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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2017)
4 A ❘ SATURDAY EDITION ❘ JUNE 17, 2017 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM The First Amendment Opinion 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. LETTERS B ILL 494 IS WRONG The Oregon Senate voted this past week to approve Bill 494, which would allow health care representa- tives to withhold feeding and hydra- tion to those who are mentally ill or suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s — without their prior written con- sent. This is not for citizens who are terminally ill. This bill empowers surrogates (i.e. guardian, spouse, a friend or, if none is available, an attending physician) to make life-ending deci- sions for some of our most vulnera- ble citizens. The provisions in this bill would apply even if a patient’s advance directive did not give explicit per- mission or if the patient had no advance directive at all. Analysts of the bill say the word- ing was made purposefully ambigu- ous to allow these life and death decisions to be subject to whatever the people surrounding the patient want to do. Currently, the bill is headed to the Oregon House of Representatives. I will be calling my state representa- tive and urging her to vote no on SB494. — Susie Dewberry Florence B ALANCE THE COIN Ponder this quote from our 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who for those too young to remember was a five-star general in World War II: “Only Americans can hurt America.” I don’t care about political party affilia- tions, what church people attend or which war an individual served in. I care about how we talk to and about each other. If what divides us could be compared to the two sides of a quarter, I say we should bal- ance the coin on its edge. We need to not “boo” each other or call each other idiots. Both of these behaviors happened at Ron Wyden’s town hall within 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 are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full 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, or letters from out- side our readership area will not be pub- lished. Send letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com my view and earshot — and both “sides” had a voice in it. Let’s seek what’s good in each other and build on that. Let’s listen and pass the olive branch around to give each speaker a chance. — Ivy Medow Florence S POTLIGHT ON VALUABLE RESOURCE Many thanks to Mark Brennan and the Siuslaw News for the story about the Memory Loss Respite Center (May 3). The Memory Loss Respite Center provides care for members of our community who have memory loss as well as support for their care- givers. As a volunteer at the center, I appreciate the spotlight on this very valuable communi- ty resource. The results of the article have included generous donations, a significant increase in the number of families receiving services, and a much appreciated increase in new and enthusiastic volunteers. However, while the community support has been heartening, the center is still short of meeting the goal of returning to services three days a week. Presently the center is open only Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. With just a few more volunteers, the center could return to being available on Wednesdays. I encourage anyone with a caring and giv- ing heart who is interested in helping others to stop by (Florence Senior Center at 1570 Kingwood St.) any Monday or Thursday to see what the program is about. I am very grateful to live in such a gener- ous and caring community as Florence. — Pat Duncan USPS# 497-660 Oregon Group Publisher (541) 265 8571 Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Consulting Editor (831) 761-7353 Email: echalhoub@register-pajaronian.com Marketing 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 Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry At the recent Flag Retirement Ceremony, children were conspicuously absent. As Wally Shoults read “The Talking Flag,” a complete history lesson was given as to why America is good and great. America may not be perfect, but perfection is not a requirement of goodness. Throughout history, writers of all cultures — e.g. Voltaire, Shakespeare, Aristotle, Confucius, etc. — have opined that “better is the enemy of good.” If we are to again come together as a peo- ple, knowledge of why America is good and great is essential. To me, Flag Day is as important as July 4 because, on June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes, for- ever associating “Old Glory” with the desire of man to be free of oppression. No other symbol in the world so defines freedom. Next year, let’s endeavor to get as many children as possible to attend the Flag Retirement Ceremony so that they can fully appreciate the gift with which they have been blessed. — Ian Eales Florence T RUMP IS NOT A ‘ GENIUS ’ In a Letter to the Editor (June 14) by Guthrie Wilson titled “Let the President do his job,” I first thought it was written in jest. But as I was reading it, I realized it was writ- ten by someone with a perspective I know lit- tle about. The letter stated things like “The current political establishment is clearly against the President because of fear...” “He is being lashed out at by Congress and the political regime...” and “In our Constitution, the feder- al government has no rights over our money, our alcohol, marijuana laws, education or health insurance...” I am a bit confused with this because, according to the letter, our government con- trols everything. “...[Thanks to President Trump] gas and oil, big pharmaceuticals and industrial farm- ing no longer run our country...” I don’t know where this idea came from since President Trump is the one who wants to start up the polluting coal industry once again. What bothered me most is that Wilson called Trump a “genius.” A genius is a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creative productivity… typically to a degree that is associated with the achievements of new advances in the domain of knowledge. We have had a number of geniuses visit our world. People like Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, etc. To consider Trump a genius is beyond my understanding. On the June 13 edition of “The Morning Show on CBS,” Newt Gingrich suggested that Trump is still learning how to be the pres- ident because he was a businessman and did not realize the workings of Washington. I think many can agree that Trump does not know much about the political workings of Washington. But if he wanted to learn, why didn’t he surround himself with teachers rather than cronies? That would seem to me to be the smart thing to do. — Win Jolley Florence Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News 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. James Rand Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Erik Chalhoub Florence W HERE ARE THE CHILDREN ? 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 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 www.merkley.senate.gov 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 ( 4 th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6416 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
