NOVEMBER 30, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
Questioning our leaders
Some people identify as liberal, some
as conservative. The defi nition of those
labels have drasticaly shifted over the
past 40 years. What was conservative in
the early 1980s is now considered in-
excusably moderate. Some
Democrats want their party
to move further left; some
Republicans want to see
their party move further
right. That has created what
we all see across the nation
today: two sides with little
compromise, entrenched in
their points of view.
Politics in America today is not
completely broken regardless of what
some pundits, news anchors and col-
umnists would have us believe. The re-
ality is there is work being completed
by government bodies at every level,
from Congress down to the smallest
city council.
Congress passes legislation every
week but that pales in comparison to
the sexier news of constant embat-
tlement between the two parties. In
Keizer, population 39,000, one can
fi nd people of every ideological stripe,
though most of the city’s councilors
have been right of center. The city
council gets the people’s business done
when it comes to setting policy and
approving budgets, all without rancor.
Our democracy allows for citizens
to express their displeasure with deci-
sons their government leaders make,
be it via public testimony, letters or
protests. That is all part of our civic
discourse. That includes the press. It
is not treasonous to question political
leaders about their policies. Nor is it
treasonous to say or write critically of
our leaders. We do not live in a coun-
try built on the cult of personalities.
We don’t have Dear Leader or Glori-
ous Leader in America. Our
leaders are elected by the
people; if we don’t like what
they are doing we can vote
them out.
Not all liberals loathe
the current president, not
all conservatives embrace
him. Voters knew what they
were getting when they supported him
with their votes. The fact that he trailed
his opponent by three million votes
fades in the face of his Electoral Col-
lege victory. Hate his policies and his
behavior or support him, it is import-
ant to remember a keystone of military
life: respect (or salute) the rank, not the
man. That is something big media for-
gets—it spends too much time on the
president’s tweets rather than on the
news items that affect most Americans.
Neither the people nor the press
should follow a president blindly. The
ability to oppose our leaders is as
American as apple pie. It is democracy
gone off the rails when people are ac-
cused of being unAmerican when they
don’t support their leader. It is democ-
racy functioning well when people use
their words and actions to persuade
others to their side regardless if it is a
conservative view or a liberal view.
There is room is this big country for
all points of view. A person is not hor-
rible just because they disagree—that is
unAmerican.
—LAZ
Codes need to
be enforced
the location and would
coordinate with Code
Enforcement. I took her
at her word.
Nothing happened.
On November 10, I
took pictures of the vehi-
cles as well as three more
with expired plates within one mile.
On November 13, I took the pic-
tures to the police station and report-
ed the violations again.
It’s November 21 and not one
vehicle has been marked, tagged or
towed. (The Honda was gone by Jan-
uary 13.)
A stop sign and utility boxes were
tagged at Noren/Keizer Road on or
about Oct. 1. Keizer’s Public Works
Department fi xed the sign immedi-
ately, yet the utility boxes have not
been addressed. Some 60 feet of fence
on Noren at the south end of Ken-
nedy’s playground is still unaddressed.
I expect the City to do what it says
it will do.
Dave LeDoux
Keizer
our
opinion
lottors
To the Editor:
Keizer has some rules to
keep our neighborhoods
livable: seventy-two hour
parking limits on streets, prompt graf-
fi ti remediation, house maintenance,
vision clearance at intersections, veg-
etation heights over roads and walk-
ways, to name a few.
On November 2, I spoke to a fe-
male offi cer on Allendale Way while
we looked at four vehicles illegally
parked. All had been there at least 30
days. The Harley had no plate and the
clutch lever has been stolen. The Ford
Escape had plates that expired January,
2017. The Ford van in front of that
never moves. The Honda in front of
that had no plate, tags or temporary.
I told her about an abandoned Jim-
my with expired plates two blocks
further down the street. I told her of
a black pickup with no engine and
expired plates across the street from
that. She indicated she was aware of
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By L. BRENT BOZELL III and
TIM GRAHAM
Congressman-elect Dan Cren-
shaw of Texas fi rst came to national
attention when his looks—espe-
cially the patch over his eye that he
lost serving in Afghanistan—were
mocked on Saturday
Night Live. The NBC
show amended its rude-
ness by putting him on
the show the next week
and allowing him to
make an earnest pitch to
Americans to “never for-
get” the sacrifi ces veter-
ans make.
On Nov. 18, Crenshaw appeared
with three other House freshmen
on CBS’ Face the Nation.”The other
three were all Democrats. He sug-
gested the public image of Congress
could be improved if the tone of
the debate were to improve. “Let’s
not attack each other’s intent,” he
said. “Let’s not ... attack each oth-
er as a person. Let’s attack ideas. All
right. We can debate ideas. We can
disagree on ideas all day long.”
That’s not an easy standard in
politics. Politicians know that voters
say they don’t like negative attacks,
but they also know voters are more
likely to believe negative attacks
than positive presentations. What
made Crenshaw’s approach stand
out was his challenging the idea
that freedom of the press is under
attack.
Rep.-elect Joe Neguse, D-Colo.,
claimed that under President Trump,
“our democratic freedoms” are un-
der attack. Crenshaw demanded
specifi cs and said: “Democracy is
at work. People are voting in ... re-
cord numbers.” Neguse responded,
“the undermining of the free press.”
He cited CNN having
to go to court to fi ght
correspondent Jim Acos-
ta’s suspended press pass.
Crenshaw noted that was
one reporter, not the en-
tire network, and that he
was “highly disruptive.”
Rep.-elect
Chrissy
Houlahan, D-Pa., then
jumped in. “I would argue that our
president is consistently disruptive
in those very same press confer-
ences. And I would argue that he
treats them with disrespect,” she
said. Crenshaw challenged that, ask-
ing, “how is that an attack on the
press, though?” Houlihan replied,
“it’s literally an attack on the press.”
Crenshaw shot back: “Oh, I’ve lit-
erally been attacked. ... let’s choose
our words carefully.”
This underlines that our met-
aphors can be far too overdrama-
tized, especially in emotional reac-
tion to Trump’s ridicule. Houlihan
continued: “his language is an at-
tack in those spaces.” So Crenshaw
asked, “why is he not allowed to use
his own language and freedom of
speech?”
This is a terrifi c question. Appar-
ently, it’s against freedom of speech
othor
voicos
to attack the press as a bunch of par-
tisans who sometimes put out “fake
news.” The media would like to re-
write the First Amendment and in-
sert the commandment “Thou shalt
not question the motives or profes-
sionalism of journalists.” They have
the thinnest skins in Washington.
Houlihan insisted that the presi-
dent should lead by example. Cren-
shaw said that it’s fi ne to question
the president’s style, and that he dis-
likes the term “enemy of the peo-
ple” to describe the press corps.
But if the Democrats and the
press think it’s important to lead
by example, is Jim Acosta leading
by example? Are they proud of his
style? It seems obvious they feel
strongly that someone really needs
to lecture the president like he’s got
the intelligence of a tomato. They
aren’t telling Acosta he’s setting a
bad example for the children.
Those on the left have been
ranting for years now that the press
can’t allow Trump to be “normal-
ized”—in other words, the media
must always behave as if an elec-
tion-stealing dictator is sitting in
the White House. For the left, there
is no universal morality. There are
the idealistic leftists who must be
celebrated, and there are the Cyn-
ical, Lying Bad Guys who must be
destroyed. Dan Crenshaw exposed
how much civility is limited when
it comes to conservatives.
(Croator Syndicato)
Green Bay sets good example
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Eric A. Howald
oditor@koizortimos.com
Liberal panic on press freedom
twittor.com/koizortimos
A mere few decades ago in Ore-
gon, those born here enjoyed a state
in which the wealthy didn’t rule
over much of anything and seldom
were known to order public offi cials
around. Then, too, young bucks still
had a chance to make
their mark even if they
did not come from a
family with riches that
got that way by under-
paying their workers and
indulging themselves to
live, as now they often
do, like potentates.
The other day a col-
umnist in our time wrote a rather
lengthy column about the guy who
was as wealthy as any American can
get and had used some of his wealth
to own and control an NBA fran-
chise, the Portland Trail Blazers. As
anyone who’s taken notice of the
lives of the rich and famous, Paul Al-
len, co-founder of Microsoft, passed
away a few weeks ago.
We’re told that Allen’s last will and
testimony seeks to sell his assets, in-
cluding the Blazers, and give what’s
acquired in amounts of millions
upon millions of dollars to charitable
causes. Well, good
for Allen who, with
one surviving sister,
and a man who nev-
er married and also
had no children, my
hat is tipped with
great respect to him
as one who will not
make a few relatives
rich enough to do
nothing except or-
der other Ameri-
cans around.
Then a thought
occurred to me, rel-
ative to many Ore-
gonians I’ve known
from birth—they
loved and continue
to love our state and
our nation and de-
sire a return, even in
some small measure,
to those times when hardly any citi-
zen of our state was fi lthy rich. How-
ever, if there were, back when, even a
few enjoying fi nancial good fortune,
they didn’t impose their will on ev-
eryone else by taking control of the
state’s institutions and
Capitol occupants.
Ah, hah! The Green
Bay Packers of Green
Bay, Wisconsin come to
mind. Here’s the factual
scoop on the Packers.
The Green Bay Packers
Board of Directors is the
organization that serves
as the owner of record of the Na-
tional Football League’s team. The
Packers have been a publicly-owned,
non-profi t corporation since 1923.
Their management structure is
unlike anything else in American
professional sports.
Instead, the
Packers are publicly-traded with a
total of 112,158 shareholders own-
ing 4,750,937 shares in GBP Incor-
porated.
So, instead of letting the Port-
land Trail Blazers be bought by the
likes of the Paulson family, Merritt
owning the Portland Timbers, or the
gono
h.
mcintyro
Knight family, Phil apparently “own-
ing” the UO Ducks, the people of
Oregon, and anyone else willing to
put a few dollars into a collective
kitty, being able to claim ownership
in a professional sports team. As a
result, we, collectively, could take a
big step in the direction of common
folks owning what they’re cheering
for and spending great gobs of mon-
ey to see and, in that way, helping
rich guys and their families build
more homes overseas and buy Ivy
League university educations for
their offspring.
What say you fellow serfs? Is it
not time to claim by joint owner-
ship what could be ours and avoid
another fate like that of the Seattle
Super Sonics, now the Oklahoma
City Thunder. Many an Oregon
youth and young adult views small-
er futures save servitude because
things are more and more often in
the exclusive hands of wealthy indi-
viduals and corporations: ownership
in something like a local team could
enthuse more buy-in among them.
(Gono H. McIntyro sharos his
opinion froquontly in tho Koizor-
timos.)