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PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 1, 2016 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Yes, Keizer is safe By CATHY CLARK Are we safe? I have heard that very sincere question many times as we have read reports of crimes committed at our local businesses this week. Our police chief has stated that folks in our community who do not live a high risk lifestyle, i.e. drug dealing, sex-traffi cking, theft, or gangs, are not the people involved in the shootings that have caused us concern and demanded resources from our police staff. We live on the Interstate 5 corridor and that impacts the kinds of crimes that occur. But those crimes get solved. Our police staff—patrol, detectives, traffi c safety, community response, school resource, evidence and records, and K9—get the job done well. We have a strong community. We care about each other and are aware of what is going on around us. We say something when the circumstances look wrong. We take active measures to secure our loved ones and our property. We have Neighborhood Watch, neighborhood and homeown- ers groups looking out for each other. We have city police, county sheriff deputies and state troopers living in our neighborhoods. As prudent, rea- sonable, and responsible people, we have taken many of the steps neces- sary to create a generally safe com- munity. Can we do more? Yes. Crime prevention means we take the time to secure our properties, train our family members and em- ployees on proper security measures, get to know our neighbors, maintain situational awareness, and get involved in our community. Creating a safe community also means locking doors, windows and cars, mowing the lawn, fi xing broken windows, having prop- er lighting, and both noticing and reporting when something looks out of place. It also means maintaining a well-trained, equipped, and properly staffed police force. Our city is founded on volunteerism, but this is one area where we have never chosen a DIY ap- proach. We have wonder- ful volunteers working in the offi ce and serving as Reserve Offi cers. But to provide us all with the services we need, we have chosen to have a professional police department. That requires a lot of resources to do it right. It’s a very complex business, requiring staffi ng around the clock, every day of the year. 24/7. And when an offi cer is sick, has to go to court to testify, or is on leave to care for a family mem- ber, we have to be able to continue providing the services our citizens de- mand and deserve. The budget we just passed does that, using the tax dollars you have entrusted to us in the most responsible, cost-effective manner we can. But, Keizer has grown. And the resources we currently have available are never going to be enough to staff our force at the optimum level for our growing community. Our permanent tax rate of $2.08/$1000 was set in 1992 and was never meant to provide the services we stretch to provide al- ready. It is time for us to come together as a Keizer community to talk about public safety. Not out of fear for what has happened, but out of our civic responsibility to make reasoned deci- sions for our community safety. To- gether, we need to decide what level of policing we want to provide and are willing to fund, and how those funds will be raised. We have the opportunity to set the course for Keizer into the future. Ul- timately, we each have a part to play in being safe. Our proud, volunteer spirit in Keizer means that we accept that responsibility. Are we safe? Yes, I be- lieve that we are. Let’s work together to keep us that way. guest column (Cathy Clark is mayor of Keizer.) American experiment 240 years on On Monday July 4, There is one person America celebrates her here in Keizer, whom 240th birthday, Indepen- from the I would like to tell you dence Day. That day is one about who has special sig- capitol nifi cance to Independence of the greatest days in hu- man history. Day. Mr. Paul Wagner By BILL POST When a struggling colo- is my friend and fellow ny threw off the shackles of member of my church. an overbearing government We have found that he is and said “we are free” by declaring its Oregon’s oldest living World War II independence and then at the cost of veteran. His birthday is July 4; he will thousands of lives, defended that in- be 104 this year. He fought in the war dependence. Two hundred-forty years then spent a long career in business later, we celebrate with fi reworks, and has touched many lives over this picnics, parades and time with friends last century. He’s one of my heroes and family, and that is all fantastic but and to bring this full circle back to I hope that we will all take a moment Independence Day, without men like to look back and refl ect on the cost Paul, this “experiment” called Amer- of “independence” and consider our ica, might have failed. I honor and gratitude for those great men we call cherish him every time I get to see our “Founding Fathers” who took him. this movement so serious that they So, this