4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL October 14, 2015
O PINION
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
BPS supports 20-237
The Blackberry Pie Society, a Cottage Grove-
based political action committee, endorses
Measure 20-237, a $2,605,000 fi ve-year gener-
al obligation bond South Lane Fire and Rescue
placed on the upcoming Nov. 3 ballot.
On Oct. 6, the Blackberry Pie Society hosted
a public forum with South Lane Fire and Res-
cue Chief John Wooten. Chief Wooten outlined
the bond proposal, during which he empha-
sized the following key factors that led to this
endorsement:
The money raised by the bond measure is
dedicated exclusively to purchasing much
needed new fi re fi ghting apparatus.
Key fi refi ghting apparatus now used by the
South Lane Fire and Rescue is outdated and
well beyond its recommended service life – in-
cluding two trucks from 1992 and one from
1985.
Updating fi refi ghting apparatus helps ensure
fi refi ghter safety, more effective and quicker
response times and can lead to lower home in-
surance rates.
It is clear to the Blackberry Pie Society that
approval of this bond is a sound investment that
will help South Lane Fire and Rescue more
effectively provide the crucial fi refi ghting ser-
vices. The public wants a fi re department that
provides a swift, sure and effective response
that mitigates damage and ensures the safety of
fi refi ghters and those who suffer loss from fi re.
Approval of this bond will help South Lane
Fire and Rescue do just that.
Brian Forge
Cathy Bellavita
Alice Doyle
Julie Parker
The Cottage Grove Blackberry Pie Society
LWV says yes to 20-237
The League of Women Voters of Lane Coun-
ty urges a yes vote on Measure 20-237 to raise
funds for South Lane County Fire and Rescue
District to acquire much needed fi re suppression
equipment. The approval of Measure 20-237
will allow the District to issue $2.605 million in
general obligation bonds and use the proceeds
to purchase a ladder truck, two structural fi re-
fi ghting engines and two water tenders.
The District needs to replace aging, inade-
quate equipment in order to effectively respond
to fi re emergencies in a district that covers more
than 130 square miles and includes urban devel-
opment in Cottage Grove and Creswell as well
as rural areas where water is often not available
in suffi cient quantities to combat a blaze.
The bonds would be repaid in 5.5 years
or less by annual property taxes of $.30 per
$1,000 of assessed value. This amount is only
$30 per year for the owner of a home assessed
at $100,000 — a small investment for improved
fi re protection.
In a time of drier conditions due to reduced
rainfall and higher temperatures, it is critical
that the district have the necessary equipment
to respond to fi re emergency calls.
Linda Lynch, President
League of Women Voters of Lane County
Leslie Rubinstein
Steve Kilston
Gail Hoelzle
Media, President's response to UCC tragedy despicable
BY JIM JENKINS
For the Sentinel
“
What drives an ideologi-
cal movement, Goebbels
asserted in a speech to a party
rally in 1927 was in essence
‘not a matter of knowledge but
of faith.’ Besides Jean-Jacques
Rousseau’s writings and Karl
Marx’s Das Kapital, he cited as
an example above all the Ser-
mon on the Mount.‘ Christ did
not offer proofs in his sermon in
his Sermon on the Mount.’ wrote
Goebbels in an article around
this time. ‘He simply made as-
sertions. Self-evident truths
don’t have to be proven. It could
not have been clearer. Goebbels
had no intention of conducting
party propaganda in terms of
argument. The only thing that
mattered was the impact on the
masses.”Goebbels a Biography,
Peter Longerich ,p.79
Like all of you, I was sickened
by the mass shooting at Umpqua
Community College. I was also
troubled by some of the media
coverage. Listen to this from an
editorial that appeared in The
Oregonian:
“John Hanlin, the Douglas
County Sheriff, has never shied
away from sharing his opinion.
Hanlin is big on the Second
Amendment and down on legal
marijuana. Conservative Rose-
burg, ‘a red dot in a blue ocean’
the local newspaper called it
last year, liked that about him.
Hanlin’s stances became world
news Thursday after a 26 year
old man killed nine and injured
nine others at Umpqua commu-
nity college. The shooter com-
mitted suicide after exchanging
gunfi re with police. In some
circles Hanlin was the hero who
refused to speak the shooter’s
name. In others he was the
sheriff who balked at gun con-
trol and shared it on Facebook
suggesting that Sandy Hook El-
ementary School shooting was a
hoax. As President Obama and
pundits debated gun control
laws, Hanlin refused to chime
in.”
The front page article of the
Oregonian went on to describe
how Hanlin “has the same
goofy fl at top haircut that he has
now...”
Please note that the emphasis
here is not about the shooter,
who was incredibly measured
and cool as he forced people
to stand up and declare if they
were a Christian, then shot them
in the head. No, this was a ‘hit
piece’ about a rogue law en-
forcement offi cial who dared to
oppose the narrative being con-
structed by the ideologue press
bent on making this all about
gun control. Note also the clever
sequence.
The sheriff is described as:
Pro Second Amendment (a gun
rights nut)
Against legalized marijuana (a
sop to a state media obsessed
with this issue)
From Roseburg ‘a red dot in
a blue ocean’ (Roseburg is a
back-water insignifi cant place
populated by out of touch con-
servatives)
Goofy looking
The President of United
States, true to form, ‘did not
let a good crisis go to waste.’
Facts be damned, He rushed to
the bully pulpit and lectured us
on how it is time to address the
whole issue of gun control.
