4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL June 17, 2015
O PINION
What we post
but do not say
Sentinel reporters discuss Cottage Grove's
social media landscape
BY JON STINNETT AND
MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Jon Stinnett: Matt, as the
Sentinel’s reporter on the scene
for the Monday, June 8 Cottage
Grove City Council meeting,
you witnessed an impassioned
exchange on the role of social
media in local government, with
two sides seemingly split over
the possibilities and pitfalls, the
power and the danger of social
media in shaping the public dis-
course, particularly the local
political conversation.
The interaction of local
elected offi cials with the public
through social media platforms
has ramped up in earnest lately,
particularly through the ex-
changes between members of the
public and two City Councilors;
the growing infl uence of social
media seemed to gain steam as
the debate surrounding the ref-
erendum efforts to place the
Main Street Refi nement Plan on
the ballot before voters neared
its deadline.
It’s obvious by now that Cot-
tage Grove interacts with the
world and with itself on social
media every day, but last Mon-
day may have brought the fi rst
occasion that such interaction
found itself in a very real public
spotlight and at the forefront of
the local political conversation.
As a communicator myself,
I’m certainly more interested in
examining the growing role of
social media in the daily life of
this community and beyond than
taking sides in Monday’s argu-
ment between two public offi -
cials. On that note, I’m curious
what aspects of the dialogue in-
terested you most? What did you
take away as a journalist and a
social media user yourself from
that discussion? Does a deeper
conversation need to happen,
and if so, where should the com-
munity direct its focus?
Matt Hollander: I’m glad that
you’re not asking me to score
the fi ght, because I don’t think I
could. It was an impromptu con-
versation that lasted less than
10 minutes. However, even in
that brief amount of time, I was
struck by how challenged we as
a society are in talking about so-
cial media. Sure, many of us use
and consume it on a day-to-day
or even minute-by-minute basis,
but that hardly makes one an
expert in its effi cacy as a com-
munication tool.
You outlined a variety of re-
cent social media issues that
have come up in Cottage Grove,
including how elected offi cials
interact with constituents or
how the city interacts with citi-
zens. I think most would agree
that these are very separate con-
Offbeat Oregon History
The small-town
police chief who was
executed for murder
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
B
ack in 1948, the small Or-
egon town of Sandy had
a problem. Its police chief, W.C.
Stoneman, had resigned due to
illness. And after a search, the
city administrators had started
to realize Stoneman had been
underpaid.
Put simply, they could not
fi nd a law-enforcement profes-
sional who would take on the
job of Sandy Chief of Police for
the $150 monthly salary they
were offering.
They did fi nd one candidate
for the job, though. He was a lo-
cal fellow by the name of Otto
Austin Loel, a relatively recent
arrival who had made a number
of friends since coming to town.
His only criminal record was
a drunken-driving conviction
from back east — at that time
drunken driving was widely
considered to be a minor infrac-
tion, like a speeding ticket.
Best of all, outgoing chief
Stoneman recommended him.
Stoneman had worked with
him when the two of them were
night merchants’ policemen (es-
sentially, security guards) before
Stoneman became chief. Stone-
versations, but at the June 8 City
Council meeting many of these
issues became part of the same
discussion and it became convo-
luted rather quickly.
A deeper conversation on so-
cial media is on the horizon for
the City Council. As I noted in
the article, City Attorney Caro-
lyn Connelly intends give a pre-
sentation on its role in local gov-
ernments. I’ll be very interested
to hear what she has to say and
how the city’s elected offi cials
respond. However, it sounds
like you’re equally interested in
how the wider community is go-
ing to resolve the social media
problem. How can you compel
dering, so it’s no surprise that
the growing infl uence of social
media has caught us a bit off-
guard in this small community.
I’d agree that the many issues
related to social media use in
Cottage Grove became convo-
luted at the most recent council
meeting, though it’s understand-
able this early in the public con-
versation. It’s helped me sort
out and try to keep the issues
that deal with the medium in
question (in this case, Facebook
and other social media) sepa-
rate from those that concern
the message. (Many aspects of
the disagreement on Monday
concerned both what was said
just that — a platform for com-
munication — and very little
else. How we use that platform
is up to all of us, and in Cot-
tage Grove, groups, individuals,
businesses and other organiza-
tions make real, meaningful and
positive contact with each other
on Facebook every day. To undo
or stop this contact would be a
disservice to this community.
