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Insider
Baseball: Imminent Domain: The clock ticks down
in Salem town.
Living
Out: Thanks for Sharing: What's it like to be
straight? I really wanna know.
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
Imminent
Domain
The
clock ticks down in Salem.
I can tell it's getting late in the session; Jeannie's
getting grumpy. "When's this damn thing going
to be over? You got chores to do, boy. Now get over here and move
this dirt!" All I can mumble is: "Yes, my love." In Jeannie's defense,
she's had a sore back lately. Her doctor -- a Eugene woo-woo
counterculture alternative medicine type -- has only given Jeannie
two restrictions: unlimited horseback riding and giving orders. Otherwise
she's to rest, ice her back, with no heavy lifting.
On June 1 the Senate President announced that Sine
Die, the end of session, is "imminent," which means three weeks minimum
until we can escape our legislative loony bin and the village idiots
can all return home. This is the time in the session when you really
have to be on your toes because Derfler's announcement means that
only one-hour public notice is required for hearings, as opposed to
the 24-hour notice required during the rest of the session. Skullduggerous
amendments and midnight postings of committee agendas are not uncommon.
We've seen the Republican redistricting maps; and
now the co-chairs of Ways and Means have shown us their budget overview
maps "from 10,000 feet" according to Benny Westlund, one of the venerable
and deeply honored co-chairs (did I mention deeply respected and loved
-- have I missed anything? You get the idea.)
But the budget details are 9,995 feet from my eye
level. In two meetings with the co-chairs and one with the governor
last week, our caucus spent more time listening to the kicker/MULE
discussion, the size of the revenue pie, rather than any details on
the programs that may or may not survive at the end of our spending.
To the co-chairs' credit, they have included many Democratic priorities
in their latest budget. But still, it's hard to shell out $12 million
for a veterinary school expansion (a House Democratic priority, by
the way) and a new campus in Bend (Westlund) if we're not adequately
funding the current system of higher education and keep increasing
the damn tuition to meet costs. It's hard to fund a Jobs Plus program
-- an expensive, ineffective wage subsidy (free labor) to private,
for-profit corporations -- when that same unemployment insurance
could be used for training the increasing number of workers dislocated
by the energy crisis, or for allowing working parents to spend some
time with a newborn.
In the next week or two we'll look at a side-by-side
comparison of the budgets. So "imminent" remains a relative, non-technical
term in Salem. Like the governor said: You are as responsible for
what you don't fund as you are for what you fund.
Dereg Redux
I'm wondering
how some consumer and enviro groups are feeling now about "restructuring"
in Oregon? The coalition that originally supported SB1149, because
of the 3 percent for "public purposes" (low-income assistance, conservation,
green power) now has problems. Remember at the beginning of the session,
Speaker Simmons, Senate Pres. Derfler, and the governor were all saying
"stay the course on dereg ... no changes in SB1149 ... no delay."
Five months later, the House sent over Mark Simmon's latest bill:
-- 18-month "hard" delay, meaning no public purposes,
and
-- a provision that would allow utilities to immediately
begin recovering from ratepayers their costs of preparing for deregulation.
Wow, no wonder they're upset. Just proves once again that sacrificing
the regulation of a monopoly commodity for an unrelated sales tax
is a bad trade. Consumers are finally figuring out that the private
utilities would dump public purposes the first chance they got, but
still want to charge ratepayers $22 million for their speculative
behavior. Sounds like a deal to me!
Of course, Derfler and the gov are strange bedfellows
on this one. They don't like Simmon's idea, so they're concocting
a cockamamie scheme for a five-month delay (no public purposes) and
then turning over the decision on dereg from the Legislature to the
PUC. Given that the gov just appointed one of the authors of Oregon's
"restructuring" to the PUC, even an Irish bowling ball can make an
educated guess on the outcome of that one. My issue is: Why delay
when you can repeal? I'm still going to try to get my bills --
one to repeal dereg outright, the other is a repeal that keeps public
purposes -- to the floor for a vote.
Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove is minority whip in the Senate and
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
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Thanks
for Sharing
What's
it like to be straight? I really wanna know.
Hello. I don't mean to pry, but I'm sensitive to details,
and I'm picking up from some comments you made, and the ring you're
wearing, that you might be heterosexual? I know it's none of my business,
but I knew some heterosexuals in high school, and I never asked them
about their life. I didn't want to embarrass them or anything. So I
was wondering if you'd be willing to share, to talk about what it's
like being straight.
Did your family have a problem with it? What was it like telling
them? Did they reject you? Are they nice to your -- what is it you people call your
partners -- your spouse? Oh, husband and wife, that's a cute term. You look like
you could be brother and sister! You probably get that all the time.