When asked at the press
conference the next day (Team
Obama deftly chose the ceremo-
ny of the retirement of the Sec-
retary of Education…Umpqua
Community College was a
school after all), he replied to
the reporter who asked him if he
as President could do anything
about all the disaffected angry
young men. (He had just lec-
tured that there are “millions of
such young men in the world…I
used to be one of them.” (Sounds
like ‘Trayvon could have been
my son’.) He answered the re-
porter by saying “No.” He as
President could do nothing, but
he did, however, promise to talk
about it.
One has to remember that this
is the same political party that
turned the Senator Paul Well-
stone memorial service into a
pep rally full of invective-laced
ad hominem attacks against the
Republicans. To use this tragedy
to advance a political agenda is
despicable.
I conducted some Critical
Incident Stress Debriefi ngs for
teachers and staff and others
after the Thurston High shoot-
ing. The anguish and pain in the
room was palpable. To intro-
duce anything but compassion
and respect for the privacy of
those dear people would have
been obscene.
I also served as a chaplain at
Ground Zero. I remember hear-
ing a report that I quite frankly
refused to believe until I actu-
ally saw coverage in the news-
paper. A reporter, accompanied
by a cameraman, went up and
knocked on the front door. A
young woman answered. The
lights on the camera went on…
the reporter shoved a micro-
phone in the woman’s face and
pulled a photograph out and
showed her. “This is one of the
jumpers… we think it’s your
husband …”
It is the responsibility of the
readership to hold publish-
ers and reporters accountable.
Shame on the Oregonian and
shame on the President…and
shame on us if we sit idly by as
propagandists yet again use the
slaughter of innocent people for
political points. Finally, God
bless those who literally made
a stand for their faith in Jesus.
Their ‘stand’ was not printed in
ink, it was poured out in blood.
and zeaxanthin in the macula)
and improvement in visual per-
formance.
These results sparked the
marketing of eye health supple-
ments containing lutein and
zeaxanthin. However, previ-
ous fi ndings on isolated carot-
enoid supplements should urge
us to be cautious; several trials
of beta-carotene supplements
have reported an increased risk
of lung cancer, cardiovascu-
lar disease, or overall mortal-
ity. This is an unacceptable risk
for a nutrient we can easily get
from foods, which have no risk.
These nutritional benefi ts are
also enhanced by accompany-
ing phytonutrients in green veg-
etables that have further benefi ts
to the entire body.
The typical American diet is
dangerously low in leafy greens,
and the average adult’s intake
of lutein plus zeaxanthin from
foods is a meager 1.5 mg per
day. Just a single cup of cooked
spinach or kale contains more
than 20 mg of lutein plus zea-
xanthin, and collards more than
14 mg; commercial vision sup-
plements commonly contain 10-
20 mg of lutein plus two mg or
less zeaxanthin. So, a healthful
diet actually supplies more of
these benefi cial nutrients for the
eye than supplements do, and of
course leafy greens have several
advantages over supplements, in
particular a huge variety of ad-
ditional carotenoids and other
benefi cial nutrients, with no risk
of excess.
Jim Jenkins is the former
pastor of Cottage Grove Faith
Center and author of "Fatal
Drift...Is The Church Losing
its Anchor?”
Set your sights on carrots — and greens
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
A
s a child, you probably
heard that carrots are
good for your eyes. This may
be because carrots (and other
orange and yellow vegetables
and fruits) are abundant in beta-
carotene, which is a provitamin
A carotenoid, meaning it is con-
verted to vitamin A in the body.
Vitamin A is important for eye
health, especially for night vi-
sion, as it helps to produce a pig-
ment called rhodopsin in the ret-
ina, which
helps the
eye detect
low levels
of light and
allows us to
see at night.
As such, vi-
tamin A de-
fi ciency is
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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known to cause night blindness.
However, beta-carotene is
not the only carotenoid that
contributes to healthy vision.
Out of about 600 known ca-
rotenoids, 20 have been found
circulating in human blood, and
only two are found in the eye.
They are lutein and zeaxanthin,
which cannot be synthesized
by the body and are primar-
ily found in green leafy veg-
etables. Once consumed, these
two carotenoids accumulate in
the macula, the inner portion of
the retina, which has a high con-
centration of photoreceptor (or
light receptor) cells. The typical
amount of lutein and zeaxanthin
in the macula (called “macular
pigment”) is quite low among
Americans, due to low intake
of leafy greens. The retina is the
most metabolically active tis-
sue in the body, and lutein and
zeaxanthin provide antioxidant
protection. Furthermore, macu-
lar pigment reduces glare and
enhances contrast and visual
acuity, and acts as a fi lter to pro-
tect the macula from blue light
damage. Blue light is a part of
visible light (and sunlight), and
electronic devices and energy-
effi cient lighting increase our
exposure to it, especially in the
evenings.
The idea that leafy greens
benefi t vision began to gain
momentum about 20 years
ago in research on age-related
macular degeneration (AMD),
a disease in which the pho-
toreceptors in the macula are
progressively damaged or lost,
causing impaired vision. AMD
is the leading cause of blindness
worldwide. In 1994, a study on
AMD found that higher total
carotenoid intake was associ-
ated with lower risk of the dis-
ease, and lutein and zeaxanthin
were the specifi c carotenoids
most strongly associated with
decreased risk. When looking at
foods, higher intake of spinach
and collard greens (rich sources
of lutein and zeaxanthin) were
also associated with decreased
risk. More studies followed,
many reporting that higher
lutein and zeaxanthin intake
was linked to lower AMD risk.
Supplementation trials in AMD
patients also reported increases
in macular pigment (more lutein
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. The
full reference list for this article
can be found at DrFuhrman.
com.
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