4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ NOVEMBER 4, 2017
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
Opinion
An unexpected goodbye
The first column I received
from Mapleton-area colunist
Wesley Voth began like this:
This is my favorite time of
year here: leaves turning color,
harvest and abundance, fre-
quent warm sunny days and
clear nights, and salmon in the
river. But I wouldn’t feel the
same appreciation if there
were no seasons, and every-
thing always remained the
same.
Yesterday afternoon, almost
a year to the day after reading
those words from Wesley, we
learned that our long-time
columnist and friend had
passed away just as the leavse
he loved so much were turning
color during his favorite time
of year.
Wesley began writing for
Siuslaw News years ago, offer-
ing his perspectives and
insights twice a month through
his “View from Upriver”
columns, which always began
with his appreciative descrip-
tions of the natural beauty in
his area.
His love for the land and
keen observance of the intrica-
cies of life around him were
often used as a creative
metaphor reflecting — much
like the seasons — the chang-
ing issues we face as a commu-
nity.
It wasn’t until becoming
editor a little over a year ago
that I had the pleasure of get-
ting to know Wesley through
our regular exchange of emails
twice a month. I discovered a
man who was what he wrote:
Contemplative, insightful and
always gravitating toward
nature as a means of keeping
perspective and, in no small
way, his sense of self.
About a year ago, Wesley
wrote the piece “Speaking Up”
(Oct. 15, 2016), which was
markedly different from his
earlier pieces. Though he
included his signature nature-
based metaphor, his tone and
message were inherently
stronger:
We all have opportunities to
stand up — and speak up —
against abuse wherever we
are. Who knows how many
lives we improve by doing so?
Or how many we let down
when we say nothing?
In his email, he was almost
apologetic, explaining that he
felt an obligation to speak out a
little more, and beyond the
parameters of life “Upriver.”
“We all live along the river,
so to speak,” he wrote. “I feel
the need to say more.”
Wesley Voth
And he did, telling readers
in his Dec. 3, 2016, column
“The Challenge of Making a
Difference:”
I feel a better sense of
the scope of the problems
facing our time, and the
efforts underway to do
something about them. I’d
like to focus my efforts as I
make my resolutions for the
New Year.
I can start with an easy,
but important one: Read
and make use of the editori-
al page of my local newspa-
per.
In the months that followed,
he utilized this space to help all
of us gain a sense of scope on
the problems facing our time,
and did so with eloquence and
a heart tempered with his keen
appreciation for life and
nature.
A week ago today, his final
piece was published on this
page. He opened his column
like this:
Here in Mapleton, it is the
golden time of year. Our signa-
ture trees, the big-leaf maples,
are turning the richest of yel-
lows and are joined in this by
alder and buckthorn, wild
cherry and knotweed.
Cedar and redwood also
shed a portion of their fronds
in autumn, and this yellow
brown detritus joins the leaves
in covering another pumpkin-
colored fruit of our woods, the
chanterelles.
Upon hearing of his passing
yesterday, it was a reminder of
the fragility of not just life, but
those within each of our lives
who contribute to the moments
of beauty we experience —
even without our taking the
time to appreciate them.
It brought me back to that
column of Wesley’s and his
words from a year ago:
I wouldn’t feel the same
appreciation if there were no
seasons, and everything
always remained the same.
Though Wesley has moved
beyond the earthly seasons of
Mapleton, our appreciation of
him will always remain ...
Write to editor Ned Hickson
at nhickson@thesiuslawnews.
com, or c/o Siuslaw News, 148
Maple St., Florence, Ore. 97439
LETTERS
V OTE ‘Y ES ’ AND
SLEEP BETTER
In a few seconds, with the stroke of
pen, you can make a difference in the life
of more than 1,350 children at Siuslaw
Schools 97J by voting to renew Local
Option Levy 20-281.
Though it’s too late to mail in your bal-
lot, there’s still time to bring it to the
Florence Justice Center drop box; it must
be done by 8 p.m. this Tuesday, Nov. 7.
Help maintain smaller class sizes, fund
electives, provide needed technology
upgrades and ensure better safety and
security for our Siuslaw K-12 students.
You’ll sleep better at night knowing
you said “yes” to a better future for our
students, our community and our country.
—Rachel I. Pearson,
School Volunteer
Florence
H ELP SERVE OTHERS
THIS T HANKSGIVING
The Kiwanis Club of Florence, which
has been serving the Florence area for
more than 30 years, could not accomplish
its goals without help from local business-
es and citizens. Its largest fund raiser is
the Flag program, which raises about
$12,000 each year.
Kiwanis puts out about 450 flags 10 to
12 times each year, weather permitting. If
there is a flag in front of a business, it
indicates they are a sponsor and are com-
mitted to helping Kiwanis and the com-
munity.
