4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ DECEMBER 19, 2015
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
Opinion
More funding needed for drug abuse prevention
A
community that believes
in education, and has a
“Drug- Abuse-Free”
expectation, will help dependent
children grow with love and learn
to become self-sufficient. A child
who stays in school to earn a high
school diploma and training for a
job has a lifeline to escape per-
sistent poverty, generational
dependency and drug abuse.
Earning a living and becoming
self-supporting gives a young per-
son a sense of accomplishment
and the maturity to choose
healthy living and avoid drug
abuse.
Drug abuse affects the health
and safety of young children,
causing failure to thrive in infants
and reducing the ability of a
young brain to learn and remem-
ber information.
The National Center on
Substance Abuse and Child
Welfare reports “400,000 infants
each year are affected by prenatal
alcohol or drug exposure in the
United States.” Drug-addicted
babies must be nursed through
GUEST VIEWPOINT
B Y J ENNY V ELINTY
S IUSLAW A REA P ARTNERSHIP TO P REVENT S UBSTANCE A BUSE
drug withdrawal until they can
sleep and eat and need longterm
services to recover.
The use of drugs in the United
States is increasing and communi-
ties need to be aware of the high
strength and potency of ampheta-
mine, narcotic and opioid drugs,
the rise of overdose drug deaths,
and the increase in children hos-
pitalized for drug ingestion due to
neglect or intentional administra-
tion of drugs.
Victims of child sexual abuse,
unwanted pregnancies and child
trafficking are traumatized by
fear, stress, anxiety, anger, depres-
sion and self-harming behaviors.
The rising costs of medical, psy-
chiatric and rehabilitation treatments
for abused children and young
adults will continue to grow until
drug abuse prevention becomes the
norm in every U.S. community.
Education to prevent drug abuse is
more cost effective than treatment
of drug dependency.
Increased community aware-
ness, education and offering non-
alcoholic beverages at holiday
events, all help to make drug
abuse prevention a community
norm.
Drug abuse prevention funding
is needed. In 2015, prevention
education received less funding
than recommended by the Center
for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). Of the mil-
lions of dollars in taxes levied on
legal drugs, only 25 percent goes
to prevention.
Oregon spends $9.8 million on
tobacco prevention or 25 percent
of $39.3 million recommended by
CDC. The tobacco industry
spends $115.8 million a year in
Oregon.
Drug abuse prevention educa-
tion has prevented U.S. deaths
from tobacco and deaths from
HIV-AIDS and sexually-trans-
ferred diseases. The reduction of
deaths from adult diabetes, high
blood pressure and kidney dis-
eases is due to community educa-
tion.
Community surveys seek infor-
mation by asking individuals for
ways to cope with stress. In an
outreach to educate for drug
abuse prevention, the Siuslaw
Area Partnership to Prevent
Substance Abuse (SAPPSA) sur-
veyed 500 community members,
aged 9 to 90, in January 2015.
Seventy percent recommended
healthy ways to cope with stress,
15 percent believed drug use
helped them and 15 percent used
legal and illegal drugs. It was
noted the latter 15 percent were
younger than the average age of
44.
Funding for SAPPSA to edu-
cate community drug abuse pre-
vention is enabled by deductible
donations.
LETTERS
Gun safety
I have a different opinion about arming people
with guns than the politicians on television. I
have owned guns from the time I was 12 years
old. My mother could shoot a chicken hawk out
of the air with the 12-gauge shotgun that she kept
behind the kitchen door.
One day I went hunting with a fellow and his
son. I was told the son had passed the gun safety
class for teens. I was with the boy and I asked him
what kind of rifle he was using. He said a lever
action. I asked him what caliber it was. He jacked
a shell out of the gun and handed it to me.
I told him not to point his gun at me because it
had a shell in the barrel, and he said that it didn’t
and it was right there in my hand. I told him to
point his gun at a stump and pull the trigger. He
did, and you should have seen his face when the
gun went off. He was a boy who had graduated
from gun classes.
I do not think it would be a good or safe thing
to arm teachers, no matter how many gun classes
they took. It takes more than taking classes to
know how to safely handle guns.
Virgle Bechtold
Florence
Syrian refugees
In the Dec. 9 issue, there was a letter by Tony
Cavarno (“Accepting Facts as Facts”) who felt
“poo-pooed,” as he says, by another writer who
took issue with his stance against “mass Syrian
refugee immigration” into the United States.
When Mr. Cavarno implies that we need to
adjust our values as Americans because “facts are
facts,” I wish I knew what those facts are. Is he
referring to an infiltration, by radicals, of vetted
Syrian refugees? This is a “fact” that is “not a
fact,” but rather a “hypothetical fact,” which,
well, just sounds plain absurd.
Mr. Cavarno’s antagonist herself (“Justice For
All,” Dec. 5) overlooks a well-established fact:
American history, throughout, is peppered with
examples of bigotry, racism, scapegoating and
other exclusionist behavior, in spite of the ideals
of equality put forth in our founding documents.
I’ll give a pair of very different, but vivid,
examples. In one day in 1963, as a climax to a
string of at least 20 previous bombings, there
were three bombings of black churches by a
small minority of white Christians in
Birmingham, Ala. Our recent mass shootings,
and the systematic violence perpetrated by the
police against blacks, pale in comparison.
