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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 30, 2020)
4A | JULY 30, 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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: LETTERS In support of police When George Floyd died in police custody, everyone was out- raged and hoped for a swift and harsh punishment to the officers involved. We initially supported the po- sition Black Lives Matter took and the peaceful demonstrations that followed. Unfortunately, it seems the BLM movement was hijacked by radical elements of violent an- archists, looters and overall bad actors with connections to danger- ous Antifa groups. These rioters creating chaos and mayhem, destroying property, vandalizing national monuments, attacking innocent citizens and po- lice officers. They even murdered two black teenagers in Seattle’s so- called “autonomous zone.” Some of them are very violent rioters. Unfortunately, in some Democratically-run cities, police officers’ hands appear to be tied and ordered not to do their jobs be- cause politically appointed police chiefs were told so by city mayors or state governors. Our own state’s city of Portland has been a prime example of this debacle. I think President Trump is right when stating that all this is most- ly happening in liberal cities and states run by Democratic leaders. Most people want to be safe and not calling for defunding our po- lice departments. So, next time you see your home- town police officer, take a minute and thank him or her and tell them they are appreciated. —George and Susan Zajic Cottage Grove Only call hospital if you have patience of Job I recently attempted to call my doctor’s office at the Cottage Grove Hospital. When I did so, I was sub- jected to nearly an hour of robotic announcements and elevator mu- sic. No one responded. I was not offered an option to leave a message or to speak to a human being. As my blood pres- sure spiked and my phone battery drained, I opted to act in the best interests of both my physical and mental health and gave up. Perhaps that’s what their phone system is designed to accomplish — or at least it seems so. In order to get an answer to a simple question, I drove to the hospital, asked for my doctor’s re- ceptionist, and out business was transacted in less than a minute. I noticed the receptionist had a tele- phone right next to her and that it was not ringing. In fatc, I don’t recall hearing any phones ringing anywhere while entering or leaving. Perhaps their phone system as it was designed? After all, isn’t the corporate defi- nition of “customer service” a tele- phone system that disdains cus- tomers and offers little if any hman service? To my fellow seniors, I offer this advice: Unless you have the pa- tience of Job and don’t suffer from hypertension, don’t stay on the phone line too long if you call the hospital. — John Galbreath Cottage Grove SLCFR Board needs to do the right thing for its citizens As a resident of Cottage Grove, I just wanted to voice my opinion on Fire Chief Wooten’s statements on social media. I was very shocked and appalled at his recent statement on social media. To post how he would shoot someone is disturbing to say the least. At the very least, it shows poor judgment, especially when your job is to make critical deci- sions that could cost lives if the wrong decisions are made. But to add on top of that that he described in detail how he would shoot another human being with a sniper rifle exceeds just poor judg- ment; it reveals a character trait that is downright scary. To have a chief of a fire depart- ment who is responsible for saving lives expressing in detail how he would kill someone is unaccept- able. Though he says his social media account was hacked, it seems to be a fabrication made up after re- alizing what he had said was very wrong. If so, then we can add dishonesty to the bad decision-making skills of the chief. If Facebook shows proof that his account was actually hacked, then great; I’m hoping that this is the case because I would love to eat my words and see this all go away. I’m sure we all agree that this is very unfortunate. And sure, Chief Wooten might be a nice guy, which will make this a very hard and per- sonal decision for the board. The thing is, this is a public safety issue — not a personal issue. I hope they will keep that in mind. When your job is the safety of a city’s citizenry, a token disciplinary action is not enough in this case. To have him remain as chief without any ramifications for his actions will tarnish his department, the South Lane County Fire Depart- ment board of directors, and our historic, peaceful city of Cottage Grove. We the citizens of Cottage Grove don’t want a fire chief who talked about how he would shoot us, that is unacceptable and we deserve bet- ter than that. —Sam Stoufer 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 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... 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