PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, DECEMBER 18, 2020
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Needed relief expected
with special section
This special session will give much
With Legislative Committee Days
scheduled for this week, Christmas needed relief to hurting Orego-
right around the corner, and the 2021 nians. Proposed legislation includes
legislative session starting in January, COVID-19 liability protections for
schools, a critical fi rst step
Gov. Kate Brown has de-
to get schools reopened,
cided to call for a special
support for renters and
session on December 21.
landlords, as well as techni-
What does this mean and
cal changes in the restau-
what will be addressed?
rant industry that will help
The governor has
hard-working Oregonians
called for the third special
and small businesses.
session this year, which
It is my sincere hope
means legislators must go
that both parties can work
vote on legislation that
has been proposed by her
from the together for the good of all
of Oregon as we navigate
and the presiding leader-
capitol
through this pandemic.
ship.
I wish you all a Merry
A Special Session
By BILL POST
Christmas. And as always,
Committee
will
be
my offi ce is always open
formed to discuss the leg-
islation with public hearings and work for any assistance you might need.
(Bill Post represents House District
sessions. Upon passage, any legislation
will go to both the House and Senate 25. He can be reached at 503-986-
for a vote. The intent is to have any 1425 or via email at rep.billpost@ore-
gonlegislature.gov.)
proposed legislation passed in one day.
Tis the season for optimism
of sunshine into someone’s day.
By LYNDON ZAITZ
These thoughts are prevalent this
I have always been an optimist
and I am determined to remain op- time of year. Messages conveyed in
timistic, especially as we head into a Christmas carols and holiday stories
make us feel warm and sentimental.
new year.
I refuse to be part of the anger Peace on earth begins with each of
that has permeated the country us—that’s a powerful tool to have at
this year. Regardless of the cause of your disposal.
This a time when we gather fam-
people’s anger and frustration—po-
litical, fi nancial, cultural—I will not ily and friends close to us. This hol-
iday is a time to set aside
take part and will rather be
disagreements and em-
part the calming and sooth-
on
brace those who mean
ing that is sorely needed.
the most to us. We can-
What is the source of my
my
not allow opportunities
optimsm? The source is my
to show how we care for
experience in and knowl-
mind
loved ones go by. I’d rath-
edge of the world. I fi rmly
er share stories and play
believe that a person doesn’t
wake in the morning wondering games than rehash political argu-
how they can make another’s day ments from 2020.
One of the greetings I offer
horrible. We all have our daily lives
to live which leaves little time to during this season is: “May the joy
of the holidays be yours throughout
mess with someone else.
The saying that the best things in the new year.” It may sound like a
life are free is true and I wish every- generic Christmas card message, but
one would subscribe to that view. when you think about it, it’s not.
It doesn’t cost a cent to be nice. It Just as world peace begins with each
doesn’t cost a cent to offer a pleas- of us, the joy we experience during
ant “Hello.” A smile goes a long the year begins with us, as well. It is
way; it is wonderful to experience a matter of remembering. In a year
how that little gesture can be calm- such as we’ve experienced, remem-
ing and disarm someone is mad at bering what brought us joy and
how the universe is treating them. happiness in the past is important.
I am optimistic about the new
A scowl is not the default expres-
sion of people; everyone wants to be year because I choose to be. “Don’t
happy and there no greater valida- just stand there, do something!”
tion for us when we can bring a bit will be fi tting motto for 2021. Life
is either something that happens to
us or life is something we direct. I
prefer to have some semblance of
control. That includes how I react
to people and situations. I will be
polite and sincere and warm. I am
optimistic that people will respond
in kind.
I will await the new year, revel-
ing in the holidays: I will be (at my)
home for Christmas; a walnut sauce
will be cooking on the stove (rather
than chestnuts roasting); I will hear
what you hear (non-stop carols) and
my halls will be decked.
Tis the season of giving. I am
more thrilled with what I can give
rather than what I can receive. I
have never returned a gift and I
don’t make a list of what I ‘want.’
I am happy with whatever some-
one takes the time to choose, wrap
and present. I don’t think of what I
might get as a present...it’s a gift and
I cherish it.
The new year will come soon
enough. Life has changed. I can
lament the change all I want but it
won’t matter. Adaptation is the new
normal. Some embrace progress,
others don’t like change at all. I say,
2021, show us what you’ve got, I’m
up for the challenge.
