4A |
WEDNESDAY EDITION
| AUGUST 22, 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)
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Copyright 2018 © 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.
Jenna Bar tlett
Ned H ickson
Erik Chalhoub
Publisher, ex t. 318
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
echalhoub@register-pajaronian.com
M ar k e t i n g Di re c to r, e x t . 3 2 6
O ffice Super visor, ex t. 312
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
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Je re my G e n t r y
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Letters to the Editor policy
LETTERS
Thanks for generous
community support
I want to give a huge thank you to
the Florence Community, for your
overwhelming support of the Florence
police department in hosting our first
annual National Night Out on Aug. 7
at Miller Park. We partnered with our
local public safety agencies to make this
happen and I want to thank the Oregon
State Police, The Confederated Tribal
Police, Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue,
Western Lane Ambulance, and USCG
Siuslaw River Station.
The event was such a wonderful suc-
cess thanks to many monetary dona-
tions and many volunteers. A special
thanks to Charles Korando and friends,
Hine Investments, North Fork Roofing,
Action Realty, Pacific Frameworks, Ka-
tie Prosser, Guy Veach, William Mey-
er, Wells Plastic, Al Pearn, Heceta Self
Storage, Ray Wells, WG Petersen Wood-
working, Bob Steele, Carl and Merrilee
Mager, Hoberg’s Muffler, Three Rivers
Hotel and Casino, Streets Insurance,
Siuslaw Vision, Pam and Joe Henry, Res-
urrection Lutheran Church, TR Hunter,
Peace Health and Chuck Trent.
Without the generous support of the
community this event would not have
been possible. I am so fortunate and
blessed to live in such a caring and com-
passionate community. Fortunate too
that there is a deep understanding of,
and commitment to, building and sus-
taining police-community partnerships
and neighborhood comradery here in
Florence. Again, our thanks to the do-
nors, volunteers, our wonderful city em-
ployees, and all who attended for mak-
ing it possible.
—Tom Turner,
Florence Police Chief
News media not
the enemy
Th ank you, Ned Hickson, and to all
your journalistic colleagues across the
United States for your continued vigi-
lance. I wish I could say that we in Can-
ada were immune to these issues, but we
are not. In my home province of Ontar-
io, our government recently established
its own news vehicle to ensure its mes-
sage got through and to avoid the regu-
lar media as much as it could.
We keep a wary eye … well, some of
us do.
Know that you are not alone in your
vigilance. Th e people cannot simply ex-
pect journalists and media outlets to do
all the fact-checking, to bear the lamp
of openness and oversight. It is up to us
as individuals to think about what we
see and hear, to discuss it openly with
each other, to do our best to understand
perspectives that may pain or irritate us,
and to ask questions and demand an-
swers.
I had the great fortune to spend 10
days traveling the coast of Oregon last
year and spent several days in Florence
(In full disclosure: Ned and I know each
other socially). I met some wonder-
ful people, many of whom likely have
completely diff erent political and worl-
dviews than mine.
But as with any of my travels across
the United States and Canada, I trust
these individuals to seek the truth and to
make well informed decisions; decisions
that are aided greatly by local, national
and international news organizations.
Th e news media is not the enemy of
the people; it is as much the people as
I am.
—Randall C. Willis
Toronto, ON
Florence visitor
Fire chief, board at
center of SVFR issues
No less a philosopher than Jim Na-
bor’s USMC recruit TV character,
Gomer Pyle regularly said, “Fool me
once shame on you, fool me twice shame
on me.” It would seem greater Florence
has been fooled twice.
Th e current Fire Chief was terminated
by a new board three years ago, but a few
individuals went on a jihad to overturn
that termination and he was rehired.
Now, SVFR and Western Lane Am-
bulance District have an parasitic IGA
and the fi re district may have a fi nan-
cial shortfall between $500,000 and
$700,000 in the current year. At the
center of both events is the formerly ter-
minated fi re chief.
Perhaps the board can commission a
series of bobble head dolls aft er them-
selves and sell those dolls as a fundraiser
to cover the possible shortfall?
Oh, and for a greater irony, this same
board will be hiring a replacement for
that chief who has recently decided to
resign, and relocate back to California.
Don’t you just love small towns where
everyone knows every body else?
—Al Pearn
Florence
State of play encourages
us to stop listening
We talk to each other from opposite
corners of the room. I talk of pesticides
that kill bees and you talk of pesticide
regulations as government interference
with farmers.
Our voices fl y right past each other.
I talk of children torn from their par-
ents’ arms who become instant orphans,
and of their mothers and fathers thrown
out of the country and sent back to the
horrors of Central America; you talk
of aliens, illegal people trying to sneak
in and take away jobs and bringing in
drugs and causing violence in our cities.
We talk right past each other with
apparently no way to stop the fl y-by
rhetoric. It has made us enemies. Any
chance to heal and forgive one another
and fi nd space and places where we can
agree . . . well, that’s taken away from us
by crude, cheap politicians on both sides
of every argument who just want to keep
their power and stay in offi ce, and none
of whom has any sense of principle and
decency.
Out of all this come the loudest and
crudest and, I would argue, the most
dangerous among us, threatening and
bullying over the internet and even out
in the open now. It is a time to pull back
and be silent about our opinions and to
vote.
Please God, let us vote.
—Jim Rassmann
Woahink Lake
‘Climate change?’
Climate is always
changng
Regarding recent Guest Viewpoint
“Lessons Learned From the Dutch
Flood Wall” (Aug. 22), fl ooding in the
Netherlands is a historical fact. Th e 1953
fl ood was minor compared to many,
some killing many tens of thousands
when the population was a tiny fraction
of modern times (en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Floods_in_the_Netherlands.)
Multiple studies have shown the earth
warms every 1,500 years plus 500 years.
Th e current rise is on that timeline and
just happens to coincide with the rise in
anthropogenic CO2.
Oceans have risen in the past. Previ-
ous rise rates were several multiples of
the current rate. Th e sea level has been
rising for the past 500 years, well before
the CO2 bugaboo. In fact, it has been
rising for about 20,000 and, if historical
patterns hold, the current rise has just
about shot its bolt.
When the earth cools, it does so rap-
idly, in the order of a few decades.
A 2017 study at the University of Bor-
deaux reran 40 climate models with a
minor tweak in the Labrador Sea. Th e
models predicted a 50 percent proba-
bility, not possibility, of severe North
Atlantic cooling by 2100 (www.nature.
com/articles/ncomms14375).
When minor model tweaks of a single
parameter yield vastly divergent results
and model results are based on guesses
feeding guesses feeding guesses, only a
fool would say with any certainty that
“Th is too shall come to pass.”
As stated previously, no computer
model has been able to run in reverse
and come anywhere close to historical
conditions. Ergo, they are little more
than wild guesses based on incomplete
data sets; as stated previously, the Par-
is Accords will do somewhere between
nothing and very little to change global
warming.
Th e climate is always changing. It
been both warmer and colder with more
CO2 in the air than at present.
—Ian Eales
Florence
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Emal 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
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