PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 7, 2017
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
All share burden to get college-
bound students scholarship info
This time of year high school
seniors are rushing to fi ll out and
submit applications for college
scholarships. Each June
McNary High School
releases the names of all
the students who have
received scholarships.
It is overwhelm-
ing to see the num-
ber of scholarships
that are awarded each
year. Some students are recipients
of more than one scholarship, and
good for them, they worked to
maintain the grades needed to get
a scholarship, plus they or someone
they know were aware of where to
look for scholarship money.
There is always more money on
the table to ask for. Some organiza-
tions are not very vocal about their
scholarship programs, others have a
hard time getting enough applicants
to make the awarding process com-
petitive.
There has to be a more effi cient
way for the school district in gener-
al and McNary High School in par-
ticular to spread the message far and
wide within the school community
of the scholarship money that is
available. That should start with an
understanding of the requirements
of each scholarship—some require
certain grade point averages or cer-
tain extracurricular activities. Oth-
ers are awarded on fi nancial need,
while others are awarded on little
more than an essay by the applicant.
Every student who has
a desire to continue their
education into college
should be given access to
all the information about
what is available in the way
of fi nancial assistance oth-
er than federal or private
loans.
If there are students who be-
lieve they can never be eligible for
a scholarship, then they are being
ill-served. There are any number of
scholarships that are awarded more
on the basis of character of the stu-
dent than their GPA or activities.
The school should not bear the
burden alone of getting scholarship
applications into the hands of stu-
dents. Students and their parents/
guardians should educate them-
selves on what scholarships are
available and not take themselves
out of the running before knowing
if it is viable option for them.
The width and breath of schol-
arship offerings are staggering and
there is something for everybody.
Time is running short for students
and their parents alike to research
and apply. Every student can be eli-
gible for a scholarship, they have to
fi nd the right one.
—LAZ
Fix what’s
needed to win
championship game.
Barring a catastrophe,
the Ducks will make
another run in March
of 2018. What’s needed
is a team with disci-
pline enough to remain
steady and undeterred
no matter what, exampled this year
by Gonzaga. It is surmised that
there’s a hidden-to-the-observer
psychological factor that seems to
prevail too many times: Is it a team
member’s temperament? Are the
Ducks not physically in shape suffi -
cient to not tire before games’ end?
Do they not practice plays and shots
equal to the demands of the court?
Is there a coaching defect?
This year’s Ducks team was
made up of outstanding athletes.
Yet, something’s not right, and, if
not corrected, it’s argued, will most
likely result in another shortcoming
season 2017-18.
Gene H. McIntyre
Keizer
our
opinion
letters
To the Editor:
Supreme sports basket-
ball greatness was denied
the Oregon Ducks by last
Saturday’s game. Mean-
while, a loss by one point in the
NCAA Final Four surely qualifi es
for heartbreak status. Nevertheless,
the narrow loss in the fi nal game for
the national championship came as
no big surprise to this alumnus and
long-time fan.
How so? Well, Oregon began the
past season with a couple of losses
that were not expected of a highly-
ranked team: one widely believed
would do well at basketball compe-
tition from Pac-12 to March Mad-
ness contests. Then, too, the Ducks
came close to losing several games
even at March Madness while hav-
ing already inexplicably losing to
Colorado and then the Pac-12
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Neil Gorsuch must be a bad man
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
A favorite truism in Washington
these days is: “Be careful what you
wish for; you may get it.” It tells the
cautionary tale of how Republicans
who wanted to run Washington got
what they wanted and now must gov-
ern.
I offer my own quote
for the swamp: “Be careful
what you scorn; you may
someday become it.”
It has been a favorite
pastime of elected Demo-
crats to poke fun at the
House Freedom Caucus
because the rump is ideologically ex-
treme and frequently self-destructive.
Senate Democrats now seem poised
to overtake the Freedom Caucus in
the race away from moderation and in
the ability to shoot one’s party in the
foot. To wit, Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer is primed to block
the U.S. Supreme Court confi rmation
of Judge Neil Gorsuch.
