Posted inWokeness

If you hate free speech, you’ll love Let’s Discuss Salem

If you're a reasonable person who isn't wild about political correctness/cancel culture and supports free speech, probably you haven't had direct experience with excessively "woke" people on the far left of the political spectrum who (1) aren't reasonable, (2) absolutely love political correctness/cancel culture, and (3) don't support free speech. But if you want a glimpse of how Salem's Woke Police treat reasonable people like you and me, below are Facebook messages exchanged today between me and Shaundi Wuleigh, who founded a recently-formed Let's Discuss Salem Facebook group that I became a member of.  (Based on what I know now,…
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Posted inCity of Salem Downtown

Who wants an Amazon store in the JC Penney building?

I admire fellow progressives with social media death wishes. In these politically correct times, it took some guts for Jim Scheppke to post this on the Salem City Council Facebook page, which leans decidedly liberal in its readership. (Note: this page is just where City Council-related stuff is discussed; it has no official connection with the City Council.) Of the 74 comments, there only were a few supporting an Amazon store. Most were along the lines of Amazon being a corporate devil that makes drivers piss in bottles while working warehouse employees to death and killing retail stores all across the…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem Climate Action Plan lacks urgency

When it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there's no time to waste. Everything I read about global warming is scary. The Earth's climate is changing for the worse considerably faster than scientists expected as little as a few years ago.  So everybody -- nations, states, cities, government, businesses, individuals -- we all have to do our part to keep our one and only planet habitable for humans and other life forms.  This month USA Today had a story, "Local climate plans a key to progress." Download Local climate plans a key to progress - USA TODAY Over the past three…
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Posted inPolitical correctness

I get cited by Salem’s Woke Police

For a long time I thought that being "woke" always was a positive thing. Sure, conservatives warned of the danger of liberal political correctness, but by and large I thought that fear was overblown. I still believe that it is better to be overly concerned about racism, sexism, nationalism, and other nasty "ism's" than under concerned.  However, a balance needs to be struck between awareness of social problems affecting minorities and other historically oppressed groups, and an overzealous righteousness where perceived affronts to social justice are criticized in an absurd fashion. Here's a couple of examples of how I've been…
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Posted inJoe Biden National politics

Painful truth: Afghanistan was a mostly useless war

Recently I've seen interviews with veterans of the twenty-year Afghanistan war where the interviewer says at some point, "Thank you for your service; it wasn't in vain." Not true. It was mostly in vain. So were the 2,448 deaths of American service members, the 66,000 deaths of Afghan military and police, the 47,245 deaths of Afghan civilians, the 444 deaths of aid workers, and the 44 deaths of journalists. I realize that it's really tough to admit that a war which cost the United States over 2 trillion dollars and caused so many deaths was a big mistake -- at…
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Posted inJoe Biden National politics

Biden critics are ignoring key Afghanistan facts

It's pile-on Biden time. Naturally Republicans are criticizing how the Afghanistan pullout is being handled. That's to be expected. But many Democrats, along with mainstream media like CNN, MSNBC, and Washington Post/New York Times opinion writers, also are falling all over themselves in their eagerness to roast Biden over the Afghanistan coals. I find this unfair. Like I said a few days ago, "Afghanistan is horrible, but Biden is doing right thing." What I've learned since only makes me more confident that while our withdrawal hasn't been perfect -- what in life is? -- there's little evidence that the Biden…
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Posted inCoronavirus

Courthouse Club Fitness being lax about masks

Back in November 2020 I was deeply disappointed when John Miller, the owner of Courthouse Club Fitness here in Salem, defied Governor Brown's order for gyms to close for two weeks because COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were rising so rapidly in Oregon. (See "Courthouse Club Fitness defies Governor's order to close for two weeks") Starting yesterday, August 13, 2021, Governor Brown has mandated mask-wearing in indoor public spaces due to... COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rising so rapidly in Oregon. As the familiar saying goes, it's deja vu all over again.  Well, one personal difference is that in November 2020 I…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

A surprising conclusion from my City of Salem public record requests

After the May 1 gun rights rally at Salem's Riverfront Park where the Proud Boys provided insecurity by intimidating citizens, who included a journalist, I submitted several public record requests to the City of Salem. One sought information regarding how it was that up until April 30, the city web site said permits would be required for events in parks beginning May 1, yet the gun rally didn't have a permit.  Another requested documents about communications regarding the gun rally between City Manager Steve Powers, Police Chief Trevor Womack, and Public Works Director Peter Fernandez.  In the end I learned…
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Posted inCity of Salem

Events in Salem parks may face tougher rules

There's good reason to say that some of the recommendations of the Salem Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (SPRAB) could be called "Proud Boys" rules.  After all, the May 1 gun rights rally at Riverfront Park, where the Proud Boys provided security (better termed insecurity), wasn't a shining example of how events in Salem parks should be conducted.                                                                                     …
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