4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ APRIL 28, 2018
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
Opinion
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
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assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800)
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L ETTERS
Child abuse prevention is everyone’s job, every day
T
he West Lane
Regional Leadership
Team for the 90 by 30
Child Abuse Prevention
Project has spearheaded
activities throughout the
month of April to focus
attention on the importance of
taking action to prevent child
abuse and neglect.
This weekend religious
groups in Florence, Mapleton,
Swisshome and Deadwood will
observe Blue Sunday tomor-
row, April 29, as a part of Child
Abuse Prevention Month.
Blue Sunday was established
in 1994 as a nation-wide oppor-
tunity to raise awareness about
child abuse, to pray for victims
GUEST VIEWPOINT
B Y S UZANNE M ANN -H ENTZ
90 BY 30 C HILD A BUSE P REVENTION P ROJECT
of abuse and those who support
them, and to address the needs
of children who have experi-
enced the adverse effects of
domestic violence.
In some communities, there
are food and clothing donations
campaigns, special service proj-
ects, outings or parties and
more.
Everyone is invited to attend
Sunday’s event in the Bromley
Room of the Siuslaw Public
Library from 2 to 4 p.m. tomor-
row.
Participants can watch
videos, peruse informational
displays about prevention
strategies being implemented in
our communities, engage in
children’s activities and have
refreshments.
This is a free event, thanks to
generous donations from
Florence Rotary and individu-
als. West Lane 90 by 30 wants
to thank all the hosts of
“Pinwheels for Prevention” gar-
dens.
They include: Florence
Chamber of Commerce, City of
Florence, C.R.O.W, Oregon
Pacific Bank, Three Rivers
Casino, Siuslaw Public Library,
Mapleton Public Library,
Deadwood Post Office,
Swisshome Post Office, and the
Mapleton and Siuslaw School
Districts.
Even though Child Abuse
Prevention Month is over for
this year, prevention is every-
one’s job every day.
For more information about
Blue Sunday, visit www.blue
sunday.org or www.90by30.
com.
LETTERS
F ULL HOUSE FOR
LESS FOOD WASTE
On Thursday, April 25, several local
groups brought us the Rockefeller
Foundation movie about food waste,
taking us around the world to see how
waste food becomes beer, boutique fla-
vored pork, replenished soils, generated
energy— and most importantly, kept
out of land fills.
Some quotable takeaways included:
“The average U.S. family wastes one
third of the food it buys;’’ “It takes a
head of lettuce 25 years to compost in a
land fill that produces methane gas air
pollution;” and “Add no meat or citrus
waste!” was recommended for a ques-
tion about how to compost food waste
in Pacific Northwest’s bear and rat
country.
The free movie, “Wasted” at City
Lights Cinemas, drew a full house audi-
ence who were advised, cajoled, cussed
and educated in several languages about
how to make better choices, buy less
and waste nothing.
The local organizers had booths of
information and collected food for
Florence Food Share.
Thank you for a great movie where
everyone can learn something benefi-
cial to help save our planet.
—Jenny Velinty
Florence
W HY NO MORE OF
J AY B OZIEVICH
At a Lane County Commissioner
meeting in 2017, my community of 90
homes near Mercer Lake petitioned the
county to include our road under the
county road system. I was present at the
meeting. The outcome was not what we
had hoped but, regardless of whether
we won or lost our appeal, Mr.
Bozievich showed what I felt was cal-
lous disregard for our dilemma.
He compared our situation of 1.5
miles of formerly county-maintained
and approved road to his own house,
and the short driveway he has to pay to
repair and maintain. Though he is our
representative, he was the most opposed
of all the commissioners to our appeal.
His response was “caveat emptor,”
meaning “shame on you” as the new
homeowner for not doing your home-
work before buying a house.
On the other hand, the commission-
ers also stated that real estate agents and
home sellers are not required to disclose
if the roads leading to your home are
maintained by the county, and no signs
are posted to that effect.
In fact, if the real estate agent incor-
rectly states that the road is a county
road, that is still the home buyer’s prob-
lem.
So shame on us — and shame on us
if we elect someone who doesn’t really
respect Florence. We need a better rep-
resentative with fresh initiatives and
ideas and the ability to negotiate com-
promises with opposing interests,
including environmental vs timber
interests.
Nora Kent is not simply a “no more
Bozievich” vote. She provides a fresh
approach, a refreshing change.
—Linda Watts
Florence
B E CAREFUL WHAT
YOU WISH FOR
The guest opinion piece “Unintended
Consequences” (April 25) is exactly
correct.
An unintended consequence of the
1996 UK firearm regulation is that in
over 60 percent of UK home robberies,
the victim is home vs. 14 percent in the
US.
The increased UK knife regulations
further emboldened the criminals as the
homeowner may now be prosecuted for
defending his property. The criminals
prefer occupied residences as the vic-
tims willingly hand over their valuables
to rid themselves of the intruders.
It has recently come to light that the
U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC)
did a Defensive Firearm Use (DFU)
study in the mid-1990s to refute Gary
Kleck’s 1993 study that approximated
2.2 million DFUs occurred annually in
the U.S.
Note that DFU does not mean a
firearm was discharged, merely that one
was present. The rigorous multi-year
CDC study indicated more like 2.5 mil-
lion DFUs annually. Extrapolating
those numbers for population increase,
number of firearms in circulation and
decrease in US violence gives a 22 year
total of between 60 and 70 million
crimes prevented.
While anti-firearm activists may not
like to admit it, they benefit from crim-
inals not knowing if their target is
armed and thus prefer unoccupied
premises.
Truly committed firearm banners
should post signs indicating their homes
are firearm free and thus reciprocate the
protection they obtain gratis.
Yet another example of an unintend-
ed consequence is the DEA’s crack-
down on opioid production in 2011. Up
until that time, U.S. opioid deaths were
increasing at about 60 percent of the
prescription rate increase. After the ban,
opioid deaths began to increase expo-
nentially.
Synthetic opioid deaths are increas-
ing at an even steep rate and almost
doubling every year.
My Gramps opined, “Be careful what
you wish for. You just might get it.”
—Ian Eales
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.
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