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AUGUST 4, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Why inclusivity matters The biggest struggle I encountered as a volunteer tutor to adults studying for their GED tests was fi guring out ways to make the lessons relevant to their lives. I came away from many lessons feeling as though I'd done as well as I could, but one night in particular I caught lightning in a bottle. The topic that evening was using and interpreting implication and inference in language. I'm not sure what my original lesson plan was, but it became apparent that my charges were struggling as I stumbled through it. Fortunately, another idea appeared, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of my original plan. We began talking about the fi rst three words of the Constitution, “We the people,” and how the implied and inferred meanings of those words changed over time as it relates to citizenship and voting. When the document was drafted “the people” implied Protestant, property-owning, heterosexual, white males. As is the way of such things, the people made things worse before it got better. Here are some of the obstacles to voting that had to be cleared in the past 241 years: • Limiting citizenship to “free white” immigrants (1790). • Removing property ownership requirements (1856). • Denying voting rights based on race (1870). • Allowing women to vote (1920). • Granting voting rights to all Native Americans (1947). • Forbidding the use of discriminatory tactics such as voting taxes, literacy tests and intimidation (1965). Note: It took the murder of three voting rights activists – two white and one black – to spur President Lyndon Johnson to action. The authors of the Constitution wrote “people” and assumed the rest of us would understand what they meant. They probably meant “people just like us” but that isn't what was written – intended or not. Unfortunately, in times of fear or uncertainty, we keep trying to jam modifi ers into a text that allows for none. That is what I told my students that night. The current president would like us to believe that the way to move forward is to go backward, whether it be at the ballot box, at colleges and universities, in the armed forces or simply in the streets. There are obviously a number of people who agree with him, but doing so negates the blood, sweat and tears of so many who fought to get us to this point. Attempting to counteract their work is no different than denying the heroism of an American Muslim or transgender soldier. In recent months, some residents of Keizer have taken up the banner of inclusivity and desire the city to make some formal statement regarding its stance against problems like racism, discrimination, bullying, violence and exclusion. The idea has come under attack from those who are concerned about immigration policy and others who believe that behavior cannot be legislated. But I have another group of students as well – teenagers at McNary High School with an interest in creative writing. For six years, a steady trickle of them have walked through the door bringing with them all the turmoil that high school entails. There's been no shortage of them who struggle with issues of identity in all its forms. A few years ago, a sign went up along River Road predicting otherworldly judgment on a Supreme Court that decided same- sex marriage was a right of the people. The implied message was that if you aspired to such a thing, you too, were damned. I went to the club meeting that week hoping none of my students had seen it and knowing for certain some of them would have. Despite all my individual efforts to create an inclusive space, the message right outside the door was that some of them were not welcome. None of them brought it up, but what I needed in that moment was something I could not give them: an assurance that not everyone supported the message written and implied by the words on a reader board. An inclusivity resolution would be just words, but words matter. Words signal thought. And belief is honed through thought. If Keizer had something like an inclusivity resolution when that sign went up, I would have had a plan when I went to the Write Club meeting that week. I would have told them, “Yes, there are those who think differently out there, but look here at these words. Your city has your back.” No inference necessary. Eric A. Howald is the managing editor of Keizertimes. moments of lucidity Who keeps saying ‘it’s not like old times?’ came back to pick up my mail when I heard, “Don, I have some frying pans for you.” This came from Missy Davis, our all around excellent cook, server, in charge of the kitchen, meals, menus and personal duties that would stagger most people. “Don, which one do you like, large, or medium sized pan?” “Wow that’s quick service. I’ll take the medium one.” “When you are through just return it to the kitchen,” Missy said as she scurried to her restaurant work. Now this goes back to my original statement—For all of you who keep saying, “It’s not like the old times.” “No. It’s better,” is my answer for people who care and act for someone else. Donald Adams Keizer letters This true story certainly expresses people who care, are concerned and are willing to go out of the way to help: I gave my note, ‘I would like to know if the kitchen would lend me a fry pan?” to our server at the dinning area in Willamette Lutheran Retirement Community as she took our breakfast order. Before she came back with my breakfast, Eric (Human Resources) came over to me and said, “Don, Missy (Melissa Davis, Dietary Offi ce) is out but she will be in touch with you this afternoon.” “Thank you,” I said and to my table mate Glenda, “They sure are quick and personal around here.” I had several business calls and I was out until after lunch time when I Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com MANAGING EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS Eric A. Howald editor@keizertimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Derek Wiley news@keizertimes.com One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY ADVERTISING Publication No: USPS 679-430 Paula Moseley advertising@keizertimes.com POSTMASTER Send address changes to: PRODUCTION MANAGER Andrew Jackson Keizertimes Circulation graphics@keizertimes.com 142 Chemawa Road N. LEGAL NOTICES Keizer, OR 97303 legals@keizertimes.com EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com BUSINESS MANAGER Laurie Painter billing@keizertimes.com Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon RECEPTION Lori Beyeler facebook.com/keizertimes twitter.com/keizertimes Shall we fi ght them all? PATRICK J. BUCHANAN Saturday, Kim Jong Un tested an ICBM of suffi cient range to hit the U.S. mainland. He is now working on its accuracy, and a nuclear warhead small enough to fi t atop that missile that can survive re-entry. Unless we believe Kim is a suicidal madman, his goal seems clear. He wants what every nuclear power wants -- the ability to strike his enemy’s homeland with horrifi c impact, in order to deter that enemy. Kim wants his regime recognized and respected, and the U.S., which carpet-bombed the North from 1950-1953, out of Korea. Where does this leave us? Says Cliff Kupchan of the Eurasia Group, “The U.S. is on the verge of a binary choice: either accept North Korea into the nuclear club or conduct a military strike that would entail enormous civilian casualties.” A time for truth. U.S. sanctions on North Korea, like those voted for by Congress last week, are not going to stop Kim from acquiring ICBMs. He is too close to the goal line. And any pre-emptive strike on the North could trigger a counterattack on Seoul by massed artillery on the DMZ, leaving tens of thousands of South Koreans dead, alongside U.S. soldiers and their dependents. We could be in an all-out war to the fi nish with the North, a war the American people do not want to fi ght. Saturday, President Trump tweeted out his frustration over China’s failure to pull our chestnuts out of the fi re: “They do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem.” Sunday, U.S. B-1B bombers fl ew over Korea and the Pacifi c air commander Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy warned his units were ready to hit North Korea with “rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force.” Yet, also Sunday, Xi Jinping reviewed a huge parade of tanks, planes, troops and missiles as Chinese offi cials mocked Trump as a “greenhorn President” and “spoiled child” who is running a bluff against North Korea. Is he? We shall soon see. According to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump vowed Monday he would take “all necessary measures” to protect U.S. allies. And U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley bristled, “The time for talk is over.” Are we headed for a military showdown and war with the North? The markets, hitting records again Monday, don’t seem to think so. But North Korea is not the only potential adversary with whom our relations are rapidly deteriorating. After Congress voted overwhelmingly for new sanctions on Russia last week and Trump agreed to sign the bill that strips him of authority to lift the sanctions without Hill approval, Russia abandoned its hopes for a rapprochement with Trump’s America. Sunday, Putin ordered U.S. embassy and consulate staff cut by 755 positions. The Second Cold War, begun when we moved NATO to Russia’s borders and helped dump over a pro-Russian regime in Kiev, is getting colder. Expect Moscow to reciprocate Congress’ hostility when we ask for her assistance in Syria and with North Korea. Last week’s sanctions bill also hit Iran after it tested a rocket to put a satellite in orbit, though the nuclear deal forbids only the testing of ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. Defi ant, Iranians say their missile tests will continue. Recent days have also seen U.S. warships and Iranian patrol boats in close proximity, with the U.S. ships fi ring fl ares and warning shots. Our planes and ships have also, with increasingly frequency, come to close quarters with Russian and Chinese ships and planes in the Baltic and South China seas. While wary of a war with North Korea, Washington seems to be salivating for a war with Iran. Indeed, Trump’s threat to declare Iran in violation of the nuclear arms deal suggests a confrontation is coming. One wonders: If Congress is hell- bent on confronting