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PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 22, 2016 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Having fun with lemons Lemonade Day is the antidote to the “Mom, there’s nothing to do” la- ment. With a nudge, a par- ent, a guardian or a teach- er can convince a Keizer youngster that the cure for the ‘nothing to do’ blues is starting a business. Started in Texas, Lemonade Day has blossomed across the country— sales top $50 million each year. The project teaches kids (target group: 5th to 8th graders) how to start a business and open a one-day lem- onade store on May 1. Lemonade Day was created to introduce kids to business—create, design, develop and market—in the guise of America’s favorite citrus drink. It is not too late to register a lemonade stand with the Salem- Keizer Education Foundation (overseers here in the region). Kids get help from their par- ents with school science projects or building a Soapbox Derby car among many others. Lemonade Day is no different. Every business has its start-up costs. The fi rst step is for Lemon- aders to fi nd family members or friends to ‘invest’ in the business. Investing is not steep; costs include lemonade ingredients, materials to construct a stand, which can be or- nate or modest. Lemonade stands can be the business of one or a team effort. The kids involved learn about team- work and cooperation along with marketing, research and customer service, elements of any successful adult life. Having a stand on Lemonade Day is not a chore, it is a fun activity in which the whole fam- ily can be involved. Money raised at a lemonade stand is div- vied into three piles: one-third to be saved for education, one-third donated to a charity of the Lem- onaders’ choice and one-third is mad money that goes right into the pocket of the little businesspeople. Part of the fun of planning for the day is locating a site: outside their house? At a high-traffi c re- tail store (after getting store per- mission)? Then, deciding what the stand will look like: old fashioned? High tech? Multi-colored? With help from a parent or a mentor the kitchen will get messy as the Lemonader experiments with various ingredients to achieve the best possible tasting product. Some stands offer more than lemonade, many offer a little nosh, too, such as fresh-baked pastries. The lemonade serves double duty: slakes thirst and washes down deli- cious brownies. Like mushrooms after a spring rain, it would be nice to see lemon- ade stands sprout up around Keizer on May 1. There’s yet time for our kids to create the Google or Face- book of lemonade. (Register at salemkeizer.lemon- adeday.org.) —LAZ editorial Choose talk over punishment By RANDOM PENDRAGON I just read MHS overfl ow clogs street by Craig Murphy. What this neighborhood is doing is punishing a large amount of students because of the actions of a few. I per- sonally know people who use this gate to not only drive, but walk to school in a timely and con- venient matter. The people who are proposing the shutting of this gate have admitted in that very article that the closing of Sandy Drive has pushed the overfl ow to them. How is taking the same course of action going to solve any problems? It will only create an equal amount or more of the same problems some- where else, which brings me to my main point—this whole thing is a consequence of a town that is void of community. The truth is, they don’t care what happens to the next ‘overfl ow area,’ because they’re happy as long as they don’t have to deal with it. The people that are going to be impacted by this are literally students trying to get to school. They are being pushed around and degraded for minor in- fractions. I am curious as to how many of these people attempted to speak to the students they believe are causing problems before taking it to both the mayor and the principal of the school. I am curious as to how many have actually witnessed students “smoke whatever they’re smoking,” and are not just speculating. This is something that needs to be addressed at a community level, but therein lies the earlier problem I stated. McNary’s community ends at the fence that sur- rounds it. The students who attend McNary are just as much their neighbors as their friend Betty down the street. But, they wish to address this problem with a padlock. These points are ap- parent even in the language they use to describe students. The mayor, referring to Sandy Drive quite disparagingly targets “the behaviors of some of the youth.” The youth. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is belit- tling. In addition, Charles Anderson says in the story, “They are characters, I’ll put it that way. They’re smoking something.They hide and smoke whatever they’re smoking. If they lock the gate, our problem is solved.” It’s almost a form of fear-monger- ing akin to ‘those darn youth bringing drugs into my neighborhood.’ Surely, this country has enough “build-a- wall” mentality fl oating around, and I don’t want it at my school. If they “like where [they] live” so much, as Michael Catlow says, surely they understand that part of living there is seeing and interacting with students. This imme- diate jump to the mayor and creation of a petition in tandem with their ap- parent refusal to work as a community is only one example of a diseased and cold city. Pictures of students’ cars are posted publicly and are given no plat- form to defend themselves. This city (and apparently its journalism) goes from the top down. It’s taken to the mayor and the school, and then the students are only there to be subject to punishment and reform. This event is extremely polarizing and forces stu- dents and homeowners to take sides, rather than join forces. So great, put a lock on it and close the gate. Push us inside and make it so that you don’t have to see us, hear us, or think about us. Make it so that a student’s dedica- tion to McNary never translates into a dedication for Keizer. Keep that go- ing. All you’ll see is generations upon generations only being in Keizer by chance and fi nding success and pros- perity in other towns. It’s sickening. Stores closing due to higher wage more people on assistance of some kind. I don’t own a business, but I understand the big picture. Part of that picture are the employees who deserve a living wage. Kris Adams Keizer guest opinion To the Editor: I am very disappointed in any business that uses the excuse that a higher minimum wage is the reason they are closing. I fi nd it confus- ing that you wouldn’t want to pay a decent wage for people so they can even exist. No one can live on minimum wage as it is and without an increase, we will continue to see (Random Pendragon is a McNary High School student.) 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 What they owe the progressives By E.J. DIONNE JR. Compared with the ferocious fractiousness of the Republican campaign, Hillary Clinton and Ber- nie Sanders are operating by rules inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, the gentle animal-loving holy man whom Pat Buchanan once derided as “the pacifi st with the pigeons.” But with the GOP setting a very high standard for political brutality, that’s not saying much. Any doubt that Clinton and Sanders are fed up with each other was put to rest in last week’s debate. In big block type, the New York Daily News proclaimed them “Brooklyn Brawlers.” They went at each other as if there would be no tomorrow after New York votes. That’s pretty much true. You sensed from Sanders’ aggres- siveness that he knows he’s on the edge of effective elimination. If he does win on Tuesday, he’d throw the Democratic race into turmoil and make Clinton’s path to the nomina- tion much rockier. A Clinton victory in New York, which polls suggest is more likely, would all but seal the deal for her. So it’s time to ask: Will both can- didates now acknowledge that the differences between them are minor compared with the philosophical chasm that separates them from any of their potential Republican foes? The issue of particular contention between the two Democrats is, para- doxically, the one that shows how far both are from the GOP: what to do about the fi nancial system. Sanders wants to break up the big banks, seeing anything short of this as selling out. Clinton argues that breaking them up won’t solve the fi nancial system’s problems and wouldn’t touch the many nonbank institutions that helped cause the crash that led to the Great Recession. In- stead, she pro- poses much tougher regu- lation. Their un- derlying argument is more than a century old, reprising an internecine progressive fi ght that goes back to the 1912 election. It was an Ameri- can classic when the Republican Party split into two: the relatively conservative incumbent president, William Howard Taft, secured the party’s nomination; former President Theodore Roosevelt walked out and formed the Progressive Party. Two other progressive candidates, Demo- crat Woodrow Wilson and Social- ist Eugene Debs, rounded out the most remarkable fi eld of candidates American voters were ever offered. Although Sanders reveres Debs and has a medallion commemorating him in his Senate offi ce, his position on the banks is closer to Wilson’s ap- proach to monopoly. Proclaiming his devotion to a “New Freedom,” Wilson wanted more aggressive an- ti-trust actions and warned, Sanders- like, that the country was nearing “the time when the combined pow- er of high fi nance would be greater than the power of the government.” Roosevelt, arguing for a “New Nationalism,” saw economic con- centration as inevitable and believed Wilson’s approach was naive. He saw stronger government regulation of large entities as more likely to secure both justice and effi ciency. When it comes to the world of fi nance, Clin- ton is the TR candidate this year. I’ve always been sympathetic to Roosevelt’s side in that argument, but the larger point is that Sanders and Clinton (like Wilson and Roos- other views evelt before them) both see govern- ment as playing an important role in checking concentrated economic power and preventing abuses of the system. And the Republicans? Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich would all reduce government su- pervision of the fi nancial system by repealing the Dodd-Frank reforms. Clinton and Sanders are arguing about what needs to be done. The Republicans want to do less alto- gether. Or take health care. Clinton and Sanders have battled fi ercely about how to move forward from Obam- acare, but both want to build on its successes. Republicans would repeal it. The two Democrats have squab- bled about how much the minimum wage should go up; the Republicans all oppose a federal minimum wage increase. Such party differences are multiplied across a broad fi eld of is- sues. At a time when ideological polar- ization between the parties is so high, such contrasts should be obvious. But the bad blood between many of Sanders’ supporters and Clinton ob- scures the stakes and presents Demo- crats with a special challenge. Their victories depend on high participation among younger voters who are turned on to Sanders and, in many cases, turned off to Clinton. The pro-Sanders young are unlikely to vote Republican, but if too many stay home in November, much of what Sanders and Clinton believe in could be consigned to the dustbin. That’s why the day after New York, the Brooklyn Brawlers would do well to sit down over a couple of Brooklyn Brewery ales and fi gure out a way forward. (Washington Post Writers Group) The importance of wildlife refuges Federal authorities have recently reported more than two dozen in- cidents of totally unacceptable be- havior, including vandalism and other acts of wreckage, by armed American militants at 13 wildlife refuges. This destructive behavior caused more than $7 million and counting so far. Apparently, these costs will be paid by American tax- payers as there has been no report, at least not one known at this writing, where those persons responsible for the criminal acts will pay restitu- tion for their law breaking, public property wrecking, ruining wildlife habitation and public property ru- ination in general. So what is a National Wild- life Refuge (NWR) and what do they mean to the average Ameri- can which add up to much more than just land and things on the land that America’s armed militants want to take over for their personal use and profi t? A NWR is a designa- tion for certain land that’s protected and managed by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. The NWR is a system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fi sh, wildlife and plants. After President Theodore Roos- evelt designated Florida’s Pelican Is- land as the fi rst national wildlife ref- uge 1903 the system has increased in size to more than 560 national wildlife refuges and other units of the refuge system and, further, the 38 wetland management districts encompass more than 150 million acres. The system’s mission is to manage a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management, and, where needed, the restoration of fi sh, wildlife and gene h. mcintyre plant resourc- es and their habitat. The system main- tains all for the benefi t of current and future gen- erations of Americans. Among the refuge sites are some- thing like 700 bird species, 220 mammal species, 250 reptile and amphibian species and 1,000 fi sh species. These various species are a priority to NWRs in that 60 refug- es have been established to conserve 280 threatened and endangered spe- cies. More than 45 million people per year can visit and participate in a wide variety of NWR out- door recreational activities that in- clude hunting, fi shing, photography, bird watching, environmental edu- cation among others. These visitors generate over $1.7 billion and cre- ate around 27,000 jobs for local economies. Every state has at least one while ourmost famous (or infa- mous by way of armed militants) is located in Harney County. The national wildlife refuge sys- tem is dealing with issues such as urban intrusion/development, habi- tat fragmentation, degradation of water quantity and quality, climate change, invasive species, increasing demands for recreation, and increas- ing demands for energy develop- ment as well as Americans who are determined to take them over by force of arms for personal gain and their exclusive use. To protect and sustain these na- tional treasures that have been tend- ed to and improved for more than 100 years, the NWR system has created Comprehensive Conserva- tion Plans (CCPs) for each refuge, developed through consultation with private and public stakehold- ers. The CCPs design conserva- tion goals for the next 15 years in each refuge. Each plan has plan- ning and public meeting stages to determine goals and the draft- ing of a plan for all considerations within each refuge. All actions are in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Every- thing’s available for public scrutiny at NWR system web sites. We’re greatly endowed by the National Wildlife Refuge System in Oregon with 18 of them, most of which are actually within easy driv- ing distance of Keizer. Who knows, but that you might become a dedi- cated protector of them by a visit to one or many of them. In the mean- time, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Senator Ron Wyden are presently working in the halls of our nation’s capitol to make access and use of the NWRs easier and less burden- some to use. (Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap- pears weekly in the Keizertimes.) Share your opinion Email a letter to the editor (300 words) or a guest column (500 words) by noon Tuesday. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com
