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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2019)
4A | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2019 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. Sixth St. Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424 NED HICKSON , MANAGING EDITOR | Opinion 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ CGSENTINEL . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respect- ing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Govern- ment for a redress of grievances. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) USPS#133880 Copyright 2019 © COTTAGE GROVE SENTINAL Letters to the Editor Policy The 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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 The Sentinel readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. Political/Election Letters: 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: Graduating seniors: The road ahead is uniquely yours, paved by caring infl uence of others Admittedly, I had a bit of a crush on my high school College Prep En- glish teacher, Mrs. Fillers, who was young, inventive and extremely encourag- ing to the only freshman in her class of 25 juniors and seniors. The first semester was a breeze as she allowed us to explore creative writing with few boundaries. Each week, along with our read- ing assignments, we were given a new list of 20 vo- cabulary words — usually with a theme — that we were required to use in a story. Most of my classmates crammed as many of those words into a single sen- tence as they could (The decrepit, cantankerous, ill-tempered man raised his wrinkled, weathered, sallow fist in a show of fu- rious and frustrated rage over losing his car keys...”) I, on the other hand, fleshed out 15 to 20 pages of handwritten storyline, usually with the last five to six pages devoid of vocab- ulary words. I got good grades but, as you can probably imagine, was rarely asked to read my stories in class due to the time constraints of a 45-minute period. Throughout that semes- ter, I noticed strange red marks on my pages with comments like “incom- plete sentence,” “check spelling,” “punctuation needs work.” As a result, I’d get “A+” for content and creativity but “D” for mechanics. My thinking was, Who cares about mechanics when the story is so great? Mrs. Fillers did. As we headed into the second semester, she took me aside and told me that raw talent wasn’t enough, and that I needed to learn the tools of writing if I wanted to get serious. She described my writ- ing as something similar to chainsaw sculpture: Creative and interest- ing, but it would never be Michaelengelo unless I learned the tools needed to smooth the edges into something seamless. I listened carefully to her advice and then, like any teenager, disregarded everything except that part about having “raw talent.” Surely that was enough. However, in the weeks ahead I realized it wasn’t felt my grade was, and that I’m sure my new school and its teachers would be better. To this day, I still get knots in my stomach when I think about what I said, and how visibly upset she was by my hurtful words. My sophomore year at Siuslaw, I was enrolled in College Prep English once again. For our first assign- ment, Mr. Danielson asked us to write an essay titled “At My House.” From the Managing Editor’s Desk Ned Hickson nearly enough in the eyes of Mrs. Fillers. I began to fail miserably on my assignments, which had shifted from creativity to the analysis of writing prose and recognizing the mechanics and devices used by writers like Shake- speare, Hawthorne, Hem- ingway, Emerson... ...Blah, blah, blah. When the final grades were given, I went from having a crush on my teacher to being crushed by her and the “F” on my report card — something I had never received before. Well, not for English. At that point, I had learned our family was moving to Florence and I’d be attending a new school whose name I couldn’t yet pronounce. With that in mind, I went to Mrs. Fillers and told her how unfair I We were given no fur- ther instruction other than it being due the following day. When I turned in my five-page essay, I felt I was off to a good start with a teacher who would surely overlook the petty details of mechanics and gram- mar in favor of creativity. When he handed back our assignments, he had written the following com- ment: “A+ for enthusiasm/ D+ for mechanics. What are you trying to say with your essay?” It seemed there was no escaping what I eventu- ally came to realize were the demands of engaged teachers unwilling to bend at the expense of a stu- dent’s potential. Mr. Danielson taught me about essay format and the need to have a logical beginning, middle and end — and that energy and en- thusiasm are wasted if they aren’t given a direction that readers can follow. He remains one of my favorite and most influ- ential teachers. But I also know, if not for Mrs. Fill- ers’ willingness to teach me an even more import- ant lesson about writing, I may not have recognized what Mr. Danielson had to offer me. In a few days, seniors at high schools in Cottage Grove, Crow, North Doug- las and throughout the area will hear their names called, announcing their completion of high school education. As they step forward and receive their diploma, they will also be taking their first step toward their fu- ture — thanks in no small part to family, friends and the many teachers who helped guide them to this point in their lives. And, in the case of one newspaper editor, con- tinues to guide them long after. Congratulations, se- niors. Regardless of where life takes you, the road is uniquely your own and built upon your own hard work in conjunction with the caring contributions and influences of others. And Mrs. Fillers, if you somehow ever read this... Thank you for the “F” that changed everything. nhickson@cgsentinel.com HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS Oregon state representatives Oregon federal representatives • Sen. Floyd Prozanski • Rep. Peter DeFazio District 4 State Senator PO Box 11511 Eugene, Ore. 97440 Phone: 541-342-2447 Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us (House of Representatives) 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: defazio.house.gov/ contact/email-peter Phone: 541-465-6732 • 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 • 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 S entinel C ottage G rove 541-942-3325 Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com Allison Miller, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1213 amiller@cgsentinel.com Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216 gsantana@cgsentinel.com Gina Nauman, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203 gnauman@cgsentinel.com Editorial Ned Hickson, Managing Editor... 541-902-3520 nhickson@cgsentinel.com Damien Sherwood, Lead Reporter... Ext. 1212 dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Zach Silva, Sports Editor... Ext. 1204 zsilva@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200 mfringer@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... 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