JANUARY 19, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
A home at last
Its productions have been staged
at the Keizer Civic Center, the Kroc
Center and Chemeketa Community
College. The only constant stage for
Keizer Homegrown Theatre has been
the Keizer Rotary Amphitheatre at
Keizer Rapids Park which hosts the
group’s Shakespeare in the Park plays.
Keizer
Homegrown Theatre
(KHT) now has a perma-
nent home. In Keizer. In an
agreement with the Keizer
Heritage Center, the theatre
group has taken over the
event room on the second
fl oor of the center. The ad-
dition of KHT to the center
truly makes it the culutural
heart of the city. The Keizer
Heritage Center is home to the Keiz-
er Community Library, the Keizer
Heritage Museum, the Keizer Art
Association and its Enid Joy Mount
Gallery.
The building, which started life as
Keizer School in 1916, will fulfi ll the
Keizer Heritage Foundation’s goal of
preserving history and maintaining
the building as the heart of the com-
munity.
Keizer Homegrown Theater is a
perfect fi t for that vision. The group
will continue to stage Shakespeare
plays at Keizer Rapids Park each
summer; all other productions will be
held at its new home.
A volunteer organization, KHT is
managed by a dedicated group of vol-
unteers led by Linda Baker, a former
long-time drama teacher at McNary
High School. Keizer Homegrown
Theatre is a member of the Salem
Theatre Network, a group of 13 the-
atrical companies in the region—that
is a lot of live theatre for our metro-
politan.
It used to be that Pentacle Theatre
was the only live theatre. The strength
of the 13 members of the network
demonstrate that residents in Keizer
and Salem will support
the performing arts.
All those groups, es-
pecially Keizer Home-
grown Theatre, benefi t
from the art and drama
programs in our schools.
KHT may be a small or-
ganization but it has big
ambitions and the shows
it produces are as sophisicated as any-
thing you’d fi nd in a large city.
With the move to its permanent
home Keizer Homegrown Theatre
can concentrate on making its new
space its own and serve its needs.
There will be some modifi cations
made over the coming years includ-
ing staging, storage and seating.
Keizer Homegrown Theatre’s fi rst
production was already staged at the
Keizer Heritage Center. Last Febru-
ary Love Letters was produced in the
space it now calls home. That play
proved that the event room could eas-
ily be turned into an intimate theatre.
After wandering over recent years
staging shows at various venues, Keiz-
er Homegrown Theatre has come
home where it belongs.
—LAZ
our
opinion
Health care and agriculture...
The two other bills I am co-
I don’t know about you, but I
think January news should be about aponsoring are agriculture related.
college football playoffs, not special One aligns all seed law under the
elections. But we have a very im- same contracting statues, protect-
portant election coming up on the ing family farmers. This bill insures
23rd and there is a lot of informa- that small family farmers get paid for
tion swirling around out there about what they grow in a timely manner.
Measure 101. Healthcare policy can Further, the bill gives the Depart-
be really wonky and I don’t claim to ment of Agriculture the power to
enforce contract violations, protect-
be an expert on this issue.
ing farmers.
What I do know some-
My Rural Invest-
thing about, however, is the
ment bill clarifi es rules
legislative process and it’s be-
around rural property
cause of something the leg-
tax exemptions. It al-
islature did that you have a
lows some cities and
ballot sitting on your kitch-
counties to incentiv-
en counter right now that
ize rural investment by
needs to be fi lled out (unless
implementing a phased-
you’re obsessive-compulsive
in property tax liability
like me and fi lled it out and
program for newly con-
returned it the same day it
structed or installed in-
arrived). Back in the 2017
from the dustrial improvements. I
legislative session, the ma-
looking forward to
jority of members voted
capitol am
the impact this will have
to increase the tax on your
in rural Oregon for ag-
healthcare.
By BILL POST
riculture investment and
One important thing to
job creation.
note, is that legislators and
I always love hearing
staff are exempt from this
tax, as are most public employees. from you and especially love wel-
No matter how you choose to vote, coming constituents to the Capi-
I think it’s extremely important that tol. This past week I had a group of
you do vote. Oregon is one of a few high school students come by for a
states that offers this referendum op- tour. I always remind people that the
tion for citizens to hold their gov- Capitol building is their building—I
may work there, but it is the people’s
ernment accountable.
In passage or defeat, this election building, and it is a beautiful testa-
will dramatically change the work ment to our democratic-republic
that we do in the legislature during form of government at work.
