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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2017)
4 A ❘ WEDNESDAY EDITION ❘ OCTOBER 11, 2017 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR Opinion ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respecting an estab- lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer- cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. USPS# 497-660 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. 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 James Rand Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Erik Chalhoub Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry 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 classifiedad,sThursday 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 subscrip- tion,$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 L ETTERS LETTERS G ROWING PAINS IN D UNES C ITY Dunes City Administration recently approved three recreational marijuana grows within our city limits without Public Notice and Planning Commission recommendation. Residents were blindsided. These grows violate the City Charter, The Comprehensive Plan as well as Oregon’s Statewide Planning Goals. Besides potentially discharging chemical cocktails containing herbi- cides, fertilizers and pesticides into our drinking water supply — the Woahink Lake watershed — these grows are attractive to criminal elements. And if we encounter problems? Call the OSP ourselves and deal with it; the City will have no involvement. Our Comprehensive Plan doesn’t allow commercial development within the city; we are dedicated to maintain- ing a rural, residential presence. So why permit these commercial operations? Though the Tier II licenses sought are the largest and priciest to get, they allow these grows to “expand canopies” with no further local input allowed. Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) Directors Jesse Sweet and Danica Hibpshman are aware of the conflicts. It was never the intent of the OLCC to thrust these commercial grows into neighborhoods. It is imperative that residents com- municate personal impact statements regarding these grows on our families, children, lifestyle, neighborhoods, property values, security, drinking water and any other concerns. Email addresses for OLCC Directors Sweet and Hibpshman are: jessesweet @oregon.gov and danicahibpshman@ oregon.gov. Ordinance 245, passed at last month’s Dunes City Council meeting appears to be in direct violation of state law. If not rescinded, the state may have to file suit against the city. The next City Council meeting is tonight, Oct. 11, at 6 p.m. The next Planning Commission meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 5:45 p.m. Be heard; stand up for our beautiful community. —Mary Jo Leach Dunes City ‘F REEDOM OF R ELIGION ’ INCLUDES FREEDOM FROM IT Why do religious people often seem to think that non-religous people cannot be good citizens? Historically, Christians were backed by the church to invade, conquer and kill native people if they were unwilling to convert. Non religious people did not split into sects then fight wars for centuries. The Green River killer attended church, the BTK (bind, torture and kill) serial killer held a position in his church. There have been many reports of the Catholic Church protecting child molesters while essentially imprisoning unwed mothers in Ireland. The Church of England, as recent as the 1950s, has taken children from unwed mothers and shipped them to Australia while telling the mothers the child died — and the children that they were unwanted. The list of religious-based atrocities is endless, yet these are the organiza- tions most often being promoted as the standard to live by. Religious people think little of imposing their beliefs on people but take offense when those beliefs are rejected. If there is Freedom of Religion it is just as important to have Freedom from Religion. You can be a moral person with good standards without being religious. Religious people are free to gather at their place of worship. At the same time, they shouldn’t feel entitled to impose their beliefs on those who like to live without all the guilt that comes with religion. —Frank Keavy Florence F ORGET GUN CONTROL AND SUPPORT AMMO REGULATION The statement that guns are not lethal in themselves is an oxymoron. Guns are manufactured for a sole purpose: to kill. To a tiny extent, guns are used for the sports of target and skeet shooting, but in reality these “sports” are only prac- tice for honing one’s ability to kill. So lets be practical; there is no realis- tic means to remove the millions of weapons now in public possession. The answer is to strictly ration or regulate ammunition. —Bill Durst Florence H ARD TO SEE THE GOOD WHEN IT ISN ’ T THERE I’m writing in response to Gutherie Kushner’s Letter to the Editor (Oct. 7) wherein Kushner asks “Why can’t peo- ple see all the good Trump is doing for our country?” This prompted me to do my own research. Consider just a few of the actions the Trump administration has taken that affect the average citizen: • Education: Rolled back school lunch standards; reversed a policy that expanded punishments for campus sex- ual assaults; canceled a partnership aimed at policing student loan fraud. • Environment: Withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement; ended a study on the health effects of mountaintop- removal mining; rescinded a rule man- dating that rising sea levels be consid- ered when building public infrastruc- ture in flood-prone areas; delayed auto- motive fuel efficiency standards; ended a rule banning dumping waste from mining into streams. • Foreign policy: Wants to end DACA; wants to decertify the Iran Nuclear Agreement; is the provocateur- in-chief with North Korea. • Economy: Revoked a rule that expanded the number of people who can earn overtime pay; revoked an executive order that mandated compli- ance by contractors with laws protect- ing women in the workplace; repealed a bill that mandated employers maintain records of workplace injuries; killed a rule mandating that government con- tractors disclose past violations of labor law. And that doesn’t include the more contentious issues such as: withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership; reversing Civil Rights Act protection of transgender workers; reversing, rescinding or blocking policies or posi- tions regarding voter ID laws, problem- atic police departments, the Clean Power Plan, drilling in the Arctic, frack- ing on public lands, hunting of bears and wolves, and on and on. Perhaps people can’t see the good because there isn’t anything to see. —Dolly Brock Florence ‘B UMP S TOCK ’ RESTRICTION ONLY TEMPORARY FIX I’d like to point out that the Las Vegas Massacre was an act of Domestic Terrorism, committed by an American, on other Americans. We have become so fearful of attacks by foreign-born terrorists — which are rare on U.S. soil — that we ignore the terrorists among us at home. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solu- tion. Every mass shooting has a differ- ent pattern and ideology motivating the shooter. However, we must end the senseless taking of lives. In Congress, there is talk of banning the “bump stock” device which con- verts the semi-automatic weapon to a deadlier, nearly fully automatic type. Eliminating the bump stock is a tem- porary fix; manufacturers will come up with a new gizmo. Perhaps we need to regulate the gun and ammunition producers? —Marybeth Marenco Florence TO THE P OLICY E DITOR The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion 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 anonymous letters or poetry, or letters from outside our readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS : Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accu- rate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and per- spective rather than partisanship and campaign- style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and plat- forms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid polit- ical advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above crite- ria. Send letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com WHERE TO WRITE 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, Ore. 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 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 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 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
