PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, NOVEMBER 11, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
The improbable president
He could never win the
Republican
presidential
nomination. The country
would never elect him to
the highest offi ce in the
land and make him the
most powerful person in
the world.
The morning after the
election proved that in the
end, polls, pundits and media were
all wrong. Donald J. Trump defi ed
all the odds and defeated Hillary
Clinton to become America’s 45th
president.
Trump had his fi nger on the pulse
of middle America—he understood
and gave voice to their frustration,
anger and anxiety. Now he has rid-
den that frustration and anger right
into the Oval Offi ce. He is the most
improbable person ever to be elect-
ed to the presidency.
The president-elect did not pres-
ent an agenda or a set of policies. He
has a free hand in policies he’d push
for because he didn’t outline any
during the campaign. What he said
he wants to do is build a wall on the
border with Mexico to keep our un-
documented immigrants who come
here to live off the nation’s largess
and take jobs from Americans.
He proposes a ban on Muslims
from certain areas of the world. He
wants to deport millions of undocu-
mented immigrants. He wants to cut
taxes for the wealthy. He wants to
rip up or renegotiate trade deals and
treaties.
A President Trump won’t have
carte blanche to carry out his plans
but he will have a Republican con-
trolled Congress to ease
the way.
The American dem-
ocratic system worked.
The country elected a
leader and we will see
a peaceful transfer of
power from one party
to the other. Our sys-
tem allows people to say
and write what they will about their
support or scorn for the leaders of
the land. Hillary Clinton supporters
are understandably disprited over
the election’s results. Trump sup-
porters and Republican are ecstatic.
The country is badly divided po-
litically and culturally. We have to
take Trump at his word that he wants
to unify a country he helped cleave.
He wishes to be the president of all
Americans. Hillary Clinton set the
right tone at her concession speech
on Wednesday morning when she
called on her supporters to accept
that Trump would be president and
to give him a chance to lead with an
open mind.
Though Trump did not win an
overwhelming mandate, he did win
the election. On January 20, 2017 he
will become our president and we
must give him his due as the victor.
Our country is a nation of checks
and balances. The people spoke on
Tuesday, they have another chance
to speak in 2018 and again for presi-
dent in 2020.
Just as many were surprised by
his victory, we may be surprised by
what he actually does once he’s in
offi ce.
—LAZ
editorial
Start small
By ERIC A.
HOWALD
When
Matthew
Boger stepped out
from behind a curtain
at Los Angeles’ Mu-
seum of Tolerance, my
reporter brain went
into overdrive.
I was on a retreat with coworkers
and Matthew was the fi rst person to
greet us as we arrived. He seemed
a warm, amicable and sincere per-
son. To me, nothing stood out about
him in particular aside from the no-
tion that he might be gay.
A day later, museum organizers
put us in a dark room and cued up
a video. In the opening moments,
the camera is taken on a jog down a
darkened street and the viewer hears
Matthew’s voice telling us how he
got up to run away, but his pursuers
caught up to him in an alley.
He was beaten severely by a
group of men for the crimes of be-
ing homeless, in the wrong place at
the wrong time, and gay.
Fortunately, Matthew survived
the encounter and worked his way
out of homelessness. Eighteen years
later, in 1998, Matthew heard about
a gay 21-year-old being beaten to
death in Wyoming, an attack moti-
vated by hate.
He decided soon after that he
wanted to a fi nd a place where he
could use his voice in support of
others. It wasn’t long before he was
volunteering at the Museum of Tol-
erance.
At the same time, another LA
resident, Tim Zaal, was experienc-
ing his own epiphany. Tim was a
white supremacist with a lengthy
record that included being charged
with a hate crime.
Tim’s son had learned to say the
N-word and “Heil Hitler” around
the same time he was learning
“mommy” and “daddy.” Tim de-
cided that what his son was learn-
ing from him needed to change. He
started volunteering at the Museum
of Tolerance.
