Insider Baseball: Pulling Rabbits: It's one thing to say you support a program, quite another to support the funding. Living Out: Lesbian Tendencies: Could the Mystic Oracle have made a mistake? Letters: EW readers sound off. Pulling Rabbits It's one thing to say you support a program, quite another to support the funding. Advocates for seniors and the disabled stormed the state capitol last week, held a rally on the steps and demanded more funding for Project Independence, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes. Several Republican leaders spoke to the crowd and promised that their programs would be included in the budget, even if the governor had chosen to fund education and early intervention programs for children instead. They didn't say exactly how they were going to fund these programs, and of course they insisted they would not raise taxes to fund these programs. But, as far as I know, we don't have our own mint here in Oregon to print more money, so I wasn't quite sure what they had in mind. In our senate caucus later, some of our members were grousing about the fact that the governor had made the Democrats look like the bad guys in this debate over limited general fund resources. And, more importantly, that he let the Republicans capture an issue -- funding senior and disabled programs -- that has long been a Democrat issue. Then one of the old-timers in our caucus pointed out that this controversy is "insider baseball." By the time May rolls around and the budgets are finalized, no one will remember the false promises on the Capitol steps, no one pays attention to what we do in Salem anyway until they see an end-of-session budget. The public doesn't care; the media won't report it, that's insider baseball. I disagree. I think the public wants to know how the Republicans will fund all the programs that currently exist and live up to their promises to deal with early childhood intervention and education problems. It's one thing to say you support a program, quite another to support the funding. You see, when those Republicans were standing on the Capitol steps, they forgot to mention to those senior and disabled advocates that Republican leaders in the Oregon House and Senate last session pushed a $188 million tax cut referral, Measure 88, that passed last November. They didn't mention that the only people who benefited from that tax cut were taxpayers who earned enough to be paying more than $3,000 a year in federal income tax! In other words, they gave a tax break only to families whose income exceeded $50,000 a year. Seniors on social security and a small pension, disabled people on SSI, and the working poor didn't see a penny of that tax break. Every program cut they cared about could have been restored with that revenue. So, you might ask yourself, how would they pull a rabbit out of the budget hat? Ahah, the answer came several days later. The Republican leadership announced that there was actually too much money in the budget for education! The governor's budget has been out for quite a while now, and two weeks ago the Republicans were all over the press saying they thought the budget was just fine; the numbers for education funding were just fine. And then, oops, they just discovered there was $100 million extra in education because they "over-calculated the current service level" -- whatever the hell that means -- and gee golly, we now have enough money to fund those other programs! I thought maybe I'd give those "School Funding Now" coalition folks a call and see if they were going to come up anytime soon to the Capitol and let us know that they agreed we had $100 million too much in their budget. I mean, the phone hasn't exactly been ringing off the hook at my office from any of my 14 school superintendents wanting to send back money! If I were an education supporter out there in the community, I'd be asking what the hell's going on right now. I'd also like to know why we are even thinking about creating a new higher ed campus -- coincidentally located in the backyard of the Ways and Means co-chair from Bend -- at the same time we're threatening to increase in-state tuition by 10 percent? Anyway, I don't think this stuff is insider baseball at all, it's important. Have you read about this in The Register-Guard or The Oregonian? Of course not, it doesn't sell papers. Coming up next in the Senate Democratic caucus: Seven of Salem's senators are from Venus and seven are from Mars. Hear details on Democratic diversity and intergalactic communications in 2001. