4A |
WEDNESDAY EDITION
| JANUARY 8, 2020
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
| 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
The First Amendment
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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)
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Copyright 2020 © 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
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Letters to the Editor policy
LETTERS
Can’t prepare for what
we don’t acknowledge
We all know that a problem
cannot be addressed until it is
agreed that it exists in the first
place.
We know there is a movement
afoot in Florence to get the city to
acknowledge the problem of cli-
mate change.
We know that at the coastal
caucus, hosted here last summer,
the problem was acknowledged
by businesses dealing in seafood
talking about the warming ocean
and how it’s hurting their sources
of seafood.
We know that people familiar
with the climate here have writ-
ten Letters to the Editor report-
ing their observations that there
is less snow, and less rain across
Oregon, and that temperatures
appear higher. These letter writ-
ers express concern about the
consequences of these climatic
changes in terms of our forests,
our orchards and our other land-
based industries.
We know that the city of Flor-
ence officially addresses the po-
tential of a tsunami, with signage
on the roadways, emergency pre-
paredness trainings and more.
What we don’t know is what is
at stake for city counselors who
carry and execute the town’s vi-
sion of what may be possible,
and if they will acknowledge
this problem so its existence can
become part of work plans and
projects moving forward.
We don’t know what is keeping
the the city council of the City in
Motion from acknowledging that
climate change, the climate crisis
or whatever you want to call it is
really happening.
If we acknowledge the prob-
lem, we can incorporate solu-
tion-based strategies into our
employment, land use, housing,
public health and other plans.
I hope the councilors will pon-
der, individually and as a group,
the answer to what is making it
so hard for them to officially ac-
knowledge that there is a climate
crisis affecting our town and our
region.
The consequences of decisions
we make here and now will have
lasting effects on everyone in this
community, regardless of gender,
age, political persuasion, socio-
economic status or any other fac-
tor.
And by the way, at a meeting I
attended recently, it was said that
mayors and city councils up and
down the coast are talking about
climate change and how to re-
spond and plan ahead.
The response from someone
in the audience shouted, “Not in
Florence.”
—Ivy Medow
Florence
Our fate depends on our
stewardship of the Earth
“Betelgeuse,” the red supergiant
star in the shoulder of the Orion
constellation is fading. Scientists
believe a possible reason is that
it may explode into a supernova
that would be visible in the day-
time sky for weeks — sometime
in the next 100,000 years.
But I hope it happens soon.
I hope that the people of Earth
will look up at that amazing light
in the sky and realize that we —
all of us, rich or poor, weak or
powerful — are astronauts in a
spaceship hurtling through space
on a journey that began with
forces of physics and gravity bil-
lions of years ago.
And it’s a path over which we
have no control whatsoever.
I hope that the people of Earth
will realize that the only control
we have over our journey is our
environment — that the fate of all
humanity depends on maintain-
ing clean air to breathe, pure wa-
ter to drink and unpolluted soil in
which to grow food.
I hope that world leaders and
corporate powers will look at the
heavens and comprehend that we
have been poor stewards of our
spacecraft and take measures to
undo the harm we have done in
the last century.
I hope that if Betelgeuse waits
to supernova for 100,000 years,
there will still be people on the
Earth who will look up in awe
and perhaps gratitude for those
in the 21st century who saved the
spacecraft Earth and made it pos-
sible for them to experience that
amazing event in the universe.
—Bill McDougle
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
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Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and
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ters received.
Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumen-
tative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are
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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
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candidates based on personal experience and
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Candidates themselves may not use the letters
to the editor column to outline their views and
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political advertising.
As with all letters and advertising content, the
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er, general manager and editor, reserves the right
to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above
criteria.
Email 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