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ongress shall make no law respecting an
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Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com
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SATURDAY
JANUARY
24
•
2015
YESTERDAY’S NEWS
LETTERS
America’s ‘hug’
MOMENTS IN TIME
The History Channel
I am sorry France! I watched
in horror on CNN and FOX
News as James Taylor plugged
his way through “You’ve Got a
Friend” while John Kerry posed
off to the side of him.
Not only did our President
decide that the French people
didn’t need our support, he,
Obama, decided that sending
Mr. Kerry with Mr. Taylor with
the message of here’s a big
“hug” from America would be
the right thing to do.
Using the excuse that the
President’s security entourage
would be distracting to the
march was a lame, pathetic
excuse for not representing the
United States of America in a
compassionate and caring way
to the people of France and
Europe who are under siege
from terrorists.
I want it clearly understood
that if ISIS comes to Florence
and somehow makes me a casu-
alty, I do not want James Taylor
or John Kerry bringing my fam-
ily a big hug. But wait, only
people that strong arm shop-
keepers and then assault a
police officer merit the full
attention of the White House.
So no worries after all.
Liz Burletson
Florence
• On Jan. 27, 1785, the Georgia General
Assembly incorporates the University of
Georgia, the first state-funded institution of
higher learning in the new republic. It wasn’t
until 1918 that the university began admitting
women.
• On Feb. 1, 1885, John Taylor, the president
of the Mormon Latter-day Saints Church, goes
“underground” to avoid arrest and continue
resisting federal demands for polygamy. Taylor
had at least seven wives. Although the
Mormons wanted freedom from outside inter-
ference, they also sought the benefits of being a
part of the United States. Inevitably, these two
goals conflicted.
• On Jan. 30, 1920, Toyo Cork Kogyo, a
Japanese cork business, is formed. A decade
later, the company produced its first vehicle
and changed its name to Mazda. The Mazda-Go
was a three-wheeled truck that resembled a
motorcycle with a cargo-carrier at the back.
• On Jan. 31, 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik
becomes the first American soldier since the
Civil War to be executed for desertion. Slovik
was originally classified 4-F because of a
prison record, but was reclassified 1-A when
draft standards were lowered. In 1944, he was
trained to be a rifleman, which was not to his
liking, as he hated guns.
• On Jan. 28, 1959, the Green Bay Packers of
the National Football League sign Vince
Lombardi to a five-year contract as the team’s
coach and general manager. The Brooklyn-born
Lombardi played college football at Fordham
University as a guard on the offensive line,
dubbed the “Seven Blocks of Granite.”
Rally for better
health care
Health Care for All Oregon is
sponsoring a rally in Salem on
Wednesday, Feb. 11, to call for
a penny-wise health care system
to replace our present pound-
foolish entrepreneurial free-for-
all. The cost of prescription
drugs exemplifies the problem.
In 2013, U.S. healthcare
spending on retail prescription
drugs was $271.1 billion. While
slightly more than the GDP of
Belgium, a very small propor-
tion of the total $2.9 trillion U.S. healthcare
bill. But still, not chump change.
Private health insurance, Medicare,
Medicaid — in other words, all of us who pay
insurance premiums or taxes — pay the vast
bulk of this prescription-drug bill.
We are paying for an effective pharmaceuti-
cal lobby that has gained for the industry what
Peter B. Bach, director of Memorial Sloan
Kettering’s Center for Health Policy, terms “a
mix of laws that force insurers to include
essentially all expensive drugs in their poli-
cies.”
This has enabled a company to keep raising
the price of a drug even after it has delivered
billions in profit. Laws such as those prohibit-
ing Medicare from using its market power to
negotiate drug discounts ensure that out-sized
profits will continue to flow. At the same time,
the industry spent over $3 billion on advertis-
ing prescription drugs to consumers, mainly
through television commercials. Pharma calls
this “consumer education.” It might better be
called a self-diagnosis primer.
In Europe, direct-to-consumer drug market-
ing is illegal. This reduces the advertising
costs built into a drug’s cost and the pressure
on doctors from “self-diagnosing” patients to
write unnecessary prescriptions. In addition to
the cost of those TV ads, Big Pharma spends
lots of money on indirect marketing.
The Pew Charitable Trusts reported that in
2011, the pharmaceutical and medical device
industries provided $752 million for continu-
USPS# 497-660
• On Jan. 29, 1964, Stanley Kubrick’s black
comic masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove” opens in
theaters to both critical and popular acclaim.
The movie focused on the actions of a rogue
U.S. military officer who believed that commu-
nists are threatening the “precious bodily flu-
ids” of Americans.
ing medical education courses. Although these
courses are not supposed to be marketing
tools, a 2007 Senate Finance Committee
report found that “drug companies have used
educational grants as a way to increase the
market for their products.”
Part of the reason for the United State’s high
drug costs — exorbitant when compared to the
cost for the same drugs in most other wealthy
countries — is that we are the only industrial-
ized country without a single-payer healthcare
purchaser to effectively negotiate lower drug
prices from Big Pharma.
Finding the political will, we could address
the pound-foolishness in healthcare with sin-
gle payer. We could start by applying to drug
makers the public-utility type rules that suc-
cessfully regulate electricity, natural gas and
water; products made relatively affordable by
efficient regulation.
And, we could stop the TV commercials.
We’ve been educated enough about the need
to call a doctor after four hours.
Arnold Buchman
Florence
What about Siuslaw grads?
I was just sitting down and reading my
paper when I seen an article on a fella that
attended his class reunion in Washington
(“Florence Man Attends Grade-School
Reunion,” Dec. 31, 2014, page A1). This is
fine, but where is the punch line? Who is he?
(c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
he Siuslaw News wel-
comes letters to the edi-
tor on subjects of gener-
al interest to its readership.
Brevity is mandatory, and let-
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Postmaster, send address changes to: The Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439. Phone (541) 997-3441 (See
extension numbers below). FAX (541) 997-7979.
John Bartlett
Jenna Bartlett
Ryan Cronk
Susan Gutierrez
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Jeremy Gentry
No one from around here.
Did you know there are a few people who
graduated from Siuslaw and still live here? In
fact, I know of two that graduated in 1954 and
one in 1956. That’s not the old ones yet. I’ll
bet with a little research the old ones can be
found. You know the ones that I am talking
about. The ones who graduated when there
was only one class. I know of some who live
up the river that can remember going to school
in Deadwood and the ones who graduated
from the schools up Indian Creek.
Now that’s something about the area we live
in that is cool — schools that do not exist
today and haven’t for 40 years.
Another topic that I was reading and not
sure why it’s taking place, but why are we
even talking about a bike path? What about
our road that everyone uses?
We can’t even maintain our roads, so how
are we going to maintian a bike path? And
who is going to pay for this? Us? The people
who live here and have to drive on this road to
work, while someone bikes down a new path
that is not important and only a rec ride?
There are some things that are not under-
stood, like why and how it’s being paid for.
How is it going to help our little town and get
people to visit us since we need visitors to
come for our business to thrive? No business,
no income equals no town.
Let’s here about that.
Scott Burnett
Deadwood
• On Jan. 26, 1980, at the request of
President Jimmy Carter, the U.S. Olympic
Committee votes to ask the International
Olympic Committee to cancel or move the
Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviet
military invasion of Afghanistan.
Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. John Kitzhaber
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us