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news
Buying Votes
Development, timber, gravel mining and corporate
interests spend record amounts to hold their grip on local
government.
by Alan Pittman
In early election results, Kitty Piercy trailed incumbent Lane County Commissioner Bobby Green by 13 percentage points and $50,000.
Piercy says it was hard for her progressive grassroots campaign to beat Green's record $108,505 in contributions from developers, timber companies and sand and gravel mines. "That's a big chunk of money. They bought a lot of media with that," Piercy says. "There's a lot of big money interests that like the way things are."
It is expected that Green will continue to vote with two other conservative commissioners to form a three-vote majority on the County Commission. With big decisions coming up on allowing Hyundai to pave over more wetlands, allowing gravel mining to eat up prime farmland along River Road, and issues of urban sprawl and traffic congestion, the results could be immediate. Green has a 13 percent rating from Oregon League of Conservation Voters.
Green's contributions include more than $40,000 from local land speculators and development interests including a $30,000 loan from Jon V. Jaqua. Jaqua helped bring Hyundai to Eugene as a former deputy director of the Oregon Economic Development Department.
Other development interests donating to Green include $4,000 from the Oregon Home Builders PAC, the state's leading lobbying group against restrictions on sprawl. Big payments also include $1,860 from the pro-growth Oregon Realtors PAC, $1,600 from the Pape construction equipment company, $500 from Gale M. Roberts construction and $500 from real estate broker Greg Hastings.
The local timber industry also gave at least $16,000 to Green. Donations from timber companies include $2,500 from Rosboro, $2,500 from Seneca, $2,000 from Frontier Resource, $1,500 from Swanson-Superior, $1,500 from States and $1,000 from Kimwood. Local timber barons Ed King and Jewel Hult kicked in $1,000 each, members of the Giustina family that owns Giustina Land and Timber gave $1,900 and Jon Anderson, publisher of the timber trade newsletter Random Lengths, wrote Green a check for $1,000.
Sand and gravel companies kicked in $10,500 to Green's campaign. Delta and its executives gave $3,000, Egge $2,500 and Wildish paid $5,000.
Green used his war chest to hire consultants and PR firms to run his campaign and to buy thousands of dollars of TV commercials. He paid about $50,000 to Lindholm Research, a polling and political consulting firm that's worked for a variety of Republican and conservative candidates. Another $19,000 went to Cawood Communications, a PR firm that's worked for Hyundai, and for AT&T and US West in their campaign to defeat an EWEB fiber optic measure. Green also paid $11,000 to Jennifer Waggoner, the PR and scheduling staffer for Republican state House Speaker Lynn Snodgrass.
Eugene progressive council candidates Bonny Bettman and Betty Taylor won election by wide margins despite heavy spending by development interests.
"I think the money is a big issue - the media and the mailings you can buy - but I had the people," says Bettman who won her race for Ward 3.
Bettman's opponent Tracy Olsen used a record-breaking $19,540 in donations from business, pro-development and timber interests to outspend her nearly two to one. The pro-sprawl Home Builders PAC gave Olsen $3,000, US West PAC $500, Oregon Realtors PAC $500, Pape company $200, real estate broker Hugh Prichard $200, Delta Sand and Gravel $200 and Breeden Land Co. $100.
Local timber barons L.L. Stewart, Ehrman Giustina and Paul Cole, and gravel and construction magnate James Wildish have also kicked in $100 to $200 checks to Olsen's campaign.
Taylor was also outspent by nearly two to one for her Ward 2 seat. Taylor's opponent Mike Sherlock raised $16,590, largely from pro-development, business and timber interests. The Home Builders PAC gave $3,000, the Oregon Realtors PAC $500, Delta Sand and Gravel $200, Wildish Sand and Gravel $100, the Jenova Land Company $250, Spring Holdings $750 and real estate broker Hugh Prichard $200. Computer hard disk maker HMT, one of the city's top users of toxic chemicals and top beneficiaries of tax breaks, gave $400, Forrest Paint, another big chemical user, gave $300. L.L. Stewart, Jewel Hult and Ehrman Giustina gave $100 each, and land and real estate speculator Ed Aster kicked in another $250.
An Amazon Creek PAC formed by Sherlock supporters also raised an additional $2,815 for Sherlock's election, bringing Sherlock's combined total contributions to $19,405.
"I think there's an attempt to buy the election and sometimes it doesn't work," Taylor says. "People are too smart."
Green spent about $11 per favorable vote, Sherlock $12 and Olsen $27.
