MARCH 8, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
UGB: What do the farmers say?
The desire to expand Keizer’s Ur-
ban Growth Boundary (UGB) has
captured the imagination of civic
leaders and developers alike. Setting
aside questions of the cost of infra-
structure needed to turn land north
of Keizer into residential neighbor-
hoods or industrial/offi ce
parks, who is speaking for
Marion County’s rich ag-
ricultural land?
Some of the richest
land is on the north bor-
der of Keizer and includes
most of the land that
would be considered for
future development.
A major reason for Or-
egon’s precedent-setting land use law
was to protect farmlands from urban
sprawl, it birthed the Urban Growth
Boundaries in the state. Will land
owners fi ght to keep their agricultur-
al lands out of the hands of develop-
ment and citifi cation?
The old saying, ‘buy land, they’re
not making any more of it,’ is never
more true than when talking about
farmland. Some say Marion County
agricultural land is the most produc-
tive of any in the world. Though most
of us here in Keizer are not farmers
we benefi t from our local farmland.
Those acres are a buffer from en-
croachng urban sprawl from the Port-
land metropolitan area. Those acres
provide jobs and the farms are gener-
ous in donating needed food for our
food banks. Farms carry on the tradi-
tion and heritage that dates to the fi rst
settlers in this area back in the 1850s.
A drive north and west of our area
allows a motorist to pass thousands of
acres of productive land here in Mar-
ion County as well as the counties
Clackamas, Polk and
Yamhill. It is a shame to
think that our insatiable
appetite for developable
land might one day turn
much of that land into
city.
That is why it is im-
portant for those on
various task forces and
committees considering
the future growth of Keizer. To acco-
modate expected population growth
the fi rst option to consider is to build
up rather than out.
The way people live now will
match mixed used developments that
take up small footprints but reach for
the sky, up to fi ve fl oors.
That will protect vital farmland, if
the current owners want to protect it.
We think it is important to hear from
those whose livelihoods could be
challenged by a UGB expansion.
Though the lure of big payouts by
developers is enticing, we hope that
the tradition of farming wins out over
money. They are not making any
more land. Let’s be sure we are using
ours wisely.
—LAZ
our
opinion
Tap brakes on legislative agenda
History has taught that one par-
ty rule rarely works out well for the
governed. Books are fi lled with stories
about societies that have suffered un-
der rule by one party or ideology.
However, that fl ies in the face of
the adage, “To the victor go the spoils.”
The Democrats control Oregon’s
governorship and they have superma-
jorities in both houses of the legisla-
ture. Elections have consequences for
someone. You certainly can’t satisfy all
the people.
The current state legislature is tak-
ing on some big issues that will end
up costing lots of Oregonians lots of
money, including businesses of every
size.
On the so-called Cap and Trade
bill, cooler heads prevailed and a lis-
tening tour was undertaken through-
out the state. The traveling legislators
got an earful, which made some of
them pause. They heard, especial-
ly from farmers, how the legislation
would drive up fuel costs. The bill’s
intent is good, we can’t let more time
go by without talking about clean en-
ergy and cleaning our environment.
Yet, some of the proposed solutions
will harm the economic life of many
businesses.
Doing nothing is not an option in
the 21st century, a solution must be
found that is not so anti-business.
A gross receipts tax is raising its
head again in 2019. Anytime the word
‘tax’ is used, everyone gets up in arms,
as if the sky was falling
A gross receipts tax is now being
touted as one form of funding for
Gov. Kate Brown’s additional $2 bil-
lion investment in education. Who is
going to say no to additional mon-
ey for our children’s schooling? Not
many, but a lot want to do it without
taxing Oregon business even more.
The spoils may go to the victors
but what goes around comes around.
The Democrats could fi nd themselves
in a legislative superminority some-
time in the future. When one party
overreaches to attain its goals, it leaves
a sour taste for the opposition, an op-
position that waits for the opportunity
to turn the tables.
