PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, DECEMBER 2, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Local election is over
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
And now it’s over.
Laura Reid was offi -
cially declared the winner
in her race for Keizer City
Council Position 1 over
Allen Barker this week by
the Marion County elec-
tions divison. She won by
109 votes out of a total of more than
12,300 cast. There’s a lesson here for
everybody: every vote counts.
The race between Reid and Bark-
er was not acrimonious, it was hardly
even in the public eye. It was a race
between two people who care about
the place they call home and wanted
to do their part to keep it
the livable city it is.
The city of Keizer is a
winner here, too. As we
said in this space before,
by electing Reid we get a
new voice on the coun-
cil and Barker’s business
expertise remains on the
budget committee. If only all elec-
tions had a benefi cial outcome like
this one.
We expect good things from
Councilor-elect Reid. There will be
important issues she will have to be-
come familiar with. And fast.
—LAZ
editorial
What kind of Christmas?
By LYNDON ZAITZ
People celebrate Christ-
mas in many ways and for
different reasons. Some
celebrate the birth of
Christ, some celebrate
children, some celebrate
Santa Claus. Others mark
the season with a mix of
reasons.
It can be argued that the Christ-
mas season is the favorite time of
year for most, even with the frus-
trations, disappointments and feuds
that arise when family gets together.
The need to buy a present for ab-
solutely everyone—immediate, ex-
tended and blended families, not to
mention friends and co-workers.
Money—out-of-pocket cash or
credit—is always a sticking point
during the holidays.
That’s why I cherish the Christ-
mases I spent with friends when
none of us had much disposable in-
come. I guess it is akin to those who
remember fondly the holidays they
marked in the depths of the Great
Depression in the 1930s when peo-
ple had to use their imagination and
being with family was more impor-
tant than a present.
My circle of friends and I lived
in Seattle, which was a pretty good
setting for Christmas. It didn’t cost a
cent to see the window and in-store
displays at The Bon Marche, and the
fl agship Nordstrom and Frederick
& Nelson stores. In those days visual
merchandising was still a big thing
and one couldn’t but help be in the
holiday mood.
It is interesting how creative a
group of people can be when the
lack of money is common among
them. But, like our Great Depres-
sion brethren, we didn’t mope, or
get depressed. We embraced the
season and the fact that we were all
in the same boat. We all had restau-
rant jobs—it seemed all our friends
worked in the food industry in one
way or the other.
The rental house my friends
shared was Christmas Central; it was
the gathering place for all the ‘or-
phans’ we knew who did not have
family near by. There were many
years I did not have a tree; the one at
Christmas Central worked for me.
What do young people do when
Christmas rolls around and they
want to give gifts? They use their
talents. At the time I was intensely
into color pencil art, I cranked out
art piece after art piece, trying to
perfect my shading and perspective.
I put that skill to use and went to
work.
Starting with a large
blank, white sheet of
art paper, I started what
has become my mas-
terpiece: a sullen har-
lequin jester sitting in
a chair with his scepter
carelessly tossed aside. I
was proud of the way I
fi gured out how to draw and shade
fabric folds and details of the chair’s
upholstery.
I knew I had fi nally nailed it. This
gift for my best friend deserved a
frame that matched the subject.
Luckily, I found a baroque style
frame for a few dollars and it fi t my
art perfectly.
On Christmas morning I wait-
ed with anticipation as my friend
opened that gift. The reaction was as
I hoped it would be; he was dumb-
founded. He loved it. It was prob-
ably the best gift I ever gave and it
made feel good that my hands cre-
ated something that brought joy to
someone else.
Christmas mornings during those
slight years are memorable because
we didn’t rely on expensive gadgets
to show our love for one another.
One of us was an amazing cook and
prepared Rockwellian brunches
and holiday dinners that we enjoyed
with many of our friends who grav-
itated to Christmas Central.
At other times in my young-
er adult years, when money and I
were not well known to each other,
friends would receive an original
Lyndon Zaitz poem or short story.
