Salem-News.com Op Ed articles Page 13

Op-Ed: Education Shapes
Our Economy, Then
Both Shape Our System

‘08 Election Offers Remedial Choices For 21st Century.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - Very few people today will disagree that this nation --especially its economy and its schools-- are in “one mell of a hess!” There are unmistakable, undeniable, inevitable -- and insufferable-- reasons, clearly spread on our history for all to see, and understand, now.

That must surely be the first step for any possible rational, reasonable remediation which may return to us what we once had -- a democratic republic, proven in over 200 years of success and development.

Ever since the turbulent 60s and ‘70s, American education has been stagnated and stymied by near-fatal consequences, for itself and for our economy; forced by false choices and false confrontations, cannily compounded by contending political forces for their own malign purposes.

Op Ed: `Econ 101` Corrupted
By Corporate Design:
Part Two: Conclusions

Natural fact: what Franklin, founders knew in 1779.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - As early as Revolutionary days, canny Ben Franklin put it potently, as well as succinctly: "Private property is a creature of society and is subject to the calls of that society, whenever its needs may require it." --Ben Franklin - 1789.

The Founders, prescient men-all, knew a natural fact when it was completely obvious from their long-continued study of famed philosophers over centuries.

What Founder Ben was telling us-all even then is now, more than ever after 150 years of the American Experience, is natural fact, long recognized. It is the most-essential fact on which much, if not most, of our "Revolutionary concept of shared complicit and essentially cooperative governance" has come to be based.

Op Ed: `Econ 101` Corrupted
By Corporate Design
Kills Demo-Dreams

"Wealth-Creation" Demands Continuing "Worker/Capital" Cooperation For Competitive Success.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - Here we make no pretense to more than natural understandings of "the dismal science" of economics. There are, however, some few "natural facts" from which common-sense can deduce the most-damaging situations also highly visible to many others; then checkable vs multitudinous Internet resources.

Start with this single inevitable, inescapable natural fact: "Private property depends on the rule of law."

Without that rule of law, nobody can achieve the excess-beyond-natural/need from which cometh "the capital for cooperative application" (read "investment") --from which all wealth doth necessarily flow, in this 21st Century.

Op Ed: `The Band Plays On`
But Do We Hear The Real Music?

Democracy dies without citizen attention and action.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - "...And the band played on"... That familiar phrase --from “the Titanic-disaster when the band played while the ship sank”-- very precisely pronounces our current status re patriotism true to American principles, on July 4th 2008 --well into the 21st Century.

We hear the music --meant to reassure us-- and we seek out any possible lifeboat, as the ship sinks; with similar results for far too many passengers.

We are very chary about DOING what proves up our real and true devotion to the nation AND its Founding Principles: Making sure the ship does NOT sink --and that our captain knows an iceberg when it towers over us.

Op Ed: OUR Constitution:
Defend it TODAY
OR Lose It Tomorrow

Bush sabotage sets precedent For imperial Presidency to replace the rule of law.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - OUR Constitution and its accompanying Bill of Rights is the organizing foundation-structure on which all else has been built in this nation ever since 1776. Countless pages of our history proclaim, without question, that immutable truth for any freedom and for ALL rights: “USE It or LOSE IT!”

`Truly-Open Election`
Challenges Our Nation
As Never Possible Before

"Liberal" vs "Conservative" truths at stake, demand honest, open, inevitable comparisons.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - "A pox on both those failed parties!" may well turn out to be the famous-theme of this 2008 voter-choice struggle. "Failed choices" from both Democratic and GOP sides have dominated the past 50 years, forcing us all into permanent campaign-posture confrontation; precluding progress to what millions keep SAYING they want and, now MUST HAVE, as the 21st Century arrives.

Op Ed: McClellan`s `Mea Culpa`
Demands Share of Blame
From Every Citizen NOW

"Confrontation VS Cooperation" Is Killing Democracy.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - This is NOT a “book review” of WHAT HAPPENED, the furore-creating new one by former Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan. Instead, it is mine own “mea culpa” --and YOURS, TOO-- surveying the “truth” at the heart of our nation’s current disastrous dilemmas.

Op Ed: `Imperial` Presidency
The Greatest Danger
To Our Democracy NOW

"Bush-Dynasty" via McCain-follow offers continuance.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - Foreseen in depth and detail by such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and others --in the Federalist Papers first and then in the Constitution itself-- the “unitary executive” theory for governance has now become the greatest current danger our democracy has ever faced.

The honest/open name-for-it is, very simply: “The Imperial Presidency”, long ago recognized and studied in depth and excruciating detail ever since Constitutional-declaration itself.

Op Ed: National Realities
Shaping Future American Lifestyle
Pressing Problems Threaten Democratic Principles

More than 85 percent of polled citizens now state "the nation is headed in the wrong direction".

(EUGENE, Ore.) - Reagan’s catchy slogan-then was "It’s Morning in America Again". That was the beginnings of an unquenchable neo-con "spin and propaganda pitch" unprecedented in world history, well-funded by Far Right billionaires.

"Trickle-down" benefits never did, and "voodoo economics" proved to be just that: "voodoo" per Bush-I. "Deregulation" only destroyed the demanded role of government in protecting the commonweal; and extended "privatization" proved only that corporate corruption could easily outrun even government incompetence.

Op-Ed: Teacher-Pay
A Tragedy For Them, For Us,
For Our Kids, Too

Those Who Love Process Should Be Major Providers.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - "Yes, Virginia, your teachers love you and what they do, too!" Can you easily envision a parent thus reassuring a reluctant youngster, caught in any one of those many confrontations and conflicts with which every parent is all too familiar?