Keizertimes., November 20, 2020, Page 4, Image 4

PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, NOVEMBER 20, 2020
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builder and a lawyer ac-
cused of sexual harass-
ment. But, the mere fact
letters
To the Editor:
of a challenge to the sta-
The dust has settled and
tus quo prompted Post to
the votes have been count-
post on (anti) social media,
ed. Keizer can be proud
“The leader of this gang, a
of the quality of the can-
current councilor will be
didates who stepped up to serve on ousted in two years..mark my words,
city council and as state representative. this gang will be tossed from Keizer.
The three progressive candidates I’ve had enough of their hostile take-
made a good show against establish- over attempts.”
ment candidates and an incumbent.
Perhaps a serious challenge to
Dylan Juran received a respectable Post from RJ Navarro inspired the
45% of the vote, and Michele Roland un-statesman-like hissy fi t, or may-
Schwartz barely lost in a squeaker. be Post’s knickers are in a knot after
Michael DeBlasi had a very tough the dear leader of his party failed to
uphill battle against incumbent Laura carry reliably red Marion County,
Reid, but received over 6,000 votes. but whatever the cause of his pique,
All candidates ran with enthusiasm, he should know that the “gang” aint’
integrity and honesty. We thank them goin’ nowhere. They will continue to
for that and know that they will con- fi eld candidates for local offi ce whose
tinue to serve our community the qualifi cations go beyond party loyalty
same way.
and next time, they’ll win. ‘Cause Bill
The race for House District 25 Post, the times, they are a changin’.
was closer than many thought would Martin Doerfl er
happen. Ramiro Navarro, a newcom- Keizer
er from Keizer without wide name
recognition, no elected experience,
and very little money, gave multi-
term incumbent Bill Post a real run
for his money, garnering a respectable To the Editor:
43% of the vote from almost 15,000 Dear Mayor Clark,
voters. That is a real indication of
I was deeply disappointed to read a
need for a change in House District letter sent from Rep. Bill Post’s offi ce
25. Bill Post has very little to point to on which you were a signatory asking
in his terms in the state House, ex- Governor Brown to not implement a
cept when he abandoned his job and “pause” to combat the spreading of
walked out rather than stay and see COVID-19 cornoavirus.
the democratic process through.
A signifi cant reason COVID cases
Mr. Post called the supporters of are rising in Oregon and around the
Navarro and other progressive candi- country is that many think they know
dates a “gang.” Most Americans would better than the medical professionals
call them an “alternative” candidates and scientists. By dismissing “simple”
who fi led and ran campaigns offering strategies as wearing a mask and safe
a different vision for the future, which distancing, individuals are playing a
is the way elections are supposed to deadly role in propagating this pan-
operate.
demic.
The 2020 election has shown that
I fi nd those that play politics with
Keizer is changing and we welcome the pandemic abhorrent and believe
those who step up and want to be they lack serious concern for the
part of the future.
safety and well-being of their con-
Kathy Lincoln
stituents. I do not see you as part of
Keizer
that group and hope you will resolve
the disappointment I feel about your
leadership right now. I hope you will
consider removing your name from
that letter. Instead, I implore you to
To the Editor:
send a message to Keizerites and those
It seems that my state Rep. Bill that visit, work, and play in our com-
Post (Tea Party, Trump Party, what- munity that your fi rst concern is for
ever) is a little cranky after a group our/their lives. #wearamask #were-
of Democrats, led by City Councilor allinthistogether
Roland Herrera and my wife, Carol
Respectfully,
Doerfl er, supported three candidates
Barbara McCullough-Jones
for Keizer City Council who were Barbara McCullough-Jones
not (horrors!) darlings of the Cham- Keizer
ber of Commerce.
None of them won. Instead Keizer
voters chose, an incumbent, a home
Votes for
progressives
Surviving new COVID restrictions
Governor Kate Brown’s ordered will go on while observing social dis-
a state-wide two-week freeze that tancing.
Fatigue with pandemic rules and
went into effect on Wednesday, Nov.
18. The freeze implemented new restrictions is understandable. Amer-
measures to limit gatherings and stop icans are doers—we don’t do well
when told to hunker down
the spread of COVID-19,
at home, especially during
which has been surging
the dark days of fall and
throughout the state in the
winter. The rules, restric-
past two weeks.
The pandemic will al- editorial tions and freezes are not pu-
nitive. Our leaders are mak-
ter Thanksgiving plans for
ing the best decisions they
hundreds of thousands of
can in a bad situation.
families. The freeze will
The food and beverage industry
force restaurants to offer take-out and
delivery only, which will leave bars has borne the brunt of the COVID
on the razor’s edge of survival. Most restrictions. A robust contact tracing
businesses will be affected, either by program would show that few of the
having to close or to limit in-person burgeoning cases come from restau-
rants and bars. The recent surge is
traffi c.
The holidays are going to be differ- reportedly coming from private gath-
ent—most events have been canclled, erings; Halloween parties resulted in
including Keizer’s Holiday Lights Pa- more cases than dining establishments.
Our society is in this together. If
rade and the tradiitonal lighting of the
Christmas tree at Walery Plaza. For- we don’t watch out for each other,
tunately, the Gubser neighborhood’s who will? Health expets on every
Miracle of Christmas light display level have been insistent that wear-
ing face masks is key to controlling
the coronovirus, yet many view that
as a trampling of personal liberties. It
is not.
Oregon has been dilligent in mask-
ing and social distancing. The state has
one of the lowest death rates in the
country and ranks 40th in the nation
with less than 60,000 coronavirus
cases. Texas and California have both
had more than 1 million cases. By
adhering to pandemic rules Oregon
fl attened the curve, we can do it again.
We must heed the experts when it
comes to matters of our health and
the coronavirus. When we let our
guard down due to virus fatigue or
personal beliefs we don’t just endan-
ger ourselves but others as well.
If we Oregonians tap into our pi-
oneer spirit, we can get control of
COVID-19 until a vaccine is avail-
able, which appears to be tantilizing
close.
—LAZ
We can still be thankful regardless of 2020
world. Visitors to Oregon proclaim
By LYNDON ZAITZ
There may be fewer people around that we live in God’s country. We do
our collective Thanksgiving tables this and we’re thankful for that. Natural
year. The holiday may be less than beauty is just one of the many rea-
celebatory in the time of a pandemic sons we are thankful to call Oregon
yet we have to fi nd the resolve to be home. This time of year I am mes-
merized by the geese fl ying
thankful.Take away politics,
over my house. I realize they
fi nancial hardships, COVID
on
are much less of a nuisance
and what have we got?
when they are in the air. I
We have the beauty of
my
am intrigued by the birds
family and friends we love.
and wonder why two birds
We have natural beauty
mind
often fl y by themselves as
all around us. We have the
opposed to with the rest of
adorable hijinks of our dogs
and the yawning non-chalance of our the fl ock. It did my heart good when
I observed a young woman watching
couldn’t-care-less cats.
The people in our lives are the the fl ying geese with her child. They
ones who make our lives. What would were enjoying nature. That’s some-
any of us be without the love and thing to be thankful for.
My pets don’t care that a holiday
support of family? They may not be
sitting across the holiday table but is coming up. Oh, they care when a
they will be there in our hearts and piece of turkey fi nds its way to the
minds. As social beings it is hard to fl oor. And they do care when there
forgo the gatherings we cherish, but are shiny things to play with hanging
there are ways to connect—as we have from a Christmas tree, othewise the
been doing during COVID—phone, holidays elicits little more response
Zoom, Facetime, etc. The key is to than rearranging their sleeping posi-
tions.
connect with the ones we love.
The annus horribilis that is 2020
We live in a spectacular part of the
Rallying cry?
a statement around which people ral-
By JOHN TEAGUE
(Letter sent by Chief John Teague ly to put forth their collective idea
to the Keizer mayor and city coun- and energy. That Keizer’s police offi -
cilors. Published with permission.) cers ever rallied, even in jest, to beat
people is simply untrue. I worked for
Mayor,
The fi rst of the ancient cardinal vir- Keizer PD throughout the ‘90s. I was
tues was prudence, practical wisdom. a union offi cer in the early years and
promoted to sergeant in
You exhibited prudence
1994, and I was involved
last night in your hesitancy
to have known
to publicly read John Mor-
from the enough
of any collective motiva-
gan’s letter. His allegation
tion among the offi cers.
that Keizer’s police offi cers
chief’s
We never rallied, much
once rallied around a racial
desk
less to assault immigrants.
slur, exciting themselves to
John may argue that
beat people, shocked your
he intended to attribute
conscience. I will say this up
front: at best, John was careless with his statement to Chief Stull alone. If
so, again, he chose his words carelessly.
his words.
Benny Williams was correct that Stull was so alienated from the rest of
“Black lives matter!” is a rallying cry, the department that he couldn’t ral-
Keizertimes
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EDITOR & PUBLISHER
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2019-2021 President
Oregon Newspaper Publishers
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offered plenty of reasons to be frus-
trated, angry, scared and depressed. I
don’t have control over many things
that happen in the world, but I can
control how I react to them. I will
look forward with positivity and grit.
I look forward to Christmas when
my brothers in California and I carry
on a new tradition: the one dollar gift
exhange. We give each other 10 gifts
that cost $1 each and one gift valued
at no more than $5. After several years
it becomes exceedingly challenging to
fi nd that many gifts; you fi nd youself
repeating yourself.
Baking of potica, a Slavic walnut
roll bread we grew up enjoying every
Thanksgiving and Christmas has fall-
en to me. My kitchen may be a di-
saster when I’ve fi nished but the love
emanating from the stove is unmistak-
able.
It may not seem like it, but the
world offers things to be thankful for.
As the song goes, what a wonderful
world. Being thankful in 2020 isn’t
as hard as one may think. You have to
look in the right place.
COVID-19 and
politics
The times are
a changin’
sudoku
Enter digits
from 1-9 into
the blank spac-
es. Every row
must contain
one of each
digit. So must
every column,
as must every
3x3 square.
(Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the
Keizertimes.)
ly even a handful of police offi cers
to his side, and any exclamation that
he might’ve begun with “Let’s” was
a non-starter. That he quickly devel-
oped a hostile workplace and had no
support among the offi cers is clear in
the Park report, the report that led to
his fi ring. The report was written in
May of 1997. Nowhere in its 113 pag-
es is there any mention of the alleged
rallying cry. Neither is it mentioned
in the 30 pages of John Morgan’s and
Wally Mull’s co-authored termination
memo to the council that met on June
30, 1997. Quite frankly, the police of-
fi cers never rallied around the idea or
otherwise tolerated the notion that
they should beat anybody.
Having said all of that, we were
not without our sins: like all police
offi cers everywhere, we believed the
academics when they told us that the
work we did could never affect crime;
subsequently, we policed without any
thought to the consequences of en-
forcement. That has changed marked-
ly—rather than only fi ghting badness,
we now cultivate goodness—but even
in the ‘90s the men and women who
policed Keizer were good people, in-
tolerant of immorality in their work
and among their members. That has
not changed.
(John Teague is Chief of Police for
the city of Keizer.)
maze
Maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer