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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2021)
4A | WEDNESDAY EDITION CHANTELLE MEYER , EDITOR | DECEMBER 1, 2021 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 Opinion | CMEYER @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM 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) Know the warning signs when someone is struggling with depression & anxiety (Editor’s Note: Viewpoint submis- • Excessive fears, worries, and anx- sions on this and other topics are al- ieties ways welcome as part of our goal to One or two of these symptoms encourage community discussion and alone can’t predict a mental illness exchange of perspectives.) but may indicate a need for further evaluation. Do you ever wonder if somebody If you think something is going you know may be struggling with de- on with someone you know or care pression and anxiety, but you are not sure? If so, here are some things to look for when someone you know By Stan Popovich may be having a difficult time with Author their mental health. • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much about, then try to talk to them and • Feeling sad and depressed on a reg- encourage them to seek some kind of ular basis help if they need it. • Trouble concentrating Here are five tips on how you can • Change in eating habits convince the person you know to get • Talks of suicide help for their fears and anxieties. • Loss of interest and social with- 1. Talk to the person instead of drawal talking at them: Nobody wants to be • Lack of energy and persistent lectured or yelled at. The person who tiredness is struggling is scared and they need • Feelings of guilt and regret some encouragement in overcoming • Changes in their appearance and their fears and resistance to getting behaviors any assistance. Treat the person the • Increased use of drugs and alcohol way you would want to be treated if • Easily agitated and always irritable the roles were reversed. • They seem out of touch of what is 2. Find out why the person won’t going on around them get help: Ask the person who is • Their physical health starts to go struggling to list the main reasons down hill why they will not get assistance. It • Frequent mood changes might take a few tries, but try to find Guest Viewpoint out what is stopping the person from getting treatment for their mental health problems. Fear and frustra- tion are huge factors for not getting help. 3. Address the fears that the person may have: Once you get the reasons why the person is hesitant to solve their problems, the next step is to find the ways to help address the concerns the individual may have. Addressing one’s fears and con- cerns may convince the person to take some action that will get their life back on track. 4. You can’t manage your mental health all by yourself: A person’s anx- ieties and other mental health issues can be difficult to manage and more than likely he or she will need some guidance. Remind the person that going it alone or making excuses will only make things worse. 5. Offer to go with them: It can be very scary for the person to seek the services of a counselor for the first time. The fear of the unknown can be very intimidating. Offer to go with the person as they start the process of getting treatment. Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear.” Visit www.managingfear.com for more info. USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2021 © 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. Siuslaw News Front Office For Advertising: ext. 318 For Obituaries: ext. 320 Jenna Bartlett Chantelle Meyer Misty Berg Jeanna Petersen Mark Brennan Zac Burtt 541-997-3441 For Classifieds: ext. 320 For Faxes: 541-997-7979 Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 314 Office Manager, ext. 320 Advertising, ext. 325 Lead Reporter, ext. 317 Sports Reporter, ext. 324 DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news releases, Monday noon; Classified line ads, Monday 10 a.m.; Legal Notices and Display Ads, Friday noon. Saturday Issue—General news releases, Thursday noon; Classified line ads, Thursday 10 a.m.; Legal Notices and Display Ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year, $84; 6-month , $61; 3-month subscription, $37.50; Out of Lane County — 1-year, $107; 6-month, $74; -month subscrip- tion, $50; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year, $65; 6-month, $35; 3-month, $15. Ask about our senior discounts. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com Submit press releases to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. Siuslaw News Office: 148 Maple St./PO Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 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. Pub- lication 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 in- terest 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 edited for grammar and clarity. • Authors must sign their full name and include their street address (only city will be printed), as well as a day- time phone number and/or email address for verifica- tion. The person who signs the letter must be the actual author. Siuslaw News does not accept anonymous Letters to the Editor. • Siuslaw News will not print form letters, libelous let- ters, business promotions or personal disputes, poetry, open letters, letters espousing religious views without reference to a current issue, or letters considered in poor taste. Letters also may not be part of letter-writing cam- paigns. • Writers are limited to one published letter every two weeks. LETTERS (Editor’s Note: View- point submissions on these and other topics are always welcome as part of our goal to encourage community discussion and exchange of perspectives.) A Closer Look at Fuel Prices In his Nov. 17 letter, Mr. Denton pointed out four possible causes for the re- cent increases in the price of gasoline. Actually, none of the causes he listed make any significant effect on the gas prices. 1. Keystone XL Pipeline cancellation — Even if this project was completed and operating at full capaci- ty today (which is highly doubtful), it would con- tribute 830,000 barrels per day. This is less than 10% of the total oil used each day in the US, which is about 9,400,000 barrels. Each day, the US exports about 500,000 barrels of oil. If we stopped exports, it could largely offset the Keystone cancellation. (source: Wiki- pedia) 2. Suspending new per- mits and leases — All the current leases are still oper- ating. If any new leases had been approved, they would not be increasing our oil production by this point. 3. Appointing progres- sives to cabinet posts — Mr. Denton did not elaborate on this point, so I’m not sure what was his exact meaning. 4. Climate policy into every agency agenda — Again, no elaboration or further discussion of this point. Mr. Denton continues with a fifth reason: the Sau- dis are upset with us. The US has finally taken action in response to the brutal murder and dismembering of a US resident by the Sau- di Crown Prince. The real reason gas prices have risen is a simple case of supply and demand. Last fall, the world was in the midst of the COVID pan- demic surge. People were using a lot less oil. Now that vaccines are widely available — at least here in the US — the pandemic is receding. People are going out more and using more oil and gas. Mr. Denton pointed out the 40% increase of gas here in Florence. During that same period, the cost of a barrel of oil has increased from $37.66 to $78.36 which is an increase of 108%. (source: NASDAQ) World demand is in- creasing the price of oil; it is not because of a president whom Mr. Denton disap- proves. — Rob Welles Florence Where is the stuff? We have containers on docks in our major ports and container ships in bays waiting to be offloaded and delivered across the coun- try. There seems to be a bit of confusion as to why nothing is happening. Now I understand that when the COVID-19 pan- demic happened, our man- ufacturing and delivery industries shut down due to infected workers and lack of real communication about the virus. We are now past our first year of denial, and responsible individuals have been vaccinated. Tried to find some expla- nation about the delay in delivering products from containers. One ludicrous thing was lack of equip- ment. If you have ever been to a port where containers were offloaded, there are these giant gantry cranes that take containers off the ships and put them on the docks. They are then loaded onto trucks and at times onto rail cars with container cranes. Now comes the rub. At the docks we are told there is not enough manpower or that the union is not allow- ing an individual to work a certain amount of hours having to do with overtime pay. Pay them whatever it costs and bring in the Na- tional Guard to assist. Now for truckers. I as- sume that independent truck drivers have been affected because there is nothing to haul and pos- sibly some who work for large retail operations like Safeway, Walmart and even Amazon. Lastly, it was mentioned the lack of warehousing. Ev- ery major retail operation has their own warehousing/ distribution centers so what gives — other than the pos- sible lack of workers or cen- ters being shut down due to COVID, which should have been corrected by now? Hey boys and girls in Congress, take some action to start things moving. — Win Jolley Florence To submit to the Siuslaw News: Emailed submissions are preferred. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Handwritten or typed let- ters 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 Oregon Gov. Kate Brown State Sen. Dick Anderson (Dist. 5) 900 Court St. NE - S-303 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 Email: Sen.DickAnderson@ oregonlegislature.gov State Rep. Boomer Wright (Dist. 9) 900 Court St. NE, H-476 Salem, OR 97301 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. PO Box 39000 Salem, Ore. 97301-4047 Florence, OR 97439 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 Florence City Hall, 250 Highway 101, Florence, 97439 541-997-3437 U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio ci.florence.or.us (4th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Dunes City Council Washington, DC 20515 Dunes City Hall, 82877 Spruce 202-225-6416 St., Westlake, OR 97493 541-269-2609 | 541-465-6732 541-997-3338 dunescityhall.com www.defazio.house.gov
