PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 22, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Stuck between the political extremes
Summer distractions
This summer the na-
tion seems to be going
crazy—mass
murders,
killing of cops, shoot-
ings of African-Ameri-
cans that has intensifed
the battle between Black
Lives Matter, Blue Lives
Matter and All Lives
Matter. It makes a Keizerite want
to turn off the news and revel in
life here in our little corner of the
world.
We should not bury out heads
and tell the world to go away—it
won’t. The best antidote to a world
gone crazy is to enjoy what our
community has to offer and the
coming weeks will have plenty of
offerings for the most cynical.
At this writing there are two of
the four scheduled performances
remaining of Keizer Homegrown
Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park
production of Twelfth Night (one the
Bard’s more accessible plays). The
free show starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday
and Saturday at the Keizer Rotary
Amphitheatre at Keizer Rapids
Park. Filled with pirates, the show
is a good summertime diversion for
any age.
Other free events coming up in-
clude city-sponsored concerts at the
amphitheatre scheduled for six dates
in August plus the fi nal concert fea-
turing JFK in September.
For those whose artistic tastes
run more toward paintings and the
like, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art
on State St. in Salem has free admis-
sion every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to
5 p.m.
editorial
The eighth annual
Canterbury Renaissance
Faire is being held this
week and next weekend
near Silverton. This event
is a step back about 400
years with costumed play-
ers enacting life during
the Renaissance including
jousts.
Finishing up this weekend is the
Bite and Brew of Salem at River-
front Park.
Opening this week and playing
through August 28 is The Wizard of
Oz, the stage production presented
b Enlightened Theatrics at the His-
toric Grand Theatre in downtown
Salem. The production company
aims to build itself into an infl uential
regional theatre; see this show and
you can say “I knew them when...”
Antique Powerland on Brook-
lake Road north of Keizer stages its
annual Great Oregon Steam-up that
runs the last weekend of July and the
fi rst weekend of August. This event
is good for families and kids (who
never seem to tire of seeing tractors
and threshers and all the hundreds
of other attractions and activities.
Aside from the man-made events
there are beaches, mountains and
rivers to visit to take one’s mind off
real life from the national and inter-
national news.
We all need distractions when
things seem unsettled. These cer-
tainly fi t that bill. When the world
doesn’t make sense go crazy at one
of the many events our region has to
offer this summer.
—LAZ
I switched my voter registration
to ‘non-affi liated’ several years ago. I
have felt less affi liated every year since,
feeling stranded in what I suspect is
a vast pool of voters abandoned be-
tween the ideological rigidity of the
extreme left and the extreme right.
It looks like we will be asked in
the November presidential election
to vote for either Hillary Clinton
or Donald Trump. These candidates
are characterized as having the low-
est approval ratings ever seen in a
presidential election. Neither seems
well-chosen for their ability to bridge
the wide gulf between ideological ex-
tremes.
In the slightly naïve hope that
some ideas or proposals would be ad-
vanced, I watched the fi rst night of
the Republican National Convention
Monday night—Make America Safe
Again. Instead we got a steady diet
of doom and catastrophe. A mother
lamented the loss of her son at Beng-
hazi and laid the blame squarely on
then-Secretary of State Clinton for
lack of security/safety. Many more
embassy personnel were lost in pre-
vious administrations yet requests for
increased embassy security, costly in
every way, were never funded by a
dysfunctional Congress. With Secre-
tary Clinton, the soldier’s mother, and
a Congressional delegation seated at
the same table, do you think reason-
able compromise could be reached?
letters
a box
of
soap
were elected for advocating legisla-
tion that benefi ts not their party, but
their country. I don’t believe these
candidates can be produced from the
two-party, money-driven hysteria and
hyperbole of now. Who would fund
them?
We don’t escape this atmosphere
just by living in Oregon. Governor
Kate Brown, reacting to the slaughter
in Orlando, proposed some gun con-
trol legislation dealing with extended
capacity magazines, allowing more
than three days for a background
check, and increasing the defi nition
of domestic violence to include more
than just family members. Kevin Star-
rett, Director of Oregon Firearms
Federation, offered this—“It’s just in-
credibly ignorant, stupid garbage that
comes out of these people’s mouths.
The reason these people died was be-
cause they weren’t prepared to protect
themselves.”
I wonder if Mr. Starrett’s mix of
egomania and belligerence is com-
forting to fi nd in a gun owner.
I’m not sure that much would be
accomplished in a meeting including
Gov. Brown, Kevin Starrett, an Or-
egon Congressional delegation, and
myself. Yet we all live here and we
each have a vote.
(Don Vowell gets on his soapbox
regularly in the Keizertimes.)
Mike Pence is a sign of Trump’s weakness
By E.J. DIONNE JR.
Donald Trump’s selection of Indi-
ana Gov. Mike Pence as his running
mate is just what everyone is saying
it is: a safe, traditional choice. Pence
won’t hurt Trump too much and
may help him with Republican poli-
ticians and some conservatives.