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove represents portions of Lane and Douglas counties in Senate District 22. He can be reached in Salem at (503) 986-1722 or e-mail corcoran.sen@state.or.us This is his second in a series of commentaries during the legislative session. Lesbian Tendencies Could the Mystic Oracle have made a mistake? Helen and I sat cross-legged on my bedroom rug, the Ouija board balanced on our knees. She wouldn't be called home for hours, and my parents were out at my brother's Little League game. Now that the two of us were alone, I could get serious. I had a question I couldn't trust with my eighth-grade crowd. At Teri's slumber party the night before, my new Ouija board had been a big hit. Since it was my board, I told them it would only work if I summoned the Ouija spirit. They took turns sitting across from me and followed the instructions I read from the accompanying booklet: Place your fingertips on the planchette and empty your mind of everything but your question. They obediently set their fingers on the flat, heart-shaped little table and stared at its quarter-sized window. The others leaned in. Candle shadows danced on their gullible faces. Each asked some version of the predictable "Who will I marry?" I pretended to slip into a trance, then spelled out names of the dorkiest boys in school. Helen wasn't in junior high yet and would probably never join the slumber party circuit anyway. She was different. She was still a tomboy and she didn't gossip. She was the star pitcher of our neighborhood, always first-picked for the games we played in the vacant lot between our houses. Little League was stupid not to allow girls on their teams. One time behind her house, we'd solemnly nicked our pinkies with a fishhook, pressed our fingers together and vowed to be blood sisters forever. I trusted Helen. She wasn't silly or boy crazy. Tonight I had a serious question and she agreed to help me get the answer. "Do you swear you won't move it on purpose?" Helen dragged her finger in the shape of an X over where her breast bud made a tiny swell in her T-shirt. She held up her palm and looked straight at me, "Cross my heart and hope to die stick a needle in my eye." "Me, too," I swore. Helen rested her slender fingers opposite my chubby ones and lowered her eyes. Sweet smoke ribboned from a sandalwood incense stick. Our breathing made the only sound in the room. I emptied my mind of everything except my question. My knees felt warm where they pressed against Helen's worn jeans, but I tried not to focus on that. "Ouija, are you with us?" The planchette quivered under our fingers, then slowly made a tiny circle. Another few circles and it glided across the board to YES. I knew I wasn't directing it and Helen was good for her word. It must really be working. "Ouija, who else is here?" The little table slid to the H and circled there, then zeroed in on the S. "Go ahead and ask your question," Helen coaxed. She probably didn't have as much faith in the Ouija board as I did, but she was willing and trustworthy. She didn't know yet what was bothering me. Had she heard the talk from older kids, too? I'd even overheard my mom's psychiatrist friend mention it. I was determined to find out if it applied to me. The words of my question paraded like ticker tape behind my eyes. It was now or never. "Do I have lesbian tendencies?" I stared at the glossy surface of the Ouija board to avoid seeing any reaction Helen might have had. The plastic ledge where my fingers rested felt warm and smooth. Then Ouija jerked into action. It pulled our hands into rhythmic circles at the center of the board. The circles got bigger and faster. We rocked forward and back in time with our circling hands. The planchette spiraled round and round, its widening orbit brushing equally close to YES and NO. I glanced up to make sure Helen wasn't messing with me. Her head was bowed in deep concentration. What exactly were Lesbian Tendencies? My mom's friend had said a lot of people had them, but I didn't know anyone who went around saying so. I was pretty sure it had to do with the teasing remarks about tomboys, and girls' obsession with being feminine. It had something to do with boys too, and how we weren't supposed to hate them any more, now that we were teenagers. Having brothers made that tough, though. Suddenly the planchette stopped circling and shot directly over to YES. I waited for it to move again but it just stayed there. A jumble of feelings spilled over me. I was shocked, embarrassed, relieved. I realized that I had hoped to rule out the possibility, not prove it. Yet I felt elevated somehow, lifted above "boys play ball, girls like boys." Helen's calm face showed no signs of disapproval. Her knees pressed hotly into mine. My head swirled. Could the Mystic Oracle have made a mistake? "Are you sure?" Immediately, Ouija swept our hands to the bottom of the board. "Good-Bye." Sally Sheklow has been a part of the Eugene community since 1972 and is a member of the WYMPROV! comedy troupe. Her column, which began in EW, also runs in several other newspapers around the country. Back to Top Budget Busting Eugene Police Chief Jim Hill's recent announcement that he's abandoning community policing seems more like a budget-busting tactic than sound public policy decision making. Although the police services budget has nearly doubled since 1991, and the serious crime rate has declined 3 percent, Hill suggests he needs yet more money to implement the widely popular community program. Even though community policing has a goal of reducing crime, and at the same time reducing cost, old-guard officers apparently believe the program is soft on crime and is primarily social work. The strong-arm approach of law enforcement that entrenched public safety personnel seem to favor has already proved to be a disaster in community relations. We believe that intimidation and harassment are all too common in Eugene law enforcement, and the exercise of authority is not balanced by attempts at problem solving. The resulting alienation between police and the community