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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2021)
10A | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS Community Voices Editor’s Note: Community Voices is a monthly feature in the Siuslaw News. It consists of viewpoints from people in the Siuslaw region. Siuslaw News welcomes these opinions as part of its goal to encour- age community discussion and exchange of perspectives, but they should not be inter- preted as the views of the News or its staff. Threads of Activism — Persistence By Michael Allen Activist Special to Siuslaw News little over a year ago on July 18, 2020, the Siuslaw News published my Guest Viewpoint titled “What a Difference a Year Makes.” It summarized all the actions we took over the course of one year to get Mayor Joe Henry and the Florence City Coun- cilors to recognize we were in the midst of a cli- mate crisis and needed to develop a comprehensive climate action plan. I will take this oppor- tunity to bring you up to date on actions taken in the second year. My wife Pat and I decid- ed to adopt the approach used by the young Swed- ish climate activist Gre- ta Thunberg — climate strike. We committed our- selves to striking in front of Florence City Hall every Friday until we got a posi- tive response from the city. This month on Sept. 10, we will have conducted two years of climate strikes — many in rain, wind and A cold, a total of 104 and counting. What have we accom- plished? Did we realize our primary goal? If you mea- sure it against the goal of getting action from Henry and the city council, then the answer is NOT YET. Have we made progress in educating and rallying the community behind our cause? The answer is YES. One of the first to re- spond to the need to act was then-Councilor Ron Preisler, who presented a climate proclamation at a council meeting in July 2020 that was crafted with the help of members of the Environmental Manage- ment Advisory Committee (EMAC). Henry objected saying it was “too political” and that proclamations were his sole prerogative. The next opportunity for a climate discussion by the council came in December 2020, when then-Councilor Joshua Greene added it to the agenda during his final re- port as councilor. Greene asked the council to create a committee with commu- nity members to address the climate crisis. I also submitted our petition at the public input that also asked for a climate com- mittee and 23 area resi- dents submitted letters of support. Henry was not in favor of such a committee, but opened the door for consideration of a sub- committee at EMAC. Jump ahead to Feb- ruary 2021, when Hen- ry appointed four new members to EMAC and appointed newly elected Councilor Sally Wantz as liaison. Councilor Wantz pre- sented a request to the City Council for a climate subcommittee to be estab- lished by EMAC. Henry said it was not up to him to direct EMAC to do this but would consider a recommendation for the work plan from them. Nine climate activists sub- mitted letters of support for the subcommittee. Lisa Walter-Sedlacek, a new member of the EMAC, after being elected chair, proposed again that the EMAC create a sub- committee to address cli- mate issues. Her proposal was deferred to a special session. The special session nev- er happened. In March, four EMAC climate deniers chose to boycott the meeting, re- sulting in no quorum. This disruption occurred despite the fact 30 activists submitted letters to EMAC asking them to form a cli- mate subcommittee. The mayor ignored the boy- cott, stating the missing members had already made their case. The City of Florence’s work plan is locked in for the next two years, mak- ing it unlikely that EMAC will become the vehicle to address the climate crisis head-on. We returned to the orig- inal demands of our peti- tion which called for an independent commission. Our persistent activism with letters to the editor and the city council drew out opposition, not with well thought out, val- id facts, but with attacks filled with falsehoods rem- iniscent of what has been used before. The reaction from climate activists was to resubmit the climate petition to the council in July with nearly 500 sig- natories and to conduct a pre-council rally with over 20 participants. Our consistent message and actions have been cov- ered by the Siuslaw News over the last two years. The Register-Guard in a front-page feature arti- cle highlighted our 83rd climate strike as part of their Earth Day coverage. KXCR Community Radio has twice interviewed me about our climate emer- gency campaign for their Community Conversa- tions program. Our strikes were also covered mul- tiple times in the Elders Climate Action national newsletter. Interest in our strikes has expanded internation- ally. Nico Mira, a gradu- ate student in Japan, has scheduled an interview with me to explore the topic of climate action among elders. Nico’s re- search is inspired by Greta Thunberg and her call for greater climate commit- ment. Her research will be presented in a symposium and later for publication in academic journals. Have our strikes made an impact? YES. More and more area res- idents and civic leaders see the injustice of our local leader’s refusal to act on climate change. They are becoming more educat- ed about the immediate threats and willing to be- come activists. Will it take another year for the city to