JULY 14, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Meet the neighbors
This year’s National Night Out is
Tuesday, August 1. The country-wide
event offers neighbors to connect, so-
cialize and discuss neighborhood is-
sues.
An off-shoot of such programs as
Neighborhood Watch, Night Out was
designed to encourage
residents to get to know
each other in a com-
mon desire to assure safe
neighborhoods.
Keizer residents have
embraced
National
Night Out over the years.
Some
neighborhoods
hold elaborate block par-
ties with bounce houses, music, games
and more. Other neighborhoods are
more low-key—a potluck, a few lawn
chairs and good conversation.
Families move in and out of Keizer
all the time. Chances are high that
every neighborhood has had at least
one new household move in since
last year’s event. That is why holding
a National Night Out function is im-
portant.
Keizer is generous with its wel-
coming attitude; new residents will
be greeted and given the 4-1-1 on
the community. National Night Out
is another vehicle to introduce new
residents to their new neighbors.
Familiarity and communication
between neighbors has been found to
be key in establishing safe communi-
ties in which people take ownership
of their neighborhood and watch
over it.
If Family A knows that Family B
is out of town yet they see a person
lurking about Family B’s home, they
know to be suspicious and contact the
police. Better to be safe than sorry.
National Night Out has generally
been an event for homeowners. We
think that apartment complexes and
their management should become
more involved. Though apartment
dwellers tend to be more transient
than homeowners, they have a big
need to know their neighbors. Apart-
ment building managers and owners
have a huge stake in pro-
moting an event that can
only benefi t their complex.
Keizer’s leaders, includ-
ing the police department
and the Keizer Fire District
is very much invested in
National Night Out. The
mayor, city councilors, the
police chief and offi cers
spread out in Keizer; just about every
neighborhood gathering is visited.
The lucky ones get a visit by a fi re
district truck, turning kids into junior
fi refi ghters for a few moments.
National Night Out, aside from
promoting good communication
among neighbors, is a opportunity for
residents to speak one-on-one with
their elected representatives.
The gatherings are also a good
platform for positive conversations
with members of the police depart-
ment. This is good, especially where
there is a suspicion and fear of au-
thority fi gures. National Night Out
should be viewed for what it is: just
folks getting together, grilling a hot
dog or two and discussing issues of
the neighborhood.
The city council, police and fi re
personnel visit as many gatherings as
they can, but they need to know about
them. Keizer residents can register
their National Night Out gathering
at keizer.org/nno-2017. For informa-
tion call Community Service Offi cer
Dorothy Diehl at 503-856-3472 or
via email at diehld@keizer.org.
—LAZ
Newberg Dr.
issues remain
why) so they have di-
rected student traffi c and
parking to the Newberg
Drive
neighborhood
putting this neighbor-
hood in harm’s way with
many damages to our
property and disrup-
tion of our lives. That is
just wrong. St. Edward
Catholic Church has said that they
will sell an adjacent property to the
school that would solve the traffi c
and parking problems that McNary
has created in the last two school
years. Could it be that investing in
a parking lot that would solve traf-
fi c and parking issues for the school
is not profi table for the developers?
Do I smell a rat? Follow the money.
Time will tell, along with some re-
search which is underway.
Charles Anderson
Keizer
our
opinion
To the Editor:
It is very obvious that
the City of Keizer is more
into developing new
property then performing
badly needed upgrades to
Keizer’s established streets
that are being inappropriately used
beyond their intended purpose.
Case in point: if you look on
Chemawa Road near that new
round-about heading toward Keizer
Station you will see a long stretch
of new sidewalks going in right
now. Then, during the school year
if you go to Newberg Drive you
will often see students walking
three abreast in the middle of the
busy road. Plus, many other dangers
with the mix of excess school traf-
fi c, pedestrians, and parking with no
sidewalks, curbs, marked crosswalks,
or any sort of traffi c control.
It is obvious that McNary High
School and the city have joined ef-
forts (the city will not admit it, so
they are hiding the fact—I wonder
letters
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Trump takes us to unexplored territory
By MICHAEL GERSON
It is sometimes argued that the me-
dia should spend less time on Presi-
dent Trump’s transgressive tweets in
order to devote more
attention to real issues
such as North Korea.
