Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2016)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Isn’t outrage exhausting? The default emotion in American politics seems to be outrage. You can fi nd it all over social media, cable news and talk radio. The vitriolic re- sponses at Trump rallies is scary—Clinton’s re- mark about deplorables is hard to refute when one views unedited video from rallies where attendees’ anger is whipped to new heights that has led to violence. Outrage knows no ideology and is not limited to any one issue— Trump’s positions on immigration and Muslims; Clinton’s emails and supposed health issues; Colin Kae- pernick’s kneeling during the play ing of the National Anthem before a football game—all elicit outrage from the populace and pundits alike. It would seem that all that outrage would quickly become exhausting. It takes a lot of energy to muster up the emotion to spew anger at the fi rst sign of a slight or at what one might consider unAmerican. All this anger and outrage staves off any serious decision of impor- tant issues that the nation faces now and in the future. Is it prudent to be outraged at Kaepernick’s response to the National Anthem more than allegations of Russian hacking and interference in a U.S. election? More prudent to be outraged over an Olympians’ dance with the truth in Rio than presidential candidates who demean minorities and women or is deemed untrustworthy and dishon- est. Outrage is a reaction for those who feel they have no other way to express themselves. It is fl amed by incidiary comments on social media and by candi- dates themselves. The First Amend- ment gives the right for people to any speech they wish. The Con- stitution also gives the right of the vote—voting in an election has a must more lasting effect than being outraged. Our fragmented political land- scape has given rise to opposing sides that want to win at all costs. Compromise is treason to many members of Congress. Disagree- ment has been part of the American discourse from day one; not all the Founding Fathers were in complete agreement on all issues of the day. Government of the people, for the people and by the people has given way to ‘government as I see it and nothing else will do.’ We may feel a bit insulated from the current angry political climate here in our little corner of the world, but we are exposed via media, social and otherwise. Outrage expressed by violence, threats and verbal as- saults defi nes our politics today. We can become part of it, ignore it or choose to rise above it and speak with our vote. —LAZ editorial Candidate’s health fair game By DON VOWELL I plumbed the depths of my soul to bring you this piece. Actually the plumbing was hired out to professionals. It was a common maintenance project with which many of you are familiar. The homeowner’s responsibili- ties are simple enough. You have only to restrict yourself to drinking clear fl uids for a day chased by three small bottles of a fairly nasty pseudo-soda. Then you just wait. After one of the longer nights you’ve experienced, researching the practicality of sleeping in the bath- room, the rest is easy as the experts take over. You just visit a clinic or hospital and peacefully sleep while every last vestige of your perceived personal space is shredded. If any reader in Keizer is still read- ing this by now you would sensibly be wondering why in the hell I would think you need to hear about this. Exactly. So, why is it we feel enti- tled to know intimate detail of a pres- idential candidate’s complete medical history? A populace with any sense of decorum would simply expect persons running for president of the United States to appear before a panel of, say, three respected doctors from Walter Reed National Military Cen- ter. If, after studying his/her medical history and judging results of a thor- ough examination this panel agrees that the candidate is in good enough health to serve for four years as presi- dent and is not insane, that should be all we have a right to expect. For my part I suggest only that all candidates are treated the same. Hill- ary Clinton’s health will be subject to screaming demands for her most per- sonal medical records until some more lurid faux crisis jolts the news cycle in a new direction. Donald Trump gets a pass. He released a statement from his doctor oddly similar to his own syntax: “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequiv- ocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the Presidency.” The au- thor of this report got his ego from the same tailor as The Donald. Mr. Trump initially tweeted that he was proud to share this report writ- ten by the “highly respected Dr. Jacob Bornstein of Lenox Hill Hospital.” When it was noted that Dr. Bornstein died in 2010 the tweet was quickly withdrawn. If Hillary Clinton had done this it would have been further proof that she lies, is untrustworthy. Mr. Trump? Few of us in Keizer have had any personal dealings with either candi- date. Everything we know about ei- ther candidate has come from what- ever media we have chosen. When I was young we all got news from Wal- ter Cronkite or the Huntley-Brinkley Report and trusted it. Now we can learn about the candidates by choos- ing whatever news source fi ts our pre-conceived notions and distrusting those that don’t. So be it. All I ask is that everybody plays by the same rules. I fear that a candidate named Harold Clinton would have advantage over a Hillary Clinton. Nothing else explains to me the ignoring of Donald Trump’s rou- tine lying, factual error, shady busi- ness ethic, and bullying while Hillary Clinton is viewed as dishonest. If you feel you must choose a can- didate by knowing them personally then judge them by their document- ed records rather than accusations against them. In other news the billion dol- lar diet industry will be destroyed if people fi nd the effi cacy of a 98 cent bottle of magnesium citrate. a box of soap (Don Vowell gets on his soapbox regularly 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 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 The unhealthy political climate By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS Is a presidential candidate with Hillary Clinton’s health problems— pneumonia now, but also for some time deep vein thrombosis and a his- tory of blood clots—healthy enough to be president? Most probably, yes, but her weekend health issues make you wonder if Clinton is covering up bigger health problems than her team has revealed to date. After all, her cam- paign initially told the press Clinton left a 9/11 ceremony early because she “felt overheated.” Only after a video revealed Clinton’s legs buckling as secret service agents spirited her into a van, did Camp Clinton release a statement that revealed she had been diagnosed with pneumonia Friday. You can’t watch the video of the back of Clinton’s head as others tried to prop her up and not feel for the former secretary of state and fi rst lady. She’s always been an all-out campaigner, and even the healthiest politicians get sick. But as you think about the campaign’s attempt to gloss over this incident, you start to won- der what her team is not telling you. You recall Clinton’s many misrepre- sentations—that she was told her use of a home-brew server was “allowed,” that she had handed “all my work- related email” to authorities, that she other views was cooperat- ing fully with offi cials when she refused to talk to the Of- fi ce of Inspec- tor General— made before the Democrat- ic primary was settled. Clinton, 68, doesn’t just mislead others about herself. During an in- terview with NBC’s Matt Lauer last week, Clinton said, “we are not put- ting ground troops into Iraq ever again, and we’re not putting ground troops into Syria. We’re going to de- feat ISIS (Islamic State) without com- mitting American ground troops.” Surely Clinton is aware of the more than 4,000 U.S. troops risking their lives in a bid to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as I write this. Yet she talks as if there are no boots on the ground. Critics pounced on Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson—a fi t- ness buff, who says he runs two to three hours every day he does not campaign—for fumbling when asked what he would do about Aleppo. Johnson didn’t think immediately “Syria” when he heard the name Aleppo, as one steeped in foreign af- fairs would. He said he thought Alep- po was an acronym. What’s Clinton’s excuse for her off-the-mark answer on ISIS? This would be an ideal time for Donald Trump, 70, to release compre- hensive medical records. (The rushed letter in which his doctor wrote that Trump could be “the healthiest indi- vidual ever elected to the presidency” was more a stunt than the result of close examination.) Trump now says he will release detailed records Thurs- day on The Dr. Oz Show. And yet, I remain skeptical—because one always should be skeptical when Trump says he will do something. Donald Trump, after all, repeatedly told the press he would release his personal tax returns. I appreciate how Clinton’s drive led her to push herself to attend the 9/11 memorial event on Sunday. But after she collapsed, I think she should have gone to a hospital, where given the state of her health that day, she could be given diagnostic tests. Instead, she went to her daughter’s home for enough recovery time to stage a comeback photo op with a lit- tle girl. Not for the fi rst time, Hillary Clinton’s fi rst instinct was to cover up the basic facts of her situation. (Creators Syndicate) Saga of Cylvia Hayes continues Which metaphor seems best- suited to describe Cylvia Hayes’ life? Among possible choices are wreck- ing yard, destruction derby, train wreck, hurricane-force and man- eater; although it’s possible no one of these fi ts her, perhaps, all of them do. Whatever the case, The Orego- nian in its Sept. 3 edition reported that “Eighteen months after Oregon fi rst lady Cylvia Hayes left the gov- ernor’s mansion, she’s in the thick of a career reboot and image overhaul that include regular blog and website postings.” I’m mainly a pedestrian in the mat- ter of Cylvia Hayes. Nevertheless, as a lifelong Oregonian, I continue my interest in a woman who, with direct help from former Oregon Governor, also her fi ancé, John Kitzhaber, was on her way, it appeared, to taking con- trol of the governor’s offi ce before the loudest of whistles was blown. Then, after he resigned, the two of them slunk away, into a disappearing act that now presents actions on her part to rehabilitate herself. Then, sud- denly, Kitzhaber himself is scheduled to deliver a speech during a Sept. 28 health convention in Portland while he is also known to be provid- ing consultation services to Oregon health care organizations. A bit diffi cult, it would seem, for her to simply assume that a couple of years out of the limelight will make her return on an obstacle-free path. Personal reaction: It will always be diffi cult for me to trust Hayes or Kitzhaber again. There remain so many allegations against her, so many like the one month in her life where she divorced her second husband, married an Ethiopian, Abraham B. Abraham, so he could obtain a green card while she received $5,000 for doing so, and bought a pot farm in Washington when pot growing up there was still against the law. Those who have written compre- hensive stories about Hayes depict her life story as a kind of fairy tale: poor girl struggles to make her way to success, poor girl falls in love with powerful man, poor girl and strong man get together to bring new life and opportunity to earthlings. How- ever, some have observed that her story is more like a Greek trag- edy: She’s de- scribed as a woman with a desperate long- ing for recognition and status, always searching for another opportunity at others’ expense. As a result, she’s per- ceived as a person who lacks insight as to how she turns others off, car- ing only for herself and willing to do anything to realize wealth and power. Getting Kitzhaber to grant her free reign to govern as Oregon’s governor more and more often in his place, she apparently intimidated staff to the point where only the most intrepid among them had enough where- withal to call her on her actions. Staff was further driven into what looked like abject subservience when Kitzhaber’s communications director, Nkenge Harmon Johnson, was fi red in 2014 for standing up to Hayes who, without holding offi ce in Or- egon government, got Johnson fi red. Based on what was known by indi- viduals like myself, other taxpayer- paid staff were apparently willing to let everything against law and order pass without protest in order to keep their jobs. Johnson, just one among the al- gene h. mcintyre leged many abused, charged that there were “myriad improprieties” and “abuse of authority” by Kitzha- ber and staffers who directed oth- er staff to help with his re-election campaign. Johnson says she was or- dered to manage then-fi rst-lady Cylvia Hayes’ communications and appearances which was outside her duties. Johnson now seeks damages for lost wages and benefi ts as well as undetermined punitive damages and attorney fees. Presumably, much of the cost of all this will end up paid by taxpayers but was caused by the no- restraints status Kitzhaber allowed Hayes. The bottom line on the two of them is that they continue to face state criminal and ethics inquiries while nausea befalls me whenever I think of either one of them in charge or having even a modicum of control over public money in any form or in any place. I have a hunch that, if their fate is left to Gov. Kate Brown, she will pull a Gerald Ford and pardon them. Without experience outside oncology, I have no idea how well Bud Pierce would do as ‘top gun’ in Oregon government, but I harbor hope that he would not just slap their wrists and give them jobs where tax- payer money pays their way. (Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap- pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
