PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 9, 2021
We need an effort at civic healing
PUBLIC SQUARE welcomes all points of view. Published submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Keizertimes
Welcome, Wes Hare
Editorial
The Keizer City Council voted on
Tuesday, July 6, to hire Wes Hare as interim
city manager.
City operations have run smoothly since
the resignation of the previous city manager
in April. City Manager Pro Tem Tim Wood,
the city's finance director, served well, yet a
pro tem has limited powers. As interim city
manager Wes Hare will have all the respons-
bilities allowing city business to be con-
ducted apace.
Hare is not eligible to be considered for
the permanent city manager position, which
is a shame, considering his resume: city man-
ager in Albany, LaGrande and Oakridge as
well as consulting overseas. His specialties
include community development and finan-
cial management.
The city council will begin a national
search for a permanent city manager, a pro-
cess that will include plenty of public input.
Until a person is hired, Wes Hare will serve
the city well, he will serve for six months or
more, plenty of time for him to leave his mark
on the city.
Thank you, Tim Wood, for stepping
into the position to serve the community.
Welcome to Keizer, Wes Hare. We are glad
you are here.
—LAZ
KeizerFEST 2021
Keizer will be dancing in the streets in
less than a month.
Plans for KeizerFEST 2021 are underway
as the city gears up for its biggest community
event of the year, and residents are ready.
Like many cultural events, last year's fes-
tival was canceled due to COVID. Now that
Oregon is fully opening and all restrictions
lifted, KeizerFEST will be where the action is.
The festival is Thursday to Sunday, Aug.
5 to Aug. 8, featuring most of the what we all
look forward to: the parade down River Road,
on Saturday, Aug. 7, the entertainment tent
K/S senior center set to
re-open in July
To the Editor:
Keizer/Salem Area Senior Center, on the
corner of Cherry Ave. N.E. and Plymouth
Drive in Keizer, is proud and happy to
announce that we ae reopening our doors
this month.
To celebrate, we are holding an open
house 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20.
Join us for cake, coffee and a chance to recon-
nect with old friends or make new ones.
filled with music, kids activities, runs and
more.
Organized by the Keizer Chamber of
Commerce, KeizerFEST 2021 will mark the
final year of the leadership of Dave Walery,
who has been involved with Keizer festivi-
tes for more than 40 years. He and Danielle
Bethell, along with new Chamber Executive
Director Corri Falardeau, are working to
stage an event worthy of a COVID-weary city.
—LAZ
Letters
Beginning Thursday, July 22, we will be
open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Activities and classes will be limited.
Check schedule information at www.ksascen-
ter.com.
Geordene Lane, Parlimentarian
Keizer/Salem Area Senior Center
By MICHAEL GERSON
If we were to judge the health of our repub-
lic by the sanity and stability of Fox News
hosts, these would be dark times indeed.
After Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chair-
man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently
defended the academic study of critical
race theory at the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point, Laura Ingraham vented: “Why
is Congress not saying, ‘We’re not going to
give you a penny until all of this is eradicated
from the military budget? Nothing.’” She is
asserting, in essence, that the military should
be defunded if it doesn’t share her latest cul-
ture-war mania.
It’s true that our nation is more than the
sum of its ideological grifters and bottom
feeders. But Ingraham’s remarks are relevant
because conservative media has reshaped
one of the United States’ political parties in
its angry, ignorant image.
Significant actors in our political life have
lost something important. They no longer
care about the integrity of our constitutional
process or accept the existence of a shared
public reality. They care only about achiev-
ing their preferred political outcomes. This
was the motivating spirit behind the Jan. 6
Capitol revolt and is the continuing inspira-
tion of former president Donald Trump’s big
electoral lie: If American systems and insti-
tutions don’t deliver the results we seek, burn
them down.
At 245 years old, the United States has a
significant portion of citizens—a majority of
those currently identifying with the GOP—
who say they believe the legitimately elected
U.S. president is illegitimate. They say they
believe, against all the evidence, that pro-
gressives led the violent assault on the U.S.
Capitol. And in states across the country,
these right-wing, authoritarian populists are
rearranging electoral systems to better dis-
pute and overcome future outcomes that dis-
please them.
This is the main threat to American
democracy. It must be confronted. But one
sure way to make things worse is to respond
in kind. When it comes to the defense of
democratic institutions, fighting fire with fire
is to join in the arson. Anyone, of any ideo-
logical background, who believes that the
primary object of politics is to discredit and
crush your political enemies is contributing
to the crisis. No form of loving your country
involves despising half its citizens.
So what is the proper response to the glee-
ful civic nihilism of our time? Some proposed
solutions—such as better civics education,
or a year of national service, or institutional
reforms such as ranked-choice voting or
independent redistricting commissions—
tend to sound like naive do-gooderism. It’s
difficult to imagine programmatic responses
to organic decay.
other
VOICES
But let me rise in defense of do-gooder-
ism as a defining American characteristic.
Our civic crisis of vicious polarization can
yield only to efforts at civic healing. Our
social crisis of fragmentation and declining
social trust can be confronted only by efforts
to reknit social ties. Our spiritual crisis of ris-
ing depression, addiction and suicide can be
opposed only by community institutions that
are in the business of meaning.
Civic healing is possible only with a mea-
sure of civic idealism. It has worked in the
past. Thousands of influential institutions
were created in the late 19th century to fight
political corruption, advance civil rights,
promote democratic character and respond
to the suffering and dislocation of urbaniza-
tion and industrialization. And there are cur-
rently thousands of institutions attempting
the civic, social and spiritual healing of the
United States.
Attempting transformative social change
raises two questions. First, how can insti-
tutions of renewal find each other and
strengthen their mutual work? Second, how
can good citizens find these institutions to
support with their time and money?
In the run-up to Independence Day, a
broad, bipartisan effort had been launched
to provide answers. A new Partnership for
American Democracy has been created to
catalyze a national effort at civic healing. It
has been designed as an infrastructure for
organizations to share information, encour-
age innovation, pool resources and coordi-
nate messaging. It will also eventually be a
single place for individuals to find their role
in this movement.
Participants in the Partnership for
American Democracy include organiza-
tions that encourage civic literacy, promote
community bridge-building, expand youth
service opportunities, advocate for political
reform, hold media organizations to ethical
account, advance respect for shared facts
and foster emotional health. All the institu-
tions agree on the need to work across parti-
san and cultural divides in solving practical
social challenges -- and to make such habits
of cooperation an expectation of American
citizenship.
This is do-gooderism on steroids, which
is exactly what our nation requires. We need
the social return of love -- love of country and
love for our impossible, invaluable neighbors.
This may be sentiment, but it is also sanity.
(Washington Post)
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