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
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Siuslaw News
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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)
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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
@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