reduces the safety of all. Hill's enthusiasm for New York style zero tolerance policing suggests that he looks forward to further conflict between citizens and police. The lack of responsiveness by the EPD and the city Government to citizens concerns has led to the formation of the INDEPENDENT Police Review Project (IPRP). As a citizen group, independent of government influence, the IPRP will monitor city law enforcement policy and seek to implement objective citizen police review. Randy Gicker & Sherry Franzen for IPRP Woof Woof! ONRC would like to respond to last week's "news brief" on President Clinton's roadless policy titled, "Lapdog Behavior." Of particular concern was an opinion stating the roadless policy does little or nothing to protect our public lands. On Jan. 12, the Forest Service Roadless Area Conservation Policy was entered into the Federal Register after a public process involving two million Americans. Due to the unprecedented amount of public participation, this policy, which increases protection for 58.5 million acres of our National Forests (1.9 million in Oregon) by barring road building, commercial logging, and new oil and gas leasing, was improved greatly since the draft release. Changes include the immediate addition of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, and a prohibition on commercial logging operations. Though the policy does not completely eliminate tree cutting, the few exceptions became more clearly defined and limited to only small diameter trees through the public process. For the above reasons, hundreds of grassroots, regional, and national conservation organizations laud the policy as amongst the greatest conservation accomplishments of the century. If this policy does nothing to protect public lands, then why did President Bush suspend its implementation within an hour of his inauguration? Why are timber and industry-backed officials like Representative Jim Hansen (R-UT) and Senators Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Larry Craig (R-ID) advocating its demise through early congressional action? Why are groups like the Blue Ribbon Coalition, People for the USA, and other anti-wilderness, property-rights groups suing to overturn it? Hmm. We wonder. Susan Ash Oregon Natural Resources Council Portland Divided Greens How tragic that just as they were gaining unprecedented power, the Greens right here in Eugene got caught in a vicious cycle of name-calling and character assassination. This public airing of dirty laundry is self-defeating by robbing the movement of energy and alienating potential supporters. Will the Greens be divided and conquered as activists on both sides become more entrenched in their positions, or will we learn some important lessons and be strengthened in our efforts to protect the environment and improve society? Debate needs to occur, but hopefully result in a consensus strategy that will achieve successful results. It is necessary in a democracy that people feel free to take controversial stands without their basic character being subjected to attack. Very nasty personal attacks such as happened to Spruce Houser during these last few intense months should never have occurred. The Greens never had an opportunity like this before, and it would be a shame if we blow it because we are too immature to understand some basic truths: A wide variety of ideas and strategies will strengthen a movement. Diversity is needed -- without it, our causes will go nowhere. If any real change is ever going to come about, we must learn some basic skills such as respect, patience, tolerance, dialogue and cooperation. One of the four foundation pillars of the Green Party is grassroots democracy. Doesn't this mean that tolerance of each others' opinions should be practiced? Gordan Lawrence Eugene Promises are Cheap Spruce Houser (1/4) says that in the Oregon Legislature, Greens could be a swing vote and "demand policy changes in exchange for their votes." But whether locally, in Congress or in a presidential race, all we can demand is political promises, which aren't worth much these days. Possibly, if we could expect two close races in a row, we could take promises more seriously. The chances of your vote actually affecting who won Oregon's electoral votes, much less the presidential election (especially in a corrupt system), were about as good as your chances of a big lottery win. I think it takes a similar mindset to put much confidence in either one. And please remember that Gore did win, both nationally and in Oregon, and lost only to corruption, including the Electoral College, which Nader hopes to reduce. Nader was mainly hoping for popular votes. If he had yielded to Gore in exchange for promises, his campaign would have been totally wasted. Dan Robinson Eugene Real-Life Traffic The new movie Traffic is excellent, but we don't need fictional depictions of the drug war. We continue to create hypocrisy, misery, and pain exponentially as drugs expose policy makers' complete inability to make mature, rational decisions in real-life stories. Consider the spectacle of tough-on-crime commentator Michael Reagan making excuses for his son's drug use, explaining his grandfather Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's Disease has been hard on him. Meanwhile, zero-tolerance George