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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 2017)
4 A ❘ FRIDAY EDITION ❘ NOVEMBER 10, 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, $76; 6-month in-county, $52; 10-weeks subscription, $23; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription,$99; 6-month out-of-county, $65; 10-weeks subscription, $29; Out of State — 1- year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $71. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com L ETTERS Forever indebted to those who serve grow up in an era that was essentially between wars, leaving a generation of kids whose only knowledge of bat- tle came from history books, Shield” and “SCUD missiles” entered our vernacular — and we witnessed live coverage of war on our television sets for the first time in our lives. From the Editor’s Desk In the corner of a room in my mother’s home is a dusty pair of cavalry boots that belonged to my great-grandfa- ther. He wore them as he rode in defense of our nation against the threat of tyranny. I’ve often stared at those boots and wondered how many times he slid them on not knowing if it would be for the last time. I was fortunate enough to N ED H ICKSON classic films and the occasion- al tale momentarily pried from tight-lipped fathers and grand- parents. It wasn’t until my late 30s, when our nation’s focus shift- ed from places like Vietnam and Korea to the shifting sands of the Middle East, that terms like “Operation: Desert And we have essentially been at war ever since. Though as Americans we have the right to disagree on what justifies going to war, who may benefit from it or what the moral consequences may be, we cannot ever over- look the sacrifice made by those who answer the call regardless of how we may feel about war itself. We are indebted to everyone who has been, who is now and whoever will be, willing to sacrifice themselves in service to our nation. Our debt to their duty exists well beyond the realm of poli- tics, partisanship, personal agendas or approval numbers. It’s about the fact that, thanks to our veterans, we occasionally provide a genera- tion with the chance to grow up without knowing war. Write Siuslaw News editor Ned Hickson at nhickson@the- siuslaw news.com or P.O. Box 10, Florence, Ore. 97439. LETTERS D ON ’ T WANT TO SAY GOODBYE TO F LORENCE I love the Florence area but will be spending my money elsewhere unless the rampant thefts at local campgrounds are stopped. I have been coming to the area from Langley, B.C., with my family for eight years now to enjoy the ORV opportuni- ties that the city has on its doorstep. We average six weeks in Florence each year and, by my conservative esti- mate, spend anywhere between $1,000- $2,000 per week at local businesses. My hard-earned money is not only spent at Florence Yamaha and Sportsman Honda, but also at the many local restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and in antique shops and movie theater on rainy days. Looking at the number of ORV enthusiasts there are at Jessie Honeyman and Driftwood II camp- grounds, my math tells me that this adds up to a significant part of Florence’s economy. Until recently, the only thefts that we would hear about would be the occa- sional unlocked jerrycan or cooler. Although unpleasant, not enough to ruin a holiday. This past October, however, my fam- ily, along with three other families, were staying at Honeyman State Park for seven days. During our stay, there were lock cables cut and items stolen every single night. This includes the theft of an ATV. One of the families in our party had a heavy-duty cable lock cut only 3 feet from where his head was while he was sleeping. They only lost a couple of full jerrycans but the frustration and feel- ings of violation still exist. I highly recommend that the City of Florence make it a high priority to address the issue with state and county police, as well as the state parks to end this crime wave. Myself and a number of the families that we regularly travel with to Florence with have agreed that we will give it one last shot as we already have a trip booked in December. But if anything is stolen while we are there, we sadly feel the need to say goodbye to the Florence area and estab- lish a different riding location down the coast as our destination of choice. I travel 600 miles to Florence’s out- door mecca, as do many others who travel similar distances. Please don’t let a few criminals drive this significant contribution to the local economy away — leaving local business owners and their employees to suffer the most. —Kelly Dayman Langley, Brittish Columbia E NOUGH The NRA and the gun lobby are not organizations that are protecting 2nd Amendment rights; they are protecting the profits of gun manufacturers. Enough. In Texas last Sunday, 26 innocent souls were lost due to violence with the use of a gun and a dozen people were injured. Every day in this country, 90 human beings are lost due to an individ- ual with a gun. A gun has no other pur- pose but to kill — someone or some- thing. A semi-automatic or automatic gun is a weapon of war, with the sole purpose of killing as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. Assault weapons should be banned from being owned by anyone outside of the military. All high capacity maga- zines of ammunition should be banned as well. All weapons should be registered. Anyone attempting to buy ammuni- tion should be required to show the reg- istration for the gun for which they are buying that ammunition. No registration, no ammo. The 2nd Amendment gives you the right to own a gun, but says nothing about laws or restrictions on types of guns or ammo. It’s time. —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 T AKE PRIDE IN OUR COUNTY AND CITY Do you see trash, bottles and cans lit- tering the roadside in front of your house? Why not take a few minutes and walk your property where it abuts the road- side? Or walk another 10 yards beyond your property line in each direction and pick up the garbage? Those of us who live next to county roads certainly cannot count on Lane County to do it. I questioned our Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozevich some time ago about getting the jail inmates to do it. After all, it doesn’t seem they are doing much anyway. His reply was something along the lines of not being allowed by the unions to have staff out there watching the inmates. And the blackberries and Scotchbroom growing by the road- sides? The county barely mows that anymore, apparently due to budget con- straints again. I guess I’ll have to take on that myself, too. So, don’t wait for someone else to do it. Take pride in our county and city. —Dana Rodet 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 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