Politics is the art of the possible but
it is primarly the art of compromise.
Just because your party can pass any
legislation it wants, it doesn’t mean it
should. Regardless from what county
a legislator is elected, Representatives
and Senators should do what is fair
and right for Oregonians.
What incredible powers of leader-
ship and vision would it take for those
in the majority to look at ways to re-
duce some items in the state budget
to pay for the things that most citizens
want: a fully funded education system
from top to bottom. Is there any will
to take a scalpel to billions of dollars in
the current budget?
Build a better mousetrap and the
world will beat a path to your door.
Propose a state budget that funds
what’s most important to the people
without raising taxes and you will win
every time.
—LAZ
No grand case against Trump shown
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
At one point during his hours
of testimony before the
House Committee on
Oversight and Reform
Wednesday, President
Donald Trump’s former
personal attorney and
“fi xer” Michael Cohen
was asked what “break-
ing point” prompted
him to split with Trump.
“There were several factors,”
Cohen responded. “Helsinki”—a
reference to Trump’s summit with
Russian President Vladimir Putin
last year—“Charlottesville”—think
Trump’s racially insensitive decision
to blame “many sides” for the death
of an activist protesting white na-
tionalism—and “watching the daily
destruction of our civility to one
another.”
Many House Democrats clearly
wanted to believe that Trump’s one-
time tough-guy enforcer had found
enlightenment, but their desire to
take Cohen’s side did them no credit.
The more likely breaking point
came on April 9, 2018, when FBI
agents raided Cohen’s home, offi ce
and New York hotel room. Cohen
was facing 65 years in prison as pros-
ecutors dangled felony counts that
included charges of tax evasion and
lying to Congress.
By cutting a plea deal, Cohen re-
duced his prison time to three years.
Cohen admitted to the commit-
tee that he will try to get that sen-
tence reduced further. So, the worst
he can expect from Wednesday’s
performance is that if he serves the
whole 36 months, he can walk out
of prison a hero for gullible Dem-
ocrats.
Republicans have no such hero
right now. All but the die-hard base
know Trump’s warts too
well.
Former New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie, who en-
dorsed Trump for president
when he dropped out of
the GOP primary in 2016,
noted the problem when
he told ABC News, “There
hasn’t been one Republican yet
who’s tried to defend the president
on the substance.”
“Where is the defense of the pres-
ident?” Christie asked.
But really, what robust defense
can there possibly be other than of-
fense?
There is no grand defense for
Trump. You can say only that there is
no grand case against him.
The two campaign contribution
violations to which Cohen pleaded
guilty are dicey at best. They were
the fi rst criminal charges brought
by Special Counsel Robert Mueller
that involved the 2016 Trump cam-
paign, but by a dubious route.
Because Cohen paid off porn
actress Stormy Daniels and former
Playboy Bunny Karen McDougal to
keep them from talking about their
alleged affairs during the Trump
campaign, the feds argued, that made
the hush money illegal campaign
donations.
Problem: A jury wouldn’t convict
former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.,
after a big donor paid to cover up
an affair Edwards had with an aide
that produced a child. It’s hard to see
the illegality in Cohen paying hush
money with his own money and
Trump reimbursing him.
Still, there’s no place for a gung-
othor
voicos
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(Croators Syndicato)
The ‘isms’ that defi ne U.S. history
Americans enjoy debates. The fi rst
debate of consequence was whether
the thirteen colonies, after the Rev-
olutionary War, should come togeth-
er as a whole or remain
divided into 13 separate
nations. The “ism” un-
der debate was federalism,
defi ned as a system based
on democratic rules and
institutions in which the
power to govern is shared
between national and
state governments.
The matter was ulti-
mately settled by the creation of the
Constitution and Bill of Rights. How-
ever, “settled” endured only through a
shaky 70 years whereupon the states of
the union in the South decided to go
their own way through a confederacy
where human slavery, upon a victory
of those states over the others, would
continue. After the North won, the
Constitution again ruled supreme.