Gorsuch is the one choice President
Donald Trump made and executed
fl awlessly. In September 2016, Trump
released a list of 21 judges from which
he pledged to pick a Supreme Court
nominee. Gorsuch, 49, was on the list.
Gorsuch has such solid credentials
that the American Bar Association
unanimously rated him “well quali-
fi ed” to serve on the U.S. Supreme
Court—its highest rating. In other
words, Trump did not pick a fl ame-
thrower.
George Washington University Law
School professor Jonathan Turley, who
is no Trump fan, argues that Gorsuch
is a smart choice because of the Colo-
radan’s intellect. In USA Today, Turley
wrote that he does not expect Gor-
such to change his “deep and well-es-
tablished jurisprudential views,” which
are conservative. “However, I expect
he will go wherever his conscience
takes him regardless of whether it
proves a track to the left or the right.”
As Gorsuch told the Senate Judi-
ciary Committee during his confi rma-
tion hearings, “It is the
role of judges to apply,
not alter, the work of the
people’s representatives.
A judge who likes every
outcome he reaches is
very likely a bad judge.”
In 2006 the Senate
confi rmed
Gorsuch’s
appointment to the Denver-based
10th Circuit Court of Appeals by
unanimous consent. Schumer was in
the Senate at the time. So how could
Schumer tell The Washington Post on
Thursday that it is “virtually impos-
sible” to expect him and a majority of
the Senate’s 47 other Democrats not
to fi libuster Gorsuch and deny him a
simple up-or-down vote?
In the new Democratic order, Gor-
such must be extreme because he is
conservative and thus by defi nition
lacks empathy. Sen. Catherine Cortez
Masto, D-Nev., captured that view in a
statement in which she expressed con-
cern “that his narrow view of the law
will hurt the most vulnerable amongst
us.”
Masto continued: “I am not confi -
dent that Judge Gorsuch understands
how his decisions will impact workers,
immigrants, women’s health and eco-
nomic security, disabled Americans,
and the everyday Nevadans that I am
here fi ghting for.”
During his confi rmation hearings,
Gorsuch took on Democrats who
suggested that he should rule based on
who might get hurt, not on the law
other
views
itself. “If the law can change so easily
as that,” Gorsuch said, “where’s the due
process to the individual, the person
who doesn’t have an army of lawyers?”
That is, Gorsuch made compelling ar-
guments for judicial restraint.
Compelling arguments don’t cut
it in this toxic partisan atmosphere.
During Barack Obama’s presidency,
Democrats on Capitol Hill frequently
bemoaned the obstructionism of the
right. Now they try to block whatever
Trump wants and call it “resistance”—
with a smart, well-respected moderate
conservative, in this case, as their target.
The worst part is, they know that
this maneuver is not good for liberal-
ism or the country. Nonetheless, they
are prodding Sen. Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to extend
the “nuclear option” introduced by his
Democratic predecessor, Harry Reid,
to block a fi libuster and allow an up-
or-down vote.
They seem not to care that ending
the fi libuster would enable Trump to
name a much less moderate conserva-
tive for the next Supreme Court va-
cancy.
At a recent fundraiser, Sen. Claire
McCaskill, D-Mo., warned about the
dangers of ending the fi libuster. “I’m
very uncomfortable being part of a
strategy that’s going to open up the
Supreme Court to a complete change,”
she said. But by Friday, McCaskill an-
nounced that she would vote against
Gorsuch and support a fi libuster to
stop him.
Democrats share something with
the far-right GOP base of 2016: Their
elected offi cials are more afraid of the
party base than of voters.
(Creators Syndicate)
Sexism still lurks in the workplace
By MICHAEL GERSON
Reading the accumulated sexual
harassment accusations against Fox
News host Bill O’Reilly and former
network executive Roger Ailes is
like a quick dip in a sew-
age treatment pond. After
even a brief exposure, the
stench stays with you for
days.
