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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2018)
DECEMBER 21, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 Opinion Keizer should join bag ban The City of Keizer tends to fol- low the direction of its municipal neighbors. When an issue arises in our city the council invariably asks “What are other cities doing?” We think the Keizer city coun- cil should follow other cities on the issue of plastic shopping bags. Ban them. First consider the billions upon billions of plastic bags that have been used and disposed of, usually into landfi lls. Now consider how many plastic bags the average Keizer house- hold uses. Once at home, some of those bags serve double duty as garbage liners. But generally ,many are mistakenly put into the recycling bin (they should go into a garbage can because they clog up equipment at recycling centers). There are those who opt for reus- able shopping bags. Economically, plastic bags are much cheaper to manufacture than the old-style paper bags. That’s why every grocer and most retailers utilize them. Our landfi lls and our oceans cannot continue to be the dump for billions of bags around the world. Some reasons people might cite for not ban- ning plastic bags include: personal freedom, too much governmental in- terference, let the mar- ket decide the issue, too costly for the public and retailers going without. Society cannot continue to kick solvable problems down the road for the next generation to address. When humanity has the chance to do what is right for the environ- ment we should not hesitate to act today. Keizer should join Salem, Por- talnd and Corvallis in banning our opinion plastic shopping bags. Consumers would have to purchase reusable shopping bags and remember to take them to the store. A ban of plastic shopping bags is not an ideological or economic issue, it is a conservative issue, period. Every- one is a steward of the globe we inhabit and thus we need to do what is necessary to care for our fragile environment. Our municipal neighbors have led the brave campaign to rid their cities of plastic bags—Keizer fol- lows its neighbors, let’s follow them on this issue. Debating this issue should com- mence, but in the end wouldn’t everyone like to say they helped make their home a little neater and a little healthier? It’s time now for the city staff and the city council to do their part. —LAZ Make them sober holidays Everyone makes mistakes. Get- ting behind the wheel of a vehicle after drinking is not a mistake, it is the willful disregard for the law and for social norms. During the holiday season, in- cidents of drunk driving spike. People fi nd themselves at offi ce parties or other celebrations, drink too much and decide they are fi ne to get home. Many times they are not fi ne and if stopped would fi nd their blood alcohol level past the legal limit. All law enforcement organiza- tions will be on high alert for im- paired driving this holiday season, as they should be. We, and hope- fully everyone, has a very low tol- erance for those who drink and then drive. The message has been sent millions of times over the de- cades on the dangers of driving af- ter drinking—the costs of getting stopped and arrested, not only in fi nes, but also increased insurance rates. Employers do not look kind- ly on their employees who miss work due to a DUII. We don’t accept the excuse of “I made a mistake.” We all know what alcohol and other stimulents do. We don’t accept the excuse of “I had a drink while on medication.” If one is on medication one should not drink—no holiday celebration is worth tossing one’s dignity out the window. There are rules about drinking that are easy to follow: assign a des- ignated driver, don’t drink to ex- cess, and do not drive after drink- ing. Drinking and driving is not a mistake—it is a crime that should be punished to the full extent of the law, fi rst offense or not. — LAZ From your table to their farm By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS Forget all the tongue clucking about Washington being so divided and nasty that Democrats and Repub- licans cannot work together. As the Senate and House proved this week in passing the $867 billion farm bill, when it comes to spending money they don’t have, party leaders really can reach across the aisle. With the national fed- eral debt approaching $22 trillion, President Donald Trump has praised the bill, which provides food stamps for the poor, but also hands out subsidies to American farmers, even though it does not include needed reforms or even mod- est spending cuts. Conservative think tanks dismiss the farm subsidies as corporate wel- fare. On the left, environmentalist groups have opposed them as well. Fiscal hawks are appalled at the failure of Congress to do anything to ease the defi cit. And yet the farm bill lives. Chris Edwards of the libertari- an-leaning Cato Institute has written that federal farm subsidies “redistrib- ute wealth upward,” with the bulk of the money going “to the largest and wealthiest farm households.” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the rare farmer in the Senate, was among the rump of Republicans to vote against the bill. Grassley explained that he could not support a measure that would not limit subsidies to the wealthiest farms— which he says puts young and beginning farmers at a disadvantage. “I know it’s hard to be- lieve, but I’ve never heard a single young or beginning farmer tell me that the way to help them is to give more money to the largest farmers,” Grassley offered in a statement. Grassley also voiced horror at pro- visions to expand the defi nition of farm families to include cousins, niec- es and nephews, even if they don’t work on a farm. The bill, he charged, seems “intentionally written to help the largest farmers receive unlimited subsidies from the federal govern- other voices KEIZERTIMES.COM Web Poll Results Is Die Hard (1988) a Christmas movie? Yes: 59% No: 41% Vote in a new poll every Thursday! GO TO KEIZERTIMES.COM ment.” Grassley wanted farm subsidy reform. House Republicans, on the other hand, held up the farm bill in a push to mandate work re- quirements for some Supplemen- tal Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. To Edwards it seems wrong that the GOP House de- manded work requirements for the poor, but not “wealthy farmers or landowners.” Then once House Republicans gave up on that issue, Democrats apparently were hungry to pass a bill that would deliver on SNAP. Be it noted that farm subsidies account for some 20 percent of the farm bill’s spending, while 80 per- cent goes to SNAP, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Environmental Working Group’s Scott Faber has been a longtime critic of farm subsidies. On Wednesday, however, Faber praised the measure’s drinking wa- ter reforms and provisions to pro- mote organic farming. The next day he released a state- ment that lit into the farm subsidies for “millionaires and city slickers.” Marc Goldwein of the Com- mittee for a Responsible Feder- al Budget told the Las Vegas Re- view-Journal that there is a lot to like in the 2018 farm bill and farm bills in general. Nonetheless, it is hard for Goldwein to fathom why the GOP-controlled Congress failed to fi nd at least $1 billion annual- ly in savings in a measure that has been a perennial target of the right. Federal discretionary spending has spiked by 16 percent over the last two years—and the farm bill offers “low-hanging fruit” ripe for fi scal discipline. But in the two years of GOP control over the White House, Senate and House, there has been no zeal to budget responsibly. House Republicans offered a bill with work requirements, but no savings, said Goldwein. Senate Re- publicans offered a bill with no work requirements and no savings. And Trump has signaled his readi- ness to sign a bill with no savings. Edwards sees “classic logroll- ing” at work. The marriage of food stamps and farm subsidies created common cause for urban Demo- crats and rural Republicans. Now funds for organic farming and sup- port for industrial hemp mean law- makers feel no need to economize. The worst part, to my mind, is this: House Republicans always were going to cave on the work requirements, but they might have been able to hold out for savings. Goldwein fi gured cutting $25 bil- lion to $50 billion would not be a heavy lift. But these Republicans cannot be bothered because they no longer care about the defi cit. (Creators Syndicate) and death. He was rumored to have By LAUREN MURPHY magical powers and fl y through the Keizertimes intern Santa’s Naughty or Nice list has air on a grey eight - legged horse and, been a tool for parents for years. Ev- sometimes, he wore a red cloak. That sounds like Santa, but where ery Christmas some relative will ask, “Have you been nice this year?” and did his list come from? Other peo- deep inside, no matter what our age ple believed that Wodan (a variation of Odin) fl ew is, we really want to through the air on say yes; but, where a white horse and did that list come was accompanied from anyway? by two black ravens. Nordic reli- The ravens names gion has changed were Huginn and a lot over the years Muninn and they ,but it was widely would listen to practiced in what people through is now known as their chimneys and northern Germa- report their good ny or Denmark and bad behavior. for several hundred After Yule, the years. The religion Norse goddess had many different Freya would spend aspects to it. There 12 days going were multiple gods, around to the peo- mythical beings ple in the land. She and wars between different tribes. A portrait of Odin – titled Odin gave gifts to the Before Christ- the Wanderer – by Georg von good and misery to the corrupt. She mas was celebrat- Rosen from 1886. traveled in a chari- ed in Europe, the ot pulled by horses. Germanic people So, in 280 A.D. , when Santa start- celebrated a holiday called “yule.” They would wear furs and a beard ed to do his thing, he looked to the and go to people’s houses pretend- other legends who came before him. ing to be “Old Man Winter” or more Combining aspects of the horse- commonly known as Odin. They be- drawn transportation, giving gifts, vis- lieved in Odin was king of the Æsir iting homes, and of course the naugh- tribe. He was the god of several things ty and nice list. including, wisdom, healing, royalty What do you get when you make a vampire snowman? Frostbite crossword 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 SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon
