4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL June 1, 2016
O PINION
Never forget the
true cost of war
Memorial Day 2016
Message from ODVA
Director Cameron Smith
T
his year will mark 150
years since the fi rst local
ceremonies decorating the graves
of veterans after the end of the
Civil War. This military fam-
ily and community tradition was
later formalized as a national day
of honor in Decoration Day, and
what we now call Memorial Day.
In 1866, no family or commu-
nity remained untouched by the
Civil War – America’s bloodiest
confl ict resulted in over 1 mil-
lion casualties and claimed over
620,000 lives. The impacts of the
war were intensely and person-
ally felt across the nation.
Today, there are over 320,000
veterans across Oregon. We are
four generations strong across 5
major wars, plus all those who
stood guard over our peace and
served in smaller confl icts around
the world. With every veteran
counted, we must also include
recognition of their spouses and
families who served in their own
way on the home front while their
veteran was in uniform.
At the same time, we must ac-
knowledge that our nation’s bat-
tles today are fought by less than
one percent of our population.
The weight of the most recent
confl icts in Iraq and Afghanistan
has been borne by the few.
Most of our citizens today have
not been directly impacted by the
wars. The same cannot be said for
our Gold Star families who have
lost a loved one in service to the
nation.
We must never forget the true
cost of war – a cost far beyond
dollars and cents. Fifty years ago
in Vietnam, we lost over 58,000
dedicated
service
members
whose names are now immortal-
ized in polished black granite at
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
in Washington, D.C.
Across the ages, from the
beaches in Europe and on Pacifi c
islands to the mountains and jun-
gles in Asia, countless Americans
have stood up to serve and have
laid down their lives. At the most
basic level, they fought to protect
the one on their right and the one
on their left, but ultimately their
fi ght protects us all and preserves
the values we hold dear.
This Memorial Day, as we kick
off the start of summer and turn to
enjoy Oregon’s incredible parks,
beaches, rivers and mountains,
we must encourage all citizens
to pause and honor our fallen and
their families. We thank all vet-
erans for their service in uniform
and their continued service in
using their leadership, skills and
experience to enrich our commu-
nities across the state.
We must continue to share the
stories of our military’s service
and most importantly share the
stories of all those who have made
the ultimate sacrifi ce. Thank you
for all of your support for Oregon
veterans, and God Bless all those
still serving overseas.
CONTACT
YOUR
ELECTED
OFFICIALS
Cottage Grove City
Hall: 942-5501. www.
cottagegrove.org/
Cottage Grove Mayor
Tom Munroe: 942-
5501.
Offbeat Oregon History
Southern Oregon populist leader had plans
for a guerilla uprising
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
T
he months that followed the elec-
tion of 1932 in Jackson County
were nerve-wracking ones for every-
one involved. Newspaper publishers
Llewellyn Banks and Earl Fehl, leaders
of a belligerent populist uprising with
distinctly fascist overtones called the
Good Government Congress, had just
taken over Jackson County – well, al-
most. Their party had failed to dislodge
the sitting district attorney, George
Codding.
Nonetheless, Banks and Fehl prompt-
ly and triumphantly proclaimed that the
people had delivered a mighty mandate
to oust Jackson County’s political es-
tablishment – what the two of them had
come to call simply “The Gang” – and
replace it with their organization, work-
ing on behalf of “the people.”
It was a point that they’d been work-
ing up to for two solid years of nonstop
propaganda in their two newspapers.
And the two of them surely believed
they had indeed won a mighty man-
date. The trouble was, the outgoing
sheriff, Ralph Jennings, wasn’t buying
it. He’d lost by less than 200 votes. His
calls for a recount had gone unheeded,
so he’d reached out to the state attor-
ney general. A recount now appeared
inevitable – and because of some de-
liberate ballot miscounting done by a
friendly offi cial in the Eagle Point area,
there seems to have been no doubt in
anyone’s mind but that a recount would
reverse the election result.
To avoid that, the new sheriff, Gor-
don Schermerhorn, actually went on
the lam so that once-and-future sheriff
Jennings couldn’t serve papers on him.
But this, of course, was at best a tempo-
rary expedient. One could not do one’s
Cottage Grove City
Councilors:
Garland Burback, Ward
3: 942-4800
Phone: (541) 682-4203
Fax: (541) 682-4616
Mike Fleck, At Large:
942-7302
Amy Slay, Ward 4:
942-5501
Oregon State House of
Representatives:
K. Michael Roberts, At
Large: 942-5501
Lane County
Commissioners:
Jake Boone, Ward 1:
653-7413
Faye Stewart, East
Lane Commissioner
Lane County Public
Service Building
125 East 8th Street
Eugene, OR 97401
Rep. Cedric Hayden
(REP)
District: 007
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-288
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: (503) 986-1407
Fax: (503) 986-1130
Email: rep.ced-
richayden@state.or.us
Oregon State Senate:
Jeff Gowing, Ward 2:
942-1900
job as sheriff of Southern Oregon’s
most populous county from an outlaw
hideout somewhere in the Siskiyous.
What was needed was some direct ac-
tion.
So on Feb. 20, the very night the
judge ruled that a recount must pro-
ceed, while a mammoth crowd of Good
Government Congress true believers
rallied and chanted in front of the Jack-
son County Courthouse, a small crew
of Good Government Congress opera-
tives broke out a side window, revving
a Ford V-8 engine to cover the noise.