Paul Harrison, a computer analyst who campaigned for EWEB's Measure 20-30, says the voters faith in the public utility narrowly beat out heavy corporate spending against the measure. AT&T spent $30,000, US West $40,000 and Chambers Communications $1,000 to defeat EWEB's proposal for fiber optic services which they saw as threatening their local cable, phone and Internet monopolies.
Harrison says vote by mail made it easier for some local conservative candidates and causes to hide their funding and the true nature of their campaigns. Reporting deadlines for campaign contributions came after many voters had already cast their ballots, he said. "Until the money trail is clear, it's not clear who the progressive candidates are."
Rickies vs. Rookies
Will the new, 'improved' Eugene Celebration still
be of the people, by the people?
By Joseph A. Lieberman
Will giant parade puppets stimulate or stifle creativity? Could the anarchistic Rickies stage a surprise come-back or might they be replaced by Rookies? Will sponsorship by Centennial survive the Millennial?
The Eugene Celebration may still be months away (Sept. 15-17) but planning for it is a year-long process. As Eugene is unique, so the celebration is "uniquely Eugene," which, by the way, is the theme of this year's parade, Sept. 16.
But planning for a festival that is traditionally "of the people, by the people" is not without its hazards. Even back 2,000 years ago, as the protagonists in the Roman Coliseum knew all too well, one cannot always be certain what the people will favor and what they will condemn. There are those who look forward to recurrent events that are reliably amusing, while others thrive on the weird and unexpected novelties that pop up every year.
Case in point: The celebration itself was almost extinguished three years ago when the city decided it could no longer afford the festival. To save it, a group of volunteers, interested parties in business, education, and the arts, formed a board of directors to oversee a non-profit, privately funded association, Downtown Events Management, Inc. (DEMI).
Immediately a group of citizens cried, "foul!" If the city did not run the show, they argued, the corporate sponsors who fund the celebration would. Sure enough, each year since then, Eugene Celebration's logo has included the heading of Centennial Bank. In 1998, the new dial-up phone recording started off, "Welcome to Centennial Bank Eugene Celebration hotline brought to you by Rio Communications."
But what's all the fuss? asked the DEMI board. Art has had its patrons since before the church sponsored Michelangelo to do the Sistine Chapel. Don't people realize there wouldn't even be any celebration without these sponsors? They saved the festival from disappearing. Is any other charitable or citizen's group leaping forward to pay the significant bills?
Then last June (1999), into the fracas stepped Steve Remington, a 13-year veteran of events management with previous experience running the Saint Paul Winter Carnival (10 days with two parades televised to 2.5 million viewers), the da Vinci Days festival in Corvallis, and OMSI's special events in Portland.
Remington, now president of the DEMI board and managing director, was no stranger to debate, and in fact welcomed it as an indication that the event was of vital interest to the citizens it served. "I saw it as a positive thing," he says, "and it would create a stronger and better festival. There will continually be diversity of opinion and even controversy, but, hey, this is Eugene! The Celebration will always be, and should always be an object of critical review."
The questions Remington calls "worth asking" are these: How does a festival program amplify our local values and improve communications? How does it influence, or is it influenced by, a sense of community? Will it be remembered as important or frivolous, trendy or enduring?
When pressed on the issue of creeping commercialism, Remington has this response: "First of all, the Centennial Bank sponsorship was a three-year contract that will not likely be renewed. Both they and other sponsors such as Pepsi signed an agreement that they would not try to exert the least influence regarding Celebration content nor activities.
"When the city backed out," he says, "money was needed urgently and selling those sponsorships was the celebration's single most valuable material asset. However, and I want to be clear on this, a far more valuable non-material asset is the community's good will."
"The Eugene community is what dictates the success or failure of each year's event," Remington asserts. "They do this by their volunteerism, their participation, even simply by their attendance. My message to the public is this: Tell us what you want to see and do, and we at DEMI will do our best to guide you into making it reality."
There is, for example, a parade workshop set for Saturday, May 20 from 1 to 4:30 pm at the UO (details at end of article) coinciding with the Willamette Valley Folk Festival. Becky Sherrick, head of the Parade Committee's marketing program, says that there are seven new categories this year for parade units. That means seven new cash prize incentives for originality and imagination in addition to previous awards.
Sherrick explained, "When people take that first step and join us in the May 20 workshop, we will provide brainstorming and theme development sessions to add structure to their visions and ideas. We'll get into hands-on stuff that day such as resources, techniques and materials. We will also hold open meetings on costumes, floats, choreography, sound, performance and the like."
