting out to demean or mock
the deepest, defi ning beliefs of your
neighbor is rude and cruel. While
permissible in our constitutional or-
der, it is ethically disordered behavior
-- malicious and dehumanizing. It is a
violation of the Golden Rule and all
its variants across the faiths. It deserves
protection but not sympathy.
There is no contradiction between
First Amendment absolutism and a
moral commitment to the cultivation
of mutual respect among the Abraha-
mic faiths (and outside them). Just as
there is no inconsistency between the
vigorous defense of America against
terrorists and a
respectful en-
gagement with
Islam. They are,
in fact, insepa-
rable.
I can hardly
be described as
a softy when it
comes to the global war against ter-
rorism. I participated in an adminis-
tration (headed by President George
W. Bush) that pursued this war aggres-
sively. Precisely for this reason, I know
that it can’t be won without Muslim
allies—loyal American citizens who
report suspicious activities; allies and
proxies who fi ght against violent Is-
lamism; hundreds of millions of Mus-
lims around the world who repudiate
Salafi sm by the peacefulness and toler-
ance of their daily lives.
When Americans engage in high-
profi le, attention-seeking acts of blas-
phemy, they are not joining American
military and intelligence forces at the
front line; they are complicating and
undermining their work. Al-Qaeda
and the Islamic State thrive on the
narrative of the West vs. Islam. Ameri-
ca and our Muslim allies benefi t from
the narrative of civilization vs. barba-
rism. Both radical Islamists and some
of their most vociferous American
critics share the same conviction:
that the most authentic form of Is-
lam is the most violent form. If this
view prevails in the Muslim world,
no amount of drone strikes or com-
mando raids will shield America and
our allies from eventual and serial ca-
tastrophe. The isolation rather than el-
evation of radical Islamism is essential
to the successful conduct of the war
against terrorism.
Modern technology has made the
job of ideological containment much
harder by creating a forum for end-
less provocation and offense taking,
not to mention radicalization and re-
cruitment. The alternative, however, is
not to demand that religious people
become less religious—a hopeless task
when much of the world will become
less secular in the 21st century.
What is needed is “theological
work,” according to the former chief
rabbi of the United Kingdom, Jona-
than Sacks. Speaking at a recent con-
ference of the Faith Angle Forum,
Sacks argued that religion remains
“the most powerful creator of groups,
stronger than ideology, race, nation-
alism.” When monotheism is tied to
dualism—the belief that history is a
cosmic confl ict between the children
of light and the children of dark-
ness—it becomes “the most danger-
ous doctrine ever invented,” allowing
people to “commit evil with a clean
conscience.”
Both Judaism and Christianity have
made progress over the centuries in
weeding out dualism—reinterpreting
their violent scriptural texts and fi nd-
ing resources of “respect for the other.”
For Christianity, this transition wasn’t
easy, involving the Reformation and
the Thirty Years’ War. But this bloody,
chaotic process eventually produced
a fl owering of powerful ideas in the
17th century: the social contract, hu-
man rights and liberty of conscience.
Islam is a younger faith, going
through a similar internal struggle.
Sacks believes that serious, sympa-
thetic dialogue among the Abrahamic
faiths can “speak to our better angels”
and challenge the violent narrative of
sibling rivalry. He may prove naive,
but it is certainly a better strategy than
mockery.
guest
opinion
volunteers than most districts and
adding additional response duties to
them is a stretch.
The current board has worked dili-
gently, through the staffi ng committee
process, to augment the staffi ng of the
fi re district. We have utilized SAFER
grants, Chemeketa student program
and a solid volunteer program to
provide excellent service to the com-
munity. Personnel costs represent the
largest share of the annual budget.
My second point is where does he
get his information on how we oper-
ate? In my 14 years on the fi re board,
I have not once seen Mr. Taylor at a
board meeting or budget committee
meeting. I can only surmise that his
information is second-hand and ac-
curacy of that information may be
compromised.
I believe Betty Hart is the better,
and right choice, for the Keizer Fire
District. She has been very involved
as evidenced by her attendance at
board meetings and budget meetings
as well as her work on our successful
levy campaigns. She has the knowl-
edge base to step in and offer excel-
lent guidance as the district moves
forward.
