NOVEMBER 10, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Hooray for Hollywood
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
What does Donald Trump have
that former movie mogul Harvey
Weinstein, TV newsman Mark Hal-
perin and actor Kevin Spacey don’t?
A job.
All four men have been the sub-
ject of multiple accusations that they
sexually harassed their subordinates.
Many of the accounts go back de-
cades. Some involve predatory assaults
to which the accuser did not consent.
Years later, many of the
objects of their intentions
still feel violated.
The volume and
graphic nature of the
charges have driven
Weinstein,
Halperin
and Spacey from their
precious perches. Not
Trump, he won a promotion. After
a swarm of ugly allegations about
Trump kissing and groping unwilling
women, American voters sent him to
the White House.
In October 2016, The Washington
Post reported on an outtake from a
2005 “Access Hollywood” interview
with Billy Bush. Trump now famously
said that when you’re a star, “you can
do anything” to women—even grab
their crotches.
Trump claimed that he did not be-
have the way he talked to Bush and
dismissed his chatter as meaningless
“locker room talk.”
When a number of women then
came forward to accuse Trump of
kissing and/or pawing them, he
countered that the stories were “to-
tally fake news” and “made-up stuff.”
One head did roll. NBC fi red
Bush, who was a “Today” show host
in 2016. His offense? Eleven years ear-
lier, he had chuckled at Trump’s crude
remarks.
GOP strategist and CNN con-
tributor Alice Stewart doesn’t think
it’s accurate to lump the claims made
against Trump in with the more egre-
gious allegations made about Wein-
stein and Spacey.
Stewart also noted that in one
sense, there is a higher bar for TV —
where advertisers don’t want to be
tainted with creepy guys—than elect-
ed offi ce.
Trump voters know he has faults,
but they were looking for someone
to drain the swamp and shake up the
beltway. Voters were looking for a
fi ghter, Stewart said. Besides, Trump
never ran as a “family values” candi-
date.
Hoover Institution research fellow
Bill Whalen compared Trump to an-
other candidate who won offi ce af-
ter a large number of women accused
him of crude behavior—former Cali-
fornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“This is one of the benefi ts of
jumping into politics from a (nonpo-
litical) background like Schwarzeneg-
ger or Trump,” said Whalen. “Voters
are supporting you because they want
to buck the system.”
Another factor: Schwarzenegger’s
wife, Maria Shriver, a member of the
Kennedy clan, was deployed “like a
human shield” to vouch for the action
hero’s character.
Melania Trump also vouched for
her husband after the “Access Holly-
wood” tape went viral.
In the entertainment world, there
has been a stampede away from Wein-
stein, Spacey and Halperin.
Weinstein’s wife left him after The
New York Times reported on his cast-
ing couch maneuvers. His brother
helped oust him from the business
they founded.
After actor Anthony Rapp accused
Spacey of sexually assaulting him
when he was 14, eight current and
former House of Cards crew
members accused Spacey,
who played jaded President
Frank Underwood, of cre-
ating a “toxic” atmosphere.
The production’s fi nal season
was suspended. His publicist
and agent parted ways with
him. The fi ctional president
seems fated to be felled by reality.
John Heilemann, who co-wrote
two books with Halperin and was
working on a third, told The New
York Times that accounts of Halperin’s
behavior do not match the man he
knows as his collaborator of the last
decade.
Heilemann said, “Mark was my
friend. I cared about him then, and I
care about him now. It’s also the case
Mark wasn’t in my closest circle of
friends.”
There’s another element starkly
missing after accusations have been
directed toward others in the enter-
tainment orbit -- the conviction that
the burden falls on the accuser, not
the accused.
Politics appear warm and fuzzy
in comparison. In politics, there al-
ways are loyal partisans ready to stand
up for someone whom they believe
should not be a target—especially if
they suspect the timing of a story is
politically motivated.
Whalen believes President Bill
Clinton, by fi ghting back when it
had been reported that he had been
involved with a White House intern,
paved the way for Trump. Clinton’s
fi rst instinct was to deny, not apolo-
gize, and fi ght back. He survived.
