PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 24, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Do nothing or do something
We, as a nation, have
made a choice on mass
gun shootings. We will
do nothing. We will send
thoughts and prayers. We
shake our heads in disbe-
lief. We ask ourselves how
this can happen again and
again.
The massacre of 20 children in
Connecticut, the killing of 14 people
in California, the murder of 49 people
in Florida and the hundreds of other
shooting deaths by gun should bring
about changes in gun laws—they
haven’t.
Support of second amendment
rights has overpowered any common
sense legislation that is backed by a
vast majority of Americans. Suggest-
ed legislation regarding background
checks, waiting periods and assault
weapons ban.
The latest skirmish is over whether
people on the government’s no-fl y list
should be prohibited from purchasing
a gun of any kind. Some don’t want to
violate the rights of those who have
not been convicted of a crime, only
suspected of having terrorist sym-
pathies. As one U.S. Senator said, if a
person is a known to have actual ter-
ror plans, they would be under arrest;
you can’t buy a weapon when you are
sitting in jail.
The 1994 assault weapons ban was
a victory for gun control advocates,
however the ban expired in 2004 and
has never been reinstated. Intense lob-
bying efforts assured that a ban on
assault weapons would never see the
light of day.
Enthusiasts say that semi-automatic
assault weapons are needed for self-
defense, hunting and sport. It takes
verbal gymnastics to rationalize the
need for the average citizen to get
their hands on such weap-
ons. There are plenty of
other guns that can be used
for self-defense, hunting
and sport.
Support for gun rights
is so strong that even a ban
on assault weapons is cited
as the fi rst step on a path
to the elimination of all personally-
owned guns. That’s the boogie man
that is conjured up every time any re-
form is called for. Except for a very
small sliver of some parts of society, no
one is advocating that the government
burst into houses and confi scate peo-
ple’s weapons. That will not happen,
even the most disinterested person
would say that banning gun owner-
ship by the public is wrong.
Debate over second amendment
rights will go on. If it is a right to own
and carry a gun—which is a personal
choice—then other rights need to
be fought for and maintained as well.
The right to bear arms should not be
more important than the right to free
speech, freedom of religion or free-
dom to control our own bodies.
Whether one is a strict Constitui-
onalist or one believes the Constitu-
tion is fl uid and must be intrepreted
to our times, the rights it accords to
the people never go away. Those who
cite rights in one area of the people’s
lives must also support the rights in
other areas.
This country can have any gun
control laws or any law that maintains
personal freedoms it wants. It will take
millions of dedicated people across
the nation to have as big a voice in
the gun debate. They have to mobilize
by donating money to and voting for
like-minded candidates. Or they can
choose to do nothing.
—LAZ
editorial
Security and rights of the USA
Per the news media, Amer-
icans supporting the ISIS
agenda are not attacking their
fellow Americans on a daily
basis although their murder-
ing interests and actions have
reached a fairly threatening,
“Who’s next?” not thereby
knowing which innocent lives will
be taken during the next club night
out, while seeing a movie, by going
to a mall, or simply by sitting with
work friends to celebrate a Christian
holiday. While this writer hesitates
to encourage rights infringements, is
it not high time for doing more about
those among us who show alarming
signs of killer-to-be behaviors?
For just one among the killers, take
the case of Omar Mateen, formerly of
St. Lucie County, Florida. His com-
ments on the Fort Hood shooter
were so worrisome that his boss, the
local sheriff, transferred him from his
post at a courthouse. Yet long before,
even back when he was a pre-teen,
his behavior was marked by constant
outbursts and classroom insubordina-
tions where he could not conform to
any school rules. Between 1992 and
1999, he had a record of 31 discipline
problems for general school disrup-
tions and specifi c incidents of physi-
cally attacking other students.
Documents show that as early as
third grade, he was verbally abusive
and aggressive during which times
he used violence and obscenities. In
fourth grade he was known to physi-
cally harm other students, talk out in
class, and scream at fellow students
and teachers. He was moved from
school to school but never shaped
up to demonstrate anything even re-
motely resembling socially acceptable
behaviors. In his marriages, he beat
his fi rst wife enough to end in divorce
and frightened his second enough
not to alert the authorities when she
knew about his plans at Pulse night-
club in Orlando.
In 2013, at age 26, Mateen worked
as a private security guard for G4S
Secure Solutions USA,
Inc. at St. Lucie Coun-
ty Courthouse in Fort
Pierce. He’s remem-
bered there for his in-
fl ammatory comments,
including a statement
that Fort Hood, Texas
shooter Nidal Hasan was justifi ed in
killing 13 people while injuring 30
more. Further, Mateen constantly
made derogatory remarks about
women and Jews enough that the FBI
was notifi ed about his statements. As
seemingly too often takes place now-
adays, the FBI would not conclude he
was a terrorist risk.
