4A |
WEDNESDAY EDITION
| AUGUST 18, 2021
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
CHANTELLE MEYER , EDITOR
| 541-902-3520 | CMEYER @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
The First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion or prohibit-
ing the free exercise thereof; or abridg-
ing the freedom of speech, or of the
press, or the right of the people peace-
ably to assemble, and to petition the
Government 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 2021 © Siuslaw News
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LETTERS
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint sub- soon and gets the help he needs.
— Pat and Mike Allen
missions on these and other topics
Florence
are always welcome as part of our
goal to encourage community dis-
Elevate Education
cussion and exchange of perspec-
Without
tives.)
Misinformation
Kudos to All Involved
We would like to thank Megan
Messmer, Florence Assistant City
Manager and Public Information
Officer, for her quick response to
an incident that occurred at our
99th Climate Strike on Friday, July
30, in front of City Hall, when a
young man began shouting ob-
scenities and tried to destroy and/
or take our signs.
In an attempt to retrieve the
signs, one participant fell and cut
his head on the sidewalk. When
she saw this happening, Megan
called the police and the EMTs,
who responded quickly.
The participant was bandaged
by the EMTs and the police took
an incident report. We took him to
Peace Harbor Emergency, where
he was well looked after by the
doctors and nurses there.
We also would like to thank
those responding EMTs, police
officers and the doctors and nurs-
es that assisted. They all did their
jobs with both efficiency and com-
passion.
All who were there and wit-
nessed this incident are concerned
with the mental health of this
young man who ran off after this
incident. We hope that he is found
Wednesday, Aug. 11, saw some
40 individuals from the communi-
ty gather to ostensibly discuss “el-
evating education” in the Siuslaw
School District. Unfortunately, it
turned into a massive misinfor-
mation event that will only harm
our students.
It was disappointing to hear
so many myths being perpetuat-
ed by obviously caring parents. I
heard that we don’t know anything
about the Delta variant, there ar-
en’t outbreaks in schools over the
summer, kids don’t spread the vi-
rus, and only kids with underlying
conditions die, so it’s not worth
masking every child.
While the group is advocat-
ing “mask choice” and claim that
they aren’t political, “Unmask The
Children” signs were printed and
available to be handed out.
Most of the claims seem to rely
on a recent Youtube Video by Dr.
Daniel Stock in Indiana, which
have been thoroughly refuted.
Most specifically, the claim that
aerosol particles go through masks
has been repeated many times and
totally distorted.
According to J. Alex Huffman,
an aerosol scientist in Denver, the
masks are affective because air
flows around fibers in masks, but
the virus does not because the fi-
bers block the virus.
Stock also claimed our own im-
mune system is better than a vac-
cine, despite many people getting
COVID more than once, and stud-
ies showing increased immunity
with COVID vaccines. Finally, the
doctor claimed that Vitamin D,
Zinc and Ivermectin treat COVID
because it worked on 15 of his pa-
tients. I don’t think that even rates
a response.
I am always ready to work with
members of the community to “el-
evate education.” I believe we can
go back to teaching algebra and
geometry to every student, that all
students deserve the highest level
of science and computer technol-
ogy courses, that arts students de-
serve the same level of infrastruc-
ture support as athletes. I don’t
believe any student should have a
“dumbed down” curriculum.
But injecting politics of any kind
into our school district is not the
path forward.
— Sandy Todd
Florence
(Editor’s Note: On Monday,
Aug. 16, the Siuslaw School District
Board of Directors decided to plan
a special meeting on Wednesday,
Sept. 1, for the exclusive purpose of
hearing public comment concern-
ing the start of the school year and
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.)
Thank You, a Meeting and Hope
(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.)
this could amount to a loss of about
$90,000 per year to our community
(Florence businesses for example).
The next letters, dated July 29 and
Aug. 2, 2021 were very well worded
dealing with company costs. I no-
I’d like to thank the Dunes City ticed no consideration for lowering
Council and mayor for their letter or adjusting rates which could be
to the PUC in opposition to the
proposed huge rate increase by
Guest Viewpoint
South Coast Water Company. It
By Ron Stanley
explained the financial burden
to the community and suggest-
Dunes City Resident
ed the company could look for
investors and other sources for
offsetting their costs. It is worth among (perhaps the) highest rates
reading.
in the nation.
I’d also like to thank the Siuslaw
Now we have an informational
News for printing letters and arti- meeting this Thursday, Aug. 19,
cles on the subject.
(COVID permitting) at the Dunes
The affected households discov- City Hall. I hope this is not simply
ered the time to act was quite short a presentation of costs and per-
if SCWC’s letter (dated July 1, 2021, ceived justification for the same in-
not 2020) was the first view of costs. crease, but will include many other
Also, the PUC hearing was sup- facets of the issue, fully addressed
posed to have been in early August as outlined by the Dunes City letter
before the request was withdrawn of opposition and those of us who
by SCWC. The yearly increase of wrote officially to the PUC.
almost $900 estimated was not a
Water is a commodity, but it is
one-time cost, but a permanent in- also power when it comes to cus-
crease. With over 100 households, tomers who have no choice about
being massively overcharged un-
less there are safeguards in place.
So, Oregon, the PUC, customers,
Dunes City and the company as
well all need to be very careful
about allowing dangerous prece-
dents to be set.
I hope we will hear a well-bal-
anced and fully prepared pre-
sentation offering many sources
the company has searched for or
is already pursuing to help with
funding, not simply one point
of view being presented again.
These could include (but are
certainly not limited to) investors,
grants, and some of all that “infra-
structure” money that’s out there or
coming soon.
Thank you in advance to all who
will present and receive informa-
tion about the company’s issues.
I look forward to a good and re-
spectful relationship between the
company, its customers and Dunes
City.
South Coast Water Company is
holding its open house on Thurs-
day, Aug. 19, at 6 p.m. at Dunes
City Hall, 82877 Spruce St., West-
lake.
Office Hours:
Monday to Thursday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday: 8 a.m. to noon
Letters to the Editor Policy
The Siuslaw News welcomes Letters to the Editor and
Guest Viewpoints as part of a community discussion
of issues on the local, state and national level. Letters
are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity.
Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends
on space available and the volume of letters received.
Email letters to cmeyer@thesiuslawnews.com
To be considered for publication:
Letters must address pertinent or timely issues of
interest to our readers at-large. In addition:
• Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Siuslaw
News cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made
in letters. Authors should ensure any information is ac-
curate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or
hearsay, and include sources where possible.
• Letters have a suggested 300-word limit and may be
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• Authors must sign their full name and include their
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daytime phone number and/or email address for verifi-
cation. The person who signs the letter must be the ac-
tual author. Siuslaw News does not accept anonymous
Letters to the Editor.
• Siuslaw News will not print form letters, libelous
letters, business promotions or personal disputes, poet-
ry, open letters, letters espousing religious views with-
out reference to a current issue, or letters considered in
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campaigns.
• Writers are limited to one published letter every
two weeks.
To submit to the Siuslaw News:
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letters must be signed.
The newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publish-
er and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that
doesn’t follow the above criteria.
WHERE TO WRITE
President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TDD: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
Email: Sen.DickAnderson@
oregonlegislature.gov
Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown
State Rep.
Boomer Wright (Dist. 9)
State Sen. Dick
Anderson (Dist. 5)
160 State Capitol 900 Court St.
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Salem, OR 97301
Message Line:
503-986-1409
503-378-4582
Email: Rep.BoomerWright@
www.oregon.gov/gov
oregonlegislature.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
Lane County Dist. 1
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
Email: Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753 | 541-465-6750
Florence City Council
www.merkley.senate.gov
& Mayor Joe Henry
Florence City Hall, 250
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio Highway 101, Florence, 97439
(4th Dist.)
541-997-3437
2134 Rayburn HOB
ci.florence.or.us
Washington, DC 20515
Email comments to Florence
202-225-6416
City Recorder Kelli Weese at
541-269-2609 | 541-465-6732 kelli.weese@ci.florence.or.us
www.defazio.house.gov