If the accusations of
dozens of women over
two decades are correct—
and it is hard to dismiss
them, as the accused have
done, as unbalanced, dishonest or
disgruntled—then Fox News is the
focus of hypocrisy in the modern
world. While preaching traditional
values, it has operated, according to
former Fox anchor Andrea Tantaros,
“like a sex-fueled, Playboy Man-
sion-like cult, steeped in intimida-
tion, indecency and misogyny.”
A recent New York Times story
detailing $13 million in payouts to
women accusing O’Reilly of ha-
rassment depicts a corporate atmo-
sphere of predation and enablement.
Stories on Ailes present a similar
(and even worse) picture of women
treated as sex objects and employ-
ment benefi ts.
All this could be a grand, elabo-
rate calumny. But the culture de-
scribed by the women coming for-
ward rings true. A culture in which
powerful, older men exploit, sully
and destroy the hopes and ambi-
tions of young women for the ben-
efi t of their own appetites. Then,
over cigars and whiskey, they say
things like: “When you’re a star, they
let you do it. You can do anything.”
This statement made by Donald
Trump describes not the pleasures
of the fl esh, but the pleasures of the
bully. Not just ridiculous-looking
lechery, but genuine cruelty.
What emerges in these cases
is more than just the violation of
standards by an individual; it is a
systemic problem, a sys-
temic failure. An institu-
tion is defi ned by what
it accomplishes, but also
by what it tolerates. Ac-
cording to these reports,
Fox News has tolerated
a pattern of procure-
ment and exploitation.
Loyalty has been twisted
into complicity. Shameful things
have not been treated as shameful.
Disqualifying things have not been
disqualifying.
This should matter in any set-
ting, but it matters particularly in
the news business. The ethos of a
newspaper, cable network or web-
site infl uences the fi nal product. At
The Washington Post the new motto
is “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
At Fox, this ethos has involved, ac-
cording to The New Yorker’s Marga-
ret Talbot, “the fetishization of hot
female news presenters.” And this,
it seems, has doubled as a kind of
conveyor belt for bright new faces.
Can it really be a coincidence that
feminism is often dismissed on Fox
News as so much political correct-
ness? Can a news organization deal
adequately with women’s issues
when you would never allow your
own daughter to work there?
It is worth pausing here to admit
that my criticism of Fox has been
too comprehensive. Any network
that includes Bret Baier, Dana Peri-
no and Chris Wallace is often worth
watching. Fox has been an alter-
native to leftward-slanting media,
and a place where the worst sorts
michael
gerson
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of political correctness have been
exposed. And the parent company
of Fox News is instituting some
changes, including sensitivity train-
ing.
But I bet that Fox would not fea-
ture my next argument: Sometimes
conservatives need liberals. (Some-
times liberals need conservatives as
well, which is the topic for another
day.) For more than 40 years, liberals
have talked about sexual harassment
and the need for equal treatment in
the workplace. They have organized,
argued and sued. And they were ex-
actly right. The routine sexism of a
previous generation was wrong and
oppressive. And it persists.
A certain kind of Fox viewer
will never fi nd this persuasive. They
think that boys will be boys, and
men should be manly, and oppo-
nents are snowfl akes, and women
should just learn to lump it or leave.
But it is hard for me to imagine
how Christian conservatives—a
major Fox demographic—could
avoid choking on such rotted val-
ues. The way that women are treat-
ed in the workplace —or at home,
or anywhere else—should refl ect a
belief in human equality and a com-
mitment to human dignity. And the
proper reaction when reading about
the cases of O’Reilly and Ailes is re-
vulsion.
We like to think that this kind
of America is behind us -- that only
the crusty leftovers of workplace
sexism remain. But we are a nation
that tolerated misogyny in the elec-
tion of our current president. And
when you are a Fox star, evidently,
you can still do anything. You can
do anything.
(Washington Post
Writers Group)