Another parade novelty this year is the addition of giant puppets designed by Michael Curry. Originally from Grants Pass, Curry lived in Eugene for about a year while contemplating college, then moved to New York, and finally returned to Oregon in 1999. His present home base is St. Helen's, just north of Portland, but his handiwork is in demand all over the world.
As to the puppets themselves, "They are awesome, bizarre and wonderful," says Sherrick, "and they are on free loan to us for the parade. Out of 50 or so puppets offered to us, we chose only eight, and for a good reason. What we really want is for Eugene people to use them as an inspirational jumping-off point, to try to outdo them with their own unique notions."
The same goes for home-grown mobile floats and costumes. There will be a further parade-entry development workshop on July 15 and a last minute session on Sept. 10. Parade entry fees remain unchanged at $50 for private or non-profit groups, and $250 for commercial ventures. At $100, an in-between category called Parade Partners encourages businesses to team up with non-profit organizations.
One missing parade element that cannot easily be replaced are the notorious Rickies. These masked and outrageous spoofers have been the annual wild card in nearly every Celebration procession, but this year they may deal an empty hand. Their several follow-up emulators, such as the Lucys, will likely make an entrance, but demand is high for the original masters of mockery.
Last year the Rickies announced their retirement from the proceedings for reasons known only to themselves. Not a few skeptics believe that even this is just a cunning ruse and the unpredictable Rickies will suddenly appear unannounced in some unprecedented guise. Because all their members remain anonymous, it is not easy to get a firm fix on this question.
Meanwhile, a plan was floated at DEMI by which a new parade unit called the Rookies might be initiated. Rookies would be encouraged to release their imaginations in true Ricky fashion. Opponents to the move contend, however, that no one can seriously expect to replace an anarchistic grassroots cabal with an official troupe created from the top down. The debate continues.
Meanwhile, the overall celebration theme has yet to be decided. Unlike previous years, however, this time several teams of college students are being given the chance to not only come up with a theme, but to plan an entire media blitz.
Kim Sheehan is a professor from the UO Journalism and Communications School. She will be leading "Advertising Campaigns," the final required class for advertising students at the journalism school for the spring term. The Eugene Celebration has agreed to participate as a client in the program.
The students first perform a situation analysis and conduct primary research. Next, they develop a creative media plan. The class will be divided into six groups, each creating its own ad campaign to present to the DEMI Marketing Committee.
The UO has previously lent its cheerleaders and large-scale fuzzy ducks to the parade line-up, but the journalism school connection is an escalation of their involvement. Steve Remington has hopes that others in Eugene will follow this trend.
Greater involvement is probably a given since the Eugene Celebration appears to be the most popular city event of the year. "Those past few years at DEMI, we were just trying to save the celebration," he says. "Button prices rose for a while, and that in turn affected attendance. Prices up, attendance down. But now prices have leveled off at $8, $7 in advance, and we hope to keep it there. And we are looking at further ways to offer senior discounts or other concessions in the future."
"Since we have the infrastructure set up, we can concentrate now on sustaining and improving within a manageable budget," Remington insists. "The overseeing of the celebration may have gone from public to non-profit private, but it made very little operational difference."
He pauses, thoughtful, and then weighs each of his next words with care: "The Eugene community is the real owner of this event. Together with DEMI, I serve that community just as the city did before us. But the true ownership, that has never changed. It is still of the people."
news
shorts
Flapping on Pisgah
Once again, art at the top of Mount Pisgah is in the news. Fresh
on the heels of the vandalism of the bronze sculpture atop the area's
highest hill, which sparked a debate about the appropriateness of art
in such a natural setting, a Eugene artist wants to bring her vision
for the new millennium to Pisgah's summit.
Millennium Clothesline, created by artist Sandra McMorris Johnson and sponsored by Lane Arts Council, is scheduled to appear at the summit of Pisgah, inside Buford Park. The project consists of 2,000 pieces of dyed cloth hung on lines from 200 poles, zigzagging 4,000 feet across the summit.
Johnson has been dying fabric with school children, and on June 10th the children will hang the cloth and make their wishes for the new millennium. The line will stand until June 18.
Johnson explained her vision to residents and asked where they would like to see the clothesline. "I told everyone I was thinking about along the river, or a hillside in Veneta or on Mount Pisgah." Johnson says the overwhelming public response was for Pisgah.
Local conservation groups are concerned, however, because the proposed area contains endangered upland prairie vegetation. The Native Plant Society of Oregon (NPSO) and Friends of Buford Park fear that 2,000 school kids walking from the path to the clothesline would damage these fragile grasses.
On April 15, NPSO sent a letter to Bob Keefer, head of Lane County Parks, who had given Johnson permission to go ahead with her project. The letter urged an alternative location for the project, such as Alton Baker Park.
