4A | AUGUST 20, 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)
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LETTERS
Weakness of strong men
stripped bare
As I greet my 70th birthday, I
can attest to the sorry fact that
more often than not — on both
the personal and the social scale
— that deeds of ethical horror
have become more and more
common over the last two de-
cades.
On the personal scale, I have
borne uncomfortable witness
to an increasing normalization
of the public denigration of hu-
man dignity by surveillance and
physical and verbal disrespect
on the part of law enforcement.
This human ugliness has gone
hand-in-hand with a program
of incrementally diminishing
Civil Rights in Media rhetoric,
and in legislation against — and
toleration of abuse towards —
targeted minority populations.
To what purpose?
I can see but one.
Both trajectories serve to but-
tress the confidence of bully
leaders who are painfully aware
of their shortcomings as lead-
ers, and who are insecure in the
public perception of their de-
gree of social control.
Is all this by design?
I am of a generation that such
a thing can not be believed to be
on purpose and by design in our
America.
—Leo Rivers
Cottage Grove
Why slow down the USPS?
The USPS has been a vital
part of our nation since 1775,
when Benjamin Franklin was
appointed the first postmaster
general by the Second Conti-
nental Congress.
I don’t understand our presi-
dent’s promotion of deliberate-
ly trying to cripple the Postal
Service — especially prior to an
election — when mail-in voting
appears to be critical for safe
balloting.
I have heard the theory that
the current postmaster gener-
al is the sole architect of these
policies. If that is so, then the
president has the full authority
to get involved since — as we
have heard repeatedly — federal
employees serve at his pleasure.
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS
The buck stops with the pres-
ident on this issue, but he ap-
parently has chosen not to get
involved.
We in Oregon are fortunate to
have a decades-long history of
successful mail-in balloting. Ac-
cording to Wikipedia, Oregon
established vote-by-mail after
the passing of a citizen’s initia-
tive in 1998 by a margin of 69.4
percent to 30.6 percent.
However, it appears that even
here, the sabotage of the USPS
may already be resulting in a
slow-down of mail delivery.
Have your magazines and oth-
er bulk mail begun showing up
late?
Mine have.
I don’t look forward to wor-
rying about the delivery of my
ballot or prescriptions.
Whatever your political dis-
position, if you want your vote
to count this fall, you may want
to vote as early as you feel com-
fortable doing so — and strong-
ly consider utilizing Lane Coun-
ty’s election drop boxes.
—Craig Barns
Cottage Grove
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
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