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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 27, 2016)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 27, 2016 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Keizer, practice new routes now After years of delay the traffi c snarl that is the inter- section of Chemawa Road and Verda Lane will be fi xed, starting on June 15. The fi x—a traffi c round-about—is one that many people deem unnec- essary or dangerous. In fact, it is neither. A round-about is neces- sary to keep Keizer’s increasing traffi c moving.It is a fact that there are fewer accidents at round-abouts than an in- tersection with signals. It is human nature to be anxious about new things, but round-abouts are not new. Once drivers who fre- quent that intersection have traveled the round-about, navigating it will become second nature, much like driving on a freeway—scary the very fi rst time. Before drivers get the chance to experience the round-about they will have to fi gure out new routes once construction begins. The Che- mawa-Verda intersection is slated to be closed to all traffi c (including pedestrians and bicycles) through early September. This won’t be the fi rst time Chemawa was closed off— that road was impassable during the construction of the new bridge over Claggett Creek a few years ago. Keizer drivers can get a jump on the two and a half month clo- sure by utilizing alternate routes now. The public shouldn’t wait until June 15 to think about how to get around that area. The construction closure is not coming as a surprise; it’s been on the planning table for years. The Public Works Department promises there will be plenty of signage for unsuspecting motorists; drivers who live in Keizer should not be surprised. Drivers who drive east on Che- mawa Road need to switch to Lock- haven Drive. For those who need to get to east central Keizer, Dearborn Avenue will be the best route. Though road closures are frustrat- ing, being forewarned and prepared should greatly lessen road rage. This round-about project calls for The Golden Rule—drivers should be mindful of which alternate routes they use so as to minimize using qui- et residential streets as an aterial. The round-about is coming whether motorists want it or not; those who prepare for its construc- tion closures now will fi nd their commute much less stressful this summer. —LAZ Wanted: Keizer’s spirit of volunteerism der why you didn’t do this be- fore… “I was hungry and you gave me food…” Mat- thew 25 Blessings. Curt McCormack, Director Keizer Community Food Bank (KCFB is located at Faith Lutheran Church, 4505 River Rd. N) editorial To theEditor: The life-blood of most nonprofi ts is found in the worker bees, the vol- unteers. Keizer Community Food Bank is an all-volunteer community food ministry sponsored by fi ve churches: Faith Lutheran, John Knox Presby- terian, St. Edward Catholic, Keizer Christian and Keizer Clearlake Unit- ed Methodist. It takes over 100 volunteers to manage the two openings on Mon- day evening, Thursday morning and Wednesday afternoon when the Marion Polk Food Share truck comes with our weekly food delivery. Three to four pallets of food are dropped off and need to be unpacked and put away. Each church is responsible for an opening and providing enough vol- unteers to effi ciently serve the clients. As is the case with many nonprofi ts, many of the volunteers are senior adults, since they are retired and avail- able during the day. The Keizer Community Food Bank has an incredible bank of volun- teers, many have served since the food bank’s beginnings 25 years ago. Also, these seniors are aging out and need to be replaced by younger bodies with renewed energy. Others are having medical issues and will be in recovery for several weeks. Our greatest need is on Wednesday when the delivery truck comes. We need abled bodies that can lift 25-35 pounds. Time would be 1:30 p.m. to about 3, depending on when the truck arrives. We can also use cart drivers on Monday evening (6-7:30p.m.) and Thursday morning (9:30 a.m.-11a.m.) to help clients out to their cars and unload the food. Looking for a volunteer activity? Give us a try. It may not suit your needs, but then again, it may touch your soul in a way that you will won- letters Executive decisions out of control To the Editor: On May 13, King Obama issued a decree that every public school in the nation is to accommodate transgender students. Boys who identify as girls and vice versa must be allowed to use the bath- rooms, locker rooms and shower stalls of their choosing. And they must also be allowed to play on the sports teams of their choosing. This is one more example where King Obama bypasses Congress to make a sweeping decree that takes away the rights of privacy and safety of our citizens. In this case, it puts our teenage girls at risk in the name of “political correctness.” And this is not all. School districts that dare to defy the administration’s directive will face lawsuits and lose millions of dollars in federal funding. In the case of North Carolina stand- ing up to King Obama, the Obama administration responded by giving them only three days to conform to their decree or face losing federal funding for education and threatening the potential of withholding federal transportation funding as well. Where is the outrage about a fed- eral government that believes it can bully states into doing anything they want without congressional approval? John Russell Salem 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 Where there’s smoke, there’s fi re By LAWRENCE KUDLOW Mark Zuckerberg and his massive social-media site Facebook have come under strong criticism for allegedly suppressing stories of interest for con- servative readers from its infl uential “trending” news section. Facebook has roughly 1.6 billion users world- wide, 167 million of whom are in the United States. Its “trending” section is therefore a powerful political infl u- ence. Zuckerberg has denied the charg- es, and he will meet this week with a handful of conservatives to discuss allegations that Facebook’s “news cu- rators” have manipulated its list of sto- ries. The way it works at Facebook is that this powerful group of curators, or editors, who have access to a ranked list of trending topics generated by the company’s algorithms, control the content of the trending-news sec- tion. In effect, these curators exercise gatekeeping powers, which amount to political news-making powers that are transmitted to Facebook’s massive audience. Even The New York Times published an article this week titled “Social media fi nds new role as news and entertainment curator.” The anti-conservative curating bias was fi rst reported by the tech blog Gizmodo. After that, a number of conservative outlets chimed in that the social-media giant has suppressed conservative views and related sto- ries. This triggered news reports by the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, The New York Times, and websites The Hill and Breit- bart. Among the conser vatives slated to attend the Zuckerberg