MARCH 15, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
Preserve the Keizer Way
Whether anyone likes it or not,
Keizer is growing. Our city’s growth
is expected to continue on an up-
ward path for the forseeable future.
That’s what happens when you are
successful.
Through both plan-
ning and happenstance
Keizer is one of the
most desirable address-
es one can have in the
mid-Willamette Valley.
We all must ensure that
the Keizer Way is the
beacon that draws peo-
ple and businesses to
our city.
Our low tax rate attracts home-
buyers who want to get more house
for their money than their counter-
parts in nearby cities.
Money aside, Keizer is also at-
tractive because of our local schools.
The elementary schools and middle
schools are led by dedicated and
engaged principals and staffed by
teachers who are eager to instruct
our kids in ways both traditional
and creative.
McNary High is positioning itself
as a world-class school. The rallying
cry at the school from the principal
on down is: Be bold. And the school
is on a bold path. It’s AVID program
is a model for other schools, not
only here but around the country.
Giving one’s kids the opportuni-
ty to attend such a high school is
a good reason to fi nd housing in
Keizer and call it home.
As more people move into the
city there is a worry that the Keiz-
er Way—exemplifi ed by the city’s
motto of Pride, Spirit and Volun-
teerism—could be diluted. Those
who have called Keizer home since
before it became a city in the early
1980s understand where the motto
originated.
The Keizer Way is the city’s mot-
to come to life. Our
government, civic and
business leaders have
confi dence in their abil-
ity to create and main-
tain a community that
offers a lifestyle that
mirrors the values of all
its residents. Coupled
with operating a city
with a thriftiness not of-
ten seen in government and it is no
surprise that the Keizer Way is the
best invitation possible to our city.
Aside from thriftiness and a spir-
ited civic-mindedness Keizer con-
stantly leads the way in the invovle-
ment of its citizens. Even with busy
lives that include children and jobs,
Keizer residents give of their time,
experience and money in the fi elds
that matter most to them: schools,
sports, children and community.
There is no dearth of opportuni-
ties for our citizens to roll up their
sleeves and proudly, and unselfi shly,
serve organizations in Keizer.
Keizer will grow, new people will
move here from somewhere else.
We all want to live in a community
that enhances our values, makes us
feel welcome and entices us to do
our part.
The Keizer Way is more than a
saying, it is a way of life and we like
it that way.
— LAZ
our
opinion
Who we are
We admit it. The Keizertimes has an
agenda. It is called a people agenda.
We cover the news—good and bad—
happening within the seven square
miles that is the city of Keizer.
Most of our news revolves around
people—leaders, both government
and civic, students, athletes, business
owners and average people, just like
you.
What we don’t have is an ideolog-
ical or political agenda. Sure, opinions
are shared but only on the Keizertimes
opinion page, where all viewpoints are
welcome. The opinion page is much
like a public square, a place where any-
one can express themselves.
While we do choose which opin-
ion writer’s column to publish, we are
careful to cover the ideological spec-
trum on the opinion page.
No community is a monolith: there
are many different views in Keizer and
we must be sensitive to all of them.
Thank you,
Keizer!
of core food choices
for our foodbank cli-
ents. We are spending
between $1,500 and
$2,000 a month for food
items. That takes a lot
of $25 dollar donations
and to date, the Keizer
community has been very generous.
New year’s Blessings to you and a
very heart felt thank you!
Curt McCormack,
Administrator
Keizer Community Food Bank
letters
To the Editor:
On behalf of Keizer
Community Food Bank, I
want to thank the Keizer
businesses and community donors
for their fi nancial support through-
out 2018.
Go-to friends have been Uptown
Music, Tony’s Kingdom of Comics,
France School of Dance, Art Im-
pressions, Dollar Tree, Franz Bakery
Keizer Elks, men and ladies, and the
many individual sustaining donors
that keep our pantry shelves smiling.
We fi nd that we have to purchase
more food in order to keep our pan-
try shelves and shopping table full
Share your opinion
Submit a letter to the editor,
or a guest column by noon Tuesday.
Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com
Intrusive health methods more likely
By MICHAEL GERSON
Another massive study has discov-
ered no causal connection between
the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)
vaccine and autism.
This time, the study’s
cohort consisted of ev-
ery child born in Den-
mark from 1999 through
December 2010 -- more
than 650,000 children. The
conclusion? “The study
strongly supports that
MMR vaccination does
not increase the risk for
autism, does not trigger autism in sus-
ceptible children, and is not associated
with clustering of autism cases after
vaccination.”
So the arriving children of an en-
tire country stand witness against a
destructive but durable myth. Yet the
question remains: Can you kill a myth
with a study?
Measles is the purest of test cases. “It
is one of the most contagious virus-
es known to man,” Anthony Fauci of
the National Institutes of Health told
me. “The measles vaccine is one of the
most effective vaccines known to man
-- 97 percent effective. And, historical-
ly, measles is one of the great killers
of children. Yet, there is a reluctance
on the part of some parents to give
the vaccine to their children. This just
makes no sense if you just think about
it for a second.”
But there is the rub -- assuming a
second of thought. For some on the
left and right, the general revolt against
authority has become a revolt against
the medical profession. This may be
motivated by suspicion of pharma-
ceutical companies and the business of
medicine. Or by a resentment against
governmental compulsion. In a recent
hearing on vaccines, Senator Rand
Paul, R-Ky., admitted the medical val-
ue of vaccines but added, “I still do not
favor giving up on liberty for a false
sense of security.”
What Paul -- a part-
time ophthalmologist but
full-time libertarian crank
-- calls “a false sense of
security” is technically
known as herd immunity.
