4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ JANUARY 6, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
NEIGHBORS
Long hiatus — Part III
B OB J ACKSON
N EIGHBORHOOD C ORRESPONDENT
For the Siuslaw News
____________
t had been a long break in my
narration about the desperate
decision to resort to radiation in
the hope that it would somehow at
least slow the progress of the cancer
that had been growing in my lungs.
It was time to put it in print, but
something had gone terribly wrong.
My computer had somehow
become a mystery and the keys had
no meaning. It was like I had sud-
I
denly gone insane. It seemed that
my big reliable dictionary always by
my side, was now filled with gibber-
ish. I panicked. The damage from
the weeks of radiation had obviously
wreaked havoc on my brain. And so
for a long while I waited it out.
It took weeks, but eventually the
fog began to clear away, and again I
was able to recognize the once
familiar keys on my computer.
I am quite certain that my experi-
ences are not unique; however, there
may be some solace in sharing the
occasional frightful episodes that
occur during extreme medical treat-
ments.
And then I got slammed really
hard! I was informed that I had been
placed on hospice care. It states that
a doctor has given a referral that the
patient has terminal diagnosis and
six months or less, with symptoms
to be managed. This picture was
written with a very wide brush.
It was not as bad as it sounded. I
discovered hospice to be a godsend,
a wonderful program. The serious-
ness of hospice needs vary widely
with each individual. Trained hos-
pice professionals are on call 24/7,
any time of the day or night. One of
my nurses informed me that it was
not a death sentence. Patients with
willpower and perseverance many
times overcome their malady and
recover completely.
These hospice caregivers are like
angels, always cheerful and knowl-
edgeable. Laurie, hope I spelled her
name correctly, comes regularly all
the way from Newport, some 50
miles up the coast, fills out my med-
icine and explains every question I
may have.
The dizziness never goes away —
guess I will just have to live with it.
Hospice furnishes oxygen that seems
to have a calming effect when I feel
agitated. This has been my own per-
sonal journey, probably not much
different from the countless legions
who have come before me.
And so I wrap this up, in what
may not at times be a very neat
package.
Where and when do I go from
here? The best doctors are unable to
answer these questions.
And as Yogi Berra once said, “It
ain’t over, till it’s over!”
Finis
LETTERS
Police corruption
While I respect the difficult and dangerous
job that police do, there is something systemi-
cally wrong with our police departments when
young black boys are gunned down in the back
repeatedly, not as a last resort but routinely.
And, when a police department withholds pros-
ecution of the officer, leaves him on payroll for
over 400 days until a court-ordered release of
the dash-cam video is about to happen, that’s
corrupt to me.
There needs to be rigorous training in media-
tion and problem-solving alternatives before
lethal force is a consideration and real conse-
quences for unruly behavior by officers. Also,
there needs to be some sort of independent citi-
zen and police committee to oversee a more
transparent police system.
I certainly can understand the “Black Lives
Matter” movement since often it takes coura-
geous mobilized pressure from the people to
invoke real change and justice for all.
Julie MacFarlane
Florence
The Silent Generation
Those born between 1926 and 1945 are
referred to as the Silent Generation. Those of
my age who were born in the early 1940s were
considered naive because we thought of those
early years and the 1950s as the “Good Old
Days.” The Silent Generation was never quiet.
I was born in California in 1940, and after
World War II, like a number of military veterans
and those who worked for the war effort, like
my father, bought new 800-square-foot two-
bedroom, one-bathroom stucco houses in
Ventura, Calif., where I spent my next 11 years.
Those years were the Good Old Days for a
number of reasons that I will now mention.
Warner Street, where I grew up, was a two
city-long block street where everyone knew
everyone, but it was not in the city but out on
the Avenue beyond where the white collar peo-
ple lived. Our fathers worked either in the oil or
agriculture industries and a few men and most
women, who were not stay-at-home moms,
worked in retail for companies like Sears, JC
Penney or what I always called Monkey Wards.
At that time the white-collar workers were
doctors, dentists and those who owned or man-
aged businesses. It was a time of discovery for
both parents and their children, mainly because
it was their first home and car. We experienced
an ever-changing world.
On the Avenue, about 10 blocks away, we
had E.P. Foster Grammar School with grades
from kindergarten to third grade. Then about
two miles up the road there was the Avenue
School with grades from fourth to sixth. At the
end of Warner on the Avenue, we had Jue’s
Market and a church on opposite corners, and
the barber shop, pharmacy and Five and Dime
store were only a few blocks away as was the
Valentine Dairy, which delivered milk and had a
great malt/ice cream shop. It was sort of a small
composite of post-war America.
By the time I was in the third grade my
friends and I walked to school and went trick-
or-treating with pillowcases in a six-block
radius, all without parental supervision. By the
seventh grade, on summer days a few friends
and I would ride our bikes three miles with our
fishing gear to the beach to body surf or take a
truck inner-tube strapped with a canvas seat out
past the breakers to fish with a drop-line. After
spending the day on the beach, we would then
go onto the pier, sometimes fishing until 11
p.m., when a parent would pick us and our gear
up. Safe and sound.
“Duck and Cover” became a game in school
that we did not comprehend until an earthquake
happened or why a few families in town had
fallout shelters. During those years I called it
“Surprise Time,” when special things happened.
A new “big” movie would come out and the
first week searchlights would ply the skies and
each year you waited for the new cars to be
introduced and going into the auto showroom
was a special time, even though you knew that
your parents would never have one. We went
hunting on the beach at midnight with two fires
burning, one with car tires for heat and the other
with driftwood for roasting marshmallows.
At that time our parents did not have much
money, so a stocking hanging from an open fire
(above the electric heater) with one present
under the tree was special. My most favorite gift
ever was a bicycle that my father made for me.
Having no money he bought old parts, sanded
them down and put them together and painted
this custom bike. Those were the good old days!
What our parents instilled in all of us my age
was a work ethic that, for me, lasted a lifetime.
That ethic started with chores for an allowance
beginning with mowing and trimming our lawn,
which led to mowing lawns for neighbors and
then a paper route. Working at a car wash,
numerous gas stations, a men’s clothing store
and eventually driving truck in the oil patch to
put my way through art school.
Now back to the Silent Generation, which was
never silent and gave this nation so much. A few of
those silent people include Sandra Day O’Conner,
Bob Dylan, William F. Buckley Jr., Joan Baez, Ted
Kennedy, Warren Buffett, John Lennon, Tom
Brokaw, George Will, Ray Charles, Huey P.
Newton, Clint Eastwood, Antonin Scalia, Martin
Luther King Jr., Johnny Cash, Newt Gingrich,
Charlie Rose and Malcolm X.
The most important thing the Silent
Generation did was learn to verbally communi-
cate with each other. We did not have social
media, so from grammar school through college
or the workplace we would talk to each other,
sharing thoughts, dreams and ideas.
We actually talked to each other, which now
seems like a foreign idea.
Win Jolley
Florence
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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