But the pick is also—and more
importantly—something else: a sign
of real weakness. There were many
Republicans who could have helped
Trump far more. He could not turn
to them because they are scrambling
as far away from this ticket as they
could.
And there were Republicans with
whom Trump personally felt far
more comfortable: New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie and former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich. Trump
could not turn to where his heart
seemed to want to go because both
were too much like him and carried
too much baggage. The irrepressible
Gingrich blurted out the truth: that
4. The total revenue he and Trump would constitute “a
for the 2014-15 fi scal two pirate ticket,” whereas Pence was
year was $36.8 million.
“a relatively stable, more normal per-
5. The state of Oregon son.” Never let it be said that Newt is
To the Editor:
recently required that the entirely bereft of self-awareness.
During the last budget
minimum wage be raised.
The biggest loss to Trump comes
meeting Mayor Cathy
Regardless of anyone’s from the refusal of so many Repub-
Clark stated that “there
opinion on the issue, it licans even to be considered for the
needs to be an ‘honest’
will raise costs for every- job. Gov. John Kasich or Sen. Rob
conversation about what
one and hit seniors the hardest.
Portman would have brought more
type of community we want.”
6. In November IP 28 will be on political heft to the ticket for the
Now this week the mayor is
quoted in the Keizertimes saying, the ballot to raise the tax on corpo- simple reason that they are from
“we need to have a ‘grown up’ con- rations. Again regardless of anyone’s Ohio, at or near the top of the must-
versation about our tax rate.” The opinion on the issue, if passed, it will win list for candidates in election af-
mayor is also quoted as saying “she raise costs for everyone and hit se- ter election. Kasich had the potential
to reach far beyond Trump’s con-
is ready to have a larger conversa- niors the hardest.
When the mayor ran for of-
tion to increase the city budget.”
The city fi nance offi cer cites a fi ce she stated “As mayor, I pledge
property tax income of $4.8 million to continue these services and the
for fi scal year 2014-15 and the po- ‘Keizer Way’ of doing things with
Should there be a hint of nervous-
lice alone cost the city $5.1 million energy, thoughtfulness and dedica- ness even in the most stalwart Amer-
tion.”
for that year.
We now know the mayor’s state- ican heart nowadays, it may have
So mayor, here is my honest and
something to do with the fact that
grown up conversation related to ment appears to mean; that in her another crazed Muslim extremist
opinion past budget committee
the Keizer budget:
drove a big truck through a large
1. Keizer last updated its tax base members and city councilors have crowd in Nice, France, murdering 84
during the November 5, 1996 elec- not had “honest” or “grown up” persons and harming multiple others.
conversations about our city budget
tion.
France has become a dangerous
2. In 2011 the citizens of Keizer and when she’s elected mayor we’re place where already hundreds of
defeated a Public Safety Communi- going to see how much money we lives have been lost to the onslaught
cation Tax with 80 percent voting can squeeze out of Keizer residents. of Muslim extremists. Nevertheless,
Thanks for your support, mayor.
no.
even after the Charlie Hedbo news-
Jim
Keller
3. In 2015 the citizens of Keizer
paper killings, the December assaults
Keizer
defeated a transit tax measure.
in Paris and last week’s killing-by-
truck in Nice, French President Fran-
cois Hollande has managed only to
declare an emergency while Muslims
continue to seethe in over-crowded
slums where poverty and deprivation
reign, and ISIS devotees and return-
ees plot more bloody attacks.
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couple of American political lead-
SUBSCRIPTIONS
NEWS EDITOR
ers, one of which acted on a per-
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One year:
ceived insult to his father, the other,
editor@keizertimes.com
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$33 outside Marion County,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
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ised
that, if elected, he would get us
Keizer, OR 97303
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out of warring ways in the Middle
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Salem, Oregon
RECEPTION
can hawks who wanted the United
Lori Beyeler
States to continue fi ghting Arabs in
the Middle East no matter how ob-
viously mindless its continuation has
become.
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Just the other day Obama ordered
A poor choice
of words
E ve n t s
of last week
painfully re-
minded us that
there remains
racial tension
in America.
An African-
American sheriff from Wisconsin’s
Milwaukee County was trotted out
Monday night to assign blame to the
Black Lives Matter movement. May-
be we are instead capable of believing
there are many truths. Racial preju-
dice does exist. It is utterly wrong to
target police offi cers. Areas of high
crime can more certainly be identi-
fi ed by level of poverty than color of
skin. If we lock Sheriff David Clarke,
black activists and a Congressional
delegation in the same room could
they fi nd a way to go forward?
President Barack Obama received
much credit Monday for the wave of
Mideast terrorism. Troops were with-
drawn too soon from Iraq. Troops
have been in Afghanistan since 2001,
but you still may resist booking a
summer trip to Kabul. It is just as easy
to make the case that declaring war
on Iraq created hatred for the West.
Agreement seems unlikely no matter
who you collect to discuss this.