Anyway, have you ever felt discriminated against? Has anyone actually
singled you out and made fun of you, or treated you differently? Did you ever wish
you could take a pill and not be straight anymore?
I, for one, think it's great. People should be themselves. But
some people are uncomfortable with certain aspects of it. Nobody wants their kids
around heterosexuals -- you know, the child molestation thing and all. Naturally
we're protective. You can understand that, can't you? I'm glad you're not militant
about it, not shoving it down anyone's throat the way some of them do.
I know this is personal, but I don't have any other way to find
these things out. We didn't touch on the straight lifestyle in college psychology
class. I thought the "Deviant Behavior" chapter would have covered it.
But those up-tight professors were too embarrassed, so they skipped it. If you don't
mind I'd really like to ask you something. I have always wondered what it's like
living in a dual-gendered household. I can't imagine it. I mean, what do you do about
the toilet seat? Up? Down? I'll bet that takes some getting used to. I don't know
if I could do it.
And what about going out? That's got to be tough. How do you feel
at parties where you're the only mixed couple there? Are your friends OK with it?
Do they mind if you dance together? It must be hard always having the same partner
lead. Do people stare at you? Or do you go ahead and do it anyway?
That is so brave! I really admire you. A lot of places ignore mixed
couples now so you can pretty much get away with it, can't you? Deep down, we're
really all the same, aren't we? Hell, I don't care what you do in the privacy of
your own bedroom. I don't even want to think about it. But why do some straight people
have to flaunt it all the time? I'm not prejudiced, I think everyone should live
and let live. Don't you? A person can't help it if they're straight, or an alcoholic
or whatever.
Hey, I have a heterosexual cousin in Omaha -- a lot of you are
from there aren't you? I was wondering if maybe you knew her. She's single and doesn't
know where to go to meet people. I'll bet you know where the straight bar is there,
don't you? Gee, it must be hard trying to find a partner, or to even have the self-esteem
to get out there and meet people. I never thought about that. The straight community
has its own church, doesn't it? I wonder if I could come along sometime and see what
you do. I think I'd be OK being around all those straight people. As long as none
of them tried to make a pass at me! Ha ha, just kidding.
But seriously, I've been mistaken for straight before. Once I saw
a straight person I thought was very attractive. That doesn't make me straight, does
it?
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 at EW,
also runs in several other newspapers around the country.
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ATTACKS
ON DISSENT
Recently, state repression against
those who question the current social order has intensified. This
can be traced to two significant factors: changes in social relationships
that have made it unnecessary for the democratic state to disguise
its repressive nature and a growing resistance that is increasingly
using methods of direct attack rather than petition and negotiation.
In the U.S., these attacks against the projects of
capital have been largely centered on projects that infringe upon
and destroy wild areas, exploit animals or involve the development
of genetically engineered organisms. The methods used in these attacks
are generally fairly simple, using materials easily accessible to
anyone, and are applicable to a wide variety of situations. It should,
therefore come to us as no surprise that the state would try to suppress
this tendency through repression.
It is this context that two bills before the Oregon
State Legislature can be understood. One of these bills would apply
racketeering and organized crime laws to acts of sabotage against
logging activities, animal research and the like if passed. The other
would apply hate crime laws to illegal actions taken against environmental
destruction or capitalism. If these laws are passed it would be possible
for a person convicted of breaking a window, spiking a tree, sabotaging
a piece of equipment or liberating animals from a laboratory to receive
as much as 25 years in prison as a racketeering hate criminal.
The aim of state repression is precisely to frighten
people away from active revolt. If we succumb before repression, holding
ourselves back and calling others to hold back out of fear, the state
has succeeded.
Rebecca Keingott
Eugene
UNFEELING
I agree wholeheartedly with Mark
Herring's letter (5/24) criticizing your headline "Crazy Kidz" for
the feature "And Education For All." I can't understand how anyone
could be so unfeeling as to use this term to describe children with
learning disabilities.
Jonnie Lacy
Eugene
DRIED GOOP
Since The Register-Guard has
become incapable of dealing with its employees with dignity and respect,
I think Eugene should be a pioneer by becoming the largest U.S. city
without a daily paper newspaper in the 21st century. Let the real
and final revolution begin here.
And there is an easy explanation for pro wrestling
(EW, 5/24): we are only very slightly improved from our chimpanzee-like
ancestors. But since we are hell-bent with arrogant stupidity (George
W. Bush) toward environmental suicide, perhaps chimpanzees are our
superiors and we have devolved from them (is the Unibomber the missing
link?).
