4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ MARCH 21, 2018
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
tive truth.
For small towns such as
ours, it is a poison that quick-
ly spreads through the veins
of social media and into the
very pulse of our community.
Over the last several days,
there have been a couple of
examples of this following
last week’s student walkout
school did initiate a fire drill
during the walkout. This was
done in order to make sure all
students stayed on campus
and in a predetermined area,
which they would be
required to do as part of the
drill.
However, students partici-
pating in the drill remained at
From the Editor’s Desk
N ED H ICKSON
and the resignation of a local
high school football coach.
Within hours of posting
our story on the student
walkout held last Wednesday,
I watched as a single com-
ment (asking why a fire
engine was at the walkout)
quickly turned into a full-
fledged conspiracy, with
“left-wing, liberal teachers”
at the middle and high
schools pulling fire alarms to
force student participation as
part of a political agenda.
According to fire depart-
ment call records, they
weren’t tapped out for a fire
alarm at any of our schools
that day. This was confirmed
by the fire department as
well.
However, they were there
as part of a safety plan in
conjunction with the police
department.
I spoke with Siuslaw
schools Superintendent Andy
Grzeskowiak, and the middle
the school and did not make
the trek to join the 70 or so
high schoolers on the high
school campus.
This debunks the notion
that the alarm was pulled to
force students to participate
in the walkout — or bolster
turnout for the media —
since those students were a
block away at the middle
school campus during the
walkout.
Also this week, soon after
the announcement of Siuslaw
High School’s search for a
new head football coach fol-
lowing his resignation last
Monday (March 12), rumors
began circulating on social
media comment threads that
the whole staff had been
fired, insinuating some kind
of wrong-doing.
In addition, because some
assistant coaches are also
teachers, assumptions were
being made that they had lost
their teaching positions as
well.
As with most rumors,
these were based on unsub-
stantiated assumptions.
In talking with school
administrators, coaches are
“released” from their con-
tract at the end of every sea-
son as a routine formality.
This allows them the option
of returning to their position
the next season, or opting out
should they choose — rather
than committing to a long-
term contract. In the case of a
new head coach, it allows
both the incoming coach and
existing staff to decide if the
program is still a good fit.
In short, no one was fired.
If the recent discovery of
Cambridge Analytica’s inten-
tional spreading of disinfor-
mation through social media
shows us anything, it’s that
we can be dangerously sus-
ceptible to the power of
rumor and speculation when
driven by an agenda.
And while those at the
national level argue over how
best to address it, we have
the power within our own
small communities to decide
for ourselves what we are
willing to accept and com-
ment on when we are certain
of the truth — and how much
division we are willing to
sow when we aren’t.
Write Siuslaw News editor Ned
Hickson at nhickson@thesiuslaw
news.com or c/o Siuslaw News, 148
Maple St., Florence, Ore. 97439.
LETTERS
C ONSPIRACY T HEORY
OR TRUTH ?
If another world power, dictator or
ideology wanted to take over or manip-
ulate the U.S., what is the first thing
they would do?
Given all other examples, they
would start by taking away your guns.
In a country founded on a principle of
citizens being able to protect them-
selves against an oppressive govern-
ment, how can you possibly take away
their guns?
Easy — you start killing their chil-
dren. You pass a law designating
schools as “gun-free zones,” thereby
painting a target on the backs of our
children. Assassins will look first to
places where their plan can’t get inter-
rupted by someone else carrying a gun.
To make it appear even more like a
plot to take away America’s guns, the
media doesn’t seem to dwell on other
killings where knives, cars or bombs
kill large groups of people. It doesn’t
focus on Chicago, where guns are ille-
gal yet murder rates by shootings are
among the highest in the country. Not
surprisingly, the media is focused on
guns.
Conspirators are organizing march-
es, organizing and pushing our children
to walk out of school and suing our
favorite stores to get them to stop sell-
ing guns.
They are trying to get the American
people to say, “Let’s do something,
anything, to make this stop. So take our
guns.”
It tears me apart to imagine the pain
of a parent of a child that has been
slaughtered in a “gun-free zone.” In the
end I believe that getting rid of gun-
free zones would save more lives than
banning guns.