We are free to choose to of-
fer up many aspects of our own
lives for the online consumption
of others to any degree we wish
(or not at all), and when the
words and actions of our digi-
tal selves closely mirror those
of the people we strive to be in
"I’d only suggest that we not lose sight of the
humanity involved in all our social interactions, that we
strive to never forget that there are human beings
behind the keyboards, phones and tablets that
constantly upload tiny slices of our daily lives onto
Facebook and other platforms."
people to be fair and objec-
tive with each other in a rather
lawless and virtual world? I’m
afraid I don’t have an answer.
real life, I believe fruitful, hon-
est and fulfi lling communication
will surely thrive.
JS: It’s certain that we have
more work ahead of us as a
society to unravel the implica-
tions, not just of our social me-
dia interactions, but of the digi-
tization of many processes and
relationships that in years past
required more direct, person-to-
person contact (contact which,
of course, we’re obviously also
still far from perfecting, as last
Monday’s council meeting also
demonstrated.) These are ques-
tions the experts are still pon-
by the involved parties and the
mechanism sometimes used to
say it.)
With regard to navigating the
“social media problem” and
the need to be fair and objec-
tive with each other online (not
to mention honest, accurate,
thoughtful, etc.), I’d only sug-
gest that we not lose sight of the
humanity involved in all our so-
cial interactions, that we strive
to never forget that there are
human beings behind the key-
boards, phones and tablets that
constantly upload tiny slices of
our daily lives onto Facebook
and other platforms. For in
truth, sites like Facebook offer
man said Loel was a rough-and-
ready character and a good fel-
low, if a little overly fond of an
alcoholic beverage or two of an
evening.
That was good enough for the
city council, the members of
which were as loath to part with
money as anyone might be. And
so, although Loel didn’t seem to
cut the proper fi gure of a police
chief, the job became his.
Regrets started trickling in
soon afterward. The new top
cop turned out to be a bit unpre-
dictable. Other Sandy residents
later recalled that he was cheer-
ful and talkative one minute, and
surly and snarling the next. He
didn’t bother with a uniform, but
he often could be found drink-
ing beer in a city tavern sport-
ing a leather motorcycle jacket,
with a pair of six-shooters slung
cowboy-style on his hips and a
pair of handcuffs dangling from
his suspenders.
The city judge offered the
most frank and disdainful anal-
ysis of Chief Loel. Loel, he re-
called, was “a shifty-eyed, half-
shaven roughneck who boasted,
bragged and lied.”
He was a day-drinker, so he
spent a lot of time in the tavern,
regaling anyone who would lis-
ten with stories of his service in
the U.S. Navy during the Sec-
ond World War and slaking an
obviously prodigious thirst with
glass after glass of cheap suds.
It wasn’t the kind of situation
that could last very long, and it
didn’t. Shortly after Chief Loel
was hired, a new mayor was
elected, a resident named John
Mills. And several months af-
ter that, Mills, never much of a
Chief Loel fan to start with, hap-
pened to be in a tavern with the
chief when, nicely liquored up,
Chief Loel launched into a spir-
ited denunciation of the personal
character of several city council
members. Furious, Mayor Mills
walked up to him, stripped him
of his gun and badge, and fi red
him on the spot.
Not surprisingly, Loel left
Sandy soon afterward. And the
town got busy trying to forget
about the whole thing.
That wouldn’t be so easy,
though. Not with the kind of
headlines that started popping
up in the Portland Oregonian
just a few years later.
It seems that after leaving
Sandy, Loel had ended up in
Compton, Calif. There, one Jan-
uary day in 1954, he was drink-
ing in a local tavern and talking
about an upcoming road trip to
Syracuse, N.Y., when one of the
other bar patrons, 31-year-old
MH: I'll confess that I'm not a
very political person, but some-
thing I've defi nitely learned from
covering the Council is that the
most polarizing topics are rarely
so black-and-white. I think we
as a society tend to gravitate to-
ward extremes because it's eas-
ier to comprehend and defend
our positions as either all-good
or all-bad. And nowhere is that
phenomenon more prevalent
than on social media.
You and I have perused some
of the recent dialogue on on
Facebook, and I think we agree
that numerous posts include in-
formation taken out of context
to support a particular point of
view or info that's just fl at-out
erroneous. It sounds like several
councilors believe that social
media is a place to foster po-
litical conversation, but I'm not
sure if those conversations will
lead to authentic engagement.
In fact, I think it will do the op-
posite.
Do you see a benefi t to sup-
porting an online platform for
political conversations?
JS: In theory, any conversa-
tion can be benefi cial, online
conversation most defi nitely in-
cluded. And in this day and age,
it seems as if many are inclined
to engage in this form of conver-
sation above all others. But the
political landscape is often one
of sound bytes and abstractions,
of easy answers to complicated
problems, as you've pointed out.
It seems to me that, regardless of
the medium, our political talk in
the future needs more substance
than style, more message than
medium, more truth than slant.