In fact, it is necessary to
focus on Trump’s tweets
precisely because they
shed light on the mind
that is doing the decid-
ing on North Korea. It
is a distasteful exercise. But we cannot
look away. We need to know the state
of mind we’re dealing with.
Trump’s tweets reveal a leader
who is compulsive, abusive and eas-
ily triggered. Trump describes all this
as “modern day presidential.” Lincoln
had his Gettysburg Address. Franklin
Roosevelt had his Four Freedoms. But
modern schoolchildren will learn the
Mika bloody facelift tweet.
What we are witnessing is not a new
age in presidential communications. It
is an ongoing, public breakdown. And
the question naturally arises: Is this the
result of mental dysfunction?
Most psychiatrists are (understand-
ably) uncomfortable with diagnosis
from a distance. And the particular
diagnosis of narcissistic personality
disorder requires signifi cant impair-
ment—which is a hard case to make
of a fi gure at the pinnacle of American
politics.
And yet. There are judgments that
must be made about the fi tness of the
leaders. Citizens are under no ethi-
cal obligation to be silent when they
see serious dysfunction. The challenge
here is not merely the trashing of po-
litical norms. The main problem is the
possibility that America has an unbal-
anced president during a period of
high-stakes global testing. This is not a
clinical diagnosis. It is a civic and polit-
ical judgment, made necessary by the
president’s own words and acts. Trump
holds a job that requires,
above all else, the ability to
unite and steady the nation
in a time of crisis. There is
no reason to believe he can
play that role.
Much of the prudence
and courage required to
confront this problem will
need to come from Republicans and
conservatives. Where to start? How
about refusing to downplay revolting
lunacy?
It is not merely an “occasional ad
hominem” for a president to employ
the tremendous power of his offi ce
to target individual American citi-
zens who oppose him. It is an abuse
of power.
It is not merely “uncouth” for a
president to tolerate, even to hint
support for, violence against political
opponents (“I’d like to punch him in
the face”). It creates an atmosphere of
intimidation.
It is not merely “exaggeration” for
a president to issue a series of eye-
stretching lies, including that his pre-
decessor spied on him and that a pop-
ular vote victory was denied to him by
widespread electoral fraud. It indicates
either a deep cynicism or a tenuous
connection to reality.
It is not being “coarse” for a presi-
dent to engage in consistent misogyny.
It is a sign of a disturbing and deep-
seated dehumanization of women.
Many conservatives would respond
to this critique by saying, “At least he
fi ghts!” The question is: For what?
Trump evinces no strong or consistent
policy views. He fi ghts for himself—
other
views
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U.S. relations with Russia and Putin
By GENE H. McINTYRE
Russia has been on the map of
the world for hundreds of years. For
300 of those years it was led by a
totalitarian monarchy whose des-
potic Romanov family kept the
Russian people totally repressed and
servile. In comparing histories, no
two nations, Russia and the US, have
different founding principles
Shortly before World War II, un-
der megalomaniac Stalin,
the USSR signed a non-ag-
gression pact with Adolph
Hitler’s Nazi Germany
that lasted long enough for
those two nations to in-
vade and carve up Poland.
Two years later, Germany
invaded the Soviet Union
and they went at killing each other
until WW II ended in 1945. There-
after, the Cold War emerged in
1947 as the Eastern Bloc (mainly
the USSR) confronted the Western
states (mainly the USA) under the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
or NATO, formed in 1949.
Thereafter for decades, Russians
and Americans nail-bitingly feared
nuclear war until, with considerable
wait-and-see, USSR leader Nikita
Khrushchev, in the 1960s, liberal-
ized things a bit, and later, in the
1980s, when the last Soviet leader,
Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to re-
form and liberalize the economy
through his policies called “glasnost”
and “perestroika.” The Cold War
ended during Gorbachev’s tenure
wherein the Eastern Bloc totally fell
apart with its satellite nations going
their separate ways and the Russian
people embracing a few freedoms,
along with a new economy outside
of building war machines.
