PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 25, 2019
Opinion
First Citizen and other
winners exemplify motto
Pride. Spirit. Volunteerism. Three
powerful words. Three words that
grace the fountain at Newton-Mc-
Gee Plaza at the corner of River and
Chemawa Roads in downtown Keiz-
er. Three words that are, also, the mot-
to of the city of Keizer.
Those three words also
exemplify the winners of
the annual awards present-
ed by the Keizer Chamber
of Commerce at the First
Citizens and Awards Ban-
quet held Saturday, Jan. 19.
The Chamber (and its
predecessor, Keizer Mer-
chants Association) have
been honoring Keizerites since the
1960s. The list of Keizer Citizen re-
cipients is a Who’s Who of the city’s
leaders in business, community and
philanthropy.
Vickie Jackson, who’s community
resume includes two terms as presi-
dent of the Rotary Club of Keizer,
volunteer bookkeeper for PTAs and
the McNary High School gradua-
tion party as well as her work with
Keizer’s Distinguished Young Wom-
en program and her untold hours of
volunteerism with various schools as
her two sons made their way through
elementary, middle and high school.
The announcement of Vickie
Jackson as winner of the First Citizen
award was met with a sustained stand-
ing ovation from the 200 attendees at
Saturday’s banquet.
Jackson thanked her husband,
Randy Jackson, and sons Nick and
Cody, for allowing her to spend time
away to volunteer. She said that she
received more than she gave through
her volunteering.
Vickie Jackson is proud of the
town she calls home, she does good
work with enthusiasm and she volun-
teers just about anytime anyone asks.
Kyle Juran, owner of Remodeling
by Classic Homes, was announced as
merchant of the year for his work for
the community and the Chamber it-
self.
Juran and his team contributed
more than $3,000 of the $13,000
raised at 2018’s Percey Presents event
that funds Keizer Network of Wom-
en’s Christmas Giving Basket pro-
gram. That $3,000 came when Juran
raffl ed off a life-size playhouse. All
the proceeds from the
raffl e benefi t, in the
end, families and chil-
dren in need during the
holidays. Juran used his
expertise and talents to
help the Chamber pre-
pare and move into its
new quarters on Riv-
er Road. Like all good
Keizer volunteers, Kyle Juran never
says no when asked to help his com-
munity.
Keizer native Brian Aicher was
surprised when he was announced
as the winner of the Service to Ed-
ucation Award. Like the past few
education winners, the focus was
on youth sports and its effect on the
development of our kids. Aicher, a
Salem Electric employee and a long-
time mentor, has coached hundreds
of Keizer kids. Whether his time was
spent coaching, administering or lift-
ing a hammer or shovel, Aicher has
lived the city’s pride, spirit and volun-
teerism motto to his core.
Each year the Chamber’s leader
chooses a recipient for the President’s
Award. Bob Shackleford named long-
time KeizerFEST and Keizer Iris Fes-
tival volunteer Larry Schmidgall for
the honor.
Anyone who visited the Keizer-
FEST tent has seen Larry Schmidgall,
who, with his connections oversaw
the beverage sales in the tent during
the festival for years. He was pressed
into service to do other chores during
the festival, always with a smile.
Congratulations to all four hon-
orees, who have given selfl essly and
with a smile. Models for all volun-
teers.
— LAZ
our
opinion
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Results
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on National Day of Service on
Monday, Jan. 21, to mark Martin
Luther King Jr.’s birthday?
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Yes: 16%
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Parties must feel heat to end shutdown
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
The partial government shutdown
will end when both sides think they
are losing the political war that start-
ed it—and not before then.
Yes it can end if one side caves, or
if President Donald Trump declares a
national emergency to fund a border
wall, but that is not likely to happen
within the next pay pe-
riod or two, if at all.
Partisan rancor has
herded voters into two
corners so that both the
Republican and Demo-
cratic bases don’t want
their leaders to cut a
deal.
Republicans support a shutdown
that JP Morgan CEO Jamie Di-
mon warned could drive economic
growth to zero if it continues. They
only want to end it if they win fund-
ing for a wall.
Democrats also don’t want to end
a stalemate that is separating 800,000
federal workers from their paychecks.
Having funded border barriers in
the past, Democratic leaders now
say funding for Trump’s wall is a deal
killer.
Party leaders’ energy is going to-
ward making the other side look bad,
not ending the stalemate.