At some point, Mat-
thew and Tim ended up
working on the same
project, and sharing their
reasons for volunteering
at the museum. By that
point in the video, most
of us were fairly certain
where it would lead, but the twist
still hit like a sucker punch: Tim had
led the assault on Matthew more
than 20 years prior.
After a lot of work and effort –
including apologies and acceptance
– they are still lecturing side-by-side
about their convergent paths.
After the credits rolled, Matthew
came out from behind the curtain,
talked about his experience and told
us he would answer a few questions.
I keep questions on hand like
other people keep lip balm or tis-
sues, and I was cycling through
them at warp speed. I felt honored
when he fi nally called on me, after I
settled on four words: How did you
start?
It wasn’t much to go on, but
Matthew fi gured it out.
“I started small,” he said. “I asked
him how his day was going, or what
his plans were and we were able to
build on that.”
It’s nearly 4 a.m. on Wednesday,
Nov. 9, 2016. The morning after
Election Day.
I can’t sleep, or I won’t per-
mit myself that small mercy. It’s as
though I want to deny myself long
enough that I can deem it suffi cient
punishment for being delusional
and misguided. It’s never felt so na-
ïve to want a little more unity, a bit
of cooperation, or an ounce of em-
pathy.
But Matthew’s words are on my
mind. Tomorrow … today … soon,
I’m going to try to start small.
To view the video described in this
column, go to bit.ly/2fxXQFn
Astronomy and
the US debt
12 days earlier. Go back
one billion seconds and
you end up back in time
almost 32 years. If you go
back one trillion seconds
you go back more than
31,000 years. If you go
back 20 trillion seconds
you are at approximately
600,000 B.C.
Distances in astronomy and the
speed of light are unattainable and
don’t affect our daily lives here in
America. But the national debt in the
trillions of dollars will bring the U.S.
economy to a screeching halt.
John P. Rizzo
Keizer
moments
of lucidity
To the Editor:
Numbers in astronomy
are astronomical; the U.S.
debt is in the same catego-
ry. There are approximately
300 billion stars in our gal-
axy. It would take about
100,000 years, at the speed of light, to
cross it. It is estimated there are 100
billion galaxies in the observable uni-
verse. Billions used to be extremely
large numbers—now lost in the shad-
ow of trillions by our national debt.
Our national debt is currently $19.8
trillion. The federal budget defi cit was
$480 billion in 2015, nearly $167,00
for every taxpayer. The government
spent half a trillion more dollars than
it took in?
Here is a perspective: if you trans-
pose dollars to seconds and go back
in time 1 million seconds it would
(Eric A. Howald is managing edi-
tor of the Keizertimes.)
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The all-Trump election
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
Let me tell you about my life since
Donald Trump won the Republican
primary. I voted against Trump in
June because of his history as an
unreliable conservative and longtime
supporter of big government. I voted
for Libertarian Gary Johnson in the
general election. Yet I have had this
dark presence that has shadowed me.
Wherever I have gone, I have been
put in the position of explaining or
defending Trump by people who
saw it as my duty to denounce The
Donald.
On the radio and in speaking
appearances, it has fallen to me to
explain to Bay Area audiences why
someone who is not a complete idiot
would vote for Trump. I can only
assume that my questioners don’t
know any Trump voters -- other
than relatives they must endure over
cocktails during holidays.
To mention that Trump was
preferable on regulation, Obamacare
or the U.S. Supreme Court was
to invite scorn. How dare anyone
conjure up issues when Trump’s
rhetoric is so divisive?
I’ve watched countless hours of
cable news, during which reporters
grilled Republicans about whether
they would vote for Trump in No-
vember. Nev-
er once did I
see a report-
er
demand
that Demo-
crats disclose
whether they
would
vote
for Clinton,
even though she had set up home-
brew servers for State Department
emails and then deleted thousands of
those emails after they were under
subpoena.
All you heard was nagging about
Trump, Trump, Trump.
On panels, it has been my job to
watch liberals excoriating Trump as a
racist, sexist bigot. It never occurred
to these fi ne fellows that American
voters might support him. Sure, they
winked, he won the Neanderthal
GOP primary, but he could never
win the popular vote. His appeal,
they knew, was limited to angry
white men who didn’t go to college.
I was wrong, too. I thought Trump
most likely would lose and also that
he could cost Republicans control
of the Senate. I believed the polls.
San Francisco sure believed those
polls. How many times did I watch
Democrats agree that it would be
better if Clinton won big? As Chris
other
views
Lehane, a former aide to Al Gore
and now a lobbyist for Airbnb,
told the San Francisco Chronicle
editorial board, if Clinton won big,
Republicans would have to face
reality. If the election were tight, on
the other hand, both sides would
learn nothing and just go back to
their corners.
I did not agree. A big win for
Clinton would justify her bad
decisions and her grabby ways. As I
write this and Trump seems poised
to win the Electoral College, I don’t
think many Democrats are hoping
that Trump wins really big -- for the
good of the country.
I remain dubious about whether
Trump is up to the job of president.
On the other hand, it is possible
that winning the White House will
humble Trump and make him a
better man. Whereas with Clinton,
we know that power corrupts.
Here’s where the media really got
it wrong. Most people in the press
never thought Clinton’s baggage
would hurt her chances. Me, I
thought Hillary Clinton would be
a terrible president. And guess what.
So did a huge chunk of American
voters.
(Creators Syndicate)
Can the Crystals honor more than 13 a year?
There are close to 5,000 employ-
ees who work for the Salem-Keizer
School District, so it comes as an
annual surprise when such a very
tiny number of them are given spe-
cial recognition by way of the Crys-
tal Apple Award. Surely, with all the
millions upon millions of dollars
spent through taxation here in the
effort to provide a public education
to thousands upon thousand of lo-
cal children there would be more
among those employed than the
13 in 2016 recognized as outstand-
ing.
Since the psychology of honor-
ing only 13 is so negative one would
think that special consideration
would be given to the hardwork-
ing, dedicated and often relatively
low paid among all those district
employees. Most certainly it would
seem more fi tting if each school,
elementary, middle and high, held
an annual event giving recognition
to everyone who works there. Per-
haps a small budgeted amount could
be set aside to be used by each
school’s parent group to cater a lun-
cheon or dinner to honor all who
work there. Perhaps next year, in-
stead of the superintendent receiv-
ing a huge salary increase for noth-
ing deserving it except keeping up
with other districts’ superintendents
pay, that money could
be spent to give the
many other employees
something to honor
them.
Further, the choice
of persons to receive
a Crystal Apple are
apparently
chosen
based on the most
subjective and random
of criteria. Are these
people honored be-
cause they provided
special
enrichment
to the lives of the chil-
dren in our schools
or is it because they
did something, or
many things, special
for the person or per-
sons who nominated
them? Then,
from the sev-
e
r
a
l
more nomi-
nated, how is
it that a mere
handful fi nd
their way to
the top of
the heap? Again, it’s surmised to be
so politically personal as to be dis-
tastefully repugnant and disrespect-
ful to everyone else.
My wife and I attended a Crys-
tal Apple Award ceremony about a
dozen years ago. We noticed in the
fi rst place that it was rather costly to
purchase the tickets and that most
gene h.
mcintyre
likely many another interested per-
son or family in this community
would fi nd it too expensive just
to show up. Then, too, from the
standpoint of people dressed to the
“nines,” some in tuxedos and eve-
ning gowns, how many among us
can afford the necessary attire to
show up and be generally accept-
ed as dressed appropriately for the
occasion. It seemed mainly to be
an event where the district’s well-
heeled power elites could strut their
stuff and make a power statement.
We decided we wouldn’t attend an-
other one.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
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