W. Bush executes people for crimes committed while perpetrators are often high on drugs (if they're guilty at all), yet won't disclose his own history of use including driving while intoxicated. Phillip Morris gives us warm, fuzzy commercials about the good work they do with their drug money and the media ignores the hypocrisy. Hemp is demonized and made illegal to grow as dubiously connected to a drug less harmful than many of the legal ones. Someone murders their child and on the same day of sentencing gets decades less time than another with small amounts of marijuana possession. Drug treatment, prevention, and school counselors are inadequately funded or eliminated, though proven to be cost-effective and more successful than punitive measures. And now the Eugene 4J School District has given their blessing to caffeine-rich product expansion to help teach the lesson of addiction, greed, instant gratification, and inattention to health of children. I look forward to Traffic II with an adventurous story of deceit, lies, immorality, ignorance, and conspiracy. It'll be more intense, preposterous, and multi-faceted than Traffic I. It'll be a true story. Mike Meyer KRVM-FM Eugene Dollar Sucker I detect some irony in the attack by the usually fiscally-minded Chamber of Commerce on Eugene's progressive city councilors for their decision to back-burner the West Eugene Parkway project. The councilors did the math, and found the $71 million freeway would devastate the budgets for Eugene's broader city-wide transportation and roadway improvement projects. As a westside resident who uses services on West 11th Avenue frequently, I am mindful of the analysis cited by the councilors that the parkway project would have minimal impact in reducing congestion in this area. If the Chamber succeeds in its attack to overturn the City Council's decision, you will hear a giant sucking sound in Eugene -- our transportation dollars being siphoned off to build a freeway through West Eugene's wetlands. Then, look at every pothole in your neighborhood, every congested intersection, every crumbling sidewalk and poorly marked bikelane. And thank the promoters of the West Eugene Parkway. Or, better yet, call your councilor and tell him or her you appreciate their longer-term vision, one that addresses the transportation needs of the entire Eugene community. Greg McLauchlan Eugene No Energy Shortage Kurt Wilcox (1/11) is sorely mistaken about the so-called energy crisis. There is not an energy shortage. State governments are preventing utilities from recouping their costs by charging customers higher rates. Consumers are having their electricity subsidized by the utilities. The utilities were foolish in that they refused to sign long-term contracts at lower prices figuring they can always charge whatever the energy costs. They didn't think energy prices would rise like they have, which is due to increased demand and prohibitive regulation placed on constructing new capacity. Kaiser Aluminum is not receiving corporate welfare by smartly contracting at a low price. They negotiated for that price and the BPA was free to refuse. Aluminum is produced using electrolysis, an electricity intensive process. An aluminum smelter will simply not operate if it can't get a good price. They will look elsewhere. Is it welfare when you sell something at a profit? I don't think so. This situation has nothing to do with deregulation and everything to do with regulation. Peter Wilson Corvallis Horror Show Ted Baker's statements that appeared in the 12/14 EW titled "Baker's Gift" should probably be titled "Baker's Horror Show," for if you take his comments to their logical conclusion, "Alton Baker Park" would be titled "Alton Baker's Parking Lot," complete with concrete this and concrete that, with a gasoline station on every corner. Furthermore, ending ward representation of the Eugene City Council would enable the Whiteaker voice to be controlled by interests who have no interests in the Whiteaker neighborhood and to all the beings that live there. Again, he wants to drive a wedge (traffic) straight through the community of youth that gather on the Broadway. Then he wonders why the youth of America despise authority. In addition, he wants Christmas trees in public places (hello, is anybody home). There is a reason for the separation of church and state. The cramming of Christmas trees down everybody's throat that don't believe in Christmas is not the answer. And to top it off, he wants better signage on I-5. Billboards are banned in Palm Springs, Calif., for they're considered an eyesore, but here in Eugene it is money in Torrey's pocket. With all his expressways, freeways, and LA highways, it leaves very little for flowers or safe bicycle riding. Yeah, I can see the logical conclusion, for I won't have to go to a movie theater to see a horror show anymore, 'cause I can just look at Eugene. Linden Sycamore Eugene LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics and will print as many as space allows. Please limit length to 250 words, keep submissions to once a month, and include your address and phone number. E-mail to editor@eugeneweekly.com, fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401. Back to Top Table of Contents | News & Views | Arts & Entertainment Classifieds | Personals | EW Archive