PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, DECEMBER 11, 2020
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love of country. The 5,000
To the Editor:
Year Leap by W. Cleon Skou-
Last night (Monday,
sen and If You Can Keep It by
Dec. 7), there was a pub-
Eric Metaxas; I recommend
lic hearing at the Keizer
letters
both. At the birth of our na-
City Council to deter-
tion they understood they
mined how to “fi x” the
had something very special in
issue of 10 feet of dam-
a free country with a form of
aged sidewalk located on
government never attempted
Harcourt Avenue at the
side of a residence (1360 Ivy Way NE, before. Loving America was a given
Keizer, Oregon). Fixing the sidewalk for them. But our wise founders knew
would have caused the removal of two that this freedom was not to be used
perfectly healthy, magnifi cent trees – frivolously, but for the betterment of
trees that are heritage-like landmarks all. This amazing way of life could only
be sustained by “virtuous” people. If
for this area of Keizer.
The council voted for the simple we failed, our government would fail.
I believe we still have something
solution of removing the sidewalk and
retaining the trees. This outcome was very special in America, we have been
not too surprising since the council blessed beyond measure, but how much
continues to demonstrate a commit- longer can we expect those blessings
ment to making this community a vi- to continue? Our nation has become
extremely divided; even a world-wide
tal and enjoyable place to live.
However, I was surprised to learn health crisis, that at one time may have
that members of the council personal- brought us together, has caused further
ly visited the site beforehand to make division. United we stand, divided we
sure they understood all aspects of the fall. Galatians 5:15 says, If you keep
issue. And I was thoroughly impressed on biting and devouring each other,
with the all effort the council made in watch out or you will be destroyed by
each other.
getting to the right decision.
Metaxas says that part of being a
Many thanks to the mayor and the
councilors for all the time and effort virtuous people involves sacrifi ce. It
they contribute to making the City of requires us to own and deal with the
bad in America, but simultaneously
Keizer a very special community.
look past it to what is still good and
Barbara Hunter true and noble in this country, its hope
Keizer and its promise… and to feed it. He
says we need American heroes that
once again will inspire us to become
To the Editor:
We know that we are called to love, better people and we need strong mor-
our God, our neighbors, ourselves, and al leaders to call us to higher ground.
even our enemies, but I had never tru- We need to be fed and we need to feed
ly applied that love to “love of coun- each other. Love is a powerful tool for
try.” Many of you are way ahead of me individuals and for country. I pray we
on this. We know that love requires can fi nd the ties that bind us together
self-sacrifi ce and that we acknowledge and go forward into 2021 with a new
our failings, but not dwell there. We sense of love for our country, its peo-
must see beyond the bad and look at ple, and the whole world, which will
the good and the potential in all and be watching and waiting to see if we
“feed” what is good. “What we feed, succeed.
good or bad, is more inclined to grow.”
Nancy Vowell
I’ve recently read two books that
Keizer
clarifi ed my way of thinking about
What Biden’s fi rst 100 days could look like
By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN
The Biden-Harris administration
will confront “a pandemic, an eco-
nomic crisis, calls for racial justice and
climate change. The team being as-
sembled will meet these challenges on
Day One.”
So declares the transition team of
Joe Biden, to echo what he’s defi ned
as the lead items on his presidential
agenda. And if this is his agenda, then
how our presumed 46th president will
proceed suggests itself.
The COVID-19 pandemic is now
close to its apex, with a million new
cases and a death toll in excess of
10,000 each week. We appear to be
near the crest of the “second wave.”
Biden’s emphasis, as he has signaled,
will be on slowing down the spread
of the virus by universal masking and
locking up and shutting down sectors
of the American economy.
Yet, even as the worst of the pan-
demic appears directly ahead in De-
cember and January, the last six weeks
of Donald Trump’s presidency, the
light at the end of the tunnel may be
sighted within Biden’s fi rst 100 days.
The Pfi zer and Moderna vaccines,
which have proven 90-95% effective
against the virus, begin to come on
line this month. By the end of Biden’s
fi rst 100 days, May 1, the benefi cial
effect of scores of millions of vaccina-
tions should be visible to all, and the
pandemic should be seen as irretriev-
ably receding.
At least, that is the hope and expec-
tation. And the media would natural-
ly attribute the new dawn not to the
triumph of Trump’s Operation Warp
Speed but to the new president.
Biden’s response to the economic
crisis caused by the COVID-19 pan-
demic will almost surely be along the
lines of what Congress is now debat-
ing, contingent upon whether Mitch
McConnell is prepared to accept what
comes over from the House.
A trillion-dollar package seems
baked in the cake, as the country
would not long tolerate congressio-
nal inaction if the pandemic were still
raging through the population as it is
today.
As for racial inequality, the pandem-
ic has exposed, deepened and widened
it. The surge in shootings and killings
in major cities during the pandemic is
hitting the Black communities hardest.
The decline in test scores at schools
where kids have been kept away from
formal classes since March is most pro-
nounced among minorities. Black and
Hispanic workers in service industries
are a disproportionate share of the vic-
tims of the pandemic.
If half a century of social progress
after the civil rights revolution of the
‘60s and eight years of the fi rst Black
president have failed to reduce racial
disparities in income, wealth, employ-
ment and incarcerations, does anyone
believe Joe Biden has the solution?
As for climate change, John Ker-
ry, the new climate czar, will begin
his tenure after a year of the deepest
reductions in carbon emissions in re-
corded history.
By Dec. 31, U.S. carbon emissions
will have fallen 9% from the end of
2019. Emissions from cars and aircraft
fell 4% in 2020, from power 2.8%, and
from industry .6%. On the fl ip side,
forest fi res reduced the 9% cut in car-
bon emissions by fully one-third.
Yet, it is in foreign policy where the
traps appear.
The drawdown in U.S. troops in
Afghanistan, to 2,500 by Jan. 15, will
leave us with the smallest contingent
since the U.S. plunged into that coun-
try to remake it more in our image in
2001.
And the troop drawdown comes at
a time when the Taliban control the
largest swath of Afghan territory since
being overthrow 19 years ago. The
possibility of a collapse in Kabul, chaos
ensuing and the country disintegrating
early in a Biden presidency cannot be
ruled out.
Would Biden be willing to preside
over an American defeat similar to that
in Vietnam in 1975?
But the truly formidable challenge
for a President Biden will be China,
which is not the China of 2016 that
Vice President Biden recalls.
While the U.S. refuses to recognize
China’s claims to disputed islets in the
East and the South China Seas and has
committed itself to defend the Japa-
Keizertimes
nese and Philippine claims, Beijing has
not backed away from its claims and,
indeed, has grown increasingly belli-
cose in making them.The U.S. has also
been thickening ties to Taiwan.
Yet, what many Americans see as a
democratic island of 25 million whose
defense is a moral obligation and stra-
tegic necessity, China sees as a break-
away province, and signals in every
way that it would fi ght a war rather
than let Taiwan go.
maze
Maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer
Wheatland Publishing Corp.
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These issues are likely to be decid-
ed in this decade. And it is hard to see
how the U.S., 7,000 miles away, with
a slowly shrinking share of the world’s
economic and military power, would
prevail indefi nitely over a China that
has the advantages of proximity and
population, and whose power is steadi-
ly rising in relative terms to that of the
United States.
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