PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 22, 2019
Opinion
How does one make
billions of dollars?
By LYNDON ZAITZ
A neighbor asked me the other day
how he could become independently
wealthy. Heck, if I knew that I would
become independently weathly my-
self.
Independent-
ly wealthy means one
earns it on their own
from the very fi rst dol-
lar. An old phrase said
that if you built a better
mousetrap, the world
would beat a path to
your door. That is still
true, just substitute a
product for a mousetrap.
That brings to mind the just real-
ized HBO documentary, The Inventor.
This riveting fi lm is about the start,
growth and, fi nally, the fall of Thera-
nos, a blood testing company. Eliza-
beth Holmes founded the company in
Silicon Valley when she was 19 years
old. The idea behind the company
was inspiring: using one drop of blood
to test for any number of diseases.
Holmes and her engineers invented
the machine that would give results in
a matter of minutes.
Theranos and its machine would
revolutionize health care and allow
people to take control of their own
care. As they say, if something sounds
too good to be true, it probably is.
It was too good to be true and now
Holmes and her business partner are
under indictment for fraud and the
company, once valued at $9 billion, is
no longer.
That is how Elizabeth Holmes
made more than a billion dollars. It is
still uncertain if Holmes started out to
perpetrate a fraud.
Aside from skirting the law and
physics (watch the fi lm), there are still
ways for people to make billions of
dollars besides inheriting it. It takes
hard work to become a billionaire but
it also takes passion. Steve Jobs be-
lieved the iPhone would work, many
dismissed the idea until they all came
around when the phone became real-
ity and changed the world.
Success is 1 percent in-
spiration and 99 percent
perspiration. Jobs, Gates,
Dell and many others
worked night and day, day
and night to achieve the
level of success they even-
tually attained. All success-
ful people are passionate
about what they are work-
ing on; they believe with
every fi ber in being that they are right
and their idea will change the world.
Some people dream of winning
the lottery. A recent, anonymous, win-
ner walked away with a $800 million
check. There was no perspiration that
came with that money, there was no
work invovled in it rather than hand-
ing over a few bucks for lottery ticket.
That person’s wealth is no less viable
than an inventor who strived for years.
The odds of winning $800 million
in a lottery are quite astronomical,
as are the odds of inventing a better
mousetrap. Regardless of the odds,
someone with an idea they are sure
will sell millions of units or change the
world for the better should shoulder
on, bear the sruggle, bear the sweat,
the naysayers and listen to the inner
voice that says “You can do it.”
How can my neighbor become in-
dependently wealthy? Unless he has a
million dollar idea or invents some-
thing that will change the world, he
will have to do what we all do: do the
best we can now for ourselves and our
families and accept the fact that we
will never have a billion dollars or two.
zaitz
writes
(Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the
Keizertimes.)
Learning to fi ght a wild fi re
By HUNTER BOMAR
“At the end of the day, if you ar-
en’t covered in black dust and dirt,
then you didn’t work hard enough.
You gotta get that fi re blood all over
you to know you did a good job.”
We all heard this as we stood in
a line. Each soldier held a different
tool. Some had shovels, a
few had axes, and others
had rakes. Each man stood
side by side while they
hacked at the dirt in front
of them.
In March, my fellow
soldiers in the Oregon
Army National Guard and
I were sent to Camp Rilea in War-
rington to get our wildland fi re-
fi ghter certifi cations to get prepared
to fi ght fi res in the summer.
The majority of our training was
in the classroom, and we covered
important topics like fi re behavior,
fi re shelters and weather patterns.
The most important information I
learned in the classroom was what to
be aware of in the forest when en-
gaging a forest fi re. “Widow makers,”
which are trees that can fall and crush
someone due to the fi re weakening
them, were heavily covered. Under-
standing the critical need for good
communication was also discussed,
and how pointing out something un-
safe was everyone’s job, not just the
leaders.
That day though, we left the class-
room and were digging dirt side-by-
side. We were being taught how to
dig a fi re line to prevent a wildfi re
from continuing on its destructive
path. I enjoyed this part of the train-
ing because I like being active.
We worked hard to practice get-
ting a little of that fi re blood. We
joked, laughed and cursed as sol-
diers do, and listened to
each other’s stories while
we worked. Our instruc-
tors pointed out potential
“widow makers” as we
worked. They also told us
about their experiences
fi ghting forest fi res.
After two hours of dig-
ging dirt that resulted in half a mile
of fi re line, the instructors decided
we were fi nished. My back was tight,
my legs were numb and my hands
were stuck as if I was still holding
onto my shovel. But it felt good.
Once we packed up our gear,
we marched back the two miles we
needed to cover to get back to our
barracks. It wasn’t raining and the
now emerging sun had burned off
the icy coastal air. We arrived back to
a well-made dinner and hot showers
to wash off the sweat and dirt.
