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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 28, 2020)
4A | MAY 28, 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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: 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. LETTERS Send letters to: nhickson@cgsentinel.com Wearing a face mask is a choice, not a statement Memorial Day was observed in Cottage Grove. Some wore face coverings, which is a personal choice. The day before, I was at Coiner Park with a pink bandana around my face and was rudely called out for donning a face covering. I stepped backwards several times as this person’s verbal attack continued. I had ridden my bike to the park with a a friend who prefers to wear a helmet. I don’t care to wear one. I don’t feel the need to verbally attack her about wearing a helmet; she doesn’t yell at me for my choice to wear a face covering. —Sue Flint Cottage Grove Should we rely on proven science or scapegoats? As we work our way through what is proving to be one of the most severe public crises in the past century (excluding wars), there is certain to be great controversy. In that regard, consider these points. Much has been made of the inac- curacy in projections promulgated through numerical modeling. No surprise there. Of course the models, having little real data to work with, are all based on assumptions — and thus results will differ, sometimes wide- ly, based on variations in those as- sumptions. That is not the point. The truth is that serious people were throwing up warnings and were ignored. The reality is that between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans are going to die. The point is, every element of our great government denied and diddled for too long, playing pol- itics, back when we might have been able to take reasonable ac- tions to greatly reduce this number. All right, maybe not. Or maybe yes. The key word is “maybe.” There are two things about all this that really scare me. First is that rampant ignorance is tolerating the denigration of se- rious science and the people who practice it. How many of the people tweeting outrageous attacks on Dr. Fauci and his ilk can, if asked, de- scribe how science actually works? From hypothesis, to experimen- tation, through peer review, to res- olution of theory; that is the pro- gression of science fact. I want to punch the wall every time I hear somebody say, “Oh, that’s just a theory.” Again, profound ignorance of even the most basic principles abound. In less than 170 years, we have gone — quite literally — from a world lit only by fire to one where mi- crowaves cook our food using power obtained by harnessing the atom. It was the scientific method — hypothesis through theory — that achieved this. Along the way, sci- ence made many wrong turns and some serious errors. But that is an integral part of the process. Over the long haul, sci- ence has delivered the goods. The second worry is what will happen next time. And there will be a next time; it is only a question of when. What will happen when the transmission rate of some new pathogen is perhaps only 50 per- cent greater than COVID-19, and the fatality rate is maybe five times greater? Do we accept that mistakes were made here — some, quite foolish — and try as best we can to develop in advance the systems and proce- dures needed to deal with it? Or do we stick to the current method of keeping our heads where the moon don’t shine, wait until it’s over and start looking for a scapegoat? Knowing, of course, that the scapegoat will always be someone of the opposing political party. —Jim Zinn Cottage Grove 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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