4A | THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2020 | 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 2020 © 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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: Women’s voices crucial to defi ning our democracy nearly 1-to-1 ratio. In fact, there are only nine states where males make up more than 50 percent of the popula- tion: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, It was 100 years ago this past Tuesday, Jan. 14, that Oregon ratified the 19th Amendment in 1920, joining 35 other states in ensuring that the right to vote could not be denied based on gender. It’s important to note that this came some eight years after Ore- gon had already begun permitting women to vote in state elections in 1912. Ironically, this was the result of a narrow ap- proval of 52-percent of voters — all of them cast by men — to guarantee the right as part of Ore- gon’s state constitution. Today, it’s hard to imagine our democracy without the crucial rep- resentation of women’s voices in a nation where, according to the last census, women outnum- bered men 161 million to 156.1 million — for a iway, who utilized her Portland-based suffrag- ist newspaper The New Northwest to fuel the de- bate in favor of securing women the right to vote. In a not-so-subtle influence of our features editor, Chantelle Meyer, around. On the homefront, my wife Alicia, as well our daughters Elyse and Elizabeth, provide valuable perespective in family discussions From the Editor’s Desk and decisionmaking that assure that we don’t Ned Hickson devolve into an old episode of “King of the Nevada, North Dakota, twist of irony, it was her Hill.” Utah and Wyoming. brother, Harvey Scott, I say all of this to In all the rest, includ- who was her biggest de- illustrate how, on just ing here in Oregon, tractor, thundering his an individual level, the women represent the opposition in the pages value and importance majority of individual of The Oregonian, where of women’s perspectives voices and perspectives he was editor from 1866 impacts my own life that make up our deci- to 1872. every single day — and sions as a state — and Simply looking at the why I can’t imagine not ultimately as a nation. importance of wom- having those influences However, even in Or- en’s perspectives on a and perspectives as part egon, which was among personal level, there is of our national discus- the first to provide that no question that the sion. right, it took six ballot wisdom and insight they What an incredible attempts — in 1884, offer each day as part of loss it would have been 1900, 1906, 1908, 1910 my own life has a pro- if not for the determina- and finally 1912 (more found impact that could tion of those like Abigail times than in any other never be duplicated by a Scott Duniway to assure state) — before women’s men-only mentality. that we as a state — and voices became part of Ask any of the male eventually a nation — the discussion in state reporters in my news- benefit from the voices decisionmaking. room at the Siuslaw of women in the dis- It was a campaign that News in Florence, and cussions that define our began as early as 1870 they will openly admit democracy. as part of the Oregon that the cumulative IQ suffrage movement led seems to drop con- by Abigail Scott Dun- siderably without the LETTERS Water bill increase a shocker It was a shock for us when we received our last month’s water bill with a whopping $34 in- crease. At first, we thought it must be a mistake. Soon we discov- ered that all of our neighbors — mostly senior citizens — had also seen an increase (on aver- age of $32). We understand that some water plant improvements are in order, but this huge increase is just unbelievable. Just for the sake of argument, our son’s fam- ily living in Eugene pays only about $75 a month for water service —much lower than our water bill of $143 each month. Judging from reaction on so- cial media, there are a lot of un- happy Grovers. Anytime there is a request for water rate increase by the Public Works Department, it appears to us that city councilors happi- ly “rubber stamp” the increase without any opposition, sugges- tions to come with an alternative plan or less costly solution. That’s a shame. While we are on the subject of city water, lots of folks lately no- ticed the recent issues of brown water coming out of their fau- cets. It’s no wonder when City Pub- lic Works neglected — by its own admission — the required annual water hydrants flushing. From what I understand, they basically flushed the hydrants after three years instead of doing this preventative maintenance every year as required. Seems to me that Public Works owe an explanation. The community members/rate pay- ers deserve better. —George & Susan Zajic Cottage Grove 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 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 Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216 gsantana@cgsentinel.com Veronica Brinkley, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1205 vbrinkley@cgsentinel.com Carla Skeel, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203 csummers@cgsentinel.com Editorial Ned Hickson, Managing Editor... 541-902-3520 nhickson@cgsentinel.com Damien Sherwood, Lead Reporter... Ext. 1212 dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Nick Snyder, Sports/Community News Reporter... 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