I was fi lled with new knowledge
and skills, and when our training
ended, I looked forward to fi ghting
those fi res and getting a real taste of
that fi re blood.
my
take
(Hunter Bomar is a community
reporter with the Keizertimes.)
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Salem, Oregon
Demo praised, Trump condemned
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
President Donald Trump, meet
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the
Democratic rising star who tracks
mud across the legal system the same
way you do, but his dirty footprints
win accolades from the mainstream
media.
Last week Newsom
signed an executive order
granting execution re-
prieves for all 737 inmates
on California’s death row.
The night before the sign-
ing, a New York Times head-
line announced, “After
Soul Searching, Gov. Gavin Newsom
Will Halt Executions in California.”
Soul searching. Those are two
words one rarely sees pinned on the
Trump brand.
Soul searching is a grand term for
a politician who said one thing when
it served him, and then the opposite
when it did not.
Newsom ran for offi ce on the as-
sertion that while he personally op-
posed the death penalty, he would
carry out the ultimate sentence up-
held by California voters at the ballot
box. In 2016, California voters re-
jected a ballot proposition to end the
death penalty, but passed another one
to speed up the process.
During the 2018 campaign, his
spokesman Dan Newman told the
San Francisco Chronicle that Newsom
“recognizes that California voters
have spoken on the issue and, if elect-
ed governor, he’d respect the will of
the electorate by following and im-
plementing the law.”
Last week, surrounded by Demo-
cratic lawmakers the way Trump fre-
quently has GOP lawmakers surround
him, Newsom actually told reporters,
“I don’t think this comes as a huge
surprise to anybody.” He
always had made it clear
that he personally opposed
the death penalty.
Newsom also claimed
he was being “forthright
and honest” in announcing
his actions Wednesday.
The Sacramento Bee duly
editorialized that “Newsom’s unprec-
edented move also distinguishes him
as a leader willing to be honest and
forthright about one of society’s most
challenging moral issues.”
In an editorial, The New York Times
supported Newsom’s fl ip-fl op. Critics
“argue that the governor is subvert-
ing the will of voters, but electing a
governor who has a consistent record
on society’s harshest penalty is also an
expression of voters’ wishes.”
The same editorial page slammed
Trump for “taking executive over-
reach to dizzying heights” in pushing
his national emergency at the border.
More from the Grey Lady’s edi-
torial: “The poison cherry atop this
sundae is that Mr. Trump is subvert-
ing American democracy for a cause
opposed by a majority of the public.”
Note: When polls suggest a voter op-
position to border security, that clear-
ly carries more weight at the Times
other
voices
than when California voters repeat-
edly and consistently pass pro-death
penalty measures on the ballot.
Trump declared a national emer-
gency to carve out $5.7 billion to
fund another 100 miles of wall along
the Southwest border. While Demo-
crats scoff at the notion that the bor-
der is at a crisis point, The New York
Times has reported on a border at the
“breaking point” with 76,000 unau-
thorized migrants passing in a month.
Personally, I think Trump should
have worked with Congress early on
to pass a measure with more funding
for border security. While Democrats
want to deny him funding for his sig-
nature wall, he has found ways to use
past allocations to strengthen struc-
tures along the border.
To me, this is a fi ght that could
have been avoided.
But I don’t understand how so
many journalists can bash Trump as
a tin-pot dictator for not respecting
the process, as they cravenly praise a
politician who misled his way into
the governor’s offi ce so that he could
trample on the will of California vot-
ers.
In Sacramento Wednesday, New-
som proclaimed, “The people of Cali-
fornia have entrusted me by their will
and constitutional right to do exactly
what I’m doing.”
Trump can say the same thing, but
with more authority, because he ac-
tually campaigned for a border wall.
(Creators Syndicate)
Measles panic or Pharma marketing?
By BRITTANY RUIZ
In May of last year Oregon Health
Authority’s Immunization Depart-
ment sent out a good news report to
the Governor’s offi ce showing a won-
derful graph that our immunization
rates were very high with MMR being
the highest at 96.1 percent but state-
wide vaccine uptake for
all school required vac-
cines at 94 percent.
In June, OHA then
sent out a press release
trying to shift attention
from the high immu-
nization rates to the
“sudden sharp rise” in
exemptions for kinder-
garten students. Like
wild fi re all major papers pushed this
narrative that we have the highest ex-
emptions in the nation and the lowest
vaccination rates.
I then learned that OHA’s Immu-
nization Manager is a Board member
of a non-profi t fully funded by vac-
cine manufacturers, Association for
Immunization Managers.
I inquired with OHA on how they
arrived at their statistics and why they
are not telling the true data about how
exemptions are counted. OHA’s Sta-
cy Matthews responded and told me
that more than 50 percent of the ex-
emptions are people that are actually
mostly fully vaccinated and only 2.6
percent of Oregon’s school children
are fully unvaccinated, which per that
same report only saw a .3
percent increase from 2017
to 2018 (student body in-
creased by 3 percent).
