4A |
WEDNESDAY EDITION
| JULY 17, 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
LETTERS
Don’t fly flags, symbols
representing hate
I was impressed with the opinion
of Ted Coopman who wrote in the
July 7 edition of the Register Guard
concerning hate, because it also af-
fects us here in Florence as well.
Sitting in a local restaurant on
Highway 101 watching the traffic,
many were returning from the big
dune buggy races in North Bend.
I assume this because many of
them were flying the Confederate
flag and the “Don’t Tread On Me”
flag side by side. On the front page
of the next edition of The World
newspaper from Coos Bay — big as
life — was a photo of several dune
buggies in the middle of a race,
and all were flying the Confederate
flag. In addition, some were flying
the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and
one had an upside-down American
Flag (normally signifying a need
for help).
This all reminded me of the Vet-
erans Day Parade in Florence last
year, when a Jeep went by flying the
Confederate flag on the right side
of the vehicle and three feet higher
than the American flag, which was
on the left side of the Jeep.
This is the opposite of American
and military flag etiquette, which
state that the American flag should
always be positioned on the right
side and higher than other flags.
Another Jeep was carrying the
“Don’t Tread On Me” flag, which
has unfortunately been adopted
by some white supremacist groups
since 2006. It became widespread
after the Charlottesville incident in
2017 involving white supremacists
and the death of an anti-racism
protestor.
It is my opinion that organizers
of these public events should be
careful to weed out the flags and
symbols that have been adopted by
hate groups, such as Nazi, Confed-
erate and other extremist organiza-
tion hate symbols.
Only our communities, as a
whole, can take steps to eliminate
hate graffiti, flags and symbols
from our buildings and from public
events. Lest we forget that the Con-
federate armies led to the deaths of
200,000 men and boys; and lest we
forget that the WWII invasions by
the Nazi armies led to the deaths of
over 60 million people in 38 coun-
tries including 405,399 Americans.
Lost to America in that war were
318,274 U.S. Army and Air Force
lives, 62,614 U.S. Navy lives, 24,511
U.S. Marines and 1,917 Coast
Guard lives.
Let’s not memorialize these for-
mer enemies and their atrocities
by flying their flags on dune bug-
gies and pickup trucks through our
communities.
It hurts a lot of people.
—Gene Olson
Florence
Honoring the past
doesn’t lessen our future
Kudos to Bruce Jarvis on his
Letter to the Editor in the Siuslaw
News (“Silent No More,” July 13).
Thank you for saying what so
many of us are feeling, and for your
“reminder rocks” as a way of saying
thanks and remembering our mili-
tary/veterans.
America is the greatest country
on the planet, and certainly worth
the struggles to preserve it.
Most of us felt it was a privilege,
honor and display of loyalty to re-
cite the pledge of allegiance each
morning before school. Acknowl-
edging our flag was a reminder that
we are all Americans.
It was also a great way to begin
our school day. Those who would
change our traditions, destroy our
history are so misguided.
We should remember that hon-
oring the past does not lessen our
future.
—Dusty and Trish Rhodes
Florence
Murals have no origins as
‘Ghetto Art’
In response to Robert Russell’s
Letter to the Editor in the Siuslaw
News calling murals “ghetto art”
(“Mural Will Always Be ‘Ghetto
Art,’” July 13), I feel compelled to
disagree on multiple counts.
First, a fact: murals did not orig-
inate in the inner cities, as Mr.
Russell contends. History shows us
that painting on walls is an activity
nearly as ancient as humanity itself,
from indigenous petroglyphs, to
the Lascaux caves and the sophis-
ticated murals of ancient Pompeii,
to massive public art works funded
by the WPA during the Great De-
pression.
Even if they did, why should an
art form be denigrated simply be-
cause of its origins? Are we to value
only traditional Western art creat-
ed mostly by white males under the
patronage of other white males?
What about art from other re-
gions and traditions?
Wonderful and inspiring works
come from many unexpected peo-
ple and places, not just “the usual
suspects.”