Independence Day, go to were willing to sacrifi ce all that they St. Paul and watch a parade. Or go to had including their lives. Keizer Rapids Park and have a picnic. This “experiment” that is America Go to the Volcanoes game and enjoy is still evolving, still learning and still “America’s Pastime” and fi reworks growing and it is, and forever will be, or just spend time in the backyard the greatest nation the world has ever with your family but whatever you known. The United States of Amer- do, remember how we achieved this ica has helped more people, assisted independence and have a wonderful more nations and protected the world Fourth of July, (Bill Post represents House Dis- more than any nation before and it is with great love and respect for this trict 25. He can be reached at 503- or via email at rep.billpost@ country that I write this. I am proud 986-1425 state.or.us.) to be called an American. 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 Learning from Britian’s crisis By E.J. DIONNE JR. Elites are in trouble. High lev- els of immigration are destabilizing our democracies. Politicians who put their short-term political inter- ests over their countries’ needs reap the whirlwind—for themselves but, more importantly, for their nations. Citizens who live in the econom- ically ailing peripheries of wealthy nations are in revolt against well-off and cosmopolitan metropolitan ar- eas. Older voters lock in decisions that young voters reject. Traditional political parties on the left and right are being torn asunder. One of the few good things about Britain’s vote to leave the European Union is the rich curriculum of les- sons it offers leaders and electorates in other democracies. History is unlikely to be kind to British Prime Minister David Cam- eron. Last week’s referendum was not the product of broad popular demand. Cameron called it to solve a short-term political problem and get through an election. His Conserva- tive Party was split on Europe and feared hemorrhaging votes to the right-wing, anti-Europe, anti-immi- grant UK Independence Party. Cameron fi gured that kicking his troubles down the road by promising a future plebiscite on Europe could make them go away. Instead, he turned a normal electoral challenge into a profound crisis that could lead to the breakup of his country while threatening Europe’s future. The devastating complaint of Martin Schulz, the president of the Europe- an parliament: “A whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal fi ght in the Tory Party.” For all the Union Jacks hoisted at Leave rallies, the nationalism behind this was English, not British. England voted to get out of the EU, Scotland overwhelmingly to stay. Northern Ireland also fa- vored Remain, while Wales split narrowly for Leave, its more English parts voting like England. S u d d e n l y, for Scots who want their country to be independent, their nationalism becomes a form of pro-European internationalism. To stay in Europe, they have to escape Britain. North- ern Ireland’s status is now also in doubt. Don’t trash democracy or the vot- ers. Where complicated choices are involved—and Brexit defi nes com- plexity—leaders in representative democracies need the guts to make hard calls and submit themselves to voters afterward. They should not use referendums purely to evade re- sponsibility. In fact, now that this road has been opened, real democrats should demand a second referendum on the terms of an exit deal. On Thursday, voters bet that the unknown would be better than the known. They should get to vote again on the full implications of what they set in mo- tion. The European idea was killed in part by right-wing Tories who think they can turn their island into a free trade, low-regulation paradise. But it was also battered in traditionally Labour-voting industrial areas far away from a happy and generally prosperous London that voted over- whelmingly to stay. A partial tally of the discontent: 68 percent Leave in Barnsley; 70 percent in the authority that includes Grimsby; and 62 per- cent in South Shields’ borough. Emma Lewell-Buck, the Labor parliamentarian who represents South Shields and supported Re- other views main, was right to say that UKIP leader Nigel Farage “whipped every- one up into a frenzy with his hateful language.” Ethno-nationalism is on the rise across Europe and this vote will only intensify the trend. But in so many nations, including our own, tech- nological change, globalization and fi nancialization force the left-out to stare at prosperity from a great dis- tance. In their justifi ed frustration, they often see immigration as of a piece with the other changes in the world that they deplore. Responsible offi cials should al- ways be ready to denounce rac- ism. But their job description also requires them to provide realistic policy answers to quell the rage. If center-right and center-left politi- cians fail to do this, their parties will remain suspect. Yet if Britain’s vote is understand- able, it’s also a cause for sadness. It’s a vote against a more open world and a