Election Coverage | David Brower Dies | Workers Vulnerable | South of the Border Happening People: Carol de la Cruz, Springfield Toastmasters president. Morsels: Food news. Election Coverage Where's all the election news in EW this week? Due to the timing of the election, EW and many other weeklies who print on Wednesday are caught in the middle. Our paper comes out after the election, but our deadlines are before the election. Watch for election follow-up stories, letters and commentary in next week's issue. David Brower Dies Visionary environmentalist David Brower died Nov. 5 at his home in Berkeley, Calif., at the age of 88. "He was an indefatigable champion of every worthwhile effort to protect the environment over the last seven decades," says a statement from Ralph Nader. "His death is a tremendous loss." Brower founded Friends of the Earth along with the League of Conservation Voters. He also initiated the founding of Friends of the Earth organizations throughout the world, and was a perennial keynote speaker at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the UO each spring. Brower took a leadership role in developing national parks and seashores in King Canyon, the North Cascades, the Redwoods, Great Basin, Alaska, Cape Cod, Fire Island and Point Reyes. Brower also led the way in protecting primeval forest in Olympic National Park and wilderness on San Gorgonio. "The list of his accomplishments fill chapters in the history of the world's environmental movements," says Nader. "Future generations will be the major beneficiaries of his willingness to take up the tough battles for the preservation of the Earth. The environmental movement has lost a champion, and I have lost a dear and valued friend." Brower was considered a catalyst for transforming the once-non-political hiking group called the Sierra Club into an major player on national and global environmental issues. Jay Watson, western regional director of The Wilderness Society, was quoted in the San Francisco Examiner as saying, "America and the American wilderness would be a very different place today without David Brower. There would be less wilderness, more dams on our wild rivers and fewer people to care about our environment and willing to work to make a difference." Brower took to backpacking and mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada mountains as a young man and reportedly lost his job as a candy factory clerk for too-often returning late from wilderness trips. He was hired by Yosemite National Park and became the park's publicist. Later, he served with valor in combat in World War II. He returned to serve on the Sierra Club board and later became the club's executive director, leading battles to protect the environment in the U.S. and around the world. -- TJT Workers Vulnerable A lengthy study of farmworkers in Oregon by the League of Women Voters ("Exploited Workers?" EW, Nov. 2) calls for public education, dialogue, collaboration of services and other broad-based solutions to complex problems. Those problems include exploitation of workers and illegal activities that have persisted throughout the system for generations. The findings will be available soon on the web at www.open.org/lwvor and a 24-page booklet can be ordered for a small fee by calling the League at (503) 581-5722. The report is filled with information: history, statistics, relevant laws and their enforcement, agencies, economics, and case studies. The findings include: * Most farmworkers are Hispanic and many are undocumented residents. * Language and cultural differences and immigrant status make farmworkers on some farms vulnerable to exploitation, and at the same time, farmers are vulnerable to the loss of workers at critical harvest times. * The globalized market for agriculture lowers many commodity prices, sometimes making prices for Oregon farmers lower than production costs. * Farmworkers face state and federal employment laws that are different from other workers, and compliance and enforcement are uneven. * The search for solutions has become highly politicized with little constructive dialogue between farmer organizations and farmworker advocates. A stalemate exists regarding collective bargaining rights. * A serious shortage of decent and affordable housing for farmworkers also persists. Farmers resist providing housing due to costs and regulations. * Lawmakers and citizens need to better understand the complexity of farmworker issues, and service providers need to collaborate and find more "culturally effective models." * Consumers must recognize that "cheap food" does not support a viable state agriculture and just treatment of workers. -- TJT South of the Border Eugene has two events coming up regarding social and political justice south of the border. John Ross, an investigative journalist working in Mexico, will speak here twice Tuesday, Nov. 14, on the topic of Chiapas. The following day, Wednesday, is a protest and national day of action against the School of the Americas (SOA) and militarization in Latin America. Since 1995, the Mexican government has reportedly been waging a low-intensity war against Indian communities supporting the Zapatistas in Chiapas. In early December, a newly elected president and a new Chiapas governor will take