More recently, just a few days ago, attacks
against some Sikhs in California were reported,
presumably because Sikhs wear turbans and
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
YESTERDAY’S NEWS
MOMENTS IN TIME
The History Channel
• On Dec. 24, 1851, a devastating fire at the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.,
destroys two-thirds of its 55,000 volumes.
Today the collection contains more than 17 mil-
lion books.
• On Dec. 22, 1864, Union Gen. William T.
Sherman presents the captured city of
Savannah, Georgia, to President Abraham
Lincoln with the message, “I beg to present
you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah,
with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition,
and also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”
• On Dec. 23, 1888, in Arles, France, Dutch
painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from
severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his
left ear with a razor. He documented the event
in a painting titled “Self-Portrait with
Bandaged Ear.”
• On Dec. 27, 1900, prohibitionist Carry
Nation smashes up a bar in Kansas, causing
several thousand dollars in damage and landing
in jail. Nation became famous for carrying a
hatchet and wrecking saloons as part of her
anti-alcohol crusade.
• On Dec. 26, 1946, in Las Vegas, mobster
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel opens The Pink
Flamingo Hotel & Casino. The grand opening
was a flop. Gamblers had no rooms at the yet
unfinished hotel, so they took their winnings
and gambled elsewhere.
• On Dec. 25, 1962, “To Kill a
Mockingbird,” a film based on the 1960
Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name
by Harper Lee, opens in theaters. The American
Film Institute has rated Atticus Finch (played
by Gregory Peck) as the greatest movie hero of
the 20th century.
vaguely resemble Muslims, at least in the warped
minds of a few grossly uninformed people.
So it’s clear that, in the vast landscape of
American history, bigotry — and violence — are
not unusual. It even seems difficult to say which
is more “dear to American values” — the “justice
for all” sentiment or the exclusionist sentiment.
The M&M analogy that Mr. Cavarno admires,
like much of what bombards us on the Internet, is
cute and trite. But in this case, it is also naive and
simplistic. The refugees fleeing Syria have two
choices: they can stay in Syria and die, or they
can flee. Should Western nations just let them
die? What would be your choice?
Curt Buttke
Florence
Trump voters
I’m sorry, but I’ve just got to say something
here. Are you serious? Who are these Trump
voters? Am I crazy? I am so embarrassed for
America. We need to demand the America we
want. It’s ours. That’s you, Republicans. I’m an
Independent. This is your guy. I’m an American.
This is your guy. Does it matter what people
say? Does it matter what people know? Aren’t
you embarrassed, too?
You got to take over and cover your side of
this game. Republicans, you’re letting me get
my impression of “you” through Donald Trump.
So is planet Earth. Like it or not, Trump is
speaking for you unless “you” actually stand up
and find someone else to enable. Your silence
enables him, not mine.
Listen to these people: “He just says it like
it is.” What is “it” that he has said that actual-
ly “is”? Is there no exploration of anything?
These people don’t think that “knowing about
stuff” is important. Didn’t we make this mis-
take before? I’m not a partisan person. I know
that there are huge numbers of Republicans
out there who think that knowing about stuff is
important, too.
This is what it comes down to. The President
needs to understand the things they say. The
President needs to know how the world works.
Not just to know how to come out with more
money than the other guy in a real-estate deal.
You can’t shoot from the hip in a chess game
like George W. Bush.
If the actual President doesn’t “know about
stuff” himself, his advisors are actually in
charge. Richard Pearl filled George W. Bush in
on “how the world works.” Paul Wolfowitz and
Dick Cheney were actually in charge. They
pushed George W.’s child-like mind into invad-
ing Iraq. His dad would have never fallen for
this. Bush Sr. understood the relationship
between cause and effect. It’s important for the
President of the United States to not only know
about the relationship between cause and effect,
but respect it, and therefore be able to forecast it.
We are in a chess game here.
My request to Republicans is to pick one of
your thinking guys. We got problems ahead. I’m
an American. Don’t embarrass me again.
Robert Quandt
Dunes City
• On Dec. 21, 1975, in Vienna, Austria,
Carlos the Jackal leads a terrorist raid on a
meeting of OPEC oil ministers, killing three
people and taking 63 others hostage. After
demands for a jet were met, all the hostages
were released unharmed in Algeria.
(c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
L ETTERS TO THE
E DITOR P OLICY
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to
the editor concerning issues affecting the
Florence area and Lane County.
Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten
or typed letters must be signed. All letters
should be limited to about 300 words and
must include the writer’s full name, address
and phone number for verification.
Letters are subject to editing for length,
grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter
is not guaranteed and depends on space
available and the volume of letters received.
Libelous and anonymous letters as well
as poetry will not be published.
All submissions become the property of
Siuslaw News and will not be returned.
Write to:
Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com
USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2015 © Siuslaw News
John Bartlett
Jenna Bartlett
Ryan Cronk
Susan Gutierrez
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Jeremy Gentry
Publisher, ext. 327
General Manager, ext. 318
Editor, ext. 313
Advertising Director, ext. 326
Office Supervisor, ext. 312
Production Supervisor
Press Manager
DEADLINES:
Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday
1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m.
Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Thursday
1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m.
NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $71; 10-weeks subscription, $18; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription, $94;
10-weeks subscription, $24; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $120; Out of United States — 1-year subscription, $200;
E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $65.
Mail subscription includes E-Edition.
Website and E-Edition: www.TheSiuslawNews.com
WHERE TO WRITE
Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National
Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore.
Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax
541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com.
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. Kate Brown
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