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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2015)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, DECEMBER 18, 2015 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Every tradition is important By LYNDON ZAITZ I don’t mind that the holiday season began months ago. Some decry the Christmas displays in various retail stores, start- ing as early as August or September. “It starts earlier every year!” some exclaim. Others repeat the new saw: “The hol- idays have become too commercial- ized.” Yeah, well...bah humbug on those sentiments.The holidays come exactly as early as the public wants it to come. How many people do you know that proudly boast they have fi nished their Christmas shopping. In July, no less. They are just over-achievers. I understand when people say they miss the traditional, old fashioned Christmases of their memory. Each family has its cherished traditions that each member carries with them, like imprinted DNA. Religious traditions mix with familial traditions mix with culinary traditions. Each as valid and important as the next. While my family had its traditions when all us kids were still at home, each of us has moved on and created our own versions of the season. Many of my cherished holiday memories revolve around friends who, like me, had no family living nearby. We cre- ated our own Christmas. The tree was decorated in a modern style—think Andy Warhol over Norman Rock- well. Our warm feelings (and gifts) for each other was no less traditional or meaningful than if we were with our own families. We searched our favorite shops for the most unique Christmas cards we could fi nd that said something about us. We festooned the mantle (if there was one) or table with the many cards that people still mailed back in those days of the late 1980s. In the years when none of us was fat of wallet our creativity assured that Christmas would still come on Dec. 25. The simple gifts we gave each other were as lovely as anything one could buy at a department store. A photograph. A colored pencil drawing. A poem. The best gift was the com- panionship we gave each other. Those holidays were defi nitely not too com- mercialized. What was commercial- ized—and I loved it—were the window displays at the big stores. I would walk around outside the fl ag- ship Frederick and Nelson and Nor- dstrom in late November and stand in awe at what the visual marketers came up with: intricate tableaux tell- ing a story. I was so taken I actually held the job of window dresser for a downtown store in my younger years. Unfortunately in-store and win- dow holiday displays are going the way of the posted letter. Those dis- plays are not cheap and it was one area corporate leaders could cut ex- penses. To me it wasn’t the holidays until the department store windows were dressed for Christmas. In our area stores are content to mark the holidays by throwing some fake snow on the fl oor and a wreath on the wall. It is a sad passage of time. But not everywhere. To get my holiday window display fi x I simply log onto Google and en- ter holiday window displays. When I hit return and my screen is fi lled with the wonders of creative minds from San Francisco to New York City to London and Paris and Milan. Depart- ment stores and boutiques in those cities, thankfully, still have a large bud- get and carte blanche to create amaz- ing window displays for the holidays that set my heart afl utter. Everyone has their holiday and Christmas traditions and routines. No tradition is too small nor is it mean- ingless. Whatever you think the rea- son for the season, what you hold in your heart is paramount. Enjoy your holiday while I log on to see what Printemps in Paris has in its Christmas windows. on my mind Gun control (Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the Keizertimes.) KNOW thanks letters Keizer To the Editor: To the Editor: The debate about gun con- trol goes on and on. There are many people who are terrifi ed since the recent mass shoot- ings. A lot of these people have gone out and bought hand guns for personal safety. Many have taken gun safety classes and have applied for a concealed hand gun license. I took a gun safety class recently, which in my estimate, was of little value. The gun advocates think that if everyone carried a hand gun, society would be safer. Can you imagine going into a gathering and having a deranged per- son start shooting. If there were fi ve ordinary people with handguns in the crowd and they began shooting the question is, would you rather be shot by the assailant or the ordinary citi- zens? Bill Quinn Keizer As you read this, know that little hands are anx- iously waiting to open their presents! Once again, Keizer Network of Women (Keizer Chamber of Com- merce), have completed another year of service to our community. 267 children from Keizer were treated to warm clothing, toys, canned food, meat and fresh produce. Months of preparation and fundraising allows us to complete our task at hand. None of this is possible without community support and the arduous work of vol- unteers, both from the Chamber of Commerce and the community. Once again, thank you Keizer for a job well done. (Please visit our KNOW Face- book page for photos.) Audrey Butler Keizer Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com NEWS EDITOR Craig Murphy editor@keizertimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eric A. Howald news@keizertimes.com ADVERTISING SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY 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 RECEPTION Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon Lori Beyeler facebook.com/keizertimes twitter.com/keizertimes Cruz: The Maple Leaf candidate? By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS During the most recent presiden- tial election, non-candidate Donald Trump crowned himself king of the “birther” movement, with his constant questions about whether President Barack Obama was born in Kenya or the United States. Now (it pains me to say) Trump is the GOP front-runner, and his closest challenger in the polls is Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who was not born in the United States. Cruz was born in Canada in 1970. His mother was born in Delaware. His father was born in Cuba. His family moved to Texas when he was 4. Cruz had dual Canadian-American citizenship un- til he renounced his Canadian citi- zenship two years ago. So is Cruz a “natural born Citi- zen,” a requisite for presidential can- didates under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution? PolitiFact looked into that question and determined that Cruz probably is eligible because his mother was a U.S. citizen: “Most legal experts contend (natural born Citizen) means someone is a citizen from birth and doesn’t have to go through a naturalization process to become a citizen.” But it noted that the issue is not “100 percent settled,” as there is no offi cial defi nition. This month, GOP political consultant-turned-analyst Tony Quinn wrote a piece for the website Fox&Hounds headlined Ted Cruz Cannot Be President: Take Him Off The Ballot. Quinn acknowledged the conven- tional view that Cruz is “natural born” but argued that the Framers added “natural born” to the citizen requirement to prevent the election of a candidate with foreign entan- glements. Quinn laid out four reasons he thinks Cruz does not make the cut. 1) His father was born in Cuba; Cruz himself was born in Canada. 