One year I wrote my sister a sci-fi
story that I packaged with my own
handcrafted book cover. That story
is long lost to history, but I do re-
member it wasn’t very good. My sis-
ter was good sport about it, though.
With
time
circumstances
changed. I and other friends moved
out of Seattle to different parts of
the globe; better jobs and careers
brought economic security for my
circle. The tight group of friends
who marked the holidays at Christ-
mas Central have not been together
since those glory days of camara-
derie, delicious meals, cheap deco-
rations and heartfelt gifts. It was a
time and a place that one can never
go back to, nor should we want to.
To a person, each of us, always look
forward to what the future may
bring. We hope for the future but
treasure the past.
Sometimes memories are the
best Christmas present of all.
on my
mind
(Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the
Keizertimes.)
Keizertimes
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Salem, Oregon
The Third Reich isn’t on the way
By BERNARD GOLDBERG
Perhaps you’ve noticed that some
of the most illiberal people in Amer-
ica these days ... are liberals.
Liberals are the ones who pride
themselves on being open-minded.
But who are the ones on college
campuses stifl ing speech they don’t
like? It’s not conservative students. In
1944, college-age men were storming
the beach at Normandy. Today, more
than a few liberal cupcakes on cam-
pus are demanding “safe spaces” and
“cry rooms” to protect them from
the bogeyman we just elected presi-
dent—and from any ideas that don’t
conform to their own.
And hasn’t it been liberals who
say they don’t want to be lectured
about morality, especially if it’s by a
bunch of smug conservatives? But it
was smug liberals who rudely lec-
tured the vice president-elect from a
Broadway stage recently about how
he and Donald Trump should behave
when they take offi ce.
And it was liberals who warned
us that undemocratic right-wingers
would never accept the election re-
sults if Trump lost. But it’s undemo-
cratic left-wingers who took to the
streets to protest Trump’s election,
sometimes violently. And it’s desper-
ate liberals who are trying to over-
turn the election results by demand-
ing useless recounts in several states
Trump won. And it’s liberals who are
trying to convince Electoral Col-
lege electors to reject Trump—even
if that’s who voters in their states
picked—and vote for Hillary Clinton
instead. They’re willing to do any-
thing, including reportedly issuing
death threats against electors, to deny
him the presidency.
Liberals claim to abhor anything
even vaguely resembling a viola-
tion of human
rights. But it’s
liberals
this
week, not all,
of course, but
more than a
few prominent
ones, who are
shedding tears
over the death
of that great man, Fidel Castro, who,
like all dictators, didn’t tolerate free-
dom of speech or the press, whose
autocratic regime wouldn’t allow
even peaceful protests, and who tor-
tured and murdered many of those
who wouldn’t fall into line.
“In many ways, after 1959 (when
Castro took power), the oppressed
the world over joined Castro’s cause
of fi ghting for freedom and libera-
tion—he changed the world, RIP.”
Thank you, Jesse Jackson.
At least that wasn’t as bad as the
liberal prime minister of Canada, Jus-
tin Trudeau, who said he had “deep
sorrow” for “the loss of this remark-
able leader ... who served his people
for almost half a century.”
The real problem with liberal
elites is that they don’t think America
is good enough—for them. I recent-
ly spoke to a liberal news reporter
who, I got the impression, couldn’t
so much as conceive of the idea that
millions of good, decent people vot-
ed for Donald Trump. This journalist
wanted to talk about all the bigots
Trump had in his corner.
He certainly had some, I acknowl-
edged, but I wanted to know what
percentage of Trump’s vote did he
think came from “deplorables”—was
it more or less than Clinton’s 50 per-
cent? He wouldn’t commit to a num-
ber, but I got the impression it was
more, a lot more.
other
views
He was also appalled that Trump
supporters wanted the president-
elect to fulfi ll his campaign promise
to build a wall along the Mexican
border. I told him the reason was
both simple and benign: They were
against illegal immigrants sneaking
into this country. He had a different
theory: Trump supporters didn’t want
people here who don’t look (white)
like them.