Hillary Clinton’s defense of her
husband hobbled her own presiden-
tial campaign in 2016. “How can she
attack Donald Trump for bad behav-
ior when she in fact turned a blind
eye to her husband’s own behavior?”
Whalen asked.
Here’s an odd twist. Actress Amber
Tamblyn has a theory on how Trump’s
election led to Weinstein’s demise. She
told Cosmopolitan, “Honestly, I trace
everything back to the election of
Donald Trump. I think that without
him being elected, if it had been Hill-
ary Clinton, this would’ve never hap-
pened to Harvey Weinstein.”
Tamblyn said she understands that
though not all women see Trump as
she does, she believes his victory was a
signal that women don’t matter. “And
so within that single vote, it sort of
was like a switch was fl ipped on and
every woman just went, I’m done. It’s
as simple as that: I’m done.”
A Hollywood ending? In backing
a candidate who does not back down,
Trump voters gained a fi ghter -- and
from his victory, Hollywood tasted its
vaunted values.
debra
j.
saunders
(Creators Syndicate)
School district bond should include
new McNary orchestra space
Twenty years ago, a bond mea-
sure was passed that was responsible
for the creation of a dedicated music
wing at McNary High School. This
new music wing included new, spa-
cious rehearsal areas for both band
and choir. However, the intended or-
chestra room was inadequate for the
needs of four full orchestras now in
the program, and will only
increase in size as the next
generation of string musi-
cians come in. The “En-
semble Room” has unfor-
tunately been relegated to
being only a storage space
for instruments and a prac-
tice room for small groups, because of
the size of each of the four ensembles.
Consequently, the orchestra pro-
gram has resorted to sharing space
in the dedicated choir room, but the
choir program has more than 250 stu-
dents that often come and go during
instructional time. This has created
issues with both the choir and the
orchestra interrupting each other’s
rehearsals. Not only do they share a
space with one another during the
school day, but the room is often
overbooked by multiple ensembles
for their rehearsals, section practices,
and faculty meetings after school.
Additionally, preparing the choir
room rehearsals everyday means set-
ting up music stands and chairs, as well
as tearing down after practice, which
takes up precious class time. This issue
has also been responsible for the delay
of the next class that takes place in the
room and often causes students to be
rushing to their next class.
One choir student, Camryn Ron-
now, stated that “Having to share the
choir room with the orchestra stu-
dents has resulted in many confl icts
regarding space. Every pe-
riod that there isn’t a choir
class there is an orchestra
class, limiting growth for
both departments. Having
an orchestra room would
benefi t both the choir and
orchestra departments and
allow for more students to be in-
volved in the programs which is the
ultimate goal here at McNary High
School.”
The choir teacher, Joshua Rist,
agrees. “Right now our ability to
grow is capped by the limited space.
I’m happy to share my room with
a colleague as generous and kind as
Mr. Williams, but both programs can’t
grow when all the periods are used up
by ensembles.”
The orchestra program would not
be the only recipient that would ben-
efi t from an orchestra room. Having
another room in the music wing spe-
cifi cally meant for the orchestra pro-
gram is very important for future stu-
dents and their parents. It will benefi t
students and staff in the other music
letters
Let’s not invite the world’s refugees
By GENE H. McINTYRE
The word empathy is a relatively
short word with a long meaning. I
didn’t know the word as a child but
learned its meaning most compas-
sionately at an early age by way of my
parents and others in the community.
Informally defi ned it stands for caring
about other people enough to take
helpful action on their behalf when
needs arise. What I learned, you
might say, ‘in kindergarten,’ has stuck
with me for a lifetime.
At the same time,
during my formative
years, I was impressed
by the consideration
of moderation in all
things. And that op-
erational paradigm is
what’s been equally
important to me during my life. The
thought of moderation occurred to
me most recently in the Keizertimes
October 27 edition where it was an-
nounced that a couple, affi liated with
the Christian Missionary Alliance,
will work to bring refugees to Salem
and Keizer.
