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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2017)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 19, 2017 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Matching goods to needs At a time of expected cuts in social service spending by govern- ments on every level due to budget- ary constraints, the public—in some cases—can fi nd quicker and more effi cient results by turning to each other. That is what the Community Resource Network is doing in Marion County. The net- work is part of the coun- ty’s Community Services Department. It is a web-based net- work that connects resources to unmet needs through information sharing. It is not a bureaucracy, it is people helping people. An example cited by Tamra Goettsch, director of the Commu- nity Services Department, is about a goat. A young girl in the county, in a family of limited means, wanted to join 4H. She chose raising a goat as her project. In her situation, pur- chasing a goat was not possible. The word went out on the Community Resource Network and within a few days the girl had a goat for her project. There was little muss, little fuss; a girl needed a goat, the word went out, someone had a goat and a goat went to the girl for her project. Not all needs are as easily met as matching a young girl with a goat for a 4H project. Not every connec- tion needs to be earth-shattering. Businesses and non-profi t organiza- tions licensed to do business in Or- egon can join the network. On the network members announce their surplus resources—coats, beds, bed- ding, toiletries, books, backpacks— items that most of us take for grant- ed but are at times out of reach of the less fortunate in our community. Though the county department oversees the network, it operates mostly with the input of its members. There are hundreds of good rea- sons join the network, the most important being that it helps others in our community in the most basic way— person to person. The Community Resource Net- work can be especially powerful to help the most vulnerable—children in need. Membership gains access to the information about need, it does not beholden a member to a long- term commitment and certainly no fi nancial commitment. As summer begins, there may be businesses and individuals who have quality, gen- tly used jackets and coats that can be matched now for use by kids next fall and winter. Those coats and jackets may be the only goods shared by that organization, but at the time it means the world to the recepient. We are always big supporters of people helping each other with the least amount of government in- volvement. The Community Re- source Network is the vehicle that should be supported by businesses, non-profi ts and indiviuals alike. —LAZ our opinion Nothing eclipses festival Keizer’s biggest community event kicks off Thursday night at the Keizerfest tent at the Lions Club on Cherry Avenue. Total Eclipse of the Heart, the 2017 Keizer Iris Festival is offi cially held all month long in May, but the big events started last weekend and continue through Sunday, May 21. This year’s theme was chosen to mark the total solar eclipse that will be visible in Keizer on Aug. 21. The public is invited to many festival activities, and there is some- thing for everyone. The kick-off party is Thursday in the Keizerfest tent starting at 5 p.m. Cost is $8 for a barbecue dinner prepared by Adam’s Rib Smoke House. Local favorites The FlexTones will enter- tain from the main stage from 7 to 10 p.m. All the carnival rides, the Mid- way and vendors along with beer and wine will be open on Friday, May 19. That day, the Iris Festival Golf Tournament takes place at Mc- Nary Golf Club. The Senior Talent Showcase will take place on the main stage starting at noon; there will be a $5 lunch buffet. Runners and parade fans get their rewards on Saturday. Pre-parade 5K and 3K runs will take a route up and down River Road. The Valley Credit Service Iris Festival Parade will start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 20, is also Lem- onade Day in Keizer-Salem. The national event is designed to teach kids about business by planning and running their own lemonade stand. There will be many lemon- ade stands throughout Keizer that day including a pod of them at the entrance to the Keizerfest tent; the stands will operate from about 10 a.m. to mid-afternoon. Live music will fi ll Keizerfest Fri- day and Saturday. A marathon, a half-marathon and a 10K run are all on the bill for Sun- day morning. While all that is going on Sch- reiner’s Iris Gardens on Quinaby Road, just north of Keizer, will be fully abloom. The gardens attract iris lovers as well as photographers and artists. Weather forecasts for festival weekend are good which should make for a wonderful Iris Festival once again in the Iris Capital of the World. —LAZ To the Editor: It appears the Keizer City Council has no re- spect for the judgement of the voters in Keizer. Judging by the results of the special meeting on imposing a fee for city parks, the council will—in all likeli- hood—impose a $4 per month per household on our water bills. In spite of the city’s own survey which showed our citizens ranked parks well below public safety, the council will probably go ahead with a fee without a vote of the people. The fact is the parks now receive $336,000 a year for maintenance and that will go to $1 million per year with the fee. You can bet a fee for pub- lic safety will be on the agenda shortly. The only way to stop the process is for tax payers to let the city council know they are acting badly. Let’s take care of public safety fi rst and let us vote on fees. Bill Quinn Keizer letters Share your opinion Email a letter to the editor (300 words) by noon Tuesday. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGING EDITOR Eric A. Howald editor@keizertimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Derek Wiley news@keizertimes.com One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY ADVERTISING Publication No: USPS 679-430 Paula Moseley advertising@keizertimes.com POSTMASTER Send address changes to: PRODUCTION MANAGER Andrew Jackson Keizertimes Circulation graphics@keizertimes.com 142 Chemawa Road N. LEGAL NOTICES Keizer, OR 97303 legals@keizertimes.com EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com BUSINESS MANAGER Laurie Painter billing@keizertimes.com Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon RECEPTION Lori Beyeler facebook.com/keizertimes twitter.com/keizertimes Which story are we sticking to? By DEBRA SAUNDERS President Donald Trump did himself no favor last week when he went on NBC News and essentially refuted the reason his team had giv- en the press for why he fi red FBI Director James Comey. Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt, “I was going to fi re Comey” regardless of what the Department of Justice recommend- ed, which confl icted with the White House’s sketchy version of events. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the decision to can Comey came from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “It was all him,” Spicer told reporters. “No one from the White House. That was a DOJ de- cision.” Wrong. Then, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told re- porters Trump asked Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for their recommendation “based on the conversation they had. He asked them to put that recommen- dation in writing. But they came to him on his own.” Wrong. That day Vice President Mike Pence also framed Trump’s deci- sion to fi re Comey as the result of Rosenstein’s and Sessions’ input. Not true. The White House does not look good. David Axelrod, former guru to President Barack Obama, summed up the problem when he told The New York Times, “The most hazardous duty in Washington these days is that of a Trump surrogate. ... You wind up looking like a liar or a fool.” Anonymous staffers began leak- ing stories about how various in- dividuals were blind- sided—which only highlighted the chaos in the West Wing. Trump tweeted that Friday morning, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Later Spicer had to go out and face the White House press corps. When a reporter asked if Trump had recorded conversations with Comey, the press secretary replied, “I’ve talked to the president. The president has nothing further to add on that.” In this atmosphere, it’s bet- ter for spokespersons to signal they are out of the loop. According to press reports, Pence was aware that Trump wanted to fi re Comey the week before it hap- pened. Now, no vice president is going to reveal the content of con- versations with the president, not if he wants the commander in chief to confi de in him. But in the future, Pence could see reason to backpedal his rhetoric in order to safeguard his reputation as a straight shooter. Worst of all, Trump’s NBC in- terview made clear that he has so much contempt for his own spin that he freely stepped on it. The original White House story always lacked credibility. In July, Trump accused Comey of go- other views ing too easy on Hillary Clinton when the FBI director announced the agency would not fi le charges against her for using a home-brew server for her classifi ed communi- cations as secretary of state. In Oc- tober, when Comey temporarily reopened the investigation, Trump praised the FBI chief for doing the right thing. Rosenstein’s memo, on the other hand, hit Comey for being unfair to Clinton by speaking to the press in July and broadcasting the FBI’s de- cision to reopen the investigation in October. Also, his memo did not explicitly recommend that Trump fi re the FBI chief. That is, there is no way the Rosenstein memo was the catalyst for Comey’s dismissal. Trump himself could not stick to that fantastic story. In a sit-down with Fox News, Trump insinuated that he is think- ing of shaking up his communica- tions staff—even taking over the press briefi ngs himself. If Trump thinks he does a better job defend- ing himself, he might consider that’s because he would not make the very bogus arguments that his team was tasked with making. Over time these antics, if they continue, only can serve to isolate Trump. Who, after all, wants to be the next press secretary or deputy to be left out on the loneliest of limbs? If Donald Trump keeps this up, pro- fessionals who value their reputa- tions will fi nd excuses to stay away, and sycophants alone will remain. (Creators Syndicate) Worried about the state of our leadership By GENE H. McINTYRE Every American is free to accept and reject societal values. It is only when the expression of those values does harm to other Americans that the line of what’s lawful is crossed. This aspect of human in- teraction is the difference between chaos and order. Then, too, a society’s core values are what provides its youth a means of em- ulating traditions, carrying them from one genera- tion to the next, sustain- ing the Constitution that established America’s foundational values. It was this very matter of values that alarmed this voter about can- didate Donald J. Trump. During the 2016 campaign season we learned that Trump viewed most Mexicans as “rapists and drug dealers.” He commented on John Mc- Cain as “not a war hero.” He said of Megyn Kelly’s questions during the fi rst GOP debate that they re- sulted from a menstrual period. He said he wit- nessed 9/11 celebrations on the part of Muslims in America. He mocked a disabled reporter using wild gestures and gut- tural sounds. He owned a Trump University that took money from would- be students and pocketed that money without de- livering any educational programs. Then there was that despicable Access Hol- lywood tape where groping and objectifying women was glorifi ed by Trump as his way of treating the op- posite sex. After Trump’s election, there have been a virtual avalanche of lies and exaggerations proven time af- ter time to be untrue. One of the fi rst lies had to do with the number of persons who watched his inau- guration in Washington, D.C. Then there was the lie about the number of persons behind the Electoral College count versus the actual num- ber of votes for him and Hillary Clinton.Then there was the ongo- ing lie about the Trump-imagined number of illegal voters that have been determined by research to be about 30. Then there was the prov- en-false wiretap accusation. More recently the fi ring of the former FBI Director James Comey has re- sulted in contradictory explanations guest column for the fi ring from Trump versus his spokespersons. And this, that and the other go on and on and on. Yet, according to polls, no mat- ter what President Trump says or does, something between 35 to 40 percent of those Americans asked about him, still support him as ap- parently do most GOP members of Congress. This leaves one to ask whether our nation is into a crisis in values where lying and exaggerating has become for many the standard for all interactions within and out- side the nation. Sadly, after the way fi ring Comey was handled, it ap- pears we are on the verge of losing our way as a democracy with the Constitution trashed and the hor- rors of authoritarian rule by strong man dictatorship replacing it. (Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)