Trump has pulled back on what
his own negotiators had thought
were good faith offers; his unreliabil-
ity inhibits Republicans and Demo-
crats from sticking their necks out for
a measure that easily could fail.
Already burned, Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell says he
won’t bring a measure to a fl oor vote
unless Trump commits to it.
No worries. Trump supporters say
his behavior shows he is no creature
of the swamp. Only insiders care if
the president is short-sheeting his
own team. At least Trump is willing
to stand by a campaign promise, the
Trump voter argues.
As the sage Henry Olsen of the
Ethics and Public Policy Council put
it, Trump is “showing that he can re-
sist political pressure.” The shutdown
has changed nothing.
“The people that are with him
are with him,” quoth Olsen.
“The people that are against
him are against him.”
In a play to differentiate
themselves, House Demo-
crats engage in the charade
of passing spending mea-
sures that have zero chance
of being enacted to demon-
strate that they at least are willing to
do something. When they get tired
of that ploy, they go to the Senate to
demand McConnell put unpassable
bills to a fl oor vote.
So yes, they are willing to do
something—stunts.
Another stunt: Speaker Nancy Pe-
losi’s letter effectively telling Trump
not to bother delivering a State of
the Union address in the Capitol on
Jan. 29 because of security concerns
for a “national special security event”
during a government shutdown. It
helps if you forget she invited Trump
after the shutdown began.
The Democratic base approved
Pelosi’s move as fervently as Trump’s
voters cheered when he yanked the
military plane that was supposed to
take Pelosi and fellow Democrats to
Brussels and Afghanistan.
Pelosi’s claim that she always has
been a supporter of “securing our
border” defi es credulity. Pelosi also
has called a border wall “an immo-
rality. It’s not who we are as a nation.”
Fox News anchor Bret Bai-
er pressed House Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer to say if he shared Pelo-
other
voices
si’s view on the wall’s morality or the
claim by former Congressman Beto
O’Rourke of Texas, that a border
wall is “racist.”
Hoyer, the poor guy, hemmed and
hawed about walls being immor-
al when they keep people prisoner
when they shouldn’t be prisoners.
The problem, as Trump put it
when he addressed the Pentagon
Thursday, is the Democratic Party
“has been hijacked by the open-bor-
ders fringe within the party.”
What will it take to end the shut-
down?
Roll Call taped a town hall given
by Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., as
he addressed a room that included
furloughed federal workers under-
standably fearful about how they can
survive without paychecks.
“What exactly do you want folks
to do out here?” a young woman
asked him. “Should we be pressuring
Sen. McConnell? What do we need
to be doing to get things resolved?”
She meant well, but when federal
workers direct their ire at Repub-
licans and not Democrats, they be-
come unwitting enablers.
Fun fact: McConnell doesn’t care
if federal workers in Maryland send
him nasty emails. He cares about
the core values of his constituents
in Kentucky, where 62.5 percent of
voters supported Trump.
Likewise Pelosi listens to her San
Francisco homies, not the “Make
America Great Again” voter.
Voters who want to see an end
to the shutdown have one recourse:
They can turn the heat on their own
party. When progressives lean on Pe-
losi and conservatives lean on Trump
and GOP lawmakers, the shutdown
will end.
(Creators Syndicate)
Hopeful even while being in minority
way the idea is going out
The 80th legislative
from both sides of the
session has begun! After
building. Both bills have
a week of orientation,
broad bi-partisan support.
training and opening cer-
• HB 2302 would pro-
emonies, we now begin
vide “guaranteed assis-
the actual work of legisla-
tance” to those who are
tion. That means commit-
the most needy in Ore-
tees meet, bills are heard
gon. It would be a small
and debated, and House
investment in covering
and Senate fl oor voting
those things that current
sessions begin.
from the public assistance doesn’t
First of all, I thought I
cover, i.e., diapers and
would highlight some of
capitol
other day-to-day necessi-
the legislation I am work-
ties.
ing on. Always remem-
By BILL POST
• HB 2299 address-
ber, you can fi nd all bills,
es those who attempt to
all committees and live/
elude police and cause
recorded video of every-
thing we do in the Capitol on the high speed chases endangering our
OLIS site: https://olis.leg.state.or.us/ law enforcement as well as anyone else
liz/2019R1/. It’s a tremendous tool on the road.
• HB 2300 addresses those who try
for tracking all that goes on here. The
to harass others by sending nude pho-
bills I introduced are:
• HB 2297 which would be a re- tos by text or social media.