The NPSO then conducted a botanical survey at the Pisgah summit and, on May 9, sent another letter to Keefer, restating their initial concerns and saying they had discovered a near-extinct grass species festuca roemeri at the site.
Chris Orsinger, executive director of the Friends of Buford Park, explained the rarity of this particular species. "There's less of this habitat left than of old-growth forests," he said, "The proposed location of the Millennium Clothesline would damage this rare remnant." He added that a project such as the Clothesline conflicts with the Buford Park Master Plan, drafted in 1994, which states that one of the goals of the park is to protect and restore degraded natural habitat.
Rhoda Love, spokesperson for the NPSO, met with Keefer and county Parks Superintendent Todd Winter on May 16. Love said the meeting was amicable, but that no compromise was reached and the project would proceed. Love said the NPSO would continue to oppose the project, and members are looking into whether issuing a permit for this project conflicts with the park's master plan.
Winter said that four decisions were made as a result of the May 16 meeting: the Millennium Clothesline would be a one-time only event; the parks department will consult with the nature community before issuing any future special-use permits that involve Pisgah; the current project will be more compact then previously planned; and the parks department and Johnson will ask for the NPSO's help in placing the poles.- MW
Police Harassment
The Eugene Police are under fire from citizens for their rough
handling of demonstrators, and the criticism isn't just coming from
radicals.
Howard Bonnett, a UO biology professor emeritus, director of a university research lab, chairman of the city's Budget Committee and past chairman of the city's Planning Commission, wrote a letter to the Eugene Police Commission and Human Rights Commission this month complaining of police harassment.
Bonnett and his 17-year-old son participated in a Critical Mass bike ride April 28 in support of alternative transportation. "I estimated there were over 20 officers, at least 10 on bicycles, and perhaps 30 [protest] riders," Bonnett wrote. "With the group of bicyclists surrounded by police and videotaped three times within the first few blocks, it appeared to me that the police presence was not to protect the rights of citizens to assemble and demonstrate, but rather to harass, intimidate, and criminalize."
Bonnett wrote that when he tried to object to the videotaping to an officer, "immediately I was surrounded by four or five officers and herded away from the camera." Later in the ride, Bonnett says he stopped to find out what was going on after several officers detained a rider. The police ordered Bonnett to step back and warned him that he had now gotten a second warning and would be arrested if he got a third. Fearing arrest, Bonnett said he decided to leave the protest. "Since I didn't know I had received any warnings, but was within one warning of my arrest, I felt I needed to get away as soon as possible; I could easily get a third warning without knowing it."
"My right to participate in a lawful gathering was abridged," Bonnett wrote. "My assessment of the situation was that there were many more police officers present than were needed to protect public safety or to assure the rights of citizens to gather and demonstrate. I conclude the officers were there to intimidate, harass, and break up, if they could, the group of riders."
Bonnett alleges that the police were out to provoke a confrontation with demonstrators. "The incessant videotaping is intimidating.... The tactics of the police were to enforce any infraction and submit everyone to intense surveillance. Everyone was criminalized. It is the worst kind of selective enforcement. Do our police follow automobile drivers for an hour, waiting until they roll through a stop sign, or stop too far into an intersection, or fail to signal before turning, or switch lanes without signaling? Maybe they would if they thought the driver was a criminal. Have you ever tried to bicycle, surrounded by police, all the time trying not to commit any misdeed or minor infraction?" - AP
$43,000 Spaces
While touting alternative transportation, the city of Eugene is
pouring millions of dollars into subsidizing car parking.
Over the past several decades, the city has built seven massive garages downtown holding spaces for 2,800 cars. Most recently, the city built a 742-car garage at Broadway Place for the Symantec corporation at a cost of $11 million.
Each garage space the city builds costs between $8,000 and $16,000, according to the city. Operating a garage costs the city about $50 per month per space. Combine those two costs with the cost of borrowing the money to build the garage, and the city would have to charge $150 to $180 per space per month just to break even on its garages, according to city staff. That's a cost of up to $43,000 for one parking space over 20 years.
Right now, the most the city charges for a parking space is $50 a month. The rest, about $4 million a year, is a taxpayer subsidy to people who are unwilling or unable to walk, bike, carpool or ride the bus. - AP
Hedging Bets
To big corporate interests, it doesn't matter who's elected,
they've bet on both horses in the race.
Forty-six Oregon companies and organizations have engaged in giving to both the Republican and Democratic leadership committees this election, according to the Portland-based Money in Politics Research Action Project.
