4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL April 6, 2016
O PINION
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A process worthy of
our community
We’ve already heard some informa-
tion on why the school bond measure
is good for our schools and community,
such as the construction of a much-
needed new elementary school, funding
for maintenance projects to protect our
investment in buildings and infrastruc-
ture, upgrades to ensure the safety and
security of our kids and investment in
technology upgrades to give our stu-
dents the tools for success.
But what we’ve heard less about is
how the School District planned and
executed a near-perfect community
process to arrive at the current bond pri-
orities. They formed a Bond Advisory
Committee comprised of 50 people
from all across the community, includ-
ing parents, teachers, business people,
school district staff, city and nonprofi t
leaders, builders and more. This group
met many times to discuss and ultimate-
ly recommend to the school board the
priority projects for the bond and amaz-
ingly came to a unanimous recommen-
dation regarding the four top priority
items mentioned above.
The District conducted a community
survey to gauge citizen support for the
bond and for particular funding priori-
ties. They formed a 22-member Design
Planning Committee to work with ar-
chitects on the new school design and
other projects. They conducted numer-
ous community conversations to engage
the public, and Superintendent Krista
Parent met with over 45 groups to pres-
ent on the effort. Tours were arranged
so that residents could view the current
Harrison School. Everything was made
available on the school district web-
site. Information was made available
to the Sentinel and other news outlets
to make sure that anyone that wanted to
know about the bond could learn what
they needed to cast an informed vote.
We couldn’t hope for a better process
to involve our community in the plan-
ning of this bond, and the quality of the
proposal shows it. This bond deserves
our support.
Rob Dickinson
Cottage Grove
Fixing the sign
As you are no doubt aware, the Odd
Fellows’ historic neon I.O.O.F. sign has
been hanging over Main Street for many
decades. Some years back, the sign
malfunctioned, rendering the lower half
incapable of illumination, and resulting
in the sign being switched off.
Your readers can now see that the
sign has been repaired and is once again
glowing happily over Main Street --
which we, of course, consider a much-
improved state of affairs. The sign was
the ultimate benefi ciary of not only a
great deal of helpful information and
advice from Amanda Ferguson with the
City of Cottage Grove, but also a much-
appreciated Historic Renovation Grant
from the Cottage Grove Historic Land-
mark Commission.
Therefore, on behalf of the offi cers
and members of the Cottage Grove
Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, I would like to express our
heartfelt thanks to Amanda Ferguson,
the City of Cottage Grove, and the Cot-
tage Grove Historic Landmark Com-
mission for their invaluable assistance
throughout the process of renovating
the Lodge’s neon sign.
Jake Boone
Secretary, Cottage Grove Lodge No.
68, Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Seniors vote for School
Bond
As a real baby boomer, I am voting
for the South Lane School bond issue.
When I moved to Cottage Grove, older
people had prepared schools for our
children to attend. Now it is our turn to
provide quality facilities for the current
and future crops of children. The old
folks have the money. The young folks
have the kids. We gray hairs have al-
ways left a legacy for the younger gen-
erations. We are doing so again.
I have served for a year on the Build
It For Kids committee as treasurer to as-
sure we get good value. I have seen the
integrity of the school staff and others in
the planning process. Harrison School
is the kind of school I attended. It’s
done for! The current plan is to remove
the worn-out classrooms and keep the
gym, kitchen and restrooms with mini-
mal upgrades so we can use this com-
munity resource.
Fifteen years ago, when we passed
the high school bond, our school board
wisely kept the Taylor Street property.
Thank you. Now we have space to
build a state-of-the-art new elementary
school to serve coming generations
when we seniors are gone. With in-
terest rates low, now is the time. This
bond is a continuation of our present
high school bond, not a second layer of
property tax.
I have worked with the great high
school educators attracted and re-
tained by the new high school. Let’s
leave another modern school for our
community at the elementary level.
Young families will rise up and bless
you for your YES vote.
Larry Bottemiller, Certifi ed Financial
Planner
Treasurer, Build It For Kids Committee
Offbeat Oregon History
Duniway isn’t the only
great woman in
Oregon’s history
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
P
ioneering Oregon journalist and
women’s suffrage advocate Abi-
gail Scott Duniway has been much
in the news over the last few years
— most recently in connection with a
plan to replace the statues representing
Oregon in Washington, D.C., with stat-
ues of herself and Chief Joseph.
The honor, of course, is much de-
served. But a newcomer to the state,
looking at headlines, could be excused
for assuming Duniway is the only im-
portant female character in Oregon’s
history. In recent years, nearly every
time an opportunity has come up to
honor a great Oregon woman, Duni-
way’s candidacy has seemed to suck
all the air out of the room.
But if you look past the towering
fi gure of Duniway’s towering fi gure,
you’ll fi nd a remarkably robust cohort
of strong, accomplished women, going
all the way back to the beginning of the
state — women who defi ed a culture
that sought to force them into a meek,
subservient role and who bring to mind
the bumper-sticker slogan that “well-
behaved women rarely make history.”
With that in mind, here are a few
suggestions of great women from Or-
egon history whose names might be
mentioned next time the chance comes
up to name a bridge or mountain after
an important and overlooked historical
fi gure:
Mary G. Leonard,
J.D.
First licensed female attorney in
the Northwest, 1845-1912
Mary Leonard is one of the great
misunderstood and underrated fi gures
of Oregon history, probably because
of the whiff of scandal that followed
her throughout her life. She came to
Oregon as a sort of mail-order bride to
marry an unpleasant old man named
Daniel Leonard.
The match lasted just two years be-
fore they split up. But before the di-
vorce was fi nal, someone murdered
Daniel with a small-bore pistol. Mary,
accused of having done it, was chucked
in the county jail and left there for
months while the case dragged on.
