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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (June 27, 2018)
4A | WEDNESDAY EDITION | JUNE 27, 2018 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR Opinion | 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM C The First Amendment ongress shall make no law respecting an es- tablishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise 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. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2018 © Siuslaw News Who benefi ts most from more prisons? gration and Refugee Service the Prison Fellowship, there has been a 14-fold increase of (LIRS) and Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), between women in prison since 1970, October 2013 and September and 80 percent of them are 2014, the U.S. government single mothers. Whether guilty or innocent, apprehanded 68,334 children men and women often spend accompanied by a parent at In a May interview on NPR, weeks, months and sometimes the southwest border — a 361 Homeland Security Secretary years in prison awaiting trial percent increase since the Kirstjen Nielsen compared for non-violent crimes, losing previous year. Keep in mind the Trump administration’s that more than half of all the their jobs, homes and cus- “Zero Tolerance” policy to the same policy experienced by incarcerated Americans every day in this country who are Ned Hickson separated from their children. “If you break the law, you will be prosecuted. It’s no children who entered into tody of their children before different than what we do family detention facilities in they've even had a chance to every day in every part of the plead their case. that time were six years old or United States when an adult The fact is, the current “law younger. commits a crime,” Nielsen And that was before the and order” approach isn’t said. “We’re following that “Zero Tolerance” posture new either. It was echoed by same policy at our borders.” taken by Attorney Gener- President Nixon in the late And she’s absolutely correct. 1960s, as well as Presidents al Jeff Sessions, which has In fact, we have a long history Reagan and Clinton and compounded the problem by of state-sanctioned family demanding enforcement with- their attempts to combat the separation that continues as drug war by creating massive out the necessary resources to a widespread practice today prison expansions to keep up do so humanely. — particularly in our justice But this is not a problem with the demands of higher system, where approximately that is unique to the Trump incarceration rates. 2.7 million children have a administration, although its In addition to prisons, in parent behind bars. poor handling of it has made 2014 the U.S. government And the fastest growing it uniquely terrible. massively expanded its de- group of prisoners? When the Obama admin- tention centers for immigrant Women. families. According to reports istration began detaining According to a report by families in large facilities back from the Lutheran Immi- From the Editor’s Desk in 2014, for-profit correction- al corporation GEO Group answered the call with the Karnes Detention Center in Texas, which recently broke ground at that site in order to double its capacity. Another detention center was opened by Correction Corporation of America (CCA) in 2015 that holds 819 mothers and 1,000 children in a lock-down style facility. Both GEO Group and CCA have had facilities closed in the past (Artesia Detention Center and Hutto Detention center, respectively) due to allegations of abuse and poor living conditions — only to re-open somewhere else with a government contract. While I think we all agree that our borders should never be a revolving door, particularly in an era with the constant threats of global terrorism and illegal drugs, one must ask who stands to benefit most from an ever-ex- panding system of prisons and detention centers. And whether tax dollars given to corporate prisons and detention centers is money well spent, or money spent to pretend that all is well. LETTERS More affordable housing, less senior housing This is the first time I have heard of the Cannery Station multi-use devel- opment project. What the city does not need is more 55+ housing and support facilities. What we do need are both low-income and affordable housing; low income for those who work in low-income jobs, and affordable housing to attract and keep young people in our community. The idea of having retail stores and places to eat is wonderful, but they should not be targeted to the 55+. Being a senior, I think we have suf- ficient facilities in the city to address those like me and we need to focus on the future: those who are in need and the young educated workers who would like to live here. —Win Jolley Florence Who benefits most from incarcerating immigrants? While I'm glad that President Trump says he's ended the separation of immi- grant families, questions remain. What happens to the children who have already been separated? What was the president's plan with those children to begin with? How will the trauma of those separations affect their lives? How will those families be reunited? And just as importantly, who benefits most from the prolonged incarceration of these families? While I commend American and United Airlines for not wanting to be involved in transporting separated im- migrant familes, there are two major private prison corporations — Core Civic and GEO Group — who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the president's campaign. They clearly stand to reap the rewards of the "zero tolerance" policy being en- acted as the prisons and detainment cen- ters fill up. Where's the humanity in that? — Julie MacFarlane Florence No limit it seems to liberal hypocracy Many of the recent images of illegal immigrant children in cages were taken during the Obama administration, yet the liberal media ignores that fact. The child on the recent cover of TIME magazine was not separated from her mother — her mother is [reportedly] a repeat offender deported in 2013 and has deserted her husband and other three children. Both Clintons, as well as Chuck Shu- mer, Nancy Pelosi and President Obama et al., are on record multiple times stat- ing “Illegal immigration must be con- trolled,” or words to that effect. Now that they are out of power, no level seems too low to stoop in order to dupe an ignorant populace. If someone came to a home, child in tow, and demanded free room and board for as long as they desired, the most probable first action would be to call the authorities to have them removed. The adult would be sent to an adult facility and the child to protective services. Additionally, the “nanny state” has zero compunction against removing children from their families on the slightest uncorroborated innuendo. It seems liberal hypocrasy has no lim- it. —Ian Eales Florence 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. Je n n a B a r t l e t t Ned H ickson Erik Chalhoub Pu b l i s h e r, e x t . 3 1 8 Editor, ex t. 313 Co n s u l t i n g E d i to r 8 3 1 -7 6 1 -7 3 5 3 e c h a l h o u b @ re gi s te r -p a j a ro n i a n . co m M a r k e t i n g Di re c to r, e x t . 3 2 6 O f f i ce Su p e r v i s o r, e x t . 3 1 2 Pro d u c t i o n Su p e r v i s o r Pre s s M a n a ge r Su s a n G u t i e r re z Cat hy Di e t z Ron Annis Je re my G e n t r y 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, Wednes- day 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 subscrip- tion, $29; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $71. 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Political/Election Letters: 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 cam- paigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) ex- plain the reasons to support candidates based on per- sonal experience and perspective rather than partisan- ship and campaign-style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid political advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the news- paper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any let- ter that doesn’t follow the above criteria. Emal 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 Oregon 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 (4th 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
