4A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • OCTOBER 10, 2018
O PINION
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for
withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800)
The First Amendment
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without documentation will not be published.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:
Celebrating National Newspaper Week
A
t least once a week,
some 7,500 commu-
nity newspapers —
those with a circulation of
less than 30,000 — land on
porches, inside mail boxes or
at local supermarkets and
coffee counters across the
United States.
According to a survey
conducted by the University
of Missouri-Columbia, more
than three-quarters of
respondents said they read
most or all of each edition of
their local newspaper —
with 94 percent of those
people holding subscrip-
tions.
Locally, on Wednesday
mornings, you can see the
front page of The Sentinel
suspended in front of faces
in coffee shops, restaurants
and markets around Cottage
Grove are as people inform
themselves about what’s hap-
pening in the community —
from upcoming festivals and
events, to recaps of the latest
board meetings and features
on local issues and residents.
While there is a notion
that print journalism is
dying, the truth is that many
community newspapers are
actually thriving compared
to many of their large metro
and national counterparts.
“Community papers are
doing better than many
large, daily papers because
they provide news coverage
about things that matter to
their local community that
would otherwise be over-
looked without them,” said
Al Cross, director of the
Institute for Rural
Journalism at the University
of Kentucky.
In fact, in 2017, the com-
ant understanding that con-
tinues to define us as a com-
munity newspaper:
To our readers, we are not
just the newspaper; we are
their newspaper.
USC professor Judy Muller
told the Stanford University
Press that, while local jour-
nalism is certainly about
police blotters, obituaries,
bake sales and club meet-
ings, “The best community
newspapers also hold local
From the Managing Editor’s Desk
Ned Hickson
bined readership of those
7,500 non-daily newspapers
was almost 20 million more
than that of daily newspa-
pers, with non-dailies tally-
ing 65.5 million subscribers
— compared to 45.5 million
daily-paper subscribers.
This is according to the
National Newspaper
Association (NNA), which
also noted that 70 percent of
those small non-dailies have
a circulation of less than
15,000; The Setinel is among
that smaller group.
When I became an editor-
in-chief in September 2016,
I’d had the good fortune of
working with three terrific
editors over the past 20 years
I've spent as a journalist.
And while each brought
their own style and focus,
there has been one import-
governments and institu-
tions accountable by cover-
ing meetings, asking ques-
tions and recognizing the
good as well as the not-so-
good because ... if not them,
then who?”
While we’ve received
equal amounts of accolades
and criticism regarding our
coverage of controversial
issues ranging from housing
and education, to guns and
hate crime over the past year,
our story meetings are
underscored by the notion of
“If not us, then who?”
I am reminded of my first
day as a journalist covering
sports in November 1998 —
and how intimidated I felt
sitting at my desk listening
to the constant sound of key-
board hammering eminat-
ing from behind partitions
on either side of me.
Twenty years later, it’s a
sound that I have come to
love in the same way a
mechanic appreciates the
sound of an engine hitting
on all cylinders, or the way a
music conductor savors the
convergence of musical
notes into a singular harmo-
ny.
(Keep in mind I still type
with two fingers, so my con-
tribution to that harmony is
more like the cow bell, but
still...)
As we continue through
National Newspaper Week
(Oct. 7-13), I’d like to thank
you, our readers, for sup-
porting your local newspa-
per. Not only with your sub-
scription or weekly trip to
the office to buy your copy,
but also for your participa-
tion and contributions —
through letters, emails,
phone calls and conversa-
tions in our office — that
help make The Sentinel one
of those 7,500 non-daily
community newspapers that
is continuing to grow.
In the words of Thomas
Jefferson in a letter to Col.
Edward Carrington on Jan.
16, 1787:
“ Were it left to me to decide
whether we should have a
government without newspa-
pers, or newspapers without a
government, I should not hes-
itate a moment to prefer the
latter.”
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
S entinel
(541) 942-3325
Administration
Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher
Gary Manly, General Manager ..................................................... Ext. 1207
gmanly@cgsentinel.com
Allison Miller, Multimedia Marketing Specialist ....................... Ext. 1213
amiller@cgsentinel.com
Editorial
Ned Hickson, Managing Editor...............................................541-902-3520
nhickson@cgsentinel.com
Caitlyn May, Editor. ....................................................................... Ext. 1212
cmay@cgsentinel.com
Guest Viewpoint
End-of-life choice is about compassion
By Bruce Yelle
End Choices
Death is nothing to be afraid of no
matter what your belief, we all have to
do it. It’s not death but the dying that is
what I and many others fear — partic-
ularly for those suff ering for years with
debilitating conditions and diseases.
I for one do not want artifi cial
measures keeping me alive past my
God-given expiration date. Too much
money is made by keeping people
alive.
Roughly 37 million baby boom-
ers will turn 65 over the next decade,
bringing the percentage of people aged
65 or older to 20 percent — or more
than 71 million people by the year
2029.
In addition, 42 percent of people
who live to the age of 70 will spend
time in a nursing home before they
die, half of them for two years or more.
Today, 1-in-9 people over age 65
suff er with Alzheimer’s. By 2050, the
number of those with Alzheimer’s is
expected to grow to 13.8 million.
If you include other dementias, neu-
rodegenerative diseases, autoimmune
diseases and cancers, the number of
people considering an end-of-life de-
cision is going to grow exponentially.
Th erefore, something needs to be
done about expanding our end-of-life
choices and making our end days more
comfortable. A survey done a few years
back of Oregon hospice and palliative
care doctors and workers noted that
patients that had their Death with Dig-
nity Provisions in place had a much
more comfortable quality of life.
Just the knowledge they had that
they would not have to suff er was a
great comfort to them and their fam-
ilies.
In 2019, there will be a couple bills
in front of the Oregon legislature to ex-
pand Oregon's end-of-life choices.
Non-profi t organizations like End
Choices were created to educate Ore-
gon citizens on the restrictions of the
current death-with-dignity law, ad-
vance directives and the need to ex-
pand them.
I encourage everyone to educate
themselves on how they can help make
Oregon more compassionate.
Zach Silva, Sport Editor ................................................................. Ext. 1204
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Customer Service
Mandi Jacobs, Offi ce Manager ...................................................... Ext. 1200
Legals, Classifi eds ................................................ Ext. 1200
mjacobs@cgsentinel.com
Production
Ron Annis, Production Supervisor ............................................... Ext.1215
graphics@cgsentinel.com
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