Part of this money is spent on hosting
the
annual
Kiwanis Thanksgiving
Community Dinner. This event is free to
all and requires more than 80 volunteers
to serve about 600 dinners to area resi-
dents.
Kiwanis wants to thank the Elks Lodge
1858 and the Siuslaw High School Key
Club for the volunteers they provide, as
well as River Cities Taxi for helping peo-
ple who need assistance getting to and
from the dinner.
Anyone who wants to volunteer two to
four hours on Nov. 22 and/or Nov. 23 is
encouraged to do so because the event can
use the help. I promise that the act of giv-
ing back to your community will be
remembered forever. Those who would
like to help can email gjvawter@yahoo
.com or visit www.florencekiwanis.org
—Gary Vawter, Co-Chair
Kiwanis Thanksgiving Committee
Florence
D ANGERS OF
FALSE ARGUMENTS
In Ian Eales’ Letter to the Editor (Oct.
28), he attempts to argue that gun regula-
tions have no affect on gun violence.
He describes a period in which gun
homicides in the age range 14-24 have
increased, but doesn’t relate that finding
to regulations, and no study is identified.
He adds that gun deaths outside that range
have dropped.
Certainly, by inference one might sus-
pect that that was because of regulations;
and an appeal to our emotions by refer-
encing the violence in “Miami Vice” does
little to reaffirm this argument.
Finally, he jumps to England to argue
his point based on a historical study by
Joyce Lee Malcolm, a staunch advocate
of the Second Amendment. The problem
with this argument is that it’s based solely
on the opinion of one historical writer
who leapt to the conclusion that gun
restrictions led to more crime.
Gun control advocates argue the oppo-
site.
Unfortunately, Mr. Eales does nothing
to validate his argument by identifying
well-researched studies published in jour-
nals with peer reviews that look specifi-
cally at the relationship between gun vio-
lence and regulations.
More and more university based stud-
ies are finding that regulations do reduce
gun violence. Dr. Daniel Webster, director
of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun
Policy and Research, in an interview with
Media Matters, pointed to a growing body
of research showing significant reduc-
tions in gun violence associated with per-
mit-to-purchase laws.
In this society, when tens of thousands
are slaughtered each year by guns, and
three times more are seriously injured, it
is dangerous to offer false arguments that
regulations do nothing to help stop the
carnage.
Congress needs to fund more valid
research on the connections between gun
violence and gun regulation.
One could benefit from Sir Francis
Bacon’s expression: “Knowledge is
power.”
—Michael Allen
Florence
T AX PLAN : MIDDLE CLASS SUBSI -
DIZING THE WEALTHY
With the terror attack in New York ear-
lier this week fresh on our minds, the
President and the Republican leadership
just announced their tax reform and budg-
et plan. The proposed budget would cut
$156 million for the anti-terrorism pro-
gram for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1,
2018. Cutting the budget for anti-terror-
ism programs doesn’t seem like the route
we ought to be going.
Wealthy Americans, like our President,
would benefit from the repeal of the alter-
native minimum tax and eventual com-
plete phase-out of the estate tax by 2024;
the estate tax only applies to estates worth
$5 million or more. This only helps the
top one percent of American taxpayers; in
short, it takes money out of the economy
and allows the very rich to become even
richer.
Corporate taxes under this “reform”
will be slashed from 35 percent to 20 per-
cent. This has been a demand by the
President, with the theory being that cor-
porations will use this extra money to
raise wages and create jobs. In the 1980s
this was referred to as “Trickle Down
Economics.”
It didn’t work then and it won’t work
now. The corporations will use that
money to pay higher dividends to already
wealthy shareholders and pay higher
bonuses (in the millions of dollars) to cor-
porate CEOs
The budget would cut nearly $1.5 tril-
lion from Medicare and Medicaid over the
next 10 years even though, throughout his
campaign, the President promised he
wouldn’t touch Medicare and Medicaid.
Yet there it is on the chopping block.
Middle class Americans will lose a
valuable deduction on state and local
income taxes, also known as SALT. That
means most of us will pay taxes on taxes
already paid to another governmental
agency. The child tax credit would be
increased from $1,000 to $1,600, though
the $4,050 per child exemption would be
repealed.
Additionally, it is estimated that this
budget and tax reform plan would add
somewhere between $1.5 trillion to $2.4
trillion to the nation’s debt. In the past,
Republicans have been all about eliminat-
ing the national deficit.
Once again, the middle class and the
poor are being used to subsidize the very
wealthy of this country. We should all feel
betrayed and angry — and we should let
Washington, D.C., hear our collective
“No.”
—Marybeth Marenco
Florence
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
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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.
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Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News
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L ETTERS
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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P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS :
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timely issues of interest to our readers at-large.
Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing
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Ensure any information about a candidate is accu-
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Candidates themselves may not use the letters to
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As with all letters and advertising content, the
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general manager and editor, reserves the right to
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ria.
Send letters to:
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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