PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, AUGUST 12, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
I’m with her
I’m with her. Many
are willing to defi ne Hill-
ary Clinton as lying, un-
trustworthy,
criminal,
etc. Much mud has been
slung. Little has stuck. The
most common lament is
that we must choose the
lesser of two evils in this presiden-
tial election. It’s no contest. Hillary
Clinton is indeed a politician, adjust-
ing her positions as needed to suit
both polls and the shift from primary
to general election. But she is not
Donald Trump.
The Democratic National Con-
vention had many wonderful orators
giving rousing and heartfelt speeches.
The one that stuck with me was a
simple interview on the fl oor of the
convention with a woman named
Betsy Ebeling. She has maintained
a close friendship with Hillary Clin-
ton since their grade school days in
Park Ridge, IL. In January, Ebeling
and about 50 of Hillary Clinton’s
high school classmates had traveled
to Iowa to knock on doors on her
behalf in the last days of the Iowa
primary. Those who actually know
her like her. There is no similar story
for Donald Trump.
Betsy Ebeling doesn’t see Hillary
Clinton as conniving and untrust-
worthy. She has known her for over
50 years. When she witnessed some
fresh-faced young man ask Hillary
Clinton, on camera, what she would
say to people who viewed her as a
lying cheat, Betsy Ebeling was infu-
riated, both at the implication and
the incivility. Besides, if you believe
someone incapable of honest re-
sponse, why ask anything?
Sometimes you can believe that
where there’s smoke there’s fi re. In
this case it may be only smoke. The
general narrative about Hillary Clin-
ton has been gradually constructed
from a relentless series of accusations
and invective since she became First
Lady in 1993. The opposition party
began berating her for attempting to
overhaul America’s health care sys-
tem and has never let up.
Where the use of pri-
vate email servers was
overlooked in Cabinet
secretaries before Hill-
ary Clinton there is now
clamor for repeated in-
vestigations and charges.
Where the many attacks
on American embassies and outposts
were noted with gravity and sor-
row in previous administrations, Ms.
Clinton has endured at least seven
investigations by hostile legislative
committees for the attack in Beng-
hazi. Those stalwarts grilling her
were the same that had denied in-
creased funding for embassy security.
Hillary Clinton warned in 2012 that
failure to increase security funding
put embassies in politically volatile
countries more at risk.
With all the cunningly timed and
well publicized investigations they
were not able to fi nd real wrongdo-
ing. It could be that these were the
least competent investigative panels
ever assembled or it could be that
the investigations were initiated for
the sole purpose of infl icting politi-
cal damage.
So...before you join the chorus ac-
cusing Hillary Clinton of dishonesty
be sure that you provide documenta-
tion and cite evidence. She has been
advocating for children and people
trapped in poverty since her college
days. She has a long and extremely
well documented history of service
to this nation. President Obama said
that no candidate has ever been more
qualifi ed to assume the Presidency.
If you believe that Donald Trump,
Bernie Sanders, or Hillary Clinton
can by themselves change the course
of the nation you have forgotten that
it is Congress that makes law; a group
of very wealthy men past their pull
date. The legislative branch, not con-
tent with impeding only the execu-
tive branch, now cripples the judi-
ciary branch by refusing to confi rm
a judge. If it’s change you want start
with Congress.
Councilor eyes
a dedicated
zip code
ture to draft a resolution.
The legislature already
fi nds enough things to
waste time and money
on without taking this
on. It still would have to
be approved at the fed-
eral level. More waste of
taxpayer money. Should
this go to the voters? That defi nite-
ly will cost a lot of money.
If, after all the effort of time and
money, our ZIP code didn’t change
and 97303 was dedicated to Keizer,
I suppose I could chalk it all up to
another typical example of ineffec-
tive and wasteful government. On
the other hand, if the ZIP code
number did change, the time and
money spent for Keizer residents
and businesses to change address in-
formation on advertising, personal
and business accounts, etc., will be
more than annoying.
Buy your stamps at the bank
ATM, Safeway or the North Salem
Fred Meyer when you do your oth-
er shopping and banking.
Thanks, but no thanks. Leave
me and my 97303 ZIP code alone.
If Parsons is so hung up on hav-
ing an identifying ZIP code perhaps
she should move to 90210 and leave
the rest of us alone.
