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4A | AUGUST 26, 2021 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. Sixth St. Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424 damien Sherwood, editor | 541-942-3325 | dsherwood@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) COVID cannot be defeated without vaccinations (Editor’s Note: Viewpoint sub- missions on this and other topics are always welcome as part of our goal to encourage community discussion and exchange of perspectives.) Dear community members, e are asking for a mo- ment of your time on behalf of Eugene Emergency Phy- sicians, a group of 37 emergency medicine physicians and 13 phy- sician assistants (PAs) contracted with PeaceHealth. We cover the RiverBend, University District, and Cottage Grove Emer- gency Departments. For 30 years, we have cared for this community. We live here, our children attend school here, we see you in the grocery store. Please believe us when we tell you that we have the community’s best interest at heart, because it is our commu- nity as well. You have trusted us to care for you. This pandemic has tested us like never before. We have been front line witnesses from the beginning. Every physician and PA in our group has been voluntarily vacci- nated for months and has looked on with sadness and despair as public health has become polar- ized. We have chosen to speak out in order to lend our voice to the growing cry for vaccinations to protect our community. We are appreciative and fully supportive of the recent Peace- Health initiative to require COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers. We state un- equivocally that vaccinations are our best hope to keep our com- munity safe. If you have chosen not to be vaccinated, we strong- ly ask you to reconsider. If you have questions or concerns about the vaccine, please reach out to a trusted health care provider, Lane County Public Health, or ask us if you see us. As of August 18, PeaceHealth W flu. It hurts. It keeps people awake at night because of pain. It causes fluid to build up in the lungs mak- ing breathing difficult. It is awful even in those not sick enough to require hospitalization. Yes, some people are lucky and have a milder case, but is this a risk you really want to take for you or your parents or your children? We urge you to consider your cir- cle of friends and family. Do you have or know children who are too young to be vaccinated? We are seeing a rise in cases in our pediatric patients. Do you have elderly relatives who have chronic diseases? Physicians and PAs of Eugene They are more likely to suffer devastating illness Emergency Physicians and death. This is not only about you and your healthy We are rapidly losing the ability immune system. It is about the to care for all of the community’s greater good of the community. We cannot keep fighting this fight needs. We know that many of you will without your help. We are seeing people resist not read this letter and have infor- mation from various sources that just vaccinations, but the return of you feel supports the choice not to mask mandates. We too are tired vaccinate yourself or your family. of masks. We wear them every We urge you to take a moment day, all day. We cannot defeat this and consider the impacts of your disease without increasing vacci- decisions on the greater commu- nation numbers, and we cannot nity. These vaccines are safe and control the spread without masks. Vaccines and masks work. If you effective. We have heard concerns from want your children to return to patients that some vaccinated school in person, please vaccinate. people are becoming infected If you want your children not to with COVID-19. Yes, this is true, be masked in school, please vacci- but the likelihood of contracting nate. If you want to go to the store the virus is substantially lower. unmasked, please vaccinate. If anything in this letter reso- If you become infected following vaccination, the disease course is nates with you, please go get vac- cinated. The following link lists significantly milder. You may be very healthy and vaccine clinics in our community: have a strong immune system. www.lanecountyor.gov/vaxclinics. Thank you for consideration of You may feel you will be safe. We have cared for and admitted many our perspective. We feel fortunate patients who have had this very to be part of such a wonderful community and look forward to a thought. Unfortunately, we are admitting return to “normalcy.” This return younger and healthier people with can be hastened by your participa- complications from COVID-19. It tion in vaccinations and following is not a bad cold. It is not a bad other public health mandates. Oregon hospitals have diagnosed 1,037 patients with COVID-19 in 2021. Of those, more than 96 percent were not fully vaccinated. Although it is possible to contract COVID-19 following vaccination, it is clear that the chances of hos- pitalization or death are exponen- tially lower. We are running out of hospital beds in our state. We may soon be unable to adequately care for patients needing surgery for oth- er ailments or treat medical con- ditions unrelated to COVID-19. Guest Viewpoint LETTERS An Appeal for Leadership Dear Governor Brown, I am a man who is fighting can- cer, and I am concerned about tak- ing the vaccine. From this place, I want you to hear that we need clear messaging and honesty from you, and our leadership, right now. I’m asking you humbly to really achieve public health and safety within our state. Please do more to create candid, public conversations and exposition of facts in regard to COVID and its vaccines, not just throw out more mandates. We, the citizens of this state, have been faced with an unpredictable, unprecedented, changing reality – one that has been inconsistently communicated to us. After missteps in, or lack of messaging from, our heads of state, and inconsistencies from the CDC; historic lies, corruption, and self-interest from pharmaceutical companies and the medical in- dustrial complex; and a histrionic, outrage-seeking interpretation of it all from media; how could we not be mistrustful? How can you truly blame us? We need honesty and clarity. We’re not seeing much of that at all, except by way of accidental conversation, one neighbor talking to another, about a friend of theirs who had a bad reaction or a relative who hasn’t recovered or a child in a neighboring town who may never be the same. I’m hearing too many of these stories. This does not re- flect a government of clear, effec- tively messaged leadership. Please Governor Brown, if you seek to lead not simply to perform the role of leadership, support thoughtful public conversations, encourage authentic reflection on past mistakes in messaging and scientific interpretation, confront current failures of the CDC, and convey to us a clear understanding of what we know and what we actu- ally don’t yet know about both this virus and its vaccines. Please help us, the people, rea- sonably make up our own minds. Help us to decide what is good for us. What I am saying, Governor Brown, is please lead us. Our com- munities, our state, and our nation for that matter, cannot afford your impatience or indifference. —Alan Baas Cottage Grove Class of ’70 Gives ‘Shout Out’ Recently, the Cottage Grove High School Class (CGHS) of 1970 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. 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Send letters to: dsherwood@cgsentinel.com 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 held its 51st reunion and it was a well-attended rousing success. We want to send a big “shout out” to a couple of great local business- es who helped us make it so. Shady Oaks provided a delicious meal in a beautiful setting, and Covered Bridge Brewing Group was there with cooling refreshments. We are very excited to announce that our generous class will be do- nating over $4,000 to the Cottage Grove Community Foundation to provide scholarships for 2022 CGHS graduating seniors. We raised the money through donations, our bucket raffle, and our chair auction. Two classmates refurbished and donated a pair of auditorium chairs from the old CGHS. Bidders who won the bid would donate them back for an- other round and we ended up with $900 on that item alone! We were happy that the final winner is a Cottage Grove resident, because not only did he graduate from CGHS, but so did his father and his kids - a fitting home for a piece of CGHS history. Attendees were impressed with what their hometown has to offer! Thanks, CG! —Class of 1970 Cottage Grove High School Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com Advertising Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216 gsantana@cgsentinel.com Carla Skeel, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203 csummers@cgsentinel.com Editorial Damien Sherwood, Editor... Ext. 1212 dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Kendrick Murphy, Sports/Education Reporter... Ext 1204 kmurphy@cgsentinel.com Sophia Edelblute, Features Intern sedelblute@cgsentinel.com Daniel Friis, Sports Intern Customer Service Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200 mfringer@cgsentinel.com Kurt Krueger, Circulation... 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