Finally, Douglas Hintz (5/31 letter) is quite right:
as long as "buy-partnership" rules the land, there is no hope for
the basic changes needed to make the U.S. the decent world leader
it should be. GOP-lite is still polluted, muddy goop (GOP = dried-up
hardcore goop). The really good news is that Jesse Helms' (my very
first twit) stinger dried up and blew away.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
COLLECTIVE PALENESS
Is there something inherently "bad"
about being a white majority? The slant of Alan Pittman's article,
"Ye Old Sprawling Honky Town" (5/31) sure seems to think so.
Discrimination in any form is evil, and fortunately
a very rare occurrence in present-day Eugene, despite our ugly past.
But Mr. Pittman chooses to dwell in that same mentality by lamenting
our collective paleness. I was personally offended by terms like honky,
and bland, and lily white; which is incidentally the majority of your
readership and advertisers. People cannot choose the color of their
skin. Perhaps instead of labeling everyone, and lamenting our lack
of "culture," we should be working toward an ideal of color-blindness.
I'm so sorry that I'm white, I didn't mean to offend
you, Mr. Pittman. In all my blandness sometimes my lack of culture
just makes me do silly things -- like living in my own community.
I can hardly believe I have had the gall all these years to be a plain
old honky.
Wes Wightman
Eugene
A PLEASING BORE
As an African-American who has recently
moved to Eugene after living for 20 years in a very "lily white" country,
Sweden, I find the lack of a large African-American population no
problem at all. America is still hung-up on race. Chuck Dalton's remarks
(5/31) are true, but I find the Eugene African-American community
strange birds. They hardly speak to each other, and sometimes I don't
think they even know they are living in Eugene.
As an international sculptor and writer, I find Eugene
a pleasing bore, but a nice place to live and work, if one's thoughts
are not centered on the United States of America, and oh yes, there
is plenty of racism here to dish-out to Asians, Mexican Americans,
and African-Americans. I have sat in bars in Eugene, and white men
have talked disdainfully about the Asian encroachment in this town.
Do these white guys think that I am purple when they talk about the
Asians?
Jerry Harris
Eugene
THE NEXT STEP
Thank you for beginning to talk about
the problems that Eugene has with race: its history of racism, and
its continuation of racism that is not yet widely acknowledged by
this community.
But that is only a beginning. I hope you will take
my suggestion to include the voices of people of color in your regular
columns. These voices will be a rich addition to those already represented
-- Tony Corcoran, speaking about the state Legislature, and Sally
Sheklow. While it's great to have the views and experiences of a lesbian
woman shared on a regular basis, it's equally important to have a
consistent airing of a racial perspective for this and every other
American community that prides itself on being progressive and attuned
to the concerns of all its people.
Before anyone asks for a white male viewpoint to be
a regular feature in the EW, I suggest we have only to look
as far as every bit of news that we read every day. It is all geared
toward the European-American perspective. And even a few doses of
other cultural or racial perspective will make that apparent.
I urge you to devote one weekly column to voices of
people of color now, on the heels of the budding awareness that all
is not okey-dokey for everyone living in Eugene. It's okey-dokey for
those with white privilege -- those who aren't regularly stopped
by police for "driving while black," or followed in a department store,
turned down for loans (with equal credentials as whites) or quietly
diverted from certain portions of the real estate market. It's time
we learned more about our white privilege -- and time we gave
voice to the perspectives of those who are only heard from when the
EW decides to do a story about the census, and then rarely
heard from again.
Hope Marston
Eugene
NOW EVERYONE KNOWS
Last week a co-worker relayed to
me the details of a dreadful act of animal abuse. A friend was floating
the Coast Fork of the Willamette river when he noticed a bag that
someone had tossed into the river. He floated over to the bag and
could hear kittens crying. He retrieved the bag and in the process
rescued three five-week-old kittens. He took the kittens home and
with lots of love and attention they are becoming less traumatized
day by day. My heart goes out to the rescuer for his kindness.
I am writing this letter because I want the community
to be aware of the terrible capacity so-called human beings have to
inflict abuse on innocent animals. There are a myriad of animal rescue
services who are more than happy to assist individuals who do not
want an animal. A simple phone call is all that is required. To so
blatantly ignore these services and instead choose to murder helpless
animals is shameless behavior. If the person who committed this act
reads this letter, perhaps he will suffer, as did the kittens, knowing
that "everyone" is aware of what he did.
G. R. Nissen
Lorane
GARBAGE FROM A PEN
I am appalled that you printed Lucas
Spiegel's letter on dumpster diving (5/10). I consider his statement
that "maybe local businesses can pick up on pouring bleach on the
food they waste" as a threat to human life. My life has been threatened
and it is one of the most horrible experiences a human can experience.
