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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 2019)
4A | WEDNESDAY EDITION | JANUARY 23, 2019 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR | 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM Opinion The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respect- ing an establishment 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 Govern- ment 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 2019 © Siuslaw News 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 Pub- lishers 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 Bartlet Ned Hickson Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Marketing Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publica- tion; 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 subscrip- tion, $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 subscription, $65. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com Letters to the Editor policy The shame of the 1 percent continues (Editor’s Note: Viewpoint submis- sions on this and other topics are always welcome as part of our goal to encourage community discussion and exchange of perspectives.) S peaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Sir David Atten- borough called on government and business leaders to support, with practical plans, “United Nations de- cisions on climate change, sustain- able development and a new deal for nature. What we do now, and in the next few years, will profoundly affect the next few thousand years,” he said. True enough, but politically speaking, Sir David probably knows as well as anyone that precious few in his audience will be motivated to act decisively in the human interest — no more so than at any previous Davos meeting. At this very moment, in fact, Oxfam published its latest data on global wealth distribution. It’s an- other sad rendition of an old theme: The rich are getting richer, the poor poorer. Notwithstanding China’s remark- able poverty reduction, the rest of the world’s poor are getting a de- creasing share of the economic pie. As a result, Oxfam reports, “the 26 Guest Viewpoint By Mel Gurtov Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Portland State University richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the plan- et’s population” (Larry Elliott, www. theguardian.com/business/2019/ jan/21/world-26-richest-people- own-as-much-as-poorest-50-per- cent-oxfam-report). In 2016, it took 61 billionaires to match the wealth of the world’s 50 percent in poverty, and 43 billion- aires in 2017. (By the way, 13 of the top 30 billionaires are American.) For the world’s 2,200 billionaires, wealth rose an astounding $2.5 bil- lion a day in 2018. These people — the global 1 percent — typically take in 27 cents on every dollar of global income growth, compared with 12 cents on the dollar for the global 50 percent. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand the real-world conse- quences of those figures. For exam- ple, that “about 10,000 people per day die for lack of healthcare and there were 262 million children not in school, often because their par- ents were unable to afford the fees, uniforms or textbooks,” according to Oxfam. As we in the U.S. celebrated Mar- tin Luther King Day, we would have done good to consider what a single decision by any of those Davos par- ticipants would mean: a 1 percent tax on the 1 percent, which today would raise about $418 billion — and enough to meet those health and education needs just men- tioned. Think they’ll do that, in between glasses of Champagne? LETTERS Collard Road issue has deep roots The issue of County mainte- nance of Collard Lake Road has a long and inglorious history, go- ing back nearly 20 years. Most re- cently, in the fall of 2016, a group of concerned residents, myself among them, raised the issue with the County Board, Mr. Bozievich, et al, only to be told in no uncer- tain terms that the county will not accept any responsibility for the maintenance of this “local access road.” Regular maintenance falls to the residents to shoulder any costs in- curred, excepting only emergency situations wherein access for emer- gency vehicles is impeded. The core of the issue is the contention of the county that the road budget simply cannot afford to provide any regular maintenance. The reality is that Collard Lake Road is a disaster waiting to hap- pen. This recent failure of one sec- tion is only a harbinger of what will, most certainly, be a much worse situation to come. There are sections of the road where cracking and subsidence is obviously endangering not only access for the approximately 95 homes dependent on the road, but clearly threatens residents of prop- erties below, along Mercer Lake Road. It should be remembered that, not long ago, a failure of nearby Chapman Road resulted in the de- struction of a home and the death of a resident. What the county fails to accept is the simple fact that the cost to the county of regular maintenance will shrink to insignificance should a catastrophic event occur, an event that would seem inevitable to any- one looking closely at the current conditions along the more precari- ous sections of the road. It is not a matter of what will happen, only of when. —Jimmie Zinn Florence Where were the holiday decorations? So another holiday season has passed, and once again no holi- day decorations to speak of on our businesses along Highway 101. Mapleton and Reedsport have very nice holiday decorations, so why not Florence ? Friends, relatives visiting us and fellow Florence residents have commented on our lack of holiday spirit everywhere but Old Town. And now an unattractive mural is being proposed at a huge cost? Couldn’t a more attractive mural be found at less cost? —Barbara Cavarno Florence Curious about the lack of flags on MLK Day One of the many things I love about Florence is the civic pride displayed during national holidays by placing American flags along our major thoroughfares. I believe this is done by a private group and their efforts are to be highly com- mended! But I did find it curious while I was out on MLK Day and didn’t see any flags out. Maybe someone from the paper could contact them to understand the reasoning behind this decision. —Rob Welles Florence (Editor’s Note: The posting of flags along the highways and around town during national hol- idays is through the Florence Ki- wanis Club, which is limited to the number of volunteers available for that program. To find out more about the flag program, visit www. florencekiwanis.org) The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the edi- tor 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 sub- ject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of let- ters 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. 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 campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) En- sure 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 perspective rather than partisanship and cam- paign-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 newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publish- er, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter 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 @oregonlegislature.gov 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