Since refugees, and newcomers of
all kinds, are at least controversial, let
me clarify my view on persons not
born here but arriving with intent
to stay, not just visit. I do not throw
a blanket of objection over these
people where I want no one new
to be allowed to enter. My position
may deserve a degree of attention,
considering that it’s shared by most
modern day nations: those persons
who have acceptably completed the
required applications to apply for en-
try under strict ratio numbers—most
important to a safe and viable U.S.
future—have been thoroughly, ex-
haustively vetted, are seriously con-
sidered.
Otherwise, though it will strike
some as hard-nosed, I resent and
do not in any way support the ef-
fort to bring refugees to Oregon or
anywhere else in my country. What
these and so many other well-mean-
ing, but overly intrusive Americans,
do through their churches and sec-
ular organizations is to bring refu-
gees in, but too often, provide them
with some help to get settled and,
then, without much further fanfare,
leave them for local taxpay-
ers to absorb for all services,
including schools, medi-
cal assistance, food, housing,
employment and, among
a lengthy list for now and
interminably, all material
things for their survival.
The related issues speak
volumes. Most people from any-
where else in the world, born there
and acculturated from birth, want
to stay where they were born and
raised. They’ve typically acquired
the language, the way of life, the reli-
gion and the culture. They truly do
not want to leave “home” and will
only do so under extreme duress.
So here’s a plan: Instead of using ev-
ery angle to bring them to America,
they should go instead to the refu-
gee camps and help refugees there
to cope well enough to survive war
or whatever caused them to fl ee
home base and ready them to reoc-
cupy their homes and villages upon
ceasefi re and civility return.
Furthermore, during the same
week that the work of the refugees
couple made local news, local me-
dia provided news articles and docu-
mentaries regarding the alarmingly
huge and ever-growing number of
homeless Americans, including ba-
bies, small children and school-age
guest
column
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departments, as well.
Nicholas Weathers said, “If there
was an added Orchestra room then
everyone in the music department
would have more space to practice,
and use more space effi ciently, to
overall get a lot better and just be fan-
tastic!”
McNary and the Salem-Keizer
school district take pride in their ex-
cellent music programs. Performanc-
es and after-school events bring the
community together. A new room
for the orchestra will improve the
music education for the future gen-
erations of musicians. It seems right
for an orchestra that placed in the top
fi ve at state to have their own room
at McNary. This coming Monday,
Nov. 13th, at McNary High School
is an opportunity for people to listen
and contribute to discussions that can
change the community. Starting at
6 p.m. Monday evening is a meeting
to propose what can be done with
the money that the bond promises
for our district. Already on the table
are new science classrooms and ex-
tra parking space. We believe that the
community should be informed of
this chance, and implore anyone with
strong faith in the cultural prosperity
of Salem-Keizer to attend and share
their thoughts.
Sincerely,
The McNary Orchestra
Outreach Committee
SUBSCRIBE
youth among them, without a roof
overhead, warm meals or food at
all, and safe shelter. Why, oh why are
we opening our community here to
refugees when we have not found
the ways and means to address the
homeless in our midst.
Meanwhile, there are those among
the refugees who seek to over-
throw our government and take con-
trol of western democracies where
liberty and freedom are valued and
practiced. There’s no guarantee how
refugees will behave while we know
that some among them seek an op-
portunity to scream “Allah Akbar” in
the name of Mohammed and the
Muslim faith to kill infi dels or any-
one not a Muslim. Terrorists among
the Muslims are dedicated to getting
to America in numbers suffi cient to
destroy the United States of America,
establish a caliphate here, and in-
voke Sharia law.
The Keizertimes article reported
that in just the last couple of years,
Catholic charities and Lutheran
Community Services Northwest
have re-settled in Salem and Keizer
160 refugees from nine countries,
primarily from the Middle East
and Africa and are busy gather-
ing up others to place here. These
cases are known as “free cases” be-
cause they have no connections here.
Some of these strangers want to be
here, some don’t. Others are happy
at fi rst and become disillusioned later.
Some call Muslim friends for support
while others answer a call from ISIS.
Your path and my path may or may
not cross any refugee’s path; then,
again, my path, your path may only
cross one of theirs when a scream
in Arabic of “Allah Akbar” is heard
for one’s fi rst and last time.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)
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