PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 10, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
To the class of 2016 only Being the change is harder than it looks
Congatulations to those
of you who are graduating
from high school or col-
lege this month. You navi-
gated the journey that at
times seemed hopeless or
worthless. Now you get to
make your own path into
the world you feel is not
exactly waiting for you with bated
breath.
What have we done to our great-
est natural resource—our young peo-
ple? We hope that this year’s presi-
dential campaign has not soured you
on politics or public service. It would
be understandable if the circus that is
the campaign thus far turns you off; it
turns many adults off, too.It is impor-
tant to remember, though, that, like
it or not, politics makes the world go
‘round.
Most of you graduating from or
getting ready to enter college are
staring large debts in the face. That
prospect keeps some from going to
college at all. Sure, there are plenty
of stories of billionaire entrepeneurs
who did not fi nish college; those sto-
ries are far and few between.Unless
you are heir to a large fortune, you’ll
eventually have to rely on yourself
to accumulate the things you want:
house, nice car, gadgets and vacations
to exotic places.
You can attain all the things in life
you wish, but you have to put in the
time and work fi rst. That can include
creating something, working for
someone or changing the
status quo.
Changing the status
quo could mean eliminat-
ing hunger in the world or
ending gun violence. As-
sault against women, both
physical and verbal, might
be what you want to see
come to an end.
Everyone at one point or another
thinks that the work they do is hard.
Of course it’s hard; nothing worth-
while is easy. Projects and works are
especially hard when one fails. Suc-
cessful people don’t let one failure
stop them—they learn from them,
tinker, recalibrate and try again to
succeed. That can be true for any-
thing in any fi eld: athletics, academics,
career or personal.
Life itself is hard. And it’s not fair.
Very few are handed the world on a
silver platter. The choices you make
now don’t have to defi ne you for the
rest of your life. You can decide that
money and material things are most
important to you. Or, you can decide
that you want to have a positive im-
pact on the world around you. Re-
gardless of your choice you will have
to work hard to attain your goal.
Whatever you decide you want to
do or become, you don’t have to do
that or be that forever. These are your
years of discovery. Find your place in
the world and make it your own. All
it will take is hard work and desire.
—LAZ
Trump’s
running mate
Chamber of Commerce;
and, from the get-go I
was overseeing a handful
of fantastic events includ-
ing the Iris Festival Parade,
which is run by volun-
teers who live and work
in Keizer. The parade is
seen by the chamber as an
activity that families can come from
all over to support community orga-
nizations and businesses, a showcase
for children to express their pride for
what their heart has passion for, many
families, including my own have made
it a family tradition to attend, and or
participate in.
This year there were a couple of
parade entries that caught some nega-
tive attention. The Chamber and I
would like to address the concerns of
the many people I have heard from
throughout the weeks since the pa-
rade.
One of those entries followed the
required procedure and submitted
a parade entry application and paid
the required fee. The other group is a
mystery—we believe these individuals
entered the parade after it started and
deparaded before the ending point,
never actually engaging the required
process to participate in the parade
honestly. I am choosing to not list
their names, as I feel they have re-
ceived enough attention from the
Chamber through their participation.
Both of these entries offended
many spectators, and for that I am
sorry. All volunteers of the Keizer
Chamber work to make events spe-
cial for all. We are making changes
to our planning process to be sure all
entries of our parade offer the best of
Keizer and its surrounding supporters.
We want this event to be remembered
for the joy received, not political posi-
tions. I will be working closely with
our staff, and community volunteers
in the coming months to strength-
en the parades focus on fun, family
friendly fl oats.
If you are interested in joining us
in these efforts I would like to hear
from you. I can’t undo the damage
that was done, but I can promise we
will be better, and I hope that is with
additional support and participation
from many of you.
Danielle Bethell, Executive
Director
Keizer Chamber of Commerce
editfrial
letters
To the Editor:
As Mr. Donald Trump
searches for a running
mate, may I suggest a few
criteria? He should pick
someone equally qualifi ed
for the offi ce with good name rec-
ognition—from the west to balance
the ticket and perhaps, a woman. The
only question then is, which Kardashi-
an should it be?
Martin Doerfl er
Keizer
Writer’s bias is
showing
To the Editor:
I have to question Debra Saunder’s
credibility in her opinion piece on
Hillary Clinton (Hill’s emails: lying in
plain sight, Keizertimes, June 3).
Saunders writes the same lies and
spews her hatred of Clinton just like
the other Clinton haters. What Clin-
ton is “accused” of is not a crime, she
has not murdered anyone and did not
jeopardize our country.
I heard Colin Powell even say that
it is common practice for politicians
to use private servers. Why is it some
agencies have claimed that Clinton did
nothing wrong, but people like Saun-
ders jumps at the chance to use one
fi nding to prove her lack of under-
standing of what has been common
practice for many years. Why is it that
with Clinton they want her in prison
blues for something that is laughable?
She made it quite clear, if everyone is
investigated for the same thing, then
fi ne, she will produce everything. But
just why is she singled out? Saunders
is defi nitely not a journalist. Saunder’s
bias is glaring.