Current events suggest strongly
that it’s time that people like Mateen
and others, who demonstrate time af-
ter time, as he did, that they are highly
likely to murder their fellow Ameri-
cans, must be dealt with by enforcing
measures that place them, temporarily
or permanently, under confi ning cir-
cumstances until they’re able to dem-
onstrate behaviors of responsible con-
duct. Would such interventions cost
money? Yes, of course, probably a lot.
However, while we continue to
spend billions of American dollars
in pointlessly unsuccessful warring
in the Middle East, while our nation
continues to send our fellow Ameri-
cans to long prison terms for smoking
marijuana and other misdemeanors,
and while we are willing to give ath-
letes and their coaches billions of dol-
lars to play games that offer “enter-
tainment” to those who want to see
blood and injury without an ounce
of redeeming social value to a nation
in trouble, then we should demon-
strate some intelligence, using in-
vestment interventions into the lives
of Americans hell-bound on kill mis-
sions. Realistically speaking, by hook
or crook, mad and bad people can get
any kind of gun in this country so we
must fi nd preventive strategies and
employ them to effective results.
gene h.
mcintyre
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
Keizertimes
Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303
phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com
SUBSCRIPTIONS
NEWS EDITOR
Eric A. Howald
editor@keizertimes.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Derek Wiley
news@keizertimes.com
One year:
$25 in Marion County,
$33 outside Marion County,
$45 outside Oregon
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
ADVERTISING
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
Periodical postage paid at
Salem, Oregon
RECEPTION
Lori Beyeler
facebook.com/keizertimes
twitter.com/keizertimes
Fighters don’t always use fi sts
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Keizerite Thomas Lucas sat in
the second-to-last row of more than
700 graduates participating in the
Chemeketa Community College
commencement ceremony Tuesday,
June 14.
He had a long wait, but I’d used
my press pass to get on the fl oor of
the Pavilion at the Oregon State
Fairgrounds where the event was
held. Thomas saw me taking pic-
tures of him prior to taking his seat
and fl ashed me a double thumbs-up
along with a big grin. I found a chair
about 30 feet away from his spot and
we passed time trading yawns, funny
faces and countdowns of how many
rows were left before his turn to walk
across the stage.
All I could think about was how
Thomas shouldn’t be there, but
Thomas was defying odds long before
we met a little more than a year ago.
Shortly before his 19th birthday,
Thomas was in Arkansas riding his
bike home from one of his two jobs
when he was struck by a car, then
dragged behind it when the bike
chain wrapped around his arm and
the undercarriage of the vehicle.
He woke up six weeks later in a
nursing home. His mental capacity
had been reduced to about that of
a 7-year-old because of a traumatic
brain injury.
Thomas was working two jobs at
the time of the accident because he
was paying for training at a local pro
wrestling school, he had big dreams of
a career in the squared circle. And, just
like that, the dream vanished.
He had to relearn most of the
things that the fully-abled take for
granted, but
he progressed
quickly. By the
time he moved
back to his
dad’s home in
Oregon four
years ago, he’d
already earned
a pair of educational certifi cates, but
he’d never fi nished high school.
Around February 2015, counselors
at Oregon’s Vocational Rehabilita-
tion Services connected him with the
moments
of
lucidity
Thomas Lucas
Mid-Valley Literacy Center where I
had been tutoring GED students for a
less than a year.
From the get-go, Thomas was an
eager learner. He was unafraid to join
in discussions, readily asked questions
and helped me discover that I could
push the students in the class harder
than I had up until that point. How-
ever, the foundation of our bond was
pro wrestling.
I was a toddler when I fi rst started
attending pro wrestling events, and
knowing a bit about his passion for
the sport meant we were rarely at a
loss for things to talk about.
In September of last year, Thomas
enrolled in GED classes at Cheme-
keta where he had a more intensive
program, and access to special test-
taking facilities that met his needs.
He would drop by MVLC oc-
casionally, and then he would come
by my offi ce to let me know how he
was doing. Two months ago, the text
messages started rolling in. He was
passing the GED tests on the fi rst at-
tempt in every subject, leading up to
his graduation last week.
When Thomas started taking GED
classes at MVLC, the administrators
of the program were telling students
and tutors it would likely take a year-
and-a-half to two years to complete
the program and pass all the tests.
Thomas, who is still dealing with the
impacts of his brain injury, did it in
a year and two months. Even before
graduation, Thomas was already plan-
ning his next steps – a degree in social
work or education.