People can certainly like the mu-
ral or not based on their personal
perceptions, and discussions will
undoubtedly continue about how
the design was selected and fund-
ed.
That’s fair.
But to drag socio-economic top-
ics into the discussion risks adding
a very ugly element that may not be
what Mr. Russell intended.
—Laurie Green
Florence
Report concludes climate
change not human-caused
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Jyrki Kauppinen and Pekka Mal-
mi just published a paper titled
“No Experimental Evidence for the
Significant Anthropogenic Climate
Change.”
The authors concluded that
global temperatures are controlled
primarily by cloud cover and that
only a small part of the increased
carbon dioxide is anthropogenic
(controlled by man).
The study by researchers at
Turku University in Finland found
that the human contribution of a
rise of 0.1 degree C in global tem-
peratures over the last century is
just 0.01 degree C.
Now, maybe we stop wasting
money on global warming and
start supporting solutions to more
important problems.
—Frank Williams
Florence
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the edi-
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lished at the discretion of the editor.
(Editor’s Note: In the interest of
fairness, while it has its supporters,
the paper “A New Finnish Study
Finds No Evidence Of Man-Made
Climate Change,” has been criti-
cized for not being peer reviewed
and other climate scientists have
refuted the conclusions reached by
Jyrki Kauppinen and Pekka Malmi.
They argue that, in addition to
not being reviewed by peers, the re-
port fails to provide correct physical
explanation, has not linked to — or
cited — enough sources to support
their claims and, although they de-
nounce climate models, Kauppin-
en and Malmi use one themselves
to prove their own points. To read
the report, visit www.arxiv.org/
pdf/1907.00165.pdf)
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nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com
The caging of human rights
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint sub-
missions on this and other topics are
always welcome as part of our goal to
encourage community discussion and
exchange of perspectives.)
children in filth — conditions that
none of us would ever counte-
nance with our own children.
“The equivocation, the en-
abling, the rationalization, is inex-
cusable. Is there no limit to what
you will justify in this adminis-
that the ICE raids on U.S. cities
over the weekend focused on peo-
ple who have “committed crimes
in this country and represent a
threat to our communities.”
Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo has
At a hearing July 12 on the
appointed a special panel on hu-
Trump
administration’s
man rights to examine what
immigration policies, Rep.
it means “to say or claim
Gerry Connolly, Democrat
that something is, in fact,
By Mel Gurtov
of Virginia, was appropri-
a human right. How do we
Prof. Emeritus of Political Science, PSU
ately livid:
know or how do we deter-
Deadwood
“I never thought as a
mine whether that claim
member of Congress — as
that this or that is a human
an American — I would
right, is it true, and there-
hear the testimony I heard today... tration when it comes to the mis- fore, ought it to be honored?”
as to the simple inhumanity that treatment of our fellow human be-
As if the answers hadn’t been
faces these children and families ings? And do you have no shame provided by the United Nations,
at the border. I don’t really care about the fact ... it’s all done in the international legal scholars and
what their motivation was — shadow of the American flag?”
the U.S. government itself over 70
whether it was asylum or econom-
In answer to which, Donald years ago.
ic betterment — they’re not to be Trump has said conditions in
So long as Trump, Pence and
treated as subhumans.
the detention facilities are “bet- the rest of this inhumane, tone-
“You can talk all you want about ter than those faced by migrants deaf administration are in office,
whether the poor border control is in their home villages,” and Mike U.S. officials will have no right to
overwhelmed. That makes no ex- Pence, after visiting a detention lecture any other government on
cuse for how we are treating chil- cage housing 400 men last week, how it treats people within its bor-
dren! If there’s one basic value that praised the “compassion and care” ders.
ought to unite us as Democrats migrants are receiving.
It would be more appropriate
and Republicans — as Americans
Pence agreed that in some cases to put a shroud over the Statue of
— it’s how we treat children. Their conditions are unacceptable, but Liberty until such time as Ameri-
children, our children — it doesn’t blamed the migrant population ca’s leaders recover their compas-
matter. ... Children without soap, and Democrats. He reassured us sion and respect for immigrants.
Guest Viewpoint
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