4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ AUGUST 13, 2016
Siuslaw News
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
Opinion
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
VIEW FROM UPRIVER
YESTERDAY’S NEWS
Blackberry bounty
W ESLEY V OTH
For the Siuslaw News
––––––––––––
H
ere in Brickerville, morning and
evening bird chorus is over for
another year. The netting is off the
blueberries, but there is such a glut of avail-
able food that the remaining fruit dries on the
bushes. Branches bend to the ground on our
unpruned apple trees, the leaves of Oregon
ash begin to yellow. Nearly every morning so
far this August my neighbor Dave Horn is out
picking blackberries.
As I walk by with our daughter’s dog — an
animal that has been with us long enough to feel
she’s always been here — he chides me that I
am not there picking as well. “They’re free!” he
says, and tells me what a bumper-crop year it is.
We talk about making cobbler, and he says he
freezes a lot of the berries, and later juices them
and makes them into jelly.
I have noticed that he is right about it
being an exceptional year here for blackber-
ries, and chide myself for not having picked
enough yet to store in some fashion for
winter. I check the weather forecasts to
make sure I do so before it rains and
the berries mold; when rain was pre-
dicted for this last Sunday, I grabbed
some buckets and went out to pick
along the river near the measuring sta-
tion, far enough back from the road to
be well beyond ODOT’s spray line.
The berry crop is amazing — often 20
berries fully ripe to a single fruiting lateral —
with that many again that are green or red. I
easily got enough for our jam needs and
another berry crumble in one spot, before the
sun’s intensity drove me home on a day pre-
dicted to be cloudy and wet. It makes me
wonder how many things we decide to do or
not to do depending on such; in this case, I
am glad it got me out there while there was
still time to get the best.
Most of the blackberries are a variety
known as Himalayans; these may not be
native here, but they’ve been here so long
they’re an integral part of western Oregon
culture. Himalayan blackberries are ubiqui-
tous along nearly every road, forest edge,
field, waterway and trail in the western part
of the state. By my grandmother’s childhood
in the late 1800s near Highlands and Marion
on the Willamette, these were already com-
mon, although she much preferred the taste
of the native dewberry, or trailing blackberry.
Himalayans are also the example my father
used as I was growing up to teach me about
interconnections between plants and animals.
The bushes respond dramatically to being cut
or trampled, and it is along these disturbed
edges that the plant offers its berries with
their abundant seeds most profusely.
It is no coincidence that the birds and ani-
mals most able to benefit from human alter-
ations to the environment benefit most splen-
didly from this abundance. I see the evidence
in the scat of raccoons, coyotes, bears,
skunks, fox and observe ravens, crows, jays,
robins, waxwings and several species of spar-
rows carrying away berries. Something in the
berries triggers gut responses that speed the
seeds through, helping to ensure that some
remain viable after they have passed on
through in some new place.
Wherever we berry eaters go, if there
weren’t already blackberries there, there soon
will be. Rabbits, rats and mice shelter in the
thickets, small birds nest there and many
species of spiders web the canes, including
the goldenrod crab spider that waits on the
blossoms and targets pollinators such as bum-
blebees. So we are among a throng that not
only co-exist with blackberries, we co-thrive.
Think I’ll have another bite of crumble in
appreciation.
LETTERS
The people’s initiative
If the Lane County Board of
Commissioners votes in late September to
give themselves the power to yank duly
approved initiatives from the vote of the peo-
ple because they decide the initiatives are not
“of county concern,” there is at least one
bright spot: the subsequent people’s initiative
to reverse that unconstitutional ordinance will
most assuredly be “of county concern.”
Commissioners Bozievich, Stewart, Farr
and Leiken: The initiative process belongs to
the people.
Keep your eye on Board of Commissioners’
agendas at www.lanecounty.org/Departments/
BCC/Pages/AgendaHome.aspx.
Cathy Barr
Deadwood
Liberty and justice for all
What kind of democracy do we have that
the witnesses to questionable killings by
police are treated like criminals? Aren’t the
killings disgusting enough?