—Sherry Harvey
Florence
R EAL - WORLD CONEXT ON
GUN CONTROL
I am responding to two Letters to the
Editor in the March 14 edition of
Siuslaw News, “Gun Violence Study
Has No Place In CDC” from David
Eckhardt and “Gun Commentors
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
Rumor, speculation on Facebook
just as damaging as data breach
Revelations over the mis-
use of data and personal
information gathered from
some 50 million Facebook
users
by
Cambridge
Analytica has prompted
debate on how that informa-
tion can be used to manipu-
late our decisions and nation-
al dialogue — and whether
we, as individuals, are just as
much to blame for opting to
be a part of it by pushing the
“agreement” option.
While state and federal
legislators, Facebook execu-
tives and social analysts
argue over the repercussions
and potential impacts this
could have on future elec-
tions, there is another aspect
of “social media influencing”
that is having a direct impact
on communities everywhere,
every day, that doesn’t
require algorithm analysis,
behavioral-prediction soft-
ware or clandestine meet-
ings.
It takes place in the open,
through the sharing of rumor
and speculation on Facebook
comment threads.
Unlike propaganda gener-
ated beyond our control from
behind-the-scenes companies
like Cambridge Analytic, this
spreading of misinformation
is within our control but,
sadly, spins out of control,
morphing rumor and specu-
lation into a form of assump-
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
Should Use Real-World Context” from
Jared Anderson:
I have four real-world suggestions
for them:
1) Contact the police departments of
Newtown, Conn., and Parkland, Fla.,
and request to see the crime scene pho-
tos of the victims of both schools.
2) Schedule town hall meetings at
both locations. This should include
anyone who cares to attend, but no
NRA members allowed.
3) In Parkland, Fla., meet with the
Marjory Stoneman Douglas H.S. stu-
dents, teachers and parents of victims.
4) In Newtown, Conn., meet with
the parents and loved ones of the
young children and adult victims.
This is not a debate on gun control.
This would take real-world courage, so
let’s see who is up to it.
I served in the U.S. Army for six
years, a short stint as a Merchant sea-
man and 13-and-a-half years as a
Florence Police Auxiliary member.
As far as owning any guns, I would
not brag about it.
—David J. Campbell
Florence
(Editor’s note: The letter writer
mentioned above shares the same name
as Siuslaw News community reporter
Jared Anderson but is not the same per-
son.)
S IMPLE TRUTHS ABOUT
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
It seems the County Commissioners
don’t realize that the commission is the
first level of government for all rural,
non-incorporated areas of Lane
County. They represent the first line of
defense for those citizens protecting
their health, safety and welfare.
They have failed as a body over the
years to assume the just response to
this citizen alert: Aerial toxic spray vic-
tims are no less than collateral damage
to industrial logging.
There is no other place under our
system for effective redress of invasion
by toxic drift. In more than 40 years of
herbicide spray, the liability for such a
horrendous invasion has failed to get
established.
Where is government’s protection of
its people? Where is our treasured ini-
tiative system giving the people the
right to direct democratic vote regard-
ing our health, safety and welfare?
Simple truth No. 1: 15,000 people
want to vote on their right to be free
from aerial toxic trespass.
Simple truth No. 2: The County
Commission can refer the charter
amendment to the ballot as an initia-
tive.
—Linda Kanter
Deadwood
B LATANT , INSULTING
BUSINESS PRACTICES
We can surely relate to Louise
Barney’s predicament in her Letter to
the Editor (“Be Careful Who You Call
for Help,” March 17) concerning the
electrical contractor.
One, a local, did work at our house
and had to come back a second time to
finish the job. It was $150 for each
visit, even though it was for the same
problem.
What is going on with this way of
doing business? There is no local
competition so they feel they can
charge whatever they want?
It seems there are regulations for
most practices — too bad there don’t
seem to be any that restrict this kind of
blatant insulting practice.
—Diane Bianchi
Florence
The First
Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law
respecting an establishment
of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press,
or the right of the people peace-
ably 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
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Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m.
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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.
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.
Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumen-
tative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are
unsourced or documented will not be published.
Letters containing poetry or from outside the
Siuslaw News readership area will only be pub-
lished 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@
oregonlegislature.gov
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