My heart swells thinking about it.
It took the assistance and support
of a lot of people in two states to
get Thomas to this point in his life,
but Thomas is the one who deserves
the lion’s share of the credit. He had
many opportunities to stay down on
the mat or tap out but, like any good
pro wrestler, he keeps shaking his fi sts
and rising back to his feet.
For me, it’s an honor and a privi-
lege to be part of the crowd – be-
cause he’s putting on the show of a
lifetime.
(Eric A. Howald is the managing
editor at the Keizertimes.)
Is the gun lobby fi nally cornered?
By E.J. DIONNE JR.
A political crisis is usually preced-
ed by an intellectual and moral crisis.
Dominant ideas that once seemed to
hang together lose their hold when
they are exposed as contradictory and
incoherent.
Similarly, moral claims made on
behalf of a worldview can, gradually
or suddenly, come to be seen as empty.
Demoralization comes before defeat.
This is what happened in the So-
viet Union. A corrupt and dictatorial
system fell for many reasons, but its
demise became inevitable when even
those with an interest in mouthing
the old slogans and defending the old
ideology came to realize that almost
everyone around them thought they
were extolling bunk.
But a crisis can also develop around
particular issues in democratic coun-
tries. This is what’s happening now to
those who maintain an absolutist posi-
tion in opposing all new measures to
limit the use of fi rearms.
The contradictions of the gun
lobby’s worldview are not new, but it
has taken a terrorist hate crime at an
Orlando nightclub to force even the
most slavish congressional followers
of the National Rifl e Association to
rethink whether they can continue to
resist every effort, however modest, to
prevent violence.
Those of us who have long favored
what we typically call “common-sense
gun laws”—including background
checks, an assault weapons ban and
restrictions on the ability of terrorism
suspects and the mentally unstable to
buy guns—have always seen the abso-
lutists’ position as nonsensical. This is
why we consider our ideas “common-
sense.” Judging by most of the polls,
a majority of the country agrees with
us.
The truth is
we already ac-
cept the need
to subject the
right to bear
arms to reason-
able restrictions.
Otherwise, we
would repeal laws regulating the own-
ership of machine guns and rocket-
propelled grenade launchers. (Imagine
the bumper sticker: “If RPGs are out-
lawed, only outlaws will have RPGs.”)
Those on our side of this debate
cannot understand how earlier hor-
rors, particularly the mass murder
of children at Sandy Hook, did not
change the hearts and minds of our
opponents. Surely something is terri-
bly wrong with laws that make such
mass killings routine in the United
States in a way they are nowhere else
in the democratic world. But even
very moderate legislation was defeat-
ed.
What makes Orlando different is
the clash the attack revealed between
two powerful impulses of contempo-
rary conservatism: the refl exive hostil-
ity to gun restrictions and the incessant
assertion that we must do what it takes
to protect the United States from ter-
rorism. If you believe the second, you
really can’t believe the fi rst. This has
always been true, but the murder of 49
people by a terrorist made the incon-
gruity so stark that Donald Trump was
moved to suggest he would talk to the
NRA about ways to keep guns out of
the hands of terrorists.
One can be skeptical about wheth-
er Trump will go beyond the NRA’s
ineffectual solutions to the problem.
But Trump’s verbal shift was a telltale
sign of an intellectual system that is
other
views
crumbling.
And the demoralization of one side
in a debate is often accompanied by
new energy on the other. This is why
the Senate fi libuster last week to force
votes on gun restrictions led by Sen.
Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was so im-
portant.
There was power to Murphy’s wit-
ness itself, coming as it did from a
politician whose constituents include
the families who suffered grievously
at Sandy Hook. And his rejection of
business as usual showed that the long
accumulation of massacres has broken
the patience of those demanding ac-
tion. It was a signal that advocates of
sane gun laws have moved off the de-
fensive.
Since the NRA-inspired backlash
against the gun laws passed in the
1990s, Democrats have been paralyzed
by the fear that taking a strong stand
on guns would be electorally hazard-
ous. The rallying to Murphy and also
Hillary Clinton’s aggressive use of the
gun issue in her presidential campaign
suggest that the toll taken by mass
shootings is changing this political
calculus.
After Orlando, it’s the gun-sanity
rejectionists who are feeling the pres-
sure.
It takes time for new political re-
alities to take hold. The gun lobby
still has many obedient followers in
Congress. The Republican Party is
still dominated by those who will do
whatever the NRA tells them to do.
Nonetheless, even the most fer-
vently held dogma is not immune to
reality and logic. The collapse of the
opposition to reasonable steps toward
making us a safer country may not
happen all at once. But it is in sight.
(Washington Post Writers Group)