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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2018)
4A | WEDNESDAY EDITION | OCTOBER 24, 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) Politics is wrong direction for a city’s motion for candidates began appearing different — and not in the way along storefronts in Florence. one might hope. It actually started in early Like many Americans, I September, the morning after have watched the politicization Lucio's campaign kick-off. I ar- of self interest grow exponen- rived in the office and saw the tially at the national, state and blinking light of my phone's even county levels of govern- This editorial is one I never voicemail box and, after push- ment elections. expected to be writing. I lik- en it to the conversation one might hope to never have with a friend, explaining how — as Ned Hickson much as you care about and respect them — you feel it’s your duty, as a friend, to ask if ing “play,” listened to two But I always felt — believed, they have been having an af- anonymous tips accusing Lu- actually — that our local com- fair. cio of having a felonious past. munity-oriented elections It’s the necessary and life-jar- In the newsroom, a reporter were too good for that. ring question you pose with had received two similar mes- Too smart for that. the hope of setting your friend sages. Too committed to each oth- straight, before the amount of By the next morning, I had er as a community to allow damage is too much to repair. received two more anonymous politics to poison the well wa- In today’s edition is the first “tips,” also referring to wrong- ter that we all drink from. part of a two-part story that doing, this time against candi- I was wrong. delves into our current city date Maureen Miltenberger. This editorial, as well as to- council elections. It’s a story Over the course of the next day’s front-page story, is that that actually began long be- few weeks, they continued — gut-check conversation with fore the email from Councilor always anonymous — with a friend who, until now, you Susy Lacer to council candi- voice messages and handwrit- never thought would cheat in date Geraldine Lucio, suggest- ten notes shoved through the their marriage. ing she consider dropping out mail slot in our office door. It’s unexpected, uncomfort- of the race; long before Mayor I knew then that this elec- able, painful — but necessary, Joe Henry’s public-record re- tion, unlike any other since even at the risk of losing that sponse to Lacer's email; and my return to Florence some friendship, if it means poten- even before the first yard signs 23 years ago, was going to be tially keeping them from mak- From the Editor’s Desk ing a terrible mistake. In this case, everyone in- volved is someone I would consider a friend to one degree or another, from Mayor Henry to members of the council and all three candidates. And to each of them I ask: Is partisan politics really the direction we want to take? If so, are we willing to accept the consequences of that decision? The reason that council po- sitions are non-partisan is to avoid exactly what is happen- ing with this election: Persuad- ing votes with politics rather than personal platforms. The danger in that is estab- lishing the same kind of polar- ization and political posturing that has reduced our national conversation to tribal grunt- ing. Thanks to the hard work of our current city council mem- bers, we have indeed become a “City in Motion.” The question is, will we al- low politics to determine the direction that motion will car- ry us in the future? USPS# 497-660 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 DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Thursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; 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-week subscription, $23; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription, $99; 6-month out-of-county, $65; 10-week subscription, $29; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year sub- scription, $65. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com Letters to the Edttor poltcy 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, gram- mar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaran- teed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative, 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 published at the dis- cretion of the editor. Poltttcal/Electton 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 LETTERS Interesttng stgn of the ttmes The other day I noticed a sign in front of the little building on Nopal Street just south of First Street. It had a lot of pic- tures on it, and the lettering under them read: “Victims of Illegal Immigrants.” It was sort of interesting, but I think a more striking sign would have all of the pictures with the lettering “Victims of Civilian Mass Murderers.” Maybe those people in that little build- ing don’t care, but I know I do. —Charles Pennington Florence Duct tape atn’t cheap When the existing school bond retires in 2019, my household will be saving a whopping $255.55 a year on our proper- ty taxes. And there is no hesitation in my decision to vote to reinvest this amount in support of the new Siuslaw School Bond Measure 20-291. Why would I want to save a couple of hundred dollars a year at the expense of our kids and our community? And this from someone with no kids nor grand- kids. I see the need for upgrades; I see the need for creating a better learning en- vironment; I see the need to support this and future generations just like my hometown community supported with proper schools. And speaking of money, there are large sums of money being poured into a campaign to elect a small-business own- er to City Council. Look around town and you'll see clusters of campaign signs that support Woody Woodbury and that young busi- ness owner. Why are the business owners with clusters of signs not showing support of the school bond? Do they really want to save $0.9022 and forget the benefits of making our town great — again? My vote goes to Maureen Miltenberg- er, who is outspoken about her support (even with her fixed income) of this im- portant bond. As a long-time educator and activist in every community she's lived, she understands the value of what the Citizens for Siuslaw School know: A strong learning environment equals a passing grade for all of us. Finally, if the new bond measure fails, I'll send a check for $255.55 a year to the school to help pay for the repairs that will be needed to keep the lights on and the doors open. Duct tape ain't cheap. —Sally Wantz Florence Infrastructure ts a need, not a want As a retired professor of School Li- brarianship at California State Universi- ty, Long Beach, I am strongly in support of the passage of the Siuslaw Schools bond measure for the following reasons: 1. All across America today our school libraries are rapidly becoming centers of modern learning based in large part on materials and information that students and teachers locate on the Internet. This can only happen when the school library has adequate high-speed cable connectivity and computer hardware for every student in the library, even when two classes are in the library at the same time. Our existing Florence school librar- ies are woefully inadequate to meet this need. 2. Our children are growing up in a world that is becoming increasingly dig- itized. Their teachers must have class- room access to technology in its many forms to prepare them for effective adult citizenship. This requires new infrastructure in every classroom, library and all other school facilities. We hear much discussion of “fake news” and students need instruction in ways to evaluate the news they read and hear in order to determine its authentic- ity. The new school facilities will provide access for students to learn these import- ant evaluation skills. I will be voting “yes” for new school facilities that will make all this possible for our students now and in the future. —Ann Lathrop, Ph.D. Florence 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