Meanwhile, enhanced and prac-
ticed by the Industrial Revolution,
mainly after the Civil War, capitalism
took a fi rm hold on the way Amer-
icans got things done. Capitalism is
an economic and political system
in which a nation’s trade and indus-
try are controlled by private owners
for profi t rather than by the state. It
worked well enough for a few Amer-
ican families with titular heads to take
over exclusive control of business and
industry while both white and dark-
skinned folks fell into roles of servi-
tude where men, women and children
lived mostly in poverty. Thus, a few
wealthy families lived like the royalty
of old Europe.
With the appearance of change-
agent leaders like President Theodore
Roosevelt and the rise of labor unions
in the U.S, there developed a great hue
and cry among the American citizenry
to bring control over those leaders of
business and industry who practiced
virtual monopolies in their respective
areas and chose to keep all the riches
for themselves. These developments
led to fi nancial relief for
the American worker that
endured, for argument’s
sake, until some time in
the 1980s when we be-
gan a reversal back to the
gross inequalities of the
1880s that now disunite
us.
Overseas, for the most
part in Europe, there
were armed revolutions ending na-
tions ruled for centuries by royal fam-
ilies. These revolutions were sped up
during and after World War I. One
political theory was led by a German,
Karl Marx, and known as commu-
nism. It advocates class war leading to
a society where all property is pub-
licly owned and each person is paid
according to ability and need. So-
cialism mainly sprung from the 1789
French Revolution. It is a political
and economic theory where produc-
gono
mcintyro
Keizertimes
ho defense. Trump denies having
been involved with Daniels and Mc-
Dougal, yet even his die-hard base
doesn’t believe it. The affairs and
payoffs do not speak well of his judg-
ment. So really, who can get out-
raged because Cohen called Trump
a “conman” and a “cheat”?
Cohen also called Trump a rac-
ist—an angle picked up by Rep.
Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who com-
plained that Department of Hous-
ing and Urban Development offi cial
Lynne Patton attended the hearing
as a guest of Rep. Mark Meadows,
R-N.C., as a “prop,” she said, which
is “racist in itself.”
You see, Patton is black, and it’s
perfectly fi ne for Democrats to call
African-Americans props, as if they
are unable to act on their own, be-
cause black Americans cannot pos-
sibly be thinking for themselves if
they lean to the right. In another
universe, people would call Tlaib’s
charge racist.
Democrats pretty much have
abandoned their quest to prove
Trump’s campaign colluded with
Russia. They did make it clear that
Trump’s choice of associates has
room for improvement.
And for that—a hearing that pro-
vided the same meager revelations as
the Republican hearings of the pre-
vious two years—Democrats sched-
uled an event tailor-made to distract
Trump as he was in Hanoi trying
to ply denuclearization concessions
from North Korean leader Kim Jong
Un.
Trump walked away from a bad
deal with the hermit kingdom, but
American voters are stuck at the ta-
ble.
tion, distribution and exchange of all
things are owned and regulated by the
community as a whole. Fascism has
attracted some Americans. It’s a dicta-
torial form of government that rejects
democracy, socialism and capitalism
with one person in power.
An “ism” for current debate is hu-
manitarianism, a belief in the value of
human life where humans practice be-
nevolent treatment of one another and
provide assistance to others in order to
establish humanity for the whole com-
munity. It involves a blending of the
most viable “isms” and systematically
excludes their worst features. When
defi ned in specifi c terms to address to-
day’s America, an appropriate human-
itarian design could avoid revolution
and provide the opportunity—under
the stresses and strains of modern de-
mands and challenges—or a U.S. fu-
ture without another destructive and
bloody civil war and serve to remedy
the persistent divisiveness now causing
so much unrest.
(Gono H. McIntyro sharos his opin-
ion froquontly in tho Koizortimos.)