4A | OCTOBER 7, 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)
The need
for communication
tician and POW, once “We are losing social
wrote, “As far as this skills, the human inter-
business of solitary action skills, how to read
confinement goes, the a person’s mood, to read
most important thing their body language,
for survival is commu- how to be patient until
nication with someone, the moment is right to
Our comfortable life even if it’s only a wave make or press a point.
as we knew it changed or a wink, a tap on the Too much exclusive use
wall, or to have a guy put of electronic informa-
in March of 2020.
Let’s remember in his thumb up. It makes a tion dehumanizes what
2019 when it was nor-
mal to have in-person
From the City Council's desk
meetings, conferences,
school, birthday parties,
Ward 1 Councilor Chalice Savage
dinners, and other social
gatherings. This came to
a stop with the spread
is a very, very important
of the novel coronavi- difference.”
In
the
last
18
months
part of community life
rus where there was no
we have learned to and living together.”
gradual transition.
It is through commu-
We immediately be- adapt, but our morale
has
continued
to
drop.
nication
that we learn
gan to work from home,
We
are
surrounded
by
about
culture
and un-
hold Zoom meetings,
differences.
our kids tried to nav- black and white state- derstand
ments,
this
or
that
sug-
Suddenly
the
black and
igate online learning,
gestions
and
suddenly
white
blurs
to
grey. The
birthday parties became
this
way
of
thinking
and
ideas
of
“this”
or “that”
known as a drive-by
and almost overnight virtually behaving has fade and the concept of
both This and That is
our society lost the one become normalized.
Vincent
Nichols,
Car-
understood.
thing we needed: com-
dinal
of
the
Roman
Imagine each of us as
munication.
John McCain, poli- Catholic Church said: a different instrument.
We practice, prepare
and fine tune our skills
alone. But when we
come together, we make
beautiful music. We are
stronger together, even
though we are all differ-
ent instruments.
I encourage everyone
to consciously commu-
nicate with the folks
we interact with daily.
Here are some sugges-
tions: Thank the ca-
shier who showed up
to work despite mask
mandates, smile at a
stranger walking by on
the sidewalk because
smiles are contagious.
And most of all, allow
yourself to see beyond
the screen, beyond the
written word.
Let us unite through
small acts of kindness
which is behavioral
communication
that
will begin to reawaken
our senses, lift spirits,
and make us more hu-
man.
When it comes to saving local
newspapers, the solutions won’t be
found in web metrics, ad rates or
shrinking news holes. The solution,
seemingly simple yet terrifying
complicated, is for newspa-
pers to reconnect with the
people they’re supposed to be
serving.
That’s the purpose of The
Relevance Project, a national
effort intended to make lo-
cal journalism so relevant to
people’s lives that papers will once
again become an essential pur-
chase. The Newspaper Association
Managers, a coalition of trade as-
sociations serving daily and week-
ly newspapers and new websites in
North America, is coordinating the
project, which was launched during
National Newspaper Week last year.
The focus on local newspapers
was prompted in part by frustra-
tion that industry leaders were too
focused on the major players — the
papers run by corporations and big
chains. That approach overlooks
the more than 8,600 local news-
papers covering the parades, the
school board meetings and the soc-
cer games of small-town America
and Canada.
The problems those papers face
try’s warts, from public mistrust to
falling page counts, rising subscrip-
tion costs and poorly functioning
websites.
From the newspaper association
managers’ perspective, the results
were a much-needed slap in the
face — newspapers weren’t doing
the right things by their readers.
The Relevance Project is working
to reassert newspapers’ relevance
to their communities by building
on the credibility they already
have. It aims to remind peo-
ple that newspapers serve as a
Michelle K. Rea
trusted community forum and
Executive Director of New York Press
as a resource. A newspaper’s
Association/New York Press Service
strength and future rely on its
local community; fortifying
that relationship will fortify
ada think the public is paying so the paper.
To do that, the project is coor-
much attention to media compa-
nies such as The New York Times, dinating efforts and supplying re-
The Washington Post and Sinclair sources for newspapers across the
[Broadcasting] that they’re forget- continent working to find new ways
ting that there are vital, committed of building reader trust and com-
newspapers in their local commu- munity engagement. The key to the
nities. As a result, small papers with project’s success will be its focus on
few resources have been left to fend concrete tools that even papers with
for themselves as the ground shifts limited resources can adopt.
The project’s superpower is the
under them.
The Relevance Project grew out thousands of local newspapers who
of that frustration, with the News- may choose to participate. With po-
paper Association Managers collec- tentially 8,600 local daily and week-
tively retaining rebranding expert ly newspapers participating, there’s
Andy Cunningham of the Cunning- a huge opportunity to reinvent the
ham Collective to help diagnose community forum, to re-engage
communities to collectively address
problems and develop solutions.
Working with papers from issues, and to make a substantial
around the country, Cunningham’s impact both for the readers and the
research took stock of all the indus- newspapers.
mirror those of the bigger players:
Declining revenues and rising costs
that sometimes force closings.
But for independent local papers
with shoestring budgets, the finan-
cial burdens fall proportionately
harder: Cutting a position from a
four-person newsroom, for exam-
ple, is a lot more difficult than cut-
ting one from a newsroom of 40.
Newspaper association managers
across the United States and Can-
Guest Viewpoint
LETTERS
Climate Protests
Ineffective
I wonder if the people demon-
strating against climate change
have wondered about Earth being
in the ice ages as recent as 11,500
years ago?
Probably not; Earth has been
warming ever since. Granted, a
small portion of the warming may
— get that? — may be caused by
man.
During the Eocene Epoch, start-
ing about 48 million years ago, the
carbon dioxide levels were so high
that it had, in fact, a greenhouse
effect on Earth. It was so warm,
even the Antarctic was a tropical
rain forest. Earth has warmed and
cooled many, many times since
then. The Willamette Valley was
once a savanna.
What these demonstrators could
accomplish in Oregon, as far as re-
ducing carbon is concerned, would
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HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS
Oregon state
representatives
• Sen. Floyd Prozanski
The Relevance Project –
and what it means for newspapers
(Editor’s Note: This Guest View-
point was provided as part of Nation-
al Newspaper Week, a celebration
and recognition of the critical role
newspapers play in a healthy and en-
ergetic democracy.)
USPS#133880
District 4 State Senator
PO Box 11511
Eugene, Ore. 97440
Phone: 541-342-2447
Email : sen.floydprozanski@
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
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of the most carbon-neutral states,
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It is commendable these people
believe in something so strongly as
to take these actions; they should
be better informed.
—Dick Gilkison
Cottage Grove
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