To the Editor:
Here’s another grumpy old man’s take on the fireworks issue. (Got a problem with fireworks? Keizertimes, July 24). First, the Fourth of July is a day, not a month. There would be far less complaining if the citizens Keizer Police Chief John Teague has called “patriots” (perhaps he meant idiots – a common mistake) if those folks would limit the pyrotechnics to the Fourth.
Chief Teague complained that the penalty for illegally disturbing neighborhood tranquility, scaring the bejesus out of pets and some vets was too severe and therefore the law was not enforced. Doesn’t non-enforcement encourage non-compliance? Just asking.
Mayor Clark has suggested that the state could do more to minimize the entry of illegal boomers and suggested we write our lawmakers. I assume she meant Representative Bill Post and Senator Kim Thatcher who sadly—to hear them tell it—are completely hamstrung by the Democratic majority in Salem, so no help there.
What’s to be done then? Hope for an end to bozo behavior and the dawn of a new era of civility? I should live so long.
Martin Doerfler
Keizer