Keizertimes., August 26, 2016, Page PAGE A4, Image 4

PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, AUGUST 26, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Cheap populism helps no one
Build new, maintain old
Things are really perk-
ing up in Keizer these days
with new construction
and installations.
Ground has been broke
at Schoolhouse Square
to build a replacement
for the space now oc-
cupied by Starbucks and
Mr. Video+Games. A new Starbucks
building was just completed on River
Road just south of Chemawa Road.
Construction continues apace at
the east end of Keizer with Bonaven-
ture’s new senior living facility and a
new apartment complex. Initial work
is being done in Keizer Station for
the city’s second hotel—a Holiday
Inn Express.
Taco Bell on River Road is getting
a complete overall.
McNary High School has a refur-
bished gymnaisum fl oor thanks to the
McNary Athletic Booster Club.
Keizer’s second mural will be dedi-
cated next month. The 140-foot long
mural depicts our community’s fa-
vorite event: the Iris Festival Parade.
We are scratching our heads over the
inclusion of Albert Einstein holding
an apple (apples were Isaac Newton’s
thing)—it must be a art thing we reg-
ular people don’t understand.
Regarding dedications, the round-
about at Chemawa Road and Verda
Lane will offi cially open to traffi c on
Sept. 2. We suspect the round-about
will be a major topic of discussion
in Keizer for the fi rst few weeks as
opinions of support and derision are
expressed.
It is good to see these improve-
ments and additions to the city. Bo-
naventure’s retirement facility will
add new jobs in-city that are desper-
ately needed.
Jobs will also be added when ten-
ants are found for the former Roth’s
Fresh Market site at Schoolhouse
Square and the empty spaces at
Creekside Center at River Road and
Lockhaven Drive.
Keizer can take an giant employ-
ment leap forward if it can navigate
an expansion of the Ur-
ban Growth Boundary
north of the city. The fo-
cus of any UGB expansion
should be on commercial
development that would
attract the types of busi-
nesses that will create good
paying jobs. Expansion of
the urban growth bounday will, un-
doubtedly, be the major issue the city
council tackles over the next four to
fi ve years. The issues of growth and
urban growth boundary expansion
should be a major topic duirng this
fall’s city council campaigns.
It should be the never-ending ef-
fort of the city and its leaders to posi-
tion Keizer as a desirable place to do
business. New buildings, new traffi c
control and pretty murals will only go
so far.
Until, or unless, the UGB can be
expanded we need to work with what
we have. That includes assuring that
our main thoroughfares are clean and
inviting. A good example is the recent
upgrade of Martinez Tires at River
Rd. and Manbrin Dr. It’s not easy to
make that kind of business look pleas-
ing, but they’ve done it. The effort to
revitalize and beautify River Road has
been a hit-or-miss proposition. There
are too many examples of unkempt
landscaping or buildings in need of
maintenance. A recent example
A city is more than just the people
who live there. It is also the totality of
its infrastructure and the ambiance of
the community. Leaders—both pub-
lic and private—should take a critical
look at our main streets and try to see
it through the eyes of a potential busi-
ness and job creator.
Keizer is perking up with all the
changes and improvements but let us
be sure we are perking up what we
have now. Keizerites love their com-
munity. How can we get stakeholders
to love the community in which they
do business enough to beautify and
maintain the public face of Keizer—
its commercial core.
—LAZ
editorial
One-party rule not good
I hope that
you’ve had as
from the
good a sum-
mer as I have
capitol
had. For many
of the 20 sum-
Rep.
mers the Salem-
BILL POST
Keizer Volca-
noes have been
here, I was the
public address announcer including
this summer. I’m a huge Los Angeles
Dodgers fan so as you can imagine,
it’s been very hard to root for future
San Francisco Giants. I bring this up
because it reminds me a little bit of
politics. I am a Republican and not
ashamed to say so (nor should you in
whatever party or non-party you are
a part of).