"These contributors are covering all the bases so they will have access and influence regardless of election results," says Janice Thompson of the Action Project.
About one in five dollars that the state party committees collected were linked to double giving. Looking at all giving, Democrats got 42 percent of the donations and Republicans 58 percent. More than half of the money (63 percent) came from business interests.
The double giving in Oregon mirrors a similar trend in congressional elections. The securities and investment industry is the biggest double giver followed by the insurance and computer industries. - AP
Dramatic Changes
In the wake of the public outcry over the censorship imposed on
Encore Theatre, a couple of local churches are reaching out to the
group. First United Methodist Church had a successful performance
recently, and at 7:30 pm Sunday, May 21, the Unitarian Universalist
Church will host a show. Next year, Encore plans a middle and high
school show that will tour all over state, and each elementary school
performance will also include a workshop at night.
Lord Leebrick Theatre Company has finally made up its MAD mind. The new managing artistic director is Corey Pearlstein, founder and artistic director of the Massachusetts based Tabula Rasa Theatre Company. The young, enthusiastic, East Coaster has 10 years of theater management, directing, fund-raising and PR under his belt. His duties begin Aug. 1 Current Artistic Director Randy Lord will remain involved with the company's Impact Theatre, which works with youth. - AS
Corrections/Clarifications
Last week's cover story, "Learning About Education," included
incorrect information on the status of the Center for Appropriate
Transport. CAT has not operated as a charter school for several
years, but instead is a private alternative education program that
contracts with local school districts.
Also, the reference to the Village School's alleged "questionable business practices" should have read "concerns about the school's lack of prior financial history." Several issues led to School District 4J's rejection of the charter proposal, including school organizers' refusal to submit to credit checks and their unwillingness to allow their proposed charter to change to accommodate future School District 4J policy changes. The school board granted waivers on both issues at its May 10 meeting. See this week's Letters. EW regrets the errors.
Early Deadlines
Memorial Day is coming up Monday, May 29, and EW's offices will be
closed. Early deadline for the June 1 issue are: Calendar is noon
Wednesday, May 24, classified and display advertising is 5 pm
Thursday, May 25. Questions? Call 484-0519.
Happenin'
Person
Jill Board
During the 1998-'99 school year, faculty at Springfield's
Riverbend Elementary identified achievement in mathematics as a
"building goal." Veteran teacher Jill Board, a newcomer to Riverbend,
had spent the preceding year traveling throughout Oregon to introduce
teachers to curriculum materials developed by the Math Learning
Center in Salem. "We use a hands-on, visual approach to math, with
lots of objects: tiles, cubes, and measuring instruments," she
explains. "Kids develop deep understanding and become proficient at
solving problems." Last November, when the Disney Learning
Partnership announced grants to foster innovative teaching at 32
schools nationwide, Riverbend made the list. "Our kids are
enthusiastic about math," reports Board, who teamed with teacher
Kathy Caulley and Principal Julie DePauw to write the grant
application. "We have math clubs that extend what we do in class - as
many as 65 second- and third-graders come to weekly after-school
meetings." In August, Riverbend will host a summer institute (two
one-week sessions) for kids to explore math and for teachers and
administrators from around the state to observe and work on
strategies. -Paul Neevel
Happenin'
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out
Protecting Innocence
Lesbians and gay men often endure
bizarre stints in the closet to adopt or keep custody of their
kids.
Protect innocent children by passing legislation that prevents
unwed couples and homosexuals from adopting.
- Concerned Women for America
"Ladies and Jemmamen," Jodie stretches out her arms to their full four-year-old span. "Now preee-zenting, theeeee amazing, Jodie Na Aliya Martin-Schindler!" E. and I love being the aunties who encourage Jodie's theatrical inclinations. We drove 300 miles to be here for her birthday party, to meet the new baby and visit our old friends. At the moment, while her new little sister naps and her moms are out in the garage secretly gift wrapping her new purple birthday bike, she has us all to herself.
We ooh and aah when Jodie makes her sequined entrance from behind the guest room door. With heart-clutching dramatics and an occasional twirl, this show, not unlike the five just preceding it, ends with her loud "Ta-da!" and a deep bow, our cue to cheer and applaud some more. Then she shushes us to introduce her next performance. "Ladies and Jemmamen ..."
It's been more than three years since Faith and Darlene brought her home from China, and seven months since they came back with little Sadie. Even though Chinese orphanages are overflowing with unwanted baby girls, our friends still had to pretend they were two single women, not lesbians, so they could adopt. They managed to pass themselves off as friends, although I'm sure no bigger, prouder, more non-straight looking dykes ever strolled the streets of Beijing. Lesbian invisibility: a worldwide phenomenon.
