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
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ongress shall make no law respect-
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prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
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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)
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Letters to the Editor Policy
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community discussion of issues on the local, state and national
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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
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