After the USSR disappeared,
Russia has mostly stood alone in
eastern Europe with, more recent-
ly, Vladimir Putin as its leader, he
having moved through the ranks in
the former USSR secret police, the
brutal and murderous KGB, to be-
come President of Russia. He was
also Russia’s prime minister and
held the offi ce of president of Russia
once before his present tenure, 2000
to 2008.
It’s a well-known fact that Presi-
dent Putin was totally opposed to
the USSR breaking up
and has been might-
ily chafi ng under its
emasculated
conse-
quences ever since: The
loss of its world stand-
ing and empire-sized
power juxtapositioned it
against the USA, making
them equal in the minds of many
people. Whatever the case, one
could argue that the USSR lost the
Cold War and the USA won it while
not only Putin, but his former com-
rades, “burn” with a score to settle.
So, Putin, a man who grew up and
became a highly successful Commu-
nist Party apparatchik in an authori-
tarian USSR, and one who notori-
ously, then and now, disposed and
disposes of anyone in his way, has set
out, putting his power and authority
to making Russia great again while
dedicating himself to the demise of
the USA. He has already achieved
a huge victory as he and his hench-
men had a hand in the outcome of
the 2016 presidential election while
are dedicated to repeat their mischief
in the immediate future, attempting
to delegitimize our political institu-
tions through cyberspace attacks by
taking advantage of our political and
social divisions.
Why are he and President Trump
believed buddies, with Trump sup-
porting him? Because he knows
that Trump is a self-centered, ego-
guest
column
Keizertimes
for admiration and adulation—which
is the only cause his extreme narcis-
sism allows.
Many conservatives would also
respond by saying, “At least he does
conservative things!” But if health care
is any indication, Trump lacks con-
viction, knowledge and the ability to
persuade. Other than that, he is Ron-
ald Reagan incarnate.
Trump’s conservative defenders are
attempting something extraordinary:
to politically normalize abnormal psy-
chology. Their sycophancy enables a
sickness.
What next? Applying the 25th
Amendment (containing the proce-
dure to remove an unfi t president from
offi ce) is a practical impossibility, since
it involves the Cabinet turning against
the president. But House and Senate
Republicans should be prepared to
aggressively challenge unbalanced or
unhinged presidential language and
decisions, rather than trying to dismiss
them as simply a “distraction.”
And responsible offi cials in the ex-
ecutive branch—particularly at the
State Department, Department of
Defense, Justice Department and in
the various intelligence services—may
also need to provide an internal check
on foolish, precipitous orders. The op-
tion here is to refuse, to defy, to resign
(or be fi red) and then to publicly pro-
vide the reasons.
No one really knows how to deal
with this situation, which still feels
more like an unnerving political novel
than our political reality. Trump has led
our country into unexplored territory.
If this is “modern day presidential,” all
progress moves toward the past.
tistical American who cares main-
ly about himself and his family
and scoffs at America’s freedoms, fo-
cusing now on the fi rst amend-
ment’s freedom of the press. Putin
grew up in a totalitarian world as did
Trump who was led to believe he
must win what he undertakes by any
means possible, even if those means
will bring an end to a Constitution-
ally-established society that has af-
forded him the freedom to practice
his creed of self-aggrandizement,
lawful or not.
President Trump has fought every
step of the way to stop the investi-
gative efforts intended to fi nd out
how the Russian interventions took
place and what the USA must do
to prevent more destruction by the
Russians. Trump in his private deal-
ings with Putin and Russian oli-
garchs has a sword of Damocles
hanging over his head due to his
suspected actions in Russia, possibly
criminal in nature, but would bring
considerable damage if revealed.
The future of every American
alive today has a stake in this mat-
ter. Many Americans have indicated
indifference. Getting behind the
federal agency investigations, but
threatened by Trump, should be in
every American’s interest because
they threaten us. Then, too, keep in
mind a couple of interesting facts:
Putin hates the press and Trump
proves daily he does, too; Putin’s big
deal for the Russian economy is oil,
its profi table sale and ubiquitous uses
and therefore is against the Paris
Accord which promotes clean en-
ergy while Trump has offi cially end-
ed the US role in it; and, both Putin
and Trump seek greatness, Putin for
his country and Trump for himself
and his family.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)