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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2017)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 26, 2017 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Fun at festival, work at Capitol Maybe you saw Rosie the RV ennium (over $200 million) and as in the Iris Festival parade on Satur- you may have heard, it looks like the day, May 20. My crew of kids and kicker will actually kick this year. I had a great time seeing everyone We can balance our budget while and we even won an award. I always still adequately funding education and other core services. love participating in these By keeping state agency kinds of events and am so budgets at their current grateful to all the volunteers levels we don’t have to who work so hard to make cut, we just don’t raise. this festival possible. I want In general, public per- to give a special shout out ception is that the two to Danielle Bethell, execu- parties are constantly tive director of the Keizer fi ghting each other. In Chamber of Commerce reality, right now, the for her tireless work. This fi ghting in this session is what makes Keizer my home town —volunteerism. from the isn’t between the differ- While it was fun to see capitol ent parties, it is between everyone, now it’s back to Rep. BILL POST the leaders of the two chambers. The way the work at the Capitol. Discus- system works is that a sions continue around the state budget as well as transportation bill originates in the House, goes funding. The tone and feeling of the through a committee, gets voted conversations have shifted, howev- on by the House and then moves er. Since Secretary of State Dennis over to the Senate, where the pro- Richardson released information cess is repeated and then the bill from an audit regarding the Oregon goes to the governor to be signed. Health Authority. Apparently, thou- The system is the same in the Sen- sands of people are receiving Med- ate. At this point in the session, here icaid payments who are not eligible. in the House we have mostly passed Perhaps to the tune of $36 million a all the House bills we’re going to, month. This is a massive number and and are moving on to voting on the right now it is an estimate, but even bills coming over from the Senate. if it’s half that much, this is grossly In fact, we have nearly 30 pages inept on the part of the agency. It of Senate bills waiting to be voted also makes it hard to advocate for on in the House and, interestingly raising revenue if what we already enough, we’re not moving very have is being mismanaged this badly. many of those Senate bills. It is a You may have heard people talk- log jam created by the two chamber ing about a budget “shortfall.” There leaders. That’s the “inside baseball” is no shortfall. The “shortfall” is the of the Oregon Legislature. Eventu- difference between what state gov- ally, it’ll all work out and we’ll pass ernment wants to spend and what budgets and get out of here later in state government should spend. early summer. ( Bill Post represents House Dis- That’s the shortfall. We have had record revenue pouring in over the trict 25. He can be reached at 503- past few years. We have even more 986-1425 or via email at rep.bill- unexpected revenue this next bi- post@state.or.us.) Push negative news below the fold bank robbers, wouldn’t it be more prudent to place them at least below the fold? It’s not like the paper would be trying to cover up the story, but the paper should do its best to put the positive things about this town front and center. There is plenty of positive things to print about, with its low crime rates and small town atmosphere, let’s not put a spotlight where it doesn’t need to be. Kim Free Keizer letters To the Editor: My family recently moved to Keizer and have really enjoyed settling into our friend- ly neighborhood. I was impressed with how many nice things the city has to offer and have been getting to know its parks and local businesses better. I like to read the Keizertimes and I think it does a pretty good job at representing this town and the vari- ous communities within it. I was dis- appointed to see that the Keizertimes seems to have a habit of placing very negative stories front and center at the top of the front page. No matter the case, be it attempted murder or Share your opinion Email a letter to the editor (300 words) by noon Tuesday. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com Insurance is a shared experience By DON VOWELL Iowa Congressman Rod Blum has made himself famous by ask- ing at a town hall meeting “Why should a 62-year-old man have to buy insurance for mater- nity leave?” Then there’s former Rep. Joe Walsh—“Sorry Jimmy Kimmel. Your sad story doesn’t obligate me or anybody else to pay for somebody else’s health care.” If that’s not abrasive enough, he continued, “My money was earned by me and should be kept by my fam- ily and I (sic). It’s not compassion to forcibly take the money I make and give it to someone else.” No wonder health care is so hard. Barbara Rank attended Con- gressman Blum’s town hall meeting and wrote a short response that I doubt he understood. “Why should I pay for a bridge I don’t cross, a sidewalk I don’t walk on, a library book I don’t read? Why should I pay for a fl ower I won’t smell, a park I don’t visit, or art I can’t appreci- ate? Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn’t vote for, a tax cut that doesn’t affect me, or a loop- hole I can’t take advantage of?” She answered by noting that we all con- tribute for the greater good, a civil society. Generations before ours knew it. By defi nition insurance means that someone else pays for your losses. If Congress- man Blum’s house burns down and we share the same in- surance company I’ll be helping to pay for the rebuilding of his home. For the forty years or so I had steady employ- ment I paid health insurance premiums without com- plaint, mostly grateful that our good health didn’t require us to use it. If Congressman Blum is involved in an auto accident I bet he’ll accept the pooled resources of his fellow insurance payers to replace his car. If he is faced with the responsibil- ity of paying for the other driver’s catastrophic injuries he’ll be glad for our help. It is human nature to want to pay only for things that benefi t you di- rectly. Mr. Walsh says it is not com- passion to forcibly take the money he makes to pay for others’ health care. Most of us can see that con- tributing to the greater good of a civil society benefi ts all of us di- a box of soap 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 Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com BUSINESS MANAGER Laurie Painter billing@keizertimes.com Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon RECEPTION Lori Beyeler facebook.com/keizertimes (Don Vowell lives in Keizer. He gets on his soapbox regularly in the Keizertimes.) President Trump in Saudia Arabia By GENE H. McINTYRE After 150 days on the job, Presi- dent Donald Trump fi nally, with- out tweets or mendacities, pre- sented himself in presidential form. Ironically, this demonstration af- forded him a measure of respect and dignity—not provided at home yet—in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the president spoke before a gathering of leaders from 50 Islam- dominant nations, citizens of several he wants to keep from entering the U.S. Mainly he wants these Muslim leaders to drive out and oth- erwise eradicate those who organize to make terrorism their way of life. Thereby, Trump argued, to make the entire world a more safe, peace- ful and prosperous place. That’s great and surely is wanted by the average human on our planet, but it does not address the most important problem to those Arabs and others in Muslim nations not able to have a hand what- soever in deciding their own fate. Take, for example, among the Arab nations and Trump’s host, Saudi Arabia. The unrest there and efforts to overthrow the Kingdom of Sau- di Arabia come from many sources of long-time, extreme discontent. In brief explanation, as readers may already know, there are two ma- jor branches of Islam in the world, the Sunni and Shia, that had their origin some 14 centuries ago over whom, among his followers, would be Mohammed’s successor. In Saudi Arabia and other majority Sunni nations, the Shia are repressed and forced, at best, into second-class citizenship. As an ARAMCO em- ployee in Saudi Arabia for six years, I witnessed the fact that no Shiite could hold a company position of au- thority and really were not trusted at all. Then there is the royal family of Saudi Arabia that, hand-in-hand with the Sunni Muslim religious leaders there, decides and enforces all the laws, mainly of religious interpreta- tion. Saudi women are also second class citizens and quite controlled by the men folk. Then there’s the U.S. military’s presence along with all its infi dels. The above problems have caused an explosion of discontent among the Saudi population that has organized for years to overthrow the monarchy, more so since the Americans arrived during the “Cold War” to “pro- tect” Saudi Arabia from the U.S.S.R. and make sure its oil went to the U.S. These Saudis are not only angry with the Saudi king and royal family for their debauchery but are angry with Americans who they view as having defi led their holy land. Osama bin Laden was a Saudi as were many of his followers and per- petrators of 9/11. Many nowadays serve in the ranks of ISIS, having for- merly serving in al-Qaeda. There continue to be a consider- able number of Saudis who are un- happy and want signifi cant change that would bring a new Saudi Arabia without a monarchy, with Sharia law, and the total expulsion of anything American. The greatest currently an- ticipated problem was the Trump an- guest column EDITOR & PUBLISHER rectly. The money that Mr. Walsh hopes to keep for his family and his own benefi t was earned in a coun- try compassionate enough to make it possible. However, to earn that money he was aided by infrastruc- ture. Everybody shares. It is easy to see how stupid it is to imagine you are self-suffi cient. Could you drive only on roads you personally built? Call only on a cell network that you had placed around the country? Could you survive on food you are able to grow? Drink only water you plumbed in free of contaminants? Could you save your burning home with your garden hose? Who would you Google if you couldn’t Google Google? Everybody shares. We drive cautiously and pay at- tention to possible hazards in our Keizer home. We also support the Keizer Police Department, the Keiz- er Fire District and city hall in spirit and in taxes paid, seeing their value while hoping that we’ll never need their intervention. If we make sure the families entering our schools are healthy, safe, and secure its taxes well spent, even compassionately spent. It’s why we like living here. twitter.com/keizertimes nouncement during his visit to Saudi Arabia that the U.S. will sell that na- tion billions of dollars in armaments. And those armaments will be used mainly to crush internal Saudi revo- lutionaries and destroy, where possi- ble, Shia-dominated Islamic nations. Hence, what’s been going on in Saudi Arabia and against its oppo- nents—due to the centuries ongoing Sunni-Shia confl ict—will predict- ably continue and promises, with more arms pumped into the Middle East, to get worse, much worse. There will be no peace in the Middle East and the revolutionaries will continue in ISIS form, or some- thing just like it, into any foreseeable future: the U.S. once again only hav- ing served, by taking sides and giving guns, to make continuing war and its deathly consequences to continue no matter how devastatingly the U.S. treasury is drained and the evermore loss of American lives. The best predictor of the future is the past, true now and always has been true. And this new deal between the U.S. administration and Saudi Ara- bia simply spells more very serious trouble and perpetual problems for almost everyone, everywhere. (Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)
