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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 23, 2015 O PINION CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS 125 East 8th Street Eugene, OR 97401 Phone: (541) 682-4203 Fax: (541) 682-4616 Cottage Grove City Hall: 942- 5501. www.cottagegrove.org/ Cottage Grove Mayor Tom Munroe: 942-5501. Oregon State House of Representatives: Cottage Grove City Councilors: Rep. Cedric Hayden (REP) District: 7 900 Court Street NE Suite H-379 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: (503) 986-1407 Fax: (503) 986-1130 Email: rep.cedrichayden@state. or.us Mike Fleck, At Large: 942-7302 Heather Murphy, At Large: 942- 3444 Jake Boone, Ward 1: 653-7413 Jeff Gowing, Ward 2: 942-1900 Oregon State Senate: Sen. Floyd Prozanski (DEM) District: 004 900 Court Street NE Suite S-319 Salem, OR 97301-0001 Phone: (503) 986-1704 Fax: (503) 986-1080 Email: sen.fl oydprozanski@state. or.us Garland Burback, Ward 3: 942-4800 Lane County Commissioners: Faye Stewart, East Lane Commis- sioner. Lane County Public Service Building Why a big ego could be your downfall N ot so long ago, our cul- ture really (really) ad- mired people with big egos. We called them rugged individual- ists, fearless leaders, MVPs, visionaries, and go-getters. We respected these confi dent and successful folks for (seemingly) having all the answers. They were all too happy to stand their ground and argue their point, and we saw this as a sign of strength and leadership. Now, everything has changed. Larger-than-life egos are fast becoming liabilities. Indeed, in what may fi rst appear to be a paradox, Professor Edward Hess says that ego's mortal en- emy—humility—is one of the traits most likely to guaran- tee success in the 21st century workplace. "In the tech tsunami of the next few decades, robots and smart machines are projected to take over more than half of U.S. jobs," says Hess, a profes- sor at the University of Virgin- ia's Darden Graduate School of Business and author of "Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Orga- nization" (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-231-17024-6, $29.95, www.EDHLTD.com). "The jobs that will still be 'safe' involve higher-order cog- Offbeat Oregon History Murder of policeman turned Portland against Unwritten Law BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel The Unwritten Law Files This column is one of a series of case studies of the early-20th- century mania for honor kill- ings in Oregon. It was popularly known as “The Unwritten Law,” and it was a social convention that permitted and/or obligated a man to murder anyone whom he knew to be working to seduce his wife or sister. Unwritten Law cases arose around the country in the 1890s and were alarming- ly common until around the time of the First World War. Today’s column discusses one such case, which took place in Portland in 1907, and which may actually be the case that ended what had been widespread public approv- al of Unwritten Law killings. W hen the story fi rst hit the news- papers, it all seemed very clear and simple: An Albina man got drunk and beat up his wife. Her brother went looking for him to teach him a lesson and brought along a friend who happened to be a police offi cer. The wifebeater, tracked down at a local saloon, came out shoot- ing, and moments later the innocent, luckless policeman lay dying on the sidewalk as the wife-beating murderer fl ed into the night. For newspaper readers on the morn- ing of Dec. 19, 1907, it was like a Vaudeville stage tragedy come to life. There was a good guy – brave, valiant Joseph P. Sivener, on a mission to de- liver a much-deserved thrashing to his no-good, wife-beating brother-in-law; a bad guy – Melville Bradley, the afore- nitive and emotional skills that technology can't replicate, like critical thinking, innovation, creativity and emotionally en- gaging with other humans," he explains. "All of those skills have one thing in common: They are enabled by humility." Skeptical? Ask yourself this: Have you ever met someone with a big ego who was really good at being open-minded? Really good at refl ectively lis- mentioned brother-in-law, whose surly, shifty-eyed mugshot appeared next to the story in the paper; the fair damsel – poor, battered Mrs. Bradley; and an in- nocent victim: the poor policeman, who was just doing his job when sudden and undeserved death came and bore him away from his devastated wife and four tiny children. But those newspaper readers would have just one day in which to savor that comfortingly familiar storyline. The very next day, the fi rst of a series of rev- elations started peeling away layers that eventually revealed a drama that seemed to take every convention of the clean-cut crime-story genre and turn it inside out. When all was revealed to the increasing- ly appalled and jaded readers, there was not a single adult in the entire story that most Portlanders could respect or relate to in any way – except, perhaps, in some small way, the murderer. But the greatest loser in the whole affair seems to have been Portland’s growing infatuation with “The Unwrit- ten Law.” Here’s the story police got on the night of the murder: Melville Bradley had gotten into a fi ght with his wife, Kate, earlier in the tening? At putting himself in another's shoes? At playing well with others? At saying, "I don't know," "Your idea is better than mine," or, "You're right"? Didn't think so. Clearly, if you want to be an effective leader (or even a suc- cessful employee) in our brave new workplace, you are going to have to rein in your ego and be- come more team-oriented. And make no mistake, says Hess: It day – a fi ght that ripened into “a beat- ing administered to Mrs. Bradley by her husband in a fi t of drunken jealousy,” according to the Morning Oregonian’s report. After that, Bradley stormed off to a saloon, where he apparently had sev- eral more drinks. Meanwhile, Kate had gone to her brother, Joseph Sivener, and told him what had happened. Sivener, as brothers are wont to do when such news reaches their ears, rolled up his sleeves, stuck out his chin and stormed off to the saloon, intending to serve his brother- in-law a few hand-crafted knuckle sand- wiches. A Portland policeman named John W. Gittings accompanied Sivener to the sa- loon and stood on the sidewalk nearby as Sivener entered. Once inside, Sive- ner found his man. “Come outside,” he growled. “I want to see you.” “You do, do you?” Bradley shot back. “Well, I can’t see you any too damned quick.” And he followed his brother-in- law to the door. Sivener wasted no