office, committed to a negotiated resolution of the issues with the Zapatistas. Ross will be providing an update on this situation at his talks Tuesday. He is on a tour to promote his new book, The War against Oblivion: Zapatista Chronicles, 1994-2000, and will speak at 3:30 pm in 100 Willamette on the UO campus, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Committee, and at 7 pm at Central Presbyterian Church, 15th and Ferry, sponsored by CISCAP (Committee in Solidarity with the Central American People). For further information, call CISCAP at 485-8633. Wednesday, a group of local citizens will join thousands of others in a nonviolent protest and mass civil disobedience action from 4:30 to 5:30 pm at the Federal Building at 7th and Pearl streets. The SOA, located a Ft. Benning, Ga., is a combat training school for the Latin American military. Many of Latin America's dictators in recent decades have been trained at the school, learning commando tactics, military intelligence, psychological operations and other civilian-targeted warfare. November marks the anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 15-year-old daughter in El Salvador. The United Nations Truth Commission report cited 26 officers responsible for the massacre. Nineteen of the officer cited were graduates of the School of the Americas. For more information, call PeaceWorks at 342-1953. -- TJT Quote of the Week "What's wrong with the two-party system is not that there are only two parties. What's wrong is that ours is a middle-class party system that leaves out a host of programmatic alternatives and choices, and correspondingly demobilizes millions of citizens. Electoral laws protect the two parties, but that's not the only reason electoral competition is generally so limited and limiting. Part of the reason is that the politics of solidarity in society is not as strong as it could be. Another part of the reason is that we wait for presidential years to notice and resist the two-party oligarchy. Invigorating democracy will take daily work, either to build alternative electoral institutions or to force democratization of one of the two parties." -- Gwendolyn Mink, professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz Early Deadlines Eugene Weekly will be closed Thursday and Friday, Nov. 23-24 for the Thanksgiving holiday, and deadlines for two issues will be effected. The paper will publish on Wednesday, Nov. 22. Early Calendar deadlines will be noon Wednesday, Nov. 15 for the Nov. 22 issue and noon Tuesday, Nov. 21 for the Nov. 30 issue. Advertising deadlines will be 5 pm Thursday, Nov. 16 for the Nov. 22 issue and 5 pm Wednesday, Nov. 22 for the Nov. 30 issue. For more information, call 484-0519. Back to Top Carol de la Cruz After graduation from OSU, Tigard native Carol de la Cruz taught high-school social studies for six years in La Center, Wash. When her husband Adelmo's job with Bonneville Power brought the couple south to Goshen in 1997, they settled in nearby Springfield. "It seemed like a good time to leave my job," de la Cruz says. "Now I'm a stay-at-home mom. Our son Peter is two and a half and our daughter Marina is one -- we adopted them through the Holt agency." To fill some of the void she felt when she left teaching, de la Cruz joined the Springfield Toastmasters Club in 1998. Toastmasters offers members a weekly opportunity to exercise their public-speaking skills in a supportive environment. de la Cruz now serves as president of the Springfield club. Last weekend she took top honors in a District 7 (statewide) impromptu-speaking competition. "Carol has a natural flair for storytelling," says club past-president Ruth Linoz. "She's one of the most enthusiastic people I've met," adds 15-year member Bart McKee. Find out more about Toastmasters at www.d7toastmasters.org -- Paul Neevel Happenin' People Archives Nominate A Happenin' Person Morsels * Eugene has to say a sad goodbye to yet another institution of live music. After 50 years, The Vet's Club permanently closes its doors on Dec. 15. And there's no last bash since all music between now and then has been canceled. * Finally, from the mouth of the creator himself, David Niles' much rumored raw foods restaurant is scheduled to open by the end of this month inside the Red Barn. The former UO bicycle coordinator and owner of the conspicuous six-person bicycle taxi, says that he'll be serving food to the public on Thursdays while trying to build a food prescription service. 465-1179 for more information. * Eugene isn't just for coffee drinkers anymore. Savouré, promising to "sell and serve over 50 varieties of loose-leaf teas from Asia, India and Africa," opens on Nov. 24 at 201 West Broadway. * Mazzi's Italian Sicilian Restaurant celebrates their 30th anniversary this week. They'll celebrate by serving some new recipes from Mama Mazzi's cookbook, donating 50 percent of their proceeds on Nov. 9 to social service agencies serving Lane County youth and holding a wine and cheese tasting from 5 to 7 pm Nov. 13. -- JS If you'd like to chat about food in Eugene, send your morsels to cal@eugeneweekly.com, 484-0519, ext. 26 or 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401. Table of Contents | News & Views | Arts & Entertainment Classifieds | Personals | EW Archive