PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Moving our traffi c
Anyone who has ever
had their house remod-
eled understands that you
have to live through the
mess of tearing apart and
building anew. It is just
part of the process.
City streets are no dif-
ferent. To have the clear,
smooth roads we want the public
needs to accept that means delays and
detours. It is the price to pay.
Keizer city streets are getting up-
grades and make-overs. That is good
for everyone. Drivers who fume now
about having to wait in a queue dur-
ing roadwork will be thankful once
the project is completed.
Many people bemoaned the long
reconstruction of Chemawa Road be-
tween River Road and Keizer Rap-
ids Park last year. There were delays,
traffi c stops and bumpy drives. The
project added sidewalks and bioswales.
Today drivers travel a wide street that
is safe for bicyclists and pedestrians,
especially going into and out of Mc-
Nary High School. The pain of the
construction project was well worth it.
This week Wheatland Road is get-
ting repaved. Sure, the project might
cause delays for residents in that area,
but once completed people who live
on either side of Wheatland will have
a repaved, cleanly marked arterial.
Preparation work for the traffi c
round-about at Chemawa Road and
Verda Lane causes delays and long
lines—to be fair there are long lines
going east and west during
the rush hour. This initial
work is child’s play com-
pared to the full-blown
construction project. That
intersection will be subject
to closures during con-
struction next year. Again,
the pain will be well worth
the fi nal result of smooth moving
traffi c through one of Keizer’s busiest
unlighted intersections.
The city will assure that the public
is aware of traffi c changes during con-
struction via signs and notices. Since
the round-about was announced so-
cial media has been barraged with
comments about how unnecessary
the change is and how dangerous
it will be. Research repeatedly has
shown that round-abouts reduce ac-
cidents. Round-abouts keep traffi c
moving and that’s what every driver
wants.
Traffi c round-abouts are a low-
tech solution to an urban problem.
Cities big and small across the na-
tion have installed round-abouts; the
anticipation of chaos is replaced with
smooth fl owing vehicles.
We may curse road construc-
tion delays but it’s the price we pay
for solving urban traffi c issues. Once
drivers get used to navigating the
round-about they’ll wonder how we
ever lived without it. Better to go
slow through a round-about and keep
moving than sit at a traffi c light.
—LAZ
Constitutional
privacy?
same—pr ices
never material-
ized much to
the surprise of
the customers
and the employ-
ees of Haggen.
It seems Albertsons has more to gain
as it owns the lone grocery store in
Keizer (Safeway) which already had
long waits in line.
What is not noted in the article
is how this will also effect the lo-
cal small businesses. Will Creekside
Shopping Center now become an-
other Schoolhouse without it’s “an-
chor”? I do hope it is fi lled soon, ei-
ther Roth’s, Trader Joe’s or WinCo
would be welcome. However, when
Albertsons sold this particular store
it also included the building, and
shopping center parking lot which
is co-owned by another party. So
how will it all affect gaining new
tenants? I really hope it dosen’t.
There are already too many empty
spaces in this town.
Tony Grove
Keizer
editorial
To the Editor:
American colonists fought, sacri-
fi ced, and died to establish and pre-
serve the freedoms now guaranteed
to us by the Constitution of the
United States. The right to privacy
has come to the public’s attention
through various controversial Su-
preme Court rulings.
Privacy is not specifi cally men-
tioned in the Constitution, but over
the years the Supreme Court has
made decisions that have established
that the right to privacy is a basic
human right and as such is protect-
ed by virtue of the 9th Amendment.
Study the Constitution, know your
rights, and know what it says and
does not say. This information was
provided by the Anna Maria Pit-
tman Chapter in Keizer, Oregon,
National Society Daughters of the
American Revolution.
Ruby Pantalone
Keizer
Everyone suffers
from food fi ght
To the Editor:
Regarding Food fi ght escalates
(Keizertimes, Sept. 4):
It’s hard to know which corpora-
tion to believe: Haggan or Albertsons.
I do know the promised lower—or
letters
The Keizertimes welcomes all
points of view.
