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
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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 If not rescinded, the state may have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.
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Libelous, argumentative and anonymous letters
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editor.
P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS :
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As with all letters and advertising content, the
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reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above crite-
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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