This is the level of vaccine
coverage at which trans-
mission of a pathogen be-
comes very diffi cult in an entire pop-
ulation of people. Achieving that level
-- 93 to 95 percent for measles -- not
only protects the health of a commu-
nity, it protects those who really can’t
be vaccinated for medical reasons such
as immune system problems or infants
to whom the measles vaccine is not
given until later.
Paul is engaged in a particular type
of fallacy. He is applying standards
of political philosophy to a scientifi c
fi eld. Opponents of vaccination claim
what they call “medical freedom.” But
that is like asserting religious liberty
in the realm of chemistry. These fi elds
employ different categories of knowl-
edge. The scientifi c method is orient-
ed toward an objectively discernible
reality in a way that political philoso-
phy is not. There is no lab test proving
John Locke’s politics superior to Karl
Marx’s politics.
But this was exactly what Marx
claimed in developing his “scientifi c
socialism.” He imagined that history
moves in a scientifi cally evident pat-
tern, which left no room for minority
rights. Those who employed Marxism
most rigorously saw resistance to op-
other
voices
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Money changes everything in politics
The Oregon Legislature is in ses-
sion in Salem and we’ve learned that,
due to members who practice sex-
ual harassment, Oregon’s taxpayers
must satisfy the grievances of those
so harassed by $1.3 million. Not
to be outdone, apparently, we now
learn further that those days when
then-Governor Tom McCall hailed
Oregon’s ability to im-
prove the quality of air
and water are now near
done and dead.
It has been discovered
that several of our leg-
islators are all too eager
to accept big dollar con-
tributions from business
and industry in Oregon
for which they silence
and emasculate the once proudly
effective and highly regarded state
environmental agencies. Oregon was
the greenest state, a status achieved by
the nation’s fi rst bottle deposit, con-
trol of urban sprawl, and public avail-
ability to all ocean beaches.
The Oregonian/Oregon Live has in-
vestigated the matter to fi nd that in a
period of four years, the most pow-
erful state industries have terminat-
ed, weakened or neutralized former
ongoing efforts to address climate
change, wolf recovery, bird habitat
survival, cancer-causing diesel ex-
haust, groundwater protections, air
pollution, oil spill plans and spray-
ing toxins from helicopters. We’re
informed that these changes have
resulted from money, and lots of it,
changing hands so business and in-
dustry can be free to foul as they
please.
The investigations have found
that the biggest reason behind the
mounting transgressions is the fail-
ure of Oregon lawmakers to regulate
campaign cash, making Oregon one
of the biggest money states in polit-
ical activities. The fl ood of money,
says The Oregonian, has “created an
easy regulatory climate where in-
dustry gets what it wants, again and
again.” In fact, our laxity in not safe-
guarding air and water has elsewhere
earned us laughingstock status.
And it’s not only campaign mon-
ey that’s being spent to
help offi ce-seeking and
offi ce-holding politicians.
Business and industry
“generosity” has paid for
luxury hotel rooms in
Canadian chateaus, sports
bar visits, and Apple com-
puter hardware. There
have also been rose bou-
quets appearing on legis-
lator’s desks, complimentary candies,
and expensive art work to dazzle the
eye on legislator offi ce walls. Free-
bee lodging and meals in Salem have
made servants out of legislators as
have gifts of Amazon Prime.
These fi eld trip boondoggles and
potentate-providing gifts have result-
ed in legislator and gubernatorial ac-
tions taking
Oregon to a
place where
our envi-
ronmen-
tal legacy’s
betrayed
while our
water pol-
luters num-
ber
the
highest in
the west-
ern states.
Meanwhile,
those law-
makers as
beneficia-
ries of in-
gene
mcintyre
Keizertimes
pression as hopeless opposition to a
law of nature.
Paul is making a category error in
the other direction. Epidemiology is a
scientifi c discipline. And public health
is the application of this discipline to
a community of human beings. It re-
ally doesn’t matter what John Stuart
Mill or Ayn Rand had to say about
herd immunity. Given the nature of
the measles virus, 93 to 95 percent of
a human population needs to be cov-
ered for a community to be protected.
If purely voluntary methods produce
that level of coverage, that is fi ne. If the
needed level can only be achieved by
requiring vaccinations for all public
school children, that is also fi ne. If the
zombie apocalypse comes, even more
stringent health measures might be
justifi ed.
The protection of human life is
ultimately a moral commitment. But
the methods to ensure public health
are well established, and should be
calibrated in order to achieve a scien-
tifi cally defi nable public good. Those
methods, like good surgery, should be
minimally invasive. But the goal is not
up for democratic grabs, and has no
partisan defi nition.
Politics does make a huge differ-
ence to public health in one way.
When politicians give legitimacy to
dangerous and disproven scientifi c
theories -- as both Paul and President
Trump have done on vaccinations --
they are encouraging a lower level of
coverage, which makes a higher level
of compulsion necessary. So it is the
vaccination skeptics who are making
intrusive public health methods more
likely. That just makes sense, when you
just think about it for a second.
dustry largess have steadily placed
pressure on our state’s environmen-
tal agencies and bullied them into
submission whenever corporate
campaign donors were threatened
with testing regimens, clean ups and
abatement practices. The Secretary
of State’s Elections Division could
have investigated all this spending but
has chosen only to send letters to of-
fenders with never a follow up.
The examples of waywardness are
manifold while it’s worse than trag-
ic that the practices threatening our
health and safety are permitted to go
on and even worsen. It would seem
that the legislators are too busy being
entertained away from why they’re in
Salem and entertaining themselves at
the expense of women who work in
the capitol. What will it take to get
real reforms underway in what once
was a lovely building in Salem now
smokestack tarnished and an ethics
imbroglio? And what’s the fate of
our children and grandchildren?
(Gene H. McIntyre shares his opin-
ion frequently in the Keizertimes.)