rejection of the idea that democra- cies can actually gain power by pool- ing sovereignty and seeking goals in common. The Leave campaign used slo- gans very familiar to Americans, including variations on “Take Our Country Back” and “Britain First.” These resonated with older voters who backed Leave by big margins. Younger Britons, who voted strong- ly to stay in Europe, will be shackled for many years to a result their elders imposed on them. Friends of open societies have been slapped in the face by citizens who are themselves retaliating for having been knocked around and ignored for too long. Across Europe and in the United States, politicians can either respond to these cries of protest or face something worse than Brexit. (Washington Post Writers Group) Election won’t unjam political gridlock Many Americans say they’re un- happy with the way the U.S. gov- ernment is being run and demand wholesale changes. Whatever the in- dividual views among us, it’s argued here that we should be the benefi - ciaries of at least two healthy parties where there are center-right and a center-left choices. The center-right some say should stand to offer mar- ket-based solutions to global warm- ing, gun control, fi scal policy, free trade and its impacts, and reassuring insights for the challenges of foreign policy where atomic weapons can get into the hands of madmen. What’s happened in 2016 is that the center-right party has become ethi- cally challenged and downright dan- gerous by playing on the ignorance and fears of many Americans. With- in its membership are anti-govern- ment Tea Party followers who want to end all public programs while cut- ting taxes on the wealthy, members of big oil who are determined to crush efforts at renewable fuels, global- warming deniers, and working any and all means to bring America’s mid- dle class to their knees along with our nation’s 225-year struggle to establish and maintain a democracy. In a head-long rush to estab- lish an ideology based on Spartan conditions for most Americans, they have thrown their support behind a presidential candidate who’s devoid of policy knowledge, refuses to do his homework, uses racial and eth- nic slurs to attack a well-respected federal judge because the judge won’t do his bidding, has made fun of hand- icapped Ameri- cans, ignores the First Amend- ment that guarantees reli- gious freedom and promises to ban all Mus- lims, says he’ll build a wall across the U.S. southern border at Mexico’s ex- pense, end treaties with tried and true U.S. allies, condones “the bomb” for scary maniacs and absolute dictators, and refuses to correct the chronic use of fi ction in his public pronounce- ments. Meanwhile, GOP leaders fi nd their man to be acceptable if not the mak- ing of a great leader. House of Rep- resentative Speaker Paul Ryan drags his feet with reservations about him yet says he’ll vote for Trump. John McCain was too tough to break un- der the torture of the North Viet- namese but now accepts Trump. Marco Rubio called Trump “a con man” while Trump referred to him as “Little Marco” but all that’s ignored now with Rubio’s endorsement. Chris Christie has become valet to a man who tells a bald-faced lie about Muslims cheering in New Jersey when the twin towers fell. Then, too, an en- tire column could be written on the number of Republicans originally confessing repulsion regarding Trump but are nowadays aboard the Trump bandwagon and will vote accordingly. Then, too, regarding Hillary, mil- lions say they do not trust her, re- membering examples of alleged wrongdoing over the years of her gene h. mcintyre career in public jobs. Meanwhile, she has many among her colleagues who’ve endorsed her but her main competitor, Bernie Sanders, is loved and followed because they believe he’s honest and trustworthy, a per- son in the Oval Offi ce, unlike Hill- ary, who will actually try hard to get done what he has advocated in his campaign promises. Thirteen million Democrats voted for Bernie in the primaries versus 17 million for Hill- ary with 45 percent of Bernie sup- porters at this writing not committed to voting for Hillary. Further, away from cameras, Hillary’s reported to be a person who apparently does not like to interact with her fellow Americans. In what looks to be a very long four months until Election Day on November 8, it’s surmised that the eventual winner may be he or she who chooses a likeable, known-to- be-trusted running mate. Mean- while, voting for either presump- tive candidate presents a problem for this voter in a contest generating lack of enthusiasm. In a fantasy of wish- ful thinking, it’s dreamed we had the prospect of a leader in whom the American public held in high regard and possessed the leadership skills to be followed by a majority in both parties. Unfortunately, what’s antici- pated in a win by either contender is a deadlocked Congress with noth- ing consequentially getting done in Washington again for the next four years. (Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap- pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
