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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2018)
MARCH 9, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Keeping Keizer great takes vigilance on all levels Most people who make Keizer their home made a conscientious de- cision to live here. They are raising their families or living the retirement lifestyle. There is much to recommend Keizer as a place to call home. Some may lament what Keizer does not have but the goods far outweigh the bads. Our city is led and operated by a dedicated group of people both on the electoral and staff levels; there really is not much a resident requires other than what is of- fered currently. It is an easy task to rebuff those who say there is nothing to do in Keizer. One need only point to our 19 parks, all the sports organizations plus a professional baseball team. Arts? Keizer has it. A lot of it. The Keizer Art Association’s Enid Joy Mount Gallery stages a new exhibition every month. During the academic year ev- ery school presents a wide variety of concerts and plays. In short Keizer is a wonderful place to live. But, Keizer is not an island. We cannot shut the gate at our borders and tell the rest of the world to go away. We may be Keizerites but we are also patriotic Americans supporting the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We look to our governments to defend us and keep us safe—if it did nothing else, we would be satisfi ed. The American people of every ideological stripe, of every econom- ic level should be shocked that our Commander in Chief remarked that the United States might get a shot at having a leader for life someday. Was it a joke? If doesn’t matter. The leader of a free country who is elected by the people and limited to two terms has no business musing about a leader for life either in public or private. Such a thought shouldn’t even exist. Our president has expressed ad- miration for China’s Xi Jingping and other authorian leaders. China’s two- term limit was eliminated, allowing Jinping to serve as president for China as long as he can. We live in a country of laws and our leaders swear to an oath that they will defend and protect the Constitu- tion of the United States, that includes leaders at our local level. Some may say that the Constituion is a living document and was designed to be amended and changed (we’re up to 27 amendments now including the fi rst ten which comprise the Bill of Rights). We hope that life in America never gets so com- plex and complicated that the citizens completely turn over their right to choose their leader to a small cabal. Though only half of eligible voters cast a ballot in presidential elections, it is still an election. Voting turnout rates on the local level are even smaller. When the people take their eye off the governmental ball there will always be some that will take up the slack. When statesman, writers and historians say that mankind’s greatest experiment is America and its democ- racy, too many tune that out. The documents that give people the right to keep and bear arms, to marry someone of another faith or race, to read and say what they like and to travel anywhere is the same document that lays out how we elect our national leader and how long that leader can remain in offi ce. Is this a Keizer issue? Absolutely. It’s an issue that is important in every nook and cranny of this nation. Some American citizens may never vote in any election, they may not even care about government politics. It doesn’t matter, they are still citizens of the United States and have the same pro- tections and rights as everyone. One’s citizen status does not rely on one’s voting history. One of the problems of not voting, especially for president, is that every- one who does vote in those elections has an outsized infl uence. To the vic- tor go the spoils, we, as a people, have to assure the victor never views them- self as indispensable and therefore de- serving of serving for life. —LAZ Students studying states We will be having our States Fair at the end of the school year to display all of our information. I look forward to re- ceiving information about Oregon. It can be mailed to: Mr. Van Winkle’s 5th-6th Grade Class Faith Christian School PO Box 3048 Kearney, NE 68848 Attn: Keira Kip Van Winkle Kearney, NE our opinion To the Editor: My name is Keira and I am a 6th grader at Faith Christian School in Kear- ney, Neb. My class is study- ing the 50 states and I have chosen Oregon as my state. Our assisgnment is to fi nd out as much about our states as we can and I would like your readers to help me out. I hope they will send me informa- tion about Oregon: maps, brochures, souvenirs or anything else that would be helpful. letters School bond is big, but important By CHUCK LEE We have overcrowding issues throughout the Salem-Keizer School District that will only worsen if we don’t act quickly and effectively. Our student population is growing at the same moment our facilities are aging and overtaxed. You need to go no fur- ther to see the seriousness of our space issues than to visit Keizer Elemen- tary School during any lunch pe- riod. There you will see our kids bunched up in a packed corridor, waiting to have a quick moment at the salad bar or to be served a hot lunch from a line that brings to mind a freight train with no ca- boose in sight. Despite sincere efforts to accom- modate the lunchtime surge, there are simply too many hungry kids in too small of an area. For lack of cafeteria space, many students carry their trays through the school and wind back to their schoolroom desks to eat. Even though the students try hard to avoid messes, mishaps are inevitable, kids being kids. Keizer students deserve better, and a solution is just three months away. The 2018 school bond measure, to be decided in May, addresses the need for not just more cafeterias but more classrooms, more science labs, more gyms and fi tness areas, more commons areas, and more vocational-technical career spaces. The bond will pro- vide a direct response to some of the more vexing societal prob- lems we face here in Keizer and across the country: the need for more STEM (science, technology, engineer- ing and math) courses, the shocking rise of childhood obesity, and the need for a well-trained workforce to fi ll jobs in construction, digital design, au- tomotive body repair, cosmetology and more. In my work as president of our Career Technical Education Center (CTEC), I’ve seen what can happen when high school kids are provided with state-of-the-art facilities and instruction. Graduation rates soar. The school bond will provide a major boost to technical and voca- tional education across the district, placing us in a position of leader- ship in Oregon. But there’s more. Some $99 million will go toward keeping our kids safe, strengthening spaces that are of high risk of col- lapse in an earthquake, upgrading badge access and intercom systems, and relocating or renovating front offi ces at 34 schools. We are at a moment in history when traumatic events are forcing guest column Wheatland Publishing Corp. 