On the other hand, lesbians and gay men usually have to endure bizarre and sometimes life-long stints in the closet to adopt or keep custody of their kids. It's sad and silly that Faith and Darlene couldn't let the pre-adoption inspectors see their real home, with two parents ready to embrace and nurture these rescued babies. The only way they could qualify for each child was for the non-adopting mom to move out of the house, hide the family photos, and pull all the lesbian titles from their book shelves, literally "straighten up the house." Even the framed cross-stitched samplers, one with each of their initials entwined with ivy and flowers, had to be taken down and stashed in the bottom drawer.
These two women had been wanting to be parents for so long they were willing to do anything, even sign the affidavits swearing they weren't lesbians. It is always painful to renounce your identity, but they did what they had to. Now they finally have the family they've always wanted. I am exhausted just watching them do all the nose-blowing, changing, wiping, picking up, explaining and consoling that is parenthood. I know I'm not mommie material. I can barely remember to refill the dog food bowl. If the cat cries, I throw her outside. We aren't cut out for parenthood, but we love our friends' kids. Faith and Darlene have patience way beyond any I can imagine.
The children are eventually bathed, snapped into their jammies, rocked and read to and tucked into bed. Now the grown ups can settle down for some mature conversation Which hot lesbian topic will we catch up on first? Our friends have a one track mind, "Let's go look at the kids!" We willingly follow the proud moms into the bedroom to see how sweet their girls look asleep. In the amber glow of the Pooh night light we can also see how happy, even though tired, Faith and Darlene are.
At last we grownups settle back and, with hushed voices, talk long into the night. Our gabfest is interrupted by what I at first think is a screeching tea kettle, but turns out to be Jodie's plaintive wail from the kids' room. Both parents kick into action. Something she ate, maybe the fresh strawberries, has caused her to break out in hives and spike a fever. Faith runs a bath while Darlene calls the naturopath. Miserable and sleepy, Jodie hangs limp while Faith lifts her into the soothing oatmeal soak. Darlene doses her with the remedy from the child-proofed medicine cabinet. It's stunning to see these two moms work their magic.
By morning all is well and we hear the kids' giggles spilling out of the kitchen. Jodie is smearing bright blue finger paint all over her art paper, Sadie's high chair tray, and Sadie. While the kids are happily occupied, Faith does the breakfast dishes and Darlene folds laundry.
You might think our legislators would be launching a full force recruiting blitz to find loving homes like this for all the unwanted, abandoned and orphaned little children of the world. No such luck. So far three U.S. states - Florida, Utah, and most recently Mississippi - have passed laws banning same sex couples from adopting. They call it protecting the innocent.
Sally Sheklow has been a part of the Eugene community since 1972 and is a member of the WYMPROV! comedy troupe.
letters
Pelvic Priesthood
Eugene Weekly typifies the collapse of the ideals of the
liberal/progressive movement into the wreckage of personal
gratification of the sexual entitlements. You claim not to accept
sexual advertising. The abortion work and lesbian monologue of Shelly
Sheklow is sexual advertising incarnate.
The U.S. inflicts upon an impoverished and poisoned world a demented militarism, unusually cruel war-making and insane materialism with its rampant environmental devastation, largely without protest because the liberal progressive movement has substituted the selfishness of sexualism for true political activism.
Eugene Weekly champions the falsehood that morality is synonymous with hate and sexual entitlement with selfless service. Just the opposite is closer to the truth. Morality informed by conscience is active compassion, and social service of lasting value is never about sexual or material gratification. Regardless of changing customs, all sexuality is inveterately self-centered, and selfishness is the cause and not the solution to human suffering.
You have surrendered the ideals of pacifism and material simplicity to follow the pelvic priesthood. In the service of an open dialogue, I challenge you to print the enclosed essay, "Autodeism, Hefnerism and the Pelvic Priesthood" albeit heresy, against cults of personal gratification which you so slavishly admire, or share this article's address: www.winfinity.com/beachwalla/adh.htm
Meredith Starr
Mapleton
Take Back the Night
In a society where one in three women will be raped in their
lifetime, something must change. In a society where rape myths are
still firmly believed, there is a need for education. In a society
where every six minutes a woman is raped, there is a need for action.
