PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
When there’s no money
Several years ago this
space called for the Keizer
City Council to consider
what the city would lose if
the Herber property (infor-
mally called ‘the cow pas-
ture’) was rezoned and that
acreage was lost to devel-
opment. A 112-unit apart-
ment complex is proposed
for that property. We haven’t changed
our minds, but reality has set in.
There is no public money avail-
able to purchase that land and add it to
Claggett Creek Park which sits west of
the bluff and the creek itself. There is
no public money to maintain another
sizable park—we can’t keep up with
the 19 parks already in the system.
The city council voted at this
week’s meeting to move ahead by di-
recting city staff to write an ordinance
for rezoning of the property. That
unanimous decision will not sit well
with the opponents of the planned
apartment development. Over 100
Keizerites testifi ed at a public hearing
in June 2014, most who spoke then
were against the apartments and spoke
passionately about the green space, the
cows the property’s owners keep on
the land and the two-story house that
dates back to the 19th century.
The comments on the Keizertimes
Facebook page about Monday’s vote
were almost solidly against the coun-
cil’s vote. There is no doubt the ‘cow
pasture’ issue is the hot topic in town.
But the council’s action on Monday
has a caveat: the developers must allow
up to 18 months for a party to come
forward and relocate the house. Any
interested party has a six month time
line to express interest and then an-
other twelve months to complete any
move. Costs for such a move includes
not only the expensive move but also a
place to move it to.
To some the structure is just an old
house that has seen better days; to oth-
ers it is a part of Keizer’s early history.
But the house is the least of the argu-
ments against any development there.
Most opposed cite increased traffi c
and impact on local schools. Experts
have testifi ed that the area streets (in-
cluding the new round-
about at Chemawa Road
and Verda Lane) can handle
the increased traffi c counts.
Offi cials from the Salem-
Keizer School District say
the impact on the closest
schools will be minimal.
Keizer’s Department of
Community Development
and the city council had no wiggle
room on the issue—they all had to
address the proposed zoning chang-
es based on current codes and laws.
Council Kim Freeman stated at Mon-
day’s session, “I can’t fi nd fault” with
the proposal after thanking the people
who spoke about the issue over the
past two years.
Some express the view that the
council and city is driven by a desire
for more tax revenue the development
would produce. Some express views
that the city is in the pockets of spe-
cial moneyed interests. Those are views
that are not borne out by the history
of decisions the city and the council
have made, though the sentiment is
not hard to understand.
Keizer residents elect city coun-
cilors to do the public business of the
people. The many citizens who have
served as a city councilor over the
past 33 years have taken their duties
seriously and rely on the city staff to
present clear options on any topic that
comes up.
This council is following the rules
our society has agreed to live under.
The seven people currently serving do
not want to tread on the rights of pri-
vate property owners to do with their
land as they see fi t. It is government
staying off the back of its citizens.
There is no money to buy the land
for a park. There is no money to add
amenities or maintain a park that size.
The best option for those who don’t
want an apartment complex on that
property and keep a green space with
cows is to buy it themselves. Unless
proponents of a green space have a few
spare million dollars to purchase the
land, it will have to defer to its elected
representatives.
—LAZ
The parade
mural is done
the paint team; both are
also Keizer Public Art
Commission members.
The method and sys-
tem setup were superb.
There was little waste at
the end of each day, both
disposable and recyclable.
The system to replicate
the mixed color was very effective.
Thank you.
The young painters at the end
and the hands below may be from
future artists of Keizer. There are
mural canvases left for sale. Again,
thank you KAA and its members
and all those that helped create the
community mural.
Thank you Keizer Art Asso-
ciation, Keizertimes and the city of
Keizer for making announcements
concerning the Keizer Community
Mural.
Jill Hagen
Mural Project Coordinator
editorial
letters
To the Editor:
Keizer’s fi rst commu-
nity mural is complete.
It is a beautiful piece of
art for the city of Keizer
to enjoy for many years to
come. Keizer Art Association and
its members greatly contributed to
its completion.