More important than the venue
in which we choose to converse
will be the subject matter that
fi lls the conversation. Our prob-
lems, our challenges as a so-
ciety are not virtual; our solu-
tions must also be very real and
involve those who live, work
and play in this community ev-
ery day. Whether social media
can offer an avenue for this type
of talk in Cottage Grove has yet
to be determined, but it's easy
to hop online these days and
understand that we have a long
way to go.
Elizabeth Jeanne Henderson,
asked him if he’d be willing to
take her with him as far as New-
ark, Ohio, so she could visit her
relatives there.
Elizabeth and her husband,
both regulars in the tavern, both
considered Loel a friend. Soon
an expense-sharing deal was
struck, and the two of them were
on the highway in Loel’s snazzy
1947 Buick, headed east.
When they got to Oklaho-
ma City, Loel and Henderson
stopped and got a hotel room
for the night. By the next morn-
ing, Loel had driven on alone.
And the maid coming to make
up the room got a nasty shock.
The room was spattered with
blood, and Elizabeth Hender-
son’s body, partially undressed,
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A
Preserve your vision: Prevent (or reverse) diabetes
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
D
iabetes is a serious dis-
ease that poses consid-
erable risks to the vascular sys-
tem, particularly to the crucial
and delicate blood vessels of
the eyes. Diabetes is the leading
cause of blindness in adults.
Nonre-
fractive vi-
sual impair-
ment refers
to a visual
defect that
cannot be
corrected
with glass-
es,
and
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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diabetic retinopathy is a com-
mon cause of nonrefractive vi-
sual impairment. Retinopathy is
quite common among diabetics;
about one-third of diabetics over
the age of 40 have diabetic reti-
nopathy. Retinopathy can lead
to serious vision loss, prevent-
ing sufferers from driving and
living independently.
A study has uncovered an
alarming upward trend in non-
refractive visual impairment
and provides evidence that the
diabetes epidemic is likely the
cause. Nonrefractive visual im-
pairment increased by 21 per-
cent among adults between 1999
and 2008—a dramatic increase
in a short period of time. When
broken down by age, the largest
increase in prevalence occurred
in younger people—20 to 39
years of age, compared to older
age groups. This is a stark fi nd-
ing that predicts climbing rates
of disability among middle-
aged and younger adults in the
near future.
The researchers then looked
to the risk factors for this type
of visual impairment to fi nd the
potential underlying causes. The
risk factors include older age,
poverty, lower education level,
lack of health insurance and di-
abetes. Diabetes rates increased
by 22 percent among U.S.
adults from 1999 to 2008, and
the other risk factors remained
relatively stable, suggesting that
the increase in visual impair-
ment was due to the increase in
diabetes.
Once diabetes is diagnosed,
the damage to the body pro-
gresses over time, and the risk
of complications progressively
rises. Having diabetes for at
least 10 years was linked to
greater risk of nonrefractive vi-
sual impairment, and a greater
proportion of the population had
been living with diabetes for at
least 10 years in 2008 compared
to 1999; in adults younger than
40, this proportion doubled.
Type 2 diabetes is becoming
more common in younger popu-
lations, and therefore diabetes is
beginning to do its damage ear-
lier in life, bringing dangerous
complications, such as vision
impairment, earlier in life.
This is alarming data that
begs for action; it indicates that
medical advances toward better
glucose control are not prevent-
ing vision loss due to diabetes.
Managing glucose with drugs is
not enough—we must get rid of
diabetes to get rid of the risk.
For type 1 and type 2 diabet-
ics, the risk of vision-related
complications can be dramati-
cally reduced with a Nutritar-
ian eating style plus frequent
exercise. The vegetable-based
dietary program described in
my book “The End of Diabetes”
is the most effective dietary ap-
proach for those with diabetes
and is much more effective than
drugs. For a Type 2 diabetic, this
approach results in complete re-
versal of the diabetic condition
for the majority of patients. For
a Type 1 diabetic it eliminates
the excessive highs and lows,
dramatically reduces insulin
requirements and prevents the
degenerative diseases common
in later life in those with type 1
diabetes. Both type 1 and type
2 diabetics can maintain excel-
lent health, proper eyesight and
quality of life into old age. Now
is the time for us individually
and collectively to utilize mod-
ern nutritional science to save
our vision and save lives.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New
York Times best-selling author
and a family physician special-
izing in lifestyle and nutritional
medicine. His newest book, The
End of Dieting, debunks the fake
“science” of popular fad diets
and offers an alternative to di-
eting that leads to permanent
weight loss and excellent health.
Visit his informative website at
DrFuhrman.com. Submit your
questions and comments about
this column directly to news-
questions@drfuhrman.com.
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