They slipped inside, collected as many
ballots as they could haul and hustled
them away – beyond the reach of re-
count.
The next day, when the election staff
came downstairs to start on the recount,
the burglary was discovered. Earl Fehl
tried to blame ex-sheriff Jennings, and
barely-elected sheriff Schermerhorn
pledged a full investigation; but no-
body was fooled.
The Oregon State Police certainly
weren’t. Offi cers were on the scene al-
most immediately, politely informing
Sheriff Schermerhorn that they would
be conducting the “full investigation.”
And after that, it wasn’t hard; they fi rst
found the charred remnants of a bunch
of ballots in the courthouse furnace,
and later some were found fl oating in
the river.
Working backward from a small
list of people with access to the court-
house furnace, the state cops picked up
a Good Government Congress mem-
ber who worked at the courthouse and
spent a long time discussing the subject
with him. By the time they were done,
they had a new list of people to arrest
– a list that included Sheriff Schermer-
horn, as well as Judge Fehl, the county
jailer. And even the mayor of Rogue
River.
Sheriff Schermerhorn, it turned out,
had stood watch and signaled the bur-
glars with a fl ashlight when the coast
was clear; one of his deputies was
leading the burglary team. Judge Fehl
hadn’t participated in the burglary but
was thought to have masterminded it.
Now things started to move fairly
quickly. The Good Government Con-
gress having resorted to extra-legal
measures, its leaders were vulnerable
to charges of criminal syndicalism. And
the investigation quickly led, through a
series of inquiries of the “what did the
president know and when did he know
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 oydpro-
zansski@state.or.us
it” type, straight to the ornate mansion
of Llewellyn Banks.
Banks had made it clear that he
would not go quietly. At the last Good
Government Congress rally, held just
after the burglary, he stood upon the
courthouse steps shaking his fi st at his
opponents and shouted, “Unless justice
is restored, I will lead the fi eld in revo-
lution against you people – now, make
the most of it.”
But after that, he’d gone home and
packed his stuff. Banks knew he was
next. His creditors had fi nally managed
to seize his newspaper, so he no longer
had that outlet. His orchard lands were
either going or gone. And his collabo-
rators in the Good Government Con-
gress were rapidly proving to have very
big mouths.
Fortunately, a supporter – a miner
named Geiger – had a rustic log cabin
on a mining claim deep in the forest. It
would be a perfect place for Banks to
hide out for a few months until all the
gunsmoke and horsefeathers settled out
of the air.
Banks had just packed his valise and
had his hunting rifl e, a .30-06, loaded
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 8A
Drinking diet soda depletes the body’s calcium
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
The average American drinks
216 liters of soda each year.
Soda drinking overall is asso-
ciated with lower bone mineral
density in women and children,
and one recent study focused
specifi cally on the effects of
diet soda on bone health. The
authors commented that this re-
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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search was
sparked by
the obser-
vation that
diet soda
drinking
b e h av i o r s
are often
different
than regular
soda drinking behaviors – wom-
en often use diet sodas in an
effort to avoid weight gain – ei-
ther to stave off hunger between
meals or as a replacement for
calorie-containing beverages.
Many women drink over 20 diet
sodas per week.
These researchers discovered
that parathyroid hormone (PTH)
concentrations rise strongly fol-
lowing diet soda consumption
– this is troublesome because
PTH acts to increase blood cal-
cium by stimulating bone break-
down, and as a result calcium is
released from bone. What hap-
pened to the calcium after it was
released? Women were given
24 ounces of either diet cola or
water on two consecutive days,
and urinary calcium content
was measured for three hours.
Women who drank diet cola
excreted more calcium in their
urine compared to the women
who drank water. The authors
concluded that this calcium loss
may underlie the observed con-
nection between soda drinking
and low bone mineral density.
Although caffeine is known to
increase calcium excretion and
promote bone loss, caffeine is
likely not the only bone-harm-
ing ingredient in sodas. A 2006
study in the American Jour-
nal of Clinical Nutrition found
consistent associations between
low bone mineral density and
caffeinated and non-caffeinated
cola (both regular and diet), but
not other carbonated beverages.
One major difference between
the two is the phosphoric acid
in colas, absent from most other
carbonated beverages.
In the Western diet, phospho-
rus is commonly consumed in
excess – at about three times the
recommended levels, whereas
dietary calcium is consumed
much less. Although phospho-
rus is an important component
of bone mineral, a high dietary
ratio of phosphorus to calcium
can increase PTH, which stimu-
lates bone breakdown. Studies
in which women were given
increasing quantities of dietary
phosphorus found increases in
markers of bone breakdown and
decreases in markers of bone
formation. Therefore, it is likely
that the phosphorus content of
colas is what triggers calcium
loss.
Diet soda is simply water
with artifi cial sweeteners and
other chemical additives, such
as phosphoric acid. The safety
of many artifi cial sweeteners is
questionable, and their intense
sweetness disrupts the body’s
natural connection between taste
and nourishment, promoting
weight gain. Diet sodas don’t
just weaken our bones; they are
linked to kidney dysfunction
and promote obesity and other
common medical problems
– there is nothing healthy about
diet sodas.
Dr. Fuhrman is a New York
Times best-selling author and
board certifi ed family physi-
cian specializing in lifestyle
and nutritional medicine. Vis-
it his informative website at
DrFuhrman.com. Submit your
questions and comments about
this column directly to news-
questions@drfuhrman.com.
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