the evil that is Iran, why does it not cancel Iran’s purchases and options to buy the 140 planes the mullahs have ordered from Boeing? Why are we selling U.S. airliners to the “world’s greatest state sponsor of terror”? Let Airbus take the blood money. Apparently, U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia are insuffi cient to satiate our War Party. Now it wants us to lead the Sunnis of the Middle East in taking down the Shiites, who are dominant in Iran, Iraq, Syria and South Lebanon, and are a majority in Bahrain and the oil-producing regions of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. military has its work cut out for it. President Trump may need those transgender troops. Among the reasons Trump routed his Republican rivals in 2016 is that he seemed to share an American desire to look homeward. Yet, today, our relations with China and Russia are as bad as they have been in decades, while there is open talk of war with Iran and North Korea. Was this what America voted for, or is this what America voted against? Creators Syndicate guest column One-note droning on the transgender ban BY L. BRENT BOZELL III AND TIM GRAHAM A sudden, even shocking an- nouncement came from President Trump's Twitter account on July 26. The government "will not accept or allow ... Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity" in the military due to "the tremendous medical costs and disruption" that entails. Whether you favor it or oppose it, and regardless of how this abrupt declara- tion blindsided the Pen- tagon brass, it's indisput- able that the liberal media could not and would not approach this subject with anything resembling objectivity. Never mind that military men and women -- and that's all we should care about -- cheered the announcement. The press centered its coverage on the gender benders affected. They were unani- mously offended and devastated, with no dissent allowed, no objection, no argument. Facts don't matter in today's news media. Emotional wallowing is mandatory. On the ludicrously titled (and would-be government-defunded, if Trump had his way) NPR newscast "All Things Considered" that night, anchor Kelly McEvers began by asking a "trans man," former Air Force Re- serve Senior Airman Jordan Blisk how it felt for former President Obama to lift a ban on transgender individuals in the military and have that be followed by the emotional impact of Trump's announcement. She asked, "what con- sequences do you think that would have for trans men and women now?" Blisk saw only doom. He replied, "that's going to devastate them from a career perspective, from a family perspective, from a fi nancial perspec- tive, from every single way because the military is everything to you when you're in." And the hell with the other hundreds of thou- sands who serve and are offended. NPR marched through the one-sided drill all over again on July 30, with an- chor Lulu Garcia-Navarro feeling the pain of "trans man" Army drill Sgt. Ken Ochoa. She declared: "People who support having transgender people in the military say that the military is actually the biggest employer of transgender people in the United States. Is there a large commu- nity within the military? And how do you think that this could affect them?" Ochoa replied: "I guess large is a relative term. I guess I'll put it this way. I know many more people who are trans that are in the military ver- sus those who are transgender and not in the military." NBC reported that an estimated 250 active transgender military members are currently in the pharmaceutical/surgical process of "transitioning." At the Associated Press on July 31, two reporters chronicled Germany- based Army Capt. Jennifer Sims (for- merly known as Jonathan Sims) under the sensitive headline "'I am trans- guest opinion gender': A US soldier shares personal journey." Sims wrote an email to fel- low troops lamenting, "So in the initial moments after the tweet, I saw myself forced into the state that I was in be- fore I started transitioning -- a state of depression, exhaustion and inability to enjoy things." Sunday's New York Times carried a badly disguised opinion piece on page two from defense reporter He- lene Cooper headlined "When Sol- diers Plead Their Humanity." Cooper wrote, "I suspect that in years to come, when I am recounting what it was like to be a Pentagon correspondent, I will remember far more the combination of hurt and defi ance in the voice of a transgender American service member when I asked him how it felt to wake up Wednesday morning to a tweet from President Trump that he was no longer welcome in this country's all- volunteer military." "Trans man" Navy Lt. Cmdr. Blake Dremann told her, "To know your own commander in chief doesn't sup- port you is totally demoralizing." In an almost mandatory turn at the Times, Cooper compared it to segregation in the South. It made her wonder what it would have been like "asking black people what it was like to be told they were not equal to white people." No one is allowed to call that com- parison preposterous. Feeling pain alongside the gender-eviscerating left is all that "journalism" can muster. Call this what it is: "propaganda" and "fake news." Creators Syndicate