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
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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.)
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