4A |
SATURDAY EDITION
| DECEMBER 21, 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
The two narratives
on gun control
The gun debate continues to rage
both nationally and locally.
National news outlets tend to
follow a remarkably similar narra-
tive with a common set of talking
points that trickles down to the
local grassroots discussions. How-
ever, this first narrative is in direct
conflict with a second narrative
that is pushed by the very same
news outlets.
The first narrative is that guns
are bad. Criminals shoot others
with guns, so we need all sorts of
bans and restrictions because peo-
ple just can’t be trusted with them.
In extreme cases, the push is for the
Second Amendment to essentially
be abolished and guns banned out-
right.
Only cops should have guns.
The second narrative is that
cops are bad. Listening to some
of the liberal talking heads on the
networks, one would think that a
white hood was part of the uniform
and that all cops hunt minorities
for sport.
There are literally back-to-back
segments where a bunch of pundits
nod solemnly as they praise former
presidential candidate Beto O’Ro-
urke’s plans for mass confiscation
of guns then, in the next segment,
express outrage over how hopeless-
ly ingrained the “racist structures”
of our nation’s law enforcement
agencies are.
I don’t see any connection in that
line of logic. If cops really were so
racist and notoriously trigger-hap-
py, wouldn’t disarming citizens —
and especially minorities — be a
bad idea?
I know the vital role the Second
Amendment played in the Civ-
il Rights struggles of the South
during the Jim Crow era. Black pro-
testers were severely beaten and in
many cases killed until they started
exercising their right to open-carry
in the streets.
The southern Democrats tried
to suppress these rights every way
they could, while the Republicans
generally stood by the Constitu-
tion.
Fortunately, southern Democrats
of the time lost and the nation was
able to move past this sordid chap-
ter in the nation’s history.
Today, both parties are singing
the exact same tune as they did
more than 50 years ago, with the
difference that Democrats now
claim they want to undermine the
second amendment to “protect”
minorities instead of oppressing
them — presumably by exposing
minorities to the “fascist death-
squads in blue” (aka the police)
without any means of defending
themselves.
It seems to me you’d either have
to concede that either: 1) The
“cops-are-evil” narrative is much
overblown, or 2) Give up the con-
stant meddling with law-abiding
citizens’ right to own effective guns.
Or better yet, how about ditching
both?
—Matt Danielsson
Florence
We can agree one one thing: We all love Florence
(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.)
While I am flattered to have my
work receive such praise in a recent
Letter to the Editor by Linda Farrell
(“Mural Not Right Greeting For
Visitors,” Dec. 18) — and I really
mean that — I would rather de-
stroy everything I have ever created
than cover another artist’s work.
I am an artist, apparently a good
one by that letter writer’s stan-
dards, and I loved this mural from
the second I saw it.
I testified for it twice at Florence
City Council meetings. I spent
hours helping paint it even as I wit-
nessed locals driving by and shout-
ing obscenities at the artists.
It made me ashamed, and some
of you should feel ashamed as well.
I became friends with the artists
— really good folk — and her roots
on the coast go back to the 1850s.
They could not wait to get out of
this hostile environment and they
had my sympathy.
Shame on you Florence.
Now my name, and my work,
has been brought into this “just
Guest Viewpoint
By Ed Gunderson
Local artist
my opinion” nonsense; this is my
response.
I am soul weary of the bickering,
the nit-picking over the most inane
things. If you don’t like the mural,
then don’t look at it.
We have more available to us
than at anytime in humanity, all
with a simple finger swipe and two-
day shipping. Any inconvenience
can be negated behind our gated
communities. No one on earth has
it as good as we do.
Yet we are all furious — whipped
into a mouth foaming frenzy — all
the time. It is way past time that we
find things that we can agree on
instead of finding fault with each
other. If this is my moment in the
local spotlight — one that I really
did not ask for — then this is my
message:
I love Florence. So do you. It’s
one thing we all have in common.
I have loved this place since the
very first time I came here. There
is nowhere in the world as amazing
as this place. While we will nev-
er agree on many things, this is a
good place to start.
I want to start a movement: “I
LOVE FLORENCE.”
For a community our size, there’s
not another town on the coast, or
in the state for that matter, that of-
fers anything close to Florence.
It is easy to hate but takes energy
to love. Florence is worthy of that
energy.
“I Love Florence.”
That is my one and only message.
if we can not agree on anything
else, surely we can agree on this.
Impeachment merely symptom of larger challenge
(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.)
It may surprise some people
that — even though I am one who
never wanted Donald Trump to be
president, and I did not believe him
when he said he would preserve,
protect and defend the Constitu-
tion — I am not gleeful in the least
about his impeachment. In fact, I
am terribly sad over what has be-
come of America the Beautiful.
My grandparents, refugees who
escaped their homeland with noth-
ing much and just their children
—basically lived the American
Dream. I grew up believing in the
amazing promise that I, too, could
enjoy the best that America has to
offer.
As I pursued an education,
meaningful work, good relation-
ships, the next thing I knew the
world went upside down as a popu-
lar presidential candidate ridiculed
people with disabilities, and those
who were different than him. He
spoke in pejorative and disrespect-
ful terms about half the population
of the world (i.e. women). He had
no political experience and had a
questionable history in business.
When he was elected president,
he disregarded — and seemed de-
termined to dismantle — our na-
tion’s meaningful alliances.
He created and fostered busi-
Guest Viewpoint
By Ivy Medow
Florence resident
ness relationships that benefitted
his own enterprises and those of
his family; he cut programs that
helped people who needed help
— including farmers upon whom
we all depend — and veterans who
had served the nation for better
or worse in its exploits around the
world.
With letters and phone calls, I
called upon elected officials from
both sides of the aisle in the Leg-
islative Branch of the government
(Congress) to provide those checks
and balances the founders of our
nation envisioned as part of their
role in government.
I was nonplussed when my ap-
peals, and those of thousands of
other concerned citizens, seemed
to go unheeded and even unac-
knowledged. Slowly, I began to
hear that this and that member of
Congress, particularly Republicans
from the Senate, would not seek
re-election.
It dawned on me that they were
choosing to abdicate their respon-
sibility by slinking off into the
shadows rather than take action to
at least challenge the transforma-
tion that was taking shape across
the nation. Apparently because this
president used tactics that were
“outside the norm” and it was too
tough a battle to fight.
And it’s continued downhill
from there like runoff down the
mountainside — from both the left
and right — with both sides carry-
ing the angst of their resentments
and inability to trust or listen to the
other.
I do not want President Trump
called to account simply as a meth-
od to overturn his election. That
point of view ignores, minimizes
and justifies much too much that
has happened since his election.
On both sides, there is an utter
lack of curiosity or initiative about
how to rebuild with those who be-
lieve and perceive differently than
they do.
This cripples our potential for
creative problem solving, or even
acknowledging that we are all go-
ing to suffer the same fate.
Copyright 2019 © Siuslaw News
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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