4A | APRIL 8, 2021 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. Sixth St. Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424 ned hickson, managing editor | 541-902-3520 | nhickson@cgsentinel.com Opinion 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 2021 © 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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. Send letters to: nhickson@cgsentinel.com New location, same commitment to you rities. If these walls could talk, well... let’s just say they’d speak volumes. But recently, those walls have needed repair as time and aging struc- Change is hard. Even when it’s for the better. In the case of our re- cent move from our building in the historic district that was home to The Sentinel for de- cades, it’s hard leaving a place that has had so many conversations, laughs, arguments, tears, bleary-eyed deadline nights and mornings, sighs of relief and wist- ful whistles when every- thing came together. It’s a building that has heard the footfalls of dif- ferent editors, reporters, office and sales people, visiting dignitaries from state representatives to mayors and a few celeb- Ultimately, wherev- er we hang our Sentinel hats, the end result is the same: a commitment to bring you the news, in- formation and stories you need to know, and From the Editor's Desk Ned Hickson tural issues prompted us to begin looking at a new beginning in a loca- tion more suited to our needs in the modern era. One thing we’ve learned over the past year, as we have primar- ily operated from our homes, has been how four walls isn’t near- ly as important as the fortitude of those with- in them regardless of where those walls might be. to provide a place for community conversa- tion. With that in mind, we are happy to announce our new home at 1498 E. Main St., Ste 104, in the Safeway shopping center, next to the UPS Store (and, for us, dan- gerously close to the Safeway bakery section.) We hope you’ll come see us and visit our new office. We’re plan- ning an official news- paper-warming party (Don’t worry, SLCFR, nothing combustable) once we are settled in. But there’s still work to do. For example, Damien Sherwood and I will be removing a partial (non-bearing!) wall this weekend to make more space for the newsroom. There’s also still some painting and reorganiz- ing to do. But when you call, you’ll still hear Meg Fringer’s cheerful voice. General Manager Gary Manly, and marketing consultants Gerald San- tana and Carla Skeel, are still manning the sales office. And each Thursday, you’ll find The Sentinel in news stands, in your mail box and at stores around town because, well — some things don’t change. HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS Oregon state representatives • Sen. Floyd Prozanski District 4 State Senator PO Box 11511 Eugene, Ore. 97440 Phone: 541-342-2447 Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us • Rep. Cedric Hayden Republican District 7 State Representative 900 Court St. NE Salem, Ore. 97301 Phone: 503-986-1407 Email: rep.cedrichayden@ state.or.us • Rep. Peter DeFazio (House of Representatives) 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Oregon federal representatives Email: defazio.house.gov/ contact/email-peter Phone: 541-465-6732 • 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 • Heather Buch Lane County Commissioner - District 5 Email: Heather.Buch@lane countyorg.gov 125 E. Eighth Ave. Eugene, OR 97401 Or call 541-682-4203 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 Zeahna Young, Sports Reporter... Ext. 1204 zyoung@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200 mfringer@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... 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