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4A | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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: Finding common ground through common needs (Editor’s Note: View- point submissions on this and other topics are always welcome as part of our goal to encourage community discussion and exchange of perspectives.) T he world is full of suffering caused by the illness of division and enmity. To heal a fractured world in which peoples are be- ing turned against each other by confusion and misinformation, you have to bring people together with a shared need. So what shared need brings people together? As a Buddhist, I am taught that all things are impermanent. All things are elements that come together, persist for a while and then are dispersed. And taking this fur- ther, all people — rich and paupers alike, high- born and low-born, lucky and unlucky — are alike in that they are born, grow older and experience suffering, sickness and eventually death. When I was a young man in the 1960s, Ron- ald Reagan became governor of Califor- nia and then President of the United States. He recorded an album named after its theme, “Socialized Medicine Is Socialism.” potential alternatives must be rejected with- out consideration. However, keeping with the idea of bring- ing people together by their respect for each other’s common need for good health and a secure life, it is trou- bling to imagine a world Guest Viewpoint By Leo Rivers Cottage Grove Needless to say, the word “socialism” was a word that had been turned into a political bogeyman by equating socialism with the great tyranny of the Soviet Union. At the same time, it did not point out that there are many forms of socialism that already exist in our country and that they all have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. But if you want to win an argument easily, you pretend there are no al- ternatives and that any in which you only have as much security as you can pay for. There is a common- wealth — or common welfare — that allows an opportunity for a universal healthcare system and more. It’s not just a way of mak- ing sure everyone has access to an education and medicine, it is also a much more financial- ly efficient way to im- prove a health care sys- tem that currently only impacts those who have already fallen ill. It can have a pro- found affect as being a training ground for see- ing our commonality with all people by pro- moting an appreciation for a common welfare shared by all. In other words, a uni- versal healthcare system is itself a medicine that can cure the language of enmity and opposition by changing our habits of mind into something better: Wishing for oth- ers what we wish for ourselves. Just as we engaged in a great project to fight fascism in the 1940s and to get to the moon in the 1960s, we will find the social spirit of America uplifted and made radiant by the challenge and excite- ment of creating a sys- tem of universal health for Americans. It could be the train- ing wheels we need for turning our faces to each other and the world with a smile of goodwill and willing- ness rather than oppo- sition and enmity. 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... Ext. 1204 nsnyder@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200 mfringer@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... 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