time. As soon they were both out the door, he hauled off and punched Bradley in the face. Bradley’s response was to pull a revolver out of his pocket and fi re point-blank at Sive- won't be easy. "We're talking about self- work that's never fi nished," he says. "For one thing, ego-based thinking is our brain's default position—we naturally seek to reinforce what we already think we know. Also, we have to over- come a lifetime of cultural and behavioral big-ego condition- ing. But if we're to stay compet- itive in the Smart Machine Age, it has to happen!" ner. It was a clean miss, as was a second follow-up shot. Sivener turned and tried to fl ee but tripped and fell into the mud by the street. There he lay, petrifi ed with fear. Meanwhile, Bradley had seen Git- tings, and Gittings was probably already drawing his service revolver. Bradley turned his pistol on the policeman and fi red his other four shots straight into the offi cer. Gittings managed to get off fi ve shots of his own before collapsing to the sidewalk. None of Gittings’ shots, apparently, touched Bradley. Bradley immediately took to his heels. After a few moments, Sivener picked himself up out of the mud and went to see to Gittings, who was still alive – but barely. “I’m afraid I’m done for,” the fallen policeman said. “Send for a doctor at once. Here is my gun. There is only one shot left in it. Take it and get him if you can.” He then struggled to his feet, tottered a few steps, then collapsed into Siven- er’s arms and died. Meanwhile, Bradley was running for home, where he got his hat and van- Please see OFFBEAT, Page 10A The effects of soda and low-nutrient foods on children’s behavior BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel T he standard American diet, chock full of soda and other sugary drinks, fast foods and other low-nutrient foods, can have a major impact on the health and lives of our children. Rising rates of child- hood obe- sity driven by this way $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM 116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424 ADMINISTRATION: JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher.............................. GARY MANLY, General Manager................942-3325 Ext. 207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com ROBIN REISER, Sales Repersentative...............942-3325 Ext. 203 • robin@cgsentinel.com E. SCURRY ELLIS, Sales Repersentative......... 942-3325 Ext. 213 • esellis@cgsentinel.com SPORTS DEPARTMENT: SAM WRIGHT, Sports Editor...................942-3325 Ext. 204 • sports@cgsentinel.com CUSTOMER SERVICE CARLA WILLIAMS, Office Manager.................942-3325 Ext. 201 • billing@cgsentinel.com LEGALS.............................................................942-3325 Ext. 200 • legals@cgsentinel.com NEWS DEPARTMENT: JON STINNETT, Editor......................................942-3325 Ext. 212 • cgnews@cgsentinel.com GRAPHICS: RON ANNIS, Graphics Manager (USP 133880) of eating have received much attention; however, low-nutrient foods are still having negative effects on the physical and men- tal health of children who are not overweight. Children are not immune to the damaging health effects of the standard American diet, which can set them up for a lifetime of poor health ranging from heart disease to behavior problems and lower cognitive performance. On average, U.S. children and teens consume over 200 calories a day from soda and other sug- ary drinks, and it is estimated that about 14 percent of their calories come from fast food. As a result of the poor diets of American children, more than one-third of normal-weight teenagers (and about half of overweight teenagers) have at least one diet-related risk fac- tor for heart disease. These di- etary patterns have the potential to dramatically affect not only public health but the productiv- ity of our future adult popula- tion; studies have implicated poor diet in limiting intelligence and academic performance, and also have drawn parallels be- tween consumption of sweets during childhood and violence in adulthood. A study on soda consumption found an increase in behavior and attention problems in fi ve- year-old children (as assessed by their mothers) with increasing daily consumption of soda. For- ty-three percent of the fi ve-year- olds in the study drank soda at least once a day. The authors ad- justed their results for potential confounding factors that might affect behavior, such as hours of television and a stressful home environment, and still found a signifi cant association between soda consumption and aggres- sion, withdrawn behavior and poor attention. They proposed that caffeine and/or fl uctuations in blood sugar might be respon- sible for the association between soda and behavior problems. Blood glucose levels do affect the workings of the brain, and habitual high sugar intake has been shown to impair cognitive function. Several previous stud- ies on high school students have also associated soda consump- tion with aggressive behavior, as well as depression and self- harm. Plus, higher sugar sweet- ened beverage consumption is linked to diabetes, cardiovascu- lar disease and cancers. In addition to soda, higher fast food consumption in fi fth grade (four or more times per week) has been associated with poor- er academic progress in math, reading and science between fi fth grade and eighth grade. Children who ate fast food one to three times per week—a com- mon level of intake—compared to those who ate no fast food had lower scores in math. These results suggest that children eat- ing fast food frequently could slow their academic progress. The food habits children de- velop in their early years have a substantial impact on their physical health and mental well-being throughout the rest of our lives. Parents need to know this information, so that they can help their children to live healthfully, maintain a posi- tive mindset and reach their full cognitive potential. Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and a family physician specializing in lifestyle and nutritional medi- cine. Visit his informative web- site at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to newsquestions@drfuhrman. com. The full reference list for this article can be found at DrFuhrman.com. Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks ............................................. $9.10 One year ..............................................$36.15 e-Edition year .......................................$36.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. 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