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MARCH 16, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Much hinges on President Trump meeting with N. Korean leader By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS They have met on Twitter, but not nose to nose. They dreamed up nick- names for each other, with President Donald Trump dubbing Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” and the North Korean strongman calling Trump “a mentally deranged U.S. dotard.” Their schoolyard taunts have spawned countless comedy op- portunities, even though their rela- tionship could not be more serious for the world around them. As Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, re- cently warned at the Munich Securi- ty Conference in Germany, if North Korea deploys its nuclear arsenal, “it’s going to be probably one of the worst catastrophic events in the his- tory of our civilization.” Last week, South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-Yong announced that Trump and Kim had agreed to meet. In front of the White House, Chung said that, thanks to Trump’s “maximum-pressure policy” and international efforts, Kim de- clared his commitment to denucle- arize and expressed his eagerness to meet the president “as soon as pos- sible.” Trump agreed to a meeting by May. On Twitter, he signaled that he would keep the heat on high until an agreement is reached. What happens when the two wild cards meet? There are reasons to fear that the U.S. gets rolled again, reasons to assume that nothing will come of the whole exercise, and yet slim hope that Pyongyang decides disarmament is in its national interest. So much hinges on Trump. The president clearly believes that his “maximum-pressure” approach— a mix of harsh economic sanctions, bellicose threats and personal insults —drove Kim to ask for a meeting. Asked if Trump’s unpredictabil- ity factors in this dance, Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of the Foundation for the Defense of De- mocracies, mused, “How would I put this? His unpredictability and his un- wavering commitment to maximum pressure has undoubtedly brought us to this place. But that is not the vic- tory. The victory would be denucle- arization.” Bruce Klinger, a former U.S. in- telligence offi cer who is now a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, saw Trump’s decision to meet face-to-face with Kim as “im- petuous” and “a bit premature.” Klinger gave voice to the same criticism lobbed at Trump after he announced he would move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. “If the fi rst summit is the high- est coin of the realm,” Klinger said, “President Trump seems to have spent it without getting anything in return”—not even the release of three Americans detained in North Korea. Trump’s highly personalized style has a way of cutting through the re- straints of diplomacy. When Trump met Russian President Vladimir Pu- tin at the G-20 meeting in Germany last July, for example, the two got on so famously that a scheduled 30-min- ute session exceeded two hours and ended with a Syrian ceasefi re agree- ment. But later that night, the downside of Trump’s freewheeling style became clear. During a dinner for world leaders, Trump wandered over to where Putin was seated and the two spoke with the help of a Russian interpreter. With no American inter- preter, there is no U.S. re- cord of what was said. Klinger noted that when Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to Mar-a-Lago last year, the White House suggested the president would be tough on Xi. Trump no doubt impressed the Chinese presi- dent when he told him over choco- late cake that the U.S. had bombed Syrian forces in retaliation for Bashar al Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people. But also, Klinger noted, Trump showed he can be played. Xi gave Trump a “ten-minute lecture” on North Korea and Trump emerged with a different view. Republicans and Democrats have been aghast at the number of empty positions in the State Department and the fact that Trump has not nominated an ambassador to South Korea. Klinger doesn’t see how Trump expects to prepare for a sum- mit in less than two months with a hollowed-out foreign policy shop. Schanzer is less concerned. He noted that the Obama administration had very sharp operatives working on the Iran nuclear deal, “but they folded in the face of Iranian negotia- tors.” Schanzer also is heartened by the administration’s focus on North Ko- rea, which “has been the No. 1 issue for the National Security Council.” When you add staff from the Pen- tagon and intelligence agencies, he said, “it’s not as if we don’t have man- power on this issue.” After more than three decades of U.S. presidents trying but failing to tame Pyongyang, Trump at least ben- efi ts from the effects of international isolation and trade sanctions that have deprived North Korea of oil imports and other resources. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that the North Koreans have “promised to denuclearize, they’ve promised to stop nuclear and missile testing and they’ve recognized that we’re going to continue in our military exercises.” At the same time, Sanders said, “The United States has made zero concessions.” While past international agree- ments have failed, Klinger said that doesn’t mean that this effort abso- lutely must fail. The key is to not fall into two familiar traps. “We accepted very vaguely worded agreements in order to reach an agreement,” Klinger said, and, “we had insuffi - cient verifi cation.” the opinion of others (Creators Syndicate) Share your opinion Email a letter to the editor (300 words) by noon Tuesday. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com Lyndon A. Zaitz, Editor & Publisher POSTMASTER Send address changes to: SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679d430 Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon A lot happened in short session The short session of 2018 is fi nally good bi-partisan bills this year and I over, and I wanted to let you know want to share some of them with you: HB 4035—Requires Higher some of what went on behind the Education Coordinating scenes, what bills passed Commission to provide and what bills I tried to grants to qualifi ed members stop. I will readily admit, of Oregon National Guard without the strong leader- to attend community col- ship of Senate President leges or public universities. Peter Courtney, a lot more HB 4055 —This goes af- damaging legislation would ter those who are involved have passed. Though he and in a “hit and run” and don’t I do not always see “eye to come back to the scene eye,” I will say this: one day when they know or believe we will all miss him for his their vehicle has been in a love of the “institution” that from the collision. is the Legislature. So, let’s HB 4098—Directs de- start with what I feel very capitol partment to provide annual good about accomplishing training to county veterans’ this session: By BILL POST service offi cers and veter- First, I passed both ans’ organizations regarding of my bills. House Bill apprenticeship programs 4068 passed out of the House and Senate on an 88-0 vote (2 and federal and state education ben- excused). I am very proud of this bill efi ts. SB 1506—Directs Department as it was exactly what the short session was supposed to be about: amending of Transportation to issue Oregon previously passed legislation and bud- Wounded Warrior parking permits to get fi xes. This bill fi xed an issue with qualifi ed applicants. SB 1562—Provides that person grass seed farmers that was mistakenly commits crime of strangulation if made in 2011. House Bill 4078, though it did not person knowingly impedes normal pass as a bill itself, was “stuffed” into breathing or circulation of another House Bill 4028 and so in essence, I person by applying pressure to chest of “passed” the bill by working to get it other person. I also voted ‘Yes’ on several bills into another bill as an amendment. It will also help rural agricultural entities that help with affordable housing and help bring down the cost of pharmacy prosper in their business. Secondly, I helped pass several really products. I was also instrumental in helping to stop a bill that I originally had sponsored. Originally, SB 1540 was intended to help provide clarifi cation and protection for the Salem-Keizer School District. Then Sen. Sara Gelser amended it so that it would have effec- tively lowered the age of sexual con- sent to 12. I worked hard behind the scenes and we were able to convince enough of the House Democrats that it would have been “political suicide” for them to vote ‘Yes’ for 12-year-old sex, that they actually did something very unusual: they pulled the bill from the House fl oor and amended it in Rules to take that part out. Now we will need to go back during the in- terim and work with the school dis- trict and others to fi nd a solution that protects our kids and teachers. Tucked into one of the budget bills we passed, was funding for the Marion and Yamhill County food banks, and emergency winter shelter (warming centers) for our neighbors who are struggling. So, overall, it was a less damag- ing session than it could have been, though I personally believe there were way too many complicated bills that should not have been considered for the short session. Thankfully most of them did not pass. (Bill Post represents House Disd trict 25. He can be reached at 503d 986d1425 or via email at rep. bild post@ oregonlegislature.gov.) Will student protests change things? Ever since the school shooting at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, this writer has wondered what’s involved in the mental makeup of that ever-growing number who commit murderous acts. That incident, and the many others that followed it, left me ‘lost at sea’ because nothing even re- motely like it happened at the high school in Oregon I attended. Not able to make sense out of these malevolent acts, I have searched to discover explanations that assist me to understand reasons for murder in high numbers of other citizens by assault weapons usually