AUGUST 4, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
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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
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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