Myke Wabs
Keizer
a box
of
soap
(Don Vowell gets on his soapbox
regularly in the Keizertimes.)
letters
To the Editor:
Regarding:
97303:
Keizer or Salem? Coun-
cilor eyes dedicated ZIP code
(Keizertimes, Aug. 5):
Really? I mean, really? Who
are the “we” in Councilor Marlene
Parsons statement that “we want
Keizer to have its own ZIP code?”
Why is she making this non-is-
sue an issue?
Doesn’t Councilor Parsons have
something better and more pro-
ductive to do with her time? This
is coming about due to the United
States Postal Service (USPS) pulling
out an automated stamp machine
from the post offi ce? Really?
Will our quality of life improve
with a dedicated ZIP code for
Keizer? I think not.
Parsons’ theory claims a dedi-
cated ZIP code will be an addi-
tional means of attracting businesses
to Keizer. Businesses looking to
expand into a community ana-
lyze other data than simply rely-
ing on the demographics available
from ZIP codes. Parsons thinks
the numbers are skewed because
the Keizer population is lumped in
with northeast Salem. Sounds like
there’s a slur in there. Where’s her
data? Would our property taxes
increase if we had a dedicated ZIP
code? Hum, that defi nitely would
not improve my quality of life.
She’s taking up the time of State
Rep. Bill Post on this non-issue.
They want to take this to the legisla-
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Clinton’s ‘short-circuited’ apology
By MICHAEL GERSON
One of the most unintentionally
revealing moments of Hillary Clin-
ton’s campaign so far came during
her recent, unconvincing explanation
of the email affair: “I may have short-
circuited it and for that I...ah ...you
know, will try to clarify.”
Most of the resulting ridicule has
focused on the “short-circuited” por-
tion of the statement, which seems
a particularly gentle euphemism for
prevarication. But it is the later por-
tion of her quote that exposes a se-
rious political disability: an ingrained,
almost automatic recourse to guile.
The moment really should be
watched in order to be properly ap-
preciated. Clinton launches her sen-
tence with, “I may have short-circuit-
ed it and for that … .” If this were an
SAT question, the natural completion
would be “… and for that I sincere-
ly apologize.” Clinton looks like she
is headed in that direction, but stops
herself. The result —“and for that I …
ah … you know, will try to clarify.”
Then she proceeds with the oppo-
site of clarifi cation: “I have acknowl-
edged repeatedly that using two email
accounts was a mistake. And I take re-
sponsibility for that. But I do think...
having him [FBI Director James
Comey] say that my answers to the
FBI were truthful and then I should
quickly add what I said was consistent
with what I had said publicly. And
that’s really sort of, in my view, trying
to tie both ends together.”
The complexity of Clintonian
knots is one reason that only 34 per-
cent of American in a recent poll
judge her “honest and trustworthy.” In
the email scandal we have seen decep-
tions used to cover deceptions; then a
minimalist apology, fi lled with caveats,
which them-
selves must be
revised;
and
then a fuller
apology, long
after it appears
cynical
and
forced.
It is amaz-
ing how many problems are caused, in
politics and in life, by an inability to
sincerely apologize.
I am not referring here to the
harder and richer form of apology and
forgiveness required, say, in post-geno-
cide Rwanda or post-apartheid South
Africa. In such cases, the public accep-
tance of guilt by wrongdoers, the ex-
pression of regret, the recognition of
terrible harm, allow whole societies to
affi rm a new set of moral norms and
begin the process of healing. I have
met Rwandans who live peacefully
on the same street with people who
murdered their family members. Such
forgiveness, when you encounter it, is
heroic. It is, as political theorist Han-
nah Arendt argued, “the only reaction
which does not merely re-act but acts
anew and unexpectedly.”
No, my concern is public apol-
ogy in a normal, everyday political
setting. Some people fi nd the whole
process to be bunk. But forgiveness is
the only force that allows fl awed men
and women to change their minds
and reconstruct their lives on fi rmer
ground. It preserves the possibility of
moral progress. For most of us, getting
what we truly deserve —appealing to
standards of justice alone—would not
be pleasant. We know we should show
forgiveness to others because we so
often have need of it ourselves.
When an offi cial makes a sincere
apology, it can paradoxically improve
other
views
his or her public standing. The au-
thentic admission of wrong involves a
type of courage. It shows vulnerability
and humanity.
The qualities that turn people
into successful politicians—self-con-
fi dence, ambition, persistence, thick
skin—seem to work against them in
situations that require humility and
genuine self-criticism. Those virtues,
by any historical standard, are dramati-
cally lacking in the 2016 presidential
nominees.
