AUGUST 2, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
Yesterday once more
A old saw goes: the more things
change the more they stay the same.
That is so true when one considers
politics in America, circa 2019.
The issue of race is everywhere in
politics, from the Oval
Offi ce to the Democrat-
ic presidential candidate
debate to Keizer’s city
council chambers.
At the fi rst set of
Democratic
debates,
school busing and seg-
regation took center
stage for a portion of the
evening. What former vice president
Joe Biden said about school busing
in the early 1970s was fair game for
one of his rivals, Kamala Harris.
There are those who seek to
make America like it used to be, in
some previous, supposed Golden
Age when things were simple. Or
simpler than today.
The United States has always pro-
duced political candidates and lead-
ers who looked forward and offered
visions of what the future could be.
As the 2020 presidential campaign
heats up, many of the candidates
are looking backward. That kind of
campaign certainly appeals to some
segments of society, but America has
always been best when our grasp ex-
ceeds our reach.
To be fair, discussion of race will
never end. As long as people are vic-
tims of bias, as long as people are
fearful of others different from them.
Though busing and school segre-
gation are issues for national candi-
dates to bludgeon each other with,
we don’t face those issues here. But
as a community, we do need to be
vigilant about racism raising its ugly
head. The proposed City Charter
Review Committee has stalled when
one nominee was found by the Vol-
unteer Coordinating Commitee to
not be a U.S. citizen, and thus not
a registered voter. The resolution
forming the committee
stated that members are
required to be electors.
The words ‘registered vot-
er’ (it means the same as
elector)— everyone un-
derstands voter, not every-
one understand elector—
should have been used
instead and avoided this
fracas. The volunteer in question was
heralded for their knowledge and
their interest. Some said there should
be a waiving of the elector/register
voter requirement.
Those who opposed that opinion
were painted as racist due to the ap-
plicant’s heritage. There no place in
Keizer government for that senti-
ment, and yet it is here, fostered by
some of our national leaders.
Aside from the issues busing,
school segregation and racism being
dredged up from the 1970s, some
wouldn’t mind if the clock were
turned back and Keizer returned to
a simpler time when traffi c was light,
there was little crime and eveyone
knew their neighbor.
Time marches on, things change,
but not to everyone’s taste. We are
a fi fth of the way through the 21st
century and we are refi ghting the
battles of old. The leaders we choose
with our votes should foster a sense
of optimism in the people. Rather
than the issues of the 1970s, public
offi cials should challenge us to be
the America we tell ourselves we are.
—LAZ
editorial
Wins and loses of 2019
By BILL POST
I want to briefl y share an update of
some of the things my offi ce was able
to accomplish in the 2019 legislative
session.
HB 3213 – Establishes
safety corridors around
the state, which I hope
will address the death road
(as described by The New-
berg Graphic) in North
Marion County.
SB 320 – If approved
by Congress, this measure
will establish permanent
Daylight Saving Time.
HB 2236 – Allows farm tractors to
operate on state highways that have
speed limits of 35 miles per hour or
more. This is important to our district
because so much of it is agricultural.
HB 2336 – Relating to affordable
housing. We have an affordable hous-
ing issue in Oregon and this bill will
help.
HB 2428 – Strengthens our public
indecency laws.
HB 2515 – Ensures humane treat-
ment in women’s correctional facili-
ties.
HB 2579 – Strengthens the Farm
to School Program so that our farms
can deliver their foods to our kids in
schools.
HCR 13 – Honors Keizer’s own
Private First Class Ryan J. Hill with a
Highway Memorial Sign.
SB 390 – Allows olive oil farmers
to sell their product at their farms, in-
cluding one farm in our district.
Unfortunately, the following bills
did not pass due to the one-sided
majority, but I hope to pursue these
concepts in the future.
HB 2303 – Would
have allowed for be-
hind-the-counter purchase
of common cold medicine
with a government issued
photo identifi cation, just as
in 37 other states in Amer-
ica.
HB 2302 – Would have
provided funds to the Gov-
ernment Assistance Program.
