FEBRUARY 23, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
The children shall lead them
After the massacre of 17 students
and adults at Majory Stoneman
Douglas High School in Parkland, FL,
an affl uent suburb of Miami, survivors
and students wasted no time in calling
for action. The students de-
manded action from Con-
gress and the president to
stop senseless mass killing
sby gun.
The call for action has
swept the nation like a
prairie fi re. Douglas High
School student activists
have called on their peers
around the nation to also demand ac-
tion from state and federal legislators.
So far two events have been
planned: the National School Walk-
out on Wednesday, March 14, and
the March of Our Lives on Saturday,
March 24.
As some are pointing out, the
shooting in Parkland may prove a
turning point in the gun control de-
bate. Why? The survivors of Sandy
Hook in Connecticut were too young
to even conceive of a protest. The sur-
vivors of the Las Vegas massacre were
varied and not part of a homogenous
group that could communicate some-
thing like a protest.
The survivors in Parkland have
something in common: they are all
students at the same high school. It is
easier to rally with and share a message
with one’s peers.
The students in Parkland (and
across the nation) are saavy enough to
use the megaphone in front of them.
The students who spoke on newscasts
the day of the shooting proved to be
articulate, knowledgeable and passion-
ate. Our children have learned well.
We should cheer the students in
Parkland and elsewhere who are tak-
ing a stand and protesting for changes
in gun laws. When you see your friend
or teacher shot down in cold blood,
you have credibility when
you demand action on
guns. Some are saying the
student activists are being
riled up and led by out-
side groups. You know that
is not true when you see
interviews with students
who had no time to get
any coaching from outsid-
ers before talking to news reporters.
The United States has a proud tra-
dition of civil protest and civil diso-
bidience. When our high school stu-
dents take this route it is a teaching
moment for us adults: our children
have been watching and listening all
the time.
What do these students want to
accomplish? None are advocating an
outright ban of guns. They want to see
actions that are supported by a major-
ity of Americans: background checks
on any purchase, limiting or banning
assault gun weapons, banning of bump
stocks. None of those actions, if en-
acted, would take a gun away from an
owner.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School shooting is a tragedy and
we shouldn’t have to go through some-
thing like that again. The student’s ral-
lying cry is “Enough is enough.” It’s a
cry that should be taken up by those
who represent us on the local and fed-
eral level. If adults won’t lead on this
issue, then we may not have a choice
but to let the children lead us.
—LAZ
Road salt
ing road surfaces ice free.
But if the transportation
agencies insist on the use
of salt, then the legislature
needs to increase fund-
ing to the Department
of Enviromental Quality
and Department of Fish
and Wildlife so that these
agencies can begin studies of water
bodies likely to receive the salty run-
off. It is important to establish back-
ground (before salt use) levels of sa-
linity and other bio-markers so that
future wetland monitoring can detect
changes that could spell trouble. As we
know, it is very diffi cult and expensive
to repair and restore streams, ponds
and lakes to good health once damage
has occurred.
Studies also show that salt damages
road surfaces and related infrastructure
and vehicles at an annual cost rang-
ing in the millions of dollars. Damage
from road salt use is far reaching.
Jim Parr
Keizer
our
opinion
To the Editor:
Before the state Depart-
ment of Transportation and
Oregon cities and commu-
nities commit to the use or
increased salt as a de-icing
agent they should all con-
sider the recently released results of
studies on the use of salt in the North-
east and Midwest.
Long term studies in these areas
now show that the use of salt on roads
and highways has degraded the water
quality of ponds, lakes, and other wa-
terways into which the salt-laden run-
off ultimately drains. And the results
are not good.
The studies show that there has
been a negative impact to water qual-
ity resulting in harm to fi sh, inverte-
brates, amphibians and plants. In short,
most forms of aquatic life have been
damaged or are disappearing from the
impacted waterways.
There is no easy answer to keep-
letters
Let’s have that conversation
By JONATHAN THOMPSON
In a recent Keizertimes editorial
entitled, Yet Another Conversation, the
author appears to take issue with an
upcoming event hosted by the Keizer
Chamber of Commerce to
discuss the future of River
Road. The author is tired
of more discussion on the
topic and wants to see more
action.
We appreciate the Keiz-
ertimes taking notice of our
event and we hope they
will come cover it. But this
event is not happening out of thin air.
Some context is helpful.
The Keizer Chamber of Com-
merce started planning this event late
last year as the Keizer City Council
was considering a change to city rules
which would require businesses in
town to put aside an amount equal
to one percent of construction or re-
modeling costs for “public amenities.”
These amenities could have included
benches, fountains or contributions
to the City’s public art fund. When
we at the Chamber started asking lo-
cal folks what they thought of the
proposed changes, we did not fi nd a
lot of support.
What we did get, is a lot of good
ideas about the future of River Road.
These ideas ranged from ways to
encourage façade and landscape im-
provements to doing nothing at all.
We also heard many ideas in between.
What was clear is that we need a
larger conversation, in-
cluding as many mem-
bers of the community as
possible. This brought us
to the upcoming Com-
munity Conversation.
