PAGE A15, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 25, 2022
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Hold the line just a bit longer
Mask mandates in Oregon are expected
to be lifted by March 31, if not sooner. That
is welcome news to everyone, especially
students and their parents, who have been
vocal about those requirements.
Oregonians have a month yet to adhere
to the mandates that have done so much to
keep COVID-19 from ravaging Oregon as
it has done in other parts of the country.
Surely we can all wear masks indoors for
four more weeks.
Some say that government can't be
trusted to keep to a March 31 deadline
for lifting mandates. But we do not know
today what COVID-19 variants may be lurk-
ing, waiting to take advantage wherever it
can.
No one likes having to wear masks, or
social distancing, or waiting longer because
Senator Thatcher
votes for safety
To the Editor:
State Senator Kim Thatcher voted
against a bill that would let thousands back
on the streets. The last several years Oregon
has seen a large increase in crime. SB1511,
which is in the Ways and Means Committee
would let thousands more of the criminals
back on the street. The criminals know they
won’t be punished for their crimes so they
just do what they want. Why should the cit-
izens work hard to buy their home? Or buy
a car, when someone can just come by and
steal it. Our children are not safe even in
their parent's homes because of these crim-
inals. This will retraumatize crime victims
and their families by just knowing that the
criminals are back on the street
Portland is overrun with shootings and
Salem is going in that direction.
We need people like Thatcher in the leg-
islature that will vote against these terrible
bills.
Ruby Pantalone
Keizer
Are candidates any
better than Gov. Brown?
To the Editor:
Heavy with disappointment but without
malice, a near-the-end assessment of Kate
Brown as governor of Oregon has found her
short on leadership skills.
Brown arrived at the top political job here
by the wayward and irresponsible behavior
of her predecessor. Of course, she could
have declined it; however, she didn’t and
then ran on her own to win in a state where
from the outset, since Democrats count the
largest number of voters, practically assured
her a victory unless she had immediately
proven herself not equal to the demands of
the job, a condition she kept under wraps for
a while.
Besides inadequate leadership skills, she
has displayed a knack for getting a whole
lot of people really burned-up and superhot
under the collar. One standout among her
repertoire of stumbling around has been
the chronic, endless bungling of unemploy-
ment benefits to those in desperate need,
having duly earned her ‘We’re just mad-
as-hell’ status. Then there was, among the
examples, her action over COVID-19 pro-
tections where, apparently, her union pals
were placed at the front of the vaccination
line ahead of seniors or those determined
to be at greatest risk. Meanwhile, her mask
mandates have made bitter enemies out of
Editorial
businesses are short staffed. We all need to
be patient, and just like the celebrations
after the Allied victory in Europe in 1945,
we will all be able to tear off our masks and
get back to some sense of normalcy.
Once masks are no longer required, we
should all be responsible how we dispose
of them; throwing them on the ground, with
a feeling of freedom, won't be good for the
planet.
Hold the line, we're almost there.
— LAZ
Letters
former congenial Oregonians.
Oregon’s current secretary of state
Shemia Fagan and members of the state’s
Supreme Court, arguably, are human just
like the rest of us. So, of course, they may err
in their duties, acting on their responsibili-
ties. Heavens to mercy, they may even allow
political influences and self-serving consid-
erations to enter into their decision-mak-
ing. I’ll say no more here because they have
powers that could make my personal life a
living hell but reserve my right of opinion
to say that there are profound misgivings
when it comes to denying a person to run for
Oregon governor who has displayed consid-
erable intelligence, knowledge and insights,
rather likely to make a real difference in out-
comes in the job now held by Kate Brown.
The line-up of those who want to be gov-
ernor of Oregon provides opinion on the
list: it appearing to be a collection of per-
sons weighted by partisan baggage and the
inevitable favors to buddies and pals, end-
ing us again with a governor doing the same
that been done, again and again and again,
expecting a different outcome (the defini-
tion of insanity). The Democrats among
prospects look like warmed-over versions
of the incumbent while Republicans have
made it known they want our nation (fol-
lowed by Oregon), to move quickly from
democracy to autocracy. And, if the average
Joe and Jane thinks their freedoms have
been infringed of late over the pandemic,
just wait until this kind of government
happens.
