PAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 15, 2022
PUBLIC SQUARE welcomes all points of view. Published submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Keizertimes
Support for a public library
It was heartening to see the council
chambers filled at the Keizer City Council
work session on April 6 by people showing
their support for a public library in Keizer
Yes, Keizer has a community library. It
is run by volunteers with a paid, part-time
manager. The Keizer Community Library,
which began as a children's lending library,
moved to its current location at the Keizer
Cultural Center in 1998.
Several iterations of a community task
force addressed the library years ago before
throwing its hands up in frustration. Turning
it into a public library is closer than ever.
At the work session B.J. Toewe, board vice
president of the library, made a strong pre-
sentation to the council, seeking $395,000,
over three years, out of the $8.8 million in
ARPA funds the city will receive from the
federal government.
The board of the library and commu-
nity supporters want the city to fund, in
part, hiring a librarian, which is a corner-
stone to becoming part of the Chemeketa
Cooperative Regional Library System
(CCRLS). Becoming a part of CCRLS will
provide expanded services for patrons of
their local library—access to books and other
resources from throughout the system.
How far should US go?
To the Editor:
Are we the chumps again? Kinda looks
that way. This month, alone, the U.S. has
made $400 million in additional military aid
to Ukraine for a total of $1.4 billion since the
Russian invasion got underway on February
24. We’ve supplied them Javelin’s, Stinger
missiles, hundreds of Switchblade loitering
drones and counter-artillery radars. And the
price of our oil has sky rocked because we
stopped buying oil and gas from Russia.
Ukraine’s President V. Zelensky wants
more, demands more, and is not reluctant
whatsoever to insult and otherwise curse
America. Heavy weapons, he says he must
have in the categories of atomic and chemi-
cal. We’re trying to avoid World War III but
that appears a low concern to the Ukraine
leader who wants to stop the Russians
no matter how certain the intervention
of American fighter planes and cataclys-
mic weapons could provide the route to a
world’s end.
Meanwhile, as the news comes to us from
abroad, specifically from European nations,
alleged our allies and by NATO, like—
minded, who just could be President Putin’s
next target for conquest after he annihilates
Ukraine and seeks to establish a 21st cen-
tury Russian Empire, are foot dragging for
much of any deprivations they could expe-
rience. Germany is resisting the idea of an
oil ban, European Union members are wary
of voting outcomes in France, Hungary has
become more entrenched in its opposition
and so on and so forth. Where do they
stand by way of enduring economic and
political pain to stop funding Putin’s war
by purchasing its oil, gas and coal. They’ll
think about it.
Gene H. McIntyre
Keizer
More about our land
To the Editor:
Many thanks for the—hopefully intro-
ductory —article on the front page of the
April 8 issue (Does Keizer sit on stolen
Editorial
Joining Toewe at the work session were
John Hunter, executive director of CCRLS
and Darci Hanning, a consultant for the State
Library of Oregon. Hunter and Patterson
made statements of support and answered
detailed questions from councilors about the
Keizer library's future.
Akin to the parks and police fees that
are added to city water bills, it is hoped the
library will get approval from voters to add a
fee as well. There is support from across the
community for a public library and all the
benefits that would bring to Keizer residents.
Parks, police, library—three things that
make any city desirable. Keizer residents pay
for two of those. They will support a library,
too; that was demostrated by the full-house
attendance at the city council's work session.
Keizer is on the path to having a public
library. We are closer than ever, let's finish
the task.
— LAZ
Letters
land?
It was nice to hear that the city coun-
cil invited the leaders of the Confederated
Tribes of the Siletz and Confederated
Tribes of the Grand Ronde to attend and
provide perspective about our area's convo-
luted, even subliminated, ownership.
In my opinion, your story should be a
lead-in to a multi-article, more in-depth
discussion of this pioneer history of shaky
land and rights ownership. In particular, I'd
bet most folks locally are only barely aware
that the Chemawa School exists, but know
nothing more of its provenance or ongoing
purpose.
It strikes me that something like the
various (but mostly successful) Truth &
Reconciliation Commissions was hinted at,
where accurate history of how we got here is
heard. This could be a good thing.
My own history is from the Klamath
Falls area. The difficult history and treat-
ment of the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin
tribal peoples is severely embarrassing, but
I think a first real step in resolving that is
truthful, balanced education about those
times.