I have to say in all honesty, I not
only root for the Dodgers to win,
but hope for the Giants to lose. Is
that how I feel about politics? Sort
of. Of course I don’t want people
themselves to lose, but I feel strongly
that the Republican ideas for making
Oregon a better place are the way
to “win.” I feel just as strongly that
the Democratic ideas are not always
the best way for Oregon to “win”
and after these past two years, I’m
even more convinced of that regard-
ing the minimum wage hike, paid
sick leave, low carbon fuel standard,
universal background checks and
more. They might sound like lofty
ideas but in reality they hurt more
than they help. The
best way to make
Oregon successful
is to even out “the
playing fi eld” by
having the Oregon
House be closer in
Republicans
and
Democrats and not
the current huge
amount of difference in numbers.
Now one might say that I would like
to see those number swing to my ad-
vantage, but truthfully, anyone who
knows me well knows that I was a
huge fan of the 30-30 tie the House
had several years ago. I am hoping
that the people of Oregon will see
that we need equal representation
from both sides of the aisle. We can
work together, root for each other,
and get a lot more done in the pro-
cess. In the long and short sessions of
2015-16, over 800 bills became law.
Out of those new laws, only about 6
percent were solely chief sponsored
by Republicans. I’ve spoken to peo-
ple from both sides of that aisle and
not found anyone that thinks that is a
good representation of all of Oregon.
So, as you think about the elections
in the next few months, I’d like you
to think about that illustration.
Is that what you want for Oregon?
(Bill Post represents House Dis-
trict 25. He can be reached at 503-
986-1425 or via email at rep.bill-
post@state.or.us.)
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
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Salem, Oregon
By MICHAEL GERSON
With defeat now the likely out-
come for the Republican presidential
nominee, the blame shifting has begun
early and in earnest.
To some partisans such as Sean
Hannity, the responsibility for the
expected loss—as well as for Hillary
Clinton’s Supreme Court picks and
“whatever illegal immigrants do” —
lies with Never Trump conservatives.
Whether or not Hannity is the sharp-
est knife in the drawer (a matter of re-
cent controversy), he leaves Occam’s
razor rusty from disuse.
Isn’t it more likely that Republi-
cans are losing because their candi-
date has committed enough gaffes to
torpedo 10 campaigns? Because he
has premised his appeal on prejudice?
Because he displays no appreciation of
constitutional values and offers him-
self as a strongman? Because he has
no knowledge of, or interest in, public
policy? Because he is an erratic narcis-
sist with a compulsive need to crush
and humiliate his critics? Holding
Never Trump forces responsible for
all this is akin to blaming the specta-
tors in Lakehurst, New Jersey, for the
Hindenburg disaster. The pointing and
gawking did not cause the fl ames.
For the record, I am in favor of the
Davos set becoming more sensitive to
the struggles of their countrymen. But
all these fat cats at Coca-Cola, Mon-
santo, Pfi zer and Microsoft deserve
at least a bleat in response. They are
leading participants in an economic
system—with its global supply chains,
freely moving capital and rapid inno-
vation—that, during the last 20 years,
has taken about a billion people out of
extreme pov-
erty
around
the world. This
is arguably the
greatest
hu-
manitarian
achievement in
history. With
this economic
growth has come miracle drugs, vac-
cines, improved sanitation and better
agricultural technology. Global life ex-
pectancy in 1960 was 52.5 years; today
it is 71.4. In the early 1930s, American
life expectancy was about 60—what it
currently is in Malawi. Now Ameri-
can life expectancy is nearly 80.
The United States has benefi ted
from being the most engaged and
adaptable economy in this global sys-
tem—selling goods in other countries,
and buying goods (cars, smartphones,
clothing) that have dramatically im-
proved the daily lives of nearly ev-
ery American. But rapid economic
change has also laid waste to whole
industries and the communities sus-
tained by them, resulting in toxic
stress and terrible suffering. Since the
1940s, American manufacturing out-
put (as a percentage of GDP) has been
remarkably stable. But manufactur-
ing employment has fallen by about
two-thirds (as a percentage of the U.S.
workforce). This is not so much the
result of CEOs making a quick buck
on outsourcing as a refl ection of au-
tomation and global competitive pres-
sures.