Several members need atten-
tion: Kathy Haney, Nancy Erick-
son-Ward, Barbara Hunter, Shirlee
Johnson, Wendy Lusby, Pat Mat-
thews, Michelle DePlois, Merri
Ann Randal, Lorna Sulgit, Brigette
Miller, Kathe Anderson, Julie Thors-
en, Jessi Long and so many others.
The portraits are beautiful and
greatly appreciated.
The por-
trait class offered by Kathy Haney
helped make the portraits possible.
Jessi Long and Beth Melendy, were
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RECEPTION
Lori Beyeler
facebook.com/keizertimes
By MICHAEL GERSON
Once upon a time, I thought the
repudiation of white supremacists was
the easiest layup shot in American
politics. Not for the Trump campaign.
Asked recently whether he consid-
ered former KKK leader David Duke
deplorable, vice presidential nomi-
nee Mike Pence said he was “not in
the name-calling business.” Earlier
this year Donald Trump was posed a
similar question and claimed, incred-
ibly and repeatedly, “I don’t know
anything about David Duke.” In a
particularly revealing campaign mo-
ment, Trump was asked to repudiate
the anti-Semitic death threats made
by some of his followers against a re-
porter. “I don’t have a message to the
fans,” Trump said.
The fans, no doubt, regard this as
the gotcha game of a politically cor-
rect press. Even if this is true, an initial
reluctance to condemn some of the
very worst people in American poli-
tics conveys a message. Several years
ago, researchers developed an Implicit
Association Test -- a sort of comput-
erized “blink test” measuring how
subjects associate positive and negative
words with people of different races.
The immediate reaction of a politician
to the KKK is a kind of political blink
test. The right response is revulsion.
And there has generally been a Grand
Wizard exception to the prohibition
on name-calling.
For a politician on the right, this is
an entirely costless Sister Souljah mo-
ment. The repeated refusal to seize it
conveys an impression of calculation.
It indicates a strategy of no enemies
to the right.
For some of us, this raises the hard-
est moral and emotional issue of the
current campaign. The Republican
nominee came
to prominence
feeding fears
of Mexicans,
migrants and
Muslims. He
refuses to en-
gage in the
normal moral
and political hygiene of repudiating
extremism. I don’t believe that any-
thing close to half of Trump support-
ers are motivated by racism. But they
are willing to tolerate a level of preju-
dice that should be morally unaccept-
able in a presidential candidate.
Why is this such a problem? Be-
cause racial prejudice is not one prob-
lem among many in American history.
It is the sin that nearly destroyed us. It
is a special category of wrong. It is not
suffi cient to say: I agree with Trump
on 90 percent of the issues—on tax
reform and energy policy and crimi-
nal justice issues—but dissent on the
10 percent involving systematic reli-
gious discrimination, forced expul-
sion, war crimes, the demonization of
refugees and the general dehumaniza-
tion of the other. These matters are
foundational.
History has little sympathy for
those who supported Stephen Doug-
las for his views on tariff policy or
internal improvements while down-
playing his belief that the rights of
minorities should be determined by
the majority. As Abraham Lincoln saw
it, America fought at Gettysburg and
Antietam over the most basic ques-
tions—how to defi ne the protections
and promise of a great republic, as well
as the duties we owe to each other as
human beings. This remains the cen-
tral issue of politics —the source of its
nobility when it serves human dignity,
other
views
and a source of dishonor when it re-
fl ects baser motives. It is not possible
to build the greatness of this nation—
this shining example in the conscience
of humanity—while forgetting or un-
dermining its deepest ideals.
A refusal to aggressively confront
a racially tinged extremism has been
taken as a source of validation by
white nationalists. They feel embold-
ened. Duke reports being “overjoyed”
that Trump has embraced “most of the
issues I’ve championed for years.” No
presidential candidate is responsible
for the views of all their supporters.
But at least since the 1960s, conser-
vative leaders have felt a responsibility
to actively oppose and discredit those
elements of the right that identify
Americanism with ethnic purity and
spin conspiracy theories of Semitic
control. Opposing these longstanding
tendencies of right-wing nationalism
is part of what conservative intellec-
tual and political leadership has meant
for decades. The current vacuum of
such leadership at the top of the Re-
publican ticket is taken as a cultural
signal by both the perpetrators and
objects of prejudice.
