PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 19, 2021
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maze
Keizer’s response to ice storm
Society has been trained to call
Some people laid in bed, awake,
listening to the crack of trees breaking 9-1-1 in an emergency, which is the
under the weight of ice, worrying that correct course of action when a per-
son is injured or in medical distress.
a tree may fall on their home.
Others struggled with a power The 9-1-1 dispatch service for our
outage that left them in the dark and area was innudated with calls from
unable to communicate due to cable Keizer and Salem. Reportedly, at one
time there were hun-
and internet service inter-
dreds of calls swamping
rupted by the ice storm.
the system. It is indisput-
Keizer’s electricity pro-
able that 9-1-1 be called
viders quickly went to work
in emergencies.
to get the power back on.
editorial
When weather cre-
For many the power was off
ates chaos you can bet
for a few days; houses grew
that fi rst responders are
cold and food spoiled in re-
on the streets. Not ev-
frigerators.
ery cracked tree or fallen
Sunday morning dawned.
The damage in the light of day was limb is an emergency, it is a major in-
widespread. And Keizer residents did convenience and annoyance, but not
what they always do: they helped their an emergency. It is situations such as
neighbors. The sound of chainsaws these when our resilience kicks in and
rang out across the city as downed we get to work to help ourselves and
trees and limbs were cut into managa- others.
Besides the symphony of chain-
ble pieces.
It was not only the manual help saws throughout town the chorus of
Keizerites offered one another, it was smoke alarms beeping rang out in
psychological and spiritual help, as homes in every neighborhood. Each
well. People checked on the status of year public service announcements
family, friends and neighbors. Those remind us to change smoke alarm
who needed a warm place during the batteries, many do. Those who didn’t
power outages got one through the change the battery with the onset of
daylight savings time in November,
altrusim of others.
Keizer does not receive hazardous heard about it if their power went out
winter weather on a regular basis. and alarm batteries unchanged. (Day-
When the city is hit with deep snow light standard time begins March 14.)
We rarely think about emergencies
or an ice storm many of us are not
prepared. Last week’s weather is a re- until they happen. Like the Boy Scout
minder that we all should be ready for motto, we all need to be prepared.
That’s the nature of emergencies, they
emergencies.
seldom telegraph their arrival. Keiz-
er suffered through an ice storm last
weekend, what other emergencies
might visit Keizer that we must pre-
pare for? An earthquake is something
the public sector is preparing for.
Our schools are being retrofi tted to
withstand earthquakes as bridges and
overpasses are on our highways.
Allocating money for disasters is
money well spent. Though we can
forecast a weather front, sometimes
nature is unpredictable and we have
to be ready for whatever comes.
What to do? Come spring home-
owners can inventory the trees on
their property and identify those that
can cause problems in a wind or ice
storm. Consulting a tree service is a
good start.
Emergencies are not limited to cold
and ice. The possibility of a wildfi re
tearing through Keizer is not foreign.
In today’s climate change scenario, in
the right conditions, a fi re could rage
through town. At that point cutting
shrubs away from the house is too late.
It is one way we can be prepared for
an emegency.
Public safety agencies have no
shortage of information about pre-
paring emergency kits and what to do
during a disaster. That information is
always available to the public.
Let us learn the lessons this month’s
ice storm has taught us. Let us be pre-
pared for whatever comes next.
—LAZ
Senator, impeach thyself
Consequences? Not an issue.
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
Up until Hawley’s announcement,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell told Republican sena- Washington had expected Trump’s
tors that their vote on impeachment claims he actually won the election
would fi zzle when Congress did its
should be based on “conscience.”
Conscience? It apparently has less job on Jan. 6. Instead, there was may-
of a presence on Capitol Hill than hem and death.
Hawley also called impeachment
partisan identity.
Consider the words of Sen. Josh a “political vendetta” and a waste of
time when Washington
Hawley, R-Mo., a likely
should be concentrating
presidential hopeful in 2024
in getting out vaccines
anxious to court the Trump
to the American public.
vote.
other
If only Hawley had
During a Fox News in-
voices
thought about sticking
terview last week, Hawley
to the Senate’s business
charged the impeachment
before he blew up the
effort is a “totally illegiti-
Republican Party.
mate” and has “no basis in
I’ve listened to objections to
the Constitution.” And he chastised
Democrats for trying to “silence and this impeachment, and yes, they point
write out” the votes of 74 million to a double standard.
If it’s so wrong to challenge the
Trump supporters.
Thing is, Hawley has no credibility outcome of an election, Trump sup-
when it comes to legitimacy. Haw- porters ask, why make Rep. Jamie
ley was ready to overrule 81 million Raskin, D-Md., the head House im-
votes legally cast for now-President peachment prosecutor? Raskin, after
all, challenged Florida’s pro-Trump
Joe Biden.
In December, when Hawley an- electoral vote on technical grounds
nounced he would not vote to cer- in 2017.
Be it noted that then-Vice Presi-
tify the Electoral College vote, he
gave birth to the fantasy that on Jan. dent Biden ruled Raskin out of order.
6, Donald Trump’s most outraged And that was the end of that.
When leftists torched American
supporters somehow could persuade
Congress to overturn, rather than cities during protests ostensibly meant
certify, Electoral College results put- to promote social justice, Democratic
ting Joe Biden in the White House. politicians weren’t put in a position
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where they were expected to force-
fully denounce violence generated
on their side of the aisle.
Months after the riots began,
Biden issued a statement in which he
actually blamed Trump for infl aming
the country.
On January 11, Sen. Rand Paul,
R-Ky., asked on Fox News where the
outrage was when protesters of police
shootings accosted his wife and him
after they attended Trump’s Republi-
can National Convention acceptance
speech on the South Lawn.
To those who say that Trump’s
remarks incited a riot, Paul added,
he never used that standard on Sen.
Bernie Sanders after a left-wing ac-
tivist who had volunteered on Sand-
ers’ campaign shot Rep. Steve Scalise,
R-La., during softball practice.
Paul has a point, but it is dwarfed
by the enormity of what happened
on Jan. 6. Egged on by a president
who falsely claimed the election was
stolen from him, partisans stormed
the Capitol to overturn an election
by force.
If Hawley hadn’t proposed trying
to pressure Congress to do something
it was not entitled to do, there may
not have been a riot on Jan. 6.
So, I guess it’s too bad Hawley has
issues with impeachment. But really,
he only has himself to blame.
(Creators Syndicate)
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