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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2019)
4A | WEDNESDAY EDITION | AUGUST 14, 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 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 Bartlet Ned Hickson Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Multimedia Sales Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Dis- play classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to pub- lication; 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, $79; 6-month in-county, $56; 10-week subscription, $25; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription, $102; 6-month out- of-county, $69; 10-week subscription, $35; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $134; 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 LETTERS Support, celebrate our local movie theater I wanted to give Michael and Susan, the owners of our wonder- ful local movie theatre City Lights Cinemas, a very big Thank-You for throwing such a fun fifth-year anniversary party for all of their members. It was such a thoughtful thing to do and a great time was had by all. Friends and I were at the 3:30 p.m. showing of the great movie classic, “Some Like it Hot” on Aug 8. The theatre was packed and what a huge difference to see this gem of a movie on the big screen. The theatre was full of laughter during the whole movie. It was so fun to be treated to the movie and also popcorn and a beverage. How lucky we are to have such a wonderful movie the- atre here in Florence. I can’t imagine our nice town not having this amazing movie theatre, as I know this was the case just over five years ago. So, thank you Susan and Mi- chael for moving to Florence and saving the day by opening City Lights. I encourage everyone to become a member and support our lovely movie theatre and art house. There are great benefits to becoming a member as well. May we always have the City Lights movie theater. —Karen Orobey Florence Extraordinary musical adventure abroad I would like to say thank you to all of the Florence community and everyone who donated and sup- ported my travel and participation with the Oregon Ambassadors of Music (OAM). It was an extraor- dinary experience — an amazing adventure. The reality moment started in June, when about 300 kids (band and choir) had to meet up at Or- egon State University to audition, then practice all of the music that was given to us in May. The goal at pre-camp later in June was to play the music altogether — at our best — in just three days. Our band worked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at pre-camp. We were excited, tired, but ready for departure from Port- land on our flight to Europe. During my two-and-a-half weeks in Europe, I had the priv- ilege to perform with the OAM in seven different countries. We spent about 2 to 3 days in each country, where the sightseeing was amazing and we received a great history lesson. We visited England, France, Switzerland, Liechten- stein, Austria, Italy and Germany. Each country was beautiful in its own way, but my overall favorite was Crans Montana, Switzerland, because of its very welcoming peo- ple and breathtaking sunsets. My second-favorite would be the rail climb to visit Zermatt and see the Matterhorn. The hardest part of the trip was the time change; at least for me it was. When we were in London, the change was 8 hours ahead. That changed again when we crossed the English Channel from London to France on a very big ferry. That added one hour to our 8 hour time difference! Overall, what I got out of this trip was the determination to wake up super early, practice patience and work hard together. The result was coming back with bunches of new friends. After two weeks of crazy bus rides, successful performances and unforgettable memories, we all finally began the return home. I am very grateful to Mr. Chris Rowbotham, Siuslaw High School, for being my teacher and band director since the 6th grade. He gave me confidence, helped me focus and supported me for many months while I practiced for OAM. My trip was amazing and I learned a lot. It was a dream come true! Thank you, Florence! —Lizbeth Garcia Galvan Florence Stop destroying each other and our country Let’s all stop trying to destroy this country. The mass shootings are not due to lack of gun laws; rather, we have gun laws that are not being enforced. If we wanted laws to get the guns off the streets, that would have to have been done many years ago. We have people being killed due to the color of their skin or religious beliefs, but we also have people of color killing other people of color because of the colors they wear. We spend more time trying to determine if the killing is a “hate crime.” I think any killing is a hate crime. We should be trying to de- termine what can be done to pre- vent more killing. The rhetoric from our elect- ed representatives and the media do nothing but create more hate. This includes the president, “The Squad” of four and other officials on both sides of the aisle. These people use crime to blame the oth- er side, not to work together to im- prove things. No one is willing to work with the other party because it may boost that party’s favorability. Meanwhile, the media keeps the pot boiling, just as they did during the “Zoot Suit Riots” of the 1940s — just to get headlines. Eliminating bias and hate on social media would be much hard- er than doing away with assault weapons. Taking down statues of Southern generals which no one paid attention to prior to them be- ing taken down does nothing but stir up people who consider this an insult to their heritage. If we don’t stop all this hate, we can get ballcaps made with “M.A.D.” on them: “Make Ameri- ca Destroyed.” —Robert Smith Florence Appreciate the effort of art and architecture In 1992, I and others built the ICM Restaurant. I was respon- sible for finding an artist (Mark Storaasli) to paint a mural on the front of the restaurant, as well as several sides. It was also my input as to what went into the murals. I wanted all the local catch from all of our local fishermen dis- played. Tourists used to line the docks to watch the boats unload all the fish depicted in that mural. I missed my opportunity to have input on the Quince Street mural by not getting involved. I would have said it should represent Flor- ence with images of commercial fishing boats, loggers in the woods and crab being cooked on the docks. I am sorry to say this vision is gone and times are changing. At first, I hated what had been decided for the Quince Street mu- ral, thinking it had nothing to do with the vision of Florence... until I recently looked at it. Now, when I go by, I enjoy the brilliance of the colors and I keep finding more things representing Florence and its future. I truly appreciate the people making the effort to bring art and architecture to our town. It has been an uphill battle for them — and they could use some more support. —Thomas Benson Florence 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. Email 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
