PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 21, 2022
PUBLIC SQUARE welcomes all points of view. Published submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Keizertimes
2022.2?
By LYNDON ZAITZ
Several weeks ago I wrote about how
January brings an opportunity to shape
how the new year will be. I am always opti-
mistic that things will turn out alright.
What other choice do we have?
I am not ready to concede that my opti-
mism was misplaced, but three weeks into
the new year, that optimism is a bit tainted.
The nation's news announces new rea-
son to be angry or frustrated. A visit to the
local grocer demonstrates the effects fo the
global supply chain problem; we once were
greeted with fully stocked shelves. Now?
Not so much. It is human nature to want to
place the blame for this problem on some-
one or something.
For many of our ills today, blame it on
COVID. At the beginning of the pandemic,
manufacturers across all industries slowed
or shut down production due to lack of
demand and sick employees. It was not
only manufacturers, but also the transpor-
tation and shipping sectors. If you have
been waiting for a gadget for months, it is
most likely stuck on a cargo ship sitting
outside the ports of southern California.
President Biden tried to alleviate the
bottleneck by ordering ports to work
around the clock to unload ships, but that is
slow going. Recently Biden allowed teens to
drive the trucks that deliver goods. That's a
partial solution, but those teens need to be
trained and certified. No comments about
teen drivers, please; we have to give them
the benefit of the doubt.
Inflation is running at the highest level
in over 40 years. Many thought the days
of hyper-inflation was a thing of the past.
Prices are up 7 percent in the past year and
experts think that trend will continue far
into 2022. The higher prices you are paying
is due not only to supply chain issues, but
higher wages employers have to pay.
There are many tasks computers and
artifiical intelligence can accomplish, but
jobs of service and healthcare workers can-
not easily be foisted onto a HAL 9000.
SHARE
YOUR
OPINION
on my
mind
The rush to spend trillions of COVID
relief dollars to America's workers and
households led many in the workforce to
conclude they were better off living on
the public dime. Millions of employees
at all levels have decided to quit. When a
business faces a worker shortage, poten-
tial employees are in the driver's seat and
demand higher pay than is offered. Pay
employees more, you have increase the
price of what you sell.
Dealing with a pandemic that spawned
an economic crisis should not have been
any different to address than the Great
Depression of the 1930s. It required the full
force of our nation's leaders, using every
weapon in its arsenal. The country pulled
together during the Great Depression, yet
our response to COVID was defined by the
polarization that cripples the nation.
By a 7 million vote margin, the country
elected Joe Biden as president. More than
80 million people felt they were voting for
experienced, stable leadership that would
know what to do.
America needs leaders who will put
their country in front of their political
needs. They will do that when the people
demand it. We may never completely erad-
icate COVID and its disasterous results,
but if we all don't put our own and others
wellness ahead of politics, we will continue
to face challenges we have no control over.
If nothing else, people want some sem-
blence of control of their lives. I am opti-
mistic tha,t in the end, we Americans will
pull up out books and do what needs to be
done.
(Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the
Keizertimes.)
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Does Joe Biden feel lucky?
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
President Joe Biden went to Atlanta
last week to push for passage of what
Democrats hail as “voting rights”
legislation.
The speech prompted pundits to
question the wisdom of a president who
promised to bring the country together
comparing opponents of the Democrats’
Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis
Voting Rights Act to Jefferson Davis,
George Wallace and Bull Connor.
Biden argued that the Freedom to
Vote Act is necessary because Georgia
Republicans passed SB 202, an election
bill that represents “Jim Crow 2.0,” and
other states introduced laws to pro-
mote “voter suppression and election
subversion.”
Among changes in the Georgia bill are
provisions that would limit drop boxes to
one per 100,000 voters and require voter
ID for absentee ballots.
“Rules that were implemented in
Georgia to accommodate voters in the
height of COVID, understandably need
to be changed when COVID wanes,”
GOP strategist Alice Stewart told me.
Biden also invoked the most out-
rage-provoking provision of the Georgia
law, which he said “makes it illegal to
bring your neighbors, your fellow voters,
food or water while they wait in line to
vote.”
After the bill passed, The Washington
Post ran a story about a food truck that
feeds voters as they stand in line. The
headline: “New limits on food and water
at Georgia’s polls could hinder Black and
low-income voters, advocates say.”
What advocates should be saying
is that well-run Georgia counties don’t
make voters stand in lines for hours and
something must be done. Want to boost
voter turnout? Insist on more workers,
not water.
And another thing: To safeguard vot-
ers during COVID-19, Georgia expanded
vote by mail, early voting and drop boxes.
With two other options, voters didn’t
need to stand in line for hours.
And if they chose to stand in line, SB
202 allows for self-serve water stations.
“Line warming”—the practice of try-
ing to “inappropriately influence vot-
ers in the crucial final moments before
they cast their ballots”—already was
other
VOICES
illegal, Georgia Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger noted last year.
Raffensperger, by the way, is the
Republican election official who rejected
former President Donald Trump’s tele-
phone entreaty to “find 11,780 votes” to
flip the Peach State in Trump’s favor.
Biden praised the GOP election offi-
cial, even as he likened the state election
law he supported to the Confederacy and
segregationists.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the ques-
tion that begs to be asked: Noting that
New Jersey bans ballot harvesting and
Delaware limits early voting, Tapper
asked why “Democrats only complain
about the strict voting regulations in red
states, in Texas and Georgia,” and not in
Democratic states.
That is not a trick question.
The Democrats’ Freedom to Vote Act
is designed to tilt elections to the left. It
would require all states to offer same-day
registration, automatic “motor voter”
registration, online registration and drop
boxes.
The Freedom to Vote Act also under-
cuts voter ID requirements in states that
require official photo IDs. “States that do
not have a voter identification require-
ment would not be required to make any
changes,” according to a fact sheet put
out by co-sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar,
D-Minn.
And it would make Election Day a
public holiday.
For an apparent power grab, Biden
has turned up the pressure on mod-
erate Democrats to change Senate
rules—dump the filibuster—to get these
measures passed.
He’s pushing ahead even as vot-
ing-rights advocates skipped his speech.
They pushed Biden to the precipice, and
now they want distance.
So, here’s the other question that begs
to be asked: Are there 50 lemmings in the
Senate?
(Creators Syndicate)