PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, OCTOBER 26, 2018
Opinion
Candidate sets record straight
By MIKE DE BLASI
I’m a candidate for the Keizer City
Council. I want to correct one part of
a recent Keizetimes editorial (We recom-
mend Kohler, Oct. 12).
It was written that Position #6 can-
didates “have their differences on up-
coming issues such as the third bridge
(De Blasi is against it; he’d rather see
tolls on the existing bridges).” I do
not support the third bridge as it is
proposed. However, the
solutions are more com-
plex than just tolls. Tolling
works because a price on
road use has been proven
to reduce overall traffic
by reducing discretionary
trips—trips that are not
necessary but taken be-
cause they are free. They
also balance the costs of a single pas-
senger vehicle trip compared to other
forms of transport.
Tolling alone will not complete-
ly solve the congestion problem. If it
did, roads on the East Coast would be
traffic free. Local government leaders
need to develop a truly comprehensive
development and transportation policy
with the aim of reducing single pas-
senger vehicle trips. Past decisions have
created excessive free parking options
in Salem and Keizer, which not only
reduces tax revenue per acre, that in-
centivizes vehicle use. Off-street park-
ing minimums must be eliminated and
maximums reduced.
I also blame state government,
which has provided large, free to low-
cost off-street parking lots that under-
mine programs they have to get state
employees out of their cars. The result
is heavy traffic into down-
town Salem in the morn-
ing and to Polk County in
the evening.
The legislature has
passed many laws on the
efficient use of land, but
many cities in Marion and
Polk Counties continue to
overwhelmingly approve
single family detached homes with lit-
tle to no transit connections exacerbat-
ing the traffic problem. They have also
built streets (e.g., Wallace Road) de-
signed solely to reward single passen-
ger vehicle use, while at the same time
approving commercial development
along these streets that undermine the
efficient movement of vehicles—the
worst of both worlds. Marion and Polk
Counties, and the cities within, need
guest
column
Protect
emergency
services
values; tax and spend,
high density and busi-
ness-killing policies.
What Keizer does
need is someone who
has lived in Keizer long
enough to know what
Keizer is all about—
pride, spirit and vol-
unteerism is just the beginning. It
also takes a commitment to Keizer’s
mission: “Keep city costs and ser-
vices to a minimum by providing
city services to the community in a
coordinated, efficient, and least cost
fashion” by someone who knows
how because he has lived and
worked along side of us for decades.
That candidate is Dan Kohler.
Many of you have worked along
side of Dan at the Big Toy or have
benefited from his hours of com-
mitment to teaching your kids
scouting...now is the time to return
the favor.
We will all benefit from Dan be-
ing on Keizer City Council. He
will continue to provide a steady
hand, sound common sense solu-
tions to Keizer’s everyday problems
and a listening ear for your new
ideas.
I am voting for Dan, you should
too!
Lore Christopher
Keizer
letters
To the Editor:
Keizer Fire District
consistently rates as one
of the most tax efficient
departments in the state while pro-
viding critical service response that
our community has come to ex-
pect.
Voting yes on Keizer Fire Dis-
trict’s Measure 24-432 will allow
KFD to continue the same level of
services for our community with-
out increasing cost to our existing
levy.
The call volume has increased
45 percent in five years. This is a
much needed yes vote.
Hank & Sandy Tarter
Keizer
I support
Elizabeth Smith
To the Editor:
I am supporting Elizabeth Smith
for Keizer City Council Position
#5.
I have known Elizabeth for over
20 years and have found her to be
a no-nonsense lady. She’ll bring a
fresh perspective to the council and
is not afraid to speak her mind.
I am sure Elizabeth will work
hard to serve Keizer as a city coun-
cilor knowing that the time she
gives will make a difference.
Jim Taylor
Keizer
Kohler stands out
for dedication to
Keizer community
To the Editor:
It is easy today to throw up your
hands and turn away from politics.
Some of our leaders at the national
level have given us every reason to
do so.
That is why candidates like Dan
Kohler stand out. His dedication to
his community and willingness to
listen set him apart from the rest. He
doesn’t walk into a room thinking
he has all the answers. Dan walks in
ready to listen. I like that.
In this election, I urge you to
vote Dan Kohler for Keizer City
Council Position #6. He shares
our priorities and embodies what it
means to be a Keizerite.
Please join me is supporting
Kohler for Keizer.