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Has America’s Suez moment come?
cizing and isolating Iran and going
By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN
Two thousand-twenty will sure- to war if she should seek to build
ly qualify as an “annus horribilis” in nuclear weapons like those held by
her neighbors Israel, Pakistan, India,
the history of the Republic.
By New Year’s, one in every Russia and China.
Why is this our duty?
1,000 Americans, 330,000, will be
We are strategically “pivoting” to
dead from the worst pandemic in
Asia to contain a China
100 years. The U.S.
that is the rising pow-
economy will have
er of the new century
sustained a blow to
and whose economy and
rival the worst year of
other
armed forces rival our
the Great Depression.
voicesl
own, while its population
And by the end of
is four times larger.
December, much of
If South Korea is at-
the nation will be back
tacked by the North, or
in lockdown, with Joe
Biden repeatedly predicting a “dark Japan or the Philippines fi nd them-
selves fi ghting China over rocks in
winter” ahead.
Only at the apex of World War II the South and East China seas, we
has the U.S. defi cit and debt been so are obligated to treat any Chinese
attack as an attack upon us.
large a share of our economy.
Three decades ago, historian Paul
In the wake of George Floyd’s
death in Minneapolis, the summer Kennedy used the term “imperial
of 2020 produced riots the extent overstretch” to describe what hap-
of which rivaled the week after the pens to great powers when their
murder of Martin Luther King in global commitments become too
extensive to sustain.
1968.
This happened to the British at
Also revealed by the BLM upris-
ing of 2020 was an unknown depth the end of World War II when, bled,
of hatred many U.S. citizens have broken and bankrupted by the six-
for their country’s history, as they year war with Germany, she began
pulled down and smashed statues to shed her colonies. In the fall of
of men once revered as the great- 1956, Prime Minister Anthony
est leaders —Washington, Jefferson, Eden, Churchill’s foreign secretary,
Jackson, Lee, Grant, Theodore Roo- was ordered by President Eisen-
hower to get his troops out of Suez
sevelt, Woodrow Wilson.
By year’s end, tens of millions under an American threat to sink
were denying the legitimacy of the the British pound.
The British Empire was fi nished.
designated president-elect, who was
The imperial overstretch of the
to take offi ce on Jan. 20. Both par-
ties were charging the other with Soviet Empire was exposed from
1989 to 1991, with the withdraw-
trying to “steal” the presidency.
Can a nation so distracted, so di- al of its forces from Afghanistan,
vided, so at war with itself continue the fall of the Berlin Wall and the
to meet all of the duties, obligations collapse of the Iron Curtain. The
and commitments that are ours as captive nations of Eastern Europe
the self-proclaimed “leader of the broke free. The USSR then disinte-
free world”? Are we still the people grated along ethnic and tribal lines
into 15 nations.
and country we used to be?
Its diversity tore the Soviet
While we tear ourselves apart,
we remain obligated to defend Union apart.
On Dec. 2, at Brookings Institu-
nearly 30 nations of Europe from
Russia. We are committed to ostra- tion, joint chiefs chair Gen. Mark
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Milley said: “There’s a considerable
amount that the United States ex-
pends on overseas deployments, on
overseas bases and locations, etc. Is
every one of those absolutely, pos-
itively necessary for the defense of
the United States?” The Defense
Department, Milley added, must
“take a hard look at what we do,
where we do it.”
In a separate talk at the United
States Naval Institute, the chairman
added that U.S. permanent bas-
ing arrangements are “derivative of
where World War II ended.”
Indeed, NATO was formed and
its war guarantees were issued to
Western Europe in 1949, seven de-
cades ago. War guarantees to South
Korea, Japan, the Philippines and
Australia were all issued from 1950
to 1960.
These commitments to go to
war for other nations were issued
when Stalin was in the Kremlin, a
400,000-man Red Army sat on the
Elbe in Germany, and Mao and his
madness had just come to power in
Peking.
How long must we sustain all
these alliances and soldier on in the
“forever wars” of the Middle East?
Do we Americans still have the na-
tional unity, sense of purpose, and
disposition to sacrifi ce for the cause
of Western civilization we had in
the early days of the Cold War?
Or has our own Suez moment
arrived?
President Trump did not extri-
cate us from the “forever wars,” but
he did draw down our troop lev-
els in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he
did raise the question of how many
more decades must we defend a rich
Europe from a declining Russia that
has a fourth of its population and a
tenth of its wealth.
(Creators Syndicate)
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