2) Every past presidential nomi- nee was born within the United States or a possession. Calgary never was a U.S. possession. 3) While his father was serving in the Navy, 2008 Republican presi- dential candidate John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a U.S. possession. Even still, the Sen- ate unanimously passed a resolution conferring “natural born” citizen- ship on McCain just to settle the issue. The Senate has done no such thing for Cruz. 4) Cruz was a “natural born” citi- zen of Canada. I sent Quinn’s piece to John Yoo, the former George W. Bush White House counsel who teaches law at the University of California, Berkeley. “This case is much stron- ger than people give it credit,” Yoo wrote. “The Constitution requires the president to be a ‘natural-born citizen.’ But no one is sure what it means. It’s never been the subject of a defi nitive judicial ruling.” Yoo thinks the term applies to citizens “born in the territory of the United States.” That’s a credible position that takes into account the Consti- tution’s likely original intent. Do I believe the men who draft- ed the Constitution wanted to keep foreigners out of the Oval Offi ce? Of course I do. Does Ted Cruz care about the Framers’ original intent? Usually, he does. I asked Team Cruz to respond specifi cally to the argu- ment that “natural born” means born in the USA or a U.S. territory. No reply. This truly is an issue that voters will have to sort out. Heidi Cruz, the candidate’s wife, told a group in Missouri she expects Trump to play the birther card. She may be right. But will it stick to a candidate born in Canada? Almost every day now there’s another dreadful shooting in America. And that’s just counting the mass shootings where four or more Americans are shot. The San Bernardino executions add up to another one of these profoundly troubling events that are becom- ing too frequent and about which nothing but more talk has been ac- complished. Democrats, including President Obama who will now try an end-run by executive order, address their view about a need for gun controls while Republicans continue emphasizing that more about the mentally ill must be done. Both are right. With our nation awash in some- thing like 300 million guns, elimi- nating them is unlikely to happen, especially since every mass killing is followed up by a large number of new gun purchases. We have poli- cies that address cars in the form of mandated driver’s licenses, safety belts and fi nes for the absence of ei- ther, as well as citations having to do with drinking while driving, texting, and the like, driving through road construction zones, food and drug controls and a multitude of other laws and requirements intended to try to keep us as safe as possible. It would be cool if we could put our collective heads together with the same degree regarding guns. It strikes any observer in America that we’d be wise to keep guns away from all those who pose a risk. This would mean that it’d be required of all who want a gun to go through background checks universally. At present, an amazing fact of life in the U.S. is that close to half of guns acquired here are purchased with- out a background check and that statistic should enrage every Ameri- can enough to descend upon his and her state and federal legisla- tor demanding action. What blows the minds of those Americans who care is that it’s legal for people on the terrorism list to buy guns throughout the U.S. The latest head count adds up to 2,000 terrorism suspects that bought guns over the past 10 years alone. A number of the wiser among our legisla- tors in Wash- ington have tried to make this availability stop. Mean- while, the National Rifl e Associa- tion and those Republicans who pledge their allegiance to the NRA have brought about no halt to these folks getting their guns. Hence, it remains legal for them to purchase whatever, whenever and the free- dom to use them. Meanwhile, according to reputed polls, some 85 percent of Americans approve of universal background checks. Among our nation’s gun owners many want a crackdown on gun dealers who apparently give lit- tle or no attention to what happens to their guns. These folks of reason- able minds also want guns locked up at home when not in use. Curi- ously, over the years, the NRA has supported gun controls; however, according to the record, the NRA has not supported any gun controls since 1968. The godfather idolized by many politicians, actually in both politi- cal parties, former President Ronald Reagan, wrote an op-ed for New York Times in 1991 where he backed gun restrictions. “This level of vi- olence must be stopped,” as then, 9,200 Americans were being mur- dered by handguns at the time ev- ery year. Reagan added that a 10 to15 percent drop could occur with tighter gun restrictions and “that it would be well worth making it (tighter restrictions) the law of the land.” A majority in D.C. who can do something, won’t. The NRA ap- parently wants everyone armed. Under that scenario the country moves ever closer to a nationwide shooting at the OK Corral where everyone owns a gun and will use it whenever it’s judged necessary. Meanwhile, a nation where even during our wartime years it was safe for non-combatants to go without harm most anywhere, has now be- come a virtual battleground where almost no one is safe anywhere. other views (Creators Syndicate) A nation of guns and gun violence gene h. mcintyre (Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap- pears weekly in the Keizertimes.) Have an opinion? Email letters to the editor (300 words) by noon Tuesday. Submitted letters must be accompanied with writer’s name and address. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com