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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 2019)
AUGUST 23, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 Opinion 14,500 nukes and counting A while back, President Donald J. Trump confi rmed that the U.S. will leave an arms control treaty with Russia dating from the Cold War that has kept nuclear missiles out of Europe for three decades. He also said that, “We’ll have to devel- op those weapons after we pull out of that treaty.” With that treaty long gone, and others on the chopping-block, his- tory reports that these treaties have been in- strumental in saving humankind from total destruction. Much in the way of protections against use of nuclear weap- ons goes back to 1987 and the Intermedi- ate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Fast forward and we fi nd Trump with John Bolton as his national security adviser. Bolton is a longstanding opponent of arms control treaties who has been push- ing hard for U.S. withdrawals since he worked for President George W. Bush. U.S. war hawks like Bolton now argue in Trump’s ear to end the 2010 New Start agreement with Russia, terminating what will become for- mer limits on warheads by both sides. All these arms-control treaty ter- minations mean that the world will be left without any limits on nuclear arsenals for the fi rst time in fi ve de- cades. As usual for Trump, he places the blame for his administration hav- ing to end these treaties on President Obama who, Trump says, “should have negotiated new limits or pulled out.” All matters of grave conse- quence end up in Trump world as the fault of some other person, usually a former Democratic pres- ident or Hillary Clinton. What befuddles is that we have a president who regularly tells us that he is a deal-maker but has completely failed to save Reagan’s nuclear lega- cy. Trump also has had an opportunity several times through his frequent talks with Vladimir Putin to negotiate arms-control treaty adjust- ments. However, those buddy-buddy meetings have always digressed from the opportunity for arms control di- plomacy into working out details on how a Trump luxury hotel will be built in downtown Moscow and oth- er sites in Russia for Trump invest- ments. We live under nightmarish con- ditions. By way of Trump’s “Amer- ica First” disengagement idea, we are withdrawing from all world treaties and agreements that have kept the gene h. mcintyre Intimidating the press Offi cials in Malheur County in eastern Oregon had asked Sheriff Brian Wolfe to assess whether the Malheur Enterprise weekly newspa- per had engaged in criminal conduct in its reporting involving the director of the county’s economic develop- ment department. County Counsel Stephanie Wil- liams confi rmed that she contact- ed Wolfe with allegations about emails and phone calls to the county’s eco- nomic development offi - cials. At issue was the state crime of telephonic harass- ment. That law states that “a telephone caller commits the crime of telephonic harassment if the caller intentionally harasses or annoys another person” by calling a number they have been for- bidden to use. This week Sheriff Brian Wolfe announced that his offi ce would not investigate. He said there was no evi- dence to support the allegations. That decision was made after the story was reported in news outlets across the country. It also raised the hackles of many Malheur County res- idents. If the local newspaper can be under threat of criminal prosecution for doing its Constitutionally-pro- tected duty, is anyone safe from the wrath of public offi cals who don’t like to be questioned about their actions? Public offi cials are just that: public. They work for the citizens. The op- erations of every public offi ce needs to be transparent, it should not be a burden for offi cials to answer questions from the press or the people. The allegation of ha- rassment from reporters from the Malheur En- terprise was a weapon offcials hoped would put a stop to journalistic investigations into the dealings of county offi cials. We can hope this puts an end to the intimida- tion of that newspaper and any media outlet doing their job. In a climate where leaders decry the media as an enemy of the people we all must be vigilante for attempts to bind the hands of organizations that are the watchdog on govern- ment. —LAZ editorial Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $35 in Marion County, $43 outside Marion County, $55 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 POSTMASTER Send address changes to: EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 publisher@keizertimes.com 2019-2020 President Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon Around Keizer By HUNTER C. BOMAR I am grateful to have worked at the Keizertimes. In December of 2018, I gradu- ated from George Fox University; I was leaving with my communications degree in hand hoping to make my mark. After leaving the safety of the school and putting my gradu- ation cap in the closet, post-graduate life grimly welcomed me to the real world. Months went by after I received my di- ploma and I still hadn’t found a job. The pressure of not failing to launch weighed on my shoulders. Job deni- al after job denial landed in my lap and discouragement became my daily cross to bear. What’s