Between, private and
charter OHA reports
604,000 students. Out of
those 604,000 students
there are 31,500 exemp-
tions to 1 or more of the
22 required vaccines. Out
of those 31,500 exemptions roughly
15,705 children are fully unvaccinated
for all vaccines in school.
Per the Center for Disease Control
(CDC) statistics, measles have never
been eradicated. Oregon has seen over
56 cases in 20 years. CDC reports 68
percent of outbreaks have occurred
due to importation of wild measles
from people traveling from European
counties to the U.S. and both vacci-
guest
opinion
nated and unvaccinated populations
got the wild measles. CDC reports
two deaths in 27 years due to the mea-
sles in the United States. The VAERS
database reports over 450 deaths since
1990 from the MMR vaccine, which
per a Harvard study says the VAERS
database captures less than 1 percent
of all adverse events and deaths.
Last week OHA’s Dr. Peter Cieslak
told the House Healthcare Commit-
tee that we have above 96 percent
vaccination rates for MMR with our
school children. We’ve surpassed herd
immunity threshold by 10 percent.
So what’s the real reason for a pan-
ic? Are there safety concerns over the
MMR? Is the MMR one of the most
profi table vaccines for Merck and is
there a monopoly over it? Did Mer-
ck see a 500 percent increase in their
MMR uptake?
“I think it’s time to fi nd out if
the co-sponsors are have been paid
by pharmaceutical vested interests to
push HB3036.”
(Brittany Ruiz is an administrator
with Oregonians for Medical Free-
doms.)
Admission scandal hurts national morals
When a nation’s highest govern-
ment leader is repeatedly reported to
behave badly, unethically, immorally
and illegally, his conduct is likely to
inspire his country’s men and wom-
en to follow the principal’s examples
with duplicitous accuracy. Such is the
case right here at home as more and
more Americans in all walks of life,
whether in private or public roles,
choose to copy their leader and end
up practicing unlawful conduct, di-
minishing integrity and
trust.
There is no better ex-
ample than the college ad-
missions bribery scandal. It
happens nowadays that all
of us are daily barraged by
stories of corruption, greed
and amoral behavior. These
revelations have led to thousands, per-
haps millions, of Americans, fi gura-
tively throwing their hands skyward
and committing themselves to new
set of anything-goes rules.
Yes, outside of the latest crook-
ery to gain elite college admission,
the citizens of our country have not
always been free of circumventing
laws and ethical standards, swindling
customers and pocketing elicit gains.
However, more of it is happening by
way of constant high-profi le scandals
involving bankers, drug companies,
sports organizations and government
offi cials. Bottom line appears to be a
dark place where the U.S. has fallen
into inappropriate opportunities and
benefi ts, whereby a former society of
social and professional restraints are
no longer viable.
The buy-your-college-of-choice
scandal has been identifi ed as the
biggest such scam ever prosecuted in
U.S. Justice Department history. Fifty
Americans to date have been charged
in the scheme with many more sus-
pected. A scheme where those al-
ready arrested and charged paid more
than $25 million in bribes to coaches
and other college-associated people
to gain entry of offspring into elite
schools of higher education.
Possibly no one who is familiar
with elite universities and their admis-
sion practices has found this matter a
surprise. The milieu with the children
of wealthy families is that they noto-
riously have had things arranged to
their advantage. What’s argued as new
is that those considerable advantages
are not enough for some who now
buy elite-university entry. Worse yet,
it’s alleged that many
esteemed institutions in
the U.S. are participants
in this extraordinary
shamefulness.
Hence, public cyn-
icism abounds. It can
be seen here and there
by the annual Gallup
poll on Values and Morals showing a
record 49 percent of Americans view
values and morals as poor with a mere
14 percent rating them excellent or
good. It is believed that the fewer
viewing the U.S. as moral has been
contributed to by President Donald
J. Trump’s and his administration’s
departure from longstanding ethi-
gene h.
mcintyre
cal norms and specifi cs like failure
to reveal tax returns, refusal to divest
business holdings or place them in a
blind trust. Citizen conclusion: hid-
ing skullduggery.
We the people should be demand-
ing of Congress that our representa-
tives tighten ethical standards for the
executive branch and themselves by
strengthening reforms brought after
the Watergate era. Then, too, colleges
and universities should act immedi-
ately to reform admissions in their
own bailiwicks, using audits and use
of independent accreditation agen-
cies.
All of us who want a constitutional
democracy to survive have a responsi-
bility to yell “foul” and demand “cor-
rection” when we witness impro-
prieties. When we allow everything
formerly valued to be now measured
solely by their worth in dollar bills,
then crime, corruption and ill-begot-
ten gains can ultimately take all that
we hold dear and trash them, ulti-
mately to place America into history’s
sink hole of once-great civilizations.
(Gene H. McIntyre shares his opin-
ion regularly in the Keizertimes.)