Don’t forget to turn in that ballot!
the short session starting in February.
(Bill Post represents House
I am working on a few bills for the
February session. The one that’s got- Disd trict 25. He can be reached at
ten the most news coverage is one I 503d 986d1425 or via email at rep.
bilpost@ oregonlegislature.gov.)
am co-sponsoring with Senator Sara
Gelser. It is to help provide clarity
for the Salem-Keizer School District
in how they implement their Man-
datory Reporting rules. I’ve heard
Email a letter to the editor
from tons of constituents about this,
(300 words) by noon Tuesday.
and I am so glad to announce that
Email to:
the bill number to fi x this problem
publisher@keizertimes.com
is SB1540.
Share your
opinion
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Avoid a boondoggle, get experts
By GENE H. McINTYRE
Boondoggle? That’s the ques-
tion this writer asked himself at learn-
ing about a soon-to-be-launched
13-member, special Or-
egon legislative commit-
tee to tour the state after
the 2018 legislative session.
Around Oregon they plan
to hear from multiple
groups of parents, students,
teachers,
administrators
school board members and
business leaders, exploring
best practices used in Or-
egon’s “most successful schools” and
thereby address gaps that limit student
success at other schools. The touring
group will meet monthly and plan
to fi nish its work by January, 2019, or
before the convening of the legisla-
ture next year.
Senate President Peter Courtney
says Oregonians “need to educate
the state’s children the best we possi-
bly can” and that means state leaders
need to understand what works and
what does not work in our schools.
Further, from Courtney, “we need to
connect state priorities and funding to
local spending.”
Not only will this tour group of
legislators look into the 1-in-4 who
fail to graduate from high school in
Oregon. They will also examine early
childhood education, fundamental
costs and instructional time relative
to what community members be-
lieve are today’s best strategies for a
successful education. We’re told they
recognize how important an educa-
tion is in determining future social
service needs with implications for
Medicare, tax revenue and incarcera-
tion numbers.
The answer to the boondoggle
question should be self-evident. Yes,
this is another boondoggle because
these thirteen legislators and col-
leagues get little done now, when
they have the conve-
nience of meeting in one
place for several weeks
every year. They get little
done because each one
almost always sides in all
matters with his and her
political party affi liation
which adds up to parti-
sanship, factionalism and
ideologue. Tradition and
practice forecast that the Democrats
on tour will listen attentively to the
interests of teachers and labor unions
while the Republicans only have ears
for business and management con-
cerns.
Of course, there are best examples
throughout the state but they are most
often “best” in relative terms and will
be argued to death on behalf of those
with a vested interest in keeping their
jobs and staying alive where they live
and work. Further, anyone who thinks
any district in eastern Oregon or on
the Oregon coast can compete with
a certain district immediately west of
Portland or in Lake Oswego should
seek sobriety before advertising Or-
egon as a level playing fi eld.
Leaders who believe they can
march out into the hinterlands a
few times and return to the Capitol
with a sure-fi re plan to do anything
that must cost a whole lot more mon-
ey to achieve success—which is what’s
really needed where so many of the
state’s youth receive an inferior educa-
tion due to the absence of modern-
day technology, up-to-date facilities,
and 21st century equipment—live
in a pigs-can-fl y world. Incidentally,
guest
column
these same leaders and their predeces-
sors have had years to do what was
needed and have chosen to argue to
asinity.
The Oregon Legislature can-
not even get the businesses of this
state (those that reap huge profi ts in
the millions upon millions of dollars
every year) to pay their fair share in
taxes while Democrats and Republi-
cans, for fear of losing their campaign
bucks, protect big business here. Then
there’s that sizable collection of our
legislators, steered by the state’s special
interests, wealthy families and corpo-
rate executives, that can only scream,
PERS is the problem. That problem
will be solved when cats go willingly
to bathe, unless legislators come up
with a new tax law that requires ev-
ery entity to share appropriately in the
costs of government.
Boondoggle avoidance: Vet care-
fully and hire a proven evaluation
team—beyond the infl uence of spe-
cial interests—to deliver accurate,
appropriately comprehensive results
and fi ndings. Bring the fi ndings and
recommendations to the Oregon Leg-
islature and determine its acceptabil-
ity and salability, along with accuracy
in cost, to a majority of Oregonians.