HB 3276 – Would have provided
a tax credit for veterans to use to pay
back student loans.
HB 3446 – Would have eliminated
the corporate sales tax on basic ne-
cessities.
HJR 14 – Would have dealt with
the dreaded emergency clause on leg-
islation.
SB 1040 – For my Keizer constitu-
ents, this would have addressed errant
bulllets fl ying across the Willamette
River into a residentail neighbor-
hood.
HB 2295 – Would have addressed
Measure 11 concerns without going
around the voter’s will.
As always, please contact my offi ce
at any time with questions or con-
cerns.
from
the
capitol
(Bill Post represents House Dis-
trict 25. He can be reached at 503-
986- 1425 or via email at rep.bill-
post@ oregonlegislature.gov.)
Mueller has no savior
By MICHAEL GERSON
WASHINGTON -- I was at the
dentist getting a tooth drilled at the
start of Robert Mueller’s compa-
rable experience on Capitol Hill. I
am the kind of person who cringes
intensely while watching anyone
fail in a public and humiliating
fashion. So it was just as well that
I missed the beginning of Mueller’s
halting, unsure performance and
the Twitter reaction of
typical ruthlessness.
It was a failure con-
ducted with a code. As
a criminal justice pro-
fessional, Mueller clearly
did not want to say any-
thing that served a po-
litical agenda, so he said
almost nothing at all. It
is galling that a president without
discernible ethical standards ben-
efi ted so decisively from Mueller’s
conception of his own standards. It
is also disappointing, because Muel-
ler was mistaken. He had a public
responsibility to summarize and ex-
plicate the fi ndings of the report he
was charged to prepare. As it was,
Mueller undermined the careful
work of his staff and deprived the
electorate of an accurate and useful
synopsis.
Mueller was never going to say
something new at his hearings.
But the old information remains
as damning as ever. By way of re-
minder: Though the report did not
demonstrate a criminal conspira-
cy between the Russians and the
Trump campaign, it recounted a se-
rious level of cooperation. Donald
Trump publicly urged the Russians
to get and release dirt on Hillary
Clinton. Trump campaign offi cials
welcomed a meeting on the as-
sumption that Russian intelligence
operatives would provide that dirt.
Russian operatives eventually did
hack damaging information from
Clinton associates, and released that
material on a schedule designed to
help the Trump campaign. Mean-
while, people in the Trump circle
maintained suspicious ties to the
Russian government in the hope of
making money for Trump himself.
Trump and his associates
thought that the pub-
lic revelation of their
cooperation with the
Russians would be
politically damaging,
so they sought to hide
it. Trump wanted to
directly disrupt the
investigation of these
ties by fi ring the spe-
cial counsel, according to the re-
port, and was only prevented from
doing so by the timely intervention
of staffers. And Trump attempted
to pressure prospective witnesses to
make them less cooperative with
the Mueller investigation. Though
Mueller did not think it was le-
gally appropriate to bring charges
of obstruction of justice against a
sitting president, he pointedly re-
fused to exonerate Trump from
obstruction. In the end, the report
said: “Congress has authority to
prohibit a President’s corrupt use
of his authority in order to protect
the integrity of the administration
of justice.”
This is the key word: “corrupt.”
People may disagree on the crim-
inality of these actions by Trump
and his associates. But to deny that
these actions constitute corruption
is to lose contact with reality and
morality. A poor performance by
Mueller did nothing to change this.
But something did end during
other
voices
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Changing demographics breeds anger
Should we worry? It would
seem appropriate. Why? Refer-
enced are the ever more frequent
threats and delivery of violence by
what appears a growing number
of Americans who’ve become up-
set or disenchanted with
their lives. Then there are
those who harm others
when not understood or
do not respond to them
on their terms or with
whom they disagree by
religious or political dif-
ferences.
Violence in Oregon
was notable at the Umatilla Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge take-over by
right-wing militia members. The
refuge occupation was an event
in which government workers
employed at the refuge, local resi-
dents, and journalists covering the
incident had their lives threatened
while federal property damage oc-
curred at huge costs in tax dollars
to repair.