My hypothetical pool of voters
is left unrepresented in the void be-
tween the two major parties. May-
be it would be better if candidates
stituency and
also beyond
the Repub-
lican
Party.
The same, to
a lesser de-
gree perhaps,
can be said of
Portman.
Gov. Susana Martinez of New
Mexico would have been another
obvious plus for Trump, who can
use all the help he can get with both
women and Latinos. But Trump
chose to criticize Martinez’s tenure
as governor and, in any event, she
had already signaled her uneasiness
with him.
One could multiply the list of lost
opportunities, but one of the biggest
stories here is just how many Repub-
licans have decided that their futures
will be better served by staying away
from Trump.
That left Pence as, in Gingrich’s
terms, the best “normal person” op-
tion. Pluses for Pence include strong
ties to Capitol Hill (including a
friendship with House Speaker Paul
Ryan), an agreeable personality (a
Democrat I know in Indiana who
has tangled with Pence on issues sees
him nonetheless as a nice-guy sort
of politician), and an appeal to social
conservatives.
But even that appeal is slightly
compromised by Pence’s fl ip-fl op-
ping on “religious liberty” legislation
around gay weddings. As The Wash-
ington Post’s Amber Phillips wrote in
an excellent sketch of Pence, some
conservatives “thought he backed off
other
views
last year’s religious freedom debate
under pressure from liberals.”
And it says something about the
doubts so many conservatives have
about Trump and his need to ap-
pease them that he had to go to his
right for a running mate. He could
not turn instead to someone who
might have broadened his appeal to
middle-of-the-road voters. Trump
received a fair share of the ballots of
social-issue moderates in the north-
east during the primaries. Those vot-
ers and moderate independents will
not be reassured by Pence. In fact,
social liberals will try to use Pence to
tie Trump to the most conservative
elements of the GOP.
So the verdict that Pence is prob-
ably the best Trump could do is dou-
ble-edged.
Yes, Pence has experience; yes, he
raised no obvious alarms; yes, he’s
from the Midwest, which is the focus
of Trump’s strategy; yes he’s articulate
(he’s a former radio talk show host,
after all); and yes, regular politicians
will like him.
But Pence adds little to Trump’s
appeal outside the ranks of conser-
vative ideologues. He does not win
over voters who would like to think
that Trump, under all his pirate-ness,
is more moderate than he lets on.
And he does not help build support
in a swing state. If Trump is in trouble
in Indiana, he’s probably in trouble in
a lot of other places that a, well, more
normal Republican might be able to
take for granted.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
Leaders needed to keep US safe, secure
Keizertimes
more Ameri-
can troops to
Iraq and into
the
greatest
quagmire the
world has ever
seen. Perhaps
ironically, but
not inciden-
tally, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney,
Barack Obama and Joe Biden,
among others, will be safe from harm
the remainder of their lives at the ex-
pense of something like 310 million
Americans who pay through the nose
for their protection while not getting
a lick of protection themselves. Fur-
ther, the futility of fi ghting no-win
wars in the Middle East reminds us
that our country has not won a clear
and lasting war-military victory since
Victory over Japan in 1945.
At home, many former high-
ranking American government of-
fi cials predict that the same Muslim
extremist actions already carried
out in Paris, Nice and elsewhere are
now being planned to take place
here, wherever, that is, those deal-
ers in death see an opportunity. We
direly need to get busier than the
current effort devoted to protecting
all Americans, not just the few who
are directly responsible for bring-
ing whatever is to come to Ameri-
cans at home, because if we don’t
we’re going to duplicate the frus-
trated helplessness of French citizens.
Since the typical local police de-
partment and federal policing orga-
nizations have had their funds cut,
resulting in reduced numbers of of-
fi cers as the outcome, our federal
gene h.
mcintyre
government should reduce some and
close other American bases overseas
and spend that money here: U.S.
bases, which number in the hundreds
overseas, have become redundant and
obsolete for modern warfare while
our federal government could reas-
sign the money to beefi ng up se-
curity operations inside our coun-
try. Then, too, we desperately need
men and women trained in the use
of arms (without race-related stains
on their service records) to replace
those law enforcement offi cers who
shoot black citizens with little or
no provocation, turning our country
into race warfare as has started and is
underway today.
Hillary Clinton, like Obama,
wants to be a do-gooder who
opens our nation’s doors to any and
all Muslim refugees among whom
we cannot know which of them have
embraced a mission to kill infi dels.
Should Trump be elected we really
don’t know what he will do but it’s
fairly certain with his lack of politi-
cal offi ce-holding experience that he
will depend on the GOP warring
hawks set to lead him around by the
nose while he also turns everything
over to his kids’ control.
Starting with Richard Nixon, our
presidents always end their speeches
with a “God Bless America.” Hope-
fully, God, by all the imploring by
our presidents in recent years to bless
us, will divinely intervene to bring us
a national savior as surely God recog-
nizes how much we need one.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)