Select a group of ten Oregon legisla-
tors to take the reformation proposal
out for show and tell. Let Oregon’s
citizens vote on it by a special bal-
lot election. If “yes,” hire the best and
brightest Oregon educators to see to
it that it is implemented with care and
consideration for the diffi culties asso-
ciated with dramatic overhaul. See
improvements in Oregon’s public
education at all levels and secondary
school graduation rates.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)
Trump gets book thrown at him
By DEBRA SAUNDERS
As a candidate for president,
Donald Trump assured voters that,
if elected, he would hire “the best
people.” It was a claim that sug-
gested Trump didn’t need
years of Washington ex-
perience because, well, as
Trump boasted in The Art
of the Deal, “my philoso-
phy is always to hire the
best from the best.”
A shrewd eye for top
talent? That’s not the
view from Washington.
The fallout from the release of
Michael Wolff ’s new book, Fire and
Fury: Inside the Trump White House,
with its devastating quotes about
Trump and family unloaded by for-
mer White House chief strategist
Steve Bannon, reveal how overrated
Trump’s instincts have been when it
comes to choosing the best people
for the job.
Bannon had told Wolff he saw a
June 2016 Trump Tower meeting
between Donald Trump Jr., former
campaign manager Paul Manafort
and a Russian lawyer as “treason-
ous.” Thus, a once trusted lieutenant
breathed new life into the Russian
collusion story just as it was losing
steam.
The White House has cited inac-
curacies in the book. For example,
there’s an account of Trump not
knowing who former House Speak-
er John Boehner was when the late
Fox News giant Roger Ailes recom-
mended that Trump hire Boehner
as his chief of staff. In fact, Trump
mentioned Boehner repeatedly be-
fore then.
Also, Wolff himself acknowledges
that at times he chose which con-
fl icting version of events to report.
And Wolff did not enhance his cred-
ibility when he told the Today show,
“I certainly said what was ever nec-
essary to get the story.”
The thing is, you don’t have to
see Wolff ’s words as gospel—for
example, you don’t have
to believe Trump initially
wanted to name Bannon
or his son-in-law to be his
chief of staff—to see how
fl awed Trump’s judgment
has been when it came to
staffi ng the West Wing and
his campaign.
Don’t take Wolff ’s word
for it. Listen to Trump.
Last week the White House re-
leased a statement in which Trump
savaged Bannon.
“Steve pretends to be at
war with the media, which he calls
the opposition party, yet he spent
his time at the White House leaking
false information to the media to
make himself seem far more impor-
tant than he was. It is the only thing
he does well,” read the statement.
On Friday, Trump gave his for-
mer chief strategist a new Twitter
nickname, “Sloppy Steve.”
Trump also made the mistake
of hiring Paula Manafort to run
his campaign, despite Manafort’s
known ties to Moscow. Special
Counsel Robert Mueller’s offi ce
has charged Manafort with multiple
felony counts. Manafort says he is
not guilty.
When Trump is unhappy with a
member of his team, he lets every-
one know. Trump has berated Attor-
ney General Jeff Sessions for recus-
ing himself from the Russian probe.
Just last month, Trump complained
to The New York Times that Sessions
was less loyal to him than former
Attorney General Eric Holder had
been to President Barack Obama.
other
voices
Trump undercut his Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson when he tweet-
ed that Tillerson was “wasting his
time trying to negotiate with Little
Rocket Man,” aka North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un.
After Trump fi red FBI chief
James Comey in May, Press Secre-
tary Sean Spicer told reporters that
Trump acted on the recommenda-
tion of Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein. “It was all him,”
Spicer said. “No one from the White
House. That was a DOJ decision.”
Two days later, Trump told NBC’s
Lester Holt, “I was going to fi re
Comey” no matter what Justice of-
fi cials recommended.
While Trump’s demand for loy-
alty from White House staff is leg-
endary, it is not returned. In one in-
terview, Trump had turned his own
spokesman into a liar, if an unwit-
ting one. In Washington, credibility
is a currency —and Trump snatched
it from an aide for no apparent gain.
Add Mueller to the mix, and for-
mer staffers have added reason to
counterpunch the counterpunching
president.
Max Bergmann of the left-lean-
ing Center for American Progress
opined that with the Russia probe
staring down at Trump, Trump Jr.,
Kushner and Manafort, “This is
Bannon seeing the avalanche com-
ing and running for the exits.”
Or maybe working for Trump
doesn’t bring out the best in a per-
son —if you actually hire the best
person.
“What can it be like to work for
Donald Trump?” University of Vir-
ginia Miller Center researcher Ken
Hughes asked. “You have to let off
steam.”
(Creators Syndicate)