Seeking mutual respect amid confl ict
other
views
(Washington Post Writers Group)
Ohio’s Kasich is best candidate in 2016
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Any natural-born citizen of the
United States who has reached the age
of 35 years can be president. President
Obama, limited to two terms, must
leave the highest political offi ce in the
land with a new American taking his
place in January, 2017.
So far the Democrats have only
two who’ve declared their intentions
to run—Hillary Clinton and Bernie
Sanders—although others have indi-
cated interest, including Vice Presi-
dent Joe Biden.
On the Republican side, there are a
large number who’ve declared them-
selves as well as a number of others
who are, so to speak, “waiting in the
wings.”
Some of the GOP hopefuls include
those who seem at fi rst blush to be un-
likely to succeed. Mike Huckabee may
be the most well-known among the
unlikely as he is a by-the-Good-Book
evangelical conservative whose anti-
sentiments number several issues like
being against abortion, gay marriage
and gambling. He staunchly criticizes
mainstream media, Jay-Z, the “ick
factor” in gay relationships, adoption
of children by gays, and hawks quack
medicine. He scolded Obama and his
wife for letting their daughters listen
to Beyoncé and blames gay activists
for the Indiana governor’s reversal on
that state’s religious freedom act that
would have allowed-by-law, discrimi-
nation against gays in public business
establishments.
Another of those who chances are
slim is Ben Carson, the retired pedi-
atric neurosurgeon, who has become
a Obamacare scourge: he compares
the health care
program to slav-
ery.
Further,
he
compares
the U.S. under
Obama to Nazi
Germany and
the
Internal
Revenue Ser-
vice to the Gestapo. However, so far,
he is the only GOP black candidate.
Carly Firorna ran in California for
the U.S. Senate and lost and was also
ousted as CEO of Hewlett-Packard
after a highly questionable merger
and chief-in-charge of massive layoffs
at H-P. But, she is the only woman
GOP candidate so far.
Unannounced to date is the peren-
nial-one for president, Donald Trump,
aka The Donald, who reminds those
of us among the senior citizens set of
Harold Stassen who ran for the high-
est offi ce 12 times between 1940 and
2000. Trump offers the entertainment
factor and will be missed if he does not
enter the race as will Newt Gingrich,
who was casino billionaire Sheldon G.
Adelson’s man for president.
More serious, yet undeclared GOP
candidates are former governors Bob
Ehrlich of Maryland, Jim Gilmore of
Virginia, and George Pataki of New
York. Governor of Ohio, John Ka-
sich, who won re-election recently
with 64 percent of the votes, is con-
sidered a strong prospect if he chooses
to run. Less likely to make a success-
ful run since Bridgegate is Governor
Chris Christie of New Jersey and the
governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal,
who’s come across as weak and inde-
gene h.
mcintyre
cisive.
There are also the three mouseke-
teers who reside now in the U.S. Sen-
ate. They are Ted Cruz the bomb-
thrower, Rand Paul who has diffi culty
remembering what he said late week,
and Marco Rubio who’s glib but rep-
resents something like a Hollywood
set where there’s nothing beyond the
facade. They to a one lack experience
at managing anything beyond their
daddy’s rabblerousing, a small medical
offi ce or a state commissioner’s desk.
Personally, I prefer that we not
elect Bush No. 3 unless we’re going
to establish a U.S. royal family and
give them the White House. As for
the Clintons, they appear money- and
power-crazed and continue at na-
tional politics so they can become bil-
lionaires like the exclusive set of rich
bankers and corporate heads that are
thought to be their friends and com-
panions. Further, I shudder at the
thought of Bill turned loose in the
White House again to prey on young
female interns.
What we need is a governor who
has been able to do good things
for the citizens of his state.
First and foremost the name of a
viable occupant of the White House
who has done well at serving the peo-
ple of Ohio is Governor John Kasich
who has also served in Congress. He’s
a smart, middle-of-the-road Repub-
lican who knows how to manage a
large state government and works well
with all people.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)