E-mail a Letter to the Editor or
guest column to:
publisher@keizertimes.com
by noon each Tuesday
Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303
phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com
SUBSCRIPTIONS
NEWS EDITOR
One year:
$25 in Marion County,
$33 outside Marion County,
$45 outside Oregon
Craig Murphy
editor@keizertimes.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Eric A. Howald
news@keizertimes.com
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
LEGAL NOTICES
Keizertimes Circulation
142 Chemawa Road N.
Keizer, OR 97303
legals@keizertimes.com
Lyndon Zaitz
publisher@keizertimes.com
BUSINESS MANAGER
Laurie Painter
billing@keizertimes.com
Periodical postage paid at
Salem, Oregon
RECEPTION
Lori Beyeler
OFFICE INTERN
Allie Kehret
facebook.com/keizertimes
By MICHAEL GERSON
Rosa Parks is an American hero,
but her case was not an accident. Oth-
er African-Americans had shown sim-
ilar defi ance (ask Claudette Colvin,
who refused to give up her seat nine
months before Parks). Civil rights
leaders had spent years looking for a
favorable case to challenge the segre-
gation of Montgomery buses. Parks’
trip on bus 2857 was not premedi-
tated, but it was opportune. She was
already an activist—known, respected
and impressive. Elevating her case was
one of the best and most strategic
things that the civil rights movement
ever did.
Kim Davis—the Kentucky clerk
who was jailed for refusing to issue
marriage licenses to same-sex couples
—has been compared by some con-
servatives to Parks. Presidential candi-
date Mike Huckabee, with typical un-
derstatement, has described her case as
“the criminalization of Christianity in
this country.” He compares Davis to
Lincoln because “he disregarded [the]
Dred Scott 1857 decision that said
black people weren’t fully human.”
Bluntly put: Whatever their inten-
tions, these people are doing great
harm to the cause of religious liberty
and to the reputation of their faith.
Davis’ defi ance is the wrong test case
for the protection of religious free-
dom.
The Supreme Court’s far-reaching
Obergefell decision legalizing gay
marriage will have radiating conse-
quences for people who hold tradi-
tional moral views on marriage and
family. Some challenges will concern
religious institutions—colleges, so-
cial service providers, aid organiza-
tions—that interact in various ways
with government. Other controversies
will concern
the ability of
closely
held
businesses to
refrain from
providing ser-
vices.
But there is
no serious case
to be made for the right of public of-
fi cials to break laws they don’t agree
with, even for religious reasons. This
is, in essence, seizing power from our
system of laws and courts. The proper
manner to change the law, in this in-
stance, is to work for the election of a
president who will appoint Supreme
Court justices with a different view,
and for the election of senators who
will confi rm such justices. Or to pro-
pose and pass a constitutional amend-
ment. Davis may be impatient with
this system, but it is the one we have.
Personally assuming the role in Row-
an County, Kentucky, of a Supreme
Court majority is not an option. The
available alternatives are to implement
the law (as public servants across red
America have overwhelmingly done),
or to resign in protest (as some have
done as well).
Huckabee will need to look else-
where than Lincoln for inspiration on
this issue. This is from Lincoln’s speech
on the Dred Scott decision in 1857:
“We believe, as much as Judge Doug-
las, (perhaps more) in obedience to,
and respect for the judicial department
of government. We think its decisions
on constitutional questions, when
fully settled, should control, not only
the particular cases decided, but the
general policy of the country, subject
to be disturbed only by amendments
of the Constitution as provided in
that instrument itself. More than this
other
views
would be revolution. But we think
the Dred Scott decision is erroneous.
We know the court that made it, has
often overruled its own decisions, and
we shall do what we can to have it to
overrule this.”
Lincoln may be overstating his case.
As a conservative, I believe that facts
and circumstances matter, and often
complicate simple rules. A sheriff or
magistrate in New Hampshire in the
late 1850s would have been justifi ed
in choosing to look the other way
rather than enforce the Fugitive Slave
Act. Some Northern juries fl atly re-
fused to implement that law.
But those were choices made at
the foggy extremes of political theory.
Whatever your view of Justice An-
thony Kennedy’s ruling on marriage,
granting a wedding license is not in
the same category as participating in
a legal system that supported chattel
slavery. It is, rather, participation in a
legal system supporting liberal notions
of individual rights. Davis believes that
one of those rights is misapplied and
misused. That is not the moral or legal
equivalent of turning over Dred Scott
to the slave catchers.
The Davis case is important, but
mainly as a warning. Over the next
few years, some religious institutions
will be subject to legal challenges that
are encouraged by Obergefell. This
will not amount to religious persecu-
tion, but it will raise serious questions
about the nature of religious pluralism.
Some religious people will properly
contend for their rights and interests.
But it is worth remembering: Le-
gal arguments are not won by elevat-
ing bad cases. And public arguments
are not won with unhinged historical
hyperbole.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
A wall on the border —with Canada?
Keizertimes
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Kim Davis is no Rosa Parks
twitter.com/keizertimes
Presidential candidate Governor
Scott Walker of Wisconsin said on
NBC’s Meet the Press that he wants
to build a wall between the U.S. and
Canada.
A wall separating the state of
Washington, and all the other
U.S. states along the border, would
greatly hinder commerce between
U.S. and our closest neighbor: Or-
egon alone does close to $6 billion in
trade with Canada. Further, it would
surely damage relations between the
American people and the Canadians
who are our trading partners and al-
lies in all things terroristic. Walker
says he represents New Hampshire
voters who want a line of security
between themselves and the Canadi-
ans. What I’d like to know is this: Was
Walker speaking for just one screw-
ball or several of them in the Granite
State?
If our government was silly
enough to build a wall between the
two countries it would have to keep
in mind that the border between
the U.S. and Canada is 5,525 miles
long (the border with Mexico is a
mere 1,989 miles long). Some of our
northern border traverses mountain-
eous areas where snow and ice are
deep and hilly conditions so treach-
erous that it would most probably re-
sult in loss of lives just to locate the
border.
Without going to war over North
America’s northwest, the border line
was established at latitude 49 degrees.
What that means is that the southern
tip of Vancouver Island should be in-
side the U.S. Whatever the case, my
fi rst venture to a foreign land from
my home in Oregon was a trip by
ferry across the Strait of Juan De Fuca
to Victoria, British Columbia. It had
a reputation for
being a touch
of old England
but I found that
true only of the
Empress Ho-
tel’s tea time at
mid-afternoon.
Otherwise, the city and surrounding
countryside are a feast for the eyes of
any traveler who seeks scenes of great
beauty.
One fact that caught my fancy
right away as a Canadian employee
was the Canadian health system.
As a temporary worker I was nei-
ther charged for nor was I denied
health care, which came as a pleas-
ant surprise. I needed minor surgery
while working in British Columbia
for which I paid 0 Canadian dollars.
Also, when I needed the body adjust-
ment I was not required to wait for it
while the care afterwards was no less
than what I’ve experienced in Salem
and the hospital here. Because I was
employed there for a relatively short
period of time with taxes withheld,
the Canadian government refunded
every cent of my taxes paid me while
I worked there.
Every Oregonian who knows
their geography realizes that the Co-
lumbia River has its origin in Canada.
If the U.S. built a wall across north-
ern Washington state, the Canadians,
who are not inclined to resort to war
like we are, could dam that river at
its border crossing. Thereby, hydro
power available at the amount we pay
for it would no longer be handy and
we’d have to resort to fossils fuels big
time while we’d make every effort
possible to establish wind turbines up
and down the Oregon Coast and in-
stall solar panels on most every roof
gene h.
mcintyre
top. Then, too, think of the business
establishments that fl y little Canadian
fl ags to welcome thousands of tour-
ists from our northern neighbor.
It’s surmised that Scott Walker’s
home in Wisconsin probably has a
tower so he can climb to peer in the
direction of Canada to see whether
those folks are organizing an invasion
force to conquer the United States
with their 38 million to our 320 mil-
lion citizens. Since Walker sees a wall
to prevent them from taking advan-
tage of us with some stealthy plan of
sneak attack and sees the wall as what
he calls a “legitimate issue,” he prob-
ably loses a lot of sleep just waiting
for the stomp of jackboots, the thun-
der of tank tracks and the screams
of bloodthirsty Canadians invading
Madison.
In 1945, at the end of World War
II, the United States stood tallest
among admired nations in the world.
It maintained that status until the
mid-1960s when we took over mili-
tarily for the losing French in Viet-
nam and ultimately lost, too, while
alienating many nations for at-
tempting to destroy what was then a
mainly agricultural land occupied by
farming families whose leaders were
toying with communism. More re-
cently, our forays into the Middle
East have turned millions upon mil-
lions of Arabs against us, providing
us a “black eye” worldwide. Now
we’ve got a guy who wants to lead
our nation by alienating one of our
best and most loyal friends, Canada.
Henceforth, the way we’re going we
better pray that “under God” is more
than a catchy phrase in the pledge of
allegiance.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)