seen nearly exclusively overseas in guerilla war- fare and subjugation activity. Dave Cullen, who’s written extensively on the horror of Columbine, has af- forded some credible clues to what’s going on with people who commit these crimes. Cullen fi rst reminds us of conclu- sions reached after Columbine. One was that the “Trench Coat Mafi a outcasts” who had found their school experience miserable, were taking re- venge against bullies. However, a team of FBI experts, psychiatrists and psychologists came to a different conclusion. They came to- gether a few months after Columbine, concluding from discovery that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold dreamed much bigger than an impulsive act on students and teachers to vent their rage. In fact, that pair of killers were reported to have laughed at previous school shooters and planned a massive scale bombing where, fortunately, the propane bombs they set in the cafete- ria didn’t explode. A way of interpret- ing what they intended: Their vision was to create a nightmare so devas- tating and apocalyptic that the entire world would take notice of the power they wielded. But the beat goes on in the U.S. where we’ve had mass shootings on an apocalyptic scale, one after an- other. Obviously, then, there is a great hue and cry here to put together and implement stronger and more effec- tive mental health efforts. It’s certain we’d do better at stopping these awful acts of violence if we set our nation to doing so and prioritized that ob- jective at the top of a national list of urgent particulars. Trou- bling in the extreme is the American population seems to possess an ever greater percentage of the citizens not able to accept and deal with life matters at a personal responsibil- ity level while our national leaders do not lead respon- sibly. The U.S. is different from other post-industrial nations in noticeable ways.For one example, our Consti- tution, although written more than 200 years ago, immediately after the Colonists fought a war with the most powerful nation on earth, had self- protection fi xed fi rmly in their minds in order to defend themselves. We need to adjust laws for modern times with special attention to interven- tions that keep guns—by universal background checks and the closing of loopholes—away from the infi rm, the psychotic, the psychopathic and those raging, for what results in infamy (not the kind of fame they seek) through dastardly deeds. We could try the Australian ap- proach to gun controls. After all, the government in Canberra went about collecting guns by buying them from owners and destroying them, the result being a marked decline in shootings there. We could try that approach but it would likely get in the way of any- thing effective because of the Second Amendment. It would also go against the dictates of the National Rifl e As- sociation. The NRA has a vested in- terest in keeping dues intact as well as do the gun manufacturers, gun sales outlets, gun shows and private hands sales whose profi ts would fall from bans and strict controls. gene h. mcintyre Fits and starts have gotten under- way in a few places throughout the nation, resulting from the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida. The youth from that school have launched a protest that’s reverberating through- out the country. Every effort remains unsettled at this time as, while the enthusiasm is stratospheric now, the foot-dragging and fi nding reasons to say “No!” again, and outnumber the “Yes!” votes. Then there are the pre- dictable law suits that follow every re- form effort. One solution to the gun issue that would not receive approval from this retired educator: placing guns in the hands of teachers, and, thereby, forcing gun controls in the U.S. on them. The original scare-inducing ar- gument among those who want no restrictions is the perennial “slippery slope” argument, the one that says, if even one gun is taken away, the gov- ernment will come for all the others. It’s material for an SNL skit depicting how absurd some of us can be. Case in point: having lived a long life in the U.S.A., and having known hundreds of gun owners, I’ve never known of a gun confi scation unless it was asso- ciated by hard evidence with having been used to commit a crime. And so it goes in the United States of America. No person is safe any- where in this nation because guns are everywhere and those who have them, unfi t or not, have the freedom to use them at will. All of this adds up to mean no citizen here is immune from harm and thereby can be hit by a bullet while in bed, attending school, a music festival, shopping at a mall, viewing a movie or going to church. There are many ways we could bring controls to this mania but it won’t happen until a whole lot more of us get fed up enough to act when we declare, “We won’t take it anymore!” and end the careers of those politi- cians who don’t serve a majority of Americans. Until that time, the gun beat goes on, madly, insanely and end- less. (Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)