Jonathan Thompson
Keizer
Kohler means
Keizer values
Vote for Kohler
To the Editor:
I have known Dan Kohler for six
years now. If the city of Keizer truly
deserves a city council member, it is
without a doubt Dan Kohler.
Dan has a wonderful reputa-
tion for his work, his service in the
community, the neighborhood in
which he lives. Dan is very infor-
mative about the goings-on in his
city, and is most supportive.
Dan is the person that anyone
can walk up to and talk, and Dan
will give his undivided attention to
that person. This is what the people
of Keizer deserve, and this is what
the city of Keizer needs. Dan is a
leader, a listener, a doer, and will get
the job done. The people of Keizer
will appreciate a person like Dan
Kohler for his hard work, dedica-
tion and leadership to keep Keizer
in the 21st century, and down the
road into the future. As a home-
owner, and the president of the Ce-
dar Bluff Homeowners Association,
I am very proud of Dan Kohler for
all his hard work within the com-
munity of Keizer over the many
years. Dan deserves the chance to
serve the people in Keizer the way
they expect to be treated. There is
no one else but Dan Kohler.
Remember, to vote for Dan
Kohler as our next city councilman.
Gary Wagner
Keizer
To the Editor:
Keizer does not need East Coast
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to approve development that incentiv-
izes other transportation options.
Finally, the region needs to create
a truly connected transit system that
will provide quick, timely and efficient
bus routes connecting the cities in the
mid-Willamette Valley. One hundred
years ago, our cities were better con-
nected by transit than they are today.
This is the result of nearly 80 years of
government subsidies for passenger
car use as well as zoning that compels
providing the parking space for these
vehicles.
It is your tax money that will be used
to build the third bridge. Shouldn’t
we demand that our officials utilize all
other measures before we commit to
spending hundreds of millions of dol-
lars? Shouldn’t our politicians be ac-
countable for their past decisions? And
shouldn’t we be honest with ourselves
and admit that sometimes we are own
worst enemy by not considering how,
in the whole, our everyday decisions
are exacerbating the traffic problem?
Thank you for the opportunity to
correct the record.
(Mike De Blasi lives in Keizer. He is a
candidate for Keizer City Council.)
Safety nets are threatened again
Stymied again! This writer does not
know whether to stifle a cry and laugh
out loud or burst into tears and squelch
a hearty guffaw! The dilemma has to
do with one of the latest announce-
ments from some of our illustrious
“leaders” in Washington, D.C.
If readers haven’t
noticed, our nation
has evolved to a place
where, for whatever rea-
son, and there appear
many reasons to explain
the phenomenon, there
are about 2 million of
our fellow citizens in a
category identified as
“homeless.” Some are sick and tired
of the “rat race” but most, realistically
speaking, have fallen into a state, in-
cluding a great many American chil-
dren, not having a roof over their heads
and enough food to eat.
Should we not try our hardest, as a
nation of people who’ve established a
reputation world-wide for being com-
passionate and helpful to the down-
trodden and those without means, to
find ways to reverse this alarming di-
rection of so many of our citizens? No,
not by way of the nation’s capitol! The
latest foray by those in charge at D.C.
want to add significantly to the number
of those without means by terminating
the entitlement social programs—So-
cial Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Literally millions of America’s se-
nior citizens are totally dependent
on monthly Social Security checks
to keep a roof overhead and food on
the table and millions of others, both
seniors and younger, who
lack the means to pay their
medical costs, are far too
often hounded out of their
homes by bill collectors
and foreclosures. Obvi-
ously, and forecasting the
most dire of consequences,
the already alarming num-
bers sleeping on any space
they can find and scrounging for food
in garbage cans, counting evermore at
astronomically higher numbers.
After instituting a $1.46 trillion tax
cut and signing off on a $675 billion
budget for the U.S. Department of De-
fense, (both proven unneeded by the
rich and the Pentagon) Senate Major-
ity Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
announced last week that the only
way to lower the record-high federal
deficit is to cut the entitlement pro-
grams. Any American wanting to look
at the facts may wish to notice that
our nation’s deficit has increased by
77 percent since McConnell became
majority leader in 2015. Meanwhile,
gene
h.
mcintyre
McConnell says he’s “very disturbed”
by the deficit numbers.
The folks at the US Treasury De-
partment have determined that the
corporate and wealthy American “1
percenter” tax cuts have made the big-
gest contribution to the deficit this
year. Anyone interested can find out
that tax receipts on corporate income
in 2017 fell to $205 billion from $297
billion last year. Then, too, and also sig-
nificant, a small percentage of what the
Republicans in Congress promised as a
tax cut of several thousands of dollars
for every working American family has
already been determined as Trump ad-
ministration fake news.