Rape is any unwanted sexual intercourse. Rape is about power and violence. A survivor is never at fault for a rape; in rape, the fault lies only within the rapist and a society which perpetuates rape culture. An estimated 80-88 percent of rapes are date and acquaintance rape. Date and acquaintance rape are also violence, NOT a difference of opinion. No always means no, and silence does not imply consent. We must all educate ourselves about rape and sexual assault, and then take action to bring about change. For, in one way or another, sexual violence affects us all.
May is Sexual Assault Awareness Month - 31 days in which we can focus our efforts on sexual assault education, prevention, awareness and activism. The Take Back the Night March takes place during this month. This year is the 22nd anniversary of the march, which has come to symbolize women protesting all forms of oppression, but rape and sexual assault in particular. It is a time for women to walk through the streets of Eugene; one night without fear, protest violence and make their voices heard.
Take Back the Night begins at 7 pm Thursday, May 18 at the UO's EMU Amphitheater, with a rally and then a march to the East Park Block at 8th and Oak, where there will be a Speak Out. To the women and men of Eugene, please come and share your voices.
Heather Mitchell
UO student
Getting Up To Speed
Thanks for the article "Learning about Education" (5/11). It is a
tough job trying to catch up on a subject, in one article, that the
rest of the country has been debating for years. The reality is that
the District 4-J community has been ahead on the internal school
choice curve for years but is just now getting up to speed on the
independent school choice question.
Despite what many in our community may be led to believe, charter schools and independent schools come from all directions. From the left and the right, from rich and poor, from secular to non-secular, nationwide these schools represent a diversity of people.
We need to embrace the discussion on school choice. Eugene Weekly has started the process. Perhaps KLCC's Critical Mass will be next. It takes courage to open-mindedly examine these issues. May we do it with compassion and understanding, for the sake of the district, for the parents and others who are presenting the proposals and for the youth in our community.
Jan VanderTuin
Center for Appropriate Transport
Red Meat Lives
A couple of months ago, Eugene Weekly dropped the comic strip "Red
Meat" from its pages following several criticisms of the strip's
content. In return, the EW received more complaints for dropping a
comic that, for some readers, was one of their favorite parts of the
publication.
Red Meat fans take heart. The Oregon Commentator, UO's largest campus magazine, has picked up the comic strip, starting with the April 28th issue. The magazine is published biweekly during the academic year and can be found on and around the university campus. We hope to delight Red Meat fans with two strips per issue, as well as with news and commentary within the pages of the magazine.
Ben Nahorney, news editor
Oregon Commentator
It's Just Hormones
Lois Wadsworth closes her review of American Psycho with a
concern that the movie's murders ("grisly gorefests") "... increase
women's fear of physically more powerful men ..." Women need to be
afraid, according to Ms. Wadsworth, because the movie's images
"enflame the worst instincts of young males high on testosterone."
Oh, Please!
A simple explanation of some rudimentary biological facts may help quell some of the anxiety. Simply stated, young boys, and old men for that matter, get no more high on testosterone than young girls, and old women for that matter, get high on estrogen. It's a hormone, damn it, not crack cocaine.
Lois sounds like one of those pre-backlash feminists who approach all male behavior as inspired by Satan who fills their bodies with nasty fluids as potent, dangerous and toxic as plutonium. Get a grip, Lois, testosterone is just another human hormone both men and women produce. Perhaps, Ms. Wadsworth was hyped-up on some of her own testosterone when she wrote her heavy handed review. You've got to watch out for that stuff, you know!
Jack Robert
Eugene
An Essential Shift
Martin Luther King was quite correct: "The choice humanity faces
is between non-violence and non-existence." This means that the task
of survival is huge since all the major heads of state are on the
side of non-existence as are soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines,
cops, violent criminals, most politicians and most men. Add to this
the environmental threat from greed, overpopulation and carelessness
and the task seems impossible.
The good news is that those of us committed to real positive change just may be able to assemble the moral and intellectual courage needed to cause the basic changes that will insure survival, sustainability and real progress. The other good news is that real science is on our side (as opposed to the corrupted junk science which is driven by corporate and political greed).
Once government divests itself of its brutal compulsion to inflict pain and injustice on its dissidents then it will become worthy of being embraced by all of the people and once you have given the truth a hearty bear hug then the warped lies of greed, brutality and violence will exit from your being at the speed of light. If we are able to achieve the shift from official violence to official nonviolence in the world's major powers, we will not only have achieved the survival of human civilization, we will have achieved a revolution of such scope that it will shrink all previous "revolutions" to the status of little blips. And today's horror show will have been stopped forever because we will have given our savior, the truth, a bear hug.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
Outrageous Demands
The Village School was completely misrepresented in last week's
article ("Learning About Education," 5/11). The Village School was
not turned down "allegedly because of questionable business
practices." The school was turned down because we wouldn't bow to the
outrageous policy demands of 4J. The statements made about the school
lend entirely the wrong impression of our struggle to activate our
charter.
