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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2019)
4A | WEDNESDAY EDITION | NOVEMBER 13, 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 Bartlett 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 Thanks for continued community support Thanks to the generous citizens’ support in the Florence area during the veterans fundraiser held at Fred Meyer. Without the continued sup- port from citizens and local busi- nesses, our fundrasiers could not continue. Thanks from the VFW Auxiliary Post 3232 and VFW Post 3232. —Sue Miller, President VFW Auxiliary Fred Burns, Commander VFW Thanks for supporting area veterans programs The VFW Auxiliary would like to thank all the residents of Flor- ence and their families and friends for the support given at our Poppy drives. We also wish to thank Fred Mey- er for allowing us at their north and south entrances to distribute pop- pies. We would also like to thank the Siuslaw News for giving the people of Florence information on all mil- itary and veteran events. With the help of businesses and community members, we at the Auxiliary VFW have been able to give money to several organizations like Food Baskets for Kids, White City Veterans Home, Lebanon Vet- erans Home, The Dalles V.A. Veter- ans Home, Roseburg V.A. Hospital, VFW Service Dog Program, Na- tional Children’s Home and more. —Joe Miller, Treasurer VFW Auxiliary Post 3232 Good letters I wish to commend both Ralph Ray (“Issue Isn’t Climate Change But Elitist Government,” Nov. 9) and Matt Danielsson (“Avoid Hyp- ocritical Approach To Govern- ment,” Nov. 9) on their fine recent Letters to the Edtor. To add a bit of information to Ralph’s concern (and mine) over diapers, an estimated 20 billion disposable diapers are added to landfills throughout the country each year, creating about 3.5 mil- lion tons of waste. According to a report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, disposable diapers intro- duce pathogens into the environ- ment from the solid waste they contain (this was in 2016). And I would be interested in meeting with Matt, although we may just sit around drinking coffee and agreeing with each other. —Peter Vance Florence A team to be proud of As a community, we be can be very proud of our Siuslaw football team. These young men and coach- es started practicing four days a week last spring, practiced most of the summer, and have worked very hard to create the team we see now. It is a team that made it to the playoffs for the first time in four years. To the young men and coaches of the Siuslaw Vikings football team, hold your head high. Your community is proud of you! —Bobbie Spencer Florence No coffee but agree to respectfully disagree I very much appreciate Matt Danielsson’s clarification (“Avoid Hypocritical Approach to Envi- ronment,” Nov. 9) because it had not been clear to me exactly who he had been accusing of hypocri- sy, and I was relieved to read that he had not meant the folks holding signs on the sides of the road here in town. So thank you, Mr. Danielsson, for clearing up that confusion. I still don’t understand, though, where the shaming mentioned in all three of his letters is coming from. All the signs, articles, memes — and yes — posts on social media that I have seen have been informa- tional rather than accusatory. I think most of us, no matter what our opinion of the current cli- mate crisis, understand that folks today have to use the technology available today. As green options become available and affordable, I am sure more people will use them. The point of the information I have seen is to tell folks why they ought to make greener choices whenever they can. Still, Mr. Danielsson is entitled to his feelings. I am sorry he has ex- perienced this shaming; not only is it counterproductive, but it is very wrong to blame someone for the choices they make when their op- tions are limited (or nonexistent). As for Mr. Danielsson’s invitation for a civil discussion over coffee, I am afraid there isn’t enough coffee in the world to convince me that an individual cannot have a global im- pact, and I suspect he is as strongly attached to his view that the oppo- site is true. We will just have to agree to re- spectfully disagree on that one while we both continue to do what we can locally. —Debra Walker 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