meeting are Glenn Beck, Dana Perino of Fox News, Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute, senior Donald Trump campaign aide Barry Bennett and former Romney digital director Zac Moffatt. How these folks were picked for the meeting is anyone’s guess. And what exactly is expected to come out of this meeting is unclear. It seems more like a public-relations gambit by Zuckerberg, who previously said Facebook will investigate all the con- servative charges. Curiously, last March, Zuckerberg gave a speech at a Facebook confer- ence where he blasted Donald Trump and his policies. Also curious, Hillary Clinton, by a wide margin, has re- ceived the bulk of political donations from Facebook employees in this election cycle. According to Breitbart, data from the Federal Election Commis- sion show that Facebook staff gave $114,000 to Hillary Clinton. The next-closest recipient of political money was former Republican presi- dential candidate Marco Rubio. He only got $16,604. other views Tom Stocky, the head of the trend- ing-topics section at Facebook, maxed out with an individual donation of $2,700 to Hillary Clinton. The Hill website found that roughly 78 Face- book employees -- from engineering, communications, public policy, strat- egy, marketing, human resources and other areas -- donated to Clinton. Meanwhile, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has tweeted, “Facebook must answer for conservative censorship.” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Com- merce, warned Facebook of the need for consumer protection and an open Internet, and according to The Wall Street Journal Thune has sent a letter to Zuckerberg asking how the com- pany chooses its trending topics and who is ultimately responsible. There are also a number of academics who have called for full transparency in the Facebook news process. Of course, Facebook is a private company, and therefore is entitled to whatever political biases it holds. But given its gigantic scope and its power over so many people, and consider- ing the mounting infl uence of all the social-media outlets, this is a very seri- ous story. We’ll see what comes out of this week’s meeting. But as the American proverb goes: Where there’s smoke, there’s fi re. (Creators Syndicate) The lessons still resound about D-Day During my high school years, reading U.S. history, I got lessons in what it means to control one’s fear enough to proceed with an act of bravery. That instance of insight occurred when I read and got in touch with what it must have been like to reach the shore on a landing craft off northwest France and face the fi re power of the greatest of the world’s war machines at that time— the Nazi war machine—waiting for Allied troops to set foot on land. The Battle of Dunkirk had failed miserably in the spring of 1940, and that fact must have add- ed to the consternation of the Al- lied troops. Nevertheless, on June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Al- lied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortifi ed French coastline to fi ght Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy. Gen- eral Dwight D. Eisenhower named it Operation Overlord and referred to the action as a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” In the early hours of that fate- ful day, more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion. Somewhat of a surprise due to past failures, by day’s end the Allies had established a foot-hold on continental Europe. However, what was hoped to be avoided by those waiting to go ashore that day, 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded. Their sacrifi ce enabled 100,000 soldiers to begin the pain- fully slow slog across Europe to de- feat Adolf Hitler’s well-trained and impressively armed troops. More Americans went to church back then than is true today, mak- ing it possible for those brave young men to jump into the English Channel and wade ashore or para- chute out of planes into a blister- ing onslaught of machine guns and mortar blasts. Besides prayer and the belief that, if killed, one would go to Heaven, there was by that point in the war considerable hatred of Hit- ler and Nazi Germany that might have helped those to proceed who, under normal conditions, would gene h. mcintyre have refused to wade into the abyss although training and the consequence of a court mar- tial were prob- ably in the mix of motivations. While the weather on June 6 waxed and waned between storm and tempered calm, Eisenhower, with cautious optimism, at 9:45 p.m. on June 5, told his staff, “Let’s go.” Every soldier, sailor and airman received a letter from Eisenhow- er and also listened to his radio ad- dress, both of which reminded the men that the eyes of the world were upon them and that their opponents would fi ght savagely, exhorted them to be brave, show their devotion to duty, and accept nothing but victory. At the time, the American people were later informed, Eisenhower had written a note in which he ac- cepted full blame should the mission fail. The note remained crumpled up in his pocket as the events of June 6, while costly for sure, secured a tenuous hold on Normandy but succeeded enough to begin the long and bloody push to Berlin. Later Eisenhower asked the Amer- ican people to join him in prayer. Personally, with the stakes so high, it probably would have surprised no one to learn that Eisenhower spent considerable time that night and the next on his knees imploring the Al- mighty’s help for the greatest expe- ditionary military ef- fort known in world history. Eisen- hower was a supreme- ly grateful petitioner to God as he dem- onstrated during his presidency from 1953 to 1961. It was under the Eisen- hower administration that the words “Under God” were added to the pledge of allegiance, while, during his second term, that the words “In God We Trust” were added to U.S. paper currency. Another indicator of his strong religious feelings was his inauguration where he invited his cabinet nominees to a special re- ligious service at the National Pres- byterian Church the morning of the inauguration: Every previous presi- dent had privately attended religious services on the day of his inaugura- tion. He became the fi rst president to be baptized while in offi ce; he also instituted the fi rst-ever prayer- at-start of his cabinet meetings. What’s gone before has made us what we are today. When thinking about World War II the Allies fi nal- ly won in August, 1945, I give thanks to God Almighty and an American people proceeding me who loved their country enough to risk their lives to save it. Let us recognize and give thanks on June 6, 2016, for what our brave troops achieved in Europe, saving us from a horrible fate. Then, too, we also must remember those heroically brave American troops who waded ashore onto heavily for- tifi ed, nearly impregnable Japanese- held Pacifi c Islands between Pearl Harbor in December, 1941 and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. (Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap- pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