Or so I would argue. Other Re-
publicans I know and like fi nd my
viewpoint morally problematic, be-
cause it helps enable the election of
Hillary Clinton and the nomination of
liberals to the Supreme Court, which
would result in irreparable harm to
the country. It is a dispute causing a
crisis of self-defi nition among con-
servatives, straining and rupturing
friendships across the movement. That
is another legacy of Donald Trump,
who will be known for the wounds
he leaves behind.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
Protests during national anthem
Keizertimes
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Trump’s tolerance of prejudice
twitter.com/keizertimes
It’s been done by the same guy
in past years and he’s back at it again
this NFL season, now being joined
by other pro-football players. ath-
letes in other sports and even some
high school teams. Their protest, by
sitting, kneeling or raising fi sts dur-
ing the national anthem, is intend-
ed to bring attention to what they
view as wrongdoing against African-
Americans and other minorities in
the U.S. Whatever the case, this ac-
tion has brought out many Ameri-
cans for and against the protest: those
against view it as disrespectful to our
fl ag; others accept it as free speech al-
lowed by the First Amendment.
The Star-Spangled Banner had its
origin in a poem written by Francis
Scott Key in 1814, after he witnessed
the bombardment of Fort McHenry
by British ships of the Royal Navy
in Baltimore Harbor during the War
of 1812. The Star-Spangled Banner was
recognized for offi cial use by the U.S.
Navy in 1889, U.S. President Wood-
row Wilson in 1916, and made the
national anthem by congressional
resolution on March 3, 1931. Be-
fore 1931, other songs served as the
hymns of American offi cialdom, in-
cluding Hail, Columbia, My Country
Tis of Thee and America the Beautiful.
In the span of my own lifetime,
and presuming most Americans
alive today, whenever we’ve been to
a ball game of most any kind we’ve
heard the announcer say, “Ladies and
gentlemen, please rise and remove
your caps for singing of the na-
tional anthem.” This instruction has
been simply accepted for a number
of years although not that long ago it
wasn’t the cus-
tom it has be-
come. So, after
Colin Kaepe-
rnick and his
band of fellow
athletes now
not standing or
following the instructions of old, I
asked myself how did it happen that
this practice was adopted.
In Tacoma’s historic district, across
from the Pantages Theater, is a plaque
that honors Rossell G. O’Brian, an
Irish immigrant who was born in
Dublin in 1846 which happens to be
a year during which the potato fam-
ine ravished many an Irish family and
may have had a lot to do with the
fact that O’Brian decided on a life
in the U.S.
Like many immigrants of old who
came to America, O’Brian appar-
ently was determined to show his
patriotism to his adopted country.
At the age of 16 he joined an Illinois
infantry and fought in the U.S. Civil
War. By war’s end in 1865, he had
achieved Brigadier General status.
After the war he relocated to the
Washington Territory. According to
his biographer, John Keane, O’Brian
became clerk of the Washington State
Supreme Court, mayor of Olympia
and fi rst commander of the National
Guard of Washington Territory.
O’Brian’s fame resulted from
what he did at the Bostwick Hotel
in Tacoma on October 18, 1893.At
a meeting of the local chapter of a
national Civil War veterans, O’Brian
stood and made a motion, propos-
ing that “People should rise and re-
gene h.
mcintyre
move their hats, if they were not in
the military, and stand at attention
for the playing of any of the national
anthems.” The motion passed, and,
within a couple of years, the custom
had been adopted nationwide and
Congress made it part of offi cial
United States Code.
I cannot recall in my entire life,
having attended a gathering of any
kind where The Star-Spangled Ban-
ner was played, that any American I
knew sat through it, raised a fi st or
knelt on one knee. Doing that sort
of thing is not something that will
get a person arrested but it surprises
this writer that so many young ath-
letes will join the instigator by this
form of protest.
But what I’d most like to know
is why this group, too often overpaid,
overindulged and over-idolized pro-
fessional athletes, apparently pre-
fers protest rather than applying their
energy volunteering to help black
youth or participating in making
improvements to black neighbor-
hoods. Instead, they perform grand-
standing acts, drawing attention to
themselves and serving mostly to aid
our nation’s enemies who are always
looking to enjoy that which divides
us.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
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