Kris Adams
Keizer
Offensive parade
entry wasn’t okayed
To the Editor:
Keizer is dear to my heart. Like
many of you I see it as a place to raise a
family, socialize with friends and par-
ticipate in a great volunteer focused
community.
These are my fi rst few weeks as
the executive director of the Keizer
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By ERIC A. HOWALD
My 16-hour trip along the
outskirts of the criminal justice
system began at 9 a.m. Monday
morning.
I was waiting in the hall-
way outside of Marion County
courtroom for a man convicted
of raping a minor to receive his sen-
tence. It had been a while since I’d seen
the inside of a courtroom, but severity
of the charges made it one of the more
newsworthy ones of my career.
The man spoke on his own behalf
before the sentence was handed down.
At the end of his time, he knelt before
the judge and asked for forgiveness,
but I think he meant leniency. That
was a fi rst for me and a 27-year veter-
an of the Keizer Police Department in
attendance. I will be in my 60s when
he’s released back into the world, if he
serves the full sentence.
Three hours later, I sat down with
the Keizer police chief, deputy chief
and a crime analyst to see if the num-
bers bear out recent social media rum-
blings about crime spiking in our fair
city. Putting natural journalistic skepti-
cism aside, I grew up in a town that
is regularly listed among the most
violent in the nation. What the local
media outlets didn’t pick up, I heard
rumblings about from my father, a fi re-
fi ghter, who saw it from the ground
level. Twenty years after leaving St.
Louis, I realize what the city taught me
was perspective, something that tends
to get lost in large-font headlines. As I
suspected, overall crime in Keizer is on
the decline.
At 4:30 p.m., I was at the Keizer
Civic Center for a meeting of the
Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative
Task Force. A deputy district attorney
took the fl oor to detail recent efforts
to nudge the judicial system toward
harm reduction rather than penaliza-
tion – particularly as it relates to drug
cases.
The hope is that removing the stig-
ma of felonies for fi rst-time offenders,
and those possessing trace amounts of
controlled substances, will allow them
to keep access to a wider range of em-
ployment and housing opportunities.
I am heartened by this shift in para-
digms. I have been part of struggles
against substance abuse among my
friends and family, and have come to
view harm reduction as one of the
more humane methods of dealings
with these scourges.
I fi nished my day feeling good
about what I saw and learned. Reaf-
fi rmed in my enlightenment. Then, at
12:38 a.m. Tuesday, all hell breaks loose.
My wife and I are startled awake by
a loud banging at our front door. She’s
awake
before
me and I grog-
gily claw my way
to a semblance
of
alertness.
There’s a male
voice
coming
from outside the
window. All the windows. They’re all
open, it’s still close to 80 degrees in the
house, enough to make me sweat un-
der a sheet.
It’s hard to make out words, but
he obviously thinks he’s speaking to
someone he knows. We wait for a min-
ute to see if the voice departs, and then
I make my way to the front door and
discover nothing beyond the peephole.
I go back to the bedroom and fi nd
the unknown visitor strolling through
our front yard, coming from the side of
our house. He’s back at the door by the
time I call to him through the window
asking if I can help.
He’s looking for Haley. He left his
phone and medicine inside our house.
He’ll die if he doesn’t get the medi-
cine.
I tell him, “There’s no Haley liv-
ing here, I think you have the wrong
place.”
“Are you sure?” he asks. “It looks
the same – even the artwork.”
It won’t register until later that he
must have been peering in windows.
I ask what address he’s looking for.
He asks, “What address is this?”
I tell him and he begins walking
away, toward the end of our cul de sac.
“What address are you looking for,” I
call after him. He continues walking.
A minute or so later, I call 9-1-1,
tell them what’s happened, give a de-
scription of his clothing and suggest
he’s between the ages of 18-21. They’ll
send someone, the dispatcher says, call
back if he returns.
Five minutes later, he’s back and
rummaging through our garbage and
I’m dialing the phone. He approaches
the house again and bangs on the door,
calls out angrily that we are keeping
him from his stuff.
Then he sits on our small front
stoop and tries to hide in its corner,
where police offi cers fi nd him less
than two minutes later.
My wife and I listen through the
window without looking outside. The
guy seems more than a little lost, a lot
confused and it turns out he’s only 18.
An offi cer places him under arrest for
trespassing at another residence earlier
in the evening and leads him to a pa-
trol car.
A second offi cer comes to our win-
dow. I tell him I will meet him out
front. I’m thankful our 12-year-old
daughter managed to sleep through
mfments
ff lucidity
this mess.
It isn’t until the responding offi cer
asks if we want to press charges that
everything I think I’ve learned in the
last 16 hours unravels.
Suddenly, crime rates are as high as
they’ve ever been. Anywhere. Ever.
I see our daughter scared in her
own home, jumping at the slightest
noise.
I have visions of this kid on his
knees in front of a judge pleading for
forgiveness the court has no authority
to grant.
Then I picture him on the streets,
unable to fi nd a home, much less a job.
And. And: it’s all going to be my
fault.
Because, I think, what if this kid.
This kid banging on my door in the
middle of the night. What if this kid is
just having a bad day. I’ve had bad days.
Days when I just want one thing in my
whole world to go right, and it doesn’t
happen. Or I can’t see it. Or some mix
of the two.
And I look at my wife, and I know
my face is saying, “I don’t want to do
this. I don’t want to be the reason hor-
rible things happen to this one person.
Not today. Not ever.”
And she is anxious, and wound up,
and worried about our daughter and
wondering if this is just the begin-
ning of something bigger. Something
worse.
And … she defers to me.
The offi cer, to my great, internal
admiration, manages to split the differ-
ence. He tells us he’ll keep our names
and number and call us if the other
charges fall through. It’s a momentary
reprieve, at the very least.
Now, for the last 24 hours, I keep
second-guessing myself. I keep fol-
lowing threads of what-if to different
conclusions. Keep thinking I know
who I am. Who I was? And I turned
40 two months ago, and it feels like
things are being rewritten. That’s
scary. And life can be scary, but I am
trying to be the change I want to see
in the world.
It’s not as hard for me as it has
been for others who have come be-
fore, or those who I am proud to walk
alongside, but it is its own version of
tribulation. It’s trial and error work-
ing toward measured responses to the
myriad possibilities the world has to
offer, both good and bad – and then
trying to fi gure out how to explain all
of that to a young girl who is already
years ahead of where I was at her age.
Right now, given how fresh all of it
still is, I just keep repeating to myself,
Be the change.
Eric A. Howald is the managing editor
of the Keizertimes.
What does Roots reboot tell us about now?
I think it would be interesting-
to have those behind the re-making
of Roots to confess their motive.
Roots 2, now available by TV ac-
cess, is the second go-around adap-
tation of Alex Haley’s novel pub-
lished in 1976. How much of what
he wrote was based in fact about
his own family, as he claimed, has
been long disputed as his work was
later found to be heavily plagiarized
from a novel named The African.
Meanwhile, what I know about
slavery is based strictly on what I’ve
read about it, as I wasn’t there. But
then Haley wasn’t either, born in
1912.
Kristi Turnquist wrote in TV
Talk in the Oregonian that the “new
Roots is punishing to watch.” She
wrote also that “it seems to revel in
the too-familiar depictions of black
Americans as victims, tortured with
racist cruelty and violence.” She be-
lieves that the story deserves more
attention. Having now watched the
series, I agreed with a lot of Turn-
quist’s assessment, but not the “de-
serves more attention” part.
Perhaps this is a televised sto-
ry that those who attend sports
events for promises of violence and
bloodshed. They watch or attend,
in part, at least, hoping that there
will be an awful accident with
much blood and guts, like in the
Indy 500 or NFL games, and about
which they get something in red
for their greenbacks.
Turnquist says the fi rst chapter is
grueling to watch, showing Kunta
Kinte in his rich (“rich” in Africa
was living under an absolute ruler
who could easily be as bad as any
slave owner or overseer in America)
African culture, raised to be a war-
rior and eager to honor the family
name but was captured, sold into
slavery and sent on a terrible voyage
under inhumane conditions to An-
napolis, Maryland and a plantation
run on the backs of African-born
slave power. Yet, hints of Ameri-
can mentality are revealed almost
immediately in Kunta Kinte who
can
only
think
about
freedom while
the
blood
fl ows
most
graphically
when a de-
monic white
overseer whips
him without mercy because he
won’t use his slave name. True sto-
ry? Maybe.
Most viewers just end up hat-
ing whites by way of the four epi-
sodes. As depicted, all blacks are
horribly victimized by white slave
owners, white slave catchers, and
white landowners who view slaves
as their property not as human be-
ings with the same feelings as their
white counterparts. What’s con-
sequential under these viewing
terms is that the mind of the watch-
er swells with feelings of intense an-
imosity and desires for revenge.
Predictably, a lot of negativity
toward whites is stirred up among
blacks with this kind of “enter-
tainment,” even though no white
American slave owner still lives.
However, besides the ramped up
animosity certain to be aroused
by the new Roots, a hunch is that
gene h.
mcintyre
this re-do has to do with ongo-
ing African-American interest in
reparations due to unpaid wages
for the years of involuntary work
as slaves by their forbearers. A de-
cision to impose these payments
now would most likely be received
badly as so many Americans are
similar in background to my wife
and me: On both sides, we go back
three generations in the U.S. to the
1880s, having nothing ever to do
with slavery.
A concluding thought about
Roots is that if Americans or
any other people anywhere on
earth want to know about slavery
in the U.S., they are encouraged to
read about it. After all, there are
thousands of published accounts on
the subject. That way, if the account
was written accurately, the reader
can learn what was done and how
it was done without having his or
her emotions stirred to unhealthy-
aroused levels by visceral-inspiring
scenes of human men and wom-
en terribly mistreated by other
human men and women not un-
like Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Stalin’s
Russia or Idi Amin’s Uganda.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s cflumn ap-
pears weekly.)