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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2020)
4A | SATURDAY EDITION | FEBRUARY 15, 2020 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 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 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 A beautiful thingto see We wish to thank all of the won- derful people and businesses that were so generous at our fundraiser for Tony Erickson. It was a beautiful thing to see — and more than we could have hoped for. Because of this outpouring of help from the people of Mapleton and Florence, they have some secu- rity as they go through this major trial of their lives. God bless all of you. We are going to keep the Dona- tion Fund at Oregon Pacific Bank open until the end of the month. We appreciate all of their assistance with this. Thank you, Jami Sautner, for cooking all that spaghetti and ev- eryone that helped serve, clean up and everything else; you are all so wonderful. And we still would ap- preciate all the prayers we can get for our friend, Tony. —Linda Jensen Mapleton Shouldn’t ‘pro-life’ be from birth to death? Mr. Trump attended the Right to Life march in Washington re- cently and, in so doing, excited and ensured the support of his pro-life followers. Yet he and his administration continue to keep thousands of immigrant children and families locked up in appalling conditions on the southern border; have made drastic cuts to the SNAP program, thus putting food-insecure chil- dren at greater risk; are in court at- tempting to nullify the pre-existing conditions coverage in the Afford- able Care Act; and have rolled back clean air and water regulations thus endangering us all. At the risk of stating the obvi- ous, if one is pro-life, would that not mean ensuring the safety and well-being of mankind from birth to death? —Barb Crumrine Florence Stay out of political ruts leading to forests’ ruin Oregon’s Forest Protection Act (OFPA) has been on life support for some time. Written and enacted in 1972, it is a dinosaur in light of today’s science. With their great wealth and po- litical clout, the timber industry has blown life into the OFPA — but to the detriment of our forests. OSU’s recent study indicates that the Northwest’s forests are as equal- ly impacting on climate change as tropical forests. Changing current logging prac- tices is essential. The ill-health of our state’s for- ests is not only fundamental to the growing climate chaos, resulting in my fires and floods, but also toward any semblance of sustainability in forest production. Following the same rutted road leads our forests to ruin. Governor Brown’s brokered deal with a few randomly selected conservation and timber groups again takes us down that rutted road. A few feet of buffers for aerial herbicide applications does not represent a “deal.” Buffers don’t work. The fine mist of toxic sprays, the beating of helicopter rotors, and wind changes can send drift for miles. One day’s notice of herbicide application does not give citizens time to move their children, their animals, and transplant their gar- dens. Giving up one of the intrinsic American rights to protest (free speech), violates the few remaining protections to make the people’s voice of dissent heard. Throwing out initiatives robs us of our right to vote on important issues. Stay out of the ruts and oppose Governor Brown’s broken deal. —Richard Gross Deadwood Comparing Trump to dictators shows ignorance Karen Mahoney’s Guest View- point (“We Need Strength of Char- acter ‘For Our Nation To Endure,’” Feb. 12) stretches the facts. Trump did not make a “forceful and bitter attack” [at the Nation- al Prayer Breakfast], which is the definition of her accusation of a diatribe. Trump did not mock Pelosi or the Catholic faith. Trump did not mention Mitt Romney. Pelosi’s hypocrisy of saying she prays for Trump while doing ev- erything in her power to destroy his presidency is revolting. Pelosi should be charged for vi- olating the Presidential Records Act for tearing up Trump’s SOTU speech. It was an official record; she broke the law. She also insulted the nation with her cheap theatrics. Deep state FBI witch hunt, FISA abuses and impeachment charade are much closer to Hitler’s seizing power than Trump’s rollback of government intrusion and nonsen- sical regulations. People who compare Trump to a dictator are incredibly ignorant. Dictators do not reduce the yoke of government on the people; they add ever more restrictions and im- pediments to freedom. If anyone is akin to Hitler, it is Pelosi. Hitler, a Catholic — and like all socialist dictators — had no compunction at breaking the law and creating new ones to serve their political ends, i.e. granting il- legals voting rights and disarming law abiding citizens to render them impotent to: “refresh the tree of lib- erty with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” — Thomas Jefferson — Ian Eales Florence (Editor’s Note: The law [18 U.S.C. § 2071, Section 2071 (a)] applies specifically to records in official government repositories, such as the National Archives. In the case of the President’s recent State of the Union speech, the offi- cial version was sent to the Nation- al Archives under the Presidential Records Act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi destroyed her personal copy of the President’s speech.) Do you know state driving laws regarding lights? Maybe it’s just my tired old eyes, but it sure seems to me that there are a lot of drivers who don’t know (or care about?) Oregon laws re- garding the use of lights on their vehicles. Here’s a simple true/false quiz as a friendly reminder. See how well you can do: 1) It is illegal to drive at night or in bad weather with only your parking lights on. (T/F) 2) After installing a lift kit on your vehicle, you need to get your headlights adjusted. (T/F) 3) According to the Oregon Driver’s Manual, you should turn on your headlights when your windshield wipers are on. (T/F) 4) If using your high beams, you must dim your lights when an on- coming vehicle is within 500 feet. (T/F) 5) You must dim your lights when following another vehicle within 350 feet. (T/F) 6) When you are required to dim your headlights, other auxiliary lights such as fog lights, driving lights, etc. must be off. (T/F) 7) You must turn on your head- lights at any time conditions make it difficult to see people or vehicles 1,000 feet ahead. (T/F) 8) Headlights must be turned on from sunset to sunrise. (T/F) How’d you do? The correct answer to all state- ments is “true.”. —Bruce Hadley 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
