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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL March 30, 2016 O PINION LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Housing is needed If we are to do anything about crime in our community then we must address one of the most fundamental causes of this — lack of hous- ing. There are essentially zero rentals available. Unless you have a very good (750-plus) credit rating and are able to afford a good $1000 per month, you WILL NOT qualify for a bank loan to purchase a house. What will this do to us in the future? It will lead to more homelessness and a lot more crime. What about our children? Should we vote for a $39.5 million school bond issue only to see them graduate into poverty? A part time job at Wal-Mart is not a path to home ownership. That won’t even cover rent nowadays. Charles Ames Cottage Grove CG budget priorities and public input I live outside the Cottage Grove city limits but have been a reader of The Sentinel for 20 years. Councilor Boone’s suggestion of public input seems to be the right way to go — especially compared to City Manager Meyers’ negativity and Councilor Fleck’s arrogance. As I recall, Cottage Grove water bills have previously pro- vided the means for getting “ballots” out to the people. Use them again; public input must be considered. Patricia Cathey Cottage Grove Offbeat Oregon History Vaudeville Susie’s Riot; or, How Seriously Frontier Oregon Took its Entertainment BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel I n the winter of 1860, the little riv- erside frontier town of Corvallis was home to a young Vaudeville singer named Susie Robinson. Susie was the star attraction of the Robinson Troupe of Vaudevillians, led by her father. And “star” was the word for Susie: Virtually the entire male pop- ulation of the mid-Willamette Valley was in dopey, hopeless love with her. “Her form and voice were praised by all, and her virtue extolled, while her father gathered at the door of his theater willing tributes enough, each day, to have made her a golden crown,” recalls pioneer George A. Waggoner in his 1905 memoir. “Was ever a queen so fortunately situated?” Waggoner opines that, although Susie’s talents would not have carried her far on Broadway, she was by far the best thing anyone in Corvallis had ever seen. “We know now that she was not a great actress or singer,” Waggoner re- marks, rather ungallantly; “and my roving eyes have since discovered that she was not a remarkable beauty, but at that time many Oregon boys had never seen the gay tinsels of stage costumes; never been thrilled by the rich tones of a cultivated voice, or seen a beautiful woman poised on one toe, and she took the frontier heart by storm.” Had Susie Robinson and her father stayed in Corvallis, she probably would have had a long and rewarding career in the up-valley Vaudeville theater scene. But in the autumn of that year, something very exciting happened near a little creek way out in what is today the state of Idaho: Gold — lots of gold — was found in Orofi no Creek, a little way east of Lewiston. Then, the fol- lowing spring, a little party of prospec- tors struck gold even closer to home — on the banks of Griffi n Creek, just a few miles from Baker City in Eastern Oregon. Torrents of eager miners departed from Corvallis and other valley towns that year, headed for the gold fi elds of the east. Ramshackle, lawless towns sprang up, with names like Auburn and Granite. Eager young swains poured eastward hoping for a lucky strike — closely followed by the usual crowd of gamblers, swindlers, robbers and other hard characters looking for easy marks. And, of course, as towns sprang up in the gold fi elds with populations in the thousands composed entirely of young, rich bachelors, it was clear that the demand for a good Vaudeville the- ater would be nearly unlimited. How could the Robinson Troupe stay in boring, depopulated Corvallis when such a literally golden opportunity beckoned? And so the Corvallis Family Robin- son packed up its things and followed the eager miners over the mountains and re-established itself just across the Columbia River in Walla Walla, in what was then Washington Territory. Now, as you may recall, 1861 also saw the outbreak of the American Civil War. There was a frontier fort in Walla Walla, and a couple of companies of Army regulars had been stationed there. And when the Robinson Theater set up shop in town, word of Susie’s talents and charms spread through the ranks of the boys in blue like a bugle call. Soon entire companies were pouring into the theater, seating themselves by platoons before the stage, fi lling the entire joint. The local Walla Walla miners re- sented this a great deal. They, too, were thoroughly smitten with Susie and did not intend to be kept from her shows by these out-of-town interlopers. These feelings were especially strong among residents who were in sympathy with the South — which was, at that time, the majority of the town. Tensions grew, but not much; fron- tier miners weren’t big on impulse con- trol. Instead, they simply showed up in force and drove the soldiers out of the theater one day, ordering them not to return. Now, these soldiers were men who had enlisted to fi ght the Southern reb- els. But instead of doing that, they were now parked in a crappy fort in the middle of nowhere, where their sole purpose was to discourage the area’s Native American tribes from getting “uppity.” They were already a little sen- sitive about being left out, especially as word came in of battles and conquests back east. They were in no humor to let the humiliation