Republicans like McConnell,
House Speaker Paul Ryan and others
in lock step want all social help pro-
grams to end because they think ev-
ery American should be able to fend
for themself without government help
even though most Social Security re-
cipients already paid for it through
life-long withholdings. Their stand on
ending the entitlement programs spells
h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y as they have typical-
ly been at the federal trough —feeding
socialistically on taxpayer dollars—for
the length of their careers and soon,
too, under lavish retirement conditions.
(Gene H. McIntyre shares his opin-
ion frequently in the Keizertimes.)
Body slams everywhere
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
Progressive activist Wilfred Michael
Stark was arrested Tuesday for suspi-
cion of battery against Kristin Davi-
son, the campaign manager for Ne-
vada’s GOP gubernatorial candidate,
Adam Laxalt.
Until he was fired after the inci-
dent, Stark worked for American Bridge,
a self-described “progressive research
and communications organization
committed to holding Republicans
accountable for their words
and actions,” His arrest,
an earlier arrest at another
campaign event, and other
recent incidents involving
the left made it appear this
was open season on Repub-
licans.
Then, just when it
seemed like the perfect time to write
about Democrats’ embrace of in-
timidation tactics, President Donald
Trump stepped into the muck.
At a Make America Great Again
rally in Montana Thursday night,
Trump joked about Rep. Greg Gian-
forte, R-Mont., who body slammed
Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in 2017
because Jacobs asked the candidate a
question about health care.
“Never wrestle him,” Trump dead-
panned before the enthusiastic crowd.
Trump added, “Any guy who can
do a body slam, he’s my guy.”
On Fox News’ Outnumbered Friday,
son Eric Trump defended his father.
“Oh, stop. He wasn’t the guy who
body-slammed anybody. He can have
fun,” said Eric Trump, who added that
his father won in 2016 precisely be-
cause he is wonderfully “un-PC.”
It was an important distinction, the
son added, because former Attorney
General Eric Holder “wasn’t laugh-
ing” when Holder said that Democrats
should kick Republicans. Trump, said
his son, was smiling and jovial.
Maybe, but there was nothing jovial
about Gianforte’s treatment of Jacobs
on May 24, 2017.
Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna,
producer Faith Mangan and photogra-
pher Keith Railey witnessed the inci-
dent and Acuna wrote about what she
saw on the Fox News website.
After Jacobs began asking the GOP
candidate about health care, she wrote,
“Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck
with both hands and slammed him into
the ground behind him. Faith, Keith
and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte
then began punching the reporter. As
Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he
began yelling something to the effect
of, ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’”
In a statement the campaign at first
blamed “aggressive behavior from a
liberal journalist.”
Authorities
charged
Gianforte with misde-
meanor assault. In June
2017, the now congress-
man pleaded guilty.
A judge sentenced
Gianforte to 40 hours of
community service, 20
hours of anger management and a
$300 fine.
In the courtroom, Gianforte apol-
ogized to Jacobs, who accepted the
apology. He also promised Jacobs an
interview that never happened.
Since the GOP Senate confirmed
Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme
Court, alas, you can’t turn on cable
news without seeing scenes of protest-
ers yelling at GOP lawmakers in eleva-
tors, following them through parking
lots or disrupting the free speech rights
debra j.
saunders
and space of those with whom they
disagree.
The vein that runs through these
protests is a sense of entitlement. Hav-
ing failed to pressure or persuade Re-
publicans to vote like Democrats, the
left has turned to tantrums, intimida-
tion and rampant claims of victim-
hood.
In a recent viral video, a woman
angry about Kavanaugh’s confirma-
tion demanded that Sen. Bill Cassidy,
R-La., “apologize to my children for
ruining their lives.”
Cassidy calmly told the youngsters
he was sorry their parents were using
them as tools and assured them that if
someone wrongly accused them, they
would be OK.
“Shame on you,” one moth-
er shouted as Cassidy walked away.
Shame on her for telling her children
Cassidy was robbing them of a bright
future.
Hysteria has driven activists to de-
cide they don’t have to be civil any-
more. When really, they’re just being
thugs, like Gianforte.
Laxalt campaign manager Davison
has a clearer view. American Bridge, she
told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, paid
Stark “to get in people’s faces.” And
that’s what he did.
(Creators Syndicate)
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