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 Phone: 503.390.1051 • www.keizertimes.com MANAGING EDITOR Eric A. Howald editor@keizertimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS Derek Wiley news@keizertimes.com ADVERTISING Paula Moseley advertising@keizertimes.com PRODUCTION MANAGER & GRAPHIC DESIGNER EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 Andrew Jackson graphics@keizertimes.com POSTMASTER Send address changes to: LEGAL NOTICES legals@keizertimes.com Keizertimes Circulation BUSINESS MANAGER 142 Chemawa Road N. Laurie Painter Keizer, OR 97303 billing@keizertimes.com RECEPTION Lori Beyeler INTERN Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon Random Pendragon facebook.com/keizertimes twitter.com/keizertimes (Chuck Lee represents Keizer on the Salem-Keizer Schools Board.) Is democracy losing ground in the US? In America we may now have come to a crossroads as to how we want our government to be orga- nized and run, if, among some of us, we want any government at all. Our history lessons, from the nation’s founding, report that those former colonists able to vote, narrowly vot- ed in favor of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, while heated de- bate has preceded and followed the adoption of every amendment since. A reading of our history discloses many a subsequent develop- ment that was gener- ally unacceptable in that fateful year, 1776. A short list of those issues would have to include an end to slavery, suffrage for women, and full citizenship sta- tus for African-Americans. Further, our democracy goes on with debate after debate on every new major is- sue, most recently exampled by gun controls and health insurance for every American. One debated issue in more re- cent years has been labeled, “creep- ing socialism.” The debate mainly originates from the establishment of Social Security and other federal work and aid programs that came into existence during the Depres- sion. It continues to this day and has been nationally heightened during the fi rst year of the Donald Trump administration as the president, his cabinet and “Trump Party” mem- bers proceed with the wish to move Social Security to private owner- ship and sharply defund—if not terminate—other federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. In America, there are a consider- able number of citizens alarmed and anxious over what may be viewed as “creeping totalitarianism.” There are examples throughout the world of well-established totalitarian states found in most of Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Their number is so large as to discourage their list- ing here in limited space. As long as the Constitution with the Bill of Rights, our government of checks and balances and our governmental institutions and agencies remain in place, then our democracy is safe. Unfortunately, these long-standing safeguards against corrup- tions in U.S. government are under attack and there- by threatened. Three novelists, a Ca- nadian, a Brit and an American, have written fi ctional trips that take the reader into dystopian plac- es through novels such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Dysto- pian stories are usually stories about survival where the main theme is oppression and rebellion. Dysto- pian stories take place in nations devastated by pollution while war, revolutions, overpopulation and other disasters abound. Only three of these dystopian stories are men- tioned here; however, there are many others in this genre an inter- net search can fi nd. The institution of the family is eradicated in some of these stories where children are reproduced ar- tifi cially and romantic love is for- bidden. The stories emphasize the powerlessness of the individual in the face of demeaning oppression and brutal government policies controlled by totalitarian dictators. Paranoia is ubiquitous among the citizens of dystopian societies who live in fear and are totally manipu- lated. For example, in The Hand- maid’s Tale, women have no rights, in 1984 love is forbidden so when the main character fi nds it he is ulti- mately brainwashed to feel affection only for Big Brother, and Fahrenheit 451 is set in a place where all books gene h. mcintyre Keizertimes communities to re-evaluate risks. The bond measure will defray the costs of school security at a time when it is a daily dinner table con- versation topic. Finally, this much-needed mea- sure meets a long-held goal of mine. As a Keizer resident and school board member representing our community’s interests, I’ve pressed for expansion at McNary High, rather than see the construction of a new area high school to replace it. This expansion will keep Keiz- er high school students in Keizer, and the bond will allow for suffi - cient onsite parking on the campus, which will eliminate the practice of students parking in nearby neigh- borhoods. Please remember that when your ballots arrive in the mail. When the bond passes, as I be- lieve it will, McNary will benefi t signifi cantly, as will our middle and elementary schools. Yes, the bond measure is big: $619.2 million. But I ask that you take the time before Election Day to familiarize yourself with the scope of the measure and how a wave of critically important im- provements will roll across the dis- trict. If we fail to act, the problems won’t disappear. And projections al- most guarantee our student popula- tion will expand. We have the capability to meet the challenges head on.Vote yes. are burned. Our nation has made great strides over the years in an ongo- ing effort for Americans to embrace the American Dream; yet, it remains out of reach for millions. Condi- tions suchas racism, inequality, infe- rior educational opportunities, di- minished upward mobility and the concentration of wealth and power has found its way into the hands of a tiny minority that works against new membership. What’s “creeping” at high veloc- ity is the ubiquitous corruption by government offi cials who swore an oath upon assuming offi ce to pro- tect and preserve the United States of America. Par and parcel of what’s happening promises to further di- vide our nation and is enhanced by the constant din from the country’s leader and his devoted followers who claim fake news and witch- craft through use of prevarications. Hence, corruption is public service, lies are truth, and dead ends are op- portunity. So, we’ve reached a very serious place. Will the values and traditions brought by the U.S. Constitution and our “better angels” suffi ciently rally us to save ourselves or will the greatest idea ever proposed, the one penned by our founders to establish and maintain ‘liberty and justice for all,’ be sustained or join the dustbin of history. The 11th hour has ar- rived while delayed action could bring America to a place, having caused so that’s irreversible, there can be no reversal. (Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.) Share your opinion Email a letter to the editor (300 words) by noon Tuesday. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com
