Salem-News.com Op Ed articles Page 24

Op Ed:
Toothless Ethics
Allows Legislative
Misfeasance Now

Job One: To Set Practical Working Surveillance

(Salem) - No action of the incoming Legislature can begin to rebuild Statewide return to credibility and common sense without rapid, radical reform of their self-imposed ethical rules for operation.

Whatever our elected representatives returning to “the Salem Arena” do NOW, an essential “first step” must include new “rules-of-the-game”.

Op Ed:
Wit, Wisdom, Will:
Depend On Ethical
Contract to Operate

System-Sabotage “Unacceptable” - Radical Reforms Demanded

(SALEM) - Democratic decision by representatives chosen for that purpose BY VOTE is the very beating-heart basis for any workable application of “the will of the people”.

That painful principle is the peculiarly portentous radical, yet rational, conclusion of our Founders after long, concentrated consideration via the Federalist Papers.

Its shaping impacts on governance worldwide drove the dialog, debates and democratic first-steps for this nation.

Op Ed:
Wit, Wisdom, Will:
People Power Can
Turn World Around

Be Thankful: Proud Force Worked Once, Will Win Again

(SALEM) - It is the wit, the wisdom, and the indomitable will of the American people that made this nation one of the greatest in all world history -- and will do so again.

NOT because of world power expressed in arrogance and via weaponry.

NOT because of world domination by the dollar, in trade or towering edifice for effective corporate cash-mongering.

Not because of stock-tradings, currency-manipulations, or conglomerate consolidations.

Not because of world control via even so potent a force as the atom itself.

Op Ed:
Next Legislature
Shaping 21st Century
For All of Oregon

Demo-Dialog Consensus Must Conquer Cult-Confrontation

(SALEM) - The voter-voice has now been heard, in overwhelming volume and with no possible retreat, in Oregon, to national-debacle excuses.

Full ballot-boxes here have reflected strong preference for a vulnerable incumbent over “disingenuous” lack-of-detail as non-supplied by “the other candidate”.

External impacts from cult-component political consequences across the whole nation can no longer cloak or hide distinctly-local choice made by canny Oregon voters.

Op-Ed: Election Motivates
`Cultural Shift` in
Oregon Governance NOW!

21st Century Demands Legislative Changes Rapidly

(SALEM) - “Cultural shift” is a near-revolutionary requirement for any Legislative Commission to suggest to the ruling representatives sent by citizens to govern this State.

That is precisely and prophetically what PCOL has now done --and with solid, rational, reasonable and extremely detailed and well-documented decision-making demonstrated at precisely the right time, too.
(PCOL: Public Commission On The Oregon Legislature)

Much more directly than ever/done-usually, this PCOL has laid open the entire Legislative procedural process; then points out --with discerning aim and destructive impact--what now MUST be done, and done rapidly.
Its procedures --and the process so organized-- represent a triumph in democratic dialog properly laid on.

Op-Ed:Voters Wiser Than Press,
Display Discretion Defeating
Malign Attack-Ad Distortions

Democratic Principles Prevail This Time - What’s Next?

(SALEM) - Anyone really surprised?

The election, this time, despite all the foreign-money attack- ad furor and fantasy thrown wholesale at confused voters caught in their own concentrated economic considerations, went well for rational, reasonable decision; with democratic open, honest dialog helping to capture that consequence.


But there remains the imponderable danger that one time, sometime, whenever; with whatever further-means modified from dollar-bought decisions, that may not be the outcome.

Will that, then, be the start of the coming Second American Revolution -- or the end of the same??

That makes some situations within that context, NOW, surely that much more meaningful, even if in negative read-out --as for the role of the media in this one.

Op Ed:
Out-Sourcing Threatens
Oregon Service Jobs,
Demands Education Change

Worldwide Digitized Communications Shaping Worker-Future Now.

(SALEM) - Our long-vaunted “Brain-Worker” advantage, endowed for many by college/university degree, is now degenerating into future futilities for oncoming youth, sure to impact our educational system.

The Blurred Line of Our Social Services

Are our caseworkers guardians of state/federal regulations or a helping hand for those in need?

(SALEM) - Are our caseworkers guardians of state/federal regulations or a helping hand for those in need?

I recently had the experience of becoming an advocate for an individual who found himself, once again, in the need of social services. His job had ended because a prior back injury prevented him from fulfilling the work expectations of his employer.

He needed food stamps and ran into a brick wall - a very determined caseworker bent on following the rules.

Peeling the Onion: A Pretty Strong Smell – Our Government in Action

Here’s a great metaphor for you: “Our government is like an onion, the more you peel away the layers the stronger the smell.”

(SALEM) - Here’s a great metaphor for you: “Our government is like an onion, the more you peel away the layers the stronger the smell.”

During election times and listening to the rhetoric of the “to be” and “not to be” in the race towards our elected positions, the layers start coming off. The candidates start peeling away at each other until the stench is not only from the target but from the one doing the peeling.

Op Ed:
Kulongoski Praised,
Chastised, While
Real Record Resounds

Rationality, Reason Remain Oregonian Refuge Demanded Now.

(SALEM) - We recently explored probable reason for the Big O’s shocking endorsement of the candidate they categorized, then castigated as a shocking electoral con-man.

Longtime OREGONIAN news-coverage continuously conveyed that imperious and impractical Saxton image

Rationalization is an unconsciously-applied mental agent in many minds, forced by stressful circumstance, often to excuse and then to support original erroneous decision.
(“See also” detailed reference cited at conclusion.)