Clinton seems to have drawn all
the wrong lessons from a lifetime of
scandal management. Her determina-
tion to avoid partisan scrutiny resulted
in actions—keeping personal control
of her emails and destroying a bunch
of them—that have invited massive
partisan scrutiny and confi rmed pre-
existing suspicions about her charac-
ter.
The ritual of apology and forgive-
ness has an unavoidably moral root.
It is “inextricably linked,” according
to theologian L. Gregory Jones, “to
a commitment to change the behav-
ior that would lead to a different way
of life.” A sincere apology can be re-
demptive. What Jones calls “spinning
sorrow” is among the lowest of politi-
cal acts.
When Clinton mouths the words,
“I am sorry,” and surrounds them with
a thick cloud of self-justifi cation, we
are only convinced that she regrets
being caught. Rather than making her
look vulnerable and human, it makes
her seem devious and supremely po-
litical. Does anyone really believe the
Clinton way of politics has changed?
This is the American emergency:
an acute shortage of public integrity
at the highest level of our politics.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
Much ado about God bless America
Maybe I don’t get out enough, but
I’d never stumbled across any Ameri-
can newspaper writer who wrote an
article to take exception with the use
of the phrase, “God bless America.”
Turns out that that enduring ex-
pression is not off limits for at least
one writer whose views fi nd fault
with its use by American politicians.
One of the main problems regard-
ing the writer’s concerns about “God
bless America” is that its use has be-
come a platitude. A platitude, as
you probably remember from your
vocabulary-learning school days, is
defi ned as a remark or statement that
has been used too often to be interest-
ing or thoughtful.
Referencing facts, Irving Berlin
originally penned the lyrics and wrote
the music to God Bless America in
1918 but adjusted the song’s lines
in 1938 followed by songstress Kate
Smith singing it for the fi rst time as
part of her Armistice Day broadcast
on November 11, 1938. It was a glo-
rious hit that made its way into the
hearts of millions of Americans where
it has resided ever since while the
song’s title, a kind of brief benediction
you might say, is commonly used to
end America’s political speeches, usu-
ally, but not exclusively, those of U.S.
presidents.
The writer of the newspaper piece
Why should ‘God bless America?’ cites
an author and college teacher, Don-
ald K. Kraybill, who’s known to be an
Anabaptist, a person who believes that
baptism must take place after a per-
son’s earned it, not when a person is
a newborn baby. His Christian roots,
too, are Anabaptist and the Protestant
Revolution, dating back to the 1500s.
Kraybill supports fundamentalist
Christian views that do not allow the
use of scripture
or any interpre-
tation of it to
be liberalized or
casually used in
what’s believed
by him, and
those who be-
lieve along side
him, to be a bastardized platitudinous
form.
According to advice from those
who want the use of ‘God bless
America’ to be a ubiquitous applica-
tion, referencing every nation and all
earthly beings, it is wrong to use the
phrase exclusively in application to
the U.S. and Americans. They do have
a point as, after all, Berlin had lived
through the First World War and was
anticipating a world confl agration in
1938; so, he revised his 1918 version in
hope the song might inspire all parties
in the world to live in harmony. His
wish, as we know, went unfulfi lled.
Yet, the whole matter at issue in the
article, Why should ‘God bless America?,’
strikes me as rather silly and with-
out justifi cation as our nation was
founded as
a secular not
ecclesiastical
country and
that condi-
tion protects
us from radi-
cal imposi-
tions from
those who
don’t like the
way some of
us conduct
our lives and
what
we
say in ap-
preciation
gene h.
mcintyre
of what we perceive as our blessings.
In other words, those Americans who
use ‘God bless America’ in any form
should be applauded for loving their
country not ridiculed because the use
to which they put the phrase does
not please America’s religious zealots.
It’s truly sad, even contemptu-
ous, that a newspaper writer would
reprimand anyone for how he uses the
phrase God bless America. The phrase
speaks for itself to represent what is
fi nest in the United States: that we can
believe whatever we wish to believe
as our beliefs are preserved and pro-
tected in the U.S. Constitution. Fur-
ther, God bless America encourages
Americans to think positive thoughts
about their land. Then, too, use of
it can be of reassuring psychological
value and mean a great deal to those
whether religiously inclined or not do
not go by the dictates of an evangeli-
cal Kraybill or his newspaper-writing
suurogate.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)