Gene H. McIntyre
Keizer
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A pathetic response
By MARC A. THIESSEN
Remember the uproar last month when
President Joe Biden declared that the U.S.
response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine
would depend on whether it was a “minor
incursion”? Critics rightly pointed out
that Biden had effectively given Russian
President Vladimir Putin a greenlight
to invade eastern Ukraine. President
Volodymyr Zelensky quickly rebuked
Biden, tweeting, “There are no minor incur-
sions.” Biden had to quickly backtrack,
declaring the next day that “any—any—
assembled Russian units move across the
Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.”
Well, on Feb. 21, Putin sent assem-
bled Russian units across the border into
eastern Ukraine. And what was the Biden
administration’s immediate reaction? To
excuse Putin’s actions and downplay them
as nothing more than a minor incursion.
In his address to the nation last week,
Biden finally acknowledged that “this is the
beginning of a Russian invasion.” Before
then, The Washington Post reported that
Putin’s actions had forced the adminis-
tration “into an uneasy dilemma about
whether that constituted an invasion.” One
senior administration official “repeatedly
refused to say whether Putin’s decision to
send ‘peacekeeping’ troops into the two
Russian-backed separatist areas consti-
tuted a red-line invasion in the eyes of the
Biden administration.”
This is beyond belief. After his “minor
incursion” gaffe, Biden drew a clear red line.
He said that if “any”—and he repeated the
word “any”—Russian units crossed those
borders, that would constitute an invasion.
Well, Putin did exactly that. He crossed the
border —and Biden’s red line. But instead of
responding decisively, his administration
pathetically twisted itself into knots, look-
ing for excuses not to call it an “invasion.”
Then, after belatedly acknowledging
an invasion was underway, Biden failed to
respond with the crippling sanctions he had
promised. In his address, Biden announced
personal sanctions on Russian elites and
their family members, as well as some lim-
ited sanctions on two Russian banks. But he
failed to announce any sanctions targeting
Russia’s two most significant exports—oil
and natural gas. Why? Because Germany
now gets more than half of its natural gas
imports from Russia, while the rest of the
European Union depends on Russia for
about 40%. And because Biden knows that
oil and gas sanctions could impact energy
prices in the United States as well.
Indeed, while Biden failed to announce
energy sanctions, he delivered an extended
soliloquy on his determination to blunt the
impact of sanctions on energy prices here
other
VOICES
at home. “As we respond, my administra-
tion is using every tool at our disposal to
protect American businesses and consum-
ers from rising prices at the pump,” Biden
said. “I am going to take robust action to
make sure that the pain of our sanctions is
targeted at the Russian economy, not ours.”
What kind of message of resolve is that?
What Putin hears is that Biden is afraid to
impose crippling energy sanctions because
he does not want to be held responsible
for driving gas prices up even further just
months before the midterm elections. That
will only embolden the Russian leader.
Worse still, Biden failed to deliver on
his promise, made earlier this month to
“end” the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia
invaded Ukraine. Biden had declared that
“if Russia invades,” which “means tanks
or troops crossing the border of Ukraine
again,” then “there will be no longer a
Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Standing beside Biden, German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz repeatedly refused to echo his
declaration or even mention Nord Stream
2 by name.
Well, Russia just did what Biden said—
sending its forces across Ukraine’s bor-
der. So, is Nord Stream 2 ended? No. On
Tuesday, Scholz announced that he was
halting the certification of the pipeline, so
he could “re-evaluate this situation, in view
of the latest developments.” Halting and
re-evaluating Nord Stream 2 is very dif-
ferent from ending it. In his speech, Biden
said that “we’ve worked with Germany to
ensure Nord Stream 2 will not, as I prom-
ised, will not move forward.” He did not say
“there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2.”
How does all this come across to Putin?
As weakness. Putin has long believed
Biden is bluffing when he threatens seri-
ous consequences -- just like he correctly
assessed that the Obama-Biden adminis-
tration was bluffing in 2014 when it warned
of repercussions if Russia invaded Ukraine
and annexed Crimea.
So far, he has been proved right. If Biden
does not immediately reimpose sanctions
on Nord Stream 2—killing the project once
and for all—and place crippling sanctions
on Russia’s energy and banking sectors,
then American credibility will be shattered
beyond recovery.
(Washington Post)