act? Perhaps. Electing climate activists to local and county level positions can make a big difference. We will persist with Fri- day climate strikes and ac- tivism as long as necessary to get our city government to wake up to the threat to our city. We all must act to mitigate the effects of cli- mate change right here in Florence. Will you join Pat and me in future climate strikes for the fight ahead? Conservative Corner — Dead Sea Scrolls and Modern America By Joel Marks Conservative Historian Special to Siuslaw News I n 1947, during the final months of Great Brit- ain’s mandate in then-Pal- estine, which is today’s Israel, a young Bedouin shepherd named Muham- mad edh-Dhib made an astonishing find in the caves of Qumran, south of Jericho adjacent to the Dead Sea. Excavations had come and gone, and 1,800 years after the Jewish people’s exile from Jerusalem post the Bar Kochba revolt, Dhib threw a stone into a cave and heard a clunk instead of a thud. He climbed inside, discover- ing a jar full of scrolls. From 1951-56, 11 more caves have brought forth hundreds of scrolls and thousands of fragments updating the history of this great people of God. There are now over 10,000 fragments, including cop- per and parchment scrolls, which when studied have rocked the world’s con- ventional wisdom. Of course, the suppres- sion of these scrolls by Christians, Jews, Protes- tants and Catholics alike was simply astounding. No one seemed to like what was being discov- ered, as it did not neatly fit the templates of anyone’s doctrinal understand- ings. After centuries of tenets taught to parishio- ners and students alike, it is quite understandable that the changes the Dead Sea Scrolls espoused on a Messianic theme nurtured by the House of Israel be- fore the first century CE would be blasphemous as well as heretical to both Jew and Gentile today. American History has had a similar experience. In the beginning of our nation, like the found- ers and translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ameri- ca had discovered truths — which the ages have attempted to stamp out. This has been largely un- successful. America was founded on the idea of freedom and liberty for and by the people and “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Fondly we hope and fervently we pray that this propositional experiment will not perish. The Founders, Fram- ers and President Lincoln all knew that if America’s destiny was to make the world a better place to live and succeeded in taking a 5,000-year leap in time and history, the citizenry would have to believe. No longer would we be sub- jected to the barbarism of autocracy, tyranny and totalitarianism, but a new idea was created. American history, to be fair, has always had its stops and starts. It has seen the dark days of bias towards Italians, Irish the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, Indians, Africans and many others. Finally, working and fighting to- gether, we all decided that we weren’t so bad after all. Prejudice perished and skyscrapers were built, oil gushed, autos traveled, planes flew and Marion Anderson sung. Yes, we had bullets, black codes and homegrown bolshe- vism. But we also had moon landings, citizen balloting and VE day. Freedom is a priceless gem and it was the gen- eration of Washington, Jefferson and Madison that accomplished a great miracle, which our won- derful young people are not learning enough of in our schools. If our young people of this and gener- ations future do not learn the lessons of the Revo- lutionary War, the Con- stitutional Convention or the War of 1812 and General Andrew Jackson, what will our world look like in years hence? In our system, people have the opportunity to Food share garden offers ‘bear aware’ composting class The Oregon State University Extension Program and Master Composters are offering a free composting class on Sat- urday, Sept. 18, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Florence Food Share Garden, located directly behind the Florence Food Share building at 2190 Spruce St. Master Composters will discuss and demonstrate various techniques of com- posting, methods of vermicomposting, and hot and cold composting. Bears can be a problem when com- posting in Florence, so the presenters will focus on techniques that would be less likely to attract bears. One method of “bear aware” composting is bokashi. Rodney Bloom, a bokashi expert, will be there to discuss this method. The Master Gardeners will also be there to offer soil pH testing if you would like to bring a sample of your own gar- den soil. The test requires ¾ cup of dry soil. There is a $2 cash only fee for the pH test. The Master Gardeners will take the samples back to their lab and call or email the results. Due to COVID-19, masks and social distancing will be required. Visit us online: www.TheSiuslawNews.com vote based on principles and knowledge, not feel- ings. Of course, we the peo- ple only have ourselves in a looking glass to reflect the elected officials who we transport to office. It is we and our understand- ing of America and its his- tory — both majestic and flawed — that will deter- mine who will represent our Republic to which we pledge allegiance. As Jewish history was revived from the Dead Sea, may American his- tory never die, but be re- vived from the living God. May He save this great and promised land we hold so dear. May God bless America.