The Village School chose not to submit to five of the onerous policies 4J created for charter schools. We understood that taking this stance would lead to a review of the school's case by the state Department of Education. The board of directors of The Village School should be commended for their strength in standing up for the rights of students and families to choose charter schools, not dismissed with unfounded inaccuracy. The writer of this article never contacted The Village School for confirmation or denial of the assertions made. We would have been able to tell this journalist that since we applied to the state for sponsorship (as the Charter law specifies), two of the questionable policies have been removed from the demands 4J places upon emerging charter schools.
The school continues to hold a positive attitude and a pioneering place as the first school in the state to submit an appeal to the Department of Education, which is an action that defines a great deal of state policy regarding charter schools. So much ground-breaking work in the induction of charter schools to our state has happened right here in Eugene, we hope that the Weekly might one day decide to tell the whole story.
Sally Bigongiari,
executive director
Mary Kate Edmonston,
president, board of directors
EDITOR'S NOTE:
See Corrections/Clarifications on page 7.
Original Anarchist
Jesus the Christ or Jesus the black was an original anarchist of
color. I am fully aware of Eugene's anarchist scene. I have even
volunteered my band's services and political message to certain
factions in this so called liberal town , i.e. a benefit for Food Not
Bombs and for tree sitters in Warner Creek. Each time I believe it
was met with some serious thank-you but no thank-you attitude. I have
volunteered my services even to the point of initiation for
environmental racism at UO for free; Autism Rocks for free; a Lou
Gherig's benefit for Lem Robinson for free, etc.
I face racism daily in Eugene from people I know personally to strangers. Who should be ashamed of themselves for their thoughts and actions?
Recently I read an article in the student Insurgent that applies to Eugene's anarchist scene written by a NewAfrikan anarchist prisoner currently in prison in Michigan. He is Ali Khalid Abdullah and I quote his letter: "Why are people claiming to be anarchist or anti-authority and yet are living segregated lives away from people who are daily abused by the very governmental and societal systems that we claim to hate?"
There is a problem here. Jesus Christ was black, not light skinned. Oh by the way, who is a Christian?
Ras Baraka of Jahkuumba
Eugene
Tough Luck
I lived on Gilham North of Ayres Road, just up the road from
Eugene Sand & Gravel.
1. I traveled several times a day up and down North Delta. The hoods and the windshields of all three of the cars that I owned while living there were pitted from being hit by rocks and gravel. One time when I had a particularly big chip out of my window from a rock off one of their trucks, I went to them and they basically told me "tough luck."
2. I know many people that live just east of North Delta and they all complain about the dust in their home from Eugene Sand and Gravel.
3. Many homes and farms that were near Delta Sand and Gravel had their wells go dry because the deep pits just drained the water from their wells.
4. The noise sounds like a train going by, but it keeps on going on and on and on in the middle of the night!
5. After they dig these pits, they fill them with all sorts of trash. They become disposal sights with no over-sight as to what they are being filled with.
Margaret C. Waite
Eugene
Insightful Poetry
I enjoyed your story about poetry in performance (4/13), and am
pleased to see that the art form is alive and well in Eugene.
Readers who appreciate poetry, and who in particular want to explore its possibilities as a performance medium, will enjoy our free performance of poetry at the Eugene Library at 11 am June 29. The program consists of poems written by kids, some of which are amazingly insightful. (Or perhaps it isn't so amazing since kids have not yet learned to rein in their imaginations.)
We present these poems in a unique performance idiom that we have developed performing stories for the past 12 years. It incorporates a number of media including music and dance, sign language, physical comedy, zany props and even a bit of contortion. It's about as far removed as possible from the stereotypical "stuffy" poetry reading. Check it out!
Dennis Goza
www.activated-storytellers.com
Poor Judgment
Here is something you don't see everyday. An ad inviting gay, trans,
bi men from all walks of life to an interactive forum. Something I
would expect to find in say the Village Voice? How did this ad end up
occupying 1/6 of page 20 of the May 11th issue? My 8-year-old son
picks up the Weekly to check the What's Happening Calendar.
Please use better judgment in the future. An alternative lifestyle is one thing, we should not rub our children's faces into it (no pun intended). Shame on the Unitarian Church for letting the event take place on their property.
Ernst Bursofsky
Eugene
LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics and will print as many as space allows. Please limit length to 250 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. E-mail to editor@eugeneweekly.com, fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
