4 A
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WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ MARCH 8, 2017
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
LETTERS
N EED TO BE IMPARTIAL
As a fellow human, I need the same
requirements (i.e. food, shelter, clean water
and safety). I am not left or right as I make the
effort to decipher through the press and media
to make an intelligent, objective and non-par-
tisan search in order to arrive at a well-
researched conclusion.
Extreme posturing from either side just
heightens the divide and politicizes issues
which need to be dealt with for all citizens’
welfare.
If you are on one side or the other, listening
to partisan rhetoric and sound bites — then
you are part of the problem. We all have a
responsibility to extrapolate the truth from
various media and print news sources.
Please don’t label me as one way or anoth-
er because I make my own decisions based on
multiple sources of media.
People that espouse partisan dialogue in
media often have their own agenda and it is
every citizen’s responsibility to impartially
look at all sides before reaching their own
opinion for the good of everybody — not just
one side or the other.
Jon Tipple
Florence
M ONEY - MAKING
EDUCATION
Ian Eales’s Letter to the Editor (March 1)
was essentially an attack on teachers, their
unions, public education, the Democratic
Party and the building of a new high school in
Florence. In his letter, he asserts the follow-
ing:
“Schools are failing because they [teachers]
expect nothing of the students — and that is
what the students deliver...”
“Spending $40 million on a new school will
L ETTERS TO THE
E DITOR P OLICY
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to
the editor as part of a community discus-
sion of issues on the local, state and
national level.
Emailed
letters
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preferred.
Handwritten or typed letters must be
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name, address and phone number; only
name and city will be printed. Letters
should be limited to about 300 words.
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, argumentative and anony-
mous letters or poetry will not be pub-
lished.
P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS :
Election-related letters must address
pertinent or timely issues of interest to our
readers at-large. The newspaper does not
publish partisan letters that promote or
endorse local political candidates based
solely on their record, reputation and qual-
ifications; this constitutes paid political
advertising.
Candidates themselves may not use the
letters to the editor column to outline their
views and platforms or to ask for votes.
This also constitutes paid political advertis-
ing.
As with all letters and advertising con-
tent, the newspaper, at the sole discretion
of the publisher, general manager and edi-
tor, reserves the right to reject any such
letter.
The newspaper is particularly sensitive
to organized “letter-writing campaigns.”
The newspaper reserves the right to reject
any such letter.
Write to: editor@thesiuslawnews.com
USPS# 497-660
not improve academic performance. … The
building will be a monument to mediocrity...”
“Today’s education system is a bloated
bureaucracy. Teachers unions overwhelming-
ly contribute to the Democratic party; the
same party responsible for failing inner cities
within Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit,
Washington D.C., et al...”
“Throwing more money at the problem will
not solve it. It is time for a change.”
I suspect Mr. Eales knows little about
teachers and public education. However, hav-
ing been a public school teacher for 32 years,
I know how dedicated the vast majority of
teachers are in their work.
Teachers know the complexities of student
learning better than Bill Gates, Mitch
McConnell or any person who is not a present
or past educator.
I loathe what critics say about teachers.
Corporate know-it-alls and their paid political
allies excoriate low student achievement test
scores. They blame bad teachers, teacher
tenure and unions as the reasons for failing
schools, asserting that standardized test
scores are the best way to determine a
teacher’s effectiveness.
Never mind the deleterious societal effects
of poverty, especially in inner cities, where
students face terrible living conditions, mal-
nutrition, family dysfunction and parental
disengagement on a daily basis.
Never mind the considerable, widespread
underfunding of schools that makes teaching
ever more difficult.
A certain percentage of the general popula-
tion has always had (and always will have) a
negative opinion of the teaching profession.
They believe that teaching is easy and that
teachers are coddled and overpaid. The old
saying “If you can’t do anything else, teach”
goes back to when I began teaching in 1957.
Teachers have had to battle these perceptions
for decades.
How easy it has been for the champions of
privatization — who have produced the films
“Waiting for Superman” and “Won’t Back
Down” and who have never themselves actu-
ally taught in a classroom — to rally unin-
formed, innately critical people to their cause.
Corporate-funded “reform” activists are
bent on ridding communities of veteran
to his duty that you don’t see often and it is
much appreciated.
My brother bought the house to retire in
and it was almost lost to damage that was not
expected. I think Mike and his crew are top
notch in my book.
David T. Eckhardt
Florence
U NNECESSARY SUFFERING
R EVIEW YOUR POLICY
I’m not quite sure what the editorial policy
of the Siuslaw News is any more. It used to
be that when I read the letters to the editor
that there was a balance of letters on social
issues, but lately it appears that has changed.
While I am not a fan of Donald Trump, I
tend to lean to the right of center and I don’t
see a balance of opinion in that way.
It is particularly distressing when the editor
supports, in editorial pieces, those issues
which are to the left of center.
This is especially evident in those issues
which affect the city of Florence. Perhaps you
could review your policy and publish a fair
and balanced number of letters.
Donald Frerichs
Florence
T OP - NOTCH CREW
I was surprised to see my brother’s house
on the front page of Siuslaw News (Feb. 25).
I would like to tell everyone how lucky we
are to have a Public Works director like Mike
Miller. I first talked to him when I checked
my brother’s house after a neighbor contact-
ed us that the garage was flooding.
It actually got up to 5 inches at one point. I
went down to the Spruce Street office to see
what could be done and the gentleman I
spoke with showed me the situation on their
map; it was not good.
He gave me Mike’s number and I spoke to
him about our concerns regarding damage to
the house if the water got much deeper.
He had no quick answer but said he would
look at it. Then, to my surprise that day, I
believe he had his crew set up the pump and
go to work. It should be noted that I did not
ask for it; he took it upon himself to help save
the house.
I feel this is a special kind of commitment
I would like to thank Siuslaw News and
reporter Mark Brennan for the excellent job
in presenting my cause (Feb. 15), as as seeing
the value in my story.
By the year 2031, the first wave of baby
boomers hits 85 years old. It is projected that
more than 3 million Americans will have
Alzheimer’s or related diseases. Combine
that with the number of cases involving
autoimmune diseases, cancers and other
debilitating conditions, and the numbers mul-
tiplied many times over.
Unless a cure is found by the year 2050,
more than 60 million Americans are project-
ed to have Alzheimer’s and related diseases.
Right now, about 60,000 cases of Parkinson’s
are being diagnosed each year. These num-
bers will overwhelm senior medical and
memory care units that are already at capaci-
ty.
There is going to be a lot of unnecessary
suffering involved.
We do not let our animals suffer — why do
we make our people?
Also, thank you to Winn Jolley for his let-
ter to the editor regarding the newspaper’s
three-part series. I am hoping more people
become interested in this important issue.
Bruce Yelle
Florence
The First Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the free-
dom of speech, or of the press, or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to peti-
tion the Government for a redress of griev-
ances.
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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.
John Bartlett
Jenna Bartlett
Ned Hickson
Susan Gutierrez
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Jeremy Gentry
teachers, privatizing public schools, making
education a money-making enterprise for
niche businesses, and indoctrinating children
with a corporate, agenda-driven, by-the-num-
bers culture emboldened by the appointment
of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Don’t fall for it.
Harold Titus
Florence
Pres. Donald Trump
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
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
www.merkley.senate.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. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
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