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.
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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 Edttor poltcy
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor as
part of a community discussion of issues on the local,
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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