As the aforemen-
tioned editorial notes,
there has been a lot of
talk around the future
of River Road. We do not intend to
recreate the wheel. We have invited
representatives from the city to take
us through that history as a starting
point. Many great things have hap-
pened along River Road and we
want to build on those.
We take issue with two parts of
the column in particular. First, that
“talk is cheap, we’ve talked before.”
Talk may be cheap, but if we had not
talked to members of our community
during the debate on the one percent
public amenities proposal last fall we
would have never heard some of the
voices in our community which have
a right to be heard. Good public pol-
icy is made by engaging stakeholders.
Second, the author of the column
guest
column
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(Jonathan Thompson is a local
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the Government Affairs Commit-
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merce. )
An education overhaul needed to face future
A small group of lawmakers in
the House and Senate are recognized
for pushing forward with serious pro-
posals to overhaul the nation’s higher
education system.
These legislators are known for
their track record to make things
happen. What they’re
looking at is the Higher
Education Act of 1965
that includes the en-
tire federal loan system
that has not been up-
dated in more than a
decade. Then, too, and
perhaps most important,
these offi ce-holders in
D.C. view the overhaul as addressing
economic implications that would ad-
dress the skills gap to fi ll the more than
6 million job openings going vacant
in the U.S.
Further, the effort is very timely
as the nation’s colleges and universi-
ties seek to redefi ne themselves in a
rapidly changing market where they
can become more affordable, acces-
sible and relevant to the ever-growing
number of youth and adults in low-
income fi nancial situations. Some of
the interest in this matter, too, comes
from the need to counteract the trend
throughout America where a huge
number of high schoolers do not
graduate and those who do get to col-
lege, fail to stay to certifi cate or degree
status.
Reports out of Washington on this
subject indicate that, in the Senate,
Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, who
chairs the Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee, and rank-
ing member Senator Patty Murray,
D-WA, are calling for movement. Of
course, these two movers and shak-
ers will need the help of many Sen-
ate colleagues but have won the hearts
and minds of their fellow senators in
past efforts to get things of conse-
quence accomplished.
The pair of senators held fi ve
committee hearings last year though
they’ve been at the matter for the
past four years and thereby have a
foundation upon which to build.
These principal legislators have already
proven once that they can “thread a
needle” by crafting the re-write of No
Child Left Behind a couple of years
ago. Some diplomacy, however, will
be required for the “majors” to work
together as the confi rmation of Sec-
retary of Education Betsy DeVos re-
sulted in bad feelings all around.
Negativity appears to rule over
at the U.S. House of Representa-
tives as efforts there have been al-
most exclusively along party
lines. House Republicans
have proposed some non-
starters for the Democrats
that include the elimina-
tion by GOP members of
several federal grants, lower
cost repayment programs
and protection of student
loan borrowers who have
been defrauded by for-profi t col-
leges. The contest in the House has
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., versus
Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., so heavy-
duty negotiations remain for progress
to occur.
It has been recognized for
years that we’d do better, much bet-
ter, at education and training out-
comes by combining them as one
contiguous activity. A treatise on this
subject could be written but suffi ce
it to say that we could and should do
more to integrate theory with practice
from beginning to completion in our
schools and, later, colleges and univer-
sities. Stating the matter another way,
instead of sitting our youth at desks or
in lecture halls to exclusive rote mem-
ory by lecture and book learning, they
would learn at every step and stage of
their development to relate what they
gene
h.
mcintyre
Keizertimes
wants to see action. We agree. While
talking is not necessarily action, do-
ing something just to look like you
are doing something is a great way to
end up with a mess. Let’s hear from
as many people as possible and listen
to the folks who will be paying the
bills before we act.
At the Keizer Chamber of Com-
merce, we are looking forward to
hearing from as many members of
the community as possible about the
future of River Road. Those who
may want to see fountains and pedes-
trian malls have no more or less right
to be heard than those who think
River Road is fi ne and do not want
to change it.
No matter what you want River
Road to look like, and whether or
not you are a member of the Keizer
Chamber of Commerce, we want to
hear from you. Join us in the next
phase of a discussion of the future of
your city. We look forward to seeing
you at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28
at the Keizer Civic Center.
learn to practical applications.
This kind of route to preparation
would of necessity require a close rela-
tionship between schools/colleges and
work places of all kinds, a coming to-
gether that’s found at community col-
leges but much less so in K-12 school
districts and four-year institutions of
higher learning. A process like this
requires teachers in schools along
with professors in colleges to provide
our youth with exposure to jobs and
careers that piggyback on interests
and aptitudes. Suggested motto for
new American curriculum at all lev-
els: Heads-engaged always, hands-on
ready.
Among many other relevant edu-
cation and training-related matters is
the ability to recognize fact from fi c-
tion, truth from lies, reputable sources
from propaganda, hyperbole, under-
statement and the illogical. The 2016
election proved that many Americans
do not recognize false news and gross
exaggerations and were infl uenced ac-
cordingly by Russian agents disguised
as Americans out to sabotage our
democracy. If our youth and young
adults were able to determine what’s
accurate and not accurate informa-
tion, we’d be a nation of people safer
from devious, insidious manipulations.
Education and training is available
to teach and practice our youth so
that in the future the average Ameri-
can is less easily, even seldom, hardly
ever, bamboozled and thereby misled.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)