heaped upon them by these rowdy Rebel sympathizers go unchallenged. Accordingly, on the next perfor- mance at the Robinson Theater, the soldiers came prepared. “They came fully armed, and de- termined to insist upon their rights,” recalls Waggoner — who was in the crowd that day. “We all knew a fi ght was coming, and divided our sympa- thies according to our political opin- ions.” Members of both camps were able to get into the theater before capacity was reached, and harsh words were exchanged. Susie, perhaps hoping to defuse the brewing blow-up, came out on stage and started to sing. This made things better at fi rst … but then sud- denly it made it all much, much worse: “A hearty round of applause greeted her, and she acknowledged it as a favor- ite can, and commenced to sing,” Wag- goner recalls. “One of the soldiers, who had been drinking, continued to cheer, and the marshal attempted to take him from the room.” The drunken soldier wheeled on the Please see OFFBEAT, Page 11A Should I avoid salt? BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel S odium is an important min- eral that is essential to the body’s proper function. Howev- er, processed foods, restaurant foods and adding salt when we cook results in dangerously high amounts of sodium. The human body can obtain all the sodium it needs from natural foods, which gen- erally pro- vide 500 to 1000 mg of sodium per day. The American Heart Asso- ciation rec- ommends a $ 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 TAMMY SAYRE, Sales Repersentative......... 942-3325 Ext. 213 • tsayre@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) sodium intake of less than 1500 mg daily. Today, according to the CDC, Americans typically consume 3500 mg of sodium per day, more than double the AHA’s recommendation. Ideal- ly we should consume less than 1000 mg of sodium daily. How dangerous is this high salt intake? When salt intake is high, ex- cess fl uid accumulates in the circulatory system, exerting pressure on the walls of blood vessels, consequently raising blood pressure and overworking the heart. About one-third of American adults have elevated blood pressure, a condition that is responsible for 62 percent of strokes and 49 percent of coro- nary heart disease, increases the risk of dementia, and is a risk factor for kidney disease. Widespread avoidance of added salt has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives. A study using mathemati- cal models has predicted that a population-wide reduction in sodium intake by about one- third would result in 60,000 fewer cases of coronary heart disease, 32,000 fewer strokes and 54,000 heart attacks every year. The majority of research on the subject suggests that excess sodium increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Many claim that salt has been “demonized,” that the data do not clearly link high sodium consumption to heart disease. Doubt about the damaging ef- fects of salt has been cast by the occasional headline-mak- ing study, but the majority of studies have reported increased blood pressure and cardiovascu- lar risk associated with high so- dium intake. Remember: when a study suggests that an unhealthy food may not be unhealthy, it will always make headlines. But the headline is never the whole story. For example, in 2011, one analysis of data on salt restriction concluded that cutting down on salt does not have clear benefi ts for reducing 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. Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2015 Cottage Grove Sentinel. risk of death or cardiovascular disease, and that more evidence was required. However, the news headlines proclaimed that salt had been exonerated and is not at all hazardous to health. A few weeks later, a criticism and re-analysis of the same data was published. These researchers explained that by leaving out the one trial of extremely ill heart failure patients taking high-dose diuretics, the same data actually showed a 20 percent decreased risk of heart attack and stroke with a 2-gram reduction in daily salt intake. This conclusion is more consistent with the rest of the science on salt and heart disease. Avoiding excess sodium Since most salt comes from processed foods, avoiding add- ed sodium isn’t diffi cult. Once you start avoiding salt, your taste buds will begin to adjust and become more sensitive to salt over time. Instead of salt, use garlic, onion, fresh or dried herbs, spices, lemon or lime juice, or vinegars to fl avor food. When you include some pack- aged foods in your diet, read the label and aim for no more than 300 mg of added sodium per day. Also, note that exotic sea salts also add sodium to the body just like table salt, and therefore they present the same risks. These specialty salts may contain small amounts of trace minerals, but the amounts are insignifi cant compared to the amounts that can be obtained from natural plant foods. Dr. Fuhrman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat to Live and Super Immuni- ty, and a board certifi ed family physician specializing in life- style and nutritional medicine. Visit his informative website at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to news- questions@drfuhrman.com. Letters to the Editor policy The Cottage Grove Sentinel receives many letters to the editor. In order to ensure that your letter will be printed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers. Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary. If you would like to submit an opinion piece, Another View must be no longer than 600 words. To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission.