4A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • JUNE 27, 2018
The First Amendment
O PINION
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridg-
ing the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition their
Government for a redress of greivences.
Letters to the Editor Policy
Th e Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor as part of
a community discussion of issues on the local, state
and national level.
Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed
letters must be signed. All letters need to include full
name, address and phone number; only name and
city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about
300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length,
grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not
guaranteed and depends on space available and the
volume of letters received.
Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative,
sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or
without documentation will not be published.
Letters containing poetry or from outside Th e
Sentinel readership area will only be published at the
discretion of the editor.
Political/Election Letters:
LETTERS
Caring community
made ‘Relay’ possible
Bohemia Park came
alive Saturday for the an-
nual Relay for Life to fi ght
cancer. It was made possi-
ble by caring people and
sponsors of our commu-
nity. It takes many hours
of planning, contacting
sponsors, setting up and
taking down.
Twenty-fi ve members of
our family who attended
thank all of you.
Cancer is a heartbreak-
ing disease that aff ects
most families. Th is is a
time to celebrate the sur-
vivors and remember the
many who lost the fi ght.
Th e luminaria ceremo-
ny is so heartfelt, silently
walking around the pool
reading the names and
messages on candlelit lu-
minaries is so beautiful
and touching.
Th e only thing lacking
was more people to enjoy
this event.
Th anks to everyone that
made it possible.
—Pat Couturier
Cottage Grove
Payment for convenience of plastic is
quickly becoming ‘past due’
China, which has been the
• Th e average “working
recipient of nearly a third
life” of a plastic bag is 15
of America’s recycle waste,
minutes, aft er which it “re-
banned the import of 24
tires.”
diff erent kinds of assorted
• In 1996, 3.8 billion
waste — including unsorted plastic water bottles were
he inclusion of plastic paper and several types of
sold in the U.S. By 2014, that
in our lives has grown plastic.
number had grown to 57.3
exponentially over the
When we lose electricity
billion.
past 70 years, making our
in our home, I still walk into
• It’s no small irony that
lives easier, more convenient every dark room and fl ip the the process of producing a
and oft en at a signifi cant cost switch because it’s second
water bottle actually requires
savings almost too good to
be true.
As we have begun to
From the Managing Editor’s Desk
realize, that’s exactly what
it was; the interest rate on
Ned Hickson
the cost of convenience has
come due with an unex-
pected balloon payment.
nature. I’m so used to it
six times as much water as
We produce nearly 300
being there that I don’t even there is in the actual contain-
million tons of plastic
think about how oft en —
er itself.
products each year, nearly
and in how many ways — I
In Lane County, our goal
half of which is designed for use electricity without giving was to recycle two-thirds
single-use purposes in what it a second thought.
of our waste products by
has increasingly become a
Th e same can be said for
2025. We were making great
disposable society.
our use of plastic. Here are a strides, leading the state in
Despite our eff orts to
few statistics to help illus-
this campaign by being the
educate the public about the trate the scope of how plastic only county in Oregon to
importance of “Reduce, Re-
has become a second-nature send more waste to recyclers
use and Recycle,” each year
element of our lives:
than we did to landfi lls.
more than eight million tons
• Worldwide, more than
However, restrictions that
of plastic is dumped into our 500 billion plastic bags are
we began to feel late last year,
oceans.
used each year, or more than and which became offi cial
And that was before
1 million bags every minute. at the beginning of January,
T
are jeopardizing the progress
we’ve made as a county, and
ultimately as a society.
While our dependence
on plastic is a global issue,
the solutions will need to be
implemented one commu-
nity at a time, with the fi rst
step in that process being
education.
Before we can solve the
plastic problem, we need to
fully understand its scope
and the ways it is intertwined
not only among those of
us who use it, but how any
changes we make could im-
pact us economically.
Th e impact of plastic on
our planet’s oceans is a com-
munity conversation that
needs to happen if we are to
fi nd solutions in dealing with
what we once embraced as
an element of everyday life
that was too good to be true.
And which we have now
discovered was exactly that.
Wrtite to managing editor
Ned Hickson at nhickson@
cgsentinel.com
Election-related letters must address pertinent or
timely issues of interest to our readers at-large.
Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing
campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure
any information about a candidate is accurate, fair
and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay;
and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates
based on personal experience and perspective rather
than partisanship and campaign-style rhetoric.
Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the
editor column to outline their views and platforms
or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid political
advertising.
As with all letters and advertising content, the
newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher,
general manager and editor, reserves the right to
reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria.
Send letters to:
nhickson@cgsentinel.com or cmay@cgsentinel.com
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS
Oregon state
representatives
Oregon federal
representatives
• Sen. Floyd Prozanski
District 4 State Senator
PO Box 11511
Eugene, Ore. 97440
Phone: 541-342-2447
Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@
state.or.us
• Rep. Cedric Hayden
Republican District 7 State
Representative
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301
Phone: 503-986-1407
Website: www.leg.state.or.
us/hayden
Email: rep.cedrichayden@
state.or.us
• Rep. Peter DeFazio
(House of Representatives)
405 East 8th Ave.
#2030
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: defazio.house.gov/
contact/email-peter
Phone: 541-465-6732
• Sen. Ron Wyden
405 East 8th Ave., Suite 2020
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: wyden.senate.gov
Phone: (541) 431-0229
• Sen. Jeff Merkley
Email: merkley.senate.gov
Phone: 541-465-6750
C ottage G rove
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