It’s interesting that liberals are the
ones who tell us they care about the
little guy. But a lot of little guys in
Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan
chose Donald Trump over Hillary
Clinton. Don’t those little guys count
as far as the sophisticated liberal elite
is concerned?
The problem is that too many lib-
erals have forgotten how to be lib-
eral, the essence of which is to keep
an open mind, to consider what the
other side is saying before you cava-
lierly label them as bigots.
Instead, they’re too busy warning
us that the Third Reich is coming.
William F. Buckley got it right
most of the time, including when he
said, “Liberals claim to want to give a
hearing to other views, but then are
shocked and offended to discover that
there are other views.”
A little humility wouldn’t hurt
right about now. I was never a fan of
Donald Trump (or Hillary Clinton),
but I’m willing to see what kind of
president he will be. Illiberal liberals
might want to take a break from their
nonstop disgust with the president-
elect, and from their holier-than-
thou umbrage that never seems to
end, and instead close their mouths,
open their ears and try to understand
why he won.
(Creators Syndicate)
Why virtual in a land of amazing beauty?
Oregon provides the most lovely
settings and beautiful landscapes for
enjoying life in the whole natural
world. Most of America is a feast for
the eyes of those fortunate enough
to live here.
What causes me considerable
wonder is why so many Oregonians,
and other Americans throughout
our land, fi nd it necessary to alter
their consciousness through use of
drugs, some legal like alcohol and
marijuana, and others still illegal, like
cocaine and heroin. Most Americans
got along very well without those
drugs in former times and, without
them, were not risking their health
and very own lives, and the lives
of others who “get in their way,”
because reality’s too much or not
enough for them.
One concludes that the ability
to cope with life’s ups and downs,
its disappointments from time to
time, appears to have encouraged a
loss of courage to face trials and er-
rors among so many of us. Why do
they not dig in to the free public
education available to them, grades
one through 12? What is it that
along the way stops them from seek-
ing work of most any kind, includ-
ing volunteer work to get started
by trying this and that, so that they
can learn how to work and thereby
acquire a measure of self-respect and
self-confi dence: conditions of mind
growth and development to serve
them through the hard times rather
than mind-warping drugs followed
by thievery, homelessness or prison
confi nement, loss of self-respect,
hope and the throwing away of life’s
possibilities.
Another
means of avoid-
ing reality —and
the true beauty
of that which
abounds around
us—is the ever
more availability
of augmented-reality devices. Since
the evolution of our species, human-
kind has looked about his and her
environment in wonder and awe,
the earliest of our species blessed by
a beautiful planet. More and more
now, Americans fi nd it necessary
to strap on a helmet with viewing
glasses to see things that are not
there but can be seen by the eye-to-
brain to believe they are real, provid-
ing what’s fi ction as though fact.
It’s hard to fathom that my fellow
humans want a machine to drive
their car or truck! The freedom
of the open road and the thrill of
driving a car that a human can con-
trol has been
among
the
most rewarding
of life experi-
ences for me. It
comes across as
so mindless that
someone would
want to give
up negotiating
a machine with
a steering wheel
and the abil-
ity to maneuver
it when sober.
Instead, they’d
rather just sit
gene h.
mcintyre
there and most likely play games in-
cessantly with their cell phone, iPad,
etc., for the purpose of mindless sat-
isfactions without enduring value or
reward
Obviously, Americans in large
numbers send their brains nowa-
days into dizzy daydreaming by
drugs while surrendering their lives
and the real world around them to a
space of pretend life.
Instead of doing things with
their hands and whole bodies that
keep them physically fi t and men-
tally healthy, they choose instead the
latest drug or technological de-
vice ultimately delivering members
of our species to empty vessels. Go
out in public anywhere now and
view an anesthetized world: A col-
lection of wires, plug-ins and plastic
hand-held devices devoid of hu-
manity.
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)