worse, after one job inter- view, I got my car towed in Portland because it was parked two inches into a no parking zone. Not only did I have to shell out $552 to get the car back, I didn’t even get the job. This, too, pulled me down deeper into a lack of hope and even a lack of belief in myself. Needless to say, my excitement about not having homework and be- ing out of school began to wear off day by day. Amid my self-pitying funk, a family friend sent me a text about a part-time job position. It was a community journalist position at the Keizertimes. The job was in my hometown and would be a position where I could utilize my degree; I applied imme- diately. The job applica- tion involved providing writing samples as well as doing a brief report on an upcoming commu- nity event. The event I was tasked to write about was the Chemawa Indian School Spring Pow Wow. I began writing and doing what I needed to provide the best application I could. After submitting the fi nal piece of my application and doing an interview with Keizertimes publisher, I was offered the po- sition. Things began to look up. The months fol- lowing in- volved craft- ing my news writing abili- guest column ties, and honing in my capabilities to collect all the details needed to tell a good news story, as well as comical learning that it is spelled Keizertimes and not Keizer Times. The value of a small community newspaper was also impressed upon me. I learned the importance of not just paying attention to the news oc- curring around the world but giving attention to the local news that affects my neighbor living down the street. The Keizertimes had been a blessing to me, and I have been provided with skills I will use for the rest of my life. (Hunter Bomar was employed as a community reporter for the Keizer- times in 2019.) Conversation about future of KeizerFEST others. Ideas about festival location, the annual parade and festival events were addressed during the 90-min- ute roundtable, which will be dis- cussed by the KeizerFEST commit- tee as they begin planning the 2020 festival. MAK helps to remodel Keizer Homegrown Sen. Thatcher gives report to Rotary Club to keep Oregon on Standard Time rather than switching with Daylight Saving Time. Congress could take up the issue once Washington state and California pass similar legisla- tion. Lamenting bills that passed, the senator cited a rent-control bill she opposed, as well as a bill that makes it diffi cult for the state to carry out the death penalty. (Gene H. McIntyre shares his opinion regularly in the Keizertimes.) What I learned as a journalist Community and business lead- ers met on Wednesday, Aug. 14, to discuss KeizerFEST, Keizer’s annual community event, at Community Conversations, staged by the Keizer Chamber of Commerce. The discussion was led by festival co-chair Scott White and execu- tive director Danielle Bethell of the Chamber. Among the attendees were May- or Cathy Clark, City Councilor Marlene Parsons, Chamber Presi- dent Jonathan Thompson, Mitche Graf and Mickey Walker of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and seven State Sen. Kim Thatcher (R-Dist. 13) was the guest speaker at the Ro- tary Club of Keizer’s weekly lun- cheon on Thursday, Aug. 15. Thatcher, serving her second term representing Keizer, Newberg and Wilsonville, told of the recently completed 2019 legislative session in which Democrats hold a super- majority (holding three-fi fths of the seats in each chamber). Thatcher was a sponsor of a bill world from a nuclear holocaust and a planet covered with radioactive isotopes.Without agreements that maintain checks for control, anything can happen, happen quickly and hap- pen all the way to Armageddon. The U.S. has been the keeper of the lid of nuclear weapons, preventing world war. That lid has been removed by the Trump administration. There are nine nations in the world’s nuke club, including China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pa- kistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. There are others surmised to be on the verge of membership. In the most recent, verifi able count, there are 14,500 weapons on Planet Earth. With tensions easily provoked, what’s expected next? Easily imag- ined is something like the start of World War I in which a prominent leader is murdered. Or, a compara- ble World War II, where one nucle- ar power attacks another nuclear or non-nuclear nation with multiple retaliations into a WW III. Ultimate- ly, should all-out nuclear war be our fate, converting Earth into huge fi re- ball, it would reduce our planet to a carbon-black cinder ball with a few surviving insects left to rule. Bob Shackelford (left) and Darrell Fuller of Men of Action for Keizer (MAK) volunteered their time and labor to turn the former kitchen at the Keizer Cultural Center into a dressing room, prop and scen- ery storage space for Keizer Homegrown Theatre. The theatre took over the second fl oor space at the Center for its home for seven productions each year. The remodel of the kitchen space will give cast members ample room for costume changes during shows as well as apply stage make-up. MAK is a volunteer group of men associated with the Keizer Chamber of Commerce which is actively involved in service projects in Keizer to better the community and to assist fellow citizens.