• HB 2295 would look at youth in
ferral to the voters to have Oregon
join with other west coast states to go corrections who may have “earned” a
to permanent daylight savings time. review of their sentence.
• HB 2314 tackles a long time is-
There is real consensus to move for-
ward with this and Sen. Kim Thatch- sue for motorcyclists called “lane split-
er has a similar bill in the Senate, that ting/sharing, allowing motorcycles to
“split” a lane in very specifi c traffi c
situations.
Finally, after so many people
reached out to me after the 2017 ses-
sion, telling me their stories of buying
Sudafed products in the states around
us, I am running HB 2303 the “Su-
dafed bill” again. This would not re-
turn us to the days of “over the count-
er” but have us join the vast majority
of America in making these products
behind the counter and the purchas-
er having to show a picture ID, sign
a form, be logged into a system and
then get a small amount of the prod-
uct. Over 40 states use the system that
is proposed in HB 2303. Oregon cur-
rently requires you to visit a doctor
and have them prescribe the product
at a much higher price than it would
be behind the counter. I hope you’ll
come to visit your Capitol this session
and participate in the political process.
Please call my offi ce with questions or
concerns at 503-986-1425.
(Bill Post represents House Dis-
trict 25. He can be reached at 503-
986-1425 or via email at rep. bil-
post@ oregonlegislature.gov.)
Seven things I’ve learned about education
By CHIP CONRAD
After my fi rst year of teaching here
are the things I have learned about
public education:
1.) I didn’t know
teachers had so much
freedom to customize
their curriculum. Each
course has fi ve to 10
different theories that a
student must learn by the
end of the semester. How
you get there and what
else your students learn
along the way is essentially left up to
the educator.
2.) The students are not as addicted
to their phones as you might think. I
don’t have issues with phones in my
classroom yet I have no posted or
known cell phone policy. I see it as a
barometer for my level of engagement.
The more I keep them engaged the
less they are on their phones. If I start
seeing phones come out I know I need
to ramp up the wow of the lesson.
3.) As a teacher you don’t talk to
other teachers very much. Teaching
can be a very solitary job if you let
it. I got lucky and the teacher in the
room next to me is a veteran in the
education world and is very fun to be
around. We chat often.
4.) Teaching seems like a repeti-
tious job but it’s not. As it turns out
teaching is a very dynamic voyage. Yes,
I get up every day at 5:30 a.m. and I
get back from school every day around
4:30 p.m., but I found the hours in
between are highly unpredictable. You
never know what the day is going to
hold, except that it will be different
than the day before. In addition to its
unpredictability is the pace. The pace
that a teacher must work to stay ahead
of the tidal wave of responsibilities is
incredible. Yes, I look at the
clock a lot but it’s never be-
cause I’m hoping it’ll move
faster; quite the opposite.
5.) There’s a large fo-
cus on the teacher from
the school administration.
I’ve never seen an indus-
try where administration is
worried so much about the
worker. I’m constantly be-
ing asked how I’m doing. I am almost
inundated with personal development
events and opportunities to rejuvenate.
6.) Teachers get very possessive of
their students. I’ve become so posses-
sive of my students that if by chance
I need a sub for one of my absences
the sub has specifi c instructions not to
instruct. My classroom is set up that
if I’m not there student leaders will
lead their group through the curricu-
lum. This
is how I
make sure
they do
not fall
behind
when I’m
not there.
But seri-
ously…
Don’t in-
struct my
students.
7.) As
a teacher,
teach-
ing
is
not your
guest
column
fi rst priority. I went into this career
with the mantra that “my goal is not
to teach. It’s to connect and then to
teach.” I thought this was a novel ap-
proach to education but it is most—if
not all—educators’ mantra. Connect-
ing with the student requires you to
actually care about the student and
where they’re at in life. You’re con-
stantly asking yourself “What was
the student’s morning like? What’s
going on with their relationships?
How are they feeling? Where is this
person’s anxiety level? What are they
going home to after school?.” I think
as adults we can forget how stressful
the high school years are. Anytime you
enter a new arena you are presented
with the unexpected. Your hope is that
these issues are mostly positive. In my
case the good, by far, outlays the nega-
tive. Lucky me!
(Chip Conrad lives in Salem and
is a substitute teacher with the Sa-
lem-Keizer School District.)