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PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, AUGUST 21, 2015 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM How do we replace Haggen? After a big announcement about its move into Keizer, then several days of remodeling, Haggen Food grocery opened its doors. The store went from stodgy to brighter and looser. Alas, it was not to last. Haggen’s Keizer store will close in October. It wasn’t anything Keizer shoppers did or didn’t do—it all has to do with business in America today. The Keizer location was one of 146 former Safe- way or Albertsons stores spun off by the equity fi rm that owns them. With a good reputation in it home territory of northwest Washington state, Haggen management saw an op- portunity to join the big guys and own stores throughout the west. It seems safe to conclude that Haggen decided that not all 146 stores it bought were winners and made the quick decision to rid itself of 27 stores it did not want. That’s business. Shoppers can bemoan Keizer being a one-store grocery store. In actuallity a majority of Keizer shoppers head to discount grocers such as Costco, Winco and Walmart. Neighborhood mom-and-pop markets gave way to grocery stores which gave way to dis- count mega-grocery stores. Business will always fi nd a path to the consum- er’s wallet—the grocery industry is no different. Food stores operate on thin margins so maximizing every dollar in sales is paramount, be it inside the store or by the whole operation, clos- ing underperforming stores, locating stores in high income areas. Social media was fi lled with com- ments about the closing of Haggen and desires for its successor. The stores people want to see replace Haggen at Creekside Shopping Center are un- likely to consider the site due mainly to its size. If there is no immediate replace- ment come October there will be two major retail holes on River Road including the former Roth’s Fresh Market space at Schoolhouse Square. That’s two too many. The nearly 40,000 residents of Keizer will have one grocery store to shop. This is certainly a perfect op- portunity for the Keizer Economic Development Commission and the Keizer Chamber of Commerce to show their mettle and work tirelessly to recruit a grocery store to Creekside Shopping Center. That may not be such an easy task. The consolidation of the industry has left fewer mid-market grocers. Unfortunately Keizer does not have the demographics that is attractive to a Whole Foods or a Zupan’s Market. There is a cry for a discount grocer in Keizer; that’s why some people were so excited when it was thought Walmart would build at Keizer Sta- tion. Yet there is no discount grocery store on the horizon for Area C. There are smaller grocery chains that can be a good fi t for Keizer: Ray’s Food Place, a 43-store chain based in southern Oregon (they have a store in Sisters) or Chuck’s Produce and Street Market from Vancouver. The local or- ganizations we look toward to main- tain and increase Keizer’s economic vitality should leave no stone under- turned in recruiting a second grocery store for Keizer. It is not good for Keizer or its resi- dents to have only one grocery store nor two large holes in our retail land- scape. —LAZ Saturday, Aug. 22, will be a bright and sunny day. It will be beautiful not only weather-wise but because Mc- Nary High School will unveil its new artifi cal turf at Flesher Field during Blue Day. This will be the fourth Blue Day staged by the McNary High School Athletic Booster Club. The club has planned and raised funds for the big project that will allow 10 times as many events to be held at the stadium. The former grass fi eld was not al- ways user friendly, especially in our wet weather in the fall and spring. The marching band could not prac- tice on it because hundreds of tromp- ing feet over time turned the fi eld into a muddy, mushy mess. Now the band can practice to its heart’s content on the fi eld. The foot- ball, soccer and lacrosse teams will be able to practice and play without worry. Blue Day is not only the unveiling of the new turf. It is an opportunity for the community to gather and sup- port the many teams of the school, enjoy barbecue and celebrate what makes Keizer a good place to live: neighbors and friends joining togeth- er to make a vision become reality. Blue Day will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Attendance is free but donations will eagerly be accepted by the Booster Club. —LAZ Good feeling about Rep. Post do it publicly to boot. Last, this met me on several levels: “I was the fi rst Republican to get a bill signed by the governor (Kate Brown),” Post said. “It was a pro-business bill to get rid of some restrictions. The governor and I have a unique relationship. She really likes me for some reason, even though we are opposites. She showed us freshmen around and took me by the arm. She said, ‘I know I can count on you for the transportation pack- age, right?’ I said ‘No.’ She said, ‘That’s why I like you.’” Genuineness, likeability, and in- tegrity of both these individuals re- ally showed through in this comment. Until I send in my next ballot I wish Bill Post all the best in his Capitol seat. Ardith Oakes Keizer A beautiful Blue day To the Editor: Even though we’re registered in different parties, I came away with a good feeling about Rep. Bill Post (Post talks about fi rst year in Capitol, Keizertimes, Aug. 14). A couple of really positive things stood out. So, let me get one “parti- san” issue out of the way. He stated: “Business will always make the right choice. We don’t need government to tell us.” Business is always right? Squinting on that one. We do need some government, though less of it. When Rep. Post said, “The ma- jority party uses Sine Die as a tool. If there was a Republican majority and this happened, I’ll still stand up and say this is wrong,” my response was a loud yes. Sine Die is bad legislating, bad politics, and thanks to him for be- ing willing to make such a pledge, and letters Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com Lyndon A. Zaitz, Editor & Publisher SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon Hunting for a miracle on global warming By MICHAEL GERSON In recognition that internet ques- tionnaires get more eyeballs than ear- nest columns on energy policy, here is today’s quiz on obscure presiden- tial history: When President George W. Bush met Bill Gates for the fi rst time, the topic of discussion was (A) nuclear power, (B) rural internet ac- cess, (C) global health, or (D) all of those subjects, in considerable depth, in that order. Those who fi nd “D” surprising don’t get the concept of leading test questions, and don’t know much about either participant. As a fl y on the wall at their lunch, I watched two men with a wonkish interest in en- ergy policy talk over my head for 15 or 20 minutes about nuclear power plant design. (Gates has since become a major investor in one design that would utilize depleted uranium, es- sentially running on its own waste.) One of Gates’ contributions as a public-minded billionaire—as op- posed to turning the Republican presidential nomination process into a second-rate reality television show —is to bring a dose of reality to the achievement of large humanitarian goals. The (almost) end of polio. The vaccination of children on a global scale. In the case of energy, rigor re- quires rethinking. Gates is ruthless (and not always politically correct) in pressing the assumptions of the envi- ronmental movement to their logical conclusion. If climate scientists are right about the pace of global warm- ing, and about the total amount of CO 2 that humans can emit in the fu- ture without potentially catastrophic consequences, then we currently do not have feasible policy responses that are adequate to the need, even if we had far greater political will. By some estimates, the world must keep two-thirds of its carbon- based energy resources in the ground —at the same time that vast numbers of people in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and elsewhere move toward middle-class levels of energy consumption. Gates makes the point in another way. If the goal, as some scientists urge, is an 80 percent re- duction in carbon emissions by 2050, then it will be necessary “to reduce emissions from transportation and electrical production in participating countries down to zero.” Behavior change—shutting off the lights, turning off the air condi- tioner —is useful, but not even in the ballpark of responding to this need. Neither are the subsidies that gov- ernments provide to renewables such as solar and wind power. The cost of meeting future energy requirements with existing green technologies would be “beyond astronomical,” Gates has argued. There was no way to get to the moon by stacking ladders. That re- quired an entirely different technolo- gy. Current environmental responses are the stacking of ladders. “We need breakthroughs,” says Gates. It is sobering when your only suffi cient policy response is the pro- duction of a miracle. But I’ll add a few more depressing political and economic factors. Human beings are fairly good at calculating costs into their decision-making (saving for a rainy day, buying car insurance) if the time horizon is a few months or other views a few years. They are not as good at assuming burdens, as in environmen- tal policy, when the time horizon is a few decades or centuries. And they are terrible at shouldering burdens when future costs are paid dispro- portionately by other people—in this case by people living in poor countries that are more vulnerable to coastal fl ooding or drought. So how do we get technological miracles at a realistic social and eco- nomic cost? Only by dramatically in- creased investment in basic research and development. Gates (matching money to mouth) has pledged to increase his personal investments in green technologies by $1 billion over the next fi ve years. But suffi cient scale only comes from government. So he has also recommended that U.S. in- vestments in basic energy technology be more than tripled -- from about $5 billion to $16 billion a year. Even at this level, energy research funding would lag well behind de- fense and health research. But the increase would allow some impres- sive scientists to fully explore a va- riety of speculative options: things like fl ying wind turbines that collect energy from the jet stream; or re- verse engineering photosynthesis to produce usable energy; or batteries with dramatically increased storage capacity; or new nuclear designs that overcome the problem of radioactive waste. This amounts to a series of in- formed bets. But all can be made at a relatively affordable cost, partially recovered by shifting funds from ex- isting energy subsidies. Collectively, these kinds of bets may be our best shot at the miracle we require. (Washington Post Writers Group) 2016 candidates rattle the war saber A couple of weeks ago, syndicated columnist Austin Bay wrote about World War II in reference to the num- ber of fanatics in Germany and Japan who brought about that awful con- fl ict and whose end in Europe and fi - nale in Asia came with the detonation of two atomic bombs. There were ef- forts all around the planet during the 1930s to prevent it while the U.S. in- volvement got underway with an Im- perial Japan attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. World War II’s cost in American lives exceeded 100,000 in the Pa- cifi c theatre alone. The death count in Vietnam of U.S. service men and women is recorded on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. There are 58,195 names on it. More re- cently the count of those Americans who perished in Iraq or died later has reached a total of 73,846 with many more every day succumbing to their wounds or committing suicide. The number told us by the Bush adminis- tration is around 4,000 because those folks lied again by counting only those Americans who died with their boots on in Iraq; the real count is the higher 73,846. Now who are the fanatics that want more war and thereby the deaths upon more deaths on the battlefi eld? These will again be the children of families from all over America. There will be, then, tens of thousands of fam- ilies left to grieve with little or no ben- efi t to the people of our nation; rather, those who gain from these deaths and ill-advised ventures are corpora- tions like Halliburton that make for- tunes on war material sales and manpower in behind-the-front-lines support posi- tions. President Obama has not kept his word on getting our troops out of the Middle East. We fi nd among the Republican can- didates who seek to replace Obama that they mainly have morphed into the party of war with Hillary Clinton as a hawk competing to outdo them. Take, for example, Donald Trump. On entering the race he immediately trumped the competition that he is nothing less than a genius in mili- tary matters who will fi nd a military leader like George Patton or Douglas MacArthur to place the U.S. military into the win column. Regarding ISIS, he would “bomb the hell out of them and take back the oil.” This plan would require a huge number of American military per- sonnel whose numbers will have to be sacrifi ced. As Trump said: “You let Mobil (Oil) go in and you let our great oil companies go in. Once you take that oil, they (ISIS) have nothing left.” This from a guy who has several grown children, none of which have served in uniform. Trump himself has never served in uniform. Candidate Rick Santorum calls for 10,000 Americans to go into Iraq who was promptly trumped by Sena- tor Lindsey Graham who saw Santo- rum’s 10,000 and wants an additional 10,000 sent into Syria. Neither one has served in the American armed forces. Jeb Bush comes across as one who doesn’t know whether the inva- sion and consequences in Iraq was a gene h. mcintyre bad idea. There are many Bush fam- ily members but only one has served with distinction in uniform and that was George H.W. Bush during World War II as a Navy pilot. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker once compared fi ghting ISIS to fi ght- ing the labor unions in his state. He says he would not only tear up the Iranian nuclear deal his fi rst day in the White House but would start a war with Iran between his swearing- in ceremony and Inaugural ball that night. In other words, he’s going to trump Trump. Several others among the current 17 have made statements that go far beyond mere thoughts of glorious leadership as the command- er-in-chief but have defi ned specifi c action measures certain to get us into World War III. I believe Hillary Clinton is as war- inclined as most of the Republican candidates are. I’ve yet to hear such declarations of certain confl ict ven- tures overseas by the man who stands at this time as possibly most popular among Democratic voters. Where the others stand, including Lincoln Chafee, Martin O’Malley, and Jim Webb, is not known, resulting from the loss of air by Sen. Bernie Sand- ers and Trump. I just wonder how many of these people, the fanatics in the U.S. like those who got the WWII underway, who want to lead us into war by using the youth of the nation as cannon fodder to accomplish huge profi ts for the nation’s largest corpo- rations who’ve become a platoon of plutocrats. (Gene McIntyre’s column appears weekly in the Keizertimes.)