Our political system has been neg-
ligent in helping millions of Ameri-
cans adapt during a period of rapid
economic change. But those on the
other
views
left and right who promise to reverse
the process of globalization are eco-
nomic charlatans. Their main policy
response—tariffs and other forms of
protectionism—is a proven path to
trade wars and global recession, which
hurt the vulnerable most. Conserva-
tive economics offers three positive al-
ternatives: Provide a growth-oriented
economic environment (including
opportunities to sell overseas). Give
workers the education and skills to
succeed in a modern economy. And
subsidize the wages of lower-skill jobs
to provide a decent living.
Who are the obstacles in pursuing
such policies? On the latter two, it is
not globalized elites; it is more likely
to be conservative ideologues. Thirty
American CEOs at Davos would
come up with several ideas to im-
prove, say, educational standards. Thir-
ty members of the House Freedom
Caucus would oppose all of them on
principle. In fact, conservative popu-
lists are now working along with edu-
cation unions to undermine rigorous
education standards, apparently on the
theory that educational failure is ac-
ceptable so long as local offi cials do
the failing.
The response to these economic
arguments from populists is usually ad
hominem: Of course an elitist would say
something like that. Which is particular-
ly annoying coming from conservative
elites, who are embracing the cheapest
form of populism, involving no intel-
lectual energy, no policy innovation
and no actual help for those in need.
The poor deserve better tribunes.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
Restructure school chief’s job
There are matters about which I
feel like shouting, “There’s got to be
a better way!” For example: the way
we spend our tax money on our local
schools, in this instance, the Salem-
Keizer School District.
One reference in particular has to
do with the apparent knee-jerk need
by members of the school board to
raise the salary of the superintendent.
Now really, what has this relatively
new person in the job done accom-
plished to warrant an increase in di-
rect pay salary of $17,000 from the
current $204,000 to $221,000 per
annum plus all the retirement bene-
fi ts and other perks provided her and
other large district superintendents
these days?
Much of the need to raise super-
intendent salaries has to do with the
mindless need to keep up with other
districts. This false premise is an effort
to scramble, like the old “keeping up
with the Joneses,” leads most of us to
reach for a barf bag. In the fi rst place,
how many public employees among
us have any basis for an 8.25 per-
cent raise? They do not, specifi -
cally when available money remains
scarce for everything that’s truly im-
portant. Just one priority is enough
money in mid-Willamette Valley
treasuries to hire suffi cient numbers
of police offi cers in the state’s cities
and counties to keep after the ever-
swelling number of the criminally-
minded. Multiple other examples
of public money needs can be read-
ily cited, the homeless and their de-
prived children just one.
Now, take a little time to consider
the S-K superintendent’s situation.
The public school district here pro-
vides a rather
large building,
c o nve n i e n t l y
located
di-
rectly off Lan-
caster
Drive
in which the
superinten-
dent occupies
a huge private corner offi ce on the
second fl oor with an outer offi ce
connected to hers where at least three
direct subordinates serve her every
bidding. Then there is the remain-
der of the building, housing many a
specialist whose job one should be
to aid the district’s learners but who
fi guratively spend a lot of their time
bowing and curtsying in the direction
of the superintendent’s offi ce and far
too often, it’s been concluded, work
mostly to make her look good.
Which brings up another point. It
is believed from this writer’s experi-
ence and observations that the mod-
ern day school superintendent would
better serve the K-12 students in
the district if the person holding the
job were appointed by her/his peers
to that job as a temporary assignment
every two years. Superintendents un-
der the current order of things get far
too deep into the politics of keeping
their job and trying thereby to move
to a higher paying job within the na-
tion’s education establishment, as our
most recent superintendent did, or
another larger district as others have
done. At that point, all the throw-
ing of raises, perks and more salary, to
compete with Portland, etc. to keep
them in Salem-Keizer, receive a vari-
ation of the Bronx cheer.
