4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ APRIL 2, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
DISASTER PREP
B Y D AVE R OBINSON
Special to the Siuslaw News
F
resh vegetables can be a rarity in the
event of a disaster. When supply lines
are disrupted, the foods we take for
granted could be in very short supply. Many
have already set aside non-perishable food
to eat when the stores are empty. However,
fresh vegetables may be another matter.
Thousands of folks plant a vegetable gar-
den every year to raise their own vegeta-
bles. Some do it as a hobby and some as a
matter of necessity. Either way the experts
tell us home-grown veggies are better tast-
ing and, in most cases, better for us.
Obviously gardening is a long-term project
not to be rolled out the day after a disaster
with the expectation of a ready food supply.
Recently I was reminded of a process our
ancestors used, later adopted by the back-
to-the land movement of the 1960s and ’70s
— sprouts.
Sprouts have long been celebrated for
their healthy properties, and more recently
for their ability to treat certain kinds of can-
cers, high cholesterol, even arteriosclerosis
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
Opinion
Sprouts
and certain cardiovascular disease. Some
studies even indicate that sprouts protect us
from the ongoing effects of aging.
I was given a partial bag of lentils and a
few simple instructions: “Put two table-
spoons of lentils in a quart Mason jar.
Cover with water overnight then rinse a
couple of times every day.”
It has been almost a week and my sprouts
are nearly filling the (wide-mouth) Mason
jar. Some sources say to cover the opening
with cheese cloth or plastic mesh to facili-
tate the rinsing and draining process. I cut a
piece of hardware cloth to fit inside the jar
ring. I have learned that plastic screen is
preferable to metal, but the metal seems to
be working at this point.
There are several online sources of infor-
mation as well as sprout kits available for
purchase. Plenty of places on the Internet
offer sprout kits. Costs run from $3.31 for a
set of plastic sprouting jar lids to $55 or
more for a full-on kit including organic
seeds and full-on instruction book.
YESTERDAY’S NEWS
Most grocery stores offer a selection of
sprouting seeds located somewhere near the
produce section. Some popular seeds
include lentils, alfalfa, sunflower, mung
beans, radish, clover and soybean.
Experimentation will prove your favorites,
although I’m told the biggest sprouts come
from the mung beans.
So whether you are intrigued by a little
science experiment in your kitchen (with
benefits) or you need to get some edible
greens in a short amount of time, you might
consider growing sprouts. One more tool to
add to your kit. After all, skills and knowl-
edge are more important than stuff. Stuff is
good, but skills are better.
______________________
Dave Robinson is the postmaster in
Bandon, Ore., and author of “Disaster Prep
for the Rest of Us.” He may be contacted at
disasterprep.dave@gmail.com. Visit his
website for more disaster preparedness tips,
www.disasterprepdave.blogspot.com.
LETTERS
Red Kettle
Campaign
During this past Christmas sea-
son, a most wonderful effort
came together under the leader-
ship of Janet Snow, a first-year
resident in Florence. Janet had
been a volunteer Red Kettle Bell
Ringer in Fresno, Calif., for 15
years prior to moving to
Florence.
At her first opportunity, she
contacted the Salvation Army and
volunteered to be the kettle coor-
dinator for Western Lane County
— a non-paying position. This
was the first Red Kettle
Campaign in the Florence area in
perhaps more than 20 years.
A challenging goal was
announced to raise $10,000.
Local civic leader Sam Spayd
started off the campaign with a
gift of $1,000. After many hours
of work to organize and train a
small army of more than 50 vol-
unteers, those familiar bells start-
ed ringing at six locations in
Florence and Mapleton.
Janet and local volunteers dili-
gently collected coins and small
bills from red kettles each night
between Thanksgiving and
Christmas Eve. The Christmas
Lighted Boat Parade at Darlings
Marina on Siltcoos Lake had to
be canceled due to hazardous
weather conditions but still man-
aged to raise $1,300. The Ladies
of the Elks generously donated a
$1,000 in support of the Salvation
Army’s Home Front War Relief
that helps veterans and their fam-
ilies.
When the final coins were
counted, nearly $17,000 had been
raised. Recently, a local supporter
who had followed the progress of
the campaign in the Siuslaw
News arranged to match every
dollar that had been raised. Thus,
a total of $33,544 was credited to
the campaign.
This coming Monday, every-
one who supported this effort in
any way is invited to a gathering
to thank and congratulate the vol-
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
unteers and donors in Western
Lane County.
Local restaurateurs Blaise
Khufu and Melonie Rollins will
be hosting a Making a Difference
Dinner on Monday, April 4, from
6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Siuslaw
Riverside Restaurant, 1340 Bay
St. in Old Town Florence. Seating
is limited, so make reservations
by calling 541-991-3663. Cost of
the dinners will be $20 each.
This is your chance to meet
some of the people who worked
so hard to raise this money and
hear how the Salvation Army
plans to use that money to sup-
port local needs in the Western
Lane County area.
Bill Olson
Florence
goods, discounts and publicity in
helping this year’s Easter Egg
Hunt be so successful:
Grocery Outlet, Wind Drift
Gallery, City Lights Cinemas,
Abby’s Pizza, Dairy Queen, Taco
Time, McDonalds, Western Lane
Ambulance District, Florence
Events Center, Roby’s, Siuslaw
News and KCST Radio.
Our area youth continually
benefits from these and other
generous businesses in Florence.
In addition, thank you to the
community for supporting our
efforts by attending this event.
See you next Easter!
Claire Waggoner, Milly Spires
and Jaidan Haley
Interact Community Easter Egg
Hunt Committee
Lis Farm and Jenna Bartlett
Rotary Advisers, SHS Interact
Easter Egg Hunt
The grass was damp but the
rain held up for the 2016 annual
Florence Community Easter Egg
Hunt, hosted by the Siuslaw High
School Interact Club and spon-
sored by the Rotary Club of
Florence.
Hundreds of hardy youngsters
were rewarded with nearly 4,000
colorful Easter Eggs filled with
treats and prizes to put in their
baskets, bags and boxes.
The Siuslaw High School
Interact Club, in conjunction with
the Rotary Club of Florence,
want to thank the following busi-
nesses for their contributions of
Up in arms by letter
Mr. Cable had a letter pub-
lished March 26 titled “Up In
Arms,” and I disagree.
He says that Hillary Clinton “is
being investigated by the FBI for
Benghazi,” and that isn’t true,
which you can verify by a simple
Google search. There have been
eight or nine Republican-led
Congressional investigations,
which could not find anything
she did wrong.
Einstein defined insanity as
repeating the same action many
times and expecting different
results. Mr. Cable also said the
FBI is investigating Clinton for
using a private server and email
account, which her predecessors,
Colin Powel and Condoleezza
Rice, had done. They have found
no wrongdoing and have not
brought charges.
Finally, the FBI is investigat-
ing if large donors to the Clinton
Foundation, a public charity,
received special favor from our
State Department, while she
headed it. No accusations or
charges have been made by the
FBI. Unlike the McCarthy era,
we do not smear people for inves-
tigations, where there is no proof
of wrongdoing.
As to Mr. Cable saying Bernie
Sanders has been “preaching
open rebellion from the very
beginning and even more scary is
income redistribution,” Sanders
is preaching revolution against
the big money in politics, and he
doesn’t believe a corporation is a
person, so it can be limited in its
political giving.
Income redistribution is what
the IRS does. We have a graduat-
ed income tax in the United
States, since 1913, and the high-
est brackets pay more than the
lower, and that is income redistri-
bution.
Sanders proposes that the
wealthy pay a higher rate and that
corporations pay more in taxes.
He has proposed programs that
will benefit the United States, as
the GI Bill did after World War II
and the Eisenhower Interstate
Highway System did, programs
that help create a large middle
class in the United States.
For most Americans, higher
income tax rates on the wealthy
made for a better, stronger
America, and better standards of
living for most.
I support what Hillary and
Bernie want to do working with
Americans, because I love
America.
James A. O’Connell
Florence
MOMENTS IN TIME
The History Channel
On April 5, 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of
the chief of the Powhatan Indian confederacy,
marries English tobacco planter John Rolfe in
Jamestown, Virginia. Their marriage brought
peace between the English colonists and the
Powhatans.
On April 6, 1776, the Continental
Congress takes the first step toward American
independence by announcing its decision to
open all American ports to international trade
with any part of the world not under British
rule. It was the first act of independence by the
Continental Congress.
On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox, Virginia,
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his
28,000 troops to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant,
effectively ending the Civil War. Forced to
abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond,
Lee had no other option.
On April 10, 1879, Sandor Herz — the
future John Hertz, the man behind what will
one day be the world’s largest car-rental com-
pany — is born in present-day Slovakia. In
1923, Hertz bought a fleet of used Ford Model
Ts and named the business Hertz Drive-Ur-Self
Corporation.
On April 7, 1954, President Dwight
Eisenhower coins one of the most famous Cold
War phrases when he suggests the fall of
French Indochina to the communists could cre-
ate a “domino” effect in Southeast Asia. He
predicted that this would lead to the “loss of
Indochina, of Burma, of Thailand, of the
Peninsula, and Indonesia following.”
On April 4, 1975, childhood friends Bill
Gates and Paul Allen found the computer soft-
ware company Microsoft. In 1987, the 31-year-
old Gates became the world’s youngest billion-
aire. Today, Microsoft is the world’s largest
software maker.
On April 8, 1990, “Who killed Laura
Palmer?” was the question on everyone’s lips
when David Lynch’s surreal television drama
“Twin Peaks” premiered on ABC. Shot in and
around the logging town of Snoqualmie,
Washington, “Twin Peaks” starred Kyle
MacLachlan as relentlessly quirky FBI agent
Dale Cooper.
(c) 2016 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
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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 2016 © Siuslaw News
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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