Giving Lucas Spiegel the power to threaten others by printing his
letter is disgusting. Hungry members of our community should be respected
like all other citizens. I find Lucas' statements far more repugnant
than diving in any dumpster. Maybe he should pay more attention to
the garbage that comes from his pen than the garbage a hungry person
may see as dinner.
Ray Gordon
Eugene
LEARNED BEHAVIOR
The talk that I've heard of out of
control kids points to media as the cause and I don't believe that's
the answer. Today I saw the face of the cause on a man jogging on
the bike bridge at Alton Baker Park.
Lack of empathy, aggression, and defensive attitudes
are learned from our families, friends, and neighbors. It would be
my guess that adults with these qualities would have no qualms about
letting their kids watch violent shows and play violent video games.
As their lives go on these children are desensitized and lose their
empathy for others.
This man exhibited an obvious lack of empathy. I was
on roller blades on the down grade side of the bridge toward the park
and not in control of my speed (I'm crappy at roller blading, but
it's still fun). Tottering, waving my arms and dragging my brake,
I hit the rail fairly hard but didn't fall.
The man took the extra breath during his run to say
"That had to hurt." He didn't stop to see if I was injured or needed
help. Why did he feel the need to waste his breath to say something
that would only humiliate me? Did he think it was cool?
These people are influencing our children, future,
and us. Frankly, if I saw that man in need tomorrow, I don't know
that I'd help him.
Leta Tillitt
Eugene
WRONG DIRECTION
Fairer wages -- we are going
the other direction. Jimmy Carter wrote (Viewpoint, 5/24) for a fairer
wage scale based on who works hardest. We know that would never
pass Congress.
Big payoffs of multiple millions are especially prevalent
in the health insurance/HMO corporations. Steffie Woolhandler, nationally
known Massachusetts medical doctor and advocate for universal health
care, stated on NPR that, "Wilson Taylor, head of Aetna, in 1998 had
a $5 million salary plus $64.2 million in stock options. That's small
potatoes compared to Lynn Abramson, who was head of U.S. Health Care
before it merged to become Aetna-U.S. Health Care. At the time of
the merger, he personally pocketed $1 billion. To give you some sense
of how much it is, $1 billion is enough to pay the incremental cost
of covering every uninsured child in Massachusetts, not for one or
two years, but into perpetuity. Huge amounts of money are siphoned
off the health care system into profits of these for-profit HMO's,
money that should be used to provide care for you and your family
--"
I hope everyone will recognize the financial crisis
medicine is in today and sign our Health Care For All-Oregon petitions
for universal health care in front of the library or at Saturday Market.
It will be on the November 2002 ballot. Call 484-6145 for information.
Ruth Duemler
Eugene
KEEP DISHING
In response to criticism of Sally
Sheklow's column of 5/17, I have only to say: Don't worry Sally! I
get it! I may be straight, but I understand irony!
I'd like to thank Ms. Sheklow for insightful, humorous
commentary on the necessity for all people to treat others with respect,
free of prejudiced and hurtful assumptions. Keep on dishing it out.
Ingrid Parmeter
Eugene
ASK SALLY
So, Sally Sheklow wants to know what
it's like to be straight ("Living Out," 5/17)? Well, I'm probably
defying my heterosexual superiors by saying this, but picture the
following scene:
LIVING ROOM -- EVENING. A Typical Straight Couple
unwinds after a particularly heterosexual day by snuggling on the
couch in front of a romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan.
HIM: You know, honey, it sure was fun beating up the
sexually confused kids at the high school this afternoon. HER: Mm-hmmm.
We ought to try and do it more often. HIM: So are you ready to picket
the funeral of that AIDS patient tomorrow? HER: We can't, hon. Remember
our Straight Pride meetings on Fridays? HIM: Golly, you're right!
Oh, well, it's no biggie. He's already burning in eternal damnation,
anyway.
Together they burst into a BWAHAHAHA! (Note: This
is the Secret Heterosexual Laugh. Keep your ears open.) They watch
the movie for a moment.
HER: Honey? HIM: Hmm? HER: What do you call those
people who claim to be for tolerance and acceptance while actually
being the most close-minded, intolerant people around? HIM: Oh, I
know who you mean. Those celebrate-diversity-as-long-as-you-agree-with-me-types,
right? HER: Exactly, yeah. HIM: I don't know. Hypocrites? Bigots?
HER: No, only people who are straight can be those, remember? HIM:
Right, right! Hmmm -- gee, I'm stumped! Now this'll drive me
nuts until I find out! HER: No kidding! How can we find out? I know,
let's ask that Sally Sheklow person! HIM: That's a great idea! Let's
write to Eugene Weekly first thing in the morning! HER: All
right! I love you! HIM: No, I love you!
They lean in for a passionate kiss as the scene
fades to black.
Kristopher Bluth
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.
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