James D. Howard
Keizer
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Give U.N. Security Council
seat to Ukraine
By MARC A THIESSEN
In a fiery speech Tuesday, Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky called out the
U.N. Security Council for its utter feckless-
ness in responding to Russia’s horrific war
crimes in his country. The United Nations
is incapable of holding Russia to account,
Zelensky said, because Moscow “turns the
right of veto in the U.N. Security Council
into a right to kill.” Member states should
“remove Russia” from the Security Council,
he said, or “dissolve yourself altogether.”
Zelensky is absolutely right. But we
should take his bold proposal a step further.
Not only should Russia be kicked off the
Security Council, its seat should be given to
Ukraine. Indeed, there is precedent for doing
just that.
It is not written into the U.N. Charter that
the “Russian Federation” is entitled to a per-
manent seat on the Security Council. The
U.N. Charter states that “The Republic of
China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United
States of America shall be permanent mem-
bers of the Security Council.” Two of those
named countries no longer occupy seats on
the Security Council.
On Oct. 25, 1971, the U.N. expelled the
“Republic of China” (Taiwan) and admitted
the “People’s Republic of China” (mainland
China), which then became one of the five
permanent members of the Security Council
(or the P5). Despite its Security Council veto,
Taiwan was powerless to stop its own expul-
sion by a vote of the U.N. General Assembly.
A U.S.-led proposal to make China’s repre-
sentation an “important question” requiring
a two-thirds supermajority vote, failed by a
vote of 59 to 55 (with 15 abstentions). The
General Assembly then passed Resolution
2758 removing Taiwan by a simple major-
ity vote of 76 to 35 (with 17 abstentions). In
so doing, it set the precedent that a sitting
member of the P5 could be removed and
replaced by another entity with a plausible
claim to the seat.
Just as Communist China now occupies
the seat designated for the “Republic of
China,” Russia now occupies the seat des-
ignated for the “Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics.” But the “Russian Federation”
and the “U.S.S.R.” are not the same country.
Indeed, Putin’s justification for his invasion
of Ukraine is to reclaim territory lost during
the Soviet Union’s dissolution.
Just as the UNGA voted to expel Taiwan
and declare that henceforth the People’s
Republic of China would be deemed the
legitimate occupant of the “Republic of
China’s” seat, it could vote to expel Russia
and declare that henceforth Ukraine will
be deemed the legitimate successor state
to the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”
other
VOICES
—giving it the old Soviet seat. One need look
no further than Putin’s own 6,885-word man-
ifesto for war—laying out a case stretching
back more than 1,000 years that Ukrainians
and Russians are one people descended from
“Ancient Rus”—to justify declaring Ukraine
to be the legitimate successor of the U.S.S.R.
The China precedent from 1971 estab-
lishes that Russia and China would be pow-
erless to veto such a move in the Security
Council. And unlike Taiwan, which did
nothing to merit its U.N. ejection, Russia has
earned its removal in spades.
The U.N. Charter explicitly states that
a member state can be expelled if it “has
persistently violated the Principles con-
tained in the present Charter.” This past
month, the General Assembly twice voted
to overwhelmingly declare that Moscow is
doing just that in Ukraine. On March 2, the
General Assembly voted 141 to 5 (with 35
abstentions) to condemn the “aggression by
the Russian Federation against Ukraine in
violation of Article 2 (4) of the Charter.” And
on March 24, it again condemned Russia for
violating the Charter and creating a human-
itarian crisis by a vote of 140 to 5 (with 35
abstentions).
In both cases, almost three-quarters of
member states voted to condemn Russia.
That is more than enough votes to replace
Russia on the Security Council. Indeed, it
would exceed the two-thirds supermajority
required if the question of Russia’s replace-
ment were deemed an “important matter.”
On Thursday, the General Assembly voted
to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human
Rights Council. It can use the exact same
procedure to replace Russia on the Security
Council.
So, it can be done. Whether it will be done
is a different matter—a question not of pro-
cedure, but of political will. It’s one thing to
vote for a strongly-worded statement; quite
another to impose actual consequences.
But the United States should force a
vote and make every nation go on record—
because Russia’s presence on the Security
Council is a disgrace. The Putin regime is
raping, murdering and massacring innocent
men, women and children in Ukraine. If the
United Nations can’t impose consequences
on Putin and his henchmen for those crimes,
then Zelensky is right—“the U.N. can simply
be dissolved.”
(Washington Post)