Ultimately it ended badly with
the death of a militiaman. More
recently, we’ve witnessed the case
of state Senator Brian Boquist. He
threatened violence to the president
of the state senate, Peter Courtney,
and threatened to kill any Oregon
State Police offi cer sent out to re-
turn him to the duties in the Cap-
itol he swore to uphold. Conse-
quences have followed for Boquist
who now seeks help from President
Trump. This fi ts.
Each act and threat of violence
serves as predicate for Trump, who
himself provides words of encour-
agement for violence, thereby pro-
viding tacit permission to those
who otherwise might not act out.
An increased level of late has to
do with threats and delivery of vi-
olence by white su-
premacists to Ameri-
cans of color. As we
know, almost half the
U.S. population is
made up of persons of
color who are mostly
citizens and will not
“return from where
they came” since most
were born here. Then, too, Afri-
can Americans were forced here
by slavery, Latinos settled in the
Southwest before whites, while the
forebears of native American tribe
members arrived millenniums ago.
The disgruntled elements in
American society are making their
appearance more and more often by
lawless acts, resulting in the infl ic-
tion of injuries predictably leading
to homicides. As they have notori-
ously demonstrated in 1930s Ger-
many and post-Revolution Russia,
right-wing and left-wing militias
are almost always paramilitary orga-
nizations, using intimation, and, ul-
timately, murder to gain the upper
hand. We’re on the verge of critical
mass by violent acts in Oregon.
Violence is delivered every
day throughout the U.S. Millions
of Americans struggle with opi-
oid-based substance abuse disorders
while the nation’s pharmaceuti-
cal industry continues to pay-off
gene h.
mcintyre
Keizertimes
the Mueller hearings, at least for
me. It was the death of the deus ex
machina—the hope that a G-man
of mythic abilities would decisively
intervene on the side of good and
save the honor of the country. If
asked, I would have never admit-
ted such a hope. I knew the verse:
“Put not your trust in princes.” But
I invested a great deal of trust in
Robert Mueller, who is the living
repudiation of the shoddiness and
shallowness of the Trump era.
Yet politics seldom works in this
way. A democratic country is gen-
erally not saved by the virtues of a
single man but by the composite
character of millions of principled
citizens.
This is particularly true in
the Trump era. For many of us,
the greatest damage Trump has
wrought has not come from viola-
tions of law; it has resulted from his
destruction of democratic norms
and culture. It is the blinding snow-
storm of his lies, which undermines
the very idea of a political truth. It
is his compulsive cruelty toward
migrants, refugees and anyone who
defi es him, which has excused and
encouraged dehumanization. It is
his increasingly unvarnished racism,
which is reopening some of the
deepest wounds of our history.
Can this kind of damage be re-
versed? It is an open question. If it
can, it will not come by the applica-
tion of the law. It will come through
the repudiation of Trumpism by
the public. Democratic ills must be
healed by democratic means. When
politics is contaminated by hatred
and cruelty, our ritual of renewal is
a national election with a decisive
result. And that means the savior is
us.
medical doctors to prescribe it for
so much as a sprained ankle with
death for hundreds every day as a
common outcome. Reports by
the hour inform us that persons
high on alcohol and/or marijuana
drive a vehicle causing a violent
death to innocents. Then there are
those who bring violence by gun
use almost every minute in America
while little is done, save afterwards,
prayers and condolences.
What can any ordinary Ameri-
can do about these threats to our
health and democracy? There are
not enough police offi cers to stop
it entirely. So, each of us must de-
nounce it whenever and wherever
it shows up and make certain our
children and those we can infl u-
ence fi nd futures through more
education and training in appren-
ticeships, college certifi cate and de-
gree programs and so on. Thereby,
secure for our children a future that
does not end for them in shouting
hateful slogans, beating people up
and ending in jail with a rap sheet.
Waiting for others to remedy our
social ills is bound for a land of dis-
appointment.
(Gene H. McIntyre shares his
opinion regularly in the Keizertimes.)
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