In the county joint, she met all man-
ner of women whom 1880s society
considered disposable — girls dis-
owned by their fathers after having
been seduced and “ruined” by fast
young rakes, girls fl eeing from abusive
homes, girls who’d run away seeking
adventure, and more — all now re-
duced to prostitution and petty theft
to survive. As she later explained to
Abigail Scott Duniway in an interview
for Duniway’s newspaper, Leonard
determined that if she ever got out,
she would dedicate her life to helping
those girls.
She did get out, was acquitted of the
murder and inherited her late almost-
ex-husband’s estate. True to her word,
she moved immediately to the worst
neighborhood of Portland and opened
a boardinghouse for at-risk women (a
boardinghouse that a later historian
would boorishly refer to as a “cote for
soiled doves”). Seeing how helpless her
clients were in the face of what passed
for justice in that era, she undertook to
study law and became the fi rst licensed
female attorney in the Northwest, then
made a professional career of helping
the helpless in court — offering a free
drop-in consultation offi ce hour every
day.
Late in life, Mary Leonard suffered
from some sort of progressively wors-
ening mental disorder that ruined her
health and professional reputation and
culminated in her dying, alone and
penniless, in a hospital bed in 1912.
Frances Fuller Victor
The “Mother of Oregon History,”
1826-1902
Frances Fuller Victor was a dime-
novel author who moved to Oregon
with her lovable-but-incompetent hus-
band, Henry Victor. While Henry, a
retired Navy engineer who’d just been
awarded a big bonus by the Navy, got
busy burning through the money with
ill-advised business schemes, Frances
learned that no one was actually writ-
ing a real history of Oregon. Accord-
ingly, she set about doing it, traveling
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 11A
Sugar-sweetened drinks linked to dangerous visceral fat
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
T
here are two types of fat in
your
body: sub-
cutaneous
and
vis-
ceral, and
each type
carries its
own risks.
Studies
show that the location of body
fat may be just as important as
amount of fat when it comes to
health risk.
The most visible type of fat
is subcutaneous fat, which is lo-
cated just under the skin. Exam-
ples are the “love handles” that
men tend to have; for women,
this type of fat is often notice-
able in the hips and thighs. Sub-
cutaneous fat is easy to see and
to grab.
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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A more dangerous type of fat
is visceral fat, which lies much
deeper, around internal organs
like the liver, pancreas and in-
testines. New research suggests
that drinking sugar-laden bever-
ages such as sodas is an impor-
tant factor in gaining visceral
fat, which is the type of fat asso-
ciated with more serious health
risks.
A Jan., 2016 study in Cir-
culation suggested that the
consumption of sugary drinks
preferentially drives visceral
fat accumulation, adding to the
long list of health-damaging ef-
fects associated with soda and
other sugar-sweetened bever-
ages (SSBs). Compared to the
effect of subcutaneous fat, vis-
ceral fat is a stronger promoter
of diabetes and heart disease.
As part of the famous Fram-
ingham Heart Study, men and
women were followed for six
years to look at the change in
their visceral fat volume. This
was determined by CT scans,
which provide a more precise
method of differentiating vis-
ceral fat from subcutaneous fat
in the abdominal area, com-
pared to waist circumference
measurement, which includes
both subcutaneous and visceral
fat.
Over the six-year period, there
was an increase in visceral fat in
all the participants, but this in-
crease was greater in those who
drank at least one sugary drink
per day. The volume of visceral
fat was 27 percent greater in
daily consumers of SSBs com-
pared to non-consumers. The
most interesting point is that
only visceral fat gain was great-
er in SSB consumers; subcuta-
neous fat gain was not different
between groups.
Fat is a biologically active tis-
sue, and visceral fat is especial-
ly problematic. It is associated
with a number of cardiovascular
risk factors, including hyper-
triglyceridemia, insulin resis-
tance, chronic infl ammation,
an increase in small dense LDL
particles and reduced HDL cho-
lesterol. Partially this appears
to be due to the close proxim-
ity of visceral fat to the liver. In
addition, visceral fat appears to
produce more pro-infl ammatory
compounds than subcutaneous
fat.
As defi ned by body mass in-
dex (BMI), about one-third of
Americans are obese. Abdomi-
nal obesity (defi ned as waist
circumference >102 cm in men,
>88 cm in women), is even
more prevalent; 43.4 percent of
men and 64.7 percent of women
are abdominally obese, suggest-
ing that excess visceral fat is a
very common problem. A large
waist circumference has been
linked to negative outcomes
even among people with normal
BMI numbers. Additionally,
some studies have compared
two groups of obese patients
with the same total body fat, but
low or high levels of visceral
fat. The high visceral fat groups
were found to have evidence of
greater insulin resistance than
the low visceral fat groups, in-
dicating a greater risk of type 2
diabetes.
Where our body fat is distrib-
uted is mostly genetic, and var-
ies by age and ethnicity, but we
can control how much body fat
we gain. According to current
evidence, the best way to lose
visceral fat is to lose fat. Any
loss of total fat will reduce vis-
ceral fat.
A Nutritarian diet, my rec-
ommended high-nutrient eating
style, is designed to help people
break their food addictions,
reach a healthy weight, and nev-
er gain the weight back. Target-
ing foods that are nutrient-rich,
while avoiding foods that pro-
mote fat storage, can enable the
body to remove dangerous fat,
improve circulation, and pre-
vent heart attacks, strokes and
cancer. To get maximum results,
it is not enough to simply avoid
sweets and reduce calories—it
is also necessary to fl ood the
body with immune-supporting
micronutrients that facilitate
repair and healing. Regular ex-
ercise can also help reduce vis-
ceral fat.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New
York Times best-selling author
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. The
full reference list for this article
can be found at DrFuhrman.
com.
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