In the case of the killing of Alton Sterling in
Baton Rouge, the storeowner who witnessed
the killing was detained by police against his
will, his security equipment seized without a
warrant and he has received death threats.
Chris LeDay, who also received another
video of Sterling’s killing and posted it on
MOMENTS IN TIME
The History Channel
On Aug. 16, 1896, while salmon fishing in
Canada’s Yukon Territory, George Carmack
reportedly spots nuggets of gold in a creek bed.
His lucky discovery sparked “Klondike Fever,”
the last great gold rush in the American West.
On Aug. 17, 1915, Charles F. Kettering,
co-founder
of
Dayton
Engineering
Laboratories Company (DELCO), is issued a
U.S. patent for his “engine-starting device” —
the first electric ignition mechanism for auto-
mobiles. Prior to his invention, drivers had to
use iron hand cranks to start their engines.
On Aug. 20, 1920, seven men, including
legendary football star Jim Thorpe, meet in
Canton, Ohio, to organize a professional foot-
ball league, the forerunner to the National
Football League.
On Aug. 19, 1953, the Iranian military,
with the support and financial assistance of the
United States, overthrows the government of
Premier Mosaddeq and reinstates the Shah of
Iran. Iran remained a Cold War ally of the U.S.
until a revolution ended the Shah’s rule in 1979.
On Aug. 15, 1961, two days after sealing
off free passage between East and West Berlin,
East German authorities begin building the
Berlin Wall to permanently close off access to
the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily for-
tified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible
symbol of the Cold War.
On Aug. 21, 1971, antiwar protestors asso-
ciated with the Catholic Left raid draft offices
in Buffalo, New York, and Camden, New
Jersey, to confiscate and destroy draft records.
The FBI and local police arrested 25 protestors.
On Aug. 18, 1991, Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest
during a coup by high-ranking members of his
own government, military and KGB secret
police. The coup collapsed three days later, but
Gorbachev’s days in power were numbered. He
resigned in December 1991.
Money made from fear
The other day I was walking by a salesman
that was showing a young woman how to load
a semiautomatic pistol. Standing behind her
was her husband holding two small children. I
don’t think she had ever shot a gun.
My point is unless a person comes from a
family that hunted ducks or big game and has
been around guns or people that were hunters,
they have no business buying an automatic
pistol. A background check is not going to do
much good.
More times than not, the gun is not used to
shoot an intruder, it kills an innocent person.
Virgle Bechtold
Florence
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
(c) 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.
Facebook, was later detained when he was
returning to work at a military base. He was
handcuffed, shackled and booked into jail for
traffic tickets.
We need transparency and oversight of the
police. Although many killings have gone undoc-
umented, past and present, the videos that do
exist lead to demand for necessary change. Those
videos also can’t help but let us “white folk” see
that there is a double standard — that people of
color are not treated with the same respect and
fairness by police that we are.
And, finally, in our wonderful country, we
are not free until everyone has the same free-
doms and justice is applied evenly to all of us,
regardless of color, race, religion or gender.
Julie MacFarlane
Florence
Gold Star cartoon
Your political editorial cartoon on Aug. 6
comparing Gold Star families’ struggles
through losing a child with Donald Trump’s
struggles to build his businesses is very disap-
pointing, and quite frankly, very insulting to
Gold Star families.
The cartoon showed Gold Star parents look-
ing out the window of their home with the
caption, “Yes we only have one star on our
home. But think of the ‘YUGE’ sacrifices
Donald Trump made to get a five star rating on
the Trump Towers!” Losing a child in battle is
not even in the same realm as working hard to
build a business. Not one Gold Star family
wanted to earn that star.
How dare you use their devastating losses
to push your political agenda? No matter your
political preferences, this is just plain cruel
and wrong. I expected much, much better
from my local paper.
Joni R. Holton
Florence
Editor’s Note: The editorial cartoon in ques-
tion was created by Joe Heller, a nationally syn-
dicated cartoonist, in response to the recent
comments made by Donald Trump during an
interview in which he compared his own sacri-
fices with constructing buildings to those of
Gold Star families, who have lost loved ones in
war. We believe there was no intention to put
down Gold Star families, and we apologize for
any confusion this may have caused.
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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