Keeping a lid on what’s already
gene h.
mcintyre
above a very reasonable salary at the
hiring outset, an amount almost ev-
eryone in the mid-Willamette Valley
would love to appreciate for them-
selves and their families, is the job
of the local school board. But these
folks have, with few exceptions, run
for a school board position promis-
ing to pay scrupulous attention to
taxpayer concerns when, almost
as soon as they’re elected, become
something akin to lap dogs. I’ve been
aware over the years that any board
member who did not go along with
the interests and objectives of the su-
perintendent will soon fi nd himself
to be an ugly intruder who, it is sur-
mised, walks out muttering: Noth-
ing’s going to change here, I may as
well sell pet rocks.
The basic problem is that in most
political activities, and our public
schools have become mostly political
institutions, and, incidentally, learn-
ing centers, is that the wrongs like
excessive superintendent pay, mainly
underway in Oregon for the last 50
years, have been institutionalized and
therefore as diffi cult to get rid of as a
patch of English ivy, a crabgrass infes-
tation, or Asian carp. Mainly, school
districts have become rigor mortised
and can’t move because those persons
in the central offi ce have too much to
lose should their excessive paychecks
and power be adjusted to sensible lev-
els so they fi ght with all their might
to retain the status quo and, unfor-
tunate to the dire need of a quality
learning environment in our public
schools, prevail.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
Measure 96 is big boost for veterans
By PAUL EVANS
This November, Oregonians
have an unprecedented opportunity
to assist our veterans who struggle
to return and reintegrate into our
communities. Ballot Measure 96
represents the most consequential
investment in veterans’ outreach and
services in Oregon history. It is im-
perative we make the most of this
opportunity: it is imperative that we
all stand up for all those who have
stood for us.
The unfortunate reality we face is
that America has not kept faith with
the troops we send into war. We em-
barked upon a global campaign with-
out a clear plan for victory, a means of
sustaining our efforts, or a system to
care for those we sent. These choices
leave lasting consequences. Every day
over twenty veterans accept suicide
as their fate. Of these wounded war-
riors, at least one served in Afghani-
stan or Iraq—or both.
We have a signifi cant number of
homeless veterans: in Oregon at least
5,000 veterans must search for a safe
place to sleep each night. Each year
we witness an increasing number of
incarcerated veterans, and we have a
growing schism between the society
that sent troops to war and the men
and women struggling to survive.
Too few un-
derstand the
real price of
combat.
We are cur-
rently engaged
in three con-
fl icts, and our
military mem-
bers face multiple deployments and
signifi cant long-term stresses result-
ing from their time in uniform. We
know the social costs associated with
our fourteen years of military opera-
tions greatly impact the social ser-
vices arena. We can help our military
families and our veterans by unlock-
ing signifi cant capacities within the
state social safety net for vulnerable
non-veteran populations.
Current data suggests more than
240,000 Oregon veterans are not rec-
ognized within the US Department
of Veterans’ Affairs structures and sys-
tems. This means existing healthcare
and transportation activities, among
others, are funded at the level of the
number of veterans recognized: ap-
proximately 100,000 of 350,000.
Through targeted outreach as well as
providing seed funds for leveraging
available federal programming, the
state of Oregon can make an historic
investment in veterans’ care with the
guest
opinion
passage of Ballot Measure 96.
Ballot Measure 96, which I co-
authored with legislators from across
the aisle, will help our veterans ac-
cess and acquire the services and
support they have earned. This mea-
sure, which received unanimous bi-
partisan support in the legislature,
provides voters with the opportunity
to set aside 1.5% of unencumbered
lottery revenue for veteran outreach
and programs. Existing programs re-
turn an excess of $257 for every $1
invested. The $18 million this mea-
sure will provide will help us un-
lock as much as $4 billion in federal
benefi ts, health care, and services for
military families in each and every
district throughout Oregon.
This year you can commemorate
Veterans’ Day knowing that you act-
ed. Your involvement matters. Your
voice and vote can and will transform
the lives of military families and vet-
erans throughout Oregon. Together
we will demonstrate our resolve to
serve those who served us. And to-
